Upgrading from i7 9700 to…?

Soldato
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I’m going to upgrade this week from my current CPU (& Mobo if required) to something faster & betterer, so what to go for?
My budget really needs to stay around £500, so I guess the Ryzen 9 5900X is out of the picture?
So, what in my budget would be the best alternative?
I only use the PC for gaming on monitor and with a Rift S, mainly using vorpX.
I’ve listed spec of what I have at the moment if it helps..

CPU - Intel i7 9700
GPU - RTX 3080 Zotac AMP Holo
RAM - 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3600MHz
PSU - Corsair HX1000 1000W
Mobo - MSI Z390 gaming edge
Storage - Corsair MP600 2x NVMe M.2

Many Thanks
 
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My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £391.69 (includes shipping: £8.70)​

This CPU, But the motherboard...to for your budget a B550 board. Higher resolutions, 4K for example are less CPU dependent. However at 1080P, this CPU is almost as fast as the 5900X. Eight cores and 16 threads.

▷ MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus (AMD AM4) B550 ATX M… | OcUK (overclockers.co.uk)

This board fits your budget and MSI have a good reputation for solid B550 motherboards.
 
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Personally, i think this is the best value(price to performance/features etc) you can get at the mo. A little bit more but runs cooler with wifi 6 thrown in, also better sound codec I believe. if you don't need wifi then the tomakawk is basically the same board for £119(gaming edge newer board, as well as wifi 6, heat sink over vrm slightly altered so runs cooler by a couple degrees). If they are too expensive then above board next.

you can get the 5800x away for £345, so ties in with budget

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £150.49 (includes shipping: £10.50)
 
Soldato
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Ryzen 7 5800x ordered and will be here today.
Last question, how would the MEG 550 unify stack against the ones posted above?
Yes, it’s a bit more pricey, but it does have more M.2 slots, which is ideal.
 
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If you happy with price and need 4 m.2 slots, looks quality to me. remember, 1st is pcie4, others will be pcie3, and 2 of the slots take shorter nvme by the look, so check sizes before buying them

well, from a review

I was able to keep the Unify on my test bench for several weeks and came away quite happy with the board's performance; through several AGESA updates, this has become quite an excellent overclocking platform and even runs PBO quite well on our 5800X. The design gives this board exceptional power capabilities well over 1000A from the Infineon stages, plenty for the 5900 or 5950X.
Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/9865/msi-meg-b550-unify-motherboard/index.html
 
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I get my case today, so start my build prob on weekend or next week. Got 5800x myself, though with Asus B550 Gaming e(was on offer at time)
 
Soldato
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Last question, how would the MEG 550 unify stack against the ones posted above?
Yes, it’s a bit more pricey, but it does have more M.2 slots, which is ideal.
And M2_1 is the only one which can be used without stealing bandwidth/IO lanes from GPU slot/PCIes/SATA ports.

M2_2 disables both x1 slots and has only two PCIe v3 lanes. (~2GB/s max)
Or in full speed "CPU mode" graphics card's slot is halved into x8.

M2_3 disables SATA5/6 for similar x2 PCIe v3.
Or halves GPU slot in CPU mode.

And M2_4 disables PCI_E4.

Cheaper X570 boards like X570 Aorus Elite could do better without touching GPU slot's bandwidth.
 
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that i didn't know, found this on msi website below

A bit confusing(to me at least), but looks like you can run 3 nvme at pcie4 if you switch it to cpu mode(but the gpu reduced to *8 rather than *16), but keeping on 'chipset mode' which is default mode, means slot 1 stays pcie4, the rest pcie3*2. Or am i reading this all wrong?


b550-20201224-3.jpg

CPU Mode and Chipset Mode for M2_2 & M2_3 Slots
MSI offers two bandwidth options for M2_2 and M2_3 slots: CPU mode, and Chipset mode. The stock setting is “Chipset mode” which means they utilize the PCIe 3.0 lanes from the B550 chipset. You can switch to “CPU” mode to connect these two slots to the CPU and benefit from the PCIe 4.0 x4 bandwidth.

