Need tips for upgrading my rig with a new CPU and motherboard

[IJuanTM]

Hi,

 

I currently have a pc that I upgraded bit by bit since I build it back in 2015, but the only parts I haven't upgraded are the CPU and motherboard. And now I'm looking to upgrade those parts, but am not sure what to go with.

 

Here is my current build:

 

CPU: Intel I7 6700k

Cooler: Corsair H115i RGB PRO XT

Motherboard: ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming

RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 4x8Gb (32Gb) 3200Mhz CL16

GPU: ASUS TUF 3080 OC 10Gb

PSU: Corsair RM850x

Case: Corsair 5000D Airflow

Boot SSD: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500Gb NVMe M.2

 

I want to change out my CPU to get a more fluent gaming experience and PC experience overal. My CPU is capped at 100% usage in almost every game I play, while my GPU is only running at 50% usage.

 

I have already looked around and was thinking about maybe either the Intel I7 12700k or the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, with ofcourse a new motherboard to go with the socket. For motherboard I don't want it to be a cheap model that is very bare-bones, but I don't need an over-the-top crazy motherboard either. Preferably a Z or X board so that I have some future-proofing to maybe overclock later. I don't have a preference for Intel or AMD. At last I would like to upgrade my boot SSD later as well to maybe a PCI-e 4.0 one down the line, so a motherboard with support for that would be nice as well.

 

My budget is around €600 - €700 (€400 CPU + €200 - €300 motherboard)

 

Also I have seen videos and articles about new upcoming 13th gen Intel CPU's and new AMD CPU's with a new AM5 socket, so maybe I should wait for them to come out? I'm not in a rush, my computer still works fine.

 

I hope someone has some tips for me on which direction I should go to get the best performance within my budget!

 

Thanks in advance!

[An0maly_76]

Just for reference, 600-700 euro = $650-$750 USD.

 

There's a few different ways to look at this, but no matter how you slice it, I wouldn't wait for the AM5 to come out. First, AMD has already blown one tentative 'release date', and is only boasting 5.5Ghz from them so far, and people are OC'ing pre-AM4 stuff to close to that. I kind of think they're running into issues they don't want to make public, especially as they've already said the AM4 platform isn't going anywhere for a good while yet either.

 

Take it all around, I don't look for the AM5 platform to outshine the AM4 for a good while yet. Even playing American Truck Simulator, my 5900X has yet to breach 25% CPU usage with an RTX3060ti at 4K resolution. Not to mention the AM5 is paving the way for standardizing stuff that is going to take the gaming market years to even catch up with, much less take advantage of.

 

You can also look at it in terms of bang for the buck. By sticking with your current platform, what you save on a new motherboard can be spent on the best processor you can put in it, and you have some nice options here. A 9900KFIntel, while expensive for the LGA1151 platform, probably won't be that far behind anything you might pay three times for in the LGA1200 / LGA1700 platform, if at all. Just my $0.02 of course, I'm more of an AMD guy.

 

That said, there are reasons to upgrade the platform, such as M.2 support and faster RAM, if your current board doesn't support at least 3200 and doesn't have M.2 slots, which can help performance quite a bit. I say if you're going to do all that, be sure you get a fair amount of RAM, because while 32GB may seem ridiculous, it does help performance a bit.

 

With all that in mind, here is an LGA1700 upgrade kit I pieced together I think would work well for you. I included an SN570 WD Blue 1TB. First, I think it makes more sense to start with a fresh M.2 instead of one with many hours on it that will likely have to be wiped anyway, and you have no real idea of how long your existing 970 will last. I also feel the SN570 is a better bang for the buck all around.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/An0maly1976/saved/#view=rwByWZ

 

Your existing cooler can be reused with a $6.00 retrofit kit, Corsair part # CW-8960091. Also, you're well within budget at $650 USD (600 euro), so you could afford more CPU, I'm just not sure it will be worth the extra money.

Edited June 9, 2022 by An0maly_76
Revised, more info

[IJuanTM]

18 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

Just for reference, 600-700 euro = $650-$750 USD.

 

There's a few different ways to look at this, but no matter how you slice it, I wouldn't wait for the AM5 to come out. First, AMD has already blown one tentative 'release date', and is only boasting 5.5Ghz from them so far, and people are OC'ing pre-AM4 stuff to close to that. I kind of think they're running into issues they don't want to make public, especially as they've already said the AM4 platform isn't going anywhere for a good while yet either.

