Which CPU for a NEW Build now?

[Teeeeee]

Hey people..

I need some help, I've been wanting to build a pc for ages now...and was waiting for AMD to release the new 5900x 3D CPU this month.... that isn't happening.......

So.............

What would you build an enitre new system on, my thoughts went from 5900k to 5900k 3D to now the 12700k DDR5 and Asus Rog Maximus Z690 Hero?

I will be building in the Dark Base 700 PC Case and using air cooling only......Dark rock pro 4? and some Be Quiet silent wings 3 or Phankteks T30's or maybe some Corsair QL120?

Opinions/advise please.................

 

[Ayahuasca]

If it's purely for gaming and you're wanting to buy this week then a 12600k with DDR4.

 

[Grim5]

I would go Intel at this point in time because you have better value for money and a platform with an upgrade path and newer IO features. Current AMD desktop CPUs and platforms are EOL, not recommended building a whole new system until Zen 4 and new platforms arrive for AMD.

As for the fans, the T30 is easily the best fan on the market - if you can fit it, I would 100% buy those

 

[Journey]

What would you build an enitre new system on, my thoughts went from 5900k to 5900k 3D to now the 12700k DDR5 and Asus Rog Maximus Z690 Hero?

No motherboard, unless it is for a workstation, is worth £500+ they offer little to no performance over a cheaper one, and unless you need every feature they are pointless, same for DDR5 at decent speeds. You'd be better off spending the cash on a 12700K, DDR4 Z690 (~£220) and some cheap DDR4, you'll get 95% of the performance but have spent half the cost, and you can upgrade it in 12-24 months effectively free if you are only spending 50% now.

----------------------------------

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K 3.6 GHz 12-Core Processor
Motherboard: Asus PRIME Z690-P WIFI D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard
Memory: Patriot Viper Steel 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600

Total: ~£700

or ASUS ROG Maximus Hero DDR5 Ultra Super Pointless Edition at £550, oh that and they are on recall for setting on fire... quality product.

 

[SKILL]

As above really, for pure gaming 12600K DDR4 setup is an easy choice, for a bit more 'productivity' then 12700K DDR4 setup. DDR5 is way too expensive with little to no performance benefit currently.

 

[Teeeeee]

The PC will be used for workstation/productivity work mainly.....I understand that DDR5 may not have much performance gain at the moment, but was thinking if i went for 12700k build I could upgrade just the ram in 3 years or so when better ddr5 comes out and prices go down...My concern is the effiency/power/tdp of alderlake.....especially building it in the be quiet 700 with air cooling only.... would 3 intake and 2 exhaust fans be sufficient for this case with 12700k and a dark rock pro 4? I REALLY WISH THEY HAD JUST COME OUT WITH ZEN 4 AT CES!

 

[Game]

going by toms hardware the i5-12400f destroys everything in class

new mobos and chip are all due this week


and with no E cores it will run on windows 10 if you dont fancy 11


https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/news/intel-core-i5-12400-review

 

[jigger]

The 5900X is hell of a CPU. Paired with a half decent X570S and decent amount of RAM it makes for a nice gaming/work machine. Offers boat loads of everything, with low noise levels and heat output.

The 12900K with DDR5 offers a little more then the Ryzen 5900X chips and is probably the way to go if the system is more focused toward highend gaming and memory bandwidth sensitive workloads.
You just need to be mindful of the heat output especially with a highend graphics card. I fell foul of that.

 

[SKILL]

The PC will be used for workstation/productivity work mainly.....I understand that DDR5 may not have much performance gain at the moment, but was thinking if i went for 12700k build I could upgrade just the ram in 3 years or so when better ddr5 comes out and prices go down...My concern is the effiency/power/tdp of alderlake.....especially building it in the be quiet 700 with air cooling only.... would 3 intake and 2 exhaust fans be sufficient for this case with 12700k and a dark rock pro 4? I REALLY WISH THEY HAD JUST COME OUT WITH ZEN 4 AT CES!

What tasks/workload? My understanding is that for that kind of work a 5950X is still king - a few, as in single digit, percent quicker than the 12900K at 'half' the power... But you didn't mention that in then OP and it is pricey.

I believe the 5900X does sit somewhere around the 12700K, slightly slower in performance but also lower power, but not as big a power difference as between the 12900K and basically anything else

Yes you could go DDR5 and get faster stuff in a year+ time, but not sure how much benefit you'd get. I've not looked too in-depth but I don't think there's a huge difference between the fast/slow kits on the market today, but does seem very application based as to what benefits. Given the cost difference as well would it not be better to go 'cheap' today and in 3 years get a full new setup, yes the savings today won't make up the cost of the full system but the jump will almost certainly be massively more than quicker DDR5 on an Alder Lake chip.

Realistically although Alder Lake wins the gaming performance benchmarks these as 720p/1080p with a 3090 to show real differences, at 1440p+ you're going to see far more differences in productivity work than gaming really.

