How safe is it getting a CPU second hand?
I had a little look at what's available and this doesn't seem to bad as long as its not just putting a temp solution in place that will need to change about in 12-18months.
OC Cart:
1 X AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core 4.7GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail - £199.99
SKU: CP-3CB-AM
1 X Thermal Grizzly Hydronaut High Performance Thermal Paste - 1g - £5.99
SKU: TH-022-TG
1 X Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £649.99
SKU: GRA-SPR-03983
Grand Total: £863.96
£650 for the pulse is a bit rich when can be had for £630 elesewhere which is still rich..couple are available for £600 (asus prime and xfx swift, or the powercolor reaper for £620)...I like the pulse, don't get me wrong, but not at £650..that's the same price as the pure which is higher clocked and has a bit of rgb on it..the pulse s/b cheaper.
I'd be tempted just to start with the gpu and see how it performs before dropping £200 on a 5800x . As a guide my eldest has my am4 rig at uni and games 4k with the 5800x paired with a 3080FE. I've actually got him a 9070xt nitro to shove in there, but waiting to see how his exams go before handing it over(need some form of incentive) otherwise I could get him to give some fps figures. Just looking at some YT vids, found one looking at the 5800x with the 9070 non xt, and at 1440p on av was 93% gpu bound, 7% cpu bound..so works ok (for my son then the 9070xt paying at 4k, he'll be gpu bottlenecked so 5800x wont be a proble)..
issue then arrises when you then try upscalling....in the vid with FSR4.0 turned on, the 1440 res is then upscaled from 1504x848, and results then show a 44% cpu bound/56 gpu bound ratio as more pressure is pushed onto the cpu..this will be even worse with a 9070xt ...hense why say hold off dropping £200 on the cpu. As you play at 1440P, you may find that the 9070xt still does most of the heavy lifting(certainly would at 4k), in which case you can get away with keeping your 3800x. If not you can then look at the 5800x, just be aware the 5800x with still become a bottleneck as soon as you start enabling upscaling
as for 2nd had cpu's, you do roll the dice. I've bought a 5600x and 32gn ddr4 ram to do a build for a cousin, only for the seller to pack the 5600x back to front in the case, and all the pins were bent(and some broke as i tried to bend them back they were so flattenned), but at the same time bought a 2nd hand 7800x3d for £250 for same said son at uni for a build (and just keep the am4 system at home for my wife). That cpu this in it's box (and as am5 cpu's don't have the pins on the cpu), a lot less chance of something going wrong, so looks all good to me. Recently mucked up on purchasing some 9800x3d for builds and overbought, so prob actually just sell that on along with my other son's 7800x3d at some point (just need to get that one out his pc next time I'm back home in uk)
so don't discount going down 2nd hand route. OCuk have a 2nd hand mktplace but you need 1000 posts to access it..but had success on facebook mktplace...you do need to be a little cautious and know what you want (def some people out there trying to sell stuff to unsuspecting buyers that aren't fully aware of what they're buying)
my quick view, 5700x3d is around £300, 5800x3d is around £400...seeing as a 5800x3d has similar performance to a 7600x (actually overall 7600x edges it but basically equal), and just seen one used one available for £120 used, if lookingat a 5800x3d etc, I'd rather just jump onto am5, even with ddr5 prices...you're paying £280 over a used 7600x, which covers a bulk of the price hikes in ddr5, and so just have the am5 mobo cost(which you'd be paying anyway if upgrading)
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