[SOLVED] Upgrading CPU with current motherboard & memory; good or bad idea?

[Derg]

My PC is Ryzen 7-1700 CPU with Asus Prime X370-Pro MB, Seasonic X750 PS & 16Gb of DDR4 memory. According to ASUS, a Ryzen 9-3900 & 3900X are compatible with the Prime X3700-Pro MB. I'm not a gamer but I do lots of photo & video rendering.

My question is if this is a good idea?

 

[Derg]

Hi Derg,
I also have ryzen 1700 and asrock x370 board, and planning to upgrade to 3900x so please share your impressions after the update.
Thanks!

Count on that. I should have results later this week.

 

[Derg]

Today I ordered the AMD Ryzen 3900X to replace the Ryzen 1700. It should arrive next week. Here's a list of what I have done to prepare for the change. Please advise if I have overlooked anything.

1. I have updated the ASUS X370 Pro MB BIOS to the latest available that includes updates for Windows 11.
2. I have also updated the MB's AMD chipset to the latest (drivers?) but may need to do this again once the 3900X is installed.
3. As recommended I will clear the MB CMOS by shorting the CMOS pins & also removing the battery for a few minutes.
4. I checked in BIOS/Security & BIOS isn't a password protected. I was concerned that I may have set a password when building the PC 4 years ago but didn't.
5. I don't know if MS will flag me because of the change of hardware. I'm prepared if they do.

Just count on doing that. What all gets installed depends on the CPU and Ryzen 3000 is substantially different as it needs different drivers and settings for CPPC, in particular.

As I mentioned in my post above, I have updated the AMD chipset drivers for the X370 Pro MB & latest BIOS. I will clear CMOS as you suggested so the BIOS settings will get a fresh start with the new CPU.

I assume the AMD chipset drivers might need updating, again, because of the new CPU but don't believe that can be done until the new CPU is installed. What else is there to be done that can be done?

 

[Fuad]

Hi Derg,

You might want to check this out:

[SOLVED] - CPU upgrade options on Asrock X370 Taichi ?

Hello, My pc specs are: MB: Asrock X370 Taichi (Bios Ver P4.60) Cpu: AMD ryzen 1700 Ram: 16 GB Gskill flareX Storage: Boot (NVMe 1tb) with 4 HDDs for storage Display card: Nvidia 2060 rtx super Sound card: Creative sound blaster Z Power supply: Gigabyte 750 (or 800)w I use my pc primarily for...

forums.tomshardware.com

Good luck!

 

[Derg]

Hi Derg,

You might want to check this out:

[SOLVED] - CPU upgrade options on Asrock X370 Taichi ?

Hello, My pc specs are: MB: Asrock X370 Taichi (Bios Ver P4.60) Cpu: AMD ryzen 1700 Ram: 16 GB Gskill flareX Storage: Boot (NVMe 1tb) with 4 HDDs for storage Display card: Nvidia 2060 rtx super Sound card: Creative sound blaster Z Power supply: Gigabyte 750 (or 800)w I use my pc primarily for...

forums.tomshardware.com

Good luck!

Please read carefully till end
1. It shouldn't

2. With the latest bios and 3000 series cpu, yes, after you update the latest bios to the latest and replace the cpu with 3000 series cpu, make sure to load optimized bios, disable csm, enable amd ftpm, then save and exit, then go back to bios, and find secure boot option, enable it, and install the keys (not update it), then apply/ok, and go back to bios to check if the secure boot is now on USER, enabled in standard mode, and the keys is insalled (the option will be only remove/uninstall keys if the keys is installed)

3. The max it could take is 3950x and 3900xt. *while actually the bios could contain 5000 series microcode, amd said no and there is no 4000 and 5000 series support for that chipset, only b450 and x470 that have the permisson XD

4. Update it to 4.60, then the latest, just download 2 bios, extract it and put it in the flash drive so you could install the bios into without going to windows to download it again

Also advice before changing cpu and updating bios:

• Disconnect from internet in windows
• Uninstall all the processors on device manager (should be 16 on yours, also when it asks for restart, click on no) like this:

• Shut down your pc, and update the bios step by step as mentioned in advice no 4
• then after bios update to the latest, shut down your pc immidiately (just go to bios again after the latest bios update and power off your pc), replace the cpu, go to bios again and do advice no 2, and you're good to go to boot to windows
• install the latest AMD Chipset driver, reboot, go to power plan and choose amd ryzen balanced, and you're good to connect pc to internet.

