Upgrading from 1366! Spec me a build to go with 3080ti

Soldato
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My current system has components which are about 11 years old. It is on a 1366 mobo with a xeon 5670.

Ive managed to bag a 3080ti, and I think it is time for a new build to go with it. I was thinking of going for a 12700k.

Please spec me a build, will need everything minus gpu. I will transfer a few sata ssd's across but would like some m2 storage. I think it is time for a new case, not interested in any lights, pc will be sat on floor, and only right panel will be visible.
 
Budget for the build?

what do you do with the machine? Gaming or video editing or what?

we can then advise.

I was thinking/hoping it would be roughly 1k.

It will be a general use household pc, it will be used for some gaming, but not video editing (though who knows what hobbies my soon-to-be-teenage kids will pick up in the next 5yrs!).

That's epic usage. What's the plans for the Xeon?

Im not sure! I could pass it on to one of my kids, but I not sure they will have space in their rooms. I am thinking if it is going to be used any longer, it is probably sensible to install a new PSU. The PSU is a corsair hx750 which has a 10yr guarantee.
 
You probablly could reuse your psu but I put one in , Cooler you may have yo order a skt 1700 bracket. Motherboard is has 3 m2 slots but check fwatur3s suit your needs.

CODE My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,017.08 (includes shipping: £13.20)​
 
Yep - as above, something around a 12700K (or 5900X?) should be the target CPU.

That said, even from your 6 core Xeon, just about any Alderlake (12th Gen Intel) or Ryzen 5000 series is going to be a significant step up for you... even a 5600X would be about 50% quicker (clock speed + IPC improvements).... and that's a great little CPU, but it would be a shame to bottleneck that 3080Ti and hamstringing it with any 11th gen Intel / or 3xxx Ryzen.

To do the gfx card any justice aim for a minimum of a 12600KF or 5800X... 5600X at an absolute push, but you'd be holding the graphics back for some games.... so if you scrimp there, make sure you build the rest of the rig with plans to expand that to a 12700KF/5900X at a later date.

MickyFlinn's suggestion is solid, a few observations:
1) you'll need to go win11 with a 12th gen Intel.
2) Not a problem, but he has scrimped a little on the storage, SN750 would be better-matched, but that SN550 is a solid drive and TBH - that will get a genuine 2500-3000Mb/sec.... so will still be nearly 10x faster than anything that would fit on a Westmere Xeon like yours (300Mb/s SATA2 max, normally - most likely closer to 250Mb/sec even with a top spec SSD!)... stick with it.
3) I'm nowhere near as confident on the PSU's - especially your older one.... 850W might sound a lot, but even at stock speeds, that graphics card (350W+), a 12700K (250W+) will be drawing 600W already under extreme conditions.... add on peaks of 250W for the Z690.... you will already be at the limits for that PSU - and that's assuming that the PSU can deliver the full 850W to those three devices with the correct split. Granted, those would be pretty extreme loads, especially for the chipset, but that is what they are rated to be able to draw and the GPU + CPU will definitely see brief peaks at those levels during peak load, especially if you want ot run a few benchmarks. If I was building that, I'd aim for 850W on the equivalent X570+5900X build, but probably ~950W on the PSU for that build to give yourself a little wriggle room.

edit: I had a spec for my next upgrade plans (5900X + 3080Ti) in a forecast tool (name is forum blocked as it links to other retailers). The tool was showing just under 700W for my build, so I swapped out the X570 motherboard and CPU for a Z690 and i7-12700K.... and the wattage jumped up to 800W. Note this includes a few drives (2 NVME, 2 SATA, 2 optical), 4 sticks of RAM, etc, but it means the 850W PSU would be running at around 90%-95%, which feels a little high. With the E-cores on the Intel, this does NOT mean your power bills will be higher while the system is left idle, etc... but it does mean you might want a little more power headroom (hence the 950W recommendation) with the Intel options.

My personal preference would be a Ryzen 5900X and Asus X570-PRO as I'm still wary of Win11, but the 12th gen Intel chips are very valid choices and it really is in the balance right now (Dec2021): as the win11 task schedulers learn to cope with the new Intel architecture, I can see the Intel building out a bit more of a lead with them purely with software updates. That split-architecture (efficiency + performance) is likely to be the future and given how power hungry and hot Intel's performance cores have been for the last few generations, they really needed another gear... which they now have with the efficiency cores for idle / web browsing, etc.
 
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Midi case sufficient for air cooling with a high end system?
 
I haven't looked at that specific case, but a well designed midi case should be fine - check out Gamers Nexus for reviews if airflow is a worry: Steve is obsessed and calls out a few manufacturers that have "mesh" designs.... lots of fans.... but don't actually leave those fans anywhere for the air to go... or worse still, where the default airflow it in the front and straight out the side, without flushing the cool intake air through the CPU/GPU area!

If in doubt, get a case with plenty of unobstructed radiator panels and fill them with fans.... provided they have proper motherboard headers (and/or headers that can deliver enough current for a few splitters), you can configure the profiles so they tick along at 300rpm or lower while motherboard temps are low and you're doing regular office tasks.... and then ramp up as things start to happen - this solution works well for me :)

That said, I normally game with noise cancelling headphones, so if there's any extra airflow noise, it doesn't bother me.... my solution might not be to everybody's taste, especially if the heavy workload is for office work like CAD/rendering/compression tasks and you want to permanently minimise ALL fan noise...
 
