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Is now a good time to upgrade?

It's been a bad time to upgrade for a long time.

If it wasn't the intel cpu shortages causing price gouging it was the mining boom and other factors causing insane gpu prices.
Add that to the ridiculous ram pricing and we've been getting shafted left right and centre.

Right now at this moment in time Ram prices seem to be levelling out and there are deals to be had on gtx 10 series cards relative to what they were priced at before the RTX release.

As for cpus there have been some great deals on the original ryzen and threadripper cpus and prices on ryzen 2xxx series arent terrible.

Intel cpu prices are silly because of stock shortages and there is a new 9 series cpu due out that muddies the waters even more.

It is likely that the 9 series will suffer the same stock shortage as the 8 series and so prices of that will be higher than they should be.

Then theres the impending release of Amd's zen 2 chips and their new gpus sometime in the first half of 2019 which makes buying anything AMD now not a terrible idea but less ideal than it was several months ago.

Oh and the new rtx cards from nvidia are a terrible value proposition but limited supply means that prices are high and getting one is difficult.

So there you go. Clear as mud.

The pc space is always moving forward so whatever you buy is going to be outdated pretty soon after purchase.
Personally i would say just buy when you feel you need something new. Because by the time everything new is out next year people will be saying wait for the new nvidia stuff or pcie4 or whatever the next big thing on the horizon is.

That said we are literally days away from the intel releases so waiting for that might not be a bad idea.
 
Is there a chance the Intel releases will push AMD prices down? (I suppose probably not, given "Intel" and "Competitive Pricing" go together like chocolate and chips).

EDIT: As much as anything it's the RAM prices that are killing me.
 
h4rm0ny said:
EDIT: As much as anything it's the RAM prices that are killing me.
Click to expand...

I always go for value ram, I bought 16GB of DDR3 1333 (4x4GB) about 7 years ago for £ 40 ex VAT which wasn't the fastest. I recently bought two 16GB sticks of DDR4 2133 for £ 80.75 ex VAT each. So roughly double the money which is not bad considering it is faster DDR4 in today's market.

Some people think I'm crazy running 2133 RAM with a Ryzen CPU but I don't care the machine seems perfectly fast enough for my usage but I would recommend getting the cheapest 3000 stuff from ocUk for a little bit more. It's worth it and those deals weren't available when I bought my RAM a few weeks ago otherwise I would have bought from ocUK.
 
I've gone with a 1900X. Once 7nm TR comes out and launch prices drop I'll upgrade. I get to set up a TR system without having to wait too long and spread the pain of the cost over time :)
 
nlel1975 said:
I always go for value ram, I bought 16GB of DDR3 1333 (4x4GB) about 7 years ago for £ 40 ex VAT which wasn't the fastest. I recently bought two 16GB sticks of DDR4 2133 for £ 80.75 ex VAT each. So roughly double the money which is not bad considering it is faster DDR4 in today's market.
Some people think I'm crazy running 2133 RAM with a Ryzen CPU but I don't care the machine seems perfectly fast enough for my usage but I would recommend getting the cheapest 3000 stuff from ocUk for a little bit more. It's worth it and those deals weren't available when I bought my RAM a few weeks ago otherwise I would have bought from ocUK.
Click to expand...

i am the same with ram, i dont run silly price ram. most if not all ddr4 will run at around 2800Mhz with no work.
i have 3 systems all with the cheap 8gb Crucial (2133Mhz) sticks in them, all ram as voltage up'ed by .05 all all stick run at 2800Mhz cl15 one system will do 3000Mhz with voltage up .10

if you dont do ram intensive task's you dont need silly priced ram
 
h4rm0ny said:
Is there a chance the Intel releases will push AMD prices down? (I suppose probably not, given "Intel" and "Competitive Pricing" go together like chocolate and chips).

EDIT: As much as anything it's the RAM prices that are killing me.
Click to expand...

Unlikely. But there is talk of a new 10 core 2800 chip from AMD coming out to **** on intels new cpu fire. That might impact prices of the current 2*** series.

