PC upgrade advice for futureproofing

zergonipal

zergonipal

zergonipal

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Joined
24 Jul 2009
Posts
13
The time has finally come to replace my old PC. The last time I did a full build was in 2012 (!) I dug out the invoice - it was an i5 and had a whopping 8Gb of RAM, which was a vast improvement over my celeron/2Gb teenage toaster. And it really has served me well, I needed to upgrade the RAM and graphics card a couple of times but performance has been decent and no major problems. But unfortunately the processor isn't meeting the minimum requirements for games anymore. RIP, faithful workhorse.

After some window-shopping I ended up with this in my cart :
Total: £1,661.94 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

Sanity check? Have I gone OTT on the RAM that would be better spent elsewhere? Am I crazy for going AMD?
Budget is around £1500. I don't need a graphics card, PSU, fans, heatsink or monitors. (Though apparently SSDs have coolers now which is trippy.)

I'll be using it for gaming but mostly I want it to be futureproof. Would rather pay a bit more for a reliable brand. I don't play the newest and heaviest games, but I want it to still be playing games in 2029 on medium graphics.
 
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail
CP-3DG-AM
£200 (incl. VAT)
£170 (incl. VAT)
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Lian Li Lancool III Full Tower PC Case - Black
CA-7AW-LL
£126 (incl. VAT)
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Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632)
SW-18J-MS
£120 (incl. VAT)
£108 (incl. VAT)
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zergonipal said:
Sanity check? Have I gone OTT on the RAM that would be better spent elsewhere? Am I crazy for going AMD?
Click to expand...
For games: 64GB is fine for now and a looong while in the future. Your RAM also doesn't fit in the motherboard.

I would spend more on the CPU (to get the best gaming CPU you can buy) and much less on the motherboard and memory.

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £1,096.88 (includes delivery: £11.98)​
 
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core 5.00GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail
CP-3DT-AM
£365 (incl. VAT)
£341 (incl. VAT)
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Asus TUF Gaming A620-Pro WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
MOT-ASU-01162
£140 (incl. VAT)
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Corsair Vengeance EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C40 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK64GX5M2B5600Z40)
MY-4DL-CS
£800 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Lian Li Lancool III Full Tower PC Case - Black
CA-7AW-LL
£126 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632)
SW-18J-MS
£120 (incl. VAT)
£108 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
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If you're looking to get on an AM5 platform for 5+ years, it's worth considering a B650E or (as you did originally) an X670E motherboard, as these get you PCIe 5.0 for the GPU and primary M.2 slots, which keep your options open for future upgrades. The Asrock B650E PG Riptide WiFi is a good option for price/performance sub £300. DDR5 @ 6000MHz / CL30 is a sweet spot for Ryzen 7000 series.
 
Got 3 other mobo's below
Cheapest is the tuf board..doesn't have gen5 gpu slot, but does for the primary nvme slot..has total 3 m.2 nvme slots rather than 2 on the a620 board(spare pcie slots on the a620 are pcie3 only also).
The 2 strix boards both support gen5 gpu slot and at least 1 pcie5 nvme slot..the gaming f has 3 slots in total, the gaming e has 4 slots. gaming e has slightly beefier vrms also, as well as a led post it display for error codes etc

for nvme I think the lexar are best value at the mo (example of spped on the 2tb...2TB M.2 2280 Drive, Read 7400 MB/s, Write 6500MB/s, TBW 1500, 5 Year Warranty) ...depending what you want could just go with a 2tb drive, but saw you put a 4tb in your build..I'd be tempted then to get a smaller drive like the 1tb for OS etc, and then the 4tb for your game storage etc, that way if you ever need to reinstall windows, you don't loose your game folders etc
I have a 2tbsn850x in my system which is great. I do sometimes worry that at some point I may need to reinstall windows when everything slows down and wish I'd put the os on a seperate drive. I do have another drive I bought for a seperate buid which could put in for my games etc, but then think a 2tb os drive is just too large...anyway, if my windows starts playing up I cross that bridge in future, but worth thinking about if starting fresh

for disclosure I have the b650e-e withe 7800x3d and 32gb corsair vengeance rgb 6000c30 ram. someone else found 64 gb 6000c30 gskill for £217, and seen the corsair for £223 elsewhere(nonrgb version)...whatever you choose for ram, don't go 4 sticks...2 only. DDR5 doesn't play well with 4 sticks/ also if you like the 7800x3d cpu then outright speed doesn't make a huge differnece, but tighter timing do make a diff, hense the c30