 

Take it all around, I don't look for the AM5 platform to outshine the AM4 for a good while yet. Even playing American Truck Simulator, my 5900X has yet to breach 25% CPU usage with an RTX3060ti at 4K resolution. Not to mention the AM5 is paving the way for standardizing stuff that is going to take the gaming market years to even catch up with, much less take advantage of.

 

You can also look at it in terms of bang for the buck. By sticking with your current platform, what you save on a new motherboard can be spent on the best processor you can put in it, and you have some nice options here. A 9900KFIntel, while expensive for the LGA1151 platform, probably won't be that far behind anything you might pay three times for in the LGA1200 / LGA1700 platform, if at all. Just my $0.02 of course, I'm more of an AMD guy.

 

That said, there are reasons to upgrade the platform, such as M.2 support and faster RAM, if your current board doesn't support at least 3200 and doesn't have M.2 slots, which can help performance quite a bit. I say if you're going to do all that, be sure you get a fair amount of RAM, because while 32GB may seem ridiculous, it does help performance a bit.

 

With all that in mind, here is an LGA1700 upgrade kit I pieced together I think would work well for you. I included an SN570 WD Blue 1TB. First, I think it makes more sense to start with a fresh M.2 instead of one with many hours on it that will likely have to be wiped anyway, and you have no real idea of how long your existing 970 will last. I also feel the SN570 is a better bang for the buck all around.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/An0maly1976/saved/#view=rwByWZ

 

Your existing cooler can be reused with a $6.00 retrofit kit, Corsair part # CW-8960091. Also, you're well within budget at $650 USD (600 euro), so you could afford more CPU, I'm just not sure it will be worth the extra money.

Thanks for the response!

 

Some great tips I can definitely work with!

 

The pcpartpicker list looks good, altough I don't think I'll need the RAM as I already have 32Gb of 3200Mhz CL16. Which is good as translating the prices to my region brings it up to €800 with the RAM, but without to €670. The WD SDD looks good value for money indeed, I'll keep that in mind as well!

 

Also thanks for the tip for the retrofit kit, I didn't even think of that.

[An0maly_76]

800 euro with RAM, 670 without?  Gotta love shipping.

 

The board I recommended supports PCIe4.0, so you could also go with an SN750 or SN770 Black series, which are faster on paper, but I really doubt they'd be a better bang for the buck than the SN570. Matter of fact, I actually exchanged an SN850 Black series for an SN570 Blue series when I saw the fairly indiscernible performance increase in relation to the extra $100-$150 USD it cost. Just didn't seem worth it. And with DDR4-3200 CL16 Crucial Ballistix (Ryzen likes these better) and the SN570, my 5900X still screams pretty hard, and as stated previously, isn't hitting 50% utilization yet.

Edited June 9, 2022 by An0maly_76
Revised

[IJuanTM]

1 hour ago, An0maly_76 said:

800 euro with RAM, 670 without?  Gotta love shipping.

 

The board I recommended supports PCIe4.0, so you could also go with an SN750 or SN770 Black series, which are faster on paper, but I really doubt they'd be a better bang for the buck than the SN570. Matter of fact, I actually exchanged an SN850 Black series for an SN570 Blue series when I saw the fairly indiscernible performance increase in relation to the extra $100-$150 USD it cost. Just didn't seem worth it. And with DDR4-3200 CL16 Crucial Ballistix (Ryzen likes these better) and the SN570, my 5900X still screams pretty hard, and as stated previously, isn't hitting 50% utilization yet.

Yeah it's also because the prices here are at least 50 USD more if you compare it to prices in the USA, and pcpartpicker lists the RAM you put on there for way too much, if compared to similar RAM.

 

The RAM I currently have is also the type made for Intel and not the 'Z' type Corsair makes specifically for AMD, so I will probally be going with Intel so I don't have to buy new RAM.

 

Thanks for the tips on the WD SDD's, am probally gonna buy one of those as well when getting the new CPU and motherboard.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, An0maly_76 said:

Just for reference, 600-700 euro = $650-$750 USD.

It doesn't work like that. You can't just do a currency conversion to work out the price of things. 

