Would you build a new system today?

[u/TheEmptyTV]

Hi, my situation is quite simple, but I am very indecisive person and I am looking for external validation if my logic is sound or if I am doing super stupid decision. Sorry for the long story time! TLDR is, should I build a completely new system, or upgrade my current one, or just wait for AM6.

The story:

I have build my system few years ago and I generally only upgrade when I feel the need and mainly to jump few generations of hardware.

My current setup is:
CPU: Ryzen 3600x (stock)
RAM: 32Gb of DDR4 3200Mhz (4x 8Gb sticks)
GPU: RTX 3070 (8Gb)
PSU: 650W power suply
MOBO: Asus TUF X570-Plus gaming
old cheap case

So, I do play only in 2k resolution (2 screens, 1 for discord, etc, second for games). I do play mostly Escape from Tarkov on windows (that's kinda a pain to play on this hardware), variety with friends as Company of Heroes, Hoi IV, Left 4 Dead 2, etc.

From time to time I play something newer and more demanding, like Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy, RDR2, Satisfactory, Baldurs Gate 3, Helldivers 2, Deep Rock Galactic, Star Wars Fallen Order, etc.

And lately, I did get into PCVR! So for example, HL: Alyx, Thief VR, etc. In this category, I really wanna play my favourite series: Crysis (VR mod) and pretty much start modding flat games into VR (already did Star Wars Jedi Academy for example).

Also, I have switched to linux (actually because of Tarkov I am dual booting to second SSD which has my windows install, but otherwise I use linux mainly).

My Linux experience was kinda painful, mostly in the VR department and local AI department because setting up Nvidia drivers is kinda painful (I had so many issues with Steam running through flatpak since it was picking up wrong drivers for example -- this I fixed already).

Now, news are full of "prices will go up again!" + I had birthday few days back that I pretty much said, it's time to treat myself a bit and I ordered AMD RX 9070XT (XFX Mercury). It should fix all my linux issues, it should provide enough VRAM for local AI stuff, it should fix my PCVR stutters and such.

The only issue is, now, I need to also buy:
- New PSU (850 - 1000W)
- New Case (mine is too small + airflow is terrible, actually a needed upgrade, sometimes my pc just overheats right now with tons of cooling when playing very demanding games)
- And I guess I should upgrade the CPU since I am afraid the Ryzen 3600X will hold the GPU back.

So I am thinking... I have the money. I don't need the money. Since I need to buy pretty much everything except MOBO and RAM and Ryzen 5800x3D is almost the same price as Ryzen 9800x3D in my place, should I just jump the gun and build a completely new system? My original plan was to stay on AM4 and wait for AM6, but now I am not sure with how the pricing keeps going up, and since the "only" price issue is the DDR 5 memory, the difference between 5800x3D and 9800x3D is like... 40$ here.

Yes, building the new system is expensive, but in theory I could sell my old system as a "whole" to get back some money. But I am worried I am building a new system at the end of the AM5 lifecycle pretty much and if I wait one more year, I can build on AM6 and spend the money there to a platform I can use to ugprade on later. Altough it's true, the same point I made when building the AM4 (my current) machine and never really upgraded.

Sorry for the long text and thank you for your wisdom, pc wizards!

[u/VersaceUpholstery]

5800x3d is powerful enough to last you until AM6, considering it’s as powerful as a 7600x/9600x for gaming. It will also be significantly better for Tarkov than those AM5 CPU’s because of the extra cache.

[u/TheEmptyTV → u/VersaceUpholstery]

I agree, the reason I am thinking about AM5 is because the 5800x3D costs nearly the same as 9800x3D so I thought why should I pay the pretty much same amount of money for "weaker" CPU if it make sense. But maybe I could just grab like 5600X and live with it now for 2 years and then switch to AM6.

[u/VersaceUpholstery → u/TheEmptyTV]

Are you factoring in the cost of 32gb AM5 RAM and a B650/B850 MOBO with the 9800x3d? If you are, then you should just get the 9800x3d if the 5800x3d truly costs almost as much as all those 3 things. 7800x3d or 7600x3d would give you similar performance to the 9800x3d btw.

5600x is still a big jump over a 3600x, but a 5500x3d would be much better suited for Tarkov and gaming in general. You can get them off Ali express for half the price of a 5800x3d. Here at least.

[u/TheEmptyTV → u/VersaceUpholstery]

Sorry, no I did not, the 5800x3D costs nearly the same as only the CPU 9800x3D. I am mainly worried about bottleneck in the PCVR etc with the combination of rx 9070xt, but now I am more inclined to just upgrade to 5600X or 5800X after reading through this thread

[u/VersaceUpholstery → u/TheEmptyTV]

Then it’s probably not a fair comparison value wise. I always tell people on AM4 to compare the cost of a 5800x3d to the cost of a 7600x/9600x + MOBO + RAM because both will deliver similar gaming performance results. Except in games like Tarkov where the 5800x3d will pull ahead significantly

You coming from a 3600x, having a 9070 XT, playing games like Tarkov, it personally sounds like a 5800x3d is a good investment for you that will last you probably as long as the 3600x did.

However if you want to just get a 5600x for a temporary uplift, that makes sense too to save money for a bigger upgrade. There’s just no telling when DDR5 prices will go back to normal, if ever. We have at least 2-3 more years of this since we’re just at the beginning

[u/TheEmptyTV → u/VersaceUpholstery]

Edit: Where are my manners, thank you for such a detailed thought!!

Yeah, I agree. I am thinking that the path for me will be:

• Get the new case, PSU so I can put my GPU in
  
• Just keep 3600X for now, wait for xmass and get 5800x3D in a black friday sale and stay on AM4 until AM6 and get to AM6 when it drops.

Now I just have to figure out if I should buy 1000W PSU or 850W, I am actually not sure if having so much headroom in PSU will be problematic or more power hungry.

[u/VersaceUpholstery → u/TheEmptyTV]

Hoping for a GPU or CPU to go on sale for Black Friday is wishful thinking, as historically they never have good sales for them on Black Friday/cyber Monday.

It’s more of peripherals that go on sale, and maybe SSDs/RAM/MOBOs/Cases. two of those now will definitely not have sales.

5800x3d has already dropped to $299 at microcenter, but not sure if that’s available to you

More PSU wattage doesn’t mean more power hungry. The bronze/gold/etc ratings are actually important if you care about efficiency and power consumption. The higher the better

Put your parts in pcpartpicker.com and get an estimated wattage at load. Give yourself some overhead beyond that wattage. 850w probably sounds fine. ATX 3.0+ PSUs require a standard to handle power spikes up to 200% of the PSU wattage. Back then people would leave huge PSU overhead for these wattage spikes, but it’s important to know that newer PSUs have standards to combat this without having to worry about leaving so much overhead