Biting the bullet & upgrading... almost everything

[Karrde]

I currently run an i5-4590K & an R9 290 and think I've finally decided that I'm going to pay the exorbitant prices and upgrade anyway!

 

Budget (including currency): AUD, I'm tossing up between going whole hog and spending the 4.5k and trying to hit more of the 2.5k-3k mark

Country: Australia

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Gaming & possibly dual booting into a VM/container server.  I aim to keep the hardware going for a while, my current rig is from 2014. I've been considering an upgrade on and off for ages, but I haven't strictly had a need and with prices being so high etc. I've put it off.  I'm reconsidering now because I just started playing Ark (I know, late to the party) and it runs pretty average. No content creation. Might do some light overclocking, might not bother.  Maybe VR sometime in the future.

Monitor: ROG Strix XG35VQ - 3440x1440 @ 100Hz

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): 

So here's what I'm thinking:

CPU: Ryzen 9 5900X ($749)

RAM: (DDR4) G.Skill F4-4000C16D-32GTZRA Trident Z RGB - 2x16GB @ 4000MHz CL16-16-16-36 ($519)

Motherboard: Gigabyte X570S AORUS ELITE AX ($319)

Storage: Will reuse an existing 2TB NVMe drive for my gaming rig, and buy this for the dual boot server - Western Digital WD Blue SN550 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD ($145)

GPU: Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 3080 XTREME WATERFORCE ($2799)

PSU: Currently using a 700W PSU that I don't think will cut it, I also have a 1050W PSU but it's white in a non-white case and build... might get a new one, not sure

Case: Current Fractal Design Define S Window

Cooling: Currently rocking a custom loop with a thin 360 rad currently keeping everything between 60C and 70C under heavy load, depending on the ambient temperature. I have another thick 240 rad that I previously had in there, but landed up pulling out because it was a pain and I don't think it really did much. EKWB Supremacy EVO says that it's AM4 compatible, just need to find the AMD mounting hardware.

 

So what do you think in general, and a few things in particular that I'd love some opinions on:

 

1. Which GPU
I think the 3080 is the sweet spot at the moment for my reasonably high res monitor. The only 3090 with a waterblock that I can find in stock is ASUS EKWB GeForce RTX 3090 at $4199 and it's not much of a performance gain for $1400. On the other side, I could go for the ASUS EKWB GeForce RTX 3070 at $1899, but that appears to be a significant step down, and no waterblock'd 3070 Ti in stock

 

2. RAM Compatibility

The mobo doesn't list that RAM in it's supported list.  I gather Ryzen like fast RAM, but also has had some issues with RAM compatibility.  Should I be worried if the RAM isn't on the supported list, especially given that it's pretty high frequency RAM?

 

3. Enough Cooling

I suspect that the single 360 rad won't be enough cooling, am I right? Not sure if I'll fit both rads back into the case with the new mobo since one of the rads would need to go on the top of the case :S

 

4. Motherboard

I definitely want Wifi and at least 2 M.2 NVMe slots if I'm going to dual boot, but it probably doesn't make much difference what I get otherwise....right? my case can fit an ATX, which is what I'm using now, and I figure X570 might give me more expandability over B550 down the line if I need it. And if I'm paying heaps for a GPU I may as well future proof the mobo a bit e.g. for a wireless VR card?

 

5. Total Cost

It's... quite a lot - how much of a bump is there really going to be in gaming performance between what I've listed above and something along the lines of:

• GPU: ASUS EKWB GeForce RTX 3070 ($1899, saving $900)

• RAM: Crucial BL2K16G32C16U4B Ballistix 32GB 3200MHz DDR4 ($209, saving $310)

• CPU: 5600X ($459, saving $290) or 3600 ($349, saving $400)

• Motherboard: Some cheaper motherboard ($200ish, saving $100ish)

Dropping it from around 4.5k to around 3k

 

----

 

Photo of my current, tired rig attached - just cause.

 

[Karrde]

Meanwhile... when you preview a new thread, you can't go back and edit... or am I just blind?

[Dr0idGh0sT]

I do get you want to watercool, But in this situation it seems budget is somewhat tight, So why sacrifice lot of performance in sake of custom loop? Think about not making custom loop this time.

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/4tQznL

Something like this should be good for you and should allow to get better GPU than 3070. 

Also, Don't get 3600 and don't get WD SN550.

[ki8aras]

amd is going to release their new cpus with 3d cache that will offer a significant performance boost so if you can hold out a bit longer, i would recommend you do so. also, unless you plan to game an extremely high framerates, in gaming the 5900x won't be much more performant than the 5800x or 5600x.(but most of the other things you plan to do like using vms will benefit from the extra cores)

[Karrde]

21 hours ago, Dr0idGh0sT said:

I do get you want to watercool, But in this situation it seems budget is somewhat tight, So why sacrifice lot of performance in sake of custom loop? Think about not making custom loop this time.

Good call with the water cooling.  Luckily I managed to find the non "Xtreme" version of the liquid cooled GPU for the same price as cheap air cooled ones, and in stock.  So I snapped it up quickly while I could!

 

----

21 hours ago, Dr0idGh0sT said:

Also, Don't get 3600 and don't get WD SN550.

Noted!
 

----

21 hours ago, Dr0idGh0sT said:

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/4tQznL

You think the mobo & RAM won't make much of a difference then?

 

----

20 hours ago, ki8aras said:

amd is going to release their new cpus with 3d cache that will offer a significant performance boost so if you can hold out a bit longer, i would recommend you do so. also, unless you plan to game an extremely high framerates, in gaming the 5900x won't be much more performant than the 5800x or 5600x.(but most of the other things you plan to do like using vms will benefit from the extra cores)

ahh! I found a really comprehensive article on the impact of the various 5000 series Ryzens on gaming showing just how much of a different it is... and as you said it's little to nothing!  But as you said, it will make a difference for VMs...and maybe for future proofing?

I wonder how long it will be until the 5800X3D is available...

[ki8aras]

8 hours ago, Karrde said:

Good call with the water cooling.  Luckily I managed to find the non "Xtreme" version of the liquid cooled GPU for the same price as cheap air cooled ones, and in stock.  So I snapped it up quickly while I could!

 

----

Noted!
 

----

You think the mobo & RAM won't make much of a difference then?

 

----

ahh! I found a really comprehensive article on the impact of the various 5000 series Ryzens on gaming showing just how much of a different it is... and as you said it's little to nothing!  But as you said, it will make a difference for VMs...and maybe for future proofing?

I wonder how long it will be until the 5800X3D is available...

the 5800x3d is slated to come out in the 2nd half of 2022 so its not really worth the wait

[Karrde]

On 1/7/2022 at 1:34 AM, ki8aras said:

the 5800x3d is slated to come out in the 2nd half of 2022 so its not really worth the wait

I saw that