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Budget (including currency): 2300€ Country: Austria Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: mostly gaming hey there =) so i was recently tasked with specing and building a pc for a friend. for around 2300€ i could get him either a system with 7800x3d + 7900XTX (2240€ total system cost) or 13700K (or 7800x3d) + 4070Ti (2160€ total system cost with the 13700k) all other components being about the same. he prefers Nvidia over Radeon, but is open for AMD is there anything negative about the 7900XTX why you wouldn't reccommend it? besides lesser raytracing performance? for the moment he will game on his 1080p display, but will upgrade to 1440p high refresh rate when chistmans rolls around, so in 2 month. he wants the rig to last as long as possible without being obsolete. a 4080 would cost about 400€ more than a 3070Ti or 200€more than a 7900XTX, so being budget restrained its not really an option without segnificantly cutting back on cpu or mobo cost ty for your advice

This is a pc for my best friend, not for me, I already own a combo (7800X3D with a Rx 7900 XTX). I have a AMD 7800X3D but it has some shutter issues in WZ and other games. So I had recommended my best friend a i5 or i7. But... benchmarks continues to give AMD a very high difference. But since Im not very happy with AMD CPU should he still get it? Budget (including currency): 2500€ Country: Portugal Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Warzone 2.0, GTA V, some other at 1440p He has a monitor, 165Hz 1440p Owns a Case ATX Montech AIR 903 Max Owns a GPU from XFX Radeon 7900 XTX Speedster MERC 310 Black Gaming 24GB GDDR6 Its pure or mostly for gaming :S AMD or Intel? So the store give him 2 setups he can choose both +/- less same price, the i7 version would be almost the same price but with a higher PSU. Setup 1 PSU ATX Seasonic Focus Gold GX 850W 80 Plus Gold Full Modular Processador Intel Core i5-13600KF 14-Core 2.6GHz c/ Turbo 5.1GHz 24MB Skt1700 Motherboard ATX Asus ROG Strix Z790-H Gaming WiFi - PCDIGA RAM G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5-6400MHz CL32 Prateada Water Cooler CPU Fractal Design Lumen S36 V2 RGB 360mm Preto Setup 2 PSU ATX Seasonic Focus Gold GX 850W 80 Plus Gold Full Modular - PCDIGA - 139,90€ Processador AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Core c/ Turbo 5.0GHz 104MB SktAM5 - PCDIGA - 486,90€ Motherboard ATX MSI MPG B650 Carbon WiFi - PCDIGA - 305,90€ RAM G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo RGB (AMD Expo) 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5-6000MHz CL30 Preta - PCDIGA - 150,90€ Water Cooler CPU MSI MAG CoreLiquid 240R V2 All-In-One - PCDIGA - 109,90€ Thanks

It's getting close to the summer, so I'm doing a $1500 build. Although I can probably go out of budget for around 100-200 Here's the list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CqLKzf I'm doing the build mainly for gaming, content watching and potentially productivity on the side. Any ideas? A lot of choices I made are based on my last build, here:https://pcpartpicker.com/list/P3PQ4s I'm giving that one away because I'm just that nice. Mainly, I'm wondering whether I've spent too much on the mother board and power supply. I'm uncertain whether I should go with AMD, I just liked it because it's good value, although I'm not so certain about that anymore. I'm kind of out of the loop As well as I'm uncertian whether I should wait for 4070 to come out. Anyways, thanks a lot for looking it thus far.

Hey! I'm wondering what is better, AMD Ryzen 5 4500U, or an Intel i7-1165G7? I'm buying a laptop with 8 gigabytes of RAM, and 256 gigabytes of storage. I don't know what to buy, so give your suggestions. Thanks!

I have to buy a laptop and have two choices; both laptop have is offered by Dell and have exact same configratioon except proccessor, one has RYZEN 5 5500u and other INTEL i5 11300H so which should I consider amd one or intel one. Also prices for both laptop are exaclty same. Amd RYZEN 5 5500U:- 6 core 12 Threads Base freq. : 2.1Ghz Radeon RX Vega 7 Turbo boost: 4Ghz... Intel i5 11300H:- 4 core 8 Threads Iris Xe Graphics 80EU Base freq. : 2.6Ghz Turbo boost: 4.4Ghz...

Currently in India Amd ryzen 5 3600 cost 262.36 USD where as an intel i5 10400f cost 187 USD which one should I buy?

amd or intel? CPU im building a workstation w/ a budget of $3000NZD for the whole build!