1. CPU Mode – if you switch M2_2 and M2_3 lane source to CPU mode, the slots are running at PCIe 4.0 x4. However, if M2_2 or M2_3 is populated, it’ll use x8 lanes from the CPU and therefore a graphics card installed in PCI_E1 is running at PCIe 4.0 x8.

Note 1: PCI_E1 must be configured to “x8+x4+x4” to switch to CPU mode. MSI BIOS will automatically do this configuration when CPU mode is enabled.
Note 2: if CPU mode is used for M2_2 and M2_3, the graphics card in PCI_E1 is running at PCIe 4.0 x8.


2. Chipset Mode – this is the stock setting. Both M2_2 and M2_3 are connected to the B550 chipset and support PCIe 3.0 x2 only. This means your PCIe 4.0 SSD will be limited to the bandwidth of PCIe 3.0x2.
 
Soldato
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As an upgrade to a 9700K, I’d be looking at a 5900X/5950X and maybe a Gigabyte X570S Aero.

Id probably sit tight with what you have. Any noticeable uplift will be over £500. Less than that and you pretty much have similar performance.
 
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Not sure if it makes any difference but my i7 9700 isn't "k" model, but I do take on board the comments, but Mobo and CPU are paid for and in transit.

That said, my Ryzen 7 5800X arrived earlier via "Mr I can fly a giant dil*o into space" and I received this..

sKWyG4v.jpg

A broken seal upon opening cannot ever be a good sign, and it wasn't ..

iGMu9iM.jpg

Thanks Mr dild* pilot.

I did however get a refund and another is arriving tomorrow (not via the same company).
God only knows if the Mobo will actually be inside the box or stolen, but here's hoping.
 
Soldato
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that i didn't know, found this on msi website below

A bit confusing(to me at least), but looks like you can run 3 nvme at pcie4 if you switch it to cpu mode(but the gpu reduced to *8 rather than *16), but keeping on 'chipset mode' which is default mode, means slot 1 stays pcie4, the rest pcie3*2. Or am i reading this all wrong?


b550-20201224-3.jpg

CPU Mode and Chipset Mode for M2_2 & M2_3 Slots
MSI offers two bandwidth options for M2_2 and M2_3 slots: CPU mode, and Chipset mode. The stock setting is “Chipset mode” which means they utilize the PCIe 3.0 lanes from the B550 chipset. You can switch to “CPU” mode to connect these two slots to the CPU and benefit from the PCIe 4.0 x4 bandwidth.

1. CPU Mode – if you switch M2_2 and M2_3 lane source to CPU mode, the slots are running at PCIe 4.0 x4. However, if M2_2 or M2_3 is populated, it’ll use x8 lanes from the CPU and therefore a graphics card installed in PCI_E1 is running at PCIe 4.0 x8.

Note 1: PCI_E1 must be configured to “x8+x4+x4” to switch to CPU mode. MSI BIOS will automatically do this configuration when CPU mode is enabled.
Note 2: if CPU mode is used for M2_2 and M2_3, the graphics card in PCI_E1 is running at PCIe 4.0 x8.


2. Chipset Mode – this is the stock setting. Both M2_2 and M2_3 are connected to the B550 chipset and support PCIe 3.0 x2 only. This means your PCIe 4.0 SSD will be limited to the bandwidth of PCIe 3.0x2.

I watched a video on YT which kinda covered the above, and after a few seconds my brain started to implode.
Might be worth cancelling the order and starting again as I'm way too newb to understand any of the above.

Edit, I've cancelled it.
Now, to start looking and taking advice again.

Another bloody edit..
Unable to cancel, so if I use just 2 M.2's I presume I can run it balls out?

*retires to dark room to bang head against wall for an hour
 
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Soldato
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*retires to dark room to bang head against wall for an hour
That's what should be part of the process before buying anything.

For comparison cheaper X570 board could have given:
2x ~8GB/s M.2 slots.
1x ~8GB/s with use of adapter in x4 PCIe slot.
2x ~2GB/s with use of adapter in x1 PCIe slots.
Without touching graphics card's slot, SATA ports or anything else.
(half bandwidth for PCIe v3 drive)

Now you can have one drive with full four PCIe v4 lanes and max ~8GB/s.
After that we'll start disabling something:
Assuming you don't need x4 PCIe slot, M2_4 gives ~4GB/s of PCIe v3.
Plus by sacrificing those two SATA ports and x1 PCIe slots, M2_2 and M2_3 give two PCIe v3 lanes for max ~2GB/s per slot.
(that would actually almost max out entry level drives)
 
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I watched a video on YT which kinda covered the above, and after a few seconds my brain started to implode.
Might be worth cancelling the order and starting again as I'm way too newb to understand any of the above.

