I've not done an extensive memtest yet but XMP seems to have taken first time with having to tweak it, I had a load of other issues but that is another story and unrelated to the RAM.
Upgrade from 4770k to 14700k
- Thread starter Werewolf
- Start date
I've not done an extensive memtest yet but XMP seems to have taken first time with having to tweak it, I had a load of other issues but that is another story and unrelated to the RAM.
Just got a partial shipment through from overclockers, and the noctura box is huge.
Now I'm waiting for the motherboard to be back in stock and the ram to arrive from taiwan.
On the plus side it's giving me plenty of time to get my emails sorted (so many "you bought a drill last week, here are more drills you might like" from amazon etc), and get everything ready. I've taken the route this build of sorting out a windows installation usb, and another one with memtest and all the apps and drivers on it.
Now I'm waiting for the motherboard to be back in stock and the ram to arrive from taiwan.
On the plus side it's giving me plenty of time to get my emails sorted (so many "you bought a drill last week, here are more drills you might like" from amazon etc), and get everything ready. I've taken the route this build of sorting out a windows installation usb, and another one with memtest and all the apps and drivers on it.
@Werewolf psst...better motherboard...same price: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...-lga-1700-ddr5-atx-motherboard-mb-379-ms.html
Typical!
At least the motherboard hasn't shipped.
I'll give them a ring Monday morning and see if they can swap out the board on my order and hopefully get them to do it for my brothers as well.
It looks like it loses a PCI-E slot, but gains an SATA, better sound, better/stronger slot for the main GPU, and a couple of other minor changes (plus a usb stick to load updated bios's onto!)
You'll probably need to flash the latest bios on a z790 board so it will recognise the 14 series refresh chips. MSI have released the bios you need for that board and you can flash without the cpu plugged in.
I'd also recommend getting a contact frame for your cpu and using that from the outset rather than the Intel retention mechanism.
MSI also have an updated version of that board coming soon (tomahawk max) that adds a gen 5 storage slot, but if you use it you lose half the gpu slot bandwidth. I know we don't have gen 5 gpus at the moment, so no idea if this is a big deal or not. The updated board is also more expensive at the moment.
I'd also recommend getting a contact frame for your cpu and using that from the outset rather than the Intel retention mechanism.
MSI also have an updated version of that board coming soon (tomahawk max) that adds a gen 5 storage slot, but if you use it you lose half the gpu slot bandwidth. I know we don't have gen 5 gpus at the moment, so no idea if this is a big deal or not. The updated board is also more expensive at the moment.
There is also £30 cashback available from MSI on the purchase of that motherboard - https://uk.msi.com/Promotion/gearupgetcashback
There is also a steam voucher available if you leave a review on OCUK for your board - https://uk.msi.com/Landing/join-shout-out-for-msi but that offer closes tomorrow
There is also a steam voucher available if you leave a review on OCUK for your board - https://uk.msi.com/Landing/join-shout-out-for-msi but that offer closes tomorrow
Even better 
I just rang up and got the board changed over
I just rang up and got the board changed over
Soldato
I realise you've already got a lot of bits there, I still would have been tempted to return the Intel CPU and to get the 7800X3D simply because when it shines it really shines (the huge cache has benefits all over the place, not just games), and power consumption is considerably lower, which may impact you more especially as you mentioned you're going to have the system long term. For CPU limited games, it often does better than the Intel chip/has higher minimum framerates due to the huge CPU cache as well.
The intel chip has more cores though, and I'm sure you'll find it really fast and usable overall, there is nothing wrong with 14th gen, beyond the fact they're hot and power hungry under full load, it's just not any sort of real movement from 13th or even 12th gen, so feels like you could have had a very similar upgrade and experience a few years ago with Intel, whereas at least the 7800X3D when it shines, is basically off the charts compared to other stuff (without similar cache)
The AMD chip performs just as well for games and most tasks except heavy productivity, but the lower power consumption and heat should mean you can theoretically get a cooler, quieter PC, and lower bills each month; with power bills being what they are these days, its worth factoring.
Borrowed this chart below and it just seems a much more efficient chip under load, even if it lacks the raw multithread capability of the 7800x3D, and whilst you have no plans to upgrade your CPU for years, you would potentially have options later on to grab a multiple generations newer CPU at a later date to get a performance boost, instead of having to do a full platform refresh. (Imagine you could have dropped a 8700K/9900K in your current 4770K machine as a mid gen upgrade several years down the lines to see what I mean, it may impact how soon you need to do a whole platform refresh).
Almost 300W just on the CPU under loads where the 7800x3D is pulling sub 100W. Using a Noctua NH-U14S, the 7800X3D was around 12 degrees cooler also, which translates to a quieter running cooler not having to work as hard, or less heat kicked out into your room. (If you use it to keep your room warm, then ignore me)
As your parts are still arriving, and you should still be able to return, I just wanted to remention this, as have to wonder if you're backing the wrong horse with Intel. It won't be a BAD choice, just not sure it's the best
The 7800X3D is also cheaper than the 14700k
My current rig is (overclocked) Intel, my previous rig was Intel (10700K) and my wife's rig is a 10700K (and even this is power hungry), if I was building now, I'd be building AMD
The intel chip has more cores though, and I'm sure you'll find it really fast and usable overall, there is nothing wrong with 14th gen, beyond the fact they're hot and power hungry under full load, it's just not any sort of real movement from 13th or even 12th gen, so feels like you could have had a very similar upgrade and experience a few years ago with Intel, whereas at least the 7800X3D when it shines, is basically off the charts compared to other stuff (without similar cache)
The AMD chip performs just as well for games and most tasks except heavy productivity, but the lower power consumption and heat should mean you can theoretically get a cooler, quieter PC, and lower bills each month; with power bills being what they are these days, its worth factoring.