Summary It has been discovered when comparing the AMD variant (G15) of the ROG Zephyrus laptop to the Intel one (M15), that the AMD one has blocked CPU vents and is being paired with weaker hardware. Quotes Apologies there is not much in the way of a written quotable source. Please see the sources below for better information! My thoughts I'm unsure as of yet as to if this is intentional, some people can get carried away and very heated with these things, especially the AMD vs Intel debate. My personal take is that there isn't enough information at this time to discuss this issue properly as to why this has been done and we can only speculate. Given Intel's history though, it hasn't done itself any favours as they have done shady things in the past which is providing fuel to the fire, given at the moment, the of the theories of Intel bending the arms of the OEM vendors. Its a shitty situation, and I really wish AMD had more presence in the laptop market, as their mobile chips are fantastic. Sources Reddit Source: Video Source:

Hello, I am making my first gaming PC I am in between picking Intel or AMD, Both have some advantages. Due due to lock down don't have access to any other processor except the ones listed below any time soon. The prices of both motherboard and processor and same. Please help me pick the best for gaming for the next 8 months. I can overclock and also work on the ram timing if needed. My Use case: - Gaming( Modern AAA titles mostly 2018-2020) - When not gaming, Upto 20 tabs on chrome at a time with Photoshop, Skype and couple of light program running in the back(I am a web Developer) Future Upgrades: - Will not be upgrading before 8 months except GPU My AMD pick: Processor: Ryzen AMD 5 2600 Link: https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-5-2600 MOBO: MSI BAZOOKA B450 Link: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450M-BAZOOKA/Overview Ram: 8x2GB DDR4 3000mhz Link: https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Memory/VENGEANCE-LPX/p/CMK16GX4M2C3000C16 My Intel Pick: Processor: Intel core i5 9400f Link: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/190883/intel-core-i5-9400f-processor-9m-cache-up-to-4-10-ghz.html MOBO: B365M DS3H (rev. 1.0) Link: https://www.gigabyte.com/pk/Motherboard/B365M-DS3H-rev-10 Ram 8x2GB DDR4 2666mhz Link: https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Memory/VENGEANCE-LPX/p/CMK16GX4M2A2666C16 These things are final: HDD: Sata Seagate Beracuda 2TB 256 cach 7200 Link: ST2000DM008 https://www.seagate.com/www-content/datasheets/pdfs/3-5-barracudaDS1900-7-1706US-en_US.pdf SSD: gigabyte 256GB SATA Link: https://www.gigabyte.com/pk/Solid-State-Drive/GIGABYTE-SSD-240GB#kf Powersupply: 550watt 80+ gold Link: Graphic Card: GTX 1660 super Link: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/graphics-cards/gtx-1660-super/

Budget (including currency): US 2000 Country: Us Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Upcoming microsoft flight simulator, GTA V, Smite, minecraft, tf2, call of duty. Other details https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Jamesthebuilder/saved/#view=Nwb9NG https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Jamesthebuilder/saved/#view=BJdVcf So I was getting the 2080 SUPER instead of 107 ti. My only questions are 1070 ti vs 2080 supper. Is 16gb enough ram. Yes I know I kneed a capture card, keyboard, and mouse,

Just wanted to know how many gamers out there would go for Ryzen 1800x considering that stability problem will be solved by updates and future games are developing to use multicore . And most importantly for 1080p gaming.

AMD Ryzen "Quad-Core" Config Tested vs i7-7700k REALLY COOL RESULTS http://www.zolkorn.com/reviews/amd-ryzen-7-1800x-vs-intel-core-i7-7700k-mhz-by-mhz-core-by-core/view-all/

Apple, by releasing the new Macbook line-up baffled the world by ONLY it's thunderbolt 3 ports, AMD also stepped up like that, showing of their multi-core hyper threaded CPU line-up are they good for gaming (strictly talking about the future era of gaming). Also with their CCX problem explained below by 'Morgan MLGman' a fellow member of forum, which will soon be tackled by AMD with an update. [[ AMD Ryzen R7 lineup is made out of two CCXs (Core Complexes) which contain four physical cores each. They're connected through Infinity Fabric high-bandwidth interconnect which seems to be AMD's own implementation and an improvement over Intel's QPI Link. Infinity Fabric is not only faster with 2133MHz RAM than QPI, but its bandwidth increases hugely with higher memory speeds. Six-core R5 Ryzen chips will have one core in each CCX disabled, making it a 3+3 CPU. Quad-core parts will be 2+2. That is most likely related to the fact that each CCX supports one memory channel and for RAM to work in a dual-channel mode, you need two CCXs. As for the memory support, AMD said that they need to roll out a microcode update that fixes issues with having multiple RAM sticks at high frequencies so for the time being they're recommending using 2667MHz max, though a bit under 3000MHz still works fine. The update should come within a month or so. ]] So are game devs. going to step-up for multi core processor? (I think, yes as Intel is also heading for more cores) Does AMD's view of future is justified? Do AMD's chips have perf./money better than Intel ?

