CPU and Motherboard Upgrade - LF Advice

[Wpod]

Hi all,

As per title. I've acquired some parts recently and am due a CPU + Motherboard upgrade to support them. Currently I have:
Asus Prime Z270-P Intel Z270 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Motherboard
Intel Core i5-7600K 3.80GHz (Kaby Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail

I'm looking at something like an i7 but might need help with motherboards. My initial thoughts are either i7 13700KF or i7 14700KF.. is there significant difference between these? Most motherboards in retail right now don't seem to support 14th gen but correct me if I'm wrong. 14th gen is actually cheaper than 13th gen on OCUK which is kinda putting me off at the moment.

Any advice on internal blu-ray drives and USB hubs would be appreciated too. I've just added the parts I could find on OCUK for now.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i7-13700KF (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6B7-IN) = £398.99
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming Z790-Plus WIFI D4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6JN-AS) = £232.99
• 1 x Promo ASUS TUF Gaming H1 Gaming Headset (SKU: SP-02D-AS) = £0.00
  
• 1 x Asus Blu-Ray Combo 12x SATA BDXL & M-Disc Support Cyberlink Power2Go 8 - Retail (SKU: CD-064-AS) = £66.95
• 1 x Akasa Interconnect EX Internal 5-Port Card Reader incl. USB 3.0 Hub (SKU: CM-03P-AK) = £44.99

Total: £743.92 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

Other specs if needed -

Kolink Aviator Midi Tower Gaming Case - Blue
GTX 3080 (new)
2x DDR 4 corsair 64gb ram sticks (new)
Be quiet! cooler (new)
8tb Seagate (new)

MSI MPG A850G PCIE5 UK PSU 850W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply
Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU)
Samsung 980 1 TB PCIe 3.0 (up to 3.500 MB/s) NVMe M.2 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (MZ-V8V1T0BW)
AOC G2460PF - 24 Inch FHD Gaming Monitor, 144Hz, 1ms, TN, FreeSync premium, USB Hub, Height Adjust 1920x1080 @ 144hz, 350 cd/m²

 

[Tetras]

My initial thoughts are either i7 13700KF or i7 14700KF.. is there significant difference between these?

The 14700 is the only one that there is a significant difference (apart from clock speed), because it has 4 additional e-cores (12 versus 8). This is not especially important for gaming, but it can make a difference for productivity.

Most motherboards in retail right now don't seem to support 14th gen but correct me if I'm wrong. 14th gen is actually cheaper than 13th gen on OCUK which is kinda putting me off at the moment.

Pretty much all 12th and 13th gen boards support 14th gen, but they don't support them "out of the box" (i.e. it requires a BIOS update). If you get an older board, then I'd buy on with flashback, but I think Asus only offer this feature on their Z790 Strix boards, not the Prime or TUF. There are some 14th gen compatible boards that aren't badly priced, like MSI's MAX or Gigabyte's X.

Any advice on internal blu-ray drives and USB hubs would be appreciated too. I've just added the parts I could find on OCUK for now.

I don't have any advice on the drives, but just a word of warning: most boards only have 4 SATA ports now (even high-end ones), there's some boards that only have 2 So, if you're using a lot of devices that need SATA ports, you might want to choose a board that has 6 or 8. This is also something to be aware of with card readers, because that one needs 1x SATA port, 1x internal USB 3.0, 1x internal USB 2.0 AND 1x Molex (which can be difficult to get on modern PSUs)..