2 hours ago, An0maly_76 said:

 

There's a few different ways to look at this, but no matter how you slice it, I wouldn't wait for the AM5 to come out. First, AMD has already blown one tentative 'release date', and is only boasting 5.5Ghz from them so far, and people are OC'ing pre-AM4 stuff to close to that. I kind of think they're running into issues they don't want to make public, especially as they've already said the AM4 platform isn't going anywhere for a good while yet either.

Any performance leaks you see online are just rumours. I doubt anyone has a retail cpu that they have tested. They are more likely to be engineering samples.

Also not sure what you mean by the AM4 platform isn't going anywhere ? I doubt there are anymore cpu's being released for AM4. It is EOL. Sure you will be able to buy 5000 series cpu's in the future but there are not going to be any more versions. The 5800X3D is probably the last.

2 hours ago, An0maly_76 said:

 

Take it all around, I don't look for the AM5 platform to outshine the AM4 for a good while yet. Even playing American Truck Simulator, my 5900X has yet to breach 25% CPU usage with an RTX3060ti at 4K resolution. Not to mention the AM5 is paving the way for standardizing stuff that is going to take the gaming market years to even catch up with, much less take advantage of.

You are playing at 4K though. If you look at 1080p benchmarks there will be more of a difference. So at 4K a 12900K might give the same framerate as a 5600X with the same gpu. At 1080p the 12900K will have a lead. The cpu has less of an impact at 4K with most games.

2 hours ago, An0maly_76 said:

 

You can also look at it in terms of bang for the buck. By sticking with your current platform, what you save on a new motherboard can be spent on the best processor you can put in it, and you have some nice options here. A 9900KFIntel, while expensive for the LGA1151 platform, probably won't be that far behind anything you might pay three times for in the LGA1200 / LGA1700 platform, if at all. Just my $0.02 of course, I'm more of an AMD guy.

He has a Z170 board. The i9 9900KF isn't compatible.

2 hours ago, An0maly_76 said:

That said, there are reasons to upgrade the platform, such as M.2 support and faster RAM, if your current board doesn't support at least 3200 and doesn't have M.2 slots, which can help performance quite a bit. I say if you're going to do all that, be sure you get a fair amount of RAM, because while 32GB may seem ridiculous, it does help performance a bit.

M.2 doesn't make anything faster. You can get SATA M.2 SSD's which are no faster than 2.5" SATA SSD's. It will only be faster if using an M.2 NVMe SSD.

2 hours ago, An0maly_76 said:

 

With all that in mind, here is an LGA1700 upgrade kit I pieced together I think would work well for you. I included an SN570 WD Blue 1TB. First, I think it makes more sense to start with a fresh M.2 instead of one with many hours on it that will likely have to be wiped anyway, and you have no real idea of how long your existing 970 will last. I also feel the SN570 is a better bang for the buck all around.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/An0maly1976/saved/#view=rwByWZ

 

Your existing cooler can be reused with a $6.00 retrofit kit, Corsair part # CW-8960091. Also, you're well within budget at $650 USD (600 euro), so you could afford more CPU, I'm just not sure it will be worth the extra money.

The 12700/F and a B660 board is better value. Also MSI PRO B660M-A over that Asus board. You can unlock power limits to get a bit of extra performance.

[An0maly_76]

23 minutes ago, lee32uk said:

Also not sure what you mean by the AM4 platform isn't going anywhere ? I doubt there are anymore cpu's being released for AM4. It is EOL. Sure you will be able to buy 5000 series cpu's in the future but there are not going to be any more versions. The 5800X3D is probably the last.

'Probably', and 'is' are two different things. Time will tell.

 

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/86367/amd-says-current-am4-platform-will-continue-for-many-years-to-come/index.html

 

23 minutes ago, lee32uk said:

He has a Z170 board. The i9 9900KF isn't compatible.

They're both LGA1151, so enlighten me. Is this a chipset thing, or the same sort of thing that I ran into with MSI confirming B450M Zen3 support, only telling me the BIOS update would fry my board AFTER I bought the processor? I wouldn't recommend MSI to my worst enemy after that dumpster fire of a board. I wouldn't run a 3000 or 5000-series Ryzen on a B450, either.

 

23 minutes ago, lee32uk said:

It doesn't work like that. You can't just do a currency conversion to work out the price of things.

