Sorry for the grumpiness earlier. Too much reading for my poor eyes and was dealing with a serious and urgent issue at the time of posting.
Findings: the slot is for a flash cache, supports SATA but requires a bios update that may or may not work and still not be bootable. According to various sources, it would likely a world of trouble since this laptop was conceived in a time of actualization for M.2. Also, the slot only has space for 42 and 60 mm lengths.
Not that confusing right? The 5xxx is newer and faster per core than the 3xxx series. For the money you can only decide if you are more served with more cores VS less but faster cores.
A few simple notes that maybe make it easier for you. If there is also gaming to be done on the machine, pick the 5600x, no question.
The 3700x is faster in tasks that utilize all cores, but only marginally. If there are a few moments in a task where not all cores can be utilized, the 5600x will perform equal or even better.
So for darktable, you might be better of with a 3700x, but the difference is so small that you might be better of with a 5600x overal.
You will not be buying a slow system in either of the two cases.
Edit: if there is also opencl and a gpu involved, the single core performance of the 5600x might be better suited to ‘feed’ the gpu, but im guessing here.
I would lean toward the newer chip but that’s just me. That is, if it works well with the other existing or prospective components AND with your linux box, software and firmware.
I have a laptop with Ryzen 9 5900HX and a discrete Radeon RX6800M. There’s no cdrom, no flash reader, just room for cooling inside. It seems to scream along. The style is for gaming, with the illuminating keyboard and side panel effects. I have mine set so that the cpu load shows up on the side panels, the cpu temp in the front, and a four out-of-phase undulating waves in the keycaps oscillating between blue-indigo-purple. It gives gently vibrant visibility in the dark. I’ve got it for course work until next year, when my daughter gets to have it.
8 cores, 16 logical cpu’s @ 3.3 GHz turbos up to 5GHz on demand.
Feeling a bit more brave, I’m now considering just buying the components individually, and assembling them myself, rather than buying a preassembled “bundle”.
So I’ve currently got the following lot sitting in a shopping basket at my preferred supplier of computer parts (Overclockers UK)
1 x Gigabyte B550M S2H (AMD AM4) B550 Micro-ATX Motherboard= £79.99
1 x AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £259.99
1 x be quiet! Pure Rock 2 Black CPU Cooler - 120mm= £39.95
1 x Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey= £124.99
Total: £515.42 (includes shipping: £10.50)
Alternatively, changing to the Ryzen 5, 5600X
1 x [Gigabyte B550M S2H (AMD AM4) B550 Micro-ATX Motherboard] £79.99
1 x [be quiet! Pure Rock 2 Black CPU Cooler - 120mm] £39.95
1 x [Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey] £124.99
1 x [AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail] £269.99
Total: £525.42 (includes shipping: £10.50)
I know the Ryzen 7 3700x comes with a cpu cooler, however I value quietness as well as cooling ability! Hence the Arctic Freezer 34, which with dual 120mm fans should keep things nice and cool and quiet!
I’m happy for you. I hope assembly all goes smoothly and you are happy with the final result. Based on the specs of what you purchased, you should see a very good improvement in processing ability.
However lack of any Solid State storage will negatively impact your user experience, I fear. Are you re-using an existing SSD for OS and cache?
Well, I got my parts the other day, and pretty straight forward install. Luckily the Arctic Freezer 34 Duo cooler I opted for wasn’t any bigger, as it wouldn’t have fitted in the pc case I have!
Currently running a few benchmarks to see how the system is going.
Lol, I’ve jinxed it already… Why are usb 3.0 motherboard headers (particularly right angled ones) so flaccid in the pin department… So a PCIE usb 3.0 internal header card on its way to get the front panel usb slots working again