I’m looking to upgrade my PC with a new CPU and add more RAM and would like some advice.
My current setup is:
R7 1800X
X370 Taichi
G.Skill Flare X Series DDR4 3200 CL14 - 16GB (2 x 8GB) (F4-3200C14D-16GF)
The 5800X price right now is good and the taichi supports it. 2 more sticks of the Flare X are $99. Then I remembered about the performance penalty of running 4 sticks of RAM in early Zen CPUs. And on Zen3 you could see a performance increase (that Gamers Nexus video). So, if I add 2 more sticks of ram what I would see on the X370 chipset? Penalty, neutral, increase?
And if it’s not a good idea, what would you recommend. Sell the Flare X and buy 2x16gb? A new MB + 2x8gb? And if yes, which one? Something like an ASRock B550 Steel Legend?
I’m thinking that if I wait for the Zen4 I’m going to have to pay more for MB and DDR5 ram.
Bear in mind that if you get a new board and RAM you could potentially sell your X370 + 1800X + RAM as a complete working system which would help offset the upgrade costs (alternatively, have the guts of another working system).
You’d potentially gain longer term BIOS/driver support, PCIe 4, maybe 2.5G ethernet, better USB port selection, etc. depending on which board you pick. Some of the B550 boards also run much faster memory timings and OC ram better due to better memory topology.
If you upgrade the BIOS on X370 to support the 5800X you will lose compatibility with the 1800x on it.
Personally? I’d get a new board. Whether or not I was to sell the old one or not - recently did this with my x470 + 2700X system, as a BIOS upgrade on that to support Zen3 also dropped Zen/Zen+ support. I used the old system to upgrade my NAS and bought an X570 + 5900X and new RAM.
Just in case you hadn’t considered the BIOS upgrade implications…
you will get a bit more bandwidth but cas 14 3200 is pretty much the sweetspot for speed without paying silly money.
so unless you need more i wouldnt bother.
yes you can add 2 more sticks but they may not be identical.
i recently got another 2 sticks of 3000 .
stuck em in and found i couldn’t run at cas 14 anymore.
reason?..
my original ram was single sided dims. the second batch was loaded with double sided.
so the chip layout on the pcb’s was/is incompatible.
even though its sold as the same make model speed and timings.
apparently you cant mix and match the same brand same timings sometimes.
You’re right, I think this is the best path. If I had to change the MB my idea was to buy an APU and give the old PC to a relative. However if I sell CPU/MB/RAM I think I can find a cheap A320 MB, some cheap ram and buy the APU for him. He’ll only use it for office work and browsing.
What memory are you running on the 5900X?
Oh man, that sucks. I didn’t know the OEMs were doing that. Thanks for the heads up
2x 32 GB Dual Rank Corsair DDR4-3600 of some description.
I can get about DDR4-3000 out of it with reasonable timings, but my memory XMP tweaking is basically set XMP profile and then reduce clock until its stable.
