CPU Upgrade tips!

[Joey96]

Hey Guys!!!

 

So I'm looking to upgrade my rig with an new MSI z270-A pro motherboard with an i7 7700k (Or would the Ryzen 1700 be better? I ONLY game). I was looking at the Cryorig H7 as my cpu cooler if that would be alright? Since my intention for the CPU isn't really overclocking, but as I see its free performance I do consider OC'ing a little bit, but since I've never done it before, I just want to do someting super safe, like setting the base clock to 4.5 at all times. Will that be doable with the Cryorig H7? Or if not, just not overclock it? 

If any other advice for a air cooler, I have the Zalman Z11 case. I just want something that doesn't sound like a jet motor, and keeps my system cool

[grimreeper132]

if you are gaming and only gaming 7700K is the best, but if you want to render videos do CAD or anything else that likes multiple cores, get the 1700. terms of cooling almost any 240mm AIO liquid cooler should do, and you'll get a good enough overclock

[WereCat]

If you only game the 7700k will give you better performance. Now it is not really worth it to OC the 7700k even though most of them can make it to 5GHz, on average you will get about 4FPS in most games from that OC. What will give you way more performance than that is usually faster RAM, so make sure that you pair it with at least 3000MHz DDR4.

The Ryzen 7 1700 is really good as well, but it is more geared towards streamers and people who also do a lot of CPU heavy tasks alongside gaming. For gaming, it does only benefit those who do a lot of streaming and need that extra performance for x264 to get highest possible quality on low bitrates. For Ryzen the fast RAM is essential. It scales so well with it that it is ridiculous. It will give you around i5 performance in most games.

[Joey96]

3 minutes ago, grimreeper132 said:

if you are gaming and only gaming 7700K is the best, but if you want to render videos do CAD or anything else that likes multiple cores, get the 1700. terms of cooling almost any 240mm AIO liquid cooler should do, and you'll get a good enough overclock

Yeah but I don't really have the money to invest in a liquid cooler atm, so I just want something like the Cryorig h7 or something within that price range. And I don't really consider the overclocking a thing, as I wrote, I just want to maybe put the clock to 4.5 at all times, so nothing fancy or trying out limits.

[tom_w141]

Only gaming, If you don't do ANYTHING else (streaming, video editing, rendering etc) then I would say the 7700k.

 

Some other reasons you may consider Ryzen:

What resolution and refresh rate do you play at? If 1440p or above then the gap between 7700k and the 1700 in current games is closed.

 

Games will almost certainly use more cores in the future and the performance gap then will likely swing in the favour of Ryzen.

 

AM4 (motherboard socket for Ryzen cpus) is guaranteed by the AMD to be around for a minimum of 4 years whereas Intel move socket pretty much every other year so your cpu upgrade path will be limited by the motherboard much sooner on intel (probably a new socket for 8th gen we are 7th gen now).

 

You may later develop an interest in youtube or streaming in which case the R7 1700 will come in handy.

 

lastly if you are not going to overclock or do a very mild overclock then the R7 1700 comes with a very decent stock cooler that is RGB also (lol 2017) that can handle mild OC's with ease - and no stock cooler on the 7700k.

[Joey96]

3 minutes ago, WereCat said:

If you only game the 7700k will give you better performance. Now it is not really worth it to OC the 7700k even though most of them can make it to 5GHz, on average you will get about 4FPS in most games from that OC. What will give you way more performance than that is usually faster RAM, so make sure that you pair it with at least 3000MHz DDR4.

The Ryzen 7 1700 is really good as well, but it is more geared towards streamers and people who also do a lot of CPU heavy tasks alongside gaming. For gaming, it does only benefit those who do a lot of streaming and need that extra performance for x264 to get highest possible quality on low bitrates. For Ryzen the fast RAM is essential. It scales so well with it that it is ridiculous. It will give you around i5 performance in most games.

Alright, so save my money on the ram's and go for an B270 board and would the cryorig h7 be enough to cool it at stock? 

[tom_w141]

1 minute ago, Joey96 said:

Yeah but I don't really have the money to invest in a liquid cooler atm, so I just want something like the Cryorig h7 or something within that price range. And I don't really consider the overclocking a thing, as I wrote, I just want to maybe put the clock to 4.5 at all times, so nothing fancy or trying out limits.

