Looking to potentially upgrade

[Gene Sargent]

Budget (including currency): up to 1200$ CAD

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Ableton Live, light AAA gaming, VR for OG Oculus rift. Mainly looking to future proof a little bit

Other details: Basically I'm looking to see what your guys' opinions are for the viability of an upgrade and how much it would cost to make my PC more modern. I currently run a i5-4690k 3.50 GHz, 16GB, 2 8GB Ripjaw DDR3 ram sticks, and AMD Radeon R9 390 on a GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-SLI. I'm pretty happy with my power supply, my monitors, my drives, and other peripherals. Thanks guys!

 

[RadiatingLight]

If you want to keep the PSU, Drives and Case for the new build, you could get something like this:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$428.50 @ Vuugo
Motherboard	ASRock B450M Pro4-F Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$82.27 @ Vuugo
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$105.99 @ Newegg Canada
Video Card	ASRock Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB CHALLENGER D OC Video Card	$520.50 @ Vuugo
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1182.26
	Mail-in rebates	-$45.00
	Total	$1137.26
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-04 14:50 EDT-0400

 

Although if you can spare an extra few bucks, A better motherboard like the B450 Tomahawk Max is a better fit IMO

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/jcYQzy/msi-b450-tomahawk-max-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-tomahawk-max

[Gene Sargent]

1 minute ago, RadiatingLight said:

If you want to keep the PSU, Drives and Case for the new build, you could get something like this:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$428.50 @ Vuugo
Motherboard	ASRock B450M Pro4-F Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$82.27 @ Vuugo
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$105.99 @ Newegg Canada
Video Card	ASRock Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB CHALLENGER D OC Video Card	$520.50 @ Vuugo
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1182.26
	Mail-in rebates	-$45.00
	Total	$1137.26
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-04 14:50 EDT-0400

 

Although if you can spare an extra few bucks, A better motherboard like the B450 Tomahawk Max is a better fit IMO

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/jcYQzy/msi-b450-tomahawk-max-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-tomahawk-max

Thanks! Two questions: How much will the new ram make a difference in performance? How capable could I expect this build to be?

[RadiatingLight]

8 minutes ago, Gene Sargent said:

Thanks! Two questions: How much will the new ram make a difference in performance? How capable could I expect this build to be?

You can't use your old RAM in the new build, since it's DDR3 vs DDR4.

Ryzen in general really likes fast RAM speeds, since the infinity fabric (an internal link in the CPU connecting groups of cores together) is tied to RAM speed. Running RAM 30% faster means the infinity fabric runs 30% faster, leading to lower latency and better performance. 3600Mhz is considered the sweet spot, which is why I picked that speed.

 

learn more here: 

 

[Gene Sargent]

3 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

You can't use your old RAM in the new build, since it's DDR3 vs DDR4.

Ryzen in general really likes fast RAM speeds, since the infinity fabric (an internal link in the CPU connecting groups of cores together) is tied to RAM speed. Running RAM 30% faster means the infinity fabric runs 30% faster, leading to lower latency and better performance. 3600Mhz is considered the sweet spot, which is why I picked that speed.

 

learn more here: 

 

Thanks!

[RadiatingLight]

9 minutes ago, Gene Sargent said:

Thanks!

P.S.

I just noticed that the link I posed starts the video in the middle.

Watch the whole thing, it's worth it.

[Gene Sargent]

2 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

P.S.

I just noticed that the link I posed starts the video in the middle.

Watch the whole thing, it's worth it.

Will do! How capable would you predict the system will be after the upgrade?

[RadiatingLight]

4 minutes ago, Gene Sargent said:

Will do! How capable would you predict the system will be after the upgrade?

Very capable.

Without knowing exactly what you're throwing at it I can't say specifics, but Ryzen 3rd gen is a beast and the 5700XT is a great GPU.

Plus, in the future if you ever need more CPU power, you can buy a 3950X (which is very expensive right now, but in 3 years might be quite cheap) and slot it into your existing board with no other upgrades needed. If you plan on eventually getting a 3950X, also get the Tomahawk MAX board, since it has a better power delivery system that you'll want to have if you're ever going to plug a 3950X into your PC.

[Gene Sargent]

3 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

Very capable.

Without knowing exactly what you're throwing at it I can't say specifics, but Ryzen 3rd gen is a beast and the 5700XT is a great GPU.

Plus, in the future if you ever need more CPU power, you can buy a 3950X (which is very expensive right now, but in 3 years might be quite cheap) and slot it into your existing board with no other upgrades needed. If you plan on eventually getting a 3950X, also get the Tomahawk MAX board, since it has a better power delivery system that you'll want to have if you're ever going to plug a 3950X into your PC.

