So, I’m upgrading my gaming rig, again. But there is unfortunately a bit of a caveat to this because unfortunately, the 5090 I had in there for the last video had to go back. I know, sad times, but it was a loaner card for the video. I have got my old trusty 4090Ti in there, which I think, to he honest being white, and matching the MSI PANO 100L case I have, looks phenomenal, but this is my gaming PC, and I am biased as hell. So the upgrade we’re doing in this video is due to a couple of comments I received on some YouTube Shorts recently about being bottlenecked by my CPU which right now is a 5800X. Granted I had the 5090 in there during those benchmarks, but it did make me look into upgrading and future-proofing my system a little bit. So, what I’ve got here is a Ryzen 7 9700X, alongside some pretty basic DDR5 RAM at 32GB 6400Mhz clocked. And yes I know I should’ve gone for the 7800X3D, but unfortunately, budget was a major factor here, and I managed to pick up this 9700X for way under £300, and a 7800X3D at the time of purchasing this CPU was over £400.
And luckily, because I’m going over to the AM5 chipset, MSI very kindly sent out one of their new B80 Tomahawk motherboards as part of the upgrade. so here’s is a quick-fire run-down on the new motherboard because there are more in-depth videos right here on YouTube. It’s built for AM5 – so Ryzen 7000 series and beyond – perfect for my Ryzen 7 9700X. You’ve got DDR5 support, up to 7800+ MHz OC. It’s got Wi-Fi 7 and 2.5G LAN for fast networking. For USB ports, you’ve got three USB-C 3.2 Gen 2s, 2 USB-A 3.2 Gen 2s, one USB-A 3.2 Gen 1s and four USB-A 2.0s. Four M.2 slots – all cooled underneath the shrouds – and PCIe 5.0 for future GPUs. Of course I’ve only got a 4070Ti in here now so there’s no real need for PCIe 5.0 nor would I find much use for it for gaming; however I’ve got the room to upgrade in the future. It’s got a solid build, it’s a clean black look with green accents, and for a value proposition, it’s a great entry into the AM5 architecture. So, let’s get building.
And there we have it. The rig has been built and it’s ready for benchmarking, but before that, let’s talk about it because there’s one thing I’m not quite happy with, and yes, it’s dumb, but it’s the kind of thing I think that just brings a PC together. And that’s the motherboard 8-pin cables. I’m currently using the ones that came with my po wer supply which is fine, but because my 24-pin motherboard connector and graphics card power cable are both black and white sleeved, I feel the ones that aren’t just stand out so much. But, saying that, overall the PC I think looks bloody fantastic. Yes, having a white motherboard maybe would have suited the build overall, but I do like the black and white offset here, with the customer sleeved cables and the white CPU cooler and graphics card. I do miss the size of the 5090 as that took up a decent chunk, but the aesthetic white of my Gigabyte Auros 4070Ti I do like too, so swings and roundabouts there. But anyway, let’s talk benchmarks.
So thank you for watching. Let me know in the comments what you think, and what the next step is for upgrades, not that I think there’s any room except a newer CPU and graphics card, but more aesthetic things. Do I need a digital screen against the glass, for example? Anyway, more PC builds on the way as I have my old motherboard and 5800x that needs a new home, so keep your eyes open for those and what we do with that. Anyway, thanks for watching.