The Ryzen platform would cost the same (or less depending on motherboard) and include a cooler. It would give you better future proofing and allow you to expand your interest. Personally that is what I would (and have) done but I don't want to influence you too much or say too much against the 7700k as the there are plenty of blue knights on this forum ready to leap into action  

[Joey96]

2 minutes ago, tom_w141 said:

Only gaming, If you don't do ANYTHING else (streaming, video editing, rendering etc) then I would say the 7700k.

 

Some other reasons you may consider Ryzen:

What resolution and refresh rate do you play at? If 1440p or above then the gap between 7700k and the 1700 in current games is closed.

 

Games will almost certainly use more cores in the future and the performance gap then will likely swing in the favour of Ryzen.

 

AM4 (motherboard socket for Ryzen cpus) is guaranteed by the AMD to be around for a minimum of 4 years whereas Intel move socket pretty much every other year so your cpu upgrade path will be limited by the motherboard much sooner on intel (probably a new socket for 8th gen we are 7th gen now).

 

You may later develop an interest in youtube or streaming in which case the R7 1700 will come in handy.

 

lastly if you are not going to overclock or do a very mild overclock then the R7 1700 comes with a very decent stock cooler that is RGB also (lol 2017) that can handle mild OC's with ease - and no stock cooler on the 7700k.

Yeah only gaming, alright. But how "far" in the future? I do want the CPU to last atleast a few years before I need to go purchase a new upgrade

[Joey96]

1 minute ago, tom_w141 said:

The Ryzen platform would cost the same (or less depending on motherboard) and include a cooler. It would give you better future proofing and allow you to expand your interest. Personally that is what I would (and have) done but I don't want to influence you too much or say too much against the 7700k as the there are plenty of blue knights on this forum ready to leap into action  

Haha well, don't really care for red/blue teams  I just want best performance for money hahah

[tom_w141]

1 minute ago, Joey96 said:

Yeah only gaming, alright. But how "far" in the future? I do want the CPU to last atleast a few years before I need to go purchase a new upgrade

What resolution and refresh rate do you play at and what is your graphics card?

 

no one can say but I would say under 2 years before it becomes more mainstream to utilise more cores/threads

[WereCat]

1 minute ago, Joey96 said:

Alright, so save my money on the ram's and go for an B270 board and would the cryorig h7 be enough to cool it at stock? 

 

Cryorig H7 is a beast. I would still rather have Z270 just in case if you can afford it even if you won't OC. There are more features in BIOS for tweaking stuff in your PC that may be worthwhile to have just in case.

[Joey96]

Just now, tom_w141 said:

What resolution and refresh rate do you play at and what is your graphics card?

 

no one can say but I would say under 2 years before it becomes more mainstream to utilise more cores/threads

I'm planning on upgrading to an 2560x1080p, and I have an 1070, I will just be playing at 60.

[tom_w141]

1 minute ago, Joey96 said:

I'm planning on upgrading to an 2560x1080p, and I have an 1070, I will just be playing at 60.

Based on the above the R7 and 7700k will be near identical in current games because of the 60Hz refresh rate. In this scenario the R7 1700 would serve you better for longer and give you the option to do more (you may want to in the future).

[grimreeper132]

7 minutes ago, Joey96 said:

Yeah but I don't really have the money to invest in a liquid cooler atm, so I just want something like the Cryorig h7 or something within that price range. And I don't really consider the overclocking a thing, as I wrote, I just want to maybe put the clock to 4.5 at all times, so nothing fancy or trying out limits.

yea that's fair enough go the 7700K as it's just a better CPU for gaming

[Joey96]

3 minutes ago, WereCat said:

Cryorig H7 is a beast. I would still rather have Z270 just in case if you can afford it even if you won't OC. There are more features in BIOS for tweaking stuff in your PC that may be worthwhile to have just in case.

So i7-7700k + Cryorig H7 + 3000+ MHZ ram + Z270 board would be good good? 

[papes]

10 minutes ago, tom_w141 said:

-snip-

You inadvertently solidified my need for Ryzen.

