Upgrading after a while... A lot has changed...

[pwnmachine]

Hey OCForums gang!

Its been a while since I have been on here and have been out of the loop for quite some time. I am finally looking to build a new rig as a workstation and some occasional high performance gaming.

My current rig is quite outdated(in sig) and have not felt the need to upgrade until now.

I was considering a 5900X/(4070TI/6950XT) combo and needed the experts to weigh in. So I had a few questions:

5900X vs 7900X I am tempted to ago with the 7900X as it is only ~$150 more. Is this a worthwhile jump? I am leaning towards yes.

The long running debate of AMD/Nvidia. From what I can tell AMD has been winning but this varies from card to card. For example 6950 vs 4070 are comparable but nvidia is usually $3-400 more. Plus I would rather have an all AMD build.

DDR4 vs 5, I have heard mixed reviews for DDR5 as it seems to have negligible performance gains overall. At least for now. Is it worth the relatively significant jump in price for a DDR5 setup or should I just opt for some high performance DDR4?

MATX SFF, I would really like a small form factor build this time but can't seem to find a good motherboard option that would be sufficient. Also is ITX a good option here since I would like to overclock as much as I can. Who is the current king of mobo manufacturers?

NVME drives, how is the current SSD manufacturer race going? Seems like Samsung is still one of the best but they seem overpriced. WD seems like a good option but I have had poor experiences with them in the past. Thoughts on budget manufacturer like AData/Solidigm?

I know the power efficiency of components has increased significantly. I was looking for 1000W to be safe with some overhead or 850 as the price jump is usually ~$150(rather put that to the CPU). Corsair has been good to me and so I will probably stick with them. Thoughts on the RMx series?

Also any upcoming generational upgrades I should just wait for? Not really in a rush.


I really appreciate the feedback here as I am just pulling together a list to start building. I appreciate your help to dust off my current toolkit!

 

[stompah]

5900x vs 7900x

AM4/5900x platform is EOL. There is no upgrade path from there.

AM5/7900x platform is newer. There could be 5+ years of CPU upgrades.

For the $150 you could rock the 7900x for several years and then upgrade once more to take you into the AM6 platform.

But if you go 5900x you could be upgrading to AM5 in the same several years, meaning time for new RAM & MB, negating the $150 you save today. And then upgrading to AM6.


DDR4 vs DDR5

Regardless of the performance jump, or lack there of, DDR4 is cheap, but again, no upgrade path on AM4.


MATX vs ITX

There isn't much headroom left to overclock easily. So, unless you plan on going deep into motherboard and cooling costs just get a reliable motherboard.

Size wise is up to preference. Remember your pairing it with a CPU that will need some decent cooling and a large GPU. Going tiny on the MB may be negated by the size of your GPU.



NVME


I run Samsung NVMEs as my main rig's boot drive for many years and haven't had any issues.

I've got a few other NVME brands and they do not have any issue.

I'd buy whichever has the performance level you want and the longest warranty.

Keep the box or pictures of the box that states warranty length. I had WD try to tell me I had a 1 year warranty on a drive when the box stated otherwise.


PSU

Cannot go wrong with Corsair. 850w will work.

____________________

I run a 5900x/3090/32GB system. Playing Fortnite I have my settings turned up, 4k/2160p, FPS locked at 60 and still get frame drops.


I'd say if you want high performance gaming invest as much as you can.

 

[Woomack]

If it's for gaming then I would consider 7800X3D as it should be faster.

ITX mobos are usually of higher quality/better equipped than mATX, but regarding overclocking it doesn't matter if it's ATX, mATX or ITX. New CPUs overclock the same on everything (as long as manufacturer didn't fail BIOS). If you decide on 7800X3D then it won't overclock much. I would stick with ASUS or MSI as they have the best BIOS support and the longest updates. Most new Gigabyte or ASRock mobos are fine too, but better read about possible issues. Skip Biostar and everything else as with them you are asking for troubles.

I like Maxio based M.2 SSD because of their low temps and no throttling. They also cost less. I already mentioned Patriot VP4300 Lite and TeamGroup MP44 in another post. I was testing both recently and they perform great keeping ~45°C during work. Both series have a 5-year warranty.

