Looking to upgrade cpu, mobo, cooler and gpu.

[Silverbackk]

Hello, I'm looking to upgrade my current setup and I'm after some recommendations. I play at 165hz 1440p and a mixture of games from cs go and rocket league to bf5 and cod. I'm thinking of upgrading to a i7-9700k and evga rtx 2080 super ftw3 ultra but unsure what motherboard and cpu cooler to go for. Thanks 

 

 

my current build is.

 

CPU: i5-8400

GPU: Evga gtx 1080 ftw2

Motherboard: Gigabyte z370xp sli 

PSU: corsair hx750i

Ram: 2x8gb corsair vengeance rgb pro 3000mhz 51mm 

Case: corsair 460x

 

 

 

[Fasauceome]

If you find an 8700k or 9700kf, you should consider those as well. What do you need out of a new motherboard? Your current one may not be premium but it's far from garbage.

 

If you're buying from the US:

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/cpu/#sort=price&s=13&F=20,21&k=30

 

EVGA graphics cards are pretty excellent overall. Can't go wrong with a FTW3 Ultra for a high end graphics card.

[SHADFAN]

7 minutes ago, Silverbackk said:

Hello, I'm looking to upgrade my current setup and I'm after some recommendations. I play at 165hz 1440p and a mixture of games from cs go and rocket league to bf5 and cod. I'm thinking of upgrading to a i7-9700k and evga rtx 2080 super ftw3 ultra but unsure what motherboard and cpu cooler to go for. Thanks 

 

 

my current build is.

 

CPU: i5-8400

GPU: Evga gtx 1080 ftw2

Motherboard: Gigabyte z370xp sli 

PSU: corsair hx750i

Ram: corsair vengeance rgb pro 3000mhz

 

 

 

Despite that your MOBO is quite good but if you need the upgrade then search for a motherboard that uses the CoffeeLake archictecture with the FCLGA1151 socket so it would be compatible with the i7-9700k. Check this list if you want for these types of MOBOs : https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#s=30

[Maxxtraxx]

Your cheapest upgrade is an i7-8700k and a 2070super/2080/1080ti/2080super, both are just drop in upgrades with the least amount of headache required the least additional replacements to support them.

 

9700k is great but does carry the recommendation of a z390 board... it's the only officially supported board. and that will cost you money to replace.

 

I'm also asuming you are running at least 8 or 16gb of DUAL channel 3000mhz ram.

[DailyProcrastinator]

I'd get a new i7-9700k, just make sure you update your bios beforehand, but otherwise I would probably still hang on to that GPU personally, but go for a new CPU first. 

[RadiatingLight]

Your motherboard is already compatible with 9th generation CPUs, so there's no need to buy a new one. (It just needs a BIOS update)

If you are buying a motherboard, I'd reccomend considering 3rd Gen Ryzen (3700X)

 

a 9700K will be a good upgrade from the 8400, and if you want to overclock a lot, a beefy dual-tower air cooler like the NH-D15 or Dark Rock Pro 4 is your best bet. Otherwise, most normal single-tower air-coolers are good for stock speeds or a light overclock.

[Silverbackk]

11 hours ago, Fasauceome said:

If you find an 8700k or 9700kf, you should consider those as well. What do you need out of a new motherboard? Your current one may not be premium but it's far from garbage.

 

If you're buying from the US:

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/cpu/#sort=price&s=13&F=20,21&k=30

 

EVGA graphics cards are pretty excellent overall. Can't go wrong with a FTW3 Ultra for a high end graphics card.

Hi, I'm in the uk. I have found a deal on the 9700k the 8700k actually seems to be more. Although not having much experience with overclocking I'd like to give it a go so would need a motherboard with overclocking features. I could use my current motherboard and update it for the new cpu however I have read that its reccomended to go for a z390 board? 

[Silverbackk]

12 hours ago, Oliver oni said:

Despite that your MOBO is quite good but if you need the upgrade then search for a motherboard that uses the CoffeeLake archictecture with the FCLGA1151 socket so it would be compatible with the i7-9700k. Check this list if you want for these types of MOBOs : https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#s=30

Thankyou.

[Silverbackk]

11 hours ago, Maxxtraxx said:

Your cheapest upgrade is an i7-8700k and a 2070super/2080/1080ti/2080super, both are just drop in upgrades with the least amount of headache required the least additional replacements to support them.

 

9700k is great but does carry the recommendation of a z390 board... it's the only officially supported board. and that will cost you money to replace.

 

I'm also asuming you are running at least 8 or 16gb of DUAL channel 3000mhz ram.

