MATX Build. B450m MAX, Z390M or wait...

[Yosiah]

I've been trying to decide for ages...

I've been playing my PS4 a lot lately but have the urge to play some MMOs again, especially with the upcoming 2020 MMOs like Amazon's New World. I'm also missing keyboard and mouse and PC only titles.


My problem is I can't decide between:

• Z390M + 9700k + NH-U12a
• B450m MAX + 3700x + NH-U12a
• Wait for 2020 for new x670m and Z490m

I have a Define Mini C MATX case

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any good x570m board, and I'd rather not use a mini ITX. B450m supports 3700x, but will it support the new 2020 AMD processors?

Z390M is tried and tested for me. I really like their MATX boards. The 9700k is good, but I worry that I'll end up wanting to upgrade to Z490M or x670 for the increased threads, especially with future consoles supporting 16 as standard. With the games I play mainly benefiting from high clock speed, the 9700k would probably play them better.

I wouldn't necessarily mind selling and upgrading again in late 2020.... With that, would you recommend a 3700x build our 9700k? Maybe I'm overthinking it and it doesn't matter that much.... In the end I'll probably just upgrade to a 2020 chipset anyway... But if I went 3700x, maybe those extra threads would make it not worth it.

Ugh, it genuinely feels weird to actually have to decide between AMD and Intel for a change.

 

[Chris Beard]

AMD. Just has more chance of an upgrade path, more chance of fitting the bill if you want to do something new - like creative work or streaming.

In my opinion you need a reason to go Intel these days, as opposed to the other way around like it used to be

 

[Freddie1980]

The 3700x is better value, the 9700k is a bit ahead in games but once you factor the premium for z390 motherboards and the £50+ for Intel's CPU the 3700x becomes a better overall product IMO. You say Z390 is tried and test, well it's been tested plenty and there are loads of security bugs some of which require fixes that reduce overall performance, AM4 is mature as well and has an upgrade path ahead of it whereas Z390 has no future (although in all honesty that's never been a deal breaker for me).