Should I upgrade to intel 13th gen or should I fix my pc?

[Johnsmith45]

Everything I started my pc I used to get a error message advising me to change ahci to sata. Although I never configured any raid in my system. I decided replace my asus prime z370 a motherboard with z390 prime a motherboard. The problem went away. One day I was playing gta v and there was a blue screen and the computer shut down. I tried turning my computer back on nothing happens. I have spent hours and hours googling and trying to find the problem. I have given up and decided to take it to a computer repair shop. I have been using a tablet for a week now. I was thinking about building a complete new pc from scratch. Should I try fixing my current pc or should I build a new one at this point ?

 

 Current specs:

I7 9700k

Corsair vengeance 2x8gb ram

Asus prime z390 prime A 

Msi rtx 2070 

Corsair rm 750x 

500gb samsung m.2 drive

2tb samsung evo ssd

2tb seagate hard drive 

1tb western digital blue hard drive.

Asus ac88 WiFi card

[Dedayog]

It's a solid machine, I'd definitely want to know why it's not working.   Computer repair shop... are they some guy replacing parts or someone actually doing diagnostics and using a mutlimeter, etc?

 

If that machine was working, I'd look into dropping in a 9900K and selling the 9700K.  Maybe another 16GB RAM if you need it, most likely don't.   That's the easy on the wallet upgrade.

 

Of course you can spec out a 13th gen Intel machine but that depends on your budget.

[tkitch]

Honestly it depends:

What's the cost of fixing the machine?

 

Remember that your i7 is beaten in basically every mark by an i5 12400 and fewer cores, nevermind 13th gen with more e-cores.

 

So I'd say that given the options?  Spec out the pricetag (as best you can) to fix the box, vs buying an upgrade.  If fixing is a significant portion of the cost of upgrading?  Well, there's your answer.  

[Johnsmith45]

4 hours ago, Dedayog said:

It's a solid machine, I'd definitely want to know why it's not working.   Computer repair shop... are they some guy replacing parts or someone actually doing diagnostics and using a mutlimeter, etc?

 

If that machine was working, I'd look into dropping in a 9900K and selling the 9700K.  Maybe another 16GB RAM if you need it, most likely don't.   That's the easy on the wallet upgrade.

 

Of course you can spec out a 13th gen Intel machine but that depends on your budget.

 

4 hours ago, tkitch said:

Honestly it depends:

What's the cost of fixing the machine?

 

Remember that your i7 is beaten in basically every mark by an i5 12400 and fewer cores, nevermind 13th gen with more e-cores.

 

So I'd say that given the options?  Spec out the pricetag (as best you can) to fix the box, vs buying an upgrade.  If fixing is a significant portion of the cost of upgrading?  Well, there's your answer.  

Thank you guys for your help. It turns out my i7 9700k died. Possible due to too much thermal paste. Buying a core i9 9900k seems like a good idea. I'm gone do that.

[tkitch]

2 minutes ago, Johnsmith45 said:

 

Thank you guys for your help. It turns out my i7 9700k died. Possible due to too much thermal paste. Buying a core i9 9900k seems like a good idea. I'm gone do that.

What are you using for paste?  No normal paste should be able to do that?

 

[Dedayog]

Just now, tkitch said:

What are you using for paste?  No normal paste should be able to do that?

 

Shh.  He's going to get a 9900K, all is well with the world now

 

 

[tkitch]

1 minute ago, Dedayog said:

Shh.  He's going to get a 9900K, all is well with the world now

But we don't want people using Liquid Metal for no reason, either.

Always a mistake!

[Dedayog]

4 minutes ago, tkitch said:

But we don't want people using Liquid Metal for no reason, either.

Always a mistake!

Good point!!!

 

9 minutes ago, Johnsmith45 said:

 

Thank you guys for your help. It turns out my i7 9700k died. Possible due to too much thermal paste. Buying a core i9 9900k seems like a good idea. I'm gone do that.

