12th Gen upgrade advice DDR5?

[Robin Gregg]

Hi Guys,

I've been holding off upgrading my CPU, MB and RAM for a little while now and with the new 12th gen coming out I think it might be time to bite the bullet. As my RAM's not really worth holding onto for a DDR4 upgrade i'm thinking of moving over to DDR5.

I was just wandering if anyone could give some advice and if there are better options?

Current Kit
I5 7600k
Asus Prime pro H270
16GB Corsair LPX 2400Mhz

Looking at
Intel I7 12700kf
PRIME Z690-P - INTEL Z690 DDR5 ATX MOTHERBOARD

Thanks Rob

 

[dfour]

If you buy ddr5 now your going to pay the 'early adopters' tax on it and from the few reviews I have seen its not got that much true advantage over ddr 4 atm.

 

[Journey]

I was just wandering if anyone could give some advice and if there are better options?

Getting any sort of decent DDR5 at a reasonable price is pretty much impossible, and you are looking at Jan/Feb time for supply to normalise, by which point you'll also have the newer AMD Zen3 parts with 3DVcahce announced, and potentially with a launch date in Q1.

If you must buy now, and can't wait then DDR4 plus Z690 is workable, but the platform is already dead once you commit to it so unless you upgrade often (doesn't look like it) then you'd need to keep the system for 4+ years.

What is it you do with your system btw?

 

[Robin Gregg]

What is it you do with your system btw?

I forgot to put that in there, I mainly use it for 4k gaming @60FPS on games ranging from older strategy games C&C to FPS Modern warfare or currently Halo Infinite on PC Xbox app.

Not another new Technology, I'll give 3DVcache a quick look

Full spec
I5 7600k
Asus Prime pro H270
16GB Corsair LPX 2400Mhz
MSI 2070 Super Gaming X (2fan)
Samsung 960 evo NVME 250GB
Samsung 970 evo NVME 1TB
fractal design Meshify 2 compact LT window

 

[Journey]

I forgot to put that in there, I mainly use it for 4k gaming @60FPS on games ranging from older strategy games C&C to FPS Modern warfare or currently Halo Infinite on PC Xbox app.

I suppose a quick and dirty upgrade (if you keep the cost low) would be a 7700K with the extra 4 threads do make a big difference, even at 4K, and especially with more modern strategy games. I'd not spend more than £90-100 though, however if you sell it on you'd likely get most of that back, you could also see if your RAM has any headroom in it, you could get 2666/3000Mhz out if it with a small bump in volts.

Not another new Technology, I'll give 3DVcache a quick look

Basically it is just a huge lump of L3 cache stuck on top of the Zen3 CCD, so a bigger, faster, and more local memory pool.

 

[Robin Gregg]

I've just been doing some research and it looks like the current DDR5 motherboards are locked to 4800Mhz but can overclock the modules higher?

My CPU is maxed out at 4.9Ghz on all 4 cores when gaming and my GPU is around 80-100%, i could hobble on but I've been putting off the upgrade for a year due to supply issues and the announcement of DDR5.

I was wandering if its worth me doing the DDR4 route upgrade this time to get me going?

All sold by OCUK;
CORE I5-12600KF 3.70GHZ (ALDER LAKE) SOCKET LGA1700 PROCESSOR - OEM
PRIME Z690-P D4 - INTEL Z690 DDR4 ATX MOTHERBOARD
VENGEANCE LPX 16GB (2X8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3600MHZ DUAL CHANNEL KIT

Total - £519.47
Minus £45 for asus Motheboard cashback
minus £25 for OCUk review cashback
Sell old parts £60

New total £389.47

Or it's 475.44 for the equivalent DDR5 build with basic DDR5 4800Mhz ram

Do you recon either of these would keep me going for 3 years?

And it's defo the worst time to upgrade isnt it?

 

[dfour]

Either will do you for a few years.

If you can afford the extra it may be worth going ddr5 as it is the future and come into its onw in a few years.

 

[Journey]

And it's defo the worst time to upgrade isnt it?

