Question Upgrade i7-6600 to what ?

[gsethi]

I do not overclock anymore (all systems on stock). Current setup is i7-6600 CPU (Dell XPS desktop) with nvidia GTX 970, 16GB Ram and a Samsung SSD (sata). Sorry, I am out of PC building for years now. I have a Seasonic ~600w+ Gold PSU and an Antec case sitting in basement somewhere from years ago.

I have a brand new AMC Vega 56 sitting in the corner for couple months now and am thinking of building a new box (Ryzen 3700x / Vega 56 / 32gb ram / re-use samsung SSD above). Is it worth the upgrade ? If yes, what motherboard with decent sound and gigabit LAN (I have 1gbps connection) ?

Quad Monitor Setup (2 primary monitors are 1440p, 2 secondary monitors are 1920x1200)

Main Uses:
FPS Gaming (single 1440p screen)
Heavy Multi-tasking (multiple chrome/firefox, thunderbird, office apps)

 

[Markfw]

The upgrade sounds fine, but you most likely will need 2 CPU power (8 pin + 4+4 pin) on that PSU, and it most likely does not have that. Also, a Gen 4 NVME drive will blow your sata SSD out of the water speed wise, assuming you get an x570 motherboard. For your uses. My reomendation:
3700x or 3900x depending on budget
x570 motherboard
gen4 NVME (2280) ssd
16 gig or 32 gig 3600 cl16 (depending on budget)
650 or 750 watt PSU (I like the EVGA G3+ series with a 10 year warranty)
Your vega56 video card

Your case, your optical drives, any other sata drives added is fine

 

[gsethi]

What motherboard and RAM do you recommend. Might as well switch to NVME drive also.

The PSU has 8 pin (4+4).

 

[extide]

A single 8 pin (4+4) is fine for a 3700x.

 

[Markfw]

A single 8 pin (4+4) is fine for a 3700x.

No, if you read all the threads here there are MANY people that could not even post with a 3700x (or lower) with one plug in. Don't lead him astray please. Check the Ryzen 3000 builders thread for one place to see multiple problems. Also, motherboards and computer building. Its not just one, at least 5 documented cases here, maybe more.

As for motherboard/ram. I like ASRock Taichi. I also have a ASUS TUF gaming wifi thats OK, but I have a few problems getting it running, and for ram

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

2 or 4 sticks, or the same ram but 2 16 gig sticks is $145 if you need 32 gig.

 

[Steltek]

It depends upon the motherboard you choose.

x570 boards apparently have AGESA WHEA error issues in a lot of cases (and some won't boot reliably with a video card in the first PCIe slot) if both 8 pin +4pin are not hooked up. Prior to x570, it was more optional (though, the jury is still out for me with B450/x470 boards with PCIe 4.0 support being added via BIOS updates based upon my research). Since a single 8 pin can provide like 375 watts, it has to be something to do with PCIe 4.0.

 

[Markfw]

It depends upon the motherboard you choose. x570 boards apparently have AGESA WHEA error issues in a lot of cases if both 8 pin +4pin are not hooked up. Prior to x570, it was more optional. Probably due to PCIe 4.0.

Some of these issues were on x470 or B450 boards. (not positive on the b450)

In any case, just get a PSU that has both, and its one less problem to deal with, if any at all. I had ram that was way off the QVL, and it took me a while to get the settings correct to work properly. But the last thing you want is to have it not even post on the first try. Makes you want to tear your fingers off !

 

[gsethi]

So what x570 motherboard do you recommend ? I dont need the fancy colors/features as I will never overclock. Just need a rock solid motherboard with good sound and LAN.

I am thinking of following:
AMD 3700x
32gb RAM (2x 16gb 3600MHz sticks)
Vega 56 GPU (already have)
New PSU (if existing PSU does not suffice)

 

[jpiniero]

TBH, I would not upgrade until the new consoles arrive unless you are really unhappy with the frame rates.

