Soldato
- Joined
- 26 Apr 2004
- Posts
- 9,711
- Location
- Milton Keynes
Hey guys,
Was hoping to get a little community feedback and thoughts, if nothing else to help me make up my own mind!
Black Friday weekend typically tends to have some of the best tech deals of the year, so I've been waiting a number of months to do a fresh PC for one of our rooms which is generally an all purpose gamer/media rig, and essentially have a 3070 and 32GB of DDR4 3600C16 waiting to go in it already, but I am a little torn on the exact route to go down, as there seem to be more potentially valid choices now than there have been for a long time. I sold off some bits recently so essentially have about £450-500 waiting as funds to go towards this already; ideally I'd like to not stray too far from this.
Options are:
1) Build something lower midrange as per original plan, that just won't bottleneck the 3070.
2) Put my current gaming machine there (10700k/32GB 3200/500GB SSD), transplant the 3070 to this rig, and pull the current 3080 out to go with the 32GB DDR4 3600, and build a mid-high rig for myself.
If I go for Option 1
A) Go for AMDs last gen AM4, so might get a decent deal on old gen stock, it'll still be fast and much more up to date than what came before, but would be slowest option CPU wise, and slightly more outdated. Would probably go with a 5600, unless I saw a really good deal on a faster chip, but reckon I'd be able to get a 5600/B550/Case/PSU/SSD for roughly the money I have fairly easily.
B) Build something on Intel's current motherboard socket (it has 2 generations of CPUs, the one out now, and one due out soon) but will then be end of line, supports a few slightly newer features than AM4, and at least compared to a 5600/5600X, anything 12400 up will be as fast or faster, and I'll have the option of dropping a 13th gen in later. Will cost a bit more than A, but I don't think I'd go wrong with a 12400 or 12600K (albeit I'm leaning towards the 12400).
If I got for Option 2
A/B - still valid options although I'd perhaps go for a higher end CPU on the platforms if it was to be my primary machine.
C) Go with AMDs' MUCH more expensive AM5 socket.
I am NOT intending to buy a new GPU; the 3070 and 3080 I already have are fine for me right now; it's more a question on the overall platform; I don't think I can go wrong with any of the options which is nice, but I must admit AM5 seems to be the weakest link/puts itself out of the range of what I want to spend at current pricing; it theoretically should see new CPU releases for 3+ years, but costs considerably more so the whole build would cost a LOT more AND require me to sell off/replace my DDR4; the machine would theoretically be with us for considerably longer this route though; and I can't help but feel unless there are some REALLY good deals because stock isn't moving, that option A/B just make more sense, even for a mid-high end gaming build.
Depending on the Black Friday weekend deals that come up, what would you do?
Was hoping to get a little community feedback and thoughts, if nothing else to help me make up my own mind!
Black Friday weekend typically tends to have some of the best tech deals of the year, so I've been waiting a number of months to do a fresh PC for one of our rooms which is generally an all purpose gamer/media rig, and essentially have a 3070 and 32GB of DDR4 3600C16 waiting to go in it already, but I am a little torn on the exact route to go down, as there seem to be more potentially valid choices now than there have been for a long time. I sold off some bits recently so essentially have about £450-500 waiting as funds to go towards this already; ideally I'd like to not stray too far from this.
Options are:
1) Build something lower midrange as per original plan, that just won't bottleneck the 3070.
2) Put my current gaming machine there (10700k/32GB 3200/500GB SSD), transplant the 3070 to this rig, and pull the current 3080 out to go with the 32GB DDR4 3600, and build a mid-high rig for myself.
If I go for Option 1
A) Go for AMDs last gen AM4, so might get a decent deal on old gen stock, it'll still be fast and much more up to date than what came before, but would be slowest option CPU wise, and slightly more outdated. Would probably go with a 5600, unless I saw a really good deal on a faster chip, but reckon I'd be able to get a 5600/B550/Case/PSU/SSD for roughly the money I have fairly easily.
B) Build something on Intel's current motherboard socket (it has 2 generations of CPUs, the one out now, and one due out soon) but will then be end of line, supports a few slightly newer features than AM4, and at least compared to a 5600/5600X, anything 12400 up will be as fast or faster, and I'll have the option of dropping a 13th gen in later. Will cost a bit more than A, but I don't think I'd go wrong with a 12400 or 12600K (albeit I'm leaning towards the 12400).
If I got for Option 2
A/B - still valid options although I'd perhaps go for a higher end CPU on the platforms if it was to be my primary machine.
C) Go with AMDs' MUCH more expensive AM5 socket.
I am NOT intending to buy a new GPU; the 3070 and 3080 I already have are fine for me right now; it's more a question on the overall platform; I don't think I can go wrong with any of the options which is nice, but I must admit AM5 seems to be the weakest link/puts itself out of the range of what I want to spend at current pricing; it theoretically should see new CPU releases for 3+ years, but costs considerably more so the whole build would cost a LOT more AND require me to sell off/replace my DDR4; the machine would theoretically be with us for considerably longer this route though; and I can't help but feel unless there are some REALLY good deals because stock isn't moving, that option A/B just make more sense, even for a mid-high end gaming build.
Depending on the Black Friday weekend deals that come up, what would you do?
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