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[bobpi]

I was thinking about finally building an AM4 System to replace my FX9370 4.7Ghz system with Win7. However I noticed that the AM4 CPUs were all sub 4Ghz, below what I have now. So, would I see a speed increase still anyway with AM4 or do I need to go to AM5 which has CPU speeds comparable to what I have now?

[bobpi · Accepted solution]

Sounds good. The difference between a Ryzen 9 5900X and a Ryzen 9 5950X is only $155 so I might as well go with the 5950X. I already have a Samsung SSD 860 PRO 256GB in this system so I was planning on getting a Samsung 9X0? (X= 8 or 9) M.2 PCIEx gen 4.0 1 or 2 TB SSD anyway. looking at a
Thermaltake Tower 900 Black Tempered Glass Fully Modular E-ATX Vertical Super Tower Chassis CA-1H1-0... case too.

And a CORSAIR RMx Shift Series RM1200x Shift Fully Modular 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply also.

CPU cooling TBD.

[MADZyren]

Well, CPU development has not really progressed over the years at all. You would have to get at least a 13900KS, freeze that thing below zero degrees and OC it to high heavens, to get any performance upgrade from your FX "The Bulldozer" 9370.

But have you considered upgrading your monitor instead? I would recommend something with sharp image and clear text to read reviews and benchmarks.

[bobpi]

I have been reading reviews and benchmarks on good monitors  (I have 5 2k 27" monitors and a 65" Oled 4k tv)😁 and have come to a similar conclusion about CPUs🤔 so that is why I am considering the cheaper AM4 solution when I finally adopt win11. I do think additional cores may help since I do some video re-encoding so there may be a certain level of Ryzen CPU I need to look into.

[Vynski]

For what it is worth, I still have my FX9590 on an MSI FXA990 gaming board running Windows 7.  I upgraded my desktop to a Ryzen 7 2700+ and it was a huge improvement.  I have since upgraded to the Ryzen 5 5600 which has a significant improvement in performance over the 2700+.

Hope this helps you in your decision neighbor.  I also live in the boonies of S. IL. about 9 mi. due west of Marion, KY.  Satellite internet is no comparison to the DSL we have had for the past year, and I can completely understand your frustration with it.  We went through the whole gamut of dial up, satellite dish, Verizon Mobile Hotspot, and finally got high speed in our area.

[bobpi]

Fiber optic cables are all around me except on my part of the road. It is so frustrating...

[ajlueke]

CPUs are vastly faster when it comes to basically any productivity scenario you can name, particularly when compared to the Piledriver architecture from 10 years ago.

CPU 2021 Benchmarks - Compare Products on AnandTech

[jmb73]

5800x3d is the top perf/price for gaming

[bobpi]

Modern gaming is not my biggest concern since I mainly just play Minecraft when I can. Satellite internet lag makes any kind of MMORPG difficult (I live in the middle of nowhere in KY). I do video encoding so I am interested in improving that performance from what I have now as well as just general computing.

[jmb73]

go to 5900x

[ajlueke]

For productivity, anything you buy from Ryzen will likely be a big performance boost of the FX-9370.  The gains of going to even a Ryzen 7 1800X would be greater than going from an FX-8350 to the 9370.  Again, clockspeed alone isn't really a great indicator of how a CPU functions.  On top of that, the TDPs are far lower, so you'll be saving on that electric bill as well.

[Sam_AMD]

hello @bobpi nice to e-meet you!

I had an FX9590 and eventually downgraded to an FX8350 (I'm a gamer) as the latter met my gaming needs better. If I recall correctly the FX Series Processors were named after the architecture they built on ("Bulldozer"?) for the AM3+ Socket/platform. Generally speaking, going from the AM3+ to the AM4 platform will improve your computing needs. 

All AMD Ryzen 5000 Series (AM4) can be overclocked to speeds higher than 4GHz if the motherboard support AMD's Precision Boost technology. 

With the above in mind, and assuming you're considering building an AM4 system, I recommend the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, although the 5800X3D may be the better choice since the price difference isn't as much as it used to be. Plus those 96MB of L3 Memory will come in handy regardless of whether you'll be gaming or not. 

MS Windows 10 was/is my favorite OS. I'm still running it on my gaming PC and not planning to update it to Win 11 anytime soon. (My wife's PC is running Win 11, and she loves it). 

