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CPU Decision

sybaris

sybaris

sybaris

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Joined
21 Jun 2010
Posts
787
Location
infornt of my PC
Hi
I have a 7 year old rig. Currently running an i7 4770K which has been clocked to 4.5ghz and been pretty stable all this time.
I use my PC for everything, work stuff, gaming, streaming etc.

I am now starting to play with VMs and am planning to run several VMs I am looking to build a new PC.
I've always had intel but I am open to the new Ryzen 9's as well as i9 and i7. Budget for a CPU is about
£600.

What do you recommend?
I'm planning on either 64gb or 128gb or RAM anyway depending on how many VMs I decide to run.
 
10850K or 5900x, both are decent options, the benefit of the 5900x is the extra 2c/4t and PCI-E 4.0 out of the gate, the drawback is cost and availability.
 
TBH for use case like yours where you actually will use 12+ cores, Ryzen 5000 is very compelling. High core speeds combined with large core counts aren’t something Intel will be able to partially match before the end of the year; rocket lake being fast but restricted to eight cores.

The main issue will be getting stock, the R9’s will take a bit of effort.
 
I have a 20c40t v4 Xeon in my Unraid box. 4x32gb Samsung RDIMM ECC and a server board. Been running a W10 VM for over a year as my main desktop, 1660 Super pass through for gaming - Vulkan performance is superb :)

Would recommend.
 
Mesai said:
What are you looking to use the VMs for?
Click to expand...
Looking to get technical and want to build windows servers, sql, exchange, linux and do some virtual networking. Also some gaming though I am not a hard core FPS at a million frame rates
 
sybaris said:
Looking to get technical and want to build windows servers, sql, exchange, linux and do some virtual networking. Also some gaming though I am not a hard core FPS at a million frame rates
Click to expand...

Ah right, then yea, you'll want 10 minimum. If it was just for development then 8 cores and Docker is perfect for most.
 
thanks everyone, I figured go for the 5900x and spend the extra on the RAM rather than go for a 5950 and less RAM, I won't have all the VMs running at the same time or all the time, I am building them for learning purposes
so yes there may be times when I have a few running and times when I may only have the base PC running.
 
sybaris said:
thanks everyone, I figured go for the 5900x and spend the extra on the RAM rather than go for a 5950 and less RAM, I won't have all the VMs running at the same time or all the time, I am building them for learning purposes
so yes there may be times when I have a few running and times when I may only have the base PC running.
Click to expand...

Good choice mate. I’d recommend signing up to partalert in your search for a 5900X.
 
sybaris said:
Hi
I have a 7 year old rig. Currently running an i7 4770K which has been clocked to 4.5ghz and been pretty stable all this time.
I use my PC for everything, work stuff, gaming, streaming etc.

I am now starting to play with VMs and am planning to run several VMs I am looking to build a new PC.
I've always had intel but I am open to the new Ryzen 9's as well as i9 and i7. Budget for a CPU is about
£600.

What do you recommend?
I'm planning on either 64gb or 128gb or RAM anyway depending on how many VMs I decide to run.
Click to expand...

You definitely don't need a 5000 series CPU. They are premium, with premium pricing. For your budget I recommend a 3600 for less than £170 and even less if you dare to go second hand.

Dont even get a new cooler till you try the stock one. It works great for us. I went to this from an Intel 4670K. You don't need the *best* CPU. You need a *really great* CPU at less than half the price.
 
denigor777 said:
You definitely don't need a 5000 series CPU. They are premium, with premium pricing. For your budget I recommend a 3600 for less than £170 and even less if you dare to go second hand.

Dont even get a new cooler till you try the stock one. It works great for us. I went to this from an Intel 4670K. You don't need the *best* CPU. You need a *really great* CPU at less than half the price.
Click to expand...
He has said he going to be using VM's. Therefore he will need a CPU with as many cores as possible (plus also a good amount of RAM) therefore the 3600X is one of the last CPU that would satisfy his requirements. He also said that he has a budget of £600 for the CPU therefore a 5900X would be perfect for his budget and stated usage (when/if he can get one).
 
I use VMs myself very successfully with the 3600. Admittedly I only run 3 VMs at once (using VM Workstation on Win 10).
- a Debian instance running GNS3 with 8 router instances,
- a Win 8 instance running old VPN software environment to let me reach a training lab
- a VM where Im working with win server R2 which i use for database installs.

I think we lack information here, as the OP isn't telling us what he needs in terms of full scsling details. I considered his needs similar to mine, but I agree this assumption coukd be wrong.
 
denigor777 said:
I use VMs myself very successfully with the 3600. Admittedly I only run 3 VMs at once (using VM Workstation on Win 10).
- a Debian instance running GNS3 with 8 router instances,
- a Win 8 instance running old VPN software environment to let me reach a training lab
- a VM where Im working with win server R2 which i use for database installs.

I think we lack information here, as the OP isn't telling us what he needs in terms of full scsling details. I considered his needs similar to mine, but I agree this assumption coukd be wrong.
Click to expand...
Of course you can run VM's on a 3600X but the OP clearly stated that his CPU budget is £600 so it's not really answering his query by giving him the best value one at £170, when it is substantially inferior, especially when it comes to streaming, which is another of his stated uses.
 
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