Is it a i5 6600 or a i7 6700? If it's the latter, you would still see an improvement with the 3700X in games just by virtue of faster memory speeds but it wouldn't really be that much. Especially at 1440 with a Vega 56.

 

[yeshua]

If I were you I wouldn't upgrade the CPU right now 'cause Zen 3 is around the corner (I guess it will be released in Q3 2020), Intel has abandoned LGA 1151, and Comet Lake desktop CPUs will not be released in the next two months due to unknown issues.

I had a Core i5 2500 CPU up until the middle of 2019 and I upgraded not because my CPU wasn't sufficient but because I wanted something new for a change.

I'm now rocking Ryzen 7 3700X and I cannot say my PC has become substantially snappier in everyday tasks like starting applications, web browsing, etc. - everything feels the same. Yes, H.264/H.265 encoding and compilation have become three times faster but it's not what you're looking for.

At 1440p in most games you will barely see any difference with Vega 56 if you upgrade to the Ryzen 7 3700X:

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-ryzen-7-3700x/16.html

And they tested with a RTX 2080 Ti which exacerbates the difference between CPUs unlike your Vega 56.

 

[gsethi]

Thank you for the input. I will delay the upgrade to Q3/Q4 of this year. Desktop upgrading is not like it used to be ~10+ years ago (we were upgrading every year back then).

Time to sell the brand new Vega 56 for now

 

[rbk123]

Thank you for the input. I will delay the upgrade to Q3/Q4 of this year. Desktop upgrading is not like it used to be ~10+ years ago (we were upgrading every year back then).

Time to sell the brand new Vega 56 for now

You could upgrade, it's just you're kind of in-between the Zen 3 and Zen 4 releases. There's no reason you can't upgrade now and then upgrade again (sell the 3700x) - you'd get 9 months of enjoyment out of your new system for the delta between your 3700x sell and 2nd upgrade price.

 

[gsethi]

You could upgrade, it's just you're kind of in-between the Zen 3 and Zen 4 releases. There's no reason you can't upgrade now and then upgrade again (sell the 3700x) - you'd get 9 months of enjoyment out of your new system for the delta between your 3700x sell and 2nd upgrade price.

I am actually thinking of upgrading now. Appears that Zen 4 will be 9+ months away. Still need a motherboard recommendation.

Asus TUF Gaming x570-plus wifi is $175+tax (but has Realtek LAN and s1200 audio). Everything else is ~$225+

 

[Markfw]

I am actually thinking of upgrading now. Appears that Zen 4 will be 9+ months away. Still need a motherboard recommendation.

Asus TUF Gaming x570-plus wifi is $175+tax (but has Realtek LAN and s1200 audio). Everything else is ~$225+

I already recommended that.

 

[gsethi]

CPU: Ryzen 3700x ($305)
Mobo: Asus TUF Gaming x570-plus Wifi ($175)
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32GB (2x 16GB) DDR4 3600 CL16 ($145)

Existing PSU: Seasonic 660w 80+ Titanium (has 8 pin + multiple 4 pin).
Existing Video: MSI Vega 56

Last Question:
NVME Drive: 1TB - Samsung 970 Evo plus or WD Black ?

 

[Shmee]

Looks like a solid build. Lastly, I would consider getting a PCIe gen 4 SSD, perhaps waiting a bit if needed as more of them with new controllers seem around the corner.

 

[DrMrLordX]

The Samsung Evo Plus 1TB is ~$215, while the Sabrent Rocket 4.0 1TB is ~$180. Sabrent is faster in sequential reads/writes and costs less. That being said, it's not a perfect slam-dunk over the Samsung PCIe 3.0 drives all the time:

Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 SSD Review

Sabrent SSDs are consistently priced lower than the competition. Is its new Gen4 SSD on par with the competition? Let's take a close look.

www.tweaktown.com

It wins a lot of benches, but if what you care about most is game loading time, the Samsung drive might actually be quicker by a hair. Personally I'd get the Sabrent drive anyway.

