Upgrade from i7 8700k

[Narj]

Right, current specs in sig.

I know my GPU is being held back by my setup and payday is when I’m probably going to bite the bullet and seriously look at an upgrade.

Should I wait or go for it now? I really don’t want the hassle of breaking my system so will build a parallel machine and when done repurpose bits from the current box to rebuild in my node202 at some point if I can find an appropriate motherboard. Therefore I’m probably looking at new PSU as well.

I like my 4000D case and temps are amazing but am concerned that a newer CPU needs a larger AIO rad that won’t fit in the 4000D.

Really appreciate any guidance from the hardware gods in here

I need CPU, RAM, Mobo, PSU. I already have nvme spare. Case suggestions probably needed.

Ballpark 800 quid.

 

[Gray2233]

What GPU, PSU and monitor res are you on exactly?

 

[Narj]

What GPU, PSU and monitor res are you on exactly?

RTX4080 Super, moving to 1440p, possibly UW. Looking for 144Hz.

Currently on Corsair HX1000 PSU which doesn’t have the native melting connector

 

[Gray2233]

RTX4080 Super, moving to 1440p, possibly UW. Looking for 144Hz.

Currently on Corsair HX1000 PSU which doesn’t have the native melting connector

Something like this would fit the bill, although your PSU should be fine for the 4080, the issues with the adapters were largely related to the higher power draw of the 4090 AFAIK.

The RAM is an XMP rather than EXPO kit (EXPO being AMD's version of XMP), but it should be fine. You might need to set things manually, tbh X3D chips don't care too much about memory speed and it was the cheapest 6000mhz/32gb kit on OCUK.

The 7800X3D isn't going to murder your current AIO either tbh, the main problem is whether or not it supports the platform. If it has an AM4 mount it should be fine, but I'd double check, if not and assuming you want another AIO any of those I've listed would be ample:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core 5.00GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DT-AM) = £349.99
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer III ARGB High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 420mm (SKU: COO-ARC-01995) = £95.99
• 1 x Corsair RMe Series RM850e Fully Modular Low-Noise ATX Power Supply v2 (CP-9020263-UK) (SKU: CA-27N-CS) = £124.99
• 1 x TeamGroup Delta RGB 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Ki (SKU: MY-0AT-TG) = £99.95
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6K0-AS) = £169.99
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer III ARGB High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 280mm (SKU: COO-ARC-01989) = £82.99
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer III ARGB High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 240mm (SKU: COO-ARC-01986) = £69.95

Total: £1,001.84 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

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[Narj]

Something like this would fit the bill, although your PSU should be fine for the 4080, the issues with the adapters were largely related to the higher power draw of the 4090 AFAIK.

The 7800X3D isn't going to murder your current AIO either tbh, the main problem is whether or not it supports the platform. If it has an AM4 mount it should be fine, but I'd double check, if not and assuming you want another AIO any of those I've listed would be ample:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core 5.00GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DT-AM) = £349.99
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer III ARGB High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 420mm (SKU: COO-ARC-01995) = £95.99
• 1 x Corsair RMe Series RM850e Fully Modular Low-Noise ATX Power Supply v2 (CP-9020263-UK) (SKU: CA-27N-CS) = £124.99
• 1 x TeamGroup Delta RGB 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Ki (SKU: MY-0AT-TG) = £99.95
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6K0-AS) = £169.99
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer III ARGB High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 280mm (SKU: COO-ARC-01989) = £82.99
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer III ARGB High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 240mm (SKU: COO-ARC-01986) = £69.95

Total: £1,001.84 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

Thanks dude.

I would be building parallel so would not use my existing AIO physically. I do think the arctic freezer is pretty amazing though. The falloff when load drops is mental.

Also I want to go to 64GB RAM for lab purposes. I’m concerned about losing performance here though so could stick to 32 if I really have to. I had to return some RAM when I built this due to XMP not working so I really don’t want hassle.

I like the buffer of 1000W PSU so would bump that up in case I go nuts with 5 series or AMD equivalent.