Edit, I've cancelled it.
Now, to start looking and taking advice again.

Another bloody edit..
Unable to cancel, so if I use just 2 M.2's I presume I can run it balls out?

*retires to dark room to bang head against wall for an hour
Apologies...1st time I actually saw a b550 board with more than 2 nvme slots...should have realised they have to share lanes from somewhere....if you got the board from the '***** in the sky' man you can swap it for free.
By the way, was your empty 5800x box just sitting there when you got home.generally, you have to give a 6 digit code to receive anything for computer parts or did they literally hand you an empty box?
 
Soldato
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The unopened Am***n box was handed to me, so the empty Ryzen box must have been packed when empty, and looking at the feedback from some CPU sellers, this is very very common.
I'm going to keep the Mobo as this weekend is the only free time I'll have for the foreseeable for nailing it all in.
As I only game on the thing and don't use SATA at all, am I really going to suffer any real performance loss if only using 2 M.2's?
And, thanks for the above replies.
 
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The unopened Am***n box was handed to me, so the empty Ryzen box must have been packed when empty, and looking at the feedback from some CPU sellers, this is very very common.
I'm going to keep the Mobo as this weekend is the only free time I'll have for the foreseeable for nailing it all in.
As I only game on the thing and don't use SATA at all, am I really going to suffer any real performance loss if only using 2 M.2's?
And, thanks for the above replies.

In short, don't think you're going to notice anything using 2 nvme's...

I just looked at your components, and you have 2 mp600 nvme's, so they're pcie4 drives, so 4950read, 4250 write, or close too, so as long as you keep the board in chipset mode, the 1st slot will be pcie4 so no prob, other slot should be pcie3x4, so read /write should max at 4000. so wont quite get all performance out of your 2nd nvme. In gaming you wont notice a difference between pcie4 and pcie3(lots of yt on it..linus did a test between sata and pcie3 and pcie4 and no one could guess which pc was running what). I'm still trying to get my head around the above. From what I read it looks like in chipset mode you can have pcie4 as primary still, as runs off cpu, but the m2 and m3 slots are then split via the b550 chip, so then pcie3x2 so max rate of 2000 rather than x4 at 4000 read/write speed...so would mean a sn550 which runs 2600/1800 would nearly be maxed out on read and more suited. If all 4 are used, then splits the lanes to the gpu and you have to use cpu mode(modes are changed in bios and default is 'chipset'), and I'd keep it that way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COcHHX2MdKs&ab_channel=OdinHardware

If you wanted to run it in cpu mode, this is the most recent vid i could find where they test a 3070 with x16 / x8/ x4 lanes being used by gpu. your gpu would be cut to x8. on a lot of games difference was about 0-5%, fortnite was actually quicker on *8 for some reason, though gta V had a diff where x8 80fps, x16 92fps...most were 2-4 fps diff. Lower cards gamernexus did one a few years ago with 1080 and diff was 0.1%, but of course cards better now and you have a 3080. Personally, would keep it in chipset mode , put in your 2 nvme . If you really need more space, get a sn550 and share the b550 x4 lane, or get a sata, esp as the larger size are still cheaper than the larger size nvme. think when games are loaded you wont notice difference really. Next year will be advent of ddr5 and am5 mobo is supposed to allow more pcie lanes( had a brief look last night but was tired so brief means brief look).

EsaT seems to know more about this board, hopefully he'll read and correct me if I'm wrong. Did try yt but even the guy reviewing it wasn't too sure, and said msi website contradicted itself
 
Soldato
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Thanks, and yes, what you said seems to be correct, at least as i understand it.
CPU turned up today and was actually in the box and not stolen, but unfortunately the mobo wont be here until Monday.
I'll just swap around weekend stuffs and nail the lot together next w/end.
Rather looking forward to it.
 
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