Yes that is true, however I have found a deal on the 9700k. Sorry I forgot to mention I'm running 2x8gb dual channel.

[Silverbackk]

11 hours ago, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

I'd get a new i7-9700k, just make sure you update your bios beforehand, but otherwise I would probably still hang on to that GPU personally, but go for a new CPU first. 

Thanks. It's been a really good gpu! What are your reasons for hanging on to the 1080? believe the new card wont be out by the end of the year with what's going on.

[Silverbackk]

12 hours ago, RadiatingLight said:

Your motherboard is already compatible with 9th generation CPUs, so there's no need to buy a new one. (It just needs a BIOS update)

If you are buying a motherboard, I'd reccomend considering 3rd Gen Ryzen (3700X)

 

a 9700K will be a good upgrade from the 8400, and if you want to overclock a lot, a beefy dual-tower air cooler like the NH-D15 or Dark Rock Pro 4 is your best bet. Otherwise, most normal single-tower air-coolers are good for stock speeds or a light overclock.

How does the 3700x compare to the 9700k in terms of gaming performance and overclocking potential? As I have found a deal on the 9700k there isnt a whole lot in it in terms of price. I like the look of the dark rock pro 4 however it wouldn't provide enough ram clearance and wouldn't want to have to change the ram so I can have that cooler. Is there any others you could reccomended? The cooler I have now is the standard intel one so it will have to be changed for the 9700k. The ram I have now I believe is 51mm and I have a corsair 460x case if that matters. 

[Fasauceome]

55 minutes ago, Silverbackk said:

I have read that its reccomended to go for a z390 board? 

It is recommended because they are compatible out of the box. However, since you already have the 8th gen CPU you can just update the BIOS, making your Z370 board just as compatible. Therefore there's literally no advantage to a Z390 motherboard, unless you needed a more expensive motherboard for a specific feature you wanted.

 

[Silverbackk]

2 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

It is recommended because they are compatible out of the box. However, since you already have the 8th gen CPU you can just update the BIOS, making your Z370 board just as compatible. Therefore there's literally no advantage to a Z390 motherboard, unless you needed a more expensive motherboard for a specific feature you wanted.

 

Great! So I if I were to update my current motherboard for the 9700k would I have to still reinstall windows etc? 

[Fasauceome]

10 minutes ago, Silverbackk said:

Great! So I if I were to update my current motherboard for the 9700k would I have to still reinstall windows etc? 

No, windows should not be affected by BIOS version or new CPU. Only if you get a motherboard that needs new drivers.

[Silverbackk]

13 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

No, windows should not be affected by BIOS version or new CPU. Only if you get a motherboard that needs new drivers.

Thanks, that will be so much easier. Are there any features worth having on a new motherboard to the one I have? Sorry I dont know much about motherboards lol. Also any coolers you could reccomend to go with the cpu? I plan on overclocking both cpu and gpu.

[Fasauceome]

54 minutes ago, Silverbackk said:

Are there any features worth having on a new motherboard to the one I have?

If you're just gaming, nothing really comes to mind

 

55 minutes ago, Silverbackk said:

Also any coolers you could reccomend to go with the cpu?

Not sure if this fits in the budget but it's huge and flashy

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/kNsnTW/zalman-cnps20x-61-cfm-cpu-cooler-cnps20x

[Silverbackk]

2 hours ago, Fasauceome said:

If you're just gaming, nothing really comes to mind

 

Not sure if this fits in the budget but it's huge and flashy

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/kNsnTW/zalman-cnps20x-61-cfm-cpu-cooler-cnps20x

Oh okay. That looks decent. Thanks for your help dude!

[DailyProcrastinator]

8 hours ago, Silverbackk said:

Thanks. It's been a really good gpu! What are your reasons for hanging on to the 1080? believe the new card wont be out by the end of the year with what's going on.

The RX 5700XT, RTX 2080S, and 2080 Ti are the real only logical upgrades, and Nvidia will launch new GPU's this year so no point in upgrading now. The RX 5700XT (best value) barely outperforms a GTX 1080. So for the money spent right now you will get diminishing returns. Save your money for when new cards launch. I haven't bought any new high end GPU's since the GTX 10xx series because the performance gain wasn't much with RTX, and if you consider cost... It just makes no sense, at least in my opinion.  

[Silverbackk]

53 minutes ago, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

The RX 5700XT, RTX 2080S, and 2080 Ti are the real only logical upgrades, and Nvidia will launch new GPU's this year so no point in upgrading now. The RX 5700XT (best value) barely outperforms a GTX 1080. So for the money spent right now you will get diminishing returns. Save your money for when new cards launch. I haven't bought any new high end GPU's since the GTX 10xx series because the performance gain wasn't much with RTX, and if you consider cost... It just makes no sense, at least in my opinion.  

