From Socket B i7-920 to AM5 R9 7900x3d upgrade saga

Hardware Build a PC
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Hello World,

  1. The first and only system I assembled, back in 2009, has finally stopped functioning. I started with the first gen I7-920 and in 2022 I replaced it with a Xeon w3680 for 60$cnd.

  2. I lucked out when my card died in the middle of the Great gpu drought because a local memory express just happened to have 3060 12gb in stock when it was a desert everywhere else. I basically had no choice.

  3. The pump on the AIO I installed in 2010 finally died about a year ago. I bought a cross socket compatible cooler master air cooler but it sits about 2mm out side of my case, i cant get the class on.

  4. The system is now stuck in a strange reset loop. It posts and boots into windows 10 but it will undoubtedly randomly restart and restart and again and again. I thought it was a power supply problem but after i tried a new one I discovered it was not that.

  5. Time for a new system. Benefits plan covers 1150$ the rest is out of pocket. Not necessarily restricted by budget but not keen on spending 800$ on a CPU based on my past and present personal use case. I have en-till the end of May 2024 to use my benefits.

Components I Have:
-GTX 3060 12gb
-New 1200w PS
-Lian Li 011 Dynamic case
-I have sata ssds but need/should to upgrade to M.2
-27"4k LG screen
-AnnPro2 keyboard
-Corsair M55 Pro Mouse

  1. The main point of the post here is that I bought a R9 7900x3d/79x3d because of this spring sale hype. Slightly impulsive. But not entirely impulsive but kinda. Since fall 2023 the cpu has been around $600cnd. The R7 7800x3d has always been $500cnd. Now you can buy the 79x3d for $530. Its kinda strange because there is so much information on the web about why you should not buy the 79x3d (mostly because the price was so close to the R9 7950x3d($800cnd) and because of the 6 core vs 8 core 3dvcach thing) but i managed to convince my self anyway that it was justified. I just got it on Friday (March 22) in the mail. I have 2 weeks to send it back if i change my mind.

  2. I mostly play games like Stellaris, Factorio, Satisfactory, Civilization, on a kinda semi regular basis. I am in university for Photography, Digital Fabrication and New Media. I am using Photo Shop for photography, Rhino3d 8 and Fusion 360 for digital modeling and soon adobe premiere for short video projects.

  3. My rational for the R9 7900x3d and AMD :

  • I want 3dv cache based on Wendell’s youtube video benchmarks for increase performance in Stellaris and Factorio and games in general.
    -Longevity of the AM5 platform (not that my past history would indicated that means anything but its a nice to have in that the life of AM5 would last longer then any Intel socket. How many sockets has intel gone though since socket B/1366? like 8 or so compared to AMD.)
  • Being not entirely a gamer and looking at the single core performance benchmarks between the 79x3d and 78x3d I was thinking my work flow could take advantage of the higher frequency of the 79x3d in Rhino3d 8 and Fusion 360 and other applications.

-It’s only a 30$ delta between a gaming cpu and a more balanced cpu. I do take a small hit in gaming performance but improve single and multi core performance for my apps.

Is this an reasonable compromise? If the rational I am using includes intel processors then the benchmarks on Tomshardware indicate that the i7-14700K($579cnd) would be a more rounded processor for me. But no 3d v cache :frowning:
I think it’s possible at this point that the hype around 3dv cache is reducing my objectivity.
That said i am not 100% sure. There is a definite fear of missing out on what AMD is offering and could offer in the future now that the first round of 3d v cache processors are a success. I would just have to be willing to upgrade a decade and a bit sooner then I did with my last setup. Apparently AMD is launching a new line of processors within the next year and a bit? Correct me if that statement is wrong. I was thinking about sending the 79x3d back and buying the r5 7600x for $309cnd and put the $221 difference in a savings account marked for a future upgrade to a new line of 3d v cache processors. It’s an interesting idea but it sounds a bit crazy, would you agree? I mean at that this point I could just buy the 800$cnd r9 7950x3d now and not worry about upgrading for half a decade. Or keep the 79x3d and upgrade sooner?

  1. At this point you can maybe see an over analysis on my part and perhaps contradictory logic. I would like your input if you feel you could provide some valuable insight to clear things up for me. Keep in mind though that my benefits plan only last en-till the end of May.

Components already Purchased Other then the R9 7900x3d:
-G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo RGB Series 64GB 6000
-DeepCool Liquid Cooler LT720 WH 360mm

-Components not purchased :
-Mother board (looking at MSI MPG X670 Carbon WiFi for $550cnd)
Its a tad pricey but it feels like it replicates the mother board i have had for 15 years.
(GA-X58A-UD5 (rev. 1.0))
Have prices gone up for motherboards over the years?

-M.2 ( looking at CORSAIR MP700 PRO 1tb)

Thank for reading if you got this far. I would appreciate any insight you may be able to provide.

    • Works Cited*

Wendell’s youtube videos
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na9_eQ9E20s
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNMcdIkef_c
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omTigqfWNu0

Toms hardware

Puget systems

Gamers Nexus

2 Likes
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First, there’s no reason to switch to an NVMe drive if gaming isn’t your reason to live outright, a SATA SSD will do just fine. Having said that, for your other workloads, an NVMe drive can be justified.