A simple question, should Ryzen 1800x be compared with 7700k ? (both in gaming and work) If not, then to what?

Hi everyone, First of all, i'm new at linustechtips and english isn't my primary language, so sorry for bad english. My primary concerns are: *Is the wraith cooler enough to OC ryzen 5 1600 at 4.0? *Is this mobo appropriate to OC ryzen 5 1600 at 4.0? *Why the following GTX 1080 is so cheap compared to others? I'm planning to purchase everything I need in USA and bring it to my country. I will buy the case at my country since I won't be able to bring it from USA. *Ryzen 5 1600 *Stock cooler (wraith) *Mobo MSI b350 tomahawk artic or similar (like gaming plus), *Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Windforce OC GV-N1080WF3OC-8GD (I'm considering this one since right now is at $509.99 in Amazon, makes more sense than any GTX 1070 ) or the Vega 64 once it's tested in real day to day use. *Corsair vengeance lpx 16gb (2x8gb) ddr4 3200 MHz white (since in theory it can work with this mobo at 3200 MHz according to msi page). *Crucial mx300 525 GB SSD. *Fenvi Desktop WiFi 2.4G/5G & Bluetooth 4.0 300Mbps Module (anybody know if this works with a 5.8Ghz band WiFi?) Secondary concerns: *I'm not in love with AMD neither Intel, so I encourage you to tell me which one should i go for a budget of $1000 with similar specs from above and same performance. *Is there any mobo under $100 that supports up to 250gb of nvme? *What performance should I expect for triple a games at ultra in 1080p and 4k from this build? Any suggestions in general are welcome. Please help and thanks!

Hi! having problem where fps drops while playing dota 2 we have this setup : CPU: AMD A6-7400K MOBO: GIGABYTE F2A68HM-S1 and CPU: INTEL PENTIUM G3260 MOBO: ASUS A81M-D using the same RAM: 2X4GB KINGSTON HYPERX FURY GPU: ZOTAC GTX 550 Ti HDD: same 500gb WD HDD fps on the AMD starts at 70-80fps but after about 5mins it drops to 30-40fps while on intel it stays 130-140fps. all graphics options are on its lowest and we kept everything the same for settings, resolutions, etc. we already did : re apply thermal paste on both gpu and cpu, temp was fine, gpu is at 60 most of the time disabled integrated graphics on amd board updated drivers made sure it was the right driver also tried different versions of drivers but still problem persist, and we can't get why its this way.

Hey guys, I was recently asked by a friend to build them a new computer. This is a huge hobby of mine so I am very excited to have the opportunity to build a new PC. My friend told me he wanted a workstation for frequent CAD use and rendering. I have built 3 computers in the past but all towards a focus on gaming. Knowing that workstations usually require a bit more CPU muscle and about the same(or less) in GPU muscle I am trying to divert the budget (1800 USD) towards a great CPU. I wanted to pick a processor with higher multi-core speed so I am thinking about going with Ryzen 7 1700x over an Intel 7700k. The only reason I am a bit hesitant about this decision is because of support... I rather have an intel processor with that has better support and usually better hardware compatibility but at the same time, I know that a workstation would benefit from a 1700x more. Not only that, I am just more familiar with intel processors. I have looked into some Xenon processors but the market is just too saturated with options and nitty gritty details that are beyond my scope. Any recommendations for an Intel processor that would be just as adequate as a Ryzen 1700x? (below 500 USD) Thanks for all the help! ps. I am not done with the build yet but this is what I have so far.... https://pcpartpicker.com/user/DeathToaster45/saved/#view=kKpjXL

What CPU is the best purely for gaming? This is for a build with a GTX 1070 in it.

