Current > New - Decision time!

[CrazyA94]

Budget (including currency): Well...Ideally £1300 but in theory £3000 for New PC

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Gaming - 80% / Working - 10% / Video (Netflix & Prime etc) - 10%

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

Current Rig:
Intel i7 4820k
H110i GTX AIO
Asus P9X79
16Gb DDR3 667MHz Corsair 
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD (Windows)
Western Digital WD20 2Tb
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Superclocked
Soundblaster Z sound card
ASUS PCE-AC68 Network adapter
NZXT OG Case
Corsair 760i 80+ Platinum ATX PSU

Now - This rig above cost me £2000 in 2014 and has done me well (Only upgraded to 1080 since then)

I now want to upgrade and here is my thoughts.

Parts to re-use:
H110i GTX AIO

EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Superclocked

Soundblaster Z sound card
ASUS PCE-AC68 Network adapter

Corsair 760i 80+ Platinum ATX PSU

I'm thinking to add the below parts but need advice if that's the best option.
All of the below comes to roughly £1100

Happy to build it all myself but always good to take advice.

Parts I want to add:

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor

Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard
G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory
Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
2 x Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM
NZXT H510i ATX Mid Tower Case

This means my final build will be:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GTX 104.65 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler 
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory 
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8 GB Superclocked Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card 
Case: NZXT H510i ATX Mid Tower Case
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Z
Wifi Card: ASUS PCE-AC68 Network adapter
Power Supply: Corsair 760 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Is this worth doing? Let me know please! THANKS! 

[Totalimus]

I did a quick google search and as far as I could tell, your chosen motherboard does not come with an updated BIOS, meaning your CPU won't work out of the box, you'll need an older CPU to update it, not sure if it comes with a feature that allows you to flash the BIOS without any CPU in, seems to be mostly an MSI thing.
That being said, I know for a fact that B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (MUST be the MAX version) comes with updated BIOS so everything will work out of the box and is also regarded as one of, if not the best value B450 motherboard.

[Rancidpunk]

Not a great time to upgrade atm, B550 am 4 motherboards are coming in June, 4000 series Ryzen in September, intel 10th gen release next week and the new RTX 3**** series from Nvidia are here in September so it might be worth considering waiting a few months to see all the options coming soon - more powerful hardware for the same price!

[CrazyA94]

28 minutes ago, Rancidpunk said:

Not a great time to upgrade atm, B550 am 4 motherboards are coming in June, 4000 series Ryzen in September, intel 10th gen release next week and the new RTX 3**** series from Nvidia are here in September so it might be worth considering waiting a few months to see all the options coming soon - more powerful hardware for the same price!

Yeah I had this in mind - Alot coming out so waiting till September would be fine but the prices will be much higher for the components - Any idea of prices for the announced parts yet?

[CrazyA94]

32 minutes ago, Totalimus said:

I did a quick google search and as far as I could tell, your chosen motherboard does not come with an updated BIOS, meaning your CPU won't work out of the box, you'll need an older CPU to update it, not sure if it comes with a feature that allows you to flash the BIOS without any CPU in, seems to be mostly an MSI thing.
That being said, I know for a fact that B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (MUST be the MAX version) comes with updated BIOS so everything will work out of the box and is also regarded as one of, if not the best value B450 motherboard.

Yeah this isn't an issues - Flashing a BIOS doesn't take long and is easy once you've done it a few times. Thanks for pointing out though!

[CPT_BEEMO]

28 minutes ago, Rancidpunk said:

Not a great time to upgrade atm, B550 am 4 motherboards are coming in June, 4000 series Ryzen in September, intel 10th gen release next week and the new RTX 3**** series from Nvidia are here in September so it might be worth considering waiting a few months to see all the options coming soon - more powerful hardware for the same price!

On top of that, who knows if AMD will continue the AM4 platform anyways, as it looks like we may only get 1 more year out of it. so if you buy 4000 you would want to prepare for the ability to use it for 5 years or more if possible, as you will be upgrading on a soon to be obsolete socket. Dead end platform, so to speak. DDR5 is around the corner too from what I understand, which could very possibly be paired on the new AMD socket, whatever or whenever that may be.

[Manjit73]

56 minutes ago, CrazyA94 said:

Budget (including currency): Well...Ideally £1300 but in theory £3000 for New PC

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Gaming - 80% / Working - 10% / Video (Netflix & Prime etc) - 10%

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

Current Rig:
Intel i7 4820k
H110i GTX AIO
Asus P9X79
16Gb DDR3 667MHz Corsair 
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD (Windows)
Western Digital WD20 2Tb
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Superclocked
Soundblaster Z sound card
ASUS PCE-AC68 Network adapter
NZXT OG Case
Corsair 760i 80+ Platinum ATX PSU

Now - This rig above cost me £2000 in 2014 and has done me well (Only upgraded to 1080 since then)

I now want to upgrade and here is my thoughts.

Parts to re-use:
H110i GTX AIO

EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Superclocked

Soundblaster Z sound card
ASUS PCE-AC68 Network adapter

Corsair 760i 80+ Platinum ATX PSU

I'm thinking to add the below parts but need advice if that's the best option.
All of the below comes to roughly £1100

Happy to build it all myself but always good to take advice.

Parts I want to add:

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor

Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard
G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory
Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
2 x Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM
NZXT H510i ATX Mid Tower Case

This means my final build will be:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GTX 104.65 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler 
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory 
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8 GB Superclocked Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card 
Case: NZXT H510i ATX Mid Tower Case
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Z
Wifi Card: ASUS PCE-AC68 Network adapter
Power Supply: Corsair 760 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Is this worth doing? Let me know please! THANKS! 

