Confused about cpu and mother boards.

[becks77]

I’ve decided to jump in and build PC for my self decided to go for a 4090, so when I get a motherboard do they only fit the current CPU’s available? then if I want to upgrade say to next years or the following year new CPU’s I have to upgrade the motherboard as well? Still not sure if to go AMD or Intel will be mostly for gaming. So AMD seems like best choice. But getting hold of a 7800x3d seems like unlikely for a while so may go for one that can get now which do you think would be best?
Sorry for the noob question and thanks for the advice you can give.

 

[becks77]

Think i may go with this build not sure on the cooler so have two in the basket.


My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Samsung 990 Pro 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.3c Solid State Drive (SKU: HD-24R-SA) = £229.99
• 1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632) (SKU: SW-18J-MS) = £127.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 9 7950X Sixteen Core 5.70GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DE-AM) = £590.00
• 1 x AMD Ryzen Game Bundle - Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (SKU: XX-03C-AM) = £0.00
• 1 x Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL (ROG Certified) Aluminium Full-Tower - Black (SKU: CA-77K-LL) = £239.98
• 1 x Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-49600C36 6200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMT32GX5M2X6200C36) (SKU: MY-4DA-CS) = £218.99
• 1 x Asus GeForce RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-48C-AS) = £1,999.99
• 1 x ASUS ROG Strix LC II 360 Performance ARGB AIO CPU Liquid Cooler - 360mm (SKU: HS-05C-AS) = £224.99
• 1 x Corsair Hydro Series iCUE H150i ELITE LCD XT Performance Liquid CPU Cooler - 360mm (CW-9060075-WW) (SKU: HS-04H-CS) = £319.99
• 2 x Lian-Li UNI AL120 Addressable RGB Black 120mm Fan Triple Pack with Controller (SKU: FG-00U-LL) = £74.99
• 1 x Asus ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6J5-AS) = £579.95
• 1 x CORSAIR HXi Series HX1000i Fully Modular Ultra-Low Noise ATX Power Supply (CP-9020214-UK) (SKU: CA-26X-CS) = £224.99

 

[Biggilus]

Yea certain CPUs will only fit/work in certain motherboards. You won't be able to pop an intel CPU onto an AMD board (might sound obvious but wasn't clear to me at the start). Looking at AMD with your listed 7950x3d you'll need an Am5 socket motherboard which is great as it's new tech. Hopefully amd will continue support for Am5 for at least three generations of CPU, so future generations of AMD CPUs will work on the same Am5 board you buy today. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the current lot of 7xxx CPUs are Zen 4 tech, which plug into Am5 boards right?). Eventually AMD will release a new line of CPUs which will need, at an educated guess, an AM6 board, but many are hoping, me included, the next two generations of CPU will be AM5 compatible at least.

From the little I've read about Intel (not against Intel, just know I'm buying AMD soon) the current line of motherboards are nearing the end of their life and the next line of intel CPUs will need a new board.

So to answer your question if you buy AMD AM5 board then the next couple of years of AMD CPUs should not need a board upgrade.

 

[therealdippy]

Future proofing can only be best efforts. I too would hope that AM5 lasts a while but nothing is guaranteed. Intel is capable of both great things and great disasters and is getting a reputation of being unreliable and cancelling plans - I agree with the above that its best not to rely on them to maintain support. My recommendation is to treat the mobo and CPU as one component. If you want to upgrade in the future be ready to change both.

 

[Biggilus]

This is true in my experience - despite looking for and opting for boards where I can upgrade the CPU once, maybe twice, I've always ended up not pulling the upgrade trigger resulting in a new board, CPU, memory, GPU...

 

[Tetras]

Hopefully amd will continue support for Am5 for at least three generations of CPU, so future generations of AMD CPUs will work on the same Am5 board you buy today. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the current lot of 7xxx CPUs are Zen 4 tech, which plug into Am5 boards right?).

Correct. AM5 is supposed to be supported until at least 2025, so I'd expect a minimum of 2 more CPU generations. Assuming they follow the same schedule as AM4, then the only thing the OP would require is a BIOS update.

