PC Processors

[Dudealicious]

Hello all.  I'm a video editor by trade and was forced to purchase my own rig thanks to the pandemic.  For my entire career I've always used whatever the production provided for me and now since everything is work from home I'm using my own gear which has been great.

Back in late 2020 sourcing video cards was a challenge.  You just couldn't get them anywhere so I went the route of buying a prebuilt system.  I imagine this system was originally designed for gaming but I use it to cut a whole bunch of TV shows and it works great.  But, lately I discovered from other editors that my 1-hour exports take twice as long as those using the Mac M1 or M2 processors.

I purchased a prebuilt from Digital Storm.  The Aventum X.  It's a very big unit but I need the drive space.  I didn't go fully liquid because I didn't want to deal with all the maintenance.  The processor I believe is attached to a sealed liquid system.  There are, however, 11 fans all around this thing.  And no shortage of neon lights.

Specs:  AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor 3.70 GHz

NVIDIA 3080 10GB

My question is would upgrading the processor be a simple plug-and-play install?

I was thinking of replacing with a 7950x or 7950x3d

Can you think of any benefit one might have over the other for video editing?

Will there be any potential problems?

Thanks in advance for any insight you may have.

[eebiii]

You would have to replace the motherboard and memory also. You would be going from AM4 to AM5 chipset. There would be huge benefits to making this jump to AM5. Just might cost a little more than you were planning.

[Dudealicious]

I appreciate the info.
The parts have been ordered.  Seems pretty straight forward to install.  The way I see it is I can subsidize the cost by reselling the old bits.  And since this is a work machine, I can write it off at the end of the year.

Newegg had a pretty decent sale last weekend.

I grabbed an X670E to house my new 7950X3D processor and 4 sticks of 32GB RAM.

Is that pretty much all I need to get me up and running?

Current fans and existing 1200 Watt power supply should be sufficient?

Also, will the CPU cooler fit over the new processor with no issues?  Any different mounting brackets needed since it's now an AM5?

Thanks again

Current cooler

[432hz]

If you can ID the cooler, you can confirm CPU compatibility on the manufacturer's site.

You'll want to check your motherboard's QVL list for RAM/memory and verify your kit is supported. From what I understand, AM5 is particular about RAM, especially 4 sticks.

[eebiii]

 I am not 100% on this but I think the AM4 blocks will fit on most AM5. You may want to double check that but I think it should be fine. 

I am running the X670e tomahawk and its great! Love that you went with the 7950X3D chip. I have the 7800X3D but am looking to upgrade to your chip when I can.

Power Supply is perfect. 

I think your good to go. Just pick up some of the little things like compressed air, thermal paste, etc.. but you p[rob already have that figured in. 

Show some pics when you get it setup.

[tanazzz]

Why are you exporting with the CPU? Most modern video editing software encodes using the GPU. If you're using Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve you can simply use your GPU's encoder (which is very good on 3000 series) and speed up your exporting by A LOT.

[Dudealicious]

I find that video exports rely heavily on the CPU and After Effects exports use my GPU.

My new processor just arrived yesterday but I won't be able to install until the weekend when I have some downtime.  I will absolutely be doing an export challenge before and after the install.

[FunkZ]

AM4 coolers are compatible with AM5 sockets.

Most productivity software does not take advantage of the extra vCache on X3D model processors, these are primarily made for gaming. The extra vCache is only added on one of the two CCD chiplets which complicates core prioritization and CCD parking. You will get higher clock speed out of a 7950X non-3D.

You may also want to consider Threadripper especially if it's a tax write-off for work. These start at the 7960X and TRX50 motherboard.

[Dudealicious]

So I attempted the board swap last weekend and it was pretty much a plug-and-play situation.

Old board out.  M.2's over to the new board as-well-as add new processor.  New board fit just like the old one.  A couple of plugs were moved but no biggie.

One major difference is that the 570 used 3 4-pin plugs from the power supply (see pic) whereas the 670 uses 4.  Thankfully the original builders left that 4th plug down there for me.  Great!  And the 670 only had 4 SATA plugs whereas the 570 had 8.  I need 6 right now.  (That's another discussion on how I can get more SATA's on this board.)  I do like the addition of 4 M.2's from 2.

I get it all wired up and flip the power supply switch and NOTHING!  No fancy twinkle lights on the board whatsoever.  So I sit there scratching my head thinking it looks like the only power plugs are those 4-pin at the bottom and the 24-pin on the side.  This thing should be showing some life.

Is it possible Newegg sent me a dead board?

Is it possible that 4th 4-pin that wasn't originally being used on the bottom isn't actually connected to the power supply?  pretty much a dead plug right now?

Can you think of any other reason this thing was completely DOA?

So I unplugged everything, swapped it all back onto the 570 and that one fired back up.

I sent it back and just received a replacement 670 today.  I'll try to tackle another swap this weekend but it's easily an hour+ of time.

Oh yeah, I'm saying bottom because this board installs upside down in my rig.

[432hz]

DOA is certainly a possibility. A couple other things come to mind (thinking basics first):

1. The power switch header wasn't connected correctly or was defective, so when the power button was pressed, nothing happened
2. PSU cables weren't fully seated in the mobo
3. My PSU has a 4+4 EPS/CPU cable, meaning it's 1 cable with a split connector on the mobo end. If your PSU has 4 separate 4-pin EPS/CPU cables, it's possible the builder didn't connect the 3rd or 4th ones (although it seems unlikely). If the board/CPU requires all 4, I suppose it could refuse to boot. In any case, it should be easy enough to have a look at the PSU to verify all the cables are connected properly.

[FunkZ]

Not sure why you picked that particular board if you need 6 SATA ports, there are plenty of other 600 series boards including even B650 chipset boards that support 6 or 8 SATA ports.

Dual 8-pin CPU power connectors is complete overkill for AMD, they must think it's Intel. A single 8-pin CPU connector is good for 384W and even a 7950X is PPT limited to 230W (the 7950X3D is far less) point being, you don't need the extra connectors to get a POST out of the board.

You don't mention at all, nor even picture, what DDR5 memory you tried in this new board, hopefully you didn't attempt to reuse the original DDR4.

[Dudealicious]

Sorry about the lengthy pause in my response but it's been crazy busy after Memorial Day.

The problem has been solved.  It turns out the processor was bad.  You'd think QC would be pretty strict with such an expensive part.  But what'ev.  I purchased a 7950X to be delivered just before Memorial Day.  Thankfully Newegg is close to LA and it gets here in 1 day.  Memorial Day was spent ripping out the old board (once again) and try the new one with the 7950X this time.  Sure enough it fired right up.  One thing they don't tell you in MB swap school is that the OS goes dead.  Thankfully someone at Microsoft was working on a holiday and was able to get my Windows 11 up and running again.  Other than the lengthy time it took to fully boot (updates and whatnot) she's been tip-top ever since.

I did run a before and after export of the same 1-hour episode and the new setup now finishes 5 minutes faster.  Not exactly a huge boost in speed but I'll take what I can get.  And I guess now I'm a little more current with an AM5 chipset.

As for the 4 less SATA ports; it turns out I don't really need them.  I'm now a huge fan of the 4 M.2 slots this thing comes with.  Drive space is so cheap now.  20 TB SATA drives are sub $400 now.

Thanks again for all the suggestions and help.  Maybe once 8K footage becomes the new norm I'll need yet another upgrade.  Perhaps the AM6 chipset?

[eebiii]

Turned out very nice!