Expect Intel to release their 9th gen chips with flagship 8 core cpu for all the money, and AMD to follow up with the release of a 10 core for a far more reasonable sum.
 
h4rm0ny said:
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?
Click to expand...

I don't see now as a bad time if you prefer HEDT and slight future proofing, especially for what you are using it for. I've spec'd up the basics below using a PC parts comparison site showing you what you can get now, and has the ability to be upgraded, and meets your requirements.

CPU: AMD - Threadripper 1920X 3.5GHz 12-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASRock - X399 Taichi ATX TR4 Motherboard
Memory: Team - Vulcan 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Memory: Team - Vulcan 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Storage: ADATA - XPG SX8200 480GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Storage: ADATA - XPG SX8200 480GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Total: £1364.77

I've not added a GPU or case since you could happily use the ones you have got for now to save some funds, you would need a PSU and a good cooler though.

Obviously the benefit of the TR4 socket means that if the 12c/24t 1920X becomes a problem down the line, you'll have at least the Gen 3 TR CPU's that will be able to be dropped in, and possibly the gen 4's. I've also specified 64GB RAM from the start, but if you feel that is too much, then you can always swap the 4x 16GB for 4x 8GB modules. As per the spec, I have included 2x NVMe M.2 SSD's, these are ADATA rather than Samsung as the costs is lower, and the 4k reads/writes are actually better in some cases, which is where you'll benefit with running VM's, ideally you'd want to specify Intel 900P drives, but they are silly money.

I'm not sure if you waited 9 months for then next gen of Threadripper, or indeed 7-8 months for Ryzen 3XXX series you'd do much better, RAM prices might have come down a bit and the desktop parts might have more cores, but you'll still be stuck with 24 full speed PCIe lanes by the look of things.
 
P4Clock said:
i am the same with ram, i dont run silly price ram. most if not all ddr4 will run at around 2800Mhz with no work.
i have 3 systems all with the cheap 8gb Crucial (2133Mhz) sticks in them, all ram as voltage up'ed by .05 all all stick run at 2800Mhz cl15 one system will do 3000Mhz with voltage up .10

if you dont do ram intensive task's you dont need silly priced ram
Click to expand...

I don't intend to overclock the system at all, so I've no need of hyper-expensive RAM. I do usually buy Corsair just because I always have and it's always worked well.

I'm concerned about buying a 1st gen. motherboard if I go Threadripper. I read a few comments saying they might not be so good with 2nd gen TR onwards due to power demands.
 
h4rm0ny said:
I'm concerned about buying a 1st gen. motherboard if I go Threadripper. I read a few comments saying they might not be so good with 2nd gen TR onwards due to power demands.
Click to expand...

i would think that only on the very high core count new chips.

in the real world what chip you your be looking at buying
 
h4rm0ny said:
I'm concerned about buying a 1st gen. motherboard if I go Threadripper. I read a few comments saying they might not be so good with 2nd gen TR onwards due to power demands.
Click to expand...

Power demands will level off again with TDP's of around 180w again with 7nm Threadripper next year, making the demands of the 2970 and 2990's 250w seem high.

The sensible option is the 1920X at £370, and a decent board, with a view to changing come gen 3. Look at it from this point of view, spend £850+ on a second gen 2950X now, or save £500 almost and then get a 3rd gen CPU for about £500-600 with 24+ cores, making the overall spend the same acter selling the 1920X and no power worries on the board. :)
 
Journey said:
I don't see now as a bad time if you prefer HEDT and slight future proofing, especially for what you are using it for. I've spec'd up the basics below using a PC parts comparison site showing you what you can get now, and has the ability to be upgraded, and meets your requirements.
Click to expand...
Journey said:
CPU: AMD - Threadripper 1920X 3.5GHz 12-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASRock - X399 Taichi ATX TR4 Motherboard
Memory: Team - Vulcan 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Memory: Team - Vulcan 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Storage: ADATA - XPG SX8200 480GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Storage: ADATA - XPG SX8200 480GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Total: £1364.77

I've not added a GPU or case since you could happily use the ones you have got for now to save some funds, you would need a PSU and a good cooler though.