 

[swmlon]

I'm in the same boat as op. I was all set on getting the 5900x and MSI Tomahawk board then all the Intel stuff was announced that peak my interest.
But now the dust has settled, I'm back on track to getting the 5900x because the price plus mobo still works out less than 12700k+z690 board and it'll still be miles better than my 6600k system and will still be doing the job for the next 4-5 years

 

[Game]

but you are right either of your considered options will last a good 4-5 years unless we have some massive jumps in tech

 

[g67575]

If buying in the next month or so, Alder Lake B660 motherboard and CPU (like 12100 or 12400), then see what Intel brings to the party with Raptor Lake in late 2022 (should be a drop in upgrade, then sell the Alder Lake CPU). Probably go with DDR5, if you can find some not for a silly amount. You could go with a Z690 board, but only worth it if you want to overclock.

Best option overall, and for price performance would be to wait for AM5 + Zen 4 in Q4 2022 in my view. This platform will likely support DDR5200, maybe 6400mhz, similar to the recently announced Ryzen 6000 APUs. It's also likely to support at least 1 or 2 future CPU upgrades on the same chipset.

Zen 4 will have the performance edge over all other CPUs in 2022, due to the fact that it will use the most transistor dense fabrication technology available to the market (5nm EUV), a significant improvement on Intel's 10nm process used in Alder Lake.

In terms of the transistor density, TSMC's current 5nm EUV process is around 171 million transistors per millimetre. Intel's 10nm process is apparently 106 million transistors. Sources here:

https://en.wikichip.org/w/images/thumb/e/eb/5nm_densities.svg/1200px-5nm_densities.svg.png
https://www.mysmartprice.com/gear/intel-tsmc-10nm-chip-density-catch/

It's my understanding that they could also use this advantage to beef up the max core count significantly, due to the reduction in size for each core.

AMD hasn't said much about Zen 4, other than the launch date, right now they want people to upgrade to Zen3D in the spring.

 

[LePhuronn]

Ryzen 5950X for actual major work (but do check reviews for your particular work to see how 5950X fares against 12900K), something Alder Lake with DDR4 for everything else.

And don't bother with DDR5 for Alder Lake, by the time it's actually better than DDR4 and has decent availability and prices, you'll need a new motherboard.

 

[jigger]

Ryzen 5950X for actual major work (but do check reviews for your particular work to see how 5950X fares against 12900K), something Alder Lake with DDR4 for everything else.

And don't bother with DDR5 for Alder Lake, by the time it's actually better than DDR4 and has decent availability and prices, you'll need a new motherboard.

Unless you plan to upgrade the CPU down the road, then DDR5 makes sense.

 

[g67575]

DDR5 will start to make sense (in terms of price/performance) when CPUs can support running the memory controllers at 1:1. It will be interesting to see what AMD can achieve with the DDR5 memory controllers for the 6nm APUs and Ryzen 7000 desktop CPUs.

This makes me wonder if this is something Intel will try to support for Raptor Lake... Plus the new power feature thats been discussed.

 

[Vulture]

DDR5 will start to make sense (in terms of price/performance) when CPUs can support running the memory controllers at 1:1. It will be interesting to see what AMD can achieve with the DDR5 memory controllers for the 6nm APUs and Ryzen 7000 desktop CPUs.

This makes me wonder if this is something Intel will try to support for Raptor Lake... Plus the new power feature thats been discussed.

If it is true that AM5 will support ddr5 only then Zen4 will work much better and on higher memory speed than Raptor Lake hybrid memory controller, but only downside would be ddr5 availability, it should improve by that time, and it is future proof unlike ddr4 so not bad to invest more money on ddr5 memory.

 

[LePhuronn]

Unless you plan to upgrade the CPU down the road, then DDR5 makes sense.

But does it? Alder Lake doesn't see much benefit from DDR5, Raptor Lake is just a refinement of Alder Lake so I can't see DDR5 giving much of a boost then either. So then we're into Meteor Lake which I guarantee you will require a new board and DDR5 will have greatly matured.

I guess you could take the plunge and pay stupid money for a DDR5 board and low-spec DDR5 now on the off chance Raptor Lake genuinely sees benefit, but will it benefit from the low-spec DDR5 you've bought right now? Do you then shell out for better DDR5 later on?

I think the fact Intel have done a hybrid memory controller is proof enough that Alder Lake and Raptor Lake just don't benefit enough for the money spent.

 

[jigger]

But does it? Alder Lake doesn't see much benefit from DDR5, Raptor Lake is just a refinement of Alder Lake so I can't see DDR5 giving much of a boost then either. So then we're into Meteor Lake which I guarantee you will require a new board and DDR5 will have greatly matured.

I guess you could take the plunge and pay stupid money for a DDR5 board and low-spec DDR5 now on the off chance Raptor Lake genuinely sees benefit, but will it benefit from the low-spec DDR5 you've bought right now? Do you then shell out for better DDR5 later on?

I think the fact Intel have done a hybrid memory controller is proof enough that Alder Lake and Raptor Lake just don't benefit enough for the money spent.

Yeah, I suppose. It just feels wrong not moving to DDR5 if going Intel.

 

[.Lethal]

Yeah, I suppose. It just feels wrong not moving to DDR5 if going Intel.

Understandable until you do a little googling and see how expensive DDR5 is for barely any real noticeable gains given how early the technology is.

 

[jigger]

Understandable until you do a little googling and see how expensive DDR5 is for barely any real noticeable gains given how early the technology is.

The issue is the combination of E and P core and two busses they each use. Decent gains from one and minimal from the other.