Recently I changed a couple of hardware pieces in my gaming build. Let me take you through these changes.

 

Old and New motherboard:

Old motherboard: "GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS ELITE LGA 1151 (300 Series) Intel Z390 SATA 6Gb/s ATX Intel Motherboard"
New motherboard: "ASRock B650 PG Lightning AMD Ryzen 7000 Series Processors Motherboard"

Reason for change:

The only major reasons for this change was the cpu socket type and the subsequent DDR ram version. After some research I have noticed the Z390 is a very solid mobo and comparing it to the B650 the B650 might be slightly better if not very similar in performance (depending on what you need). There is only some differences between the two with the B650 having a higher overclocked ram speed at 6400 MHz compared to the 4266 MHz of the Z390. Another difference is the DDR ram version with the B650 having DDR5 and the Z390 having DDR4. There are some differences with the type and amount of usb and PCIe ports but that wasn't necessarily important in my build.

Old and New CPU:

Old CPU: "Intel Core i7-8700 Desktop Processor 6 Cores 3.20 GHz LGA 1151 300 Series 65W"
New CPU: "AMD Ryzen™ 7 7700X 8-Core, 16-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor"

Reason for change:

There are couple of reasons for this change with the first being that the 8700 is pretty outdated being released back in 2017, although it is powerful there is a noticeable change after switching. This brings me to my second reason, the base clock speed for the 8700 is 3.2 GHz while the 7700x's base clock speed is 4.5 GHz. This significant improvement is evident while doing cpu intensive processes. Next, we have the cache size, being one of the more important specs in a cpu the 7700x simply outclasses the 8700. The 8700 cache sizes clock in at L1: 256KB L2: 1MB L3: 12MB while the 7700x cache sizes are L1: 512KB L2: 8MB L3: 32MB. While the 7700x is better in every metric in comparison to the 8700, the price point and the TDP are the only possible issues that could arise. The 8700 comes in at 65W at $140 and the 7700x at 105W at $315 but this is common as the hardware becomes newer and better. Oh, almost forgot the core and thread count, the 8700's is 6 core (12 thread) and the 7700x's is 8 core (16 thread).

Old and New CPU cooler:

Old CPU cooler: "Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition CPU Air Cooler, SF120R RGB Fan, 4 CD 2.0 Heatpipes, Anodized Gun-Metal Black, Brushed Nickel Fins, RGB Lighting for AMD Ryzen/Intel LGA1151" New CPU cooler: "be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4, BK022, 250W TDP, CPU Cooler Black"

Reason for change:

It was suggested in the r/BuildaPC reddit thread that six copper heat pipes should be used with a cpu that has a higher TDP such as the 7700x so that is exactly what I did. Initially I installed this part wrong and it caused some issues while booting which was scary but persistence is key and once I fixed the issue (which was that I screwed in one of the brackets the wrong way) it started working perfectly with the temperatures staying around 40°C-50°C while web browsing and 60°C-70°C while gaming.

Old and New RAM:

Old RAM: "CORSAIR - VENGEANCE LPX CMK32GX4M2E3200C16 32GB (2PK X 16GB) 3200MHz DDR4 C16 DIMM Desktop Memory - Black"
New RAM: "TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert Overclocking 10L DDR5 64GB Kit (2 x 32GB) 6000MHz (PC5-48000) CL34 Desktop Memory Module Ram - CTCED564G6000HC34BDC01"

Reason for change:

The major reason for this change was because the new motherboard required DDR5 RAM sticks but I also upgraded to 64GBs as opposed to 32GBs that I had previously. This has made a huge difference in performance, especially in games that have a heavy emphasis on loading items and loading times. The game I have noticed this the most is Escape From Tarkov which relies heavily on the CPU, RAM and storage device.

Old and New storage devices:

Old storage: "Seagate FireCuda 2TB Solid State Hybrid Drive Performance SSHD – 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s Flash Accelerated for Gaming PC Desktop (ST2000DX002)"
New storage: "Crucial T500 2TB Gen4 NVMe M.2 Internal Gaming SSD with Heatsink, Up to 7400MB/s, Playstation 5 Compatible + 1mo Adobe CC All Apps- CT2000T500SSD5"

Reason for change:

I have just recently changed to a Gen4 M.2 NVME SSD and just.... wow. There is a significant difference in almost every feature that has to do with storage whether that is reading and writing file speeds, booting the OS and more. I did not do my due diligence before buying the SSHD because the performance of that compared to this NVME could make a grown man cry (I almost did when I booted it up for the first time). As far as the installation goes I had to remove my GPU in order to access the "Hyper M.2" M.2 port on my motherboard and when installing the NVME I lost the M.2 screw a couple of times in the motherboard which was frustrating but I was able to get it screwed down after a couple attempts. This may be a bit bias since I just got it but I believe this is the best part of my current build, well the CPU is a strong contender for that role now that I'm thinking about it. I had zero issues booting from the creation tool but I did delete the SSHD and sperate SSD partitions to free up space after I backed up these drives so that caused a couple issues with the drivers but I did download the the drivers from the manufactures website and now everything works good as new. I would recommend an M.2 NVME any day of the week!
 

New parts links:

https://www.newegg.com/asrock-b650-pg-lightning/p/N82E16813162077
https://www.newegg.com/amd-ryzen-7-7700x-ryzen-7-7000-series/p/N82E16819113768
https://www.newegg.com/be-quiet-dark-rock-pro-5/p/13C-001F-00070
https://www.newegg.com/team-64gb/p/N82E16820985005
https://www.newegg.com/crucial-2tb-t500/p/N82E16820156391
   

Old parts links:

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813145092
https://www.newegg.com/core-i7-8th-gen-intel-core-i7-8700/p/N82E16819117826
https://www.newegg.com/cooler-master-hyper-212-rgb-black-edition-rr-212s-20pc-r1/p/N82E16835103277
https://www.newegg.com/corsair-32gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820236541
https://www.seagate.com/products/hard-drives/barracuda-hard-drive/?sku=ST2000DM008&utm_use_case=general&prodSrc=barracuda&use_case=general&gad_source=1