[bobpi]

Thanks @Sam_AMD . I know this system is long in the tooth, however, I still have privacy/security and the OS phoning home all of the time since I am on satellite internet right now (not to mention forced updates) for win 10/11. The price is really nice for the Ryzen 7 5800X Or 3D model but a new MB & ram add up quickly. I am looking at the ASrock X570 Tachi Razor since I have a 6X10TB WD Raid 0 array and would love to make an 8 drive one. Plus I like the Killer LAN stuff. What do you think?

[ajlueke]

Is that supposed to read 6x10TB drives?  For smaller storage you could just pitch the RAID 0 altogether and use an NVME SSD drive.

[bobpi]

I need large storage because I store many video files. I already have that 54TB (effective) RAID array over half full. I back it up to another similar computer I have with an identical RAID setup.

[ajlueke]

I currently have two 16TB Seagate Exos drives that handle long term storage, and a 2TB NVME drive that is effectively a working drive.  That way you still have a crazy fast drive to work in, and don't risk losing an array with RAID 0.

[MADZyren]

So let's recap

For video encoding, FX9370 from ten years ago with six 10Tb drives, each costing more than rest of the system, configured in raid0, where if anything breaks down, all data from every drive is lost. I have this strange tingling sensation, maybe it's my spidey sense, maybe it's an STD, but it could also be something else....

[bobpi]

I have another system with the same RAID 0 setup that I back up to.

[ajlueke]

Well first of all, the base clock speed on the packaging is what AM4 CPUs will run with the stock cooler and boosting disabled.  During lightly threaded work, the Ryzen 5000 series are usually close to 5 GHz.  With increased power limits provided by precision boost overdrive you can get a 5950X to 4.4 GHz on all 16 cores pretty easily.

Of course, clock speed doesn't matter as much as the architecture.  Ryzen, in the Zen 3 (5000 series) iteration, is about 120% faster than Piledriver in single core operations.  That advantage increases as the thread count goes up, because in Zen, all cores have all components duplicated, which isn't true with the module design used by Piledriver.

You can look at the review here.

9 Years of AMD CPUs: From AMD FX to Ryzen 5000 Series, Tested | TechSpot

And while Piledriver will often times still provide plenty of frames, but there are circumstances now where it drops off pretty precipitously.

[bobpi]

I am not concerned about gaming so much...

[ajlueke]

Yup!  Got that in your subsequent post.  But productivity is actually where you will see bigger gains.  But to get back to your thesis, is that clockspeed really doesn't matter.  Even though AM4 CPUs have a similar clockspeed to the FX Piledriver CPUs, the performance is well over double.  That advantage increases with applications that take advantage of more cores and more threads.

As for AM5, the biggest downside to AM5 is that you need DDR5 and the new 7000 series CPUs, but you need to buy that stuff anyway to go to AM4.  So the prices of X600 motherboards, DDR5 RAM and the CPUs are all higher.  The advantage is that subsequent Zen 5, and Zen 6 releases will likely work with socket AM5.  But if you aren't going to upgrade for another 10 years that point is probably moot.

So I would go with AM4, and save the money to expand your storage space.  The performance uptick will be huge over an FX.  For your use case, I would probably target a Ryzen 9 5900X vs the 5800X3D, as the 4 extra cores will be more useful in your use case vs the extra cache.  Those processors run at about the same price now.

[Sam_AMD]

Hi @bobpi (and @ajlueke )

I agree with @ajlueke last response. Knowing what you are looking to do, the AM4 route is the way to go. (Note, we know the AM4 platform will be around for a while, so I don't see any issues with investing in the hardware we've mentioned here - the ASrock X570 Tachi Razor MB and the AMD Ryzen 9 5950x, assuming the CPU is within your budget). I also like the idea of using an M.2 SSD to install/run your OS. In the end, this upgrade will future-proof your rig for a few years as the biggest benefit (performance improvement) here is going from the AM3+ platform to AM4. 

By the way, sorry, I was wrong, the AMD FX-9590 was built on the "Piledriver" architecture. 

[bobpi · Accepted solution]

Sounds good. The difference between a Ryzen 9 5900X and a Ryzen 9 5950X is only $155 so I might as well go with the 5950X. I already have a Samsung SSD 860 PRO 256GB in this system so I was planning on getting a Samsung 9X0? (X= 8 or 9) M.2 PCIEx gen 4.0 1 or 2 TB SSD anyway. looking at a
Thermaltake Tower 900 Black Tempered Glass Fully Modular E-ATX Vertical Super Tower Chassis CA-1H1-0... case too.

And a CORSAIR RMx Shift Series RM1200x Shift Fully Modular 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply also.

