Upgrading my old boy

[Justyna]

HI all!
I am currently toying with the idea of upgrading my desktop. Bought in 2020 still manages to run KCD2 on medium settings (the best of boys).
Thinking of upgrading the GPU, CPU, add RAM and storage. Im 5 years behind in the PC master race and would appreciate some help. Cheers!

My questions are:
-GPU: was looking at AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT? would that be a good pick? Seeing that it is a much chunkier graphics card, would I need to upgrade my power supply? Or cooler?
-CPU: Ryzen 7 7800X3D?
-RAM: can I just add another 2x8GB sticks to my motherboard?
-Storrage: can I add an SSD? what should I be looking at?

OLD BOY SPECS:

Case COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX K500 ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard ASUS® STRIX B550-F GAMING (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM) 16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card 6GB AMD RADEONTM RX 5600 XT - HDMI, DP, DX® 12
1st Storage Drive 1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB

CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive 256GB INTEL® 760p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3210MB/sR |
1315MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIESTM SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA

QUIET
Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling Corsair H100x Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz

PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT

PORTS
Operating System Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence

 

[TonyCarter]

That motherboard won’t support an AM5 7800X3D, as the 5600X is onthe older AM4 platform, so you’d need a new motherboard, new more powerful PSU, new DDR5 RAM, etc.

The fastest gaming CPU you could upgrade to on your current platform would be a 5700X3D (or a 5800X3D if you can find one). A GPU upgrade (to a 7800XT, 9070XT, 5070Ti tier) would require a PSU upgrade to a modern ATX3 PSU to protect yourself from the transient power spikes modern GPUs seem to produce.

 

[Justyna]

That motherboard won’t support an AM5 7800X3D, as the 5600X is onthe older AM4 platform, so you’d need a new motherboard, new more powerful PSU, new DDR5 RAM, etc.

The fastest gaming CPU you could upgrade to on your current platform would be a 5700X3D (or a 5800X3D if you can find one). A GPU upgrade (to a 7800XT, 9070XT, 5070Ti tier) would require a PSU upgrade to a modern ATX3 PSU to protect yourself from the transient power spikes modern GPUs seem to produce.

Ah! So if i want to make a significant upgrade, then I would need to change all the major parts. Would need to rethink my strategy here! Is there a point of making a small upgrade of the GPU/CPU that will work with my current motherboard and power supply? what could that be?
5700X3D/ 5800X3D and for GPU? and again, is there a point to it?

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Ah! So if i want to make a significant upgrade, then I would need to change all the major parts. Would need to rethink my strategy here! Is there a point of making a small upgrade of the GPU/CPU that will work with my current motherboard and power supply? what could that be?
5700X3D/ 5800X3D and for GPU? and again, is there a point to it?

From a 6 core standard chip to an 8 core X3D chip even from the same generation would be a notable improvement on the CPU front.

That would unlock extra potential from a current gen GPU

All depends on your budget for this?

What make and model monitor are you using?

 

[TonyCarter]

Depends where the bottleneck is.

If it’s the CPU, then the X3D parts perform much better.

If it’s the GPU, then you’re limited by the older 650w ATX2 PSU, but a 7700XT should be a big enough upgrade without requiring too much power.

You’d also probably get a little boost by getting a second SSD for game installs, and possibly a bigger boot SSD if it’s getting full as that will slow everything down.

….but as @BlessedSquirrel says above, it depends on budget.

 

[Justyna]

Thank you both!
I was thinking of dedicating around £1000
And yes, I need to change my monitor as well as I'm using my old office monitor (from covid times)^^
PSU's seem affordable (if compared to GPS). so I'm wondering if it would be better to make the upgrade. But the the mother board... AGH!
So the minimum would be: 5700X3D/ 5800X3D, 7700XT, SSD + some RAM

 

[TonyCarter]

You may be able to use the PCS upgrade service, but here are some prices to compare…

5700X3D @ £233

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D 8 Core AM4 Zen 3 CPU/Processor

Buy from Scan - AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D, AM4, Zen 3, 8 Core, 16 Thread, 3.0GHz, 4.1GHz Turbo, 100MB Cache, PCIe 4.0, 105W, CPU, Retail

www.scan.co.uk

AMD 7700XT @ £400

Sapphire PURE AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT 12GB Frostpunk 2 Edition Graphics Card

Buy from Scan - Sapphire Radeon RX 7700 XT PURE Frostpunk 2 Edition 12GB GDDR6 Ray-Tracing Graphics Card, 3456 Streams, 2584MHz Boost

www.scan.co.uk

1TB Crucial P310 boot SSD @ £60

Crucial P310 1TB M.2 (2280) PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD

Buy from Scan - 1TB Crucial P310, M.2 (2280) PCIe 4.0 (x4) NVMe SSD, 7100MB/s Read, 6000MB/s Write, 1000k/1200k IOPS

www.scan.co.uk

2TB Solidigm P41 Plus games SSD @ £110

Solidigm P41 Plus 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD/Solid State Drive

Buy from Scan - 2TB Solidigm P41 Plus M.2 (2280) PCIe 4.0 (x4) NVMe SSD, 144-Layer 3D NAND, 4125MB/s Read, 3325MB/s Write

www.scan.co.uk

 

[TonyCarter]

Here’s a chart showing the relative, generational performance uplift of your 5600XT and the 7700XT…

 

[Justyna]

You may be able to use the PCS upgrade service, but here are some prices to compare…

5700X3D @ £233

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D 8 Core AM4 Zen 3 CPU/Processor

Buy from Scan - AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D, AM4, Zen 3, 8 Core, 16 Thread, 3.0GHz, 4.1GHz Turbo, 100MB Cache, PCIe 4.0, 105W, CPU, Retail

www.scan.co.uk

AMD 7700XT @ £400

Sapphire PURE AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT 12GB Frostpunk 2 Edition Graphics Card

Buy from Scan - Sapphire Radeon RX 7700 XT PURE Frostpunk 2 Edition 12GB GDDR6 Ray-Tracing Graphics Card, 3456 Streams, 2584MHz Boost

www.scan.co.uk

1TB Crucial P310 boot SSD @ £60

Crucial P310 1TB M.2 (2280) PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD

Buy from Scan - 1TB Crucial P310, M.2 (2280) PCIe 4.0 (x4) NVMe SSD, 7100MB/s Read, 6000MB/s Write, 1000k/1200k IOPS

www.scan.co.uk

2TB Solidigm P41 Plus games SSD @ £110

Solidigm P41 Plus 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD/Solid State Drive

Buy from Scan - 2TB Solidigm P41 Plus M.2 (2280) PCIe 4.0 (x4) NVMe SSD, 144-Layer 3D NAND, 4125MB/s Read, 3325MB/s Write

www.scan.co.uk

Amazing! Thank you! Looks like a plan!
Is there a certain type of monitor I should be looking at to utilise this graphics card? Because at this point that will be my bottleneck ^^

 

[TonyCarter]

Again, depends on the budget (is this part if the £1000 total?).

We’re currently recommending 1440p as the entry-level resolution, but if you’ve been playing on a 1080p office monitor, then the jump to 1440p will temper some of the performance increase you’d expect to see from the upgrades.

IIRC this was one of our favourites (at sub-£300)…

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/aoc-q27g3xmnbk-quad-hd-27-va-mini-led-gaming-monitor-black-10265220.html