B450 upgrade to....nothing???

[Vinno]

Good morning everyone,

I have a bit of a weird one for ya today and I'll try to keep it as succinct as possible!

As things stand right now I am running two PC's.

Main PC (Gaming, every day use etc):
Ryzen 5800X3D
MSI Tomahawk B450 MAX
32GB DDR4 3200 RAM
3070Ti FE
Fractal Define R4 case.
2x 500GB SSD
1x 250GB SSD
2x HDD for random stuff

Second PC (PLEX server/mass storage)
This PC is a hand me down from someone many years ago and it is one of those slim HP things where the motherboard and PSU are proprietary so upgrade paths are limited.
i5 2500K (can be upgraded to 2600k)
4GB DDR3 1333 (can be upgraded to 16GB)
250GB HDD (ancient)
8TB HDD (for Plex and storage stuff)
This thing is so SLOW you have no idea. Clicking anything results in a 30 second wait for whatever you clicked on to register, even the start menu etc.
The RAM usage is basically maxed out at all times and the C: drive usage is often at 100% too. I'm guessing that extra RAM and an SSD would sort it.


So, my issue:

I am looking to upgrade my GPU later this year when the new lot comes out and have been planning ahead. To accommodate a new GPU I would need a new PSU and case.
Technically I could remove hard drive cages to allow a bigger GPU but honestly the R4 airflow is pretty bad and temps are already pretty high even with my current rig.

So I have gone ahead and bought a new PSU and will be buying a new case shortly.

Now I wanted to use my current (soon to be old) PSU and case to build a new Plex/server PC. I still have my old Ryzen 3600X & cooler, an SSD, a GPU and 8GB of DDR - so all I need is a motherboard.

Here comes the dilemma.

Do I buy a new motherboard for the new Plex PC at around £50 for the cheapest one?
This seems like the most sensible and cheapest route. I can build the new Plex PC with my old 3600x stuff and a new motherboard - but it still leaves me with issues. If I am keeping the B450 on my current gaming PC do I really want to run an RTX5080 (or whatever) on my B450 using PCIE 3.0x16?
I also have an issue with the sound which means I am currently using a £5 USB sound adapter thing which isn't great - I'd want to get this sorted but I'd be paying £25/30 for something decent?
That takes me to £75 which makes me think at that point for £25 more I should just buy a new motherboard for the main PC and use my current B450 for the Plex PC. But this opens a can of worms. Do I get B550? It would help with the new GPU and sound would be fixed, sure. But I'm at the limit of CPU upgrades for the platform.
It seems like a waste.

I don't really want to upgrade to AM5 since I haven't even had this 5800X3D for a year yet and it would be expensive. Yeah I could sell it the 5800X3D for what? £200? That means I'd be paying around £150 for a motherboard and then £350 for a 7800X3D, plus RAM? Yeah it's too much.

My other option would be to just stick some more RAM (£11) into the current Plex PC and swap the HDD for my old SSD and see what happens - then I'd have to store my big ol' R4 case (and all the bits) somewhere for a couple of years. Even that seems like a silly option considering I've got 90% of a massively more capable PC sitting there.

Someone please help me lol. I've been going around in circles with this for days and it's driving me up the wall! I feel like any option I take is a waste of money or components.

Thank you!

 

[moppy89]

If you don't want to upgrade to AM5, I don't think there's a pressing need just yet, especially with a 5800x3D.

My understanding is that a 4090 doesn't offer much gaming difference when comparing pcie3 Vs 4.

The 5000 series and pcie5 is an unknown quantity, but considering the the fastest card currently out isn't meaningfully bottlenecked by pcie3, I'm not sure it's something I'd lose a lot of sleep over

 

[moppy89]

NVIDIA RTX 4090 PCIe 3.0 vs. 4.0 x16 & '5.0' Scaling Benchmarks

Sponsor: Montech Sky One Lite on Amazon https://geni.us/sux2This testing is for PCIe generations on the NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU. We're benchmarking PCIe 3.0 x16 ...

youtu.be

If you wanted some more info

 

[mickyflinn]

I would tempted to Put a post in the members market for a b550 or x570 motherboard and reuse your b450 motherboard for your server.

 

[dfour]

I would do what Mickyfinn said.
Upgrade your plex with the 3600x and 16 gig of ram and your old b450/ fratal case and put a new/second hand b550/x570 in your main rig. A cheap m.2 drive in the plex server would speed everything up no end.

 

[Threepwood]

yeah, it's probably the ram coupled withMaybe your HDD needing defraggingand/ or it needs the OS reinstalling but I think I would bin the plex, and have a look for a cheap pc to replace it, in my area on facebook marketplace for £25 I could have a

HP Compaq Pro 6300 PC Intel I5 Processor 16GB Ram, that would do the job​

I'm sure that you could find similar for not a lot of money, and drop an SSD in there at a later date too, if you really, really wanted​

 

[Tetras]

If I am keeping the B450 on my current gaming PC do I really want to run an RTX5080 (or whatever) on my B450 using PCIE 3.0x16?

