General spec check for 7800X3D

[Addicted]

So I've been trying to nail down a motherboard for a potential upgrade, and I'm stuck as to which to go for!

I'm looking at the following components (ignore the CPU it's just a placeholder, I plan to go 7800X3D);

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D 4.4 GHz 12-Core Processor (£589.98)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler (£82.66)
Motherboard: ASRock X670E PG Lightning ATX AM5 Motherboard (£272.99)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (£192.21)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£184.99)
Total: £1322.83


Is there anything I'm missing/obviously badly specced? I added in a new Sabrent Rocket to replace my current Samsung 970 EVO as boot drive for the extra speed. Is there any reason not to go with this motherboard? It seemed to be relatively highly rated and was also used in a recent LTT video for the 7900/7950X3D tests.

I currently have a Corsair H115i Platinum RGB which I'm tempted to switch out for an air cooler (though undecided 100%), so ignore this cost for now.

Current spec (though mostly irrelevant) is:

• 9900K @ 5Ghz
• 32Gb Corsair DDR4 @ 3200MhzCL16
• RTX 3090 FE
• Soundblaster ZxR soundcard.

Thanks!

 

[Tetras]

I would swap:
- Dark Rock Pro 4 for Thermalright Peerless Assassin (review).
- Sabrent Rocket 4 for WD SN850X (here, £149.99).
- Memory for 32GB Kingston 6000 C36 Expo (here, £139.99)

 

[Addicted]

You need to remove the competitor names

I would swap:
- Dark Rock Pro 4 for Thermalright Peerless Assassin (review).
- Sabrent Rocket 4 for WD SN850X (here, £149.99).
- Memory for 32GB Kingston 6000 C36 Expo (here, £139.99)

Oops, they were in just from a part picker - removed - out of interest why go for that ram and WD drive?

I'll take a look at the cooler thanks


edit: I've looked up on the SN850X and that seems to be a bargain for the size/performance, so that's switched out too (as well as the cooler which is insane value for money lol)

 

[Tetras]

out of interest why go for that ram and WD drive?

Hardware Unboxed did a video looking at memory scaling for the X3D and it is less affected by RAM than both Intel 13th gen and Zen 4 CPUs without 3D cache, to the point that above 1080p I think you could use practically anything (even 4800) and wouldn't notice the difference. Going down to e.g. 5200 seems a bit.. silly, with a high-end CPU, but saving £50 on 6000 C36, I'm all for that (and it is still pretty fast, so should be better for re-use or re-sale in the future).

edit: I've looked up on the SN850X and that seems to be a bargain for the size/performance, so that's switched out too (as well as the cooler which is insane value for money lol)

In TPU's review they had the Rocket at 100% of the performance of the SN850X, so seems like an easy saving to me.

 

[Gray2233]

Hardware Unboxed did a video looking at memory scaling for the X3D and it is less affected by RAM than both Intel 13th gen and Zen 4 CPUs without 3D cache, to the point that above 1080p I think you could use practically anything (even 4800) and wouldn't notice the difference. Going down to e.g. 5200 seems a bit.. silly, with a £600 CPU, but saving £50 on 6000 C36, I'm all for that (and it is still pretty fast, so should be better for re-use or re-sale in the future).

Given price and reusability in future builds or even upgrades I think it's sensible to go for the fastest (within reason/well priced) RAM that you can afford, the 32GB Kingston 6000 C36 Expo as suggested is at a fantastic price right now and what I would call the sweet spot when buying DDR5 from OCUK.

We just don't know how well future CPU's will deal with slower memory, but at the very least we know they'll appreciate faster to some degree.

I'd rather be safe than sorry for the sake of £10-20 personally, but certainly no more than that.

 

[Addicted]

Yeah I'll be keeping the better timing/speed RAM most likely because for the games I play (Escape from Tarkov) faster ram is definitely more favourable, but appreciate the suggestion!

The others have been great too, the only thing I wonder - what about the motherboard? It seems ASUS are pretty hated on at the moment so I pretty much avoided most of those, and most other X670E's are frankly stupid prices.

 

[Tetras]

The others have been great too, the only thing I wonder - what about the motherboard? It seems ASUS are pretty hated on at the moment so I pretty much avoided most of those, and most other X670E's are frankly stupid prices.

From what I've heard of Asus, it's mostly related to the maturity of the BIOS (like slow loading) and RAM compatibility, together with some recent QA issues (mainly on their high-end boards).

I find commenting on boards very hard for AM5 and Z790 in general, because it seems like there are so few reviews and roundups compared to previous generations, maybe because the boards are so expensive for reviewers this time around (and manufacturers don't like sampling their low-end/midrange stuff). With B450/B550, for example, the MSI boards and especially the Tomahawk were pretty widely reviewed and recommended.

In the B650 roundup on Hardware Unboxed, the ASRock Lightning & PG Riptide performed pretty well (thermally), so I would expect no problems with the X670 boards and like with previous gen, you usually get a competitive spec for the money.

I've taken to recommending Gigabyte for a few reasons:
- Their VRM/thermal performance seems pretty solid, even on their low-end boards.
- (From Hardware Unboxed's B650 roundup, 16:53 & 18:15) Their BIOS is the most mature, with fast boots and good timings.
- Buildzoid has done a Gigabyte AM5 roundup and a PCB breakdown of the X670 Aorus Elite AX, which gives me much more confidence (that I know something about them).