Yeah it looks like it only has 1 M.2 socket and 256GB is kind of a small one to use. I mean it's fine for just a boot drive, but not if you want to have your Steam folder on it too.
Best $/GB is usually the 2TB ones these days, but definitely look around for the deals - apparently there's a bit of a glut of SSD memory at the moment. Remember that your B450 motherboard only has PCIE3, so there's not much point paying extra for a PCIE4 drive unless you plan to get a new motherboard & CPU any time soon. The actual performance difference is marginal anyway.
As you only have the one M.2 socket you're probably looking at doing a reinstall of Windows. This may mean reactivating it too so make sure you have the license key to hand.
NB: That board has plenty of SATA sockets for SATA SSDs for things that will benefit less from being on a fast drive (older games, media stuff etc). I have been very happy with my Crucial MX500s for this role.
Edit: Given the trivial resale value of a used 256GB M.2, I'd suggest that you hang on to it as a handy known-good drive with a known-good windows setup that you can use as an emergency back/trouble shooting tool later if the need arises.
Also, the difference between an M.2 SSD and a SATA one for gaming is pretty minor.
If you mainly game and have a compatible motherboard, seems like the 5xxx series might be the best value still. The 5600x is $175 vs $300 of the 7600x.
So the AMD 7000 series, reviews seem good, but for gaming benchmarks the 5800x3d seems to still be the top choice?
Yeah the takeaway here is: anyone who has an AM4 board and isn't already using a Zen3 should get a 5800X3D if they want to upgrade primarily for games. That CPU will cost lest than the new motherboard and RAM required to even start looking at Zen5 prices.
The calculus may change when the 7000 3D series appears next year.
Man, AM4 has been the best upgrade socket since IDK, Socket 7?
+3
That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
Another thing to consider with these new gaming benchmarks for Ryzen 7000 is GPU bottlenecking. The 5800X3D may be top dog in some games when paired with a 3090, but that's not necessarily going to be the case with a 4090.
For my part, I feel like I want to wait for the 7000 series to release their X3D chips. That should give us enough time to see how the whole Radeon 7000 vs Geforce 4000 shakes out.
So the AMD 7000 series, reviews seem good, but for gaming benchmarks the 5800x3d seems to still be the top choice?
Yeah the takeaway here is: anyone who has an AM4 board and isn't already using a Zen3 should get a 5800X3D if they want to upgrade primarily for games. That CPU will cost lest than the new motherboard and RAM required to even start looking at Zen5 prices.
The calculus may change when the 7000 3D series appears next year.
Man, AM4 has been the best upgrade socket since IDK, Socket 7?
I agree with the general sentiment, but the 3D is kind of a weird, expensive chip. It's sometimes slower for non-gaming tasks, it can't be OCed, and it costs about $150 more than a base 5800X. And the 5800X is already kind of a dubious upgrade over the 5700X. If you're looking for an AM4 upgrade right now, the 5700X, the 5900X, or a good price on the 5800X might be a better long-term value than the 5800X3D.
+1
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
So the AMD 7000 series, reviews seem good, but for gaming benchmarks the 5800x3d seems to still be the top choice?
Yeah the takeaway here is: anyone who has an AM4 board and isn't already using a Zen3 should get a 5800X3D if they want to upgrade primarily for games. That CPU will cost lest than the new motherboard and RAM required to even start looking at Zen5 prices.
The calculus may change when the 7000 3D series appears next year.
Man, AM4 has been the best upgrade socket since IDK, Socket 7?
I agree with the general sentiment, but the 3D is kind of a weird, expensive chip. It's sometimes slower for non-gaming tasks, it can't be OCed, and it costs about $150 more than a base 5800X. And the 5800X is already kind of a dubious upgrade over the 5700X. If you're looking for an AM4 upgrade right now, the 5700X, the 5900X, or a good price on the 5800X might be a better long-term value than the 5800X3D.
That’s a fair point. I think the upshot is that if you have 8+ cores, you're GPU limited for gaming purposes and will be for at least another year or two. Likely longer (paralleling console cores available).
I said "if they want to upgrade primarily for games" and specifically in the context of someone who "isn't already using a Zen3".
The 5800X3D isn't a cheap CPU, but as I said, as an upgrade it costs less than the AM5 motherboard and DDR5 RAM alone. If someone has an existing Zen1 or Zen2 setup, and they want more CPU for games then the X3D is a very strong choice. Lotta people bought into the B450/3600 combo a couple of years ago. Those people will get good bang for their buck with one.
One of my HDDs in my NAS has been dropping bad sectors every few days (only up to 4 now but figure it is a bad sign). If it poops the bed, I'm looking at WD40EFRX like is in there but I see WD40EFAX for a little less.
