3900x/3950X on MSI X570-A PRO

[Wooley]

Hey everyone, I've currently decided to build a new rig and have ordered a 3600 along with a MSI X570-A PRO to try to keep the cost down.

 

My question is whether or not I could eventually upgrade from a 3600 to a 3900x or a 3950x on this type of a board since it's one of the cheaper X570 boards out there. 

I'm not big into overclocking, but I have a Noctua NH-d15 that could handle the extra thermals if need be. 

 

I decided to go with the X570 chipset because I also ordered a PCIe 4.0 SSD, which I'd rather have right now than a better board or better CPU.

 

 

[GrockleTD]

iirc, all the X570 boards were pretty overkill... it should work fine with even a 3950x

[Wooley]

1 minute ago, GrockleTD said:

iirc, all the X570 boards were pretty overkill... it should work fine with even a 3950x

That's what I've heard and seen, which is why I didn't think getting a more expensive board made much sense to me.

[Princess Luna]

7 minutes ago, Wooley said:

MSI X570-A PRO

This is the WORSE X570 motherboard of all.

 

You are definitely going to see some toasty hot VRM and be subjective to all sort of throttling with a processor like the R9 3950X on it.

[Privatech]

Well if you're not a creator or a SUPER RICH person then get a 3800X or 3700X since the 3900X is made more for creators and has like 3 fps difference from 3800X. If you have extra money get a RTX 2070 Super or RTX 2080 instead of a 3900X.

 

3700X is like a 2700 but 3rd gen. 3800X is made for overclocking and will do a bit better than 3700X stock. If youre not someone who overclocks and makes content than go for a 3700X. Less TDP and you get a great looking cooler with it.

 

The 3900X also has a lot of TDP which could be used for a graphics card instead.

[Wooley]

1 minute ago, Privatech said:

3700X is like a 2700 but 3rd gen. 3800X is made for overclocking and will do a bit better than 3700X stock. If youre not someone who overclocks and makes content than go for a 3700X. Less TDP and you get a great looking cooler with it.

Fair points, but I'd rather just go all out with my CPU and get a high end Ryzen 9 that'll be future-proof for a very long time. I'm also going to stick to my Noctua cooler since I'm not a fan of RGB, and Noctua is legendary. 

 

I'm not really interested in getting a high-end graphics card, I'm just wondering about compatibility and performance of the CPU here. 

[Turtle Rig]

14 minutes ago, Wooley said:

Hey everyone, I've currently decided to build a new rig and have ordered a 3600 along with a MSI X570-A PRO to try to keep the cost down.

 

My question is whether or not I could eventually upgrade from a 3600 to a 3900x or a 3950x on this type of a board since it's one of the cheaper X570 boards out there. 

I'm not big into overclocking, but I have a Noctua NH-d15 that could handle the extra thermals if need be. 

 

I decided to go with the X570 chipset because I also ordered a PCIe 4.0 SSD, which I'd rather have right now than a better board or better CPU.

 

 

Your fine dude, probably BIOS flash but you will be good and can upgrade in future and what not.

[Wooley]

6 minutes ago, Princess Luna said:

This is the WORSE X570 motherboard of all.

 

You are definitely going to see some toasty hot VRM and be subjective to all sort of throttling with a processor like the R9 3950X on it.

That's true, but since I won't be overclocking daily I wouldn't imagine they would get insanely hot.

[Wooley]

Just now, Turtle Rig said:

Your fine dude, probably BIOS flash but you will be good and can upgrade in future and what not.

That's what I was thinking, thanks for the input

[Princess Luna]

19 minutes ago, Wooley said:

That's true, but since I won't be overclocking daily I wouldn't imagine they would get insanely hot.

Ryzen already gets it's maximum frequencies out of the box pretty much, there isn't core frequency overclocking on Zen 2 any more, only stuff like Infinity Fabric overclocking and memory overclocking (frequency+timings).