Yeah, what thermal paste are you using?

[Johnsmith45]

1 minute ago, Dedayog said:

Good point!!!

 

Yeah, what thermal paste are you using?

Arctic mx4 seems kind of strange. 

[tkitch]

2 minutes ago, Johnsmith45 said:

Arctic mx4 seems kind of strange. 

MX4 is great paste, should do really well for you

 

[Dedayog]

Just now, Johnsmith45 said:

Arctic mx4 seems kind of strange. 

No, that's a mainstream good paste.  Use the rice/pea size, it'll spread out and life will be good.  

 

Did they confirm your 9700k is dead?  

[Johnsmith45]

3 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

No, that's a mainstream good paste.  Use the rice/pea size, it'll spread out and life will be good.  

 

Did they confirm your 9700k is dead?  

They put my 9700K in another motherboard which did not work. They put another cpu in my motherboard which worked.

[Dedayog]

Just now, Johnsmith45 said:

They put my 9700K in another motherboard which did not work. They put another cpu in my motherboard which worked.

Okay.  Get that 9900K off Ebay and use the paste properly (yoytube it if you need to).  Congrats on a much more robust system!

[Mister Woof]

in my experience these computer repair shops are always either bad or a ripoff or both

 

from a financial standpoint you're better off just selling it as parts-only ebay if you can't figure out how to fix it on your own, or give to someone who does

[NF-A12x25]

5 hours ago, Dedayog said:

If that machine was working, I'd look into dropping in a 9900K and selling the 9700K.  Maybe another 16GB RAM if you need it, most likely don't.   That's the easy on the wallet upgrade.

no it’s not. Well the RAM is, but a 9900K still sells for obscene prices on the used market. WAY more than they’re worth, and certainly more than higher performing chips. You can get a 12700KF for the price of a USED 9900K.

[KaitouX]

13 minutes ago, NF-A12x25 said:

no it’s not. Well the RAM is, but a 9900K still sells for obscene prices on the used market. WAY more than they’re worth, and certainly more than higher performing chips. You can get a 12700KF for the price of a USED 9900K.

Yeah, old flag ships sell for ridiculous amounts of money. I was able to sell my 4790K/RAM/MB for almost the same price that I got a 12100F/RAM/MB, and the i3 is a lot faster. There's a good chance selling the motherboard and RAM, and going for a new combo with a 12700F or 13600KF isn't going to cost much more than the 9900K.

[NF-A12x25]

Just now, KaitouX said:

I was able to sell my 4790K/RAM/MB for almost the same price that I got a 12100F/RAM/MB, and the i3 is a lot faster.

yeah, I’ve got a delidded and liquid metal’d 4790K+z87 mobo and 3770K and z77 mobo and both would sell for quite a lot despite their age- I would sell em but I’ve got a working hackintosh (OpenCore) on the 4790K system and I use the 3770K system to play with XOC

[Dedayog]

29 minutes ago, NF-A12x25 said:

no it’s not. Well the RAM is, but a 9900K still sells for obscene prices on the used market. WAY more than they’re worth, and certainly more than higher performing chips. You can get a 12700KF for the price of a USED 9900K.

You can get a used 12700k for similar price to the used 9900k, under $250.  New 12700k f is $375.

 

Then motherboard.

 

9900k performs well enough that I'd still drop in rather than pony up more for a decent motherboard.

 

 

[NF-A12x25]

12 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

You can get a used 12700k for similar price to the used 9900k, under $250.

I haven’t seen many 9900K’s under $300, except engineering samples. Most are closer to $400. (https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=9900k&_sacat=0&_sop=15&rt=nc&LH_BIN=1)

 

And a 12400f equals a 9900k in most games, losing by maybe 3-4 FPS (paired with a 3080). Upgrading to a 12400F from a 9700K is a smarter choice on about the same budget- you buy the CPU and a good b660 mobo like the b660 gaming x and sell the old 9700k, and later on you can upgrade to anything from a 12600K to a 13900K, whereas a 9900K is the end of the line. The 12400f has lower power consumption and DESTROYS the 9900K in compute and nearly equals it in gaming, sometimes even beating it in single-thread intensive games.