It was just for reference. I'm aware that prices will fluctuate in certain regions, but I'm not about to try to read languages I'm not familiar with to try to fine-tune such things.

 

23 minutes ago, lee32uk said:

M.2 doesn't make anything faster. You can get SATA M.2 SSD's which are no faster than 2.5" SATA SSD's. It will only be faster if using an M.2 NVMe SSD.

Agree to disagree. An SN550 cut my 1700 Ryzen's boot time by 57% -- timed.

Edited June 9, 2022 by An0maly_76
Revised, more info

[Forfaxify]

8 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

They're both LGA1151, so enlighten me. Is this the same sort of thing that I ran into with MSI confirming B450M Zen3 support, only telling me the BIOS update would fry my board AFTER I bought the processor? I wouldn't recommend MSI to my worst enemy after that dumpster fire of a board. I wouldn't run a 3000 or 5000-series Ryzen on a B450, either.

Both 1151 yes. But 100 and 200 series chipsets only support v1 (6000 and 7000) while you would need 300 or 400 series chipsets to be able to use v2 (8000 and 9000).
Great invention from intel

 

Crap i made a mistake... 400 is lga1200... but i think 300 is still 1151 and needed for 8000 and 9000...

I found this on wikipedia: (maybe not the best source)
The LGA 1151 socket was revised for the Coffee Lake generation CPUs and comes along with the Intel 300-series chipsets.[8] While physical dimensions remain unchanged, the updated socket re-assigns some reserved pins, adding power and ground lines to support the requirements of 6-core CPUs. The new socket also relocates the processor detection pin, breaking compatibility with earlier processors and motherboards. As a result, desktop Coffee Lake CPUs are not compatible with the 100 (original Skylake) and 200 (Kaby Lake) series chipsets.[9] Similarly, 300 series chipsets only support Coffee Lake and are not compatible with Skylake and Kaby Lake CPUs.

[An0maly_76]

4 minutes ago, Forfaxify said:

Both 1151 yes. But 100 and 200 series chipsets only support v1 (6000 and 7000) while you would need 300 or 400 series chipsets to be able to use v2 (8000 and 9000).
Great invention from intel

Kind of like B450s seem to have issues with certain higher-tier Ryzen, A320s might not support them at all. Even some B550s need a BIOS update to use them, but it doesn't seem to be so commonplace these days. My Asus B550-PLUS fired off the first time, with no issue being topped with a 5900X. Obviously, while I'm no expert, I'm more familiar with AMD than Intel at this point. Still, I'll throw my $0.02 in where I think it can help.

Edited June 9, 2022 by An0maly_76
Revised

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

'Probably', and 'is' are two different things. Time will tell.

 

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/86367/amd-says-current-am4-platform-will-continue-for-many-years-to-come/index.html

 

They're both LGA1151, so enlighten me. Is this a chipset thing, or the same sort of thing that I ran into with MSI confirming B450M Zen3 support, only telling me the BIOS update would fry my board AFTER I bought the processor? I wouldn't recommend MSI to my worst enemy after that dumpster fire of a board. I wouldn't run a 3000 or 5000-series Ryzen on a B450, either.

 

It was just for reference. I'm aware that prices will fluctuate in certain regions, but I'm not about to try to read languages I'm not familiar with to try to fine-tune such things.

 

Agree to disagree. An SN550 cut my 1700 Ryzen's boot time by 57% -- timed.

So what do you define as committing to AM4 ? If there are not going to be any future cpu's on AM4 then what exactly is your point ? 

 

The 9900K isn't compatible with the Z170 chipset. Just like a 12900K won't work on Z590. 

 

If you don't like MSI then that is your choice. The MSI B660 PRO is still the better board.

 

You are misunderstanding what M.2 actually is. It is just the interface/form factor. So saying an M.2 SSD is faster is incorrect. It is only faster if it is an NVMe SSD. 

 

The Crucial MX500 comes in SATA and M.2 formats for example. 

[An0maly_76]

10 minutes ago, lee32uk said:

So what do you define as committing to AM4 ? If there are not going to be any future cpu's on AM4 then what exactly is your point ? 

 

The 9900K isn't compatible with the Z170 chipset. Just like a 12900K won't work on Z590. 

 

If you don't like MSI then that is your choice. The MSI B660 PRO is still the better board.