 

So with a R9 3950X being a 16 cores that supposedly clocks above 4ghz out of the box on all cores yes there will be throttling, yes it will be hot... the CPU package temperatures aren't the only temperatures that you should be wary of.

[Guest]

The priorities are a little weird. Getting a worse board for a PCIe 4.0 drive that doesn't even reach the peak of what PCIe 4.0 will be able to do is an interesting choice.

Most of the reviews I've read and watched (that I trust) specifically say they worry about the VRMs on that board when you're shooting for the 3900X and above.

 

I hope this doesn't end up being the case for you, but I would reevaluate your decision if you truly plan to upgrade to a 3900X/3950X.

[Wooley]

1 hour ago, Princess Luna said:

 

So with a R9 3950X being a 16 cores that supposedly clocks above 4ghz out of the box on all cores yes there will be throttling, yes it will be hot... the CPU package temperatures aren't the only temperatures that you should be wary of.

I'm aware of more than the CPU package becoming hot, so I see what you mean. I suppose I'll wait to see how others handle it and see how others configurations turn out. At worst, I could see how the beefier CPUs are handled for a while and return them if my board does throttle it too badly. 

[Wooley]

42 minutes ago, Den-Fi said:

The priorities are a little weird. Getting a worse board for a PCIe 4.0 drive that doesn't even reach the peak of what PCIe 4.0 will be able to do is an interesting choice.

 

Are you referring to the drive or the board not reaching the peak of what 4.0 can do?

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Wooley said:

Are you referring to the drive or the board not reaching the peak of what 4.0 can do?

Referring to the current crop of PCIe 4.0 drives. They all use the same controller which doesn't utilize all that PCIe 4.0 has to offer, so sacrificing something important like VRMs just doesn't seem worth it in that case. The more logical thing is better board now, good PCIe 3.0 drive, then upgrade the drive when drives that weren't just a cash grab come out.

 

Though I should ask, what is your use case for this new system?

[Max_Settings]

That drive does nothing for you. Won’t make startup time faster or anything. Sacrificing board or CPU for that is pointless. What Den said is 100% correct.

[Wooley]

1 hour ago, Den-Fi said:

Referring to the current crop of PCIe 4.0 drives. They all use the same controller which doesn't utilize all that PCIe 4.0 has to offer, so sacrificing something important like VRMs just doesn't seem worth it in that case. The more logical thing is better board now, good PCIe 3.0 drive, then upgrade the drive when drives that weren't just a cash grab come out.

 

Though I should ask, what is your use case for this new system?

 

1 hour ago, Max_Settings said:

That drive does nothing for you. Won’t make startup time faster or anything. Sacrificing board or CPU for that is pointless. What Den said is 100% correct.

I see what both of you are saying, but it's something I can upgrade if I ever want/need to for larger or faster storage. Its not only for boot up and general speed, but transferring/loading large VMs and other files for work and school.  And most importantly, simply due to me wanting the fastest ssd available in this form factor. I don't agree with paying more for a board that has more VRMs and RGB and other flashy things as I really don't need all that. I will agree that it will get hot when I stick a more powerful processor in it, and I'll post about that when the time comes. 

 

It's also not what the point of this thread is. I only mentioned that to clarify why I went after the x570 chipset due to its PCIe 4.0 support, instead of going after a different chipset that's cheaper but with more bells and whistles. I've already got the components and will do the build this weekend, so saying what I should or shouldn't get is irrelevant. I do appreciate the input though, but this is about sticking a crazy processor on the A PRO. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Wooley said:

 this is about sticking a crazy processor on the A PRO. 

That prospect doesn't look great.

Looks like you might get by with a lot of airflow, but on a test bench with the 3900X and limited airflow on the VRMs it was throttle city.

So I guess make sure you have good airflow on the VRMs.

Only said what I said because there was time to do something about it. Down the road, not too much other than selling the board.