Hello all, In about a month I will be entering University. While I am trying to decide my courses (most likely computer science/programming classes) I would like to find a laptop beforehand. I enjoy playing SOURCE engine games (Half Life 2, Garry's Mod, and other Valve related games), Heroes of the Storm, Fallout 3, and possibly Overwatch in the near future. I have found a laptop with my desired specs (8GB-12GB RAM (DDR4 preferred), 1TB+ HDD (combination HDD and SDD is acceptable), CPU on par with an i5/i7 (MUST BE QUAD), UHD screen, 2-in-1s are priority) but I am not sure how well it will perform. I do not expect to run these on high/ultra settings (more like low/medium, as higher graphical options are not expected by me). (HP Envy x360 - 2-in-1 15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - AMD FX - 8GB Memory - AMD Radeon R7 - 1TB Hard Drive) I am open to suggestions and my price point is up to $700 USD One last question: Does anybody have reservations for AMD chips over Intel's? I would like to hear why if there is any opposition.

Hello, New guy here. First of all I am going to say thanks to those who respond since I am sure this has come up before. I am building my first PC and could use some help especially since I am trying to build a VR capable PC. Probably bit off more then I can chew but I seem to make that a habit in my life. I have a friend who is willing to help me put everything together so I do have a helping hand in this endeavor. Details about the space: I have a 8 ft x 2 ft standing desk to place everything on so I think I have decent enough space. I have a open area approximately 6 ft x 10 ft to move around for VR gaming. Good ventilation in the room w/ climate control. I have dogs but they aren't allowed in the office area. 1. Budget & Location - $1,000 USD, United States, CA. Willing to go over my cap by $300 to gain performance I desire. 2. Aim - So the goal is really a multi-use computer but the reason for the build is mostly to get into VR gaming. I'd like something that can support the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive since I haven't really decided which one I want just yet and may end up just getting both. Currently I only have a MacBook Pro and have seen the light and want to depart from the price gouging and shenanigans of Apple. I am a major noob to the whole computer building world but have been learning as much as possible and think I have a reasonable understanding of components individually but putting it all together is where I get tripped up. I am also abandoning console gaming in favor the greater flexibility and availability of PC gaming. Would like to play a lot of the major console games but will just play them on PC instead. I am a graphic designer as well and do some very rudimentary video editing on occasion. (I use Adobe products and simple video editing software). Obviously I'll be using the PC for basic home computing, school work, and browsing as well. The goal is to eventually build a simple home server and VPN to stream media over my home network ( this would be a separate device from this build) . Tired of keeping a bunch of movies sitting on my hard drive and not accessible to my mobile devices, etc. Bottomline I want to be able to use VR systems and play any game for either platform (recommended specs sited: Rift - https://www.oculus.com/rift/ ; Vive - https://www.vive.com/us/support/category_howto/what-are-minimum-system-requirements.html) 3. Monitors - Initially I would be running 3 HD monitors but would eventually like to increase to a maximum of 6. Not sure on resolution just yet. I am not counting monitors in my budget. the budget is just for the cpu tower. Mostly I'm looking for recommendations on monitors and components necessary in the Tower build to make 6 monitors possible, eventually. I'm looking for something that can handle HD video and frame rates > 240 fps. 4. Peripherals - No specific peripherals in mind but would like the ability to connect high quality speakers/headphones. suggests on keyboard/mouse/etc. appreciated but no preference. TBH, I really don't care if it glows or changes color as long as it works well and doesn't break down easily. Likely going to want to run Windows. Have toyed with idea of making a "Hackintosh" (what my buddy called it) and have ability to boot into a Mac OS but have heard horror stories and just sounds super finicky to deal with (could be wrong). 5. Why are you upgrading? - So as above, I have a MacBook and have become frustrated with the whole deal. I'm over chasing the newest console and PC's just seem like the best solution to my woes. I would like some upward mobility in the overall system so as I become a better builder and more versed in particulars I can upgrade components and such as necessary. As stated I am pretty new to this whole thing and have watched a ton of YouTube videos (mostly linus tech tips and tech quickie) but I figured now would be a good time to get some advice from a solid community. Thanks for all the help. Cheers!

a core i5 7600k or a ryzen 2600 (both with a nivida 1070 non ti)

So I'm trying to plan out a gaming build, but I'm getting frustrated at trying to find reasons for purchasing an AMD chip over an Intel chip. The sole reasons being given by the community are: its $40 cheaper comes with a CPU cooler (cheaper) good for multitasking easier upgrade path (maybe) Focusing ONLY on gaming, multi-threading, based on what all YouTube tech groups are saying, does NOTHING for games; maybe 10+ extra FPS for one or two titles, but no one is giving solid data for actual (gaming) benefits. Probably since most games seem to only use a single core (once again based on what everyone on YouTube is saying). Are people arguing for AMD simply because cost and they don't like Intel? I don't use Blender and the ONLY multitasking I plan on doing is running Discord and maybe a few tabs in Firefox in the background (and of course two antivirus solutions; I'm cybersecurity). Is it that at 1440p the differences are negligible and you just get more options with Ryzen? If thats the case, I'd love some confirmation. Everyone just seems so wishy-washy on this subject. I'd like an answer and I just want to strangle the next person who says it depends... LIIIIIIINUS!!!