[Joey96]

2 minutes ago, tom_w141 said:

Based on the above the R7 and 7700k will be near identical in current games because of the 60Hz refresh rate. In this scenario the R7 1700 would serve you better for longer and give you the option to do more (you may want to in the future).

Alright, I'll consider it, It's just that in Denmark the R7 1700 is actually a bit more expensive than the i7 7700k lol, but ofc it has a cooler where the i7 has none.

[tom_w141]

Just now, papes said:

You inadvertently solidified my need for Ryzen.

aw you snipped me  which part of what I said?

[WereCat]

Just now, Joey96 said:

So i7-7700k + Cryorig H7 + 3000+ MHZ ram + Z270 board would be good good? 

Considering you are going to play at 60Hz I must change my opinion.

5 minutes ago, Joey96 said:

I'm planning on upgrading to an 2560x1080p, and I have an 1070, I will just be playing at 60.

The Ryzen is a better choice for gaming at 60Hz as both of the CPUs are capable of pushing FPS past the 60Hz mark, the main difference with i7 is that it can push FPS further than Ryzen for those that play at 144Hz+ in most cases.

At 60Hz the Ryzen is a better choice overall as it will give you better performance in more tasks.

[tom_w141]

Just now, Joey96 said:

Alright, I'll consider it, It's just that in Denmark the R7 1700 is actually a bit more expensive than the i7 7700k lol, but ofc it has a cooler where the i7 has none.

Also your Z270 motherboard and LGA1151 socket will likely be obsolete in 2018 due to Intel due a socket change very soon. Whereas AMD guaranteed the AM4 socket for a minimum of 4 years.

[tom_w141]

Just now, WereCat said:

Considering you are going to play at 60Hz I must change my opinion.

The Ryzen is a better choice for gaming at 60Hz as both of the CPUs are capable of pushing FPS past the 60Hz mark, the main difference with i7 is that it can push FPS further than Ryzen for those that play at 144Hz+ in most cases.

At 60Hz the Ryzen is a better choice overall as it will give you better performance in more tasks.

That's exactly why I asked what his resolution and refresh rate would be  nice to see other people also trying to give balanced advice to best satisfy OPs situation.

[Joey96]

1 minute ago, WereCat said:

Considering you are going to play at 60Hz I must change my opinion.

The Ryzen is a better choice for gaming at 60Hz as both of the CPUs are capable of pushing FPS past the 60Hz mark, the main difference with i7 is that it can push FPS further than Ryzen for those that play at 144Hz+ in most cases.

At 60Hz the Ryzen is a better choice overall as it will give you better performance in more tasks.

Ohh what a turn of event hahah, alright, so the R7 1700 would be alright? 

[tom_w141]

Just now, Joey96 said:

Ohh what a turn of event hahah, alright, so the R7 1700 would be alright? 

It'd be more than alright. As said previously they will both be able to push well above 60 frames but taking 60 in mind the R7 will be the better overall performer on the PC as a whole.

[Joey96]

Just now, tom_w141 said:

That's exactly why I asked what his resolution and refresh rate would be  nice to see other people also trying to give balanced advice to best satisfy OPs situation.

Haha it's good to have you guys 8) Is it hard to overclock the r7 1700? I've only done GPU ocing, never CPU so yeah... 

r7 1700 (r5 1600?) + b350 + stock cooler? 

[WereCat]

6 minutes ago, tom_w141 said:

That's exactly why I asked what his resolution and refresh rate would be  nice to see other people also trying to give balanced advice to best satisfy OPs situation.

 

 

 

5 minutes ago, Joey96 said:

Ohh what a turn of event hahah, alright, so the R7 1700 would be alright? 

Yes, the Ryzen 7 1700 would be a better choice in this particular case in my honest opinion.

 

It is really hard to do the right decision as either choice would be really good. While 7700k will provide you with more FPS in more scenarios, as long as you don't play on high refresh rate it doesn't matter that much. Since most things, even games are moving slowly towards using more cores, there is no doubt that the R7 1700 will be a better choice in terms of longevity while it will still provide you with solid gaming performance.

In the future you may find yourself to start using your PC for work where these extra cores may come in handy and you will have no reason to look for an upgrade.

Another thing to consider is that Ryzen supports ECC so it may be converted to a nice home server if needed.