Yes it is.

If you must go 12th Gen Intel, then I'd honestly get DDR5, with a view to upgrading it to faster RAM if needed. The issue is the expensive motherboards be that DDR5 or DDR4, there is simply no value in them at all, unless you will use the extended features, which let's be honest very few people actually do. Sometimes it is better to spend less and upgrade sooner, when faced with the issues you are seeing now.

 

[Robin Gregg]

If you can afford the extra it may be worth going ddr5 as it is the future and come into its onw in a few years.

If you must go 12th Gen Intel, then I'd honestly get DDR5, with a view to upgrading it to faster RAM if needed. The issue is the expensive motherboards be that DDR5 or DDR4, there is simply no value in them at all, unless you will use the extended features, which let's be honest very few people actually do. Sometimes it is better to spend less and upgrade sooner, when faced with the issues you are seeing now.

Thanks guys, I took the plunge on the DDR5 Motherboard, I think you're right in the longer run i'll get more out of it by upgrading the ram in say a years time.

@Journey I had a bad running with an AMD Athlon 64x2 3000+ series back in the day and moved over to Intel ever since. I really want to like the Ryzen chips but right or wrong AMD just give me trust issues but it'll be good to see how their new chip in Q1 performs though. Good bit of healthy competition has gone a long way for advancing hardware

I went for;
CORE I7-12700KF 3.70GHZ (ALDER LAKE) SOCKET LGA1700 PROCESSOR - Retail
PRIME Z690-P - INTEL Z690 DDR5 ATX MOTHERBOARD
16gb DDR5 RAM - TBC (probably crucial basics)

It looks like the I7's hold their prices a lot better than the I5's on the second hand market which is why for the 12700KF.

Interestingly is it looks like Intel have added to their timeline a 7nm processor to be released in 2023.

 

[Journey]

One thing to note is i noticed Intel have added to their timeline a 7nm processor to be released in 2023.

On a new socket/board only though.

I went for;
CORE I7-12700KF 3.70GHZ (ALDER LAKE) SOCKET LGA1700 PROCESSOR - Retail
PRIME Z690-P - INTEL Z690 DDR5 ATX MOTHERBOARD
16gb DDR5 RAM - TBC (probably crucial basics)

I wouldn't have ordered anything until you have the RAM in hand, warranty is ticking down and you have no way of testing the parts, assuming the other parts are sent first that is.

I wish you luck with your build, just finishing up a couple of DDR4 based 12600K systems, and they are very impressive also but I think you've done the right thing with the 12700KF, although I'd go K if the cost isn't dissimilar for the iGPU.

 

[Robin Gregg]

I wouldn't have ordered anything until you have the RAM in hand, warranty is ticking down and you have no way of testing the parts, assuming the other parts are sent first that is.

I wish you luck with your build, just finishing up a couple of DDR4 based 12600K systems, and they are very impressive also but I think you've done the right thing with the 12700KF, although I'd go K if the cost isn't dissimilar for the iGPU.

Cheers and enjoy your systems!
I assumed the Ram was in stock, how wrong was I! got a pre-order in for the 10th December fingers crossed.

 

[Journey]

Cheers and enjoy your systems!

Ha, nothing for me, I work in the hardware industry, have done for a long time, so get to build lots and lots of systems (if I want to).

I assumed the Ram was in stock, how wrong was I! got a pre-order in for the 10th December fingers crossed.

Yeah got to watch those dates, lets hope it is in stock then, since they've already got your money!

 

[Robin Gregg]

Yeah got to watch those dates, lets hope it is in stock then, since they've already got your money!

You weren't wrong, I'm having the DDR5 shortage issue, my pre-orders been pushed back to 14th Jan

 

[Journey]

You weren't wrong, I'm having the DDR5 shortage issue, my pre-orders been pushed back to 14th Jan

Yep, several build I was meant to do at the start of this month are now either altered, cancelled or delayed. Nothing worse that sitting staring at boxes, assuming you have them that is.