Borrowed this chart below and it just seems a much more efficient chip under load, even if it lacks the raw multithread capability of the 7800x3D, and whilst you have no plans to upgrade your CPU for years, you would potentially have options later on to grab a multiple generations newer CPU at a later date to get a performance boost, instead of having to do a full platform refresh. (Imagine you could have dropped a 8700K/9900K in your current 4770K machine as a mid gen upgrade several years down the lines to see what I mean, it may impact how soon you need to do a whole platform refresh).
Almost 300W just on the CPU under loads where the 7800x3D is pulling sub 100W. Using a Noctua NH-U14S, the 7800X3D was around 12 degrees cooler also, which translates to a quieter running cooler not having to work as hard, or less heat kicked out into your room. (If you use it to keep your room warm, then ignore me)
As your parts are still arriving, and you should still be able to return, I just wanted to remention this, as have to wonder if you're backing the wrong horse with Intel. It won't be a BAD choice, just not sure it's the best
The 7800X3D is also cheaper than the 14700k
My current rig is (overclocked) Intel, my previous rig was Intel (10700K) and my wife's rig is a 10700K (and even this is power hungry), if I was building now, I'd be building AMD
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A little update.
Started assembling the build yesterday.
Lessons learned so far:
The BeQuiet PSU's main ATX cable is very tight to get fitted on the motherboard in the case, it took me several attempts to do it because there isn't much slack in the cable to move it around. The secondary motherboard cables on the flip side have a good bit of slack.
The cooler is huge, but with PWM control turned on it's shutting down the cpu fans at times in windows.
Windows 11 does not have a built in driver for the network adaptor, so you have to use the OOBE command to tell the installer to do a no network install.
Started assembling the build yesterday.
Lessons learned so far:
The BeQuiet PSU's main ATX cable is very tight to get fitted on the motherboard in the case, it took me several attempts to do it because there isn't much slack in the cable to move it around. The secondary motherboard cables on the flip side have a good bit of slack.
The cooler is huge, but with PWM control turned on it's shutting down the cpu fans at times in windows.
Windows 11 does not have a built in driver for the network adaptor, so you have to use the OOBE command to tell the installer to do a no network install.
You can load a driver at the disk partition bit of the Windows 11 install - something I had to do, or use the OOBE command (or stick a USB NIC on if you have one). IIRC the fast startup settings in the BIOS can affect it as well - the default with Z790 boards I believe is to not initialise the network link and leave it to Windows to bring it up during OS startup which probably conflicts with Windows 11's installation sequence as well.
The main ATX cable on the BeQuiet! PSU I used in my build was quite stiff as well - but I was able to use it to my advantage to position it to minimally disrupt airflow.
I thik i'm going to look into that re the driver on the usb stick i'm using to install, if just so that it's ready for the future.
I'm actually building two machines that will be nearly identical (just a couple of difference in tertiary drives and the video card), so i'm using a couple of usb sticks to hopefully have all the drivers and installation media needed, and i'm going to keep them specifically for these machines (i bought a pair of new ones and have tagged them as such).
Hopefully by about Monday I'll have both fully running (I'm not rushing it).
I'm actually building two machines that will be nearly identical (just a couple of difference in tertiary drives and the video card), so i'm using a couple of usb sticks to hopefully have all the drivers and installation media needed, and i'm going to keep them specifically for these machines (i bought a pair of new ones and have tagged them as such).
Hopefully by about Monday I'll have both fully running (I'm not rushing it).
not managed any build for a couple of days.
Started building machine 2 properly today and it's going much, much faster in part because I know what not to do, and in part because I've got the order down and it's different to what i'd normally do.
So for anyone else using an nh15d my suggested build order for parts to the motherboard is:
NVME drives that are anywhere near the CPU.
CPU
Cooler bracket.
apply thermal paste.
Fit ram.
Fit cooler to bracket.
Normally I'd have gone ram and drives after cpu cooler.
It saved a lot of fiddling, also laying everything out on a second anti static mat neatly helped.
Started building machine 2 properly today and it's going much, much faster in part because I know what not to do, and in part because I've got the order down and it's different to what i'd normally do.
So for anyone else using an nh15d my suggested build order for parts to the motherboard is:
NVME drives that are anywhere near the CPU.
CPU
Cooler bracket.
apply thermal paste.
Fit ram.
Fit cooler to bracket.
Normally I'd have gone ram and drives after cpu cooler.
It saved a lot of fiddling, also laying everything out on a second anti static mat neatly helped.
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Build 2 has progressed a lot faster and easier but stalled for now.
I've had to order a ATX 24 pin extension cable, the bequiet cable due to how i've had to route it to get it to fit is blocking the GPU from fitting it and making access to the SATA connectors hard.
I miss the days of the PSU being at the top of the case, it seemed cable runs to the motherboard were so much simpler back then.
I've had to order a ATX 24 pin extension cable, the bequiet cable due to how i've had to route it to get it to fit is blocking the GPU from fitting it and making access to the SATA connectors hard.
I miss the days of the PSU being at the top of the case, it seemed cable runs to the motherboard were so much simpler back then.
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