I5 8300h +1050 ti vs Ryzen7 3750h + 1650 vs Ryzen5 + 1650 Please rank them from best to worst for For gaming ,video editing and programming(also deep learning)

Hey guys and gals! I need some help! I am trying to decide what system I want. I usually build my own PC's, but can't afford x500 for AMD 3rd gen and have no way to flash a bios to get the older boards to work. So, I've been looking at local system builders and other areas to see what I could get for around $800 new or used. These are the two systems I'm trying to decide between: Intel(USED - $850): Intel i7-5820K CPU 16GB RAM GTX 1080 GPU Corsair 280mm AIO liquid cooler 500GB SSD Phanteks case Don't know what the ram is, but in the pictures it looks like 2 different sets of 4x4gb sticks. Also, don't know what the PSU is. AMD(Pre-built - $750) Ryzen 5 3600 MSI B350m Bazooka 16gb T-Force DDR4 3000MHz RAM XFX Black Edition RX 580 8GB OCZ 750w PSU(doesn't say if it's efficiency rated or semi or fully modular) Pioneer 240gb SSD 3TB HGST HDD This system is gonna be for gaming and some light streaming. $850 is really the max I can go and just want to get the best bang for my buck. I know there's no real upgrade path with the Intel system, but I've also heard that the AM4 socket will be dead in 2020. Just can't make up my mind on this, so some help/feedback would be greatly appreciated.