Wait for the b550 or get a x570

[ShinRamen]

If gaming is your main concern, you'll be fine with a 3700X - the 3900X is a marginal upgrade at best, you'll be paying a lot for 4 extra cores that will net you no performance gain over the 3700X. Also 32GB of memory is a little excessive (unless you play a ton of memory intensive games and only very little e-sports titles or mainstream games).

 

Regarding your components: get a case with better airflow, the H510 is mediocre - and the H510i is mediocre and way too expensive. Samsung SSD are very bad value and you won't see a difference while gaming; you save 2-3 seconds of loading time, but no FPS gains or anything. The Trident Z ram will cost you at least 30GBP extra, just for looks - if that's ok for you, then it's a great kit, I went with RipJaws here (3600MHz/CL16). Again, personally I would just go with 16GB.
 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	£259.89 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard	Asus PRIME X570-P ATX AM4 Motherboard	£172.40 @ Alza
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	£174.89 @ Newegg UK
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	£105.48 @ Ebuyer
Case	Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case	£84.98 @ Amazon UK
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£797.64
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-16 16:09 BST+0100

You can invest the money you saved in a new GPU once RTX 3000 is out, which would boost your gaming perfromance much more than a 3900X. 1300 is a huge budget, for 1500 you can build an all new gaming machine with a 2080 Super, just to put things into perspective.
 

Spoiler

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	£259.89 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard	Asus PRIME X570-P ATX AM4 Motherboard	£172.40 @ Alza
Memory	Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	£92.99 @ Amazon UK
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	£105.48 @ Ebuyer
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card	£686.98 @ Aria PC
Case	Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case	£84.98 @ Amazon UK
Power Supply	Super Flower Leadex III Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	£89.99 @ Currys PC World
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£1492.71
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-16 16:04 BST+0100

 

 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, CrazyA94 said:

Budget (including currency): Well...Ideally £1300 but in theory £3000 for New PC

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Gaming - 80% / Working - 10% / Video (Netflix & Prime etc) - 10%

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

Current Rig:
Intel i7 4820k
H110i GTX AIO
Asus P9X79
16Gb DDR3 667MHz Corsair 
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD (Windows)
Western Digital WD20 2Tb
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Superclocked
Soundblaster Z sound card
ASUS PCE-AC68 Network adapter
NZXT OG Case
Corsair 760i 80+ Platinum ATX PSU

Now - This rig above cost me £2000 in 2014 and has done me well (Only upgraded to 1080 since then)

I now want to upgrade and here is my thoughts.

Parts to re-use:
H110i GTX AIO

EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Superclocked

Soundblaster Z sound card
ASUS PCE-AC68 Network adapter

Corsair 760i 80+ Platinum ATX PSU

I'm thinking to add the below parts but need advice if that's the best option.
All of the below comes to roughly £1100

Happy to build it all myself but always good to take advice.

Parts I want to add:

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor

Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard
G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory
Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
2 x Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM
NZXT H510i ATX Mid Tower Case

This means my final build will be:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GTX 104.65 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler 
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory 
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8 GB Superclocked Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card 
Case: NZXT H510i ATX Mid Tower Case
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Z
Wifi Card: ASUS PCE-AC68 Network adapter
Power Supply: Corsair 760 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Is this worth doing? Let me know please! THANKS! 

Is your current system struggling ? If not then at least wait until June 16th and see what B550 is like. The MSI X570 Tomahawk wifi will be out by then as well.

 

As for your list, the Asus B450-F Strix is a terrible board. It should not be paired with a 12 core cpu unless you want thermal throttling issues. So either wait for B550 or get a better board if you need something right away. I prefer Gigabyte if going X570 due to the better UK RMA support. And on OCUK forum you also have a Gigabyte rep on there who can help with any issues.

 

A 3900X is a bit overkill for gaming. A 3700X would do fine, and then just upgrade to a 4900X/4950X in the future.

 

You might need an AM4 bracket if your current cooler doesn't have one. 

 

I wouldn't bother installing the Soundcard into the new setup, as onboard is good these days. So unless you specifically need the Soundcard then I wouldn't bother.

 

You can get a better value SSD as Samsung are overpriced. Something like a Crucial P1 1TB would be fine.

 

Why 2 x 2TB HDD's ?

 

As mentioned, that case doesn't have the best airflow.

[CrazyA94]

On 5/16/2020 at 5:08 PM, lee32uk said:

Is your current system struggling ? If not then at least wait until June 16th and see what B550 is like. The MSI X570 Tomahawk wifi will be out by then as well.

 

As for your list, the Asus B450-F Strix is a terrible board. It should not be paired with a 12 core cpu unless you want thermal throttling issues. So either wait for B550 or get a better board if you need something right away. I prefer Gigabyte if going X570 due to the better UK RMA support. And on OCUK forum you also have a Gigabyte rep on there who can help with any issues.

 

A 3900X is a bit overkill for gaming. A 3700X would do fine, and then just upgrade to a 4900X/4950X in the future.

 

You might need an AM4 bracket if your current cooler doesn't have one. 

 

I wouldn't bother installing the Soundcard into the new setup, as onboard is good these days. So unless you specifically need the Soundcard then I wouldn't bother.

 

You can get a better value SSD as Samsung are overpriced. Something like a Crucial P1 1TB would be fine.

 

Why 2 x 2TB HDD's ?

 

As mentioned, that case doesn't have the best airflow.

Are the speeds different between Samsung and Crucial P1's?

2 x 2TB because the 4Tb are slower RPM and I have a large game library.

I'll move my most common games to NVME but for the most part they'll stay there.

 

I think waiting till June is probably the best idea though.