Question Smart Upgrade Path

[vangore78]

Four years ago I built a true beast at the time, after spending weeks of researching.

CPU: 3900X
Cooler: 360 Thermaltake Floe Riin LED
Motherboard: Asus x570E with 32GB Trident Ram
GPU Asus 2080Ti
PSU: 750Watt Corsair RM750x with sleeved cables from CableMod C series prokit
RGB: Thermaltake Sync Controller and 3 Riing trio Fans, controlled via Asus Aura
Case: Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL
storage 1TB Samsung Evo 970 m2, 2TB Samsung Evo 970m2, 4TB HDD plus NAS 2*4TB for file backup

Four years later the system is showing it's age in games but also in rendering tasks. the 2080ti scores around 40 points in a Keyshot benchmark, a 4090 scores 200pts, a 4070 Super scores 142pts. These are massive gains but I have much less time at hand to research compatibility lists!

Use: I am an independent product designer and hobby gamer - therefore: 3D modelling in Rhino, GPU rendering in Keyshot (but no animations), Adobe Creative Suite (PS, AI, ID, no video editing!)

I make money with my machine, therefore a higher cost is less important. Stability on the other hand is key, so if you see components that WOULD work, but are outdated (i.e PSU, cooler, storage) do not hesitate to mention that!

I think the core count on the CPU was always overkill. I don't feel any of my apps every really used them. So I would like to install a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, it works great in games and the cores should be enough for Rhino and Photoshop etc.
I guess a new MB is required too. is the Asus Rog strix B650E-F a good option? i would like to use my RGB stuff, Aurora support is nice. i dont plan on overclocking more than that.
RAM I think i will play it safe and invest in 64GB. I will stick with Tridents Z5 RGB (but this time 2*32GB, my old machine had 4*8 for the good looks)

I plan on buying a 5080RTX, i would love the 5090 because of that juicy RAM, but I can't justify the cost I am afraid, unless my GF foregoes her wedding ring and allows me to show up at the wedding with H&M shorts...

PSU: should I keep it? I love those sleeved cables...would they be compatible with newer corsair PSUs? CableMod claims compatibility with RMi and RMx PSUs.However I see that there is a new GPU standard. I ran my 2080ti with two 8 pin cables. So I suppose I have to buy a 12VHPWR cable to three 8-pin PCIe connectors, is that right? like this one : link removed

RGB: childish, I know, but I have this Thermaltake thing in it. I suppose there are better things out there by now, but it gets the job done and I can control the RGB light via Armory Crate. Can I keep that controller? The Thermaltake Fans still look nice IMO and are silent. At the bottom of the case I mounted 3 Silent Wings 3, they must be over 12 years old by now...So in total I have 9 fans (3 intake on the cooler, 3 exhaust on the side, and 3 intake at the bottom, unconventional but it worked and i have minimal dust build up)

Storage: I will kick out the 4TB storage HDD with a simple 4TB SDD. Is upgrading the two 970 Evos worth it? I use 1TB for Windows and Programs, 2TB as work Partition. the Asus B650E-f has 3 M2 slots, could I simply add another M2? I don't understand the differences between PCI5,4 x4 and x5...)

I will buy in Switzerland. Prices are comparable to the US, we have 8% VAT, and apart of Founders Editions GPUs everything is available.

Thank you for helping me out!

 

[BoomerD]

Corsair cable compatibility:

PSU CABLE COMPATIBILITY

Corsair

www.corsair.com

I currently have 3 M.2 drives in my Z690 machine. 2 are gen 4 (4x4), one is gen 3. (3x4) Gen 5 is technically faster than gen 4...I've never used one, but from what little I've read, they tend to run hotter, most have their own heat sinks, and the performance increase might or might not be noticeable to the end user. If your budget allows it, why not go with a larger M.2 drive to replace that HDD? As I'm sure you are aware, the M.2 NVMe drives are miles faster than SSDs...and light years faster than HDDs.

As for the RGB...if you like it, use it. I'm on the + side of 70...and I like it. I have 5 Arctic Cooling 140mm ARGB fans in my case. 3 for front intake, 2 on the AC Liquid Freezer II cooler, one for rear exhaust.

 

[vangore78]

4TB is overkill for me. the 4TB are just old projects. If they reuniere re-work i copy them onto the 2TB. The only reason I want to get rid of the HDD is the noise!

 

[In2Photos]

I think you can keep everything except the PSU if you go with the 9800X3D and RTX5080. On Nvidia's site they list 850W for the 5080. I'd probably go 1000W for some headroom in case you upgrade again.

You can reuse your drives if you want to save some money. Or you could buy new and repurpose your older parts for something else like an NAS or media server or both. Real world use probably won't see much difference between gen 3/4/5 drives unless you are moving lots of files.

 

[BoomerD]

4TB is overkill for me. the 4TB are just old projects. If they reuniere re-work i copy them onto the 2TB. The only reason I want to get rid of the HDD is the noise!

OK, then. I LIKE the NVMe drives. Fast, quiet.