Thanks,
I'm thinking if this was a completely new PC, BIOS would detect the CPU & all peripherals & would install what it needs before loading data to install the OS. In my case it is not a new PC, but, if CMOS has been cleaned, wouldn't BIOS detect & install for the new CPU & all peripherals fresh?

I have the latest BIOS installed & have updated the latest AMD chipset drivers but think I may need to redo this again for a new CPU.

 

[Derg]

All went well. Hardest part was reinstalling the CPU heatsink. It's a CRYORIG_H7 which works well but clumsy to install.

Took the battery out to reset CMOS & reset BIOS on boot. CPU temp are a little higher but that was expected. Temps with the Ryzen 1700 were in the upper 30s C & now with the 3900X range in the mid 40s C. So, 7C warmer.

I went to AMD for new chipsets & installed them.

My RAM is DDR4, 16Gb Corsair CMR16GX4M2C3466C16. The max RAM speed with the Ryzen 1700 was 3200 but now defaults to 3466 with the Ryzen 3900X.

In Device Manager/Processors all 24 threads read AMD Ryzen 3900X.

When finally booting to Windows 10 I got a BIOS message saying before launching into Windows;

"We detected a new processor, which will change the date/structure of the storage space for firmware TPM. If you did not apply TPM Function, please press Y to continue, otherwise please follow the instruction below."

There were two options:
Press Y to reset fTPM &
Press N to keep previous fTPM record.

I pressed Y. Was that correct?

All seems fine. More later.

 

[drea.drechsler]

....

There were two options:
Press Y to reset fTPM &
Press N to keep previous fTPM record.

I pressed Y. Was that correct?

All seems fine. More later.

I don't think it will matter. Maybe if using Bitlocker or something else that vaulted keys in the fTPM. If using a PIN to log in to Windows10 then you probably had to delete the old PIN (in Sign-in Options) and re-establish it. That happened to me when I updated BIOS.

 

[Derg]

I don't think it will matter. Maybe if using Bitlocker or something else that vaulted keys in the fTPM. If using a PIN to log in to Windows10 then you probably had to delete the old PIN (in Sign-in Options) and re-establish it. That happened to me when I updated BIOS.

Thanks. I don't use Bitlocker & my old pin worked to open Windows. All seemed normal on boot.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Thanks. I don't use Bitlocker & my old pin worked to open Windows. All seemed normal on boot.

Wow! Considering how easy it's been for me to 'lose' my PIN since I enabled the fTPM in my CPU's I'm surprised. It's not really a big bother to re-establish it...just unexpected. I guess we're learning a lot more lately about what it takes to live with TPM's.

Curious...did you have your fTPM enabled before the change-out?

 

[Derg]

Curious...did you have your fTPM enabled before the change-out?

Not sure but I seem to recall enabling this a few months ago in BIOS to see if I could install Windows 11 as I believe it is required. I don't believe the TPM chip was standard on custom built MBs 4 years ago but I do believe it was for OEMs like Dell-HP, etc. After clearing that hurtle I was shocked that my Ryzen 1700 wasn't compatible with Win 11 which came as a shock. The CPU was only 4 years ago but 1st generation.

Is this an issue?

 

[Fuad]

Thanks Derg for the update, congratulations!

 

[drea.drechsler]

Not sure but I seem to recall enabling this a few months ago in BIOS to see if I could install Windows 11 as I believe it is required. I don't believe the TPM chip was standard on custom built MBs 4 years ago but I do believe it was for OEMs like Dell-HP, etc. After clearing that hurtle I was shocked that my Ryzen 1700 wasn't compatible with Win 11 which came as a shock. The CPU was only 4 years ago but 1st generation.

Is this an issue?

Not really an issue...I'm mostly just curious.

The TPM chip isn't standard and on most motherboards it's a socketed add-in you have to get separately. What's coming standard on modern CPU's is an fTPM that's built-in to the CPU. It's perfectly functional if of late enough spec level.

And yeah, it's annoying that 1st gen Ryzen isn't good enough for Win11. But considering the issues surrounding it right now, I'm content living without it even on my 3700X system. Now that you've a 3900X CPU you should have no problems though... assuming you meet the other standards such as a DX-12 capable GPU.

 

[Derg]

... assuming you meet the other standards such as a DX-12 capable GPU.

GPU is Dual ASUS RTX2070-8G & specs say it's DX-12 compatible.

 

[Derg]

The upgrade to Windows 11 was surprisingly easy. It will take some time to get used to a few "differences" but does seem to be a headache.