Is it worth upgrading a AM4 socket vs from scratch

[NobleZero13]

Hello all

I have a gaming rig I built 5 years ago.

Specs are-
AMD 2700X
EVGA 2070
ROG Cross hair Hero VII motherboard
16 g Trident DDR4 3200
Corsair RM650 power supply

I was wondering if it was worth it keeping the AM4 motherboard and upgrading the CPU and GPU, possible ram or PSU vs starting from scratch.

I don't mind spending a little extra to start from scratch if the price to performance is worth it for gaming. It's not really worth it spending another 1k for only like a 8 % performance increase - that type of thing.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[mikeymikec]

IMO it would likely be a far better value upgrade to update the BIOS and stick in a 5000 series Ryzen (especially an X3D one), vs. a full platform upgrade (ie. cpu / board / ram).

Might be worth a read:

AMD Ryzen 7 2700X in 2023: Benchmarks vs. 5800X3D, 7800X3D, & CPU Upgrades | GamersNexus

CPUs AMD Ryzen 7 2700X in 2023: Benchmarks vs. 5800X3D, 7800X3D, & CPU Upgrades November 16, 2023 Last Updated: 2023-12-07 We put the R7 2700 & 2700X CPUs through a series of modern benchmarks to see how they hold up in 2023 The Highlights The R7 2700 was a very popular CPU that released in...

gamersnexus.net

 

[In2Photos]

I'm gonna go against Mikeymikec on this one. If you were just doing CPU and GPU I think it's ok to stay with AM4. But if you swap the RAM and PSU too you might as well build a new rig and sell the old one as a full working system.

 

[Tech Junky]

Depends on if you want to bring things current and boost other aspects as well.

I rebuilt from the ground up a 7900X / 32GB system for $900 w/ a cheap $100 GPU for video processing. The only thing I ported over was the OS drive from an Intel build. This was a year ago now so, the overall cost should be slightly lower now w/ discounts on the 7000 series stuff.

Reuse whatever you want to on the rebuild and recoup some of the costs with whatever is left over like RAM/CPU/MOBO

According to the link from @mikeymikec this should still yield ~4X the FPS on the CPU side but also day to day gains for other tasks. Packaging a deal with the CPU/MLOBO/RAM should get some bites and a chunk of change to pay for part of the uplift. Then when you get new GPU for your birthday/xmas it will be happy with the higher performance CPU.

 

[BoomerD]

ASUS says that with the updated BIOS, the board will support a wide variety on "modern" processors...

ROG CROSSHAIR VII HERO | Motherboards | ROG United States

Powered by AMD® Ryzen™ 2 (AM4), the ROG Crosshair VII Hero strikes the perfect balance for gamers and enthusiasts alike combining powerful features and performance with easy-to-use interfaces for complete system control. Push your system performance to the next level with improved overclocking...

rog.asus.com

 

[mikeymikec]

Another question for @NobleZero13 is what your general habits are regarding gaming, how often you've historically upgraded and for what reason, and what you expectations in gaming are (including which resolution you use).

 

[NobleZero13]

Another question for @NobleZero13 is what your general habits are regarding gaming, how often you've historically upgraded and for what reason, and what you expectations in gaming are (including which resolution you use).

Usually I like all types of gaming (FPS, RTS, RPG's), though COD and CS has always been my favorite. But I thinking I'm getting to old because COD is getting way to fast for me lol.

I upgrade probably every 7 years which is around the time I built my last system (it was a few months before covid hit, right when the RTX 2000 cards dropped).

I'm going to get a nice 1440 monitor and want to take advantage of it. My eye sight isnt what it used to be so more than likely 4k is wasted on me lol.

 

[tcsenter]

Yeah latest BIOS supports everything AM4 through Zen 3. This is very upgradeable. X2700 is easily bested by, say, $130 (used) 5700X. Whether it's worth it to you...

 

[manly]

welcome back, lurker!

This is kind of a close call actually. If your upgrade cycle is 7 years, I would rather wait that out and do a full build, as @In2Photos already suggested.

1440p gaming is more GPU limited. If you were rocking a 1060 or a 2060, it'd be an easier recommendation to just get a better graphics card. In this case, it's not so easy because you're looking at the GPU + maybe a 5700X3D as well. A used 5700X as suggested seems like a solid option too.

Let's say that's already half the price of a budget build, and maybe it'll get you 4-5 years if you're lucky? You could recoup a bit of the cost by reselling the old CPU+GPU, but I wouldn't directly factor that into the math. Nowadays, selling fees and hassles eats into net profit margins.
Alternately, slum it out for 2 more years as-is; then your next full build at 100% cost get you 7 full years (with much higher specs).

In other words, upgrading makes more sense when you have one obvious component to swap out (often the GPU or storage). But if it's 2+ major components, then the math is less favorable.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

If you haven't built already and have a Micro Center close by they are having a Labor Day weekend sale on combos. I went in to pick up a 9600X, X670E-F Strix, and 32GB Flare X 6000 CL32 for $600, they dropped the CPU over $100..

 

[Shmee]

If you do decide to upgrade the current system, you could drop in a 5800X3D or 5700X3D (with BIOS update of course) and that would serve you well, but you should also upgrade to 32GB of RAM while you are at it.