 

You are misunderstanding what M.2 actually is. It is just the interface/form factor. So saying an M.2 SSD is faster is incorrect. It is only faster if it is an NVMe SSD. 

 

The Crucial MX500 comes in SATA and M.2 formats for example. 

'If'. 'If'. AMD has never said there will be no more additional AM4s to my knowledge. Even if they have, or even if there will be no more additions, I have yet to make my 5900X breathe hard. I'm quite sure it will be doing quite well in the near to distant future.

 

You have to understand, upgrading my 1700 was the first time I've had my hand in a computer in over ten years. I hail from the days of MS-DOS, pre-Windows, where us REAL geeks had to remember IRQ channels, port addresses, remapping such things when upgrading because there was almost always a conflict.

 

So yes, I'm aware that standard SATA and NVME are two different things. However, I've not seen an M.2 SSD advertised that differentiated NVME or not. Point is, installing an SN550 M.2 SSD, 32GB DDR4-3200 Crucial Ballistix and a GTX1650S-4GB-OC in my R7-1700, was like trading a Honda Accord in on a Dodge Demon. Sure, the 1650 boosted gaming performance, and the RAM likely help reduce the amount of time spent reading data. But neither of those have anything to do with boot time, which was cut drastically. Like I said, agree to disagree.

Edited June 9, 2022 by An0maly_76
Revised, more info

[Guest]

22 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

'If'. 'If'. AMD has never said there will be no more additional AM4s to my knowledge. Even if they have, or even if there will be no more additions, I have yet to make my 5900X breathe hard. I'm quite sure it will be doing quite well in the near to distant future.

 

You have to understand, upgrading my 1700 was the first time I've had my hand in a computer in over ten years. I hail from the days of MS-DOS, pre-Windows, where us REAL geeks had to remember IRQ channels, port addresses, remapping such things when upgrading because there was almost always a conflict.

 

So yes, I'm aware that standard SATA and NVME are two different things. However, I've not seen an M.2 SSD advertised that differentiated NVME or not. Point is, installing an SN550 M.2 SSD, 32GB DDR4-3200 Crucial Ballistix and a GTX1650S-4GB-OC in my R7-1700, was like trading a Honda Accord in on a Dodge Demon. Sure, the 1650 boosted gaming performance, and the RAM likely help reduce the amount of time spent reading data. But neither of those have anything to do with boot time, which was cut drastically. Like I said, agree to disagree.

The 5800X3D came out in mid April. If they were going to release a 5900X3D or 5600X3D etc then they probably would have done it not long after. It wouldn't make sense to bring out more cpu's this close to AM5. They want people to buy AM5 after all.  They have already supported AM4 since 2016 so they have to end it sometime. 

 

The Crucial MX500 like I said above comes in SATA and M.2 SATA. The SN550 which you bought is M.2 NVMe.

 

SATA MX500:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/h3tQzy/crucial-mx500-1tb-25-solid-state-drive-ct1000mx500ssd1

 

M.2 SATA MX500:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/4Qw7YJ/crucial-mx500-1tb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-ct1000mx500ssd4

[An0maly_76]

And some people are going to buy AM5 whether it's worth it or not, just for bragging rights.

 

To illustrate my point, mate. Let's say you have a drag race car that you've spent $10,000 building. It has nice paint, and hooks well on the launch, barely spinning the tires as it barrels down the drag strip in 10 seconds, and is reliable, never faltering. You have the car to beat.

 

Now, let's say some wanker shows up with a ratty jalopy that edges your pride and joy out by 0.5 seconds.

 

Now, most would see this as easy come, easy go. But you see this as a matter of personal pride. So what do you do?

 

You immediately start pouring mail order catalogs for the edge you so desperately need.

 

You have the choice between a $500 nitrous oxide kit that adds 300 horsepower, a $2500 supercharger that adds 300 horsepower, or a $15,000 engine with 400 more horsepower. Either of the cheaper options would get you where you need to be. Yet you choose the $15,000 engine for bragging rights.

 

I guarantee you with what prices can be expected to be when AM5 is launched, that's exactly what anyone who buys one will be doing... Over 0.5 second, bragging rights and a p*ssing match.

 

And guess what... The wanker newcomer goes for the $500 nitrous kit and edges you out again anyway.

Edited June 9, 2022 by An0maly_76
Revised (posted too soon)