mihapiha
New member
Hello everybody,
For the past few weeks I have been googling and reading all kinds of reviews on what to do. My current system is still running quite well, considering I've had it since 2013.
I put a lot of money into it, trying to make it as perfect as I could so it would look great and have the killer performance needed for the 4k monitor I intended to switch to back then. The only real "problem" was my miss fortune with the silicon lottery in terms of CPU, which is a beneath average overclocker...
Here the specs:
CPU: Core i7 4930k which I run OC 24/7 @ 4.4 GHz with a whopping 1.42V
MB: ASUS P9X79-E WS
Memory: 16 GB DDR3-2400 MHz Corsair Dominator Platinum (1.65V)
PSU: Corsair AX1200i
The only thing I did to update it really, was to replace my initially bought 3x R9 290Xs with 2x GTX 1080s.
I'll add a picture of how my system looks now...
The idea behind that was the lacking VRAM @ 4k of the 290Xs. Unfortunately since I build this entire system much has changed. AMD and nVidia chose to reduce support more and more for SLI and CrossfireX, a problem very noticeable since switching to the two GTX 1080s.
Anyways, I am now looking at my meanwhile 4 year old system, which has been running 24/7 overclocked. Obviously the very enthusiast system I build 4 years ago, is no longer that high-end...
The water cooling was properly maintained; meaning I took it apart every couple of years flushing absolutely everything and puting it back together. Even with the high voltages I'm running my CPU hardly surpasses 70°C even under intense load. The GPUs usually remain under 50°C. So all is well there.
The poor overclocker of a CPU really has been my main problem for most of the time. I cannot run 8 sticks of ram stable, even if I massively downclock them, and the 4.4 GHz I have with a 4 year old architecture might beginn to crumble soon...
While my system is still worth something I am considering switching, and selling memory, CPU and MB and if I'm lucky I still might get some decent money for the new build.
But now here is my problem: I can't figure out what to replace it with, that would either get me really excited as an enthusiast or where I'd even see any real benefit.
Switching to the 8700k doesn't get me excited because I am not really excited about the 16 lanes the CPU offers. So no matter what, I'd have to run my 2x 1080s at PCIe 3.0 x8 which is kind of a performance bummer. To top it of, it hardly feels like a real upgrade coming from a 4930k. However it would be better for gaming, which is what I use my system for when I actually put it under some load.
Also I see that HT is a problem for some programs. Especially F@H really doesn't like HT in order to supply the GPUs with the load that they are supposed to handle.
Because I hardly ever render or do productivity requiring multi-threaded applications, I feel I shouldn't buy too overkill of a CPU, although I've always had overkill being an enthusiast.
The other alternative I was thinking about, was a Threadripper with the 1900X (8 Core CPU) because the MB actually make me excited and there is definitely not a lane-problem. On the upside, I can actually take advantage of my water cooling and cool a TR4 CPU properly although I cannot expect it to hit much beyond 4 GHz. And that again means decreasing the performance for gaming. Again: Hardly exciting to invest money into something to "loose" performance...
So to recap: I would like to upgrade my system while my parts are actually still worth something, I also would like to upgrade to 32 GB memory (which my current system has problems with due to the crappy memory controller in my CPU), and I am and probably will continue using SLI/CrossfireX and therefore I actually worry about lanes.
Also I would like to take advantage of my very expensive water cooling loop and put something kickass into it...
Any suggestions are more than welcome. I cannot seem to find anything I'm truly excited about putting over 1000 Euro into...
So any suggestion will get me googling and you may think of a solution I forgot...
For the past few weeks I have been googling and reading all kinds of reviews on what to do. My current system is still running quite well, considering I've had it since 2013.
I put a lot of money into it, trying to make it as perfect as I could so it would look great and have the killer performance needed for the 4k monitor I intended to switch to back then. The only real "problem" was my miss fortune with the silicon lottery in terms of CPU, which is a beneath average overclocker...
Here the specs:
CPU: Core i7 4930k which I run OC 24/7 @ 4.4 GHz with a whopping 1.42V
MB: ASUS P9X79-E WS
Memory: 16 GB DDR3-2400 MHz Corsair Dominator Platinum (1.65V)
PSU: Corsair AX1200i
The only thing I did to update it really, was to replace my initially bought 3x R9 290Xs with 2x GTX 1080s.
I'll add a picture of how my system looks now...
The idea behind that was the lacking VRAM @ 4k of the 290Xs. Unfortunately since I build this entire system much has changed. AMD and nVidia chose to reduce support more and more for SLI and CrossfireX, a problem very noticeable since switching to the two GTX 1080s.
Anyways, I am now looking at my meanwhile 4 year old system, which has been running 24/7 overclocked. Obviously the very enthusiast system I build 4 years ago, is no longer that high-end...
The water cooling was properly maintained; meaning I took it apart every couple of years flushing absolutely everything and puting it back together. Even with the high voltages I'm running my CPU hardly surpasses 70°C even under intense load. The GPUs usually remain under 50°C. So all is well there.
The poor overclocker of a CPU really has been my main problem for most of the time. I cannot run 8 sticks of ram stable, even if I massively downclock them, and the 4.4 GHz I have with a 4 year old architecture might beginn to crumble soon...
While my system is still worth something I am considering switching, and selling memory, CPU and MB and if I'm lucky I still might get some decent money for the new build.
But now here is my problem: I can't figure out what to replace it with, that would either get me really excited as an enthusiast or where I'd even see any real benefit.
Switching to the 8700k doesn't get me excited because I am not really excited about the 16 lanes the CPU offers. So no matter what, I'd have to run my 2x 1080s at PCIe 3.0 x8 which is kind of a performance bummer. To top it of, it hardly feels like a real upgrade coming from a 4930k. However it would be better for gaming, which is what I use my system for when I actually put it under some load.
Also I see that HT is a problem for some programs. Especially F@H really doesn't like HT in order to supply the GPUs with the load that they are supposed to handle.
Because I hardly ever render or do productivity requiring multi-threaded applications, I feel I shouldn't buy too overkill of a CPU, although I've always had overkill being an enthusiast.
The other alternative I was thinking about, was a Threadripper with the 1900X (8 Core CPU) because the MB actually make me excited and there is definitely not a lane-problem. On the upside, I can actually take advantage of my water cooling and cool a TR4 CPU properly although I cannot expect it to hit much beyond 4 GHz. And that again means decreasing the performance for gaming. Again: Hardly exciting to invest money into something to "loose" performance...
So to recap: I would like to upgrade my system while my parts are actually still worth something, I also would like to upgrade to 32 GB memory (which my current system has problems with due to the crappy memory controller in my CPU), and I am and probably will continue using SLI/CrossfireX and therefore I actually worry about lanes.
Also I would like to take advantage of my very expensive water cooling loop and put something kickass into it...
Any suggestions are more than welcome. I cannot seem to find anything I'm truly excited about putting over 1000 Euro into...
So any suggestion will get me googling and you may think of a solution I forgot...
