CPU/mobo and RAM upgrade - not sure which route to go

Associate
Joined
11 Jan 2009
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884
Hi all,

I'm thinking of upgrading my CPU/motherboard/RAM.

Early last year I swapped my GTX980 to a GTX1070 and in the past have always done either GPU or CPU/motherboard/RAM every couple of years to keep costs down.

I currently have a 4690k @ 4.5ghz under a Noctua NH D14. I game at 1440p on a 144hz G sync monitor.

I'm unsure of which way to go, back when I slightly upgraded from a 2600k to my 4690k the general consensus was that 4 cores are plenty for gaming and will be good enough for a long while. I am now noticing that my CPU can be hitting 100% in games resulting in an FPS drop and frame time latency etc.

So my issue is, do I get an 8 core 9700k CPU which performs slightly better now but in the future 8 cores may begin to struggle and is on essentially a dead socket or the 8c/16t 3800x* which doesn't perform quite as well but should have a bit more life in it due to SMT and has one more generation of CPU's to come.

(*I know the 3700x is around £250 now and the only difference is 100mhz/TPD but when the upgrade thought first popped into my head a month or two ago the 3700x was closer to £300 which the 3800x is now).

I'm fairly confident the NH D14 will be sufficient at cooling any of the above CPUs, but may be tempted in the future to upgrade to a 280mm AIO and reuse the Noctua fans.

I will also be looking at a newer case; I'm currently using a Corsair 230T but quite fancy a Bequiet Silent Base 601 or Fractal Define R6 type of case (solid side panels, sound dampening etc).

TL;DR:

Which configuration for a new system that offers the balance performance now and later?


Option 1 -
Total: £676.92 (includes shipping: £10.50)


Option 2:
Total: £725.92 (includes shipping: £10.50)


Option 3:
Total: £710.47 (includes shipping: £10.50)


Option 4:

Total: £525.96 (includes shipping: £10.50)​

Thanks :)
 
Last edited:
Soldato
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Uk
At the resolution your gaming at there won't be much difference between the 3 CPUs especially so with a mid range Gpu.
 
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OP
Joined
11 Jan 2009
Posts
884
At the resolution your gaming at there won't be much difference between the 3 CPUs especially so with a mid range Gpu.
Yeah, The monitor was purchased after the GPU upgrade, next one will likely be a 2080 Super or equivalent when the time comes.

Ryzen is definitely the best value for money at the moment and offers you a future upgrade path for the CPU.
Indeed - its just whether to do B450 or X570 - I guess X570 will be more upgrade-able in the future
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2008
Posts
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Location
Finland
So my issue is, do I get an 8 core 9700k CPU which performs slightly better now but in the future 8 cores may begin to struggle

I'm fairly confident the NH D14 will be sufficient at cooling any of the above CPUs, but may be tempted in the future to upgrade to a 280mm AIO and reuse the Noctua fans.

I will also be looking at a newer case; I'm currently using a Corsair 230T but quite fancy a Bequiet Silent Base 601 or Fractal Define R6 type of case (solid side panels, sound dampening etc).


Assassin's Creed Odyssey basically expects 8 cores to start running at near full performance:
https://youtu.be/vVjdhXAdKE0?t=1m51s
And next-gen consoles coming with basically underclocked for power efficiency 3700X makes 8 cores/16 threads baseline for future game development.
So heaviest PC games can likely use more than 8 cores in few years and Intel platform is stuck on that yester-yesteryear's 8 cores.
While with AMD actually lowering prices of older CPUs 12 core Zen3 could be available for nice price in fall 21/winter 22

NH-D14 surely matches most watertube coolers in continuous cooling per noise.
Even the best single towers do that.
Waterpipes in place of heatpipes don't make heat disappear magically and typical slim rads don't have any super high surface areas to dissipate heat into air.
Also heatpipe coolers basically can't fail.


While BeQuiet used to make very good combination damping mat, what they use in cases is thin light stuff which isn't acoustically good.
Fractal Design uses proper mass damping, which actually prevents vibrations very effectively and also increases acoustic opacity of sides.


While having come down to quite nice price there's one notable negative thing in that board:
X570 boards have active chipset cooling and Asus puts its straight under graphics card in all of their boards.
In that mobo it's also restricted by marketing BS mesh on top of it further forcing fan to run more.
Most graphics cards literally bath fan's position with their heat and that can cause sweaty chipset temperatures during gaming sessions.

Some people have actually moved graphics card to lower x8 lane slot to keep chipset temperatures more reasonable.
And that at winter weather, so when summer rises room temperature chipsets will be even more sweaty.
Asus is no doubt very big seller of graphics cards and they simply have no excuse for such bad design choise.

Gigabyte has chipset cooler lot better positioned farther from heat of graphics card:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...4-x570-chipset-atx-motherboard-mb-57w-gi.html
Though when going higher in line up it again moves closer to graphics cards and also gets stabotaged by marketroids.
Marketroids simply shouldn't be let inside axe throw distance of product design process...
 
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