Upgrading from 9400f.... Where to go from here???

[Dutchdeviant]

So... Black Friday, Cyber Monday and most of all Pay day are coming up.

Which means my upgrade hormons are going nuts. 

I currently have the following

 

I5 9400f 

Coolermaster 212 Black Rgb 

Gigabyte z370p d3

2x8GB 3000Mhz Corsair Vengeance

GTX 1070 (Pailt Game Rock)

Corsair MP510 960GB

 

 

I'm running in to a few situations (BF 1 and V, Borderlands 3 and some more) where the i5 is holding me back.

So a cpu upgrade seemed like the thing to do.

But where to go from here?

I am willing to spend around 300 pound, so I though of an i7 9700(k).

But my motherboard wouldn't handle overclocking very well, so don't know if that's a smart plan.

Do I sell the MOBO and cpu combo and put that money towards something else?

Do I change platform? Does it have to be newer? x99 is getting pretty cheap now...

Do I go team RED????

For years I have avoided AMD after 2 horrible weeks with a fx6300, but those Ryzen cpu's are looking pretty interesting.

 

 

I can't think of a better place for an honest answer or a bit of help then the Almighty LTT community.. please help!!!!

 

 

[redbread123]

14 minutes ago, Dutchdeviant said:

So... Black Friday, Cyber Monday and most of all Pay day are coming up.

Which means my upgrade hormons are going nuts. 

I currently have the following

 

I5 9400f 

Coolermaster 212 Black Rgb 

Gigabyte z370p d3

2x8GB 3000Mhz Corsair Vengeance

GTX 1070 (Pailt Game Rock)

Corsair MP510 960GB

 

 

I'm running in to a few situations (BF 1 and V, Borderlands 3 and some more) where the i5 is holding me back.

So a cpu upgrade seemed like the thing to do.

But where to go from here?

I am willing to spend around 300 pound, so I though of an i7 9700(k).

But my motherboard wouldn't handle overclocking very well, so don't know if that's a smart plan.

Do I sell the MOBO and cpu combo and put that money towards something else?

Do I change platform? Does it have to be newer? x99 is getting pretty cheap now...

Do I go team RED????

For years I have avoided AMD after 2 horrible weeks with a fx6300, but those Ryzen cpu's are looking pretty interesting.

 

 

I can't think of a better place for an honest answer or a bit of help then the Almighty LTT community.. please help!!!!

 

 

9700k, opposed to every amd's fan opinion has a value of 90% on cpuuserbenchmark and it's pretty much a flagship for gaming (9900k only gives 1~2% more performance)

[Dutchdeviant]

6 minutes ago, redbread123 said:

9700k, opposed to every amd's fan opinion has a value of 90% on cpuuserbenchmark and it's pretty much a flagship for gaming (9900k only gives 1~2% more performance)

I was thinking that too, just wasn't sure if my mobo was up for it... It was the cheapest z370 I could find, should have spent a bit more.  I suppose I could always upgrade that next payday.  Thanks for the tip

[Zando_]

11 minutes ago, redbread123 said:

9700k, opposed to every amd's fan opinion has a value of 90% on cpuuserbenchmark and it's pretty much a flagship for gaming (9900k only gives 1~2% more performance)

userbenchmark updating their scoring system to favor Intel over AMD, was a bit controversy over that. They're not reliable at all. 

 

My 2 bits on the choices here:

• Bad sources aside, the 9700K is an excellent CPU. If you don't wanna move platforms, a 9700K or 8700K would be a good option, and even a pretty oofies board should handle them stock, most can handle OCing if you make sure the VRMs don't overheat. 

 

• If you do want to move to a new platform, the R5 3600 would be about the best bang for the buck, it's about on par with an 8700K. 

 

• If you wanna move to X99, Haswell-E CPUs perform about on par with similarly clocked Zen/Zen+ CPUs at similar core counts. Basically 5820K/5930K = R5 2600, 5960X = R7 2700X. They have a higher OC headroom if you have the cooling for them (hexacores aren't that hot, 8 cores are an absolute furnace once you start putting more voltage in). Can't speak for Broadwells since I don't have any, but they're basically a slightly tweaked Haswell-E but on average have worse OC headroom. I think they did fix some of the IMC issues though, haven't confirmed that yet tho. 