Proof: 

 

[Dedayog]

49 minutes ago, NF-A12x25 said:

I haven’t seen many 9900K’s under $300, except engineering samples. Most are closer to $400. (https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=9900k&_sacat=0&_sop=15&rt=nc&LH_BIN=1)

 

And a 12400f equals a 9900k in most games, losing by maybe 3-4 FPS (paired with a 3080). Upgrading to a 12400F from a 9700K is a smarter choice on about the same budget- you buy the CPU and a good b660 mobo like the b660 gaming x and sell the old 9700k, and later on you can upgrade to anything from a 12600K to a 13900K, whereas a 9900K is the end of the line. The 12400f has lower power consumption and DESTROYS the 9900K in compute and nearly equals it in gaming, sometimes even beating it in single-thread intensive games.

Proof: 

 

True, but I was seeing (and have purchased) a 9900K for $250.  There's a bit more involved in a motherboard/cpu swap than just dropping in a CPU.  If the OP wants to do that, he's got options for roughly the same performance and one with an upgrade path, but then he'll most likely be in the same boat when he does.  We'll be arguing over dropping in a 13900K or going with the 14600k/mobo

 

Good discussion.

[Mister Woof]

I can see the "comfort" proposition of just upgrading a CPU, but often it's just not worth it. Last year I got a 9900K for my wife's Z390/i7-8700 system for $280, and while I think it was mostly worth it since she just didn't want to have to get another windows key, or really do much shifting around of installs, etc., I have to wonder if it was even worth it. Performance difference between the i7-8700 and i9-9900k isn't really huge (it's there, especially in smoothness and frametime), and at the time it was 11th gen upgrade or Ryzen 5000, which would have been an even bigger "shift".

 

Ultimately, I think it would have made more sense to have waited a few more months for 12th gen to launch and just relegate the 8700 to HTPC duty instead. But she's still happy with the performance, and it's mated well to her 3070, so I guess I have no complaints.

[NF-A12x25]

10 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

True, but I was seeing (and have purchased) a 9900K for $250.

Good for you. They just don’t go for that much regularly. If he gets awfully lucky it might be a quasi-intelligent idea to get one for $250, if he manages to in an auction or something, but it won’t happen unless he gets lucky.

[Dedayog]

51 minutes ago, NF-A12x25 said:

Good for you. They just don’t go for that much regularly. If he gets awfully lucky it might be a quasi-intelligent idea to get one for $250, if he manages to in an auction or something, but it won’t happen unless he gets lucky.

Yes, very good for me.  Also there are 9900k's on Ebay for that price as well currently.

 

So, good for the OP as well.

 

Quasi-intelligent?   Hope that saddle on your high horse isn't burrowing too far up your ass.

[NF-A12x25]

7 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

Also there are 9900k's on Ebay for that price as well currently.

They are either engineering samples which regularly go for less for good reason, or they are at auction and will go higher. There are very few buy it now prices around there.

[Johnsmith45]

29 minutes ago, NF-A12x25 said:

They are either engineering samples which regularly go for less for good reason, or they are at auction and will go higher. There are very few buy it now prices around there.

 

38 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

Yes, very good for me.  Also there are 9900k's on Ebay for that price as well currently.

 

So, good for the OP as well.

 

Quasi-intelligent?   Hope that saddle on your high horse isn't burrowing too far up your ass.

I live in the UK and I bought i9 9900k for £260. I was hoping to buy a new monitor for my ps5 gutted really. I didn't want to buy a motherboard and possibly ram as well. It was the cheaper option. I will try selling the i7 9700k on ebay. I will skip the new cpus from intel and amd. Maybe I'll buy 14th or 15th gen.