Think i may go with this build not sure on the cooler so have two in the basket.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Samsung 990 Pro 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.3c Solid State Drive (SKU: HD-24R-SA) = £229.99
• 1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632) (SKU: SW-18J-MS) = £127.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 9 7950X Sixteen Core 5.70GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DE-AM) = £590.00
• 1 x AMD Ryzen Game Bundle - Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (SKU: XX-03C-AM) = £0.00
• 1 x Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL (ROG Certified) Aluminium Full-Tower - Black (SKU: CA-77K-LL) = £239.98
• 1 x Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-49600C36 6200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMT32GX5M2X6200C36) (SKU: MY-4DA-CS) = £218.99
• 1 x Asus GeForce RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-48C-AS) = £1,999.99
• 1 x ASUS ROG Strix LC II 360 Performance ARGB AIO CPU Liquid Cooler - 360mm (SKU: HS-05C-AS) = £224.99
• 1 x Corsair Hydro Series iCUE H150i ELITE LCD XT Performance Liquid CPU Cooler - 360mm (CW-9060075-WW) (SKU: HS-04H-CS) = £319.99
• 2 x Lian-Li UNI AL120 Addressable RGB Black 120mm Fan Triple Pack with Controller (SKU: FG-00U-LL) = £74.99
• 1 x Asus ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6J5-AS) = £579.95
• 1 x CORSAIR HXi Series HX1000i Fully Modular Ultra-Low Noise ATX Power Supply (CP-9020214-UK) (SKU: CA-26X-CS) = £224.99

I'm not sure if you're aware, but this build is super overkill, if you're only gaming then you don't need a sixteen core CPU.

If you want the ROG branding, I would suggest something like:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DV-AM) = £319.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen Game Bundle - Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (SKU: XX-03C-AM) = £0.00
• 1 x Asus ROG Strix B650-A Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6JY-AS) = £283.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-49600C36 6200MHz Dual Channel Kit - White (CMH32GX5M2B6200C36W) (SKU: MY-0BA-TG) = £179.99
• 1 x Crucial P5P 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 x4 3D NAND NVMe Solid State Drive (SKU: HD-075-CR) = £179.99
• 1 x Asus GeForce RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC White Edition 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-48Z-AS) = £2,099.99
• 1 x ASUS ROG THOR 1000W Platinum II Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-05U-AS) = £314.99
• 1 x Phanteks Eclipse P600S Matte White Mid-Tower (SKU: CA-0AW-PT) = £174.94
• 1 x Phanteks Glacier One 360MP All In One CPU Water Cooler D-RGB Black - 360mm (SKU: HS-01E-PT) = £155.00
• 1 x Phanteks M25 140mm D-RGB PWM High-Airflow Chassis Fan - White (SKU: FG-035-PT) = £14.98
• 1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632) (SKU: SW-18J-MS) = £128.00

Total: £3,863.84 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

or

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6BD-IN) = £359.99
• 1 x Asus ROG Strix B660-F Gaming WIFI - Intel B660 DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6HQ-AS) = £239.99
• 1 x Kingston FURY Beast 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C40 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MY-29J-KS) = £139.99
• 1 x Crucial P5P 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 x4 3D NAND NVMe Solid State Drive (SKU: HD-075-CR) = £179.99
• 1 x Asus GeForce RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-48C-AS) = £1,999.99
• 1 x Asus ROG Strix 1000W Gold Aura Edition Modular 80+ Gold ATX 3.0 PCIe Gen 5.0 Power Supply (SKU: CA-068-AS) = £249.95
• 1 x Phanteks Eclipse P600S Glass Silent Midi Tower Case - Black (SKU: CA-08T-PT) = £152.98
• 1 x Phanteks Glacier One 360MP All In One CPU Water Cooler D-RGB Black - 360mm (SKU: HS-01E-PT) = £155.00
• 1 x Phanteks M25 140mm PWM High-Airflow Chassis Fan - Black (SKU: FG-033-PT) = £9.94
• 1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632) (SKU: SW-18J-MS) = £128.00

Total: £3,627.80 (includes delivery: £11.98)​