In the reviews people are saying SMR is bad news in a NAS. Is this nerd pedantry or should I spring for the more expensive drive? May wait for Prime Day 2 since the RAID is still healthy.
SMR drives aren't good in NAS devices with multiple drives, especially things like RAID 5 and/or 6 because the raid controller likes to organize data in ways that does not work well with how SMR drives operate.
If your NAS is something akin to cold storage that you copy things to once in a while and it mostly serves as a backup, it's probably fine. If your NAS is general purpose storage that you're doing a lot of write operations on, it's not a great idea.
I’m new to computers so basically have no idea how you even hook these up or what you plug them into and where. Does it come with the cables or things necessary to plug it in? I’m assuming it has to be plugged in somewhere inside the pc so I have to open the tower?
Do you have a prebuilt? Did it come with a box of extra cables? I don't think drives come with the cabling, that's something that comes with your mobo and psu.
Yes, it'll need to hook up to the motherboard and power but it's a real simple process.
YouTube will be very helpful if this is your first time installing a new component.
Do you have a prebuilt? Did it come with a box of extra cables?
Yes, it'll need to hook up to the motherboard and power but it's a real simple process.
I’m not home so I’ll check when I am but yeah it came with a bunch of cables, I’ll YouTube it up and figure it out. It was custom built by a shop but it’s not like a Dell thing, they give you all the proper boxes and stuff they used to build it so i should have those somewhere
One of my HDDs in my NAS has been dropping bad sectors every few days (only up to 4 now but figure it is a bad sign). If it poops the bed, I'm looking at WD40EFRX like is in there but I see WD40EFAX for a little less.
In the reviews people are saying SMR is bad news in a NAS. Is this nerd pedantry or should I spring for the more expensive drive? May wait for Prime Day 2 since the RAID is still healthy.
Do not get an SMR drive for a NAS, especially as a replacement. I just read an article where they did a (edit: RAID array) rebuild test adding an SMR drive and it took 10 days to rebuild compared to 14 hours for the CMR drive.
I’m new to computers so basically have no idea how you even hook these up or what you plug them into and where. Does it come with the cables or things necessary to plug it in? I’m assuming it has to be plugged in somewhere inside the pc so I have to open the tower?
SATA data and power connectors are both L-shaped sockets, so you'll have to be pretty determined to connect them incorrectly.
You'll be fine.
Unless the drive package says it comes with a SATA cable, it probably won't, but you should be able to pick one up for $2-5. There is very little benefit from getting a fancy one. The power connector comes from the power supply in your computer.
I have a 3700X (on an X570 mobo) and a 3080. Would it be worth looking at getting a 5800X and calling it good for a couple years, or is the 3700X gonna be enough for a while?
Do you have a prebuilt? Did it come with a box of extra cables?
Yes, it'll need to hook up to the motherboard and power but it's a real simple process.
I’m not home so I’ll check when I am but yeah it came with a bunch of cables, I’ll YouTube it up and figure it out. It was custom built by a shop but it’s not like a Dell thing, they give you all the proper boxes and stuff they used to build it so i should have those somewhere
Oh yeah, you're set then. Your case should have multiple points to mount the drive as well to keep it out of the way.
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
edited September 2022
I would personally avoid SMR drives for anything involving mass movement of data across them.
Given we have 2 TB SSDs, that leaves zero room for SMR drives IMO.
Mass writes are where they fail, so once you exhaust their cache you're in slow mode. That means any kind of multidisk (RAID/SHR) access, backups, or similar will be where it falls down.
MAYBE it's tolerable if you're using it to store your games. Maybe.
Edit: I bought an 18TB CMR drive for $330 two weeks ago. Spending money on SMR drives is dumb.
edit^2: rearrange for clarity, add clarifying words.
I have a 3700X (on an X570 mobo) and a 3080. Would it be worth looking at getting a 5800X and calling it good for a couple years, or is the 3700X gonna be enough for a while?
I was going to initially say yes but looking at some reviews and benchmarks it's more of a not really but it depends on the game. At 1440p they're either the same, withing 3-5% of each other, or sometimes 30 FPS faster depending on the game. A 5800X 3D would be more of an upgrade for purely gaming while losing out on productivity. Looking at prices the 5900X is actually cheaper than the 5800X3D.
I have a 3700X (on an X570 mobo) and a 3080. Would it be worth looking at getting a 5800X and calling it good for a couple years, or is the 3700X gonna be enough for a while?
I was going to initially say yes but looking at some reviews and benchmarks it's more of a not really but it depends on the game. At 1440p they're either the same, withing 3-5% of each other, or sometimes 30 FPS faster depending on the game. A 5800X 3D would be more of an upgrade for purely gaming while losing out on productivity. Looking at prices the 5900X is actually cheaper than the 5800X3D.
oh man, given a choice between a 5900X and a 5800X3D I would absolutely go for the extra cores.
