Help with picking a CPU

[Chaosphenom]

I am kinda confused here. I might have missed something, but has any one asked if you are using all of your cores now and why you want an 8 core CPU? is it just because you feel like it's a natural upgrade from what you have now?

I don't know if you have seen my posts on other "what should I buy?" threads but I mention incremental and monumental. IE - don't buy two cores at a time that works out expensive. Either eat MacDonald's hamburgers (Zx70) and upgrade every year, or, go for something that is a true upgrade.

Yes, the 1700 and 1700x are upgrades to the 5820k. But, later 5820ks were good clockers (mine did 4.5) and thus you gain some and you lose some. Yes, when "coring out" the 1700 and X will be faster in Cinebench etc but you need to be using those cores. If you are not using those cores? stick with what you have now. If you are using those cores? go Threadripper 12 core or Intel 10 core. Otherwise hold on for a bit longer and then do that.

AM4 will only get 8 cores IMO. So the upgrade path is there (because newer Ryzens should clock higher etc) but nothing monumental. If all of a sudden game devs make games use as many cores as you can throw then you may find it getting left behind somewhat.

Which all comes back to monumental vs incremental. It doesn't sound to me like you are short of money so I would always go monumental.

Honestly I thought it was more a natural progression. My miss's has a i5-4460 which is no good so she needs a new one. My thinking was give her the i7-5820k as that will be more than enough (I've got it clocked to 4.5). That way I can get an upgrade. The reason I thought the 7820x as its more cores and it has more pcie lanes given the dual gfx cards.

 

[AlienALX]

Honestly I thought it was more a natural progression. My miss's has a i5-4460 which is no good so she needs a new one. My thinking was give her the i7-5820k as that will be more than enough (I've got it clocked to 4.5). That way I can get an upgrade. The reason I thought the 7820x as its more cores and it has more pcie lanes given the dual gfx cards.

It will cost you £830 for two extra cores. Or you can go Threadripper 12 core with an Asus Prime for £1030 or so, and double your core count and get more lanes than you could ever wish for.

I know what I would choose, even if I didn't need the cores yet.

 

[Chaosphenom]

Yea see I looked at Threadripper but a lot a info I read about it said it just wasn't suited to gaming. Even the 1700x was beating it in some reviews at gaming at least.

 

[Kei]

I moved from an i7 4820k to a ryzen threadripper 1920x (12c/24t) and haven't had any regrets. It's been a completely fuss free transition with little fiddling required. At stock speeds on single threaded stuff, it's a hair faster than the i7 was at 4.5GHz, multi threaded performance more than tripled. In games the difference is barely perceptible, unless it's an odd game that doesn't like having many threads to choose from. Using the Ryzen master software to switch to game mode in those rare cases fixes it. Don't forget that x399 has more PCIe lanes than x299, meaning more expansion room for extra cards and m.2 drives in the future. (Not to mention nvme raid support)

I think what helped make mine more plain sailing is that I used proven supported Samsung b-die 3200c14 memory which meant I could just set xmp and go. (Team group dark pro 8 pack memory from ocuk) A reinstall of windows is essential too. I was initially disappointed in the performance as I tried to get away without reinstalling.

 

[AlienALX]

Yea see I looked at Threadripper but a lot a info I read about it said it just wasn't suited to gaming. Even the 1700x was beating it in some reviews at gaming at least.

TR has a gaming mode. Read up on it, it's very good.

I know others have touched on the subject about 4k etc but seriously? you could put a piece of potato in your CPU socket at those sorts of resolutions and it makes no difference.

I used to run 4k. Like, had a 4k monitor. I threw everything I had at it (including all of my money) and in the end I gave up and dropped to a 1440 screen. I had Titan Black SLi originally then tried Fury X Crossfire.. Any way, let me get to the point. At the time I was running a 3970x in a X79 MSI motherboard (Big Bang Xpower II, top shelf board). After about 11 months the board gave up (fets died) and my CPU was throttling to 1.1ghz. Well, not the CPU, the power phases were dropping it to stop it catching fire I guess.

During that time not only did I bench all of my games but I also switched to a 2ghz Ivy 8 core until it was sorted out. With my 3970x at 1.1ghz I lost about 3 FPS in GTAV. I could not chuffing believe it. Then I put in my 2ghz Ivy Xeon ES and my FPS were exactly the same as what I was getting out of my 3970x running at 4.9ghz (probably why the board went bang lmao, even though it was 24 phase).

