[SOLVED] Not sure on upgrade path for PC

[Harrison1545]

So I've had this PC for a while and it's served me very well however I'm struggling to think of the correct upgrade path for it. Right now I have an Intel i7 - 7700k however obviously with the comeback of AMD with Ryzen if I were to upgrade there would be a choice from the red team now.

The only problem is, I'm in a weird position where I can do a few things, but first a bit of backstory. The motherboard I've got is pretty terrible and I only have it because it was the cheapest one I could find and is something I regret big time. The board I'm talking about is the Gigabyte B250M-DS3H. This has caused me so many frustrations such as all of my components being so close together such as RAM, CPU cooler and Graphics Card to the point where working inside it is really difficult and also not having enough fan headers and also the motherboard not supported RAM speeds of over 2400MHz. I had to buy a little fan hub which just makes cable management more of a pain and I've been tempted to upgrade just the motherboard to a full-sized ATX board to alleviate some of my frustrations.

However, would it be worth waiting for AM5 or should I upgrade to an AM4 board and get a Ryzen CPU. The reason is that if Ryzen is worth it then I shouldn't buy a new board for my Intel CPU now but at the same time I am not sure if I will be fine with my current CPU longer. I sometimes edit videos and do some heavy gaming and sometimes live stream and so in multithreaded workloads I can see the benefits of Ryzen but I don't know if it's enough for a full swap of CPU and motherboard. I know this is a little bit of a weird post however I'd love to hear some suggestions on what others would do if they were in my position. Thank you.

 

[CountMike]

So I've had this PC for a while and it's served me very well however I'm struggling to think of the correct upgrade path for it. Right now I have an Intel i7 - 7700k however obviously with the comeback of AMD with Ryzen if I were to upgrade there would be a choice from the red team now.

The only problem is, I'm in a weird position where I can do a few things, but first a bit of backstory. The motherboard I've got is pretty terrible and I only have it because it was the cheapest one I could find and is something I regret big time. The board I'm talking about is the Gigabyte B250M-DS3H. This has caused me so many frustrations such as all of my components being so close together such as RAM, CPU cooler and Graphics Card to the point where working inside it is really difficult and also not having enough fan headers and also the motherboard not supported RAM speeds of over 2400MHz. I had to buy a little fan hub which just makes cable management more of a pain and I've been tempted to upgrade just the motherboard to a full-sized ATX board to alleviate some of my frustrations.

However, would it be worth waiting for AM5 or should I upgrade to an AM4 board and get a Ryzen CPU. The reason is that if Ryzen is worth it then I shouldn't buy a new board for my Intel CPU now but at the same time I am not sure if I will be fine with my current CPU longer. I sometimes edit videos and do some heavy gaming and sometimes live stream and so in multithreaded workloads I can see the benefits of Ryzen but I don't know if it's enough for a full swap of CPU and motherboard. I know this is a little bit of a weird post however I'd love to hear some suggestions on what others would do if they were in my position. Thank you.

Well, even first gen Ryzen has overrun 7700, now with 3rd gen even more. You would be waiting for AM5 at least couple of years but AM4 will still run 4th gen Ryzen so there are still many options .
You could go to high end AMD option right now and have it competitive for 4-5 years.
Have a look at AMD Ryzen R9 3950x for instance, with good x570 MB and 4000MHz+ memory, PCIe v4 and NVME v4 SSD and see how much longer it would be (near)top end than i7 7700(k).

 

[Harrison1545]

Well, even first gen Ryzen has overrun 7700, now with 3rd gen even more. You would be waiting for AM5 at least couple of years but AM4 will still run 4th gen Ryzen so there are still many options .
You could go to high end AMD option right now and have it competitive for 4-5 years.
Have a look at AMD Ryzen R9 3950x for instance, with good x570 MB and 4000MHz+ memory, PCIe v4 and NVME v4 SSD and see how much longer it would be (near)top end than i7 7700(k).

Thanks for your response. You make some solid points, it's just that Ryzen 4000 is rumored to launch in September which is a while away. But then again there's good deals on Amazon for a 3700x and a solid B450 motherboard but then I wouldn't upgrade to a 4700x from a 3700x down the line because the difference between the two I'm guessing will be negligible. But if the 3700x would last a long time say 4/5 years as well then that could also be an option? I don't know. Like you said there's so many options I'm just not sure on the smartest choice here.

 

[ocer9999]

I'm pretty sure that new new 4000 series CPUs are going to be up to 16 core, which means it's about the same as the current line up, but with up lift in IPC (performance). Won't be a massive change so I would say, go ahead and get the 3700X, it's excellent. While the B450's do, I would suggest X570 as they already come down in price quite a bit like the Phantom is around 140$, and you would rather get that than a 110$ B450 for sure.

 

[Harrison1545]

I'm pretty sure that the new 4000 series CPUs are going to be up to 16 core, which means it's about the same as the current line up, but with uplift in IPC (performance). Won't be a massive change so I would say, go ahead and get the 3700X, it's excellent. While the B450's do, I would suggest X570 as they already come down in price quite a bit like the Phantom is around 140$, and you would rather get that than a 110$ B450 for sure.

Brilliant, although here in the UK the Phantom is about £150 ish which is quite a bit out of my price range unfortunately unlike something like I believe the MSI Tomahawk b450 Max which looks to have everything I really need, unlike my current motherboard. and is going for around £100. Although I am wanting something to last and is good I'm not going for anything too crazy and I don't have a large budget but something that would complement everything else would be nice. Do you think the B450 motherboard I suggested would be good enough but also not compromise too much?

 

[CountMike]

Brilliant, although here in the UK the Phantom is about £150 ish which is quite a bit out of my price range unfortunately unlike something like I believe the MSI Tomahawk b450 Max which looks to have everything I really need, unlike my current motherboard. and is going for around £100. Although I am wanting something to last and is good I'm not going for anything too crazy and I don't have a large budget but something that would complement everything else would be nice. Do you think the B450 motherboard I suggested would be good enough but also not compromise too much?

Arguably best b450 motherboard, guaranteed to work with 3rd gen Ryzen, one of best VRMs and excellent BIOS.