 

[JLK03F150]

If you are planning to build a SFF in a SFF case, keep in mind that GPU coolers are a little bigger these days. Get the length and height specs for the GPUs you are considering & check against what the case says will fit. My RX6800 XT is almost 3 inches longer than your GTX 980. I think some of the RX 6950 XT coolers are even bigger than mine. Here's a pic comparing my new card against my old GTX 970.

 

[Woomack]

When a manufacturer says that the card is 2-slot thick, then it used to mean real 2 slots. Now it means 2 slots and a bit more because of the cooler shroud, which usually isn't flat, so have to be prepared for 2.5 slots. Length usually matches product specifications, but you almost always need 10-20mm more so you can install the card without problems.

Btw. mATX cases are about as large as compact ATX cases. It's better to go ATX in something like Jonsbo UMX4, which has good airflow, or decide on ITX and go something like Lian-Li A4H2O or Corsair 2000D, or anything similar. For some reason, mATX is for budget motherboards nowadays (with some single exceptions like ASUS Crosshair Gene). ITX is usually high-end, just packed as much as it's possible on that small PCB.

 

[Zerileous]

What resolution and refresh rate are you looking at?

Are you trying to keep this system for as long as you kept the last or are you interested in upgrading more frequently?

Do you have a set budget or is it more flexible?

My broad opinion is that if you're on a fixed budget and using a higher resolution than 1080p, it is better to spend money on GPU than CPU. Every use case is different though. If you plan to keep for a long time, then AM5 will definitely perform better longer, but conversely the upgrade path of the platform is less relevant.

 

[Trap05]

Definitely go AM5 no reason not to

 

[pwnmachine]

Thank you for all the replies it has given me a lot to think about...

My resolution is 21:9, 1440p but I may also upgrade to 21:9 2160p. I don't really have a set budget per say but I always love maximizing price/performance ratios. So I am open to any suggestions.

I would like to keep this rig around for quite a while and am not interested in incremental upgrades although I don't mind upgrading GPUs every few years.

Will keep y'all posted with what I end up building. Thanks again OC Gang!

 

[pwnmachine]

Lots of great advice here, this is where I landed after taking everyone's opinions into consideration nothing final so feedback is appreciated, any recommendations on a good aio 240mm rad?

- Ryzen 9 7900X
- MSI MAG B650M Mortar mATX
- Corsair Vengeance DDR5 5200 64gb
- MSI 7900XT Trio Classic
- Corsair RM850x
- WD Black SN850X 2TB
- Fractal Pop Mini - still debating the case


Thanks OCF gang!

 

[Zerileous]

The 7900x can draw 230W stock. While the Mortar series are generally pretty good and most AMD boards have solid VRM these days, check reviews of your specific board to make sure it is adequate (it should, but always better safe than sorry, especially with liquid cooling leaving less airflow to the area in general). Also I would think a 360mm AIO would be better for that CPU. It will run hot regardless, but it will be able to draw more power and boost higher with a stronger cooler.

Also I believe DDR5-6000 is usually recommended with Zen 4.

 

[pwnmachine]

^ I would definitely prefer a 360mm rad but can't seem to find any good sff mATX cases that can accommodate more than a 240mm without adding bulk or being as big as a mid-case...

I have swapped out the ram for a Vengeance DDR5-6000 kit

 

[Zerileous]

Yeah that is a fair trade off. You will be able to get away with it especially if you're not running heavily multi-threaded workloads, it won't damage the CPU but you will be leaving multithreaded performance (and possibly peak single thread performance, I'm not familiar enough with the platform to know) on the table.

 

[QuantumCookie]

I think with an ITX case, I guess some of them are large enough to install several fans, so that overclocking ram and such isn't hindered by instability by the whole case overheating.

Btw, I never bothered with water cooling, typically too expensive, or so I thought, and I've always been worried that the water cooling pump is making too much noise. Maybe this is't so noisy in 2023 when cooling an overclocked cpu/cpu?

 

[EarthDog]

I think with an ITX case, I guess some of them are large enough to install several fans, so that overclocking ram and such isn't hindered by instability by the whole case overheating.

Btw, I never bothered with water cooling, typically too expensive, or so I thought, and I've always been worried that the water cooling pump is making too much noise. Maybe this is't so noisy in 2023 when cooling an overclocked cpu/cpu?

Many pumps weren't noisey in 2013.

Its not a worry buying the right pump and having enough cooling(radiator) so the fans can be set to low and pump at a reasonable speed. If you under-rad you'll have to raise fan speeds and more noise.