Advice on whether to upgrade system before selling it?

[ilc72]

Firstly, this is not a marketplace post! I am looking for real advice on the best way of selling my existing gaming PC, all parts sourced from OcUK except RTX 3090 FE. My existing system is as follows:

Case - Phanteks Evolv X
CPU - Ryzen 3800XT
Cooling - 360mm ROG Ryujin Cooler and Noctua Chromax iPPC PWM fans all with Phanteks Halo fan frames
MB - Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Wifi
GPU - nVidia Founders Edition 3090
Memory -32GB of 8-Pack Team Group Dark 3600MT/s DDR4
Storage - WD SN850X 2TB NVME SSD
PSU - 850W ROG Thor PSU with custom Cable Mod cables and Phanteks Halo frames.

The questions I have is:

Should I upgrade the Ryzen 3800XT processor to say a 5800X3D before selling it?

What would price people suggest is reasonable? Happy to upgrade CPU as it would balance build better, but would hope to recoup cost at least.

I am in the UK and looking on eBay some people are listing used systems at what I think are ridiculous prices, £2,000+ in some cases for an aesthetic RGB masterpiece but with worse specs?

 

[cosmogenesis]

Your graphics card warrants a faster processor maybe. I think the 3000 to 5000 series cpu is about 20% faster.

There are forums here for selling and it works great. The people are good and honest on selling and buying kit. It works well

 

[ilc72]

There are forums here for selling and it works great. The people are good and honest on selling and buying kit. It works well

Unfortunately I lost my access to the MM when they updated in August 2023, didn’t even know as last year was a bad year health wise, I realise it’s a really good resource but unless a mod takes pity on me and restores my access I’ll have to try somewhere else. I will order a 5800x3d and install it before selling it so it’s new owner has a good experience out of the box.

I just want the system to find a good home, it’s not about just the money, I’d rather it went to an enthusiast as it still has a lot of life in it!

 

[cosmogenesis]

ah sorry about that losing access to the MM. getting the 5800X3D will help got a while. How long you had this rig ?

 

[D-Ranged]

Why spend more money to sell something? I'd put it up for sale as is, and then maybe offer that you'd upgrade it with a better CPU, If the buyer was interested, obviously with the added cost.

 

[ilc72]

ah sorry about that losing access to the MM. getting the 5800X3D will help got a while. How long you had this rig ?

It has been regularly upgraded to be honest, the case, PSU, and AIO are from when the Evolv X first came out. Motherboard is a couple of years old as I had a Strix X470-F that failed under warranty and was offered a credit by OcUK. SSD is an about six weeks old. RTX 3090 was bought at the tail end of mining boom before Ethereum was going PoS. Was rock solid reliable until I came back from holiday and turned it on only to be horrified that it was upgrading to Windows 11, re-installed Win 10 Pro and blocked upgrade and all was fine again!

 

[mickyflinn]

Let the buyer upgrade the CPU if they wish don't spend money to then get less back .

 

[Vidar]

Unless you have a spare 5800x3d just lying around, I wouldn't bother. As for prices on the auction site, it's a common selling tactic to list higher than you are willing to take and accept offers. People will always try to low ball you.

 

[freddie64]

Was expecting to see a pretty poor spec going by the thread title.

Sell it as it is and let the buyer upgrade it if they need to.

 

[cosmogenesis]

I was advising that if I owned his PC then upgrading the CPU with a 3090 would give this machine longer longevity.

Other factors include his RAM but 3600 speed is fine. The motherboard, not sure what the chipset is but I was thinking x470? X570 is better with gen 4 pcie but it’s ok.

Getting rid of a 3090 gpu based rig seems a bit expensive thing to so but I don’t know what he is using it for or his gaming requirements are. 1080,1440 or 4k

However my advice is X570 mobo and 58003d cpu

 

[Drumroll]

You won’t be able to recoup the cost of the upgraded CPU. No reason to. Is the same as fit new tyres to a car before selling it. Unless is illegal or damaged, nope.

 

[cosmogenesis]

If you are just going to sell it then don’t upgrade it first but if wanna keep it longer then upgrade yes

 

[ilc72]

If you are just going to sell it then don’t upgrade it first but if wanna keep it longer then upgrade yes

I took the decision to get a new system, whilst AM4 remains a great platform I have gone for a new AM5 system with a 7800X3D and an RTX 4090 as I am planning to go VR in Flight Simulator 2020, this is incredibly demanding on the GPU.

Had I not been able to pickup a 4090 for £1,500 I would have kept the 3090 for a while longer. My new build came to £3,550 and that includes everything which I didn’t think was too bad. I have gone for 64GB of CL30 EXPO memory and a couple of 2TB WD SN850X drives, all in the new Fractal North XL case.

I know that a new generation of cards will come later in the year, but I suspect any RTX 5090 will be considerably more expensive.

 

[ilc72]

Was expecting to see a pretty poor spec going by the thread title.

Fools and their money are soon parted!

 

[cosmogenesis]

Well o was thinking you’d have waited for the 9000 series processors which are due this year I believe but other than that it’s a top rig for flight simulator

 

[ilc72]

Well o was thinking you’d have waited for the 9000 series processors which are due this year I believe but other than that it’s a top rig for flight simulator

I know Zen 5 CPUs and new Blackwell based RTX cards are due this year, but then there is always something on the horizon and I think comment prices are very competitive right now.

The system I am putting together would have probably been over £1,000 more six months ago, but those low prices won’t last forever, SSD and RAM prices are increasing for example. When Zen 5 launches it will be at higher MSRPs than the current 7800X3D, same with the next-gen nVidia cards, with the current focus on AI I fully expect the RTX 5090 to launch at somewhere near £2,000 if not more. There is a shortage of higher capacity DD7 modules as well, this is why nVidia will only launch the RTX 5090 though an RT 5080 is possible.

Finally, gaming at higher resolutions is generally a GPU limited, outside of certain workloads it is likely Zen 5 will be around 15% higher IPC, it will be with Zen 6 that much re-engineered core architecture is expected. Will pickup Zen 6 after the launch prices start to see discounts.