Disclaimer: I care about productivity at least as much as gaming.
So the AMD 7000 series, reviews seem good, but for gaming benchmarks the 5800x3d seems to still be the top choice?
Yeah the takeaway here is: anyone who has an AM4 board and isn't already using a Zen3 should get a 5800X3D if they want to upgrade primarily for games. That CPU will cost lest than the new motherboard and RAM required to even start looking at Zen5 prices.
The calculus may change when the 7000 3D series appears next year.
Man, AM4 has been the best upgrade socket since IDK, Socket 7?
I agree with the general sentiment, but the 3D is kind of a weird, expensive chip. It's sometimes slower for non-gaming tasks, it can't be OCed, and it costs about $150 more than a base 5800X. And the 5800X is already kind of a dubious upgrade over the 5700X. If you're looking for an AM4 upgrade right now, the 5700X, the 5900X, or a good price on the 5800X might be a better long-term value than the 5800X3D.
Yeah, I did a incremental upgrade with the sales on the zen3's, and ended up just going for the 5700x, since it has a much lower TDP so it'll run cooler. And it was like $80 cheaper than a normal 5800, and almost half the price of a 3d one
I have a 3700X (on an X570 mobo) and a 3080. Would it be worth looking at getting a 5800X and calling it good for a couple years, or is the 3700X gonna be enough for a while?
I was going to initially say yes but looking at some reviews and benchmarks it's more of a not really but it depends on the game. At 1440p they're either the same, withing 3-5% of each other, or sometimes 30 FPS faster depending on the game. A 5800X 3D would be more of an upgrade for purely gaming while losing out on productivity. Looking at prices the 5900X is actually cheaper than the 5800X3D.
oh man, given a choice between a 5900X and a 5800X3D I would absolutely go for the extra cores.
Disclaimer: I care about productivity at least as much as gaming.
In terms of performance I really only care about gaming. Anything else I do on my PC (such as writing) is just as good on a potato.
So, building a new PC for the spouse, just for gaming at 1440p, would this build work out if I swapped out the card they list for a 3080 (since I can actually buy one now at normalish prices.)? https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/bM7Ycf/great-amd-gaming-build
I was looking at a HP Omen pre-built best buy had for $1300 with a 3080 and i7, but it is now on clearance for $1800ish, sadly.
I have a 3700X (on an X570 mobo) and a 3080. Would it be worth looking at getting a 5800X and calling it good for a couple years, or is the 3700X gonna be enough for a while?
I was going to initially say yes but looking at some reviews and benchmarks it's more of a not really but it depends on the game. At 1440p they're either the same, withing 3-5% of each other, or sometimes 30 FPS faster depending on the game. A 5800X 3D would be more of an upgrade for purely gaming while losing out on productivity. Looking at prices the 5900X is actually cheaper than the 5800X3D.
oh man, given a choice between a 5900X and a 5800X3D I would absolutely go for the extra cores.
Disclaimer: I care about productivity at least as much as gaming.
In terms of performance I really only care about gaming. Anything else I do on my PC (such as writing) is just as good on a potato.
So, building a new PC for the spouse, just for gaming at 1440p, would this build work out if I swapped out the card they list for a 3080 (since I can actually buy one now at normalish prices.)? https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/bM7Ycf/great-amd-gaming-build
I was looking at a HP Omen pre-built best buy had for $1300 with a 3080 and i7, but it is now on clearance for $1800ish, sadly.
If you want a 3080 I'd opt for a bigger power supply than that but otherwise it seems like it'd work.
Anyone with the Gamers Nexus mouse mat here? Tempted to pick one up. My current mouse mat slips around the desk and curls up quite easily requiring frequent ironing. It's trash but was cheap so expected. Need a good 90cm by 30-36cm mat that won't shift around.
Posts
Also, the difference between an M.2 SSD and a SATA one for gaming is pretty minor.
VR suffers though for sure. I might just grab a 58003d and wait until the 3d 7000 drops before doing the big upgrade.
I'll see if prices drop on the 58003d in the coming weeks.
Though recently also been trying a lot of other games people have modded to VR. I'll give RE a go finally.
Also, I saw retailer near me had $100 off the chip so went for a 5 min drive. Spoiled for massive.
Yeah the takeaway here is: anyone who has an AM4 board and isn't already using a Zen3 should get a 5800X3D if they want to upgrade primarily for games. That CPU will cost lest than the new motherboard and RAM required to even start looking at Zen5 prices.
The calculus may change when the 7000 3D series appears next year.
Man, AM4 has been the best upgrade socket since IDK, Socket 7?
For my part, I feel like I want to wait for the 7000 series to release their X3D chips. That should give us enough time to see how the whole Radeon 7000 vs Geforce 4000 shakes out.