Realistically, I don't think upgrading to more than something like a 4080 (or that level of performance) is going to make sense for a 5800X3D (before you want a CPU upgrade too) and that runs just fine on a PCI-E 3.0 board.

That takes me to £75 which makes me think at that point for £25 more I should just buy a new motherboard for the main PC and use my current B450 for the Plex PC. But this opens a can of worms. Do I get B550? It would help with the new GPU and sound would be fixed, sure. But I'm at the limit of CPU upgrades for the platform.
It seems like a waste.

I don't really want to upgrade to AM5 since I haven't even had this 5800X3D for a year yet and it would be expensive. Yeah I could sell it the 5800X3D for what? £200? That means I'd be paying around £150 for a motherboard and then £350 for a 7800X3D, plus RAM? Yeah it's too much.

The 7600 is around the same level of performance and the benefit is that you'd be on a new platform. I don't really see the point of buying B550/X570 anymore, but just for a Plex server you can buy them very cheap.

If it was me, I'd decide how much hassle I wanted, how much I can afford and how important it is that you don't need to change motherboard/platforms again.

If you want the least hassle and the least cost, then just get a cheap AM4 motherboard for the Plex server.

If you want modest hassle and modest cost, then get a decent AM4 motherboard for your main rig.

If you want the most hassle and the highest cost, but the best upgradability going forward, then sell your 5800X3D and buy into AM5.

 

[jigger]

I’d dig into what is going on with the server. The 2500k should have no issue tapping out multi gigabit networking. Once you have figured the issue out maybe bump the system memory to 16gb and add a half decent SSD for cache.

 

[Vinno]

Thank you for all the replies!

As I was typing this out I started having some clearer thoughts. It's like the process of just getting it out of my mind cleared things up a bit lol.

NVIDIA RTX 4090 PCIe 3.0 vs. 4.0 x16 & '5.0' Scaling Benchmarks

Sponsor: Montech Sky One Lite on Amazon https://geni.us/sux2This testing is for PCIe generations on the NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU. We're benchmarking PCIe 3.0 x16 ...

youtu.be

If you wanted some more info

Thanks. I watched that and yeah, not much difference really! It makes me feel less eager to move from the B450.

I would tempted to Put a post in the members market for a b550 or x570 motherboard and reuse your b450 motherboard for your server.

I would do what Mickyfinn said.
Upgrade your plex with the 3600x and 16 gig of ram and your old b450/ fratal case and put a new/second hand b550/x570 in your main rig. A cheap m.2 drive in the plex server would speed everything up no end.

I never thought of doing this. It's a good idea. I haven't been active lately so I better get some posts going so I can get access to it again lol. Looking on ebay though the prices seem to be pretty attractive compared to new. I'm tempted to go down this road.

yeah, it's probably the ram coupled withMaybe your HDD needing defraggingand/ or it needs the OS reinstalling but I think I would bin the plex, and have a look for a cheap pc to replace it, on my area on facebook marketplace for £25 I could have a

HP Compaq Pro 6300 PC Intel I5 Processor 16GB Ram, that would do the job​

I'm sure that you could find similar for not a lot of money, and drop an SSD in there at a later date too, if you really, really wanted​

The issue with the server isn't really the main thing. I'm just trying to minimise any money wasting. If I buy a cheapo PC to be the new server then I've got a 3600x, 16GB RAM, PSU, CASE, SSD all sitting around doing nothing.

If you want the least hassle and the least cost, then just get a cheap AM4 motherboard for the Plex server.

If you want modest hassle and modest cost, then get a decent AM4 motherboard for your main rig.

If you want the most hassle and the highest cost, but the best upgradability going forward, then sell your 5800X3D and buy into AM5.

The amount of hassle is definitely a big factor. I'm not really super enthused about having to rebuild two computers in a short space of time.

I'm kind of leaning towards keeping my B450 and trying to sort the server temporarily. Then keep all my old PC parts and case until later in the year and maybe go to AM5 in the Black Friday sales or something (Are there usually good deals in this regard?). Then use the B450 for the server.

 

[freddie64]

Maybe get a 250GB SSD for the plex OS.

Just had a look at system requirements and 4GB RAM should be more than enough.

For the main PC, i would just use the B450 untill you upgrade fully.

 

[Vinno]

Quick update for anyone who's interested.

I put 16GB of RAM and an old SSD into the Plex machine, reinstalled Windows and ho boy she is purring along now. What a transformation!

Thanks again for the help.

 

[moppy89]

Boom, cheap and simple fix