Upgrade from i7 3700 to...

xy16644

xy16644

xy16644

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10 May 2009
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221
Howdee

My current machine is approaching the 6 year mark and although it's still going pretty well it could do with an upgrade considering how much I use it for my work and studies.

Currently I have:

  • Intel i7 3770 3.4ghz with BeQuiet BK017 CPU cooler
  • 32GB DDR3 1600mhz (4 x 8GB)
  • Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe motherboard
  • Samsung 850 Pro SATA SSD 256GB (boot drive)
  • Samsung 950 Pro NVMe SSD 256GB (virtual machines)
  • 3 x old school spinning disk SATA drives ranging from 2TB to 6TB
  • Fractal Design Define R4 case
  • BeQuiet 850W PSU

This machine has been absolutely fantastic and I use it every single day and (touch wood and all that) it has been rock solid but I'm finding that with all the virtualisation I do with VMware Workstation Pro for work and my studies that I sometimes run out of resources.

I'm also finding that 4k videos sometime stutter or drop frames so I have ordered an EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 video card so I don't have to use the onboard Intel HD4000 anymore.

Things sure have changed since I bought the above system with AMD coming out with some killer CPU options!! Considering that I will be using the machine for email, internet, virtualisation and watching 4K videos is AMD a good choice? It absolutely must work with Windows 10 and VMware Workstation Pro 14. I'm still trying to decide if I should go Ryzen or Threadripper? AMD or Intel?

I was thinking of the following for a Ryzen setup:

  • Ryzen 7 Eight Core 1800X 4.00GHz
  • Asus ROG Crosshair VI Hero AMD X370
  • Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB)
Could I reuse my BeQuiet CPU cooler with the Ryzen with a bracket maybe? Or do I need a new CPU cooler?

I haven't decided on a budget yet but the above costs about £800 ex VAT. I'll be reusing my current drives so no need for new ones. Same goes for my dual screens.

A Threadripper setup is more expensive (obviously) as is the Intel i9 platform so I'm wondering if its worth spending the extra considering that I will use it mainly for virtualisation?

I can easily bottleneck my current setup when I spin up a test nested vSphere environment (maxes out all 4 cores on the CPU sometimes) and although the RAM usage can get high I think 32GB is fine for now but upgrading to 64GB later on is a nice option to have.

Booting off the M2 NVMe drive I have is a must!

Look forward to any advice or comments ;)

Edit: I'm looking to upgrade in the next 6 months and I don't overclock or game
 
Last edited:
koooowweeee said:
The main question is, does Workstation Pro 14 use all 8 cores and treads? If not you could get a 1600?

I think most people get the 1800 instead of the 1800x. Apparently they are pretty much the same. The 1800x might clock a little higher.
Click to expand...

I'm going to say yes, VMware Workstation Pro 14 supports all 8 cores and threads. I have a VM setup on my current 4 core machine and I can assign up to 4 cores in the VM.

I could only see a 1700/1800/1800x on OCUK? Theres "only" a £50 difference between the 1700 and 1800x.

I know I'm looking into a new machine a bit early but I'm asking about the options that are suitable for a new desktop build that will be used for virtualisation. I don't follow CPUs too much unless I need to buy one (which doesn't happen often) so am trying to decide between Intel/AMD and Ryzen/Threadripper/i9 Skylake X?
 
Hi Forum

I'm almost ready to upgrade my PC in the next month or so. Lots has happened since my original post!

I think I want to stick to Intel because that's what I have currently and everything "just works".

I've been looking at upgrading to the following:

Intel i7 8700K
Gigabye Z370 AORUS Gaming motherboard
Corsair CMK16GX4M2A2400C16R Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 2400 MHz (2 of these for 32GB of RAM in total
Intel Optane 900P 280GB PCI-e NVMe 3.0 x4 (bootable OS drive)

and then I'll reuse my other drives, case, PSU and screens.

Does the above look like a good combo? The only thing I am a bit unsure of is the number of PCIe lanes the CPU supports (16). Will this be enough lanes if I use an NVMe drive to boor from and use an NVMe drive for my VMs using the M2 slot? I'll still be using my "legacy" SATA SSD and spinning HDDs as well. I don't game so won't be bothering with a dedicated GPU.

Also, I assume i can boot off the Intel 900P SSD drive using the Gigabyte motherboard and Windows 10?

I know Intel are releasing the 9000 series in October but I'm not sure if it's waiting for this or even considering it?
 
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