I see arguments about 7800x3d vs latest intels. I don’t pretend to know what I’m talking about here but is there anything in the next 3 months that means I should hang on?

 

[Gray2233]

Thanks dude.

I would be building parallel so would not use my existing AIO physically. I do think the arctic freezer is pretty amazing though. The falloff when load drops is mental.

Also I want to go to 64GB RAM for lab purposes. I’m concerned about losing performance here though so could stick to 32 if I really have to.

I like the buffer of 1000W PSU so would bump that up in case I go nuts with 5 series or AMD equivalent.

I see arguments about 7800x3d vs latest intels. I don’t pretend to know what I’m talking about here but is there anything in the next 3 months that means I should hang on?

If you're running the system for work and gaming I'd take a look at the software involved. If you're running something proprietary it might benefit from the extra cache of the X3D Vs more cores but it's difficult to estimate. You might even be better off with a current gen Intel solution. I can say that it'll blow your 8700K out of the water no matter what. If memory amount is the biggest concern I'd factor in another £70-80 or so for 64gb.

As for waiting, nothing major to my knowledge in that time frame but don't quote me on that.

Edit: Added RAM at 48gb and 64gb, also PSU. Note, I can only link what's on the OCUK store so the options are limited.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Crucial Pro 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C46 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRU-01085) = £169.99
• 1 x Crucial Pro 48GB (2x24GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C46 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRU-01086) = £149.99
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming 1000W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-05Z-AS) = £175.00

Total: £498.97 (includes delivery: £3.99)​

 

[Rroff]

Also I want to go to 64GB RAM for lab purposes. I’m concerned about losing performance here though so could stick to 32 if I really have to. I had to return some RAM when I built this due to XMP not working so I really don’t want hassle.

If you are doing non-gaming stuff don't go 7800X3D and/or definitely check benchmarks for what you are doing, I know I'm bucking the trend a bit but the 7800X3D really is 1-2 generations back for non-gaming performance on average, and can fall well behind other similar priced CPUs in specific things. Unfortunately that is a problem with a lot of CPUs at the moment - they tend to be strong at some things but potentially weak at others. The AMD X (not X3D) CPUs can be quite strong for productivity use while not far behind for gaming performance at 1440p or above.

For a broad range of uses the 7950X3D fills in a lot of the gaps but it is a much more expensive CPU.

Personally I went with the 14700K as it has as good as anything balanced performance at the price point and even holds up well against the much more expensive top tier CPUs:

Flip side the AM5 platform potentially has a some future upgrade potential, while for LGA1700 it is likely end of the road more or less, just some incidental products planned.

 

[Narj]

If you are doing non-gaming stuff don't go 7800X3D and/or definitely check benchmarks for what you are doing, I know I'm bucking the trend a bit but the 7800X3D really is 1-2 generations back for non-gaming performance on average, and can fall well behind other similar priced CPUs in specific things. Unfortunately that is a problem with a lot of CPUs at the moment - they tend to be strong at some things but potentially weak at others. The AMD X (not X3D) CPUs can be quite strong for productivity use while not far behind for gaming performance at 1440p or above.

For a broad range of uses the 7950X3D fills in a lot of the gaps but it is a much more expensive CPU.

Personally I went with the 14700K as it has as good as anything balanced performance at the price point and even holds up well against the much more expensive top tier CPUs:

Flip side the AM5 platform potentially has a some future upgrade potential, while for LGA1700 it is likely end of the road more or less, just some incidental products planned.

Yeah, unfortunately I have some disgustingly CPU intensive VM workloads that I run from time to time (F5 loadbalancers being one) so that just made things a bit more difficult. :/

I mean they run fine on the 8700K but max out at 100% a lot of the time on single cores. Something I need to think about.

Gah this is not easy :/ I may have to follow your lead.

 

[Gray2233]

Yeah, unfortunately I have some disgustingly CPU intensive VM workloads that I run from time to time (F5 loadbalancers being one) so that just made things a bit more difficult. :/

I mean they run fine on the 8700K but max out at 100% a lot of the time on single cores. Something I need to think about.

Gah this is not easy :/ I may have to follow your lead.