So what the guys have been telling you is absolutely bang on. Once you reach 1440p and beyond your CPU becomes a distant memory. It will be at least 2-3 years before we even see GPUs powerful enough to make the CPU matter again at 4k. The GPUs have so much strain and load put on them that the CPU sits scratching its nuts.

So you need to think forward or not bother. IE - If these new CPUs bring on a new era of massively cored software how long will it be before my 8 core begins to show its age?

The landscape has changed. I got nearly 2.5 years out of my 5820k before I even so much as began to look elsewhere. I went to a 14 core Broadwell E Xeon. It cost me less than a 1800x and does beat it quite comfortably in benchmarks and massively cored stuff. Plus I run VMs and I can dedicate portions of it to each OS I run (so for example I can give 6/12 to Windows, 4/8 to OSX and so on.

So yeah, two more cores is an incremental upgrade @ £830 or so. 12 cores is double your count for £200 more. Oh, and as I said so many lanes your head will spin. Plus you can RAID NVME for free on AMD !

 

[Chaosphenom]

Ok just looking at the TR now. What ram do you recommend? I'm looking to get it all from ebuyer.co.uk.

 

[AlienALX]

Ok just looking at the TR now. What ram do you recommend? I'm looking to get it all from ebuyer.co.uk.

Try and avoid ebuyer mate. Seriously, I had a few terrible experiences with them in the past. I ordered a rig in parts costing nearly four grand and they sent it with Yodel.. Yodel.. Four grand order..

When it arrived it had Yodel tape all over the thin cardboard boxes saying "Repacked by Yodel please check contents". Sure enough stuff was missing, Ebuyer couldn't give a s**t. They treated me like some one who had spent four pounds.

Their customer service is also crap. They just couldn't give a toss... Unless it is much cheaper then go elsewhere..

Ram? I am not an expert on TR ram. Most guys get 3000 or 3200, some end up running 3000 or there abouts. Corsair can be problematic with Ryzen I know that much..

Gskill is usually the weapon of choice. Samsung B-die if you can. You will need to do some research on specific model numbers

Edit. Done some checking. Gotta say Ebuyer is cheap ! I would pay with a credit card, just in case.

Edit again.. How much ram you looking for fella? like 32gb? 16gb?

 

[Chaosphenom]

So these are the 3 lists I've come up with that I can't decide between.

https://imgur.com/a/r7O0E

(The case is for the miss's so ignore that, she likes it cause it turns purple lol)

Coolers are only temp as I wanna go custom loop after Christmas.

 

[Chaosphenom]

It does seem fairly cheap and yea I would put it on the credit card anyway (always safer with big purchases). Ram is 32gb , current system is on 32gb and don't want to go less really.

 

[AlienALX]

I know the Vengeance can be a bit of a knob tbh. No idea about Dom Plats though..

I have looked at the Gskill memory on Ebuyer but sadly they do not provide the exact model number and batch code..

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/8pac...-ultimate-bundle-1950x-3.70ghz-bu-00s-8p.html

On that link (it's an 8pack bundle so mad price !) they pair it with this.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...3200mhz-dual-channel-kit-black-my-08l-tg.html

Which would be about the best. 8 Pack will know what memory is best for TR IMO.

I would imagine Ebuyer have what you are looking for but you will need to contact them and get the batch codes/full model numbers of the ram. If you stick to 3000 you should be safe with anything theoretically (Hynix A-die) but if you want higher then you are going to have to be very specific and have a wallet that matches lol.

Ohh hold the fort.. I just noticed something !!

https://www.ebuyer.com/772381-g-skill-trident-z-16gb-kit-ddr4-3200mhz-ram-f4-3200c16d-16gtzb

And in very small print..

Mfr part code: F4-3200C16D-16GTZB

OK that's great, let me do some digging for you

OK that is Samsung E die.. Let me keep digging..

 

[Chaosphenom]

That bundle is insane I'd love that but nah thats way to much. I got a wedding in just over 12 months and we are getting married abroad, I will get killed if I spend that kind of money lol.