My basket at OcUK:
 
Lexar NM790 2TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 Solid State Drive (LNM790X002T-RNNNG)
STO-LEX-01453
£280 (incl. VAT)
£250 (incl. VAT)
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Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
MB-6K0-AS
£150 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Asus ROG Strix B650E-E Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
MB-6JW-AS
£251 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Asus ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
MB-6JX-AS
£170 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Lexar NM790 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 Solid State Drive (LNM790X001T-RNNNG)
STO-LEX-01452
£150 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
zergonipal said:
Have I gone OTT on the RAM that would be better spent elsewhere?
Click to expand...

You have specced DDR4 RAM but Ryzen 7000 requires DDR5. And support for such large amounts of high speed RAM is iffy right now. Stick to 64 GB of DDR5-6000.

Edit: Level1Techs did a video here:
 
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Just to give you some reference for what kind of system you should expect for this kind of money, here is something that offers more than twice the performance with four times the storage.

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £1,696.84 (includes delivery: £11.98)​
 
jigger said:
Just to give you some reference for what kind of system you should expect for this kind of money, here is something that offers more than twice the performance with four times the storage.

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £1,696.84 (includes delivery: £11.98)​
Click to expand...
why would you put in 16tb of spinning discs for a gaming build? and a 7800x3d is over £200 cheaper without running into schedulling issues that the 7950x3d sometimes has when game uses wrong chip and uses the non x3d side
 
Craig_d1 said:
why would you put in 16tb of spinning discs for a gaming build? and a 7800x3d is over £200 cheaper without running into schedulling issues that the 7950x3d sometimes has when game uses wrong chip and uses the non x3d side
Click to expand...

Because it’s faster than deleting and downloading by orders of magnitude, very cost effective and opens all sorts of useful options like DAS/NAS functionality to keep the NVME drive from being hammered/filled with junk.

AMD’s smart code is pretty smart. Never run into scheduling issues TBH. <9 cores 18 threads runs in the X3D die. >9 cores 18 threads uses boths dies and the performance that comes with.
 
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jigger said:
Because it’s faster than deleting and downloading by orders of magnitude, very cost effective and opens all sorts of useful options like DAS/NAS functionality to keep the NVME drive from being hammered/filled with junk.

AMD’s smart code is pretty smart. Never run into scheduling issues TBH. <9 cores 18 threads runs in the X3D die. >9 cores 18 threads uses boths dies and the performance that comes with.
Click to expand...
:cry::cry: that's a shed lad of games. I understand if you want to build a nas, but then i'd get a nas enclosure and put it away somewhere... my 2tb drive nvme just fine for my collection. I don't switch and swap playing that many games that I need 200 odd on hand at any one time. i tend to have a few i play and then download the occasional other to try out. It doesn't take that long nowadays, it just downloads in the background as i play another game..would be tempted with the 4tb drive for £200 if doing again as a seperate drive for games only, but hardly essential All my spinning disks have failed over years so wouldn't go back personally and as a gaming rig, still don't get paying up for the 7950x3d over the 7800x3d as this is a gaming build. gaming performance is basically the same
 
Craig_d1 said:
:cry::cry: that's a shed lad of games. I understand if you want to build a nas, but then i'd get a nas enclosure and put it away somewhere... my 2tb drive nvme just fine for my collection. I don't switch and swap playing that many games that I need 200 odd on hand at any one time. i tend to have a few i play and then download the occasional other to try out. It doesn't take that long nowadays, it just downloads in the background as i play another game..would be tempted with the 4tb drive for £200 if doing again as a seperate drive for games only, but hardly essential All my spinning disks have failed over years so wouldn't go back personally and as a gaming rig, still don't get paying up for the 7950x3d over the 7800x3d as this is a gaming build. gaming performance is basically the same
Click to expand...

For this kind of money I’d be wanting a lot more than 8 cores. In another generation or so we will be looking at 16c core complex’s being common place on desktops.

Some games are 150gb. A dozen of those or so will not leave much in the way of provisioning and that will hurt the drive. Many games also run just fine from mechanical drives, and others show barely any difference between SATA 3 and PCIE 4x NVME.

Anyway I digress.
 
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