CPU cooling TBD.

[Axxemann]

With that case, I'd consider going with a custom watercooling loop. 

Another option would be the Fractal Pop XL (Air or Silent) and a 360mm AIO. 

What's your plan for a GPU? The 5900X and 5950X don't have an iGPU.

[bobpi · Accepted solution]

@Axxemann, I am thinking about stock watercooling (sealed loop) on the CPU for now. I have a Sapphire RX 5500XT and 2 Sapphire RX 580s in my existing system with 6 monitors (4 27" 2K in a 2X2 and one 27" 2K vertical next to a 65" Oled TV for playlists for Anime and TV series as well as movies) I will transfer over for now.

[BigAl01]

That case is very nice.  The PSU costs almost as much but I can see that it meets high-end specifications and is probably worth the investment.

[bobpi]

I currently have a Corsair 1500i PSU iin this system so I want to stay in this class of PSUs. I was thinking about the Corsair AX1600i but it is prohibitively expensive and then I saw the Corsair Shift series with the side mounted fully modular sockets and loved that idea. I also have the NZXT Phantom Gunmetal case currently and was looking for a big comparable case. I was thinking about one of those wider cases with lots of glass but I am not sold on PCIe riser cables yet.

[Vynski]

Take a look at the Corsair Crystal Series 680X or the Carbide Series AIR 540.   I have an AIR 540 and I'm quite sure that there is no PCIe riser.  I did see where the HYTE case used them.  Not sure what LIAN-LI uses.  But, if you can find a Metallic Gear Neo Cube, which I also have and absolutely love it, have a 3900X with RX 5700 XT, and no risers.  Just food for thought. 

[bobpi]

Only problem is, the case has to have enough room for 6 to 8 10Tb drives (or larger in the future).

[MikeySCT]

I had an upgrade itch that just had to be scratched so I upgraded my 3900X to a 5900X, and an RX 6900XT to an RX 7900XTX. I was faced with the question of whether to sell the 3900X and RX 6900XT, or build a new rig with them as base. 

Being the big AMD fanboy that I am, I decided to go with the 2nd option, bought an X570S Aorus Elite AX, 32GB RAM and use some spare parts I had lying around, like a SOLDAM case and an Enermax MAXREVO 1500W. AM4 platform has plenty of 'life' left in it, great gaming and productivity performance, more than I need actually so they'll be good for me for a while.....a long while.

Oh yeah, comparing the old FX architecture to the AM4 Zen architecture in term of IPC and multi-core performance would result in a pretty lop-sided match up. Heck, moving from Zen 1 to Zen 3/3+ would be a pretty noticeable leap in performance let alone from an FX CPU to a Zen3 or Zen 4. 

[bobpi]

@MikeySCT, Sounds good. How do you like that Gigabyte board? I used to be an AMD Gigabyte fanboy, but the ASrock motherboards, especially the Tachi Razor seem to use better accessory component chips and design.

I also still need to get over my disgust with the current Windows 10/11 design since I am so freedom, privacy, and security minded. Ugh.

[MikeySCT]

I'm a big Gigabyte motherboard fanboy, fell in love with my X570 Aorus Xtreme when I first built my all AMD rig with the R9 3900X. I used to be an ROG fanboy, but I do prefer the Aorus boards more. Never had any issue with the board, upgraded my RAM and GPU along the way and the board just handled them with ease.

Ofc, changing RAM did require I restore RAM setting to default before swapping them out. Now, with my MERC 310 RX 7900 XTX, it's been great other than some minor issue with a couple of instances of GPU driver timeouts. The board never ran hot, has great power delivery, good feature set like a good number of USB 3.1 ports, even WiFi6 (this was back in August, 2019 IIRC)  

It's still early days for the X570S Aorus Elite AX, but I have faith in GB quality and build standard, has more than enough in terms of power delivery for the R9 3900X. I chose the AX version for WiFi6 as well (I have a WiFi6 router after all), also because the location where the 3900X PC is at does not have a LAN outlet. It's still a WIP but it's getting along fine, with the RX 6900XT, it'd function as my 2nd gaming PC, as well as a HTPC...

[Axxemann]

Those rigs scream "I NEED A CUSTOM LOOP!"

[MikeySCT]

Honestly, I'd tried custom loop, when I'd built an i7 3960X rig years ago, even had a custom loop for 2x 290X in CF mode when I'd upgraded the GPU. Too much of a hassle to dismantle and upgrade, especially the GPU which would require new water block(s). I'd rather keep it simple....