CPU Advice

Allexx · 26 Feb 2020 at 22:02

Hello everyone new to the forums here but a regular to overclockers.

I am currently in the process of building my own gaming system, it has been around 10+ years since i did any PC Builds / Upgrades and so I am looking for advice on a CPU, The Parts I am getting or have are as follows:
Motherboard; ASRock Z370 Extreme4 ATX (LGA1151)
RAM; Corsair vengance LPX DDR4-3000 (2x8gb)
Graphics Card; GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER
CPU; Intel Core i7 9700k 3.6GHz
Cooler: Coolermaster Masterliquid Lite 120
Storage; Western Digital M.2 2280 (250Gb)
Samsung 860 QVO 1TB SSD
Power Supply; Corsair TXM Gold 550w 80+ Semi Modular

I am using PC Part Picker for compatibility testing but the problem I am having is its saying my CPU is not compatible as the motherboard BIOS may need updating for Coffee Lake or Coffee Lake Refresh.

This is putting me off as i have no idea if this CPU will run in my build now, I am fairly new to this hole thing, can anyone tell me if it will be compatable or recommend a new CPU... Or any other parts from what ive listed.

Thanks

Space Monkey · 27 Feb 2020 at 01:33

Hi and welcome to OCUK

You should really be looking for a Z390 motherboard which will work out of the box with the 9700K CPU, the Z370 is the previous generation and as you say may need a bios update?

Some boards can update the bios without anything installed, but most can't so you'd need a compatible CPU to perform the bios update before installing your 9700K, which can be more money and a right pain!

Joxeon · 27 Feb 2020 at 07:48

Allexx said:
I am looking for advice on a CPU

AMD ryzen is a good shout these days especially if you game at higher than 1080p but if your set on Intel then you should either get the 9900k/s or hold off a couple of months as Intel is releasing a new CPU and motherboard range that won't be backwards compatable but the whole range of CPUs will feature hyperthreading so the 10700k will have 8 core 16 threads as opposed to the 9700k which is only 8 core 8 thread.

The new consoles coming at the end of the year will all have 8 core 16 thread CPUs so a lot of the new games will be optimised for this so it's really the minimum you should be aiming for especially if your want you PC to last a good while.

Allexx · 27 Feb 2020 at 10:32

Space Monkey said:
You should really be looking for a Z390 motherboard which will work out of the box with the 9700K CPU, the Z370 is the previous generation and as you say may need a bios update?

Thank you both for the reply and advice I should point out that I already have the Asrock Z370 board and started my build with it so carnt change it, what CPU would people recommend for this board? Would the i5 8600k be any good or shell i look at the i7 8700k?

Joxeon · 27 Feb 2020 at 10:43

Allexx said:
Thank you both for the reply and advice I should point out that I already have the Asrock Z370 board and started my build with it so carnt change it, what CPU would people recommend for this board? Would the i5 8600k be any good or shell i look at the i7 8700k?

The 8700k is definitely the better option of the 2 going forward although it is poor value especially when you compare it to a ryzen 5 3600 which is less than half the price and only slightly behind in gaming but ahead in most other workloads but I guess your hands are tied unless you can return and get a refund on the board?.

Allexx · 21 Mar 2020 at 15:33

I have decided to change my mind on the motherboard even though I already have the board, I am going to looking into getting a Z390 instead im lookinga either the:
Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro
Asus Prime Z390-A
Asus Rog Strix -F

Can anyone tell me what the -F and -A means on some of the Asus boards? I notice some have other letters too.

Grimley · 21 Mar 2020 at 18:30

https://www.asus.com/uk/Product-Compare/?products=UjDcCabTD5kJLsNF,kQG1OgjwfAo3g7vj&b=2

From what I read the prime supports RAID 1 & 0 the strix doesnt. Slightly more up to date USB standard on the prime. No PS/2 port on the strix. 1 ARGB header on the strix, 2 on the prime.

Allexx · 21 Mar 2020 at 18:37

Grimley said:
From what I read the prime supports RAID 1 & 0 the strix doesnt. Slightly more up to date USB standard on the prime. No PS/2 port on the strix. 1 ARGB header on the strix, 2 on the prime.

Thank you! The Prime is the one I am more aiming towards too.

lee32uk · 21 Mar 2020 at 19:46

Allexx said:
Thank you! The Prime is the one I am more aiming towards too.

The Gigabyte is the better board by far out of those three.

EsaT · 21 Mar 2020 at 21:18

Allexx said:
I have decided to change my mind on the motherboard even though I already have the board, I am going to looking into getting a Z390 instead im lookinga either the:

No sense to keep spending more money on something what's dead end platform without upgrade path.
You're stuck at max 8 cores, which will be mainstream once next-gen consoles come, no matter the Intel board.

But you should have gotten proper CPU cooler, instead of what's tiny marketing hype cooler with empty continous cooling performance per noise.

Allexx · 21 Mar 2020 at 21:24

EsaT said:
No sense to keep spending more money on something what's dead end platform without upgrade path.
You're stuck at max 8 cores, which will be mainstream once next-gen consoles come, no matter the Intel board.

But you should have gotten proper CPU cooler, instead of what's tiny marketing hype cooler with empty continous cooling performance per noise.

So you are saying i should stick to my asrock z370 and be stuck at 6 cores instead? Im not looking to build an extreme high end/water cooled pc just a rig that'll play everything at max for a few more years, spending more in the future is not a problem.

The cooler was free also so again can be changed, which it will if i go z390 i7.

EsaT · 22 Mar 2020 at 12:51

That existing board takes any CPU there's for that socket version.
Though not that it would make any sense as upgrades, because of Intel's pricing.
And unless you typoed 8700K, that's 8 core/8 threads CPU.