New build - Unsure of which CPU to use (spend someone else's money for them!)

[flukey]

Hi all, I call upon your wisdom... 

 

I recently indiegogo'd the Dr Zaber mini ITX case and just received it - now I want to build in it. 

 

I'm currently running a full tower system with a i7 3770k and GTX 1080, though unfortunately none of the parts fit (and I want M.2 slots on my mobo...) 

 

Budget is around £1500; short of HEDT stuff this isn't really an issue. 

 

The main issue I'm having here is deciding between AMD and Intel:

 

• 90% of my use case is gaming @ 3440x1440 resolution 
• Deep down I think I'd like to support AMD since I don't want to give my money to fund intel's complacent nature over the last few years
• AMD has no decent mini itx mobo's (the ONE that's out has no wifi and only 1 M.2 slot)
• Ryzen has RAM issues? I'd like to fully utilise some high speed ram and I'm worried that getting a nice set that's compatible may be a hassle. 
• I think more than 4 cores is where we're headed but all the benchmarks I've seen of Ryzen in gaming are much worse than the 7700k. (though these are mostly 1080p benchmarks.)
• I'm looking at a i7 7700k vs Ryzen 5 1600x (since it has the highest single threaded performance) - cost wise there's about £30 between the two. (surprisingly little).
• I do some multitasking but it's mostly 30 Chrome tabs open and playing games. 

 

So essentially my question(s) to you all are: 

 

Will i be making a large sacrifice in gaming performance picking ryzen (say a 1600x) at my resolution (3440x1440)?

Will the RAM issues with Ryzen stop me from buying ballin' RGB RAM? 

Are there better ITX Ryzen motherboards coming soon?

Is there any logical reason I should buy Ryzen above Intel (apart from my personal feelings)?

Should I wait for new releases coming from intel?

 

Thanks

 

[kelvinhall05]

1. Yes I think (not sure though)

2. I think they have been resolved, but again not 100% sure

3. Probably (I SERIOUSLY hope so)

4. If you do a lot of stuff like rendering and basically programs that utilize the cores and threads

5. No

[BluJay614]

1 minute ago, flukey said:

Hi all, I call upon your wisdom... 

 

I recently indiegogo'd the Dr Zaber mini ITX case and just received it - now I want to build in it. 

 

I'm currently running a full tower system with a i7 3770k and GTX 1080, though unfortunately none of the parts fit (and I want M.2 slots on my mobo...) 

 

Budget is around £