 

[gsethi]

The Samsung Evo Plus 1TB is ~$215, while the Sabrent Rocket 4.0 1TB is ~$180. Sabrent is faster in sequential reads/writes and costs less. That being said, it's not a perfect slam-dunk over the Samsung PCIe 3.0 drives all the time:

Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 SSD Review

Sabrent SSDs are consistently priced lower than the competition. Is its new Gen4 SSD on par with the competition? Let's take a close look.

www.tweaktown.com

It wins a lot of benches, but if what you care about most is game loading time, the Samsung drive might actually be quicker by a hair. Personally I'd get the Sabrent drive anyway.

The Sabrent looks impressive. It will cost $190 with the heatsink. I can get an Open Box Samsung 970 Evo Plus for $165 from Bestbuy....decisions.

Is the Sabrent reliable for every day use ?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Is the Sabrent reliable for every day use ?

Haven't heard any complaints about them yet. They started selling a lot of their PCIe 3.0 NVMe drives in 2018 or so. They're relatively new.

 

[CHADBOGA]

The Samsung Evo Plus 1TB is ~$215, while the Sabrent Rocket 4.0 1TB is ~$180. Sabrent is faster in sequential reads/writes and costs less. That being said, it's not a perfect slam-dunk over the Samsung PCIe 3.0 drives all the time:

Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 SSD Review

Sabrent SSDs are consistently priced lower than the competition. Is its new Gen4 SSD on par with the competition? Let's take a close look.

www.tweaktown.com

It wins a lot of benches, but if what you care about most is game loading time, the Samsung drive might actually be quicker by a hair. Personally I'd get the Sabrent drive anyway.

Whilst Samsung's PCI e Gen 3 NVME drives are fast, they are also very expensive, as expensive as many PCIe Gen 4 SSD's.

If you look at Corsair or Adata's PCIe Gen 3 SSD's, they are about 66% of the cost of a Samsung SSD.

Corsair's PCIe Gen 4 SSD is approx 50% more expensive than it's PCIe Gen 3 sibling.

 

[DrMrLordX]

@CHADBOGA

Indeed. Samsung charges for the name as much as anything else. That's why I pointed out the cheaper Sabrent drive.

 

[Hulk]

I'm in the same boat as the OP. I'm still using a 4770k and honestly don't have any major performance issues. That' being said a little more plug-in head room in my DAW and better video preview/rendering performance is always welcome.
I'm going to evaluate what AMD and Intel have to offer after the summer.

 

[Bavor]

The Sabrent looks impressive. It will cost $190 with the heatsink. I can get an Open Box Samsung 970 Evo Plus for $165 from Bestbuy....decisions.

Is the Sabrent reliable for every day use ?

I have the Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0 1TB SSD in my system with the Asus TUF Gaming x570-plus Wifi. You don't need the heat sink version if you use the 2nd NVMe port that has the motherboard heatsink. I haven't had overheating issues with larger file copies using the included heatsink on the port labeled NVMe_2.

 

[Markfw]

I have the Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0 1TB SSD in my system with the Asus TUF Gaming x570-plus Wifi. You don't need the heat sink version if you use the 2nd NVMe port that has the motherboard heatsink. I haven't had overheating issues with larger file copies using the included heatsink on the port labeled NVMe_2.

I do DC, and without a heatsink, after 10 minutes or so it overheats, and slows WAY down. My advice is to NEVER use an M.2 drive without a heatsink. You never know when you will need it, until you do when it slows down.

 

[happy medium]

Just overclock your 6600k, buy a faster video card now and you will see way faster gaming than switching to a 3700 with a Vega 56.
Keep that setup till the end of the year ,then do a full system upgrade and you should not need a video card .
In short at 1440p your cpu is not holding you back ,your video card is.
A 6600k will not hold you back under 60fps fir quite some time,mabe the end of the year.

An overclocked 6600k with a xt5700 or rtx2070 will be just fine.