Thanks so much, you've been extremely helpful!

[NubCak]

39 minutes ago, Gene Sargent said:

Thanks! Two questions: How much will the new ram make a difference in performance? How capable could I expect this build to be?

The Ram itself won't be the big difference maker, moving to a 8core, 16thread Ryzen processor will be the difference maker vs 4 cores, 4 threads.

Take a look at the video below:
 

 

[Gene Sargent]

1 hour ago, RadiatingLight said:

Very capable.

Without knowing exactly what you're throwing at it I can't say specifics, but Ryzen 3rd gen is a beast and the 5700XT is a great GPU.

Plus, in the future if you ever need more CPU power, you can buy a 3950X (which is very expensive right now, but in 3 years might be quite cheap) and slot it into your existing board with no other upgrades needed. If you plan on eventually getting a 3950X, also get the Tomahawk MAX board, since it has a better power delivery system that you'll want to have if you're ever going to plug a 3950X into your PC.

Final question: I'm looking online and it looks like for the GPU there's ASRock and MSI selling the same card. Would there be any difference between the two? neither has particularly great reviews.

 

https://www.newegg.ca/msi-radeon-rx-5700-xt-rx-5700-xt-mech-oc/p/N82E16814137465?Description=Radeon RX 5700 XT&cm_re=Radeon_RX_5700_XT-_-14-137-465-_-Product

https://www.newegg.ca/asrock-radeon-rx-5700-xt-rx-5700-xt-challenger-d-8g-oc/p/N82E16814930020?Description=ASRock Radeon RX 5700 XT Challenger&cm_re=ASRock_Radeon_RX_5700_XT_Challenger-_-14-930-020-_-Product

[RadiatingLight]

17 minutes ago, Gene Sargent said:

Final question: I'm looking online and it looks like for the GPU there's ASRock and MSI selling the same card. Would there be any difference between the two? neither has particularly great reviews.

 

https://www.newegg.ca/msi-radeon-rx-5700-xt-rx-5700-xt-mech-oc/p/N82E16814137465?Description=Radeon RX 5700 XT&cm_re=Radeon_RX_5700_XT-_-14-137-465-_-Product

https://www.newegg.ca/asrock-radeon-rx-5700-xt-rx-5700-xt-challenger-d-8g-oc/p/N82E16814930020?Description=ASRock Radeon RX 5700 XT Challenger&cm_re=ASRock_Radeon_RX_5700_XT_Challenger-_-14-930-020-_-Product

Not really.

Some have better cooling than others, so I'd look at the reviews of each card to see if there's a big difference.

[Gene Sargent]

On 5/4/2020 at 2:01 PM, RadiatingLight said:

Not really.

Some have better cooling than others, so I'd look at the reviews of each card to see if there's a big difference.

Update: I finally got all the components (though I decided on a Gigabyte B450 AORUS PRO instead for motherboard) and assembled it. The motherboard lights up, system fans and cpu Fan goes, but the gpu fans stay still, and no signal gets to the monitor, even when plugged into the motherboard hdmi. Not really sure what's gone wrong.

[RadiatingLight]

3 hours ago, Gene Sargent said:

Update: I finally got all the components (though I decided on a Gigabyte B450 AORUS PRO instead for motherboard) and assembled it. The motherboard lights up, system fans and cpu Fan goes, but the gpu fans stay still, and no signal gets to the monitor, even when plugged into the motherboard hdmi. Not really sure what's gone wrong.

GPU fans not spinning is normal. Your GPU probably has a 0-RPM mode where it doesn't turn on fans unless it needs to (under load)

Ryzen CPUs don't have integrated graphics, so your motherboard video outputs won't work ever. (this is by design. They are only there in case you get an APU like the 3200G)

 

I'd troubleshoot the GPU (make sure all power connectors plugged in, firmly seated in slot, etc.) and if you have debug LEDs on your motherboard, use them.

[Gene Sargent]

9 hours ago, RadiatingLight said:

GPU fans not spinning is normal. Your GPU probably has a 0-RPM mode where it doesn't turn on fans unless it needs to (under load)

Ryzen CPUs don't have integrated graphics, so your motherboard video outputs won't work ever. (this is by design. They are only there in case you get an APU like the 3200G)

 

I'd troubleshoot the GPU (make sure all power connectors plugged in, firmly seated in slot, etc.) and if you have debug LEDs on your motherboard, use them.

Thanks! I'll take a look

[Gene Sargent]

WE HAVE WINDOWS!