All really depends on what you want from the platform. X99 has many more PCIe lanes with the right CPU (5820K and the base Broadwell-E one are 28 PCIe lanes, rest are a full 40), Ryzen is cheaper if buying new (offers better performance and usually runs cooler as well), and the 9700K keeps you on your current platform and is a solid gaming CPU. Oh and you also get quad channel RAM with X99, if you workloads use that or you just want it for the flex, lol. 

I'd say go X99 if you don't need over 120fps or so at 1080p, but I'm an idiot who's willing to cool and power the older hardware and sort through its issues (one that bothers me the most is poor M.2 speeds on old mobos, newer revisions like my X99 Micro2 had full PCIe 3.0 x4 slots though). I also just flat out like the X series platforms for no real reason. 

[Dutchdeviant]

18 hours ago, Zando Bob said:

userbenchmark updating their scoring system to favor Intel over AMD, was a bit controversy over that. They're not reliable at all. 

 

My 2 bits on the choices here:

• Bad sources aside, the 9700K is an excellent CPU. If you don't wanna move platforms, a 9700K or 8700K would be a good option, and even a pretty oofies board should handle them stock, most can handle OCing if you make sure the VRMs don't overheat. 

 

• If you do want to move to a new platform, the R5 3600 would be about the best bang for the buck, it's about on par with an 8700K. 

 

• If you wanna move to X99, Haswell-E CPUs perform about on par with similarly clocked Zen/Zen+ CPUs at similar core counts. Basically 5820K/5930K = R5 2600, 5960X = R7 2700X. They have a higher OC headroom if you have the cooling for them (hexacores aren't that hot, 8 cores are an absolute furnace once you start putting more voltage in). Can't speak for Broadwells since I don't have any, but they're basically a slightly tweaked Haswell-E but on average have worse OC headroom. I think they did fix some of the IMC issues though, haven't confirmed that yet tho. 

All really depends on what you want from the platform. X99 has many more PCIe lanes with the right CPU (5820K and the base Broadwell-E one are 28 PCIe lanes, rest are a full 40), Ryzen is cheaper if buying new (offers better performance and usually runs cooler as well), and the 9700K keeps you on your current platform and is a solid gaming CPU. Oh and you also get quad channel RAM with X99, if you workloads use that or you just want it for the flex, lol. 

I'd say go X99 if you don't need over 120fps or so at 1080p, but I'm an idiot who's willing to cool and power the older hardware and sort through its issues (one that bothers me the most is poor M.2 speeds on old mobos, newer revisions like my X99 Micro2 had full PCIe 3.0 x4 slots though). I also just flat out like the X series platforms for no real reason. 

To be really honest, I am not a fan of the current mobo I have. Don't like the bios, RGB is stuck in amber or off, no type c usb, onboard sound is horrible( even for onboard sound), not enough usb. 

But, it is going to be pointless to sell it since I'll only get 50 for it probs. cpu and mobo combo might get me 125 to 150 if I'm lucky. 

 

So, if I am going to spend 300 pound, is it smart to get a 9700k on a mobo I don't like, or spend that money on a strix b450 mobo and a 2700x or get a combo like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Core-i7-5960X-Gigabyte-GA-X99-UD4-32GB-RAM/184041104562?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160811114145%26meid%3D754186f1977a4bee870f3075a76a5418%26pid%3D100667%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D163953470620%26itm%3D184041104562%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2334524&_trksid=p2334524.c100667.m2042 for about the same money. 

 

I know I'll have to make a choice but none of it is easy for me... Took me 3 months to pick a new phone and I don't even really care half as much about that as I do about my pc.

 

Sometimes I wish I could just be happy with a console.... Bless the simpleminded plebs

[Mister Woof]

I'm an Intel fan, but I believe the 9700k was a "fuck you" from Intel TBH.

 

In every aspect it's a compromise to ethical business practices towards their consumers.