 

[AlienALX]

https://www.ebuyer.com/743005-corsa...-8gb-ddr4-dram-3000mhz-c15-cmd16gx4m2b3000c15

You would want two of those kits there..

That is the QVL Samsung B-die list. Look at the batch/model number.

That bundle is insane I'd love that but nah thats way to much. I got a wedding in just over 12 months and we are getting married abroad, I will get killed if I spend that kind of money lol.

haha sorry mate I wasn't even suggesting it, just showing what RAM the expert of experts is using.. Shouldn't matter now, I have found the exact ram you need and it's B-die Samsung so 100% on the QVL (qualified vendors list).

 

[Chaosphenom]

Ok so get that with the TR processor then?

 

[Chaosphenom]

So looking at it these are the final 2 setups I've come up with the TR being actually double the price of the 1700x.

My question is do you think it is worth it considering I am gaming and streaming (a little).

I love the idea of TR and the fact its an absolute beast but while I think two 1080Ti's is a benifit at 4k or 144hz so the £1600 quid on them is worth while is it for the processor.

lol I am so confused. It was great in the old days just pick and Intel i7 bloody AMD lol.

Edit: Don't know why its not showing my images but link below.

https://imgur.com/a/k2UUT

 

[AlienALX]

Yes you ideally want B-die Samsung memory with any Ryzen.

As to whether it is worth doing? for right now? no. Whenever you upgrade though you do so for the future. Sadly the CPU sector is really quite boring, as most will put up a decent gaming experience so long as you have four or more cores these days.

So yeah, the sensible answer is just keep what you have as there is nothing fundamentally wrong with it. However, if you are set on upgrading then bang for buck the AMD system you have created would be a nice upgrade. Streaming seems to love lots of cores too.

However, as I said, right at this moment in time? 12 core is massive overkill. I just feel that if you really do want to upgrade you may as well make it count, if that makes any sense. IE - go for something mad because if core support does indeed start coming then you may find your old CPU being left behind. Intel did their best to stop that happening (and save themselves lots of money*) but AMD have really forced the issue and shown them to be the real meanies that they are.

If AMD keep pushing the envelope Intel are going to have to reply. Their reply right now is "Here, have two more cores for the mainstream" but if support comes they are going to need to up that pretty quickly. Just like a dual core looks terrible these days support will soon make a quad core/hex core look the same.

The bottom line? even if things move fast the Threadripper will continue to get better and better. If not? then you won't need to upgrade your CPU for bloody years. Look how long Intel have been aiming for 5ghz and look how many times they've failed. They've promised it since Devil's Canyon and still can't deliver. So clock speed has sorta hit a wall which would give me confidence in TR/Ryzen.

* It was much easier for Intel to make I3s and charge £185 for them whilst cutting material costs down to the bone (no solder, thinner substrates that bent etc). They really had a corporation's idea of paradise (IE sell very little cheap products for big prices).

AMD have come along and smashed that game to bits.

 

[Kei]

If all you do is gaming with a bit of streaming on the side, it does seem to be a tad on the side of overkill. I only went with threadripper as I do a lot of video encoding and conversion which is massively faster. It's very annoying that intel gimped the pcie lanes on their mainstream and enthusiast ranges though, which is another reason I chose to go back to amd instead of intel this time around.

 

[Korreborg]

My miss's has a i5-4460 which is no good so she needs a new one.

How is that not good enough for WOW and Sims? Does she have an SSD?
And if you need better graphics, the but a 1060/70 in the current PC.

 

[Chaosphenom]

So I really appreciate the advise especially you AlienALX. I want to go with the TR but I think it will be massive overkill at least for now. I think I will do the 1700X, That will do me till after the wedding then I will look at going something mad a proper build rather than trying to cut back on bits.

 

[Chaosphenom]

How is that not good enough for WOW and Sims? Does she have an SSD?
And if you need better graphics, the but a 1060/70 in the current PC.

Yea she's got an SSD, I think its on its way out. Having some crashes with it and it seems to be running hot so she decided she wants it upgrading lol plus she's whinging about load times etc.

 

[AlienALX]

So I really appreciate the advise especially you AlienALX. I want to go with the TR but I think it will be massive overkill at least for now. I think I will do the 1700X, That will do me till after the wedding then I will look at going something mad a proper build rather than trying to cut back on bits.

No worries man. Keep us up to date on whatever you decide to build !