Yeah I agree, I'm just thinking how my current card would perform with the new cpu. As I game at 1440p am i going to see a real performance increase? literally about to order the cpu but I'm still not sure what cooler to go for. I want to go for the dark rock pro 4 however I don't know if i will have the ram clearance, I've got rgb corsair vengeance but only 2 sticks so if they were in 2 and 4 slots do you think it would fit?

[Mister Woof]

Adjust your settings and keep what you got IMO

 

Upgrading on your current platform is not worth the cost, and upgrading to a Ryzen platform won't always boost your gaming performance and when it does, it won't be huge.

 

Wait for the next generation IMO.

[DailyProcrastinator]

1 minute ago, Silverbackk said:

Yeah I agree, I'm just thinking how my current card would perform with the new cpu. As I game at 1440p am i going to see a real performance increase? literally about to order the cpu but I'm still not sure what cooler to go for. I want to go for the dark rock pro 4 however I don't know if i will have the ram clearance, I've got rgb corsair vengeance but only 2 sticks so if they were in 2 and 4 slots do you think it would fit?

Well you will see the performance gain when you get your new 9700k. The 1080 is a very capable card, but performance gains will depend on the game and settings, still not worth a current gen GPU upgrade. 

 

The Cooler should fit, I have a similar cooler setup with Corsair RGB Pro memory and it clears, most large air coolers take tall RAM into consideration. if you want to verify read the RAM clearance specs listed by Be Quiet.

[Mister Woof]

13 minutes ago, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

Well you will see the performance gain when you get your new 9700k. The 1080 is a very capable card, but performance gains will depend on the game and settings, still not worth a current gen GPU upgrade. 

 

The Cooler should fit, I have a similar cooler setup with Corsair RGB Pro memory and it clears, most large air coolers take tall RAM into consideration. if you want to verify read the RAM clearance specs listed by Be Quiet.

High FPS is both CPU and GPU demanding, whereas increased resolution is more GPU demanding.

 

In his case, he'll need both a faster GPU and a faster CPU to realize 1440p 165hz.

 

But the gains aren't really going to be that huge. A 9900k is faster than an 8400 at games, but is it $700 faster?

A 2080 super is faster at 1440p than a 1080 gtx, but is it $700 faster? 

 

Combined, is the result $1400 faster?

 

I suppose these are all personal determinations, but the buy in is a lot for only modest gains. And in many cases, he still won't hit those milestones even with new hardware.

 

 

[Mister Woof]

26 minutes ago, Silverbackk said:

Yeah I agree, I'm just thinking how my current card would perform with the new cpu. As I game at 1440p am i going to see a real performance increase? literally about to order the cpu but I'm still not sure what cooler to go for. I want to go for the dark rock pro 4 however I don't know if i will have the ram clearance, I've got rgb corsair vengeance but only 2 sticks so if they were in 2 and 4 slots do you think it would fit?

The GTX 1080 will struggle at 1440 in many games to achieve 165fps regardless of what CPU you pair it with, and a 2080 ti won't hit 165fps and 1440p with an i5-8400; that said, you are more likely to get high FPS by upgrading your CPU to a 9700k/9900k and playing at 1080p than only upgrading your GPU and staying at 1440p.

[Silverbackk]

42 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

The GTX 1080 will struggle at 1440 in many games to achieve 165fps regardless of what CPU you pair it with, and a 2080 ti won't hit 165fps and 1440p with an i5-8400; that said, you are more likely to get high FPS by upgrading your CPU to a 9700k/9900k and playing at 1080p than only upgrading your GPU and staying at 1440p.

I'm looking at upgrading both gpu and cpu. I may end up just upgrading the cpu until the new cards come out. If i upgrade the cpu now at least I wont have to do that when the new cards come out. I dont think i would be far off 165fps in alot of games after tweaking a few settings.

[Silverbackk]

1 hour ago, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

Well you will see the performance gain when you get your new 9700k. The 1080 is a very capable card, but performance gains will depend on the game and settings, still not worth a current gen GPU upgrade. 

 

The Cooler should fit, I have a similar cooler setup with Corsair RGB Pro memory and it clears, most large air coolers take tall RAM into consideration. if you want to verify read the RAM clearance specs listed by Be Quiet.

Yeah true. Not sure it will fit as it has 40mm clearance and my ram is 51mm after reading on some forums some people say it fits and some say they have learnt the hard way. So now my options are to go with a more expensive AIO cooler or upgrade ram. Unless i can find a similar performance air cooler.