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Is now a good time to upgrade?

h4rm0ny

h4rm0ny

h4rm0ny

Soldato
Joined
25 Jun 2011
Posts
5,526
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Yorkshire and proud of it!
My current system? An FX-8370 Piledriver with 24GB of 1333MHz RAM. Don't laugh - it's seen me through most of my modest needs and is still going strong. But even I admit it's not cutting edge.

I'm currently looking at either a 2700X or a Threadripper. I don't game much. I do write software in several languages and do database work. So I run a few VMs and do a bit of compiling. Hence the 24GB (which is going to be very expensive to replace with DDR4 :( ). One of the big draws aside from faster memory and faster execution, is being able to have multiple PCIx4 SSDs. I can never, ever, get enough disk speed.

If I buy now am I shooting myself in the foot with anything new about to come out or big price changes?
 
Personally I would say now is not the best time, especially if you can perhaps wait a few months. 7nm Ryzen 2 is out next year with promise for some good gains over the current generation of Zen+, as well as the Intel 9 series chips coming soon.

But, that doesn't mean to say don't buy a 2700x or Threadripper, if you want something now, then go for it, either will be a huge upgrade over your current system, and you could even drop a Zen 2 chip in later next year if you find the performance increase to be worth it.

I've been with my current system for many years now, and I personally feel the wait for the next generation of CPU's is going to be worth it.
 
I should have said, one of my goals here is to future-proof as much as possible. I know that's not truly possible but I'd like to avoid being on the wrong side of any large changes in technology. I've got... eight years out of my current system. Feels like it. That's partly what's pushing me to Threadripper as I think in the future more cores will be much better utilised than they are today.
 
andy_mk3 said:
Personally I would say now is not the best time, especially if you can perhaps wait a few months. 7nm Ryzen 2 is out next year with promise for some good gains over the current generation of Zen+, as well as the Intel 9 series chips coming soon.

But, that doesn't mean to say don't buy a 2700x or Threadripper, if you want something now, then go for it, either will be a huge upgrade over your current system, and you could even drop a Zen 2 chip in later next year if you find the performance increase to be worth it.

I've been with my current system for many years now, and I personally feel the wait for the next generation of CPU's is going to be worth it.
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Threadripper is already 7nm, yes? So **IF** I went Threadripper it wouldn't be so bad to buy now but if I go Ryzen that's more reason to wait until next year - is that right?

I can definitely wait a bit. But also if I wait and then just buy what I would have anyway, I've lost out...
 
I think Threadripper would suit your application pretty well, so there's not really anything around the corner that is going to change things dramatically. Threadripper 2 is on 12nm 'Zen+', Zen2 on 7nm is next year, which should see a healthy IPC increase. From what I have seen it's likely Zen2 will also bring some 16 core CPUs.
 
andy_mk3 said:
I think Threadripper would suit your application pretty well, so there's not really anything around the corner that is going to change things dramatically. Threadripper 2 is on 12nm 'Zen+', Zen2 on 7nm is next year, which should see a healthy IPC increase. From what I have seen it's likely Zen2 will also bring some 16 core CPUs.
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I'd like to buy something before the end of the year, though it's not absolutely necessary. I think some of the new AMD chips are going to support PCI-Ev4 which is the main thing I'm aware of. To me that sounds like faster disks, but I don't know how long it would take for that to become an affordable thing.
 
I've priced up two systems. A Ryzen 7 2700 system coming to £823.97 and a TR 2950 system coming to £1,784.92. I mean, I could afford either but the latter makes me wince. Both with 32GB RAM. If stretch both builds out over the next eight years as this one has lasted, then that's £104 per year vs. £223 per year. So would I pay £110 a year to have an extra eight cores?



I like that the TR build has quad channel memory but I'm not sure how much difference it will make.
 
A terrible time.

My sig rig was around £900 with a 970 4 years ago. It cost me £200 extra to upgrade to a 1070.

I’m itching to upgrade but have no need.

If I built an equivalent rig today and went for a 2070 it would be about £1500 and that would mean sticking with the same amount of RAM which would be the first time in 20 years of building PCs that I would have ever done so.
 
McGraw said:
A terrible time.

My sig rig was around £900 with a 970 4 years ago. It cost me £200 extra to upgrade to a 1070.

I’m itching to upgrade but have no need.

If I built an equivalent rig today and went for a 2070 it would be about £1500 and that would mean sticking with the same amount of RAM which would be the first time in 20 years of building PCs that I would have ever done so.
Click to expand...
That's GPU upgrades.. OP wants a fast CPU. There are areas that he will see a much more dramatic difference going from an 8350 to 2950 then you did going from 970 to 1070 for gaming.
 
It is a good time if you want AMD, the 2nd Gen Ryzen CPUs came out in April 2018, and the B450 chipset motherboards came out at the end of July 2018 so its still fairly new tech. The Coffee lake intel 8th gen Intel stuff is a bit older and is due a refresh in October.

I normally go for Intel but decided on the Ryzen 5 2600 over the Core i5-8400 because it has 6 cores and 12 threads compared to the i5-8400 with 6 cores 6 threads, roughly the same price but the i5-8400 is a bit older.