IMO, the MSI mainboard you’re eyeing up is overpriced/overspec’d for your needs, I suggest the GIGABYTE X670 GAMING X AX (at about half the price) or the GIGABYTE B650 GAMING X AX V2 which is even cheaper. Overclocking is not a thing on AM5, or any modern socket for that matter. If you insist on an MSI board, consider the MSI X670E GAMING PLUS WIFI board instead. (IDK about Canadian prices, I’m in euro-land so quite certain they’ll differ from where you are)

HTH!

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  • The 7900x3d is a good all-rounder, with some tradeoffs vs. the 7800x3d or the 7950x or an Intel CPU like the 14700K. I feel like extra cores are worth it vs. the 3D v-cache more often than not, especially with future in mind.

  • For longevity AMD is probably better, though it is not known if Zen 6 will come to AM5, and Zen 5 is probably not big enough of a jump to upgrade?

  • I would skip on the 7600x. To save 200 CAD (10-15 % of total cost) you get only half the cores, lower clocks and no v-cache. Other reasonable options would be either the 7800x3d (sometimes better since all cores get v-cache) or the 7950x (more cores at higher clocks – which is better depends on the particular application). But at 530 CAD the 7900x3d seems like a good deal.

  • Depending on which features you actually need you can save a lot on the motherboard. B650 boards are fine for 95% of uses IMO and you could save the 200 CAD there rather than in the CPU

  • I would also skip on the CORSAIR MP700 PRO. A high quality pcie 4.0 drive like the Kingston KC3000, fury renegade, Samsung 980/990 pro, … costs half and gets you on average the same performance (better random performance, lower sequential)

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  • For now I will re use the SSD’s I already have
    -I am still looking at B650 mother boards
    -I am going to keep the 7900x3d.
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im looking at the ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-E GAMING WiFi ($450$)
vs
the MSI MPG X670 Carbon WiFi ($550cnd)

The Rog is 100$ cheaper with the same set double set of PCIe x16 and M.2 Version 5

6

that’s a hell of an upgrade

1 Like
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Beware at this point, you cannot get 2 x16 PCIe slots on any consumer platform. Any marketing materials hinting otherwise are lying by omission of crucial details.

With more expensive chipsets you get two physical slots which can operate in following modes:

  • first slot active in x16 mode, second dead
  • first slot active in x8 mode, second in x8 mode

Similar hidden caveats apply to other pcie slots, consult you candidate motherboard manual for details, look for device block diagram.

From market bird eye view, it does not make any functional sense on AM5 to upgrade beyond budget B650 boards. PCIe5 slots do not have any use now or in near future, so no reason to pay extra.

Maybe use plain asus B650 prime or x670 prime (~~180 USD equivalent) as reference, these boards are both cheap and get you almost every feature you can get for minimal surcharge.

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Interesting! thanks for the heads up I will continue to look into it!

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I took greatnulls advice and used the the ASUS Prime X670-P WiFi ($289cnd) as a reference.

  • looking at the The MSI MAG X670E TOMAHAWK WIFI ($350cnd)
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Whoa motherboard shopping is up and down. After much debate and analysis I ended up going with the The MSI MAG X670E TOMAHAWK WIFI ($350cnd). Most vendors in Canada have raised the price of that board back to $419cnd. I looked at boards ranging from $200-$480cnd but for $350cnd the MAG seamed to edge everything out.

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I like the Tomohawk series, it’s basically a budget Unify and 350cad seems like a decent price for an AMD board with decent features. Gone are the days of the $300 Unify with the same VRMs as the Godlike.

The only thing to keep in mind with the 7900x3D is that in gaming workloads it will perform similar to a 7600x3D (if it existed), but with “only” a 3060 you’re definitely GPU bottlenecked regardless (but that extra VRAM should help with non-gaming workloads). So basically not an issue and the higher core count might lend to better longevity anyways, as hardware is heading towards higher cores and software will follow.

However, I would not recommend anything but the beefiest of tower coolers for Zen4 because it relies very heavily on temperature to reach maximum performance. Either that or I would run it in “Eco mode” until you upgrade the cooling solution down the road.

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Hi and thanks for the reply e-wasted,

Yeah I though the Tomohawk had a nice combo of features at a competitive sale price so i finally pulled the plug. It felt so good lol.

I figured the 3060 pard with the 79x3d could be a bottle neck situation, but mostly and at the moment I play Stallaris and a mix simulation games like Factorio. So I’m not really concerned about a bottle neck in those titles. If i do upgrade cards it wouldn’t be en till the next series cards have been on the market for a bit.
I like the higher boost clocks as well as the extra 4 core on the 79x3d over the 7800x3d. Just for my gaming and production apps its felt like that was the only option if i didn’t want to spend $800cnd on the 7950x3d.

As for cooling I got the DeepCool LT720 WH 360mm AIO ($130cnd). I think it should suffice.

1 Like