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Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

I am wondering if it would make more sense to go for ddr5? From what I understand the benefits are at best minimal at the moment , and it is more expensive, but on the other hand I don't want to feel the need to buy a new motherboard to be able to use better ram in a couple of years. I mean my current motherboard has lasted about 11 years!
 
Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

I am wondering if it would make more sense to go for ddr5? From what I understand the benefits are at best minimal at the moment , and it is more expensive, but on the other hand I don't want to feel the need to buy a new motherboard to be able to use better ram in a couple of years. I mean my current motherboard has lasted about 11 years!
With the premium you'll end up paying for slow DDR5 now it would be cheaper to just upgrade the board in a couple of years should there be any worthwhile improvements.
 
With the premium you'll end up paying for slow DDR5 now it would be cheaper to just upgrade the board in a couple of years should there be any worthwhile improvements.

So much this.

I'm currently in the middle of a 12700K/DDR4 build and the extra cost of going DDR5 assuming I could get it (I couldn't) would be around an extra £300-400 over the DDR4 I bought.

More than enough to buy another MB (I probably won't) when DDR5 becomes worth having for real gains and not just in benchmarks.
 
I am wondering if it would make more sense to go for ddr5? From what I understand the benefits are at best minimal at the moment , and it is more expensive, but on the other hand I don't want to feel the need to buy a new motherboard to be able to use better ram in a couple of years. I mean my current motherboard has lasted about 11 years!

The LGA 1700 platform is only going to last two CPU generations, much like the 1366, but will not have access to the lovely Xeon type CPU's that has kept your current system going for so long. DDR5 is what I'd call a niche right now, it offers no real price/performance at all, and as suggested it would be cheaper to change out the whole board/RAM and maybe even CPU at a later date than buy decent DDR5 now.

You've also got CES in 8 days which is going to feature the announcement and release date for the newer AMD parts, and potentially a couple more Intel CPU's. Do what you are doing now get an idea of what you'd like but wait those few extra days to see what is imminent, and you might be able to get more bang for your buck (pound) once we have more details, it has to be worth the wait right? :)
 
DDR5 is what I'd call a niche right now, it offers no real price/performance at all, and as suggested it would be cheaper to change out the whole board/RAM and maybe even CPU at a later date than buy decent DDR5 now.

Definitely not worth overpaying for the first generation of DDR5 - outside of a handful of bespoke use-cases the extra bandwidth isn't much use and most of the time, the slower latency hurts gaming more than the bandwidth benefits....

This doesn't feel like RDRAM.... this technology has legs.... and may be a worthwhile investment even in 6 or 12 months' time.... but right now, the early adopters are blazing a very expensive trail for little or no real-world gains.

If I was building a £5k workstation rig, I'd consider it.... but I'd also be factoring in that I'd probably need to replace the memory within the year: as the DDR5 clock speeds start to ramp up... and also factor in that it might need a new motherboard to benefit from it.... i.e. not really worth buying either right now, unless you're doing it purely for your forum signature ;)

As @Journey said - keep researching and at very least, wait for CES.... sometimes those announcements will start a fire-sale on the "old" technology.
 
Any thoughts on this?

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,313.90 (includes shipping: £0.00)​

Im getting a case elsewhere as ocuk have sold out, im thinking of going for the meshify 2

I wasnt really sure what to go with for the aio. I figured a bigger radiator would be quieter as the fans wouldnt need to run as fast? I was choosing between the kraken and the corsair h100/h150

The RAM seems to have gone up in price a bit since mickyflinn suggested it. I couldnt tell that ocuk are stocking equivelent speed RAM for less at the moment?
I have seen Corsair Vengeance DDR4 32GB cas 16, for about £150 elsewhere, would that be a good alternative?
 
Corsair rm 850w is £35 cheaper and patriot viper 32gb 3600mhz can be had for £95 if you wish to save some money .

Do you really need pcie4 drive still expensive would be tempted to get 2 x 1tb pcie3 m2 drives to keep games seperate. Pcie4 M2 are good of transfering data from one fast drive to another.
 
Corsair rm 850w is £35 cheaper and patriot viper 32gb 3600mhz can be had for £95 if you wish to save some money .

Do you really need pcie4 drive still expensive would be tempted to get 2 x 1tb pcie3 m2 drives to keep games seperate. Pcie4 M2 are good of transfering data from one fast drive to another.

Thanks for your reply.

The patriot viper has higher latency doesnt it? CAS 18 vs 16. Do you think the Corsair Vengeance DDR4 32GB cas 16 for £150 elsewhere would be a better option?

The RMx is slightly better quality than the RM isnt it? From my understanding the fan will be a bit quiter etc

I dont really need pcie4, but I think I will go for it anyhow!
 
Thanks for your reply.

The patriot viper has higher latency doesnt it? CAS 18 vs 16. Do you think the Corsair Vengeance DDR4 32GB cas 16 for £150 elsewhere would be a better option?

The RMx is slightly better quality than the RM isnt it? From my understanding the fan will be a bit quiter etc

I dont really need pcie4, but I think I will go for it anyhow!
Unless you planning to game at 1080p then I doubt you'll see an fps difference between C16 and C18.
 
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