If gaming is your primary concern the i5-8400 is considered a better choice but I'm not a heavy gamer and the Ryzen 5 2600 is no slouch in games anyway.
 
h4rm0ny said:
I've priced up two systems. A Ryzen 7 2700 system coming to £823.97 and a TR 2950 system coming to £1,784.92. I mean, I could afford either but the latter makes me wince. Both with 32GB RAM. If stretch both builds out over the next eight years as this one has lasted, then that's £104 per year vs. £223 per year. So would I pay £110 a year to have an extra eight cores?
I like that the TR build has quad channel memory but I'm not sure how much difference it will make.
Click to expand...


If you go with the former, you can drop a ryzen 2 or potentially ryzen 2+/3 into it in 1 yr 2 yr 3yrs time.
It'll give you a great amount of processing power, and indeed, be able to upgrade to even more, without costing as much as the latter system.

I'd edge towards it, but if not in a massive rush, I'd await ryzen 2, and the new mobo ranges with it, as they will likely have more lasting features than the current range.
 
McGraw said:
A terrible time.

My sig rig was around £900 with a 970 4 years ago. It cost me £200 extra to upgrade to a 1070.

I’m itching to upgrade but have no need.

If I built an equivalent rig today and went for a 2070 it would be about £1500 and that would mean sticking with the same amount of RAM which would be the first time in 20 years of building PCs that I would have ever done so.
Click to expand...

Lokken86 said:
That's GPU upgrades.. OP wants a fast CPU. There are areas that he will see a much more dramatic difference going from an 8350 to 2950 then you did going from 970 to 1070 for gaming.
Click to expand...

Yes. I'm looking for more CPU, memory and maybe disk performance than GPU right now. Not that I wouldn't like to upgrade my RX-480 card as well, but I don't really game so it would just be my "buy the best" compulsion getting the best of me again. I'm considering seeing what Navi is like next year, though.
 
nlel1975 said:
It is a good time if you want AMD, the 2nd Gen Ryzen CPUs came out in April 2018, and the B450 chipset motherboards came out at the end of July 2018 so its still fairly new tech. The Coffee lake intel 8th gen Intel stuff is a bit older and is due a refresh in October.

I normally go for Intel but decided on the Ryzen 5 2600 over the Core i5-8400 because it has 6 cores and 12 threads compared to the i5-8400 with 6 cores 6 threads, roughly the same price but the i5-8400 is a bit older.

If gaming is your primary concern the i5-8400 is considered a better choice but I'm not a heavy gamer and the Ryzen 5 2600 is no slouch in games anyway.
Click to expand...

It's not really for gaming. And I have a definite preference for AMD where possible. I don't really like Intel much as a company whereas I have a certain affection for AMD.

nkata said:
A placeholder (together with some Gskill Ripjaws V 3200C14 or similar added).

The 1700 or 1700x was about £150 recently so look out for a bargain. Definitely get a good board if you want a high spec later upgrade.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £460.48 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​
Click to expand...

Destination said:
If you go with the former, you can drop a ryzen 2 or potentially ryzen 2+/3 into it in 1 yr 2 yr 3yrs time.
It'll give you a great amount of processing power, and indeed, be able to upgrade to even more, without costing as much as the latter system.

I'd edge towards it, but if not in a massive rush, I'd await ryzen 2, and the new mobo ranges with it, as they will likely have more lasting features than the current range.
Click to expand...


I think you've all inclined me towards going with Ryzen. Either will be a big step up from what I have and £150 is cheap enough that I could pay it as a stop gap until Ryzen 2/3 later on. But still, Threadripper seems very tempting...
 
h4rm0ny said:
It's not really for gaming. And I have a definite preference for AMD where possible. I don't really like Intel much as a company whereas I have a certain affection for AMD.






I think you've all inclined me towards going with Ryzen. Either will be a big step up from what I have and £150 is cheap enough that I could pay it as a stop gap until Ryzen 2/3 later on. But still, Threadripper seems very tempting...
Click to expand...

I doubled Cinebench score going from Piledriver 9590 to Ryzen 7, not that Cinebench played a big part. Less heat, power and noise but solid processing, coding etc. played well.
 
depending on budget i would say wait till near christmas when the new intel chips are out. either way then you will have better options. dont limit yourself through loyalty its a stupid decision. just buy whats best for yourself.
 
Lokken86 said:
That's GPU upgrades.. OP wants a fast CPU. There are areas that he will see a much more dramatic difference going from an 8350 to 2950 then you did going from 970 to 1070 for gaming.
Click to expand...

What do you mean? My 4790k was £240, RAM £120 and board £105.

All these things are about £700 now if I went 8700k.

Yes I mentioned my GPU but I’m just illustrating the overall increase in everything.

It used to be that you could expect to spend a little more for a lot more performance every upgrade cycle. Nowadays it’s the opposite
 
Bad time. Core 9000 series due in a month (although reasonable availability is not likely until 2019 IMO), Zen 2 due 1H 2019 and RAM prices are still pretty terrible.
 
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