Obviously the benefit of the TR4 socket means that if the 12c/24t 1920X becomes a problem down the line, you'll have at least the Gen 3 TR CPU's that will be able to be dropped in, and possibly the gen 4's. I've also specified 64GB RAM from the start, but if you feel that is too much, then you can always swap the 4x 16GB for 4x 8GB modules. As per the spec, I have included 2x NVMe M.2 SSD's, these are ADATA rather than Samsung as the costs is lower, and the 4k reads/writes are actually better in some cases, which is where you'll benefit with running VM's, ideally you'd want to specify Intel 900P drives, but they are silly money.

I'm not sure if you waited 9 months for then next gen of Threadripper, or indeed 7-8 months for Ryzen 3XXX series you'd do much better, RAM prices might have come down a bit and the desktop parts might have more cores, but you'll still be stuck with 24 full speed PCIe lanes by the look of things.
Click to expand...

Journey said:
Power demands will level off again with TDP's of around 180w again with 7nm Threadripper next year, making the demands of the 2970 and 2990's 250w seem high.
Click to expand...
Journey said:
The sensible option is the 1920X at £370, and a decent board, with a view to changing come gen 3. Look at it from this point of view, spend £850+ on a second gen 2950X now, or save £500 almost and then get a 3rd gen CPU for about £500-600 with 24+ cores, making the overall spend the same acter selling the 1920X and no power worries on the board. :)
Click to expand...

Aaaaand now I'm back to thinking I'll get Threadripper. :) :D

So the Ryzen 2700X build I'm looking at is a bit shy of £900. For £1400 I can get something twice as powerful. I've been thinking in terms of trying to put off upgrading as long as possible but maybe a CPU upgrade part way through would work. I've also been a victim of upselling myself. That build above comes in much below my own at £1750 and isn't much difference except for being a half-generation behind in the CPU and maybe a little lower in the memory.

I can drop it down to 32GB RAM for the time being (I'll still get 2x16GB though, I expect. Pricier but I can see myself adding to it in the future). I do like the double SSD, though. Visions of RAIDing them are swimming through my mind. Dropping the extra RAM will cover the PSU and the cooler....

These forums really need a table format but anyway, here's some rough estimates based on the idea that I can make the systems last different numbers of years depending on what I get. I've made this system last nearly 8yrs which is impressive in computer terms so I think I could conceivably do the same again given that in many ways computers are levelling off in terms of the computing power we actually need from them.

Code: 
                               Cost        Expected Life Span (yrs)     Cost/yr        Cost of Future Replacement    Total Cost (8yrs)
TR 1920X                       £1,365.00          6                     £227.50               £1,000.00                  £1,615.00
Ryzen 2700X                      £850.00          4                     £212.50               £1,000.00                  £1,350.00
TR 1920X + Upgrade*            £1,865.00          8                     £233.13               £1,000.00                  £1,865.00
                 
 *Cost of Upgrade:    £500




So if I wanted to upgrade the 2700X in 4 years time and it was to something significantly different (which I think is likely as I see MOAR CORES to be the future), then I have to factor in the earlier buying of a replacement system. A 1920X I see lasting a couple of years moe before I was 'too far behind the curve' and a 1920X with a mid-life CPU upgrade as Journey suggests I should be able to make last even longer than that (and thus no premature cost in final upgrade). So basically, do I want to pay £300 more than the Ryzen for 150% (but which is only applicable in certain scenarios), or £500 more for something that starts at 150% the core power and likely rises even higher in 2-3 years time.​
​
 
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CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
It might quite possible for AMD to release a Ryzen FX or something before the mainstream CPUs a bit earlier,but getting to 7NM earlier on the commercial side is probably going to help them more IMHO.
Click to expand...

Yeah, AMD will make a killing there. Personally I would be really happy if it's Q1 for Ryzen 3000 because I'm itching for a new system but I just can't see it.
 
lol I have 2 asus gtx 980 ti matrix in sli play at 1400p on asus swift at 144 fps so why whuld I need to speened £3000 for best 30% fps lol and prob buy new i9 9900k with new m/board HOW
 
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