For your budget a 13700 or 14700 variant might be your best bet. They're still excellent gaming CPUs. There's potential middle ground with a 7900X3D but it's a rough sell at £800.

 

[Gray2233]

Threw this together to check, it's a good chunk over budget and slower than a potential Intel solution for your needs. So you would be trading performance for longevity, and given you're still using a 8700K that might not be the best path to take.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Crucial Pro 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C46 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRU-01085) = £169.99
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming 1000W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-05Z-AS) = £175.00
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D Twelve Core 5.60GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DS-AM) = £399.95
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6K0-AS) = £169.99
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer III ARGB High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 280mm (SKU: COO-ARC-01989) = £82.99

Total: £1,005.91 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

 

[Rroff]

For your budget a 13700 or 14700 variant might be your best bet. They're still excellent gaming CPUs. There's potential middle ground with a 7900X3D but it's a rough sell at £800.

7900X3D got a price drop a week or so back - £399 on OcUK - to compete with the 14700K - but seems to have very mixed performance, possibly due to dual-CCD design (again you have to research CPU performance for the stuff you do most at the moment really as CPU performance is so hit and miss ).

 

[Gray2233]

7900X3D got a price drop a week or so back - £399 on OcUK - to compete with the 14700K - but seems to have very mixed performance, possibly due to dual-CCD design (again you have to research CPU performance for the stuff you do most at the moment really as CPU performance is so hit and miss ).

It's an absolute nightmare ATM buying for multi use.

 

[Boomstick777]

Would the i9 9900K offer an upgrade on your current setup?

 

[Narj]

Would the i9 9900K offer an upgrade on your current setup?

Not sure this board actually supports it but I know it will do a 9700K. Hardly seems worth it really.

I need to mull things over really. Looking at the intels, that would do nicely but I don’t really want something that runs so hot. Leaning towards 7800x3d but keeping an eye out for a better upgrade that will slot in down the line.

Even then the various posts around the internet regarding compatibility issues and so on with the new platform has me a bit nervous given my tendency to stumble into hardware nightmares.

 

[Boomstick777]

Not sure this board actually supports it but I know it will do a 9700K. Hardly seems worth it really.

I need to mull things over really. Looking at the intels, that would do nicely but I don’t really want something that runs so hot. Leaning towards 7800x3d but keeping an eye out for a better upgrade that will slot in down the line.

Even then the various posts around the internet regarding compatibility issues and so on with the new platform has me a bit nervous given my tendency to stumble into hardware nightmares.

The 7800x3D is an awesome gaming chip, the best in this current gen. AM5 provides a long upgrade path too, can't go wrong with that choice imo.

 

[Quartz]

I like my 4000D case and temps are amazing but am concerned that a newer CPU needs a larger AIO rad that won’t fit in the 4000D.

If you go for a Ryzen you won't benefit from an AIO.

RTX4080 Super, moving to 1440p, possibly UW. Looking for 144Hz.

I definitely recommend ultrawide.

Currently on Corsair HX1000 PSU which doesn’t have the native melting connector

How old is it? Are you looking to buy a new 1000W PSU or buy a lower-power PSU and move your HX1000?

 

[Narj]

If you go for a Ryzen you won't benefit from an AIO.

I definitely recommend ultrawide.



How old is it? Are you looking to buy a new 1000W PSU or buy a lower-power PSU and move your HX1000?

AIO just makes things much more tidy and easy to work on really, happy to stay on that path even if it’s overkill. I remember the nightmares of trying to do stuff with a silver arrow on my 2500k EDIT: Will watch the video

PSU is not even 2 years old but I’m minded to just build a parallel system without messing with the old one. I’d probably just get the updated Corsair model tbh as I like the headroom. I’ll probably look for a 2070 or something, put that in this system and sell it to my brother.

I think what I’m after is a tried and tested 7800x3d bundle that isn’t going to give me a headache.

I like the Corsair RGB RAM that I have as it lets me do a subtle bit of lighting so would look for an equivalent (Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO) - what was suggested earlier seems similar.

Thanks for the input peeps, I know I’m being a pain