Appears to be the case, but don't know for sure.
Kind of interesting, if it's pulling cool air from the outside and directing it to the blower fan.
I agree with the general sentiment, but the 3D is kind of a weird, expensive chip. It's sometimes slower for non-gaming tasks, it can't be OCed, and it costs about $150 more than a base 5800X. And the 5800X is already kind of a dubious upgrade over the 5700X. If you're looking for an AM4 upgrade right now, the 5700X, the 5900X, or a good price on the 5800X might be a better long-term value than the 5800X3D.
That’s a fair point. I think the upshot is that if you have 8+ cores, you're GPU limited for gaming purposes and will be for at least another year or two. Likely longer (paralleling console cores available).
The 5800X3D isn't a cheap CPU, but as I said, as an upgrade it costs less than the AM5 motherboard and DDR5 RAM alone. If someone has an existing Zen1 or Zen2 setup, and they want more CPU for games then the X3D is a very strong choice. Lotta people bought into the B450/3600 combo a couple of years ago. Those people will get good bang for their buck with one.
The 3800X and the 2600 before it were not stressed in the least.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-4TB-Internal-Hard-Drive/dp/B083XVY99B?th=1
https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Red-Hard-Drive/dp/B07B1WK3N5/ref=pd_lpo_2?pd_rd_i=B07B1WK3N5&psc=1
In the reviews people are saying SMR is bad news in a NAS. Is this nerd pedantry or should I spring for the more expensive drive? May wait for Prime Day 2 since the RAID is still healthy.
If your NAS is something akin to cold storage that you copy things to once in a while and it mostly serves as a backup, it's probably fine. If your NAS is general purpose storage that you're doing a lot of write operations on, it's not a great idea.
I’m new to computers so basically have no idea how you even hook these up or what you plug them into and where. Does it come with the cables or things necessary to plug it in? I’m assuming it has to be plugged in somewhere inside the pc so I have to open the tower?
Yes, it'll need to hook up to the motherboard and power but it's a real simple process.
YouTube will be very helpful if this is your first time installing a new component.
I’m not home so I’ll check when I am but yeah it came with a bunch of cables, I’ll YouTube it up and figure it out. It was custom built by a shop but it’s not like a Dell thing, they give you all the proper boxes and stuff they used to build it so i should have those somewhere
Do not get an SMR drive for a NAS, especially as a replacement. I just read an article where they did a (edit: RAID array) rebuild test adding an SMR drive and it took 10 days to rebuild compared to 14 hours for the CMR drive.
This article: https://www.servethehome.com/wd-red-smr-vs-cmr-tested-avoid-red-smr/
SATA data and power connectors are both L-shaped sockets, so you'll have to be pretty determined to connect them incorrectly.
You'll be fine.
Unless the drive package says it comes with a SATA cable, it probably won't, but you should be able to pick one up for $2-5. There is very little benefit from getting a fancy one. The power connector comes from the power supply in your computer.
Oh yeah, you're set then. Your case should have multiple points to mount the drive as well to keep it out of the way.
Given we have 2 TB SSDs, that leaves zero room for SMR drives IMO.
Mass writes are where they fail, so once you exhaust their cache you're in slow mode. That means any kind of multidisk (RAID/SHR) access, backups, or similar will be where it falls down.
MAYBE it's tolerable if you're using it to store your games. Maybe.
Edit: I bought an 18TB CMR drive for $330 two weeks ago. Spending money on SMR drives is dumb.
edit^2: rearrange for clarity, add clarifying words.
I was going to initially say yes but looking at some reviews and benchmarks it's more of a not really but it depends on the game. At 1440p they're either the same, withing 3-5% of each other, or sometimes 30 FPS faster depending on the game. A 5800X 3D would be more of an upgrade for purely gaming while losing out on productivity. Looking at prices the 5900X is actually cheaper than the 5800X3D.
oh man, given a choice between a 5900X and a 5800X3D I would absolutely go for the extra cores.
Disclaimer: I care about productivity at least as much as gaming.
Yeah, I did a incremental upgrade with the sales on the zen3's, and ended up just going for the 5700x, since it has a much lower TDP so it'll run cooler. And it was like $80 cheaper than a normal 5800, and almost half the price of a 3d one
In terms of performance I really only care about gaming. Anything else I do on my PC (such as writing) is just as good on a potato.
https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/bM7Ycf/great-amd-gaming-build
I was looking at a HP Omen pre-built best buy had for $1300 with a 3080 and i7, but it is now on clearance for $1800ish, sadly.
5800x3D then.
If you want a 3080 I'd opt for a bigger power supply than that but otherwise it seems like it'd work.
Are those actually spinny spinny drives or 4 tb of slow flash?..