TL;DR version: I want to do a Ryzen 9 3900X build, but think for my use case, and current price trajectories, that an Intel I9-9900KF may be better performing and lower cost. I'm currently planning out a backbone replacement for the PC I built several years ago. This is driven by my discovery of VR Flight sims (and there corresponding CPU devouring ways) and, what I believe is a persistent timing issue between my motherboard and the SSD that causes issues getting the system to boot. (Once I've gotten it booted, it comes in and out of sleep fine, so I haven't had that much need to find the problem and fix it. Plus, I think the root cause is pairing a 2013 motherboard that was developed before the SSD timings were finalized with an early SSD drive.) The primary heavy lift for this machine will be playing the DCS F-14B and Il-2 Great Battles in VR, with, preferably, ludicrous resolution, at, hopefully minimum frame rates of 45+. 90 fps would be nice if viable, but right now I don't see it at as important as being able to support tons of pixels. (And my reaction time is poor in general. Spotting is life!) Basically, looking to reach a system that can keep up 45+ FPS in DCS VR with an HD Reverb or Pimax 5k+ grade or better headset. As I understand them, the Il-2 and DCS core engines are both very old, and very single thread dependent. (Il-2 is derived from the Rise of Flight Engine, with first shipped back in 2009, and DCS is a development of the old LoMAC (2003), and which could very well still be using code work from the original SU-27 Flanker of '96 vintage. Flight sims can have quite a lengthy development life.) Both of the games also tend to be rather large. Just in the two directories, I've got around 174 GB of game files and another 1.4GB of mods. Load times are also a thing, as are peripherals. Also, I've got VAIRIO integrated into DCS so voice recognition is also a performance need, though I believe, since it is using the Windows Voice Recognition software, that that should be on its own thread, rather than living in the same thread as the main game. I might need to use thread locking software to keep the scheduler from intermingling them, however. Additional considerations are wireless Internet. I need to run an Ethernet cable through the attic to get a wired connection to the cable box, but that's probably going to be some ways off, and if I can get a solid connection set up by wireless for online play, that works for me for now. I'm also looking for solid blue tooth support that's compatible with PS4 controllers. (I prefer them to the XBox controller setup for games that work better with controllers. Yes I may, one day, return to FF14, and I'd rather not be tethered, if possible.) Finally, USB. I'm counting 14 devices permanently plugged into my tower, 12 of which I can identify at the moment. The majority of these are game controllers. Remember that line about fifty different controls? Yeah, that's just the right vertical panel... At some point I may decide I'm going to go all in and build something completely insane but that a bridge for another day. I believe I only need 4-6 USB 3.0 ports. I need two for the Oculus Rift sensors, and I believe another for the headset, and I'd like to have a couple free for the front panel. I haven't looked into external audio DACs yet, so not sure what the right ports for those would be, but would like to have the correct type of connector for if I decide to do that in the future. The rest of the USB ports should be fine as 2.0 speeds. While I have many controls interfacing with them, the data rates are relatively low; I just need to be able to be sending commands through several of them at once without a traffic jam. (Nothing quite like having your rudder decide its going to *stop talking to you* because you're trying to lock the guy up and the controllers have had the equivalent of a bus collision, or worse, something bumped one of the head tracking towers into degraded mode while your tracking someone over your shoulder and trying to maneuver in four+ axis.) So, the more USB port and USB headers, the merrier, along with enough extra PCI express slots for an additional USB controller or two. The build plan is to do the rebuild over the Christmas break, so probably getting parts on order in the November timeframe. Target budget is between $1000 to $1500 USD, preferably closer to the $1k limit than the $1.5k. Also, finding out that certain retailers are going to start charging sales tax on October 1st, so unless we can expect more than a 8% price drop in certain components (RAM, I'm looking at you) between then and November, it may make price sense to buy some of the parts early rather than late. The current state of the Argo should be in the link below: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jgZznH Parts they aren't able to list are, the case is a Corsair Obsidian 800D Full Tower ATX case, and I'm currently using an Oculus Rift CV1 . I'll use 1-3 1920x1200 IPS monitors: 1x HP2475w, and a pair of Asus PA249Q monitors. I believe I should be able to just replace the CPU/Motherboard/RAM backbone and keep the rest of the system, though I think I'll need to find an adapter bracket for the cooler if I go AMD. The first debate is Intel vs AMD. Right now, its looking like the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X is the best overall CPU on the market, however, the Intel I9-9900KF still seems to hold the edge in single threaded performance, which is the big bottleneck in the current VR flight sims, at least until one or the other major maker decides to completely rework their engine for multi-threading. Might happen. Might not. Also, given that these games are either single or at most dual threaded games, I'm wondering if it is worthwhile to look at the i7-9700KF has the 4.9Ghz boost speed near the 9900KF, and comes in considerably cheaper. Likewise, the Ryzen 7 3800X is just 100mhz shy of what the 3900X performs, though with current price trends, it, ironically ended up being just about the same price as the i9-9900KF's that I'm seeing. Note: since I already have a 3d card, I'm primarily looking at the 'F' version of the Intel chips, since they tend to cost less and I'm given to understand they have a bit less thermal load. I'm actually thinking, if the Intel 9900's keep dropping and end up in Ryzen 7 3800 or 3700 territory, that may tip the scales, for my use case, decisively onto the Intel side. Then again, based on some of the performance numbers I'm seeing, it may not. That brings up a question, assuming I get DDR4-3600, which architecture would be expected to make more effective use of it? DCS in particular is a very RAM heavy game, that sometimes tries to load everything under the sun into ready memory. Platform growth is another area I'm still hazy in. I know on the Intel side, pretty much any CPU upgrade would be another backbone replacement. In contrast, I'm given to understand that the AM4 platform is a bit more flexible, however, from everything I can find, the AM4 seems to have been only planned to go through 2020, so I think I'd be coming in near the end of life for that platform? If it's likely to last a couple more years of high performance processors, that could be a measurable buying factor. I'm not sure how much though. I've had this backbone since 2013, and looking at the benchmarks, it's only in the last generation or so that it seems to be falling behind more than 10-15% in single threaded performance. Last thing I'm debating on is whether an M.2 drive might be worth getting for holding my game files on. Just looking at Newegg, the WD Blue M.2 drives are about 1TB for ~$100 USD, 2TB for $240 USD. How much of a game load time difference should one expect from that range of M.2 drive vs a SATA6 SSD? My current "0 to flying" time on the DCS F-14B is about 1:45. Il-2's running at about another 2m of loading screens as well, and unfortunately it's got about 4 of them to get from start to flying. So, for those of you all who've managed to get to the bottom of this wall of text, your thoughts? Intel or AMD? DDR4 3600 RAM? RAM now or later? Are motherboards going to be a key differentiator? M.2 drive worthwhile over a SATA 6GB SSD? Any refurb work I should do on the case, PSU, and cooler before reusing them? Better ways of managing the peripheral nest than tons of USB headers and Rosewill USB PCI-E Express cards? Thank you, Harry Voyager