 

Top-end mainstream consumer chip which was historically i7 (2600k, 3770k, 4770k, 7700k) which, if defective, would ordinarily have been relegated to an i5 (2500k, 3570k, 4690k, 7600k) that historically lacked hyperthreading as a high end feature, was instead re-branded as i7-9700k so they could sell the fully functional chip as i9-9900k, creating a whole new segment. (This seems familiar....Nvidia anyone?)

 

It's also, unlike previous generations, not a clear cut upgrade over the previous i7-8700k. It's a compromise. What the fuck, Intel?

 

Result - i7 is no longer a premium product line, it lacks a critical efficiency feature (that is STANDARD on nearly all of the competition's product line) and yet there are still two more products in their stack below the i7 that also lack hyperthreading. And on top of it all it's not even a clear upgrade over the outgoing i7.

 

So now, to get hyperthreading on a non-pentium, you are now forced to buy an i9, a product line that only exists because greed.

 

In the past, from Sandy bridge to kabylake, the i3 through i7 features were the same yet every generation was an actual clear cut improvement over the old one.

 

In kabylake-coffeelake, it was a bigger step.

 

i7-7700k -> i7-8700k (4/8 -> 6/12)

i5-7600k -> i5-8600k (4/4 -> 6/6)

i3-7350k -> i3-8350k (2/4 -> 4/4)

 

Now we get...

 

??????  - i9-9900k (??? -> 8/16) ???

i7-8700k -> i7-9700k (6/12 -> 8/8) ???

i5-8600k -> i5-9600k (6/6 -> 6/6)

i3-8350k -> i3-9350k (4/4 -> 4/4)

 

Imo

 

9900k should have been an i7

9700k should have been an i5

9600k should have been an i3

9100f should have just been a Pentium

The rest could he celerons

 

So yeah, for the $350 they're asking for an "i7" I have a personal problem with it.

 

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, Dutchdeviant said:

is it smart to get a 9700k on a mobo I don't like

Never smart to spend money on hardware you don't like IMO. If you're at all an enthusiast (you seem to be), it'll just bother you to no end if you're not happy with your hardware combo. I've taken hits to performance just to run hardware I liked better at the time (dropped from a 2700X on a Crosshair VII Hero to an X5675 on a Rampage III Formula because I was into overclocking for fun and X58 is way better for that than Ryzen in my experience). Can't recommend you do that, really depends on how much you think it'll bother you. 

2 minutes ago, Dutchdeviant said:

spend that money on a strix b450 mobo and a 2700x

Why specifically a STRIX board? Though if you're talking B450-F, I ran my 2700X on one (before I got my Crosshair) with no issues.  9700k is a lot, lot faster than the 2700X in games, though not noticeably unless you're playing on higher than 100Hz monitors. 

4 minutes ago, Dutchdeviant said:

-snip- (X99 setup)

Basically a 2700X with more PCIe lanes. BUT, that assumes a few things: 1) it's a good bin, so you don't need a ton of voltage to hit around 4.2-4.5Ghz (I have a j-bin, on average they're the best binned chips), 2) you have the cooling (these things get incredibly hot, even with just 1.2v, more and it's real heat hours), and 3) you're not into pushing your RAM, the IMCs on Haswell-E will blow out and brick the chip. Some peeps say it'll do that even on XMP, but I've ran my 1.35v 3200Mhz DIMMs and my 1.2v 2800Mhz DIMMs on both my 5820K and 5960X without a single issue. Also on the cooling thing, my main rig runs a custom loop with a single 360mm rad for the Radeon VII and CPU, I need to upgrade that. At 1.2v the CPu (with GPU idling) will hit up to the 80s in stress tests, any higher voltage and I slap thermal limits. Though as per normal it's lower in real use, since I mostly game and those don't push an all-core AVX workload like Prime95 or the load RealBench does. 

[Harry Voyager]

The B450 Strix Gaming-F is a bad choice for a B450 motherboard and has design issues causing VRMs to run far hotter than the should. If you want a B450 motherboard, you are better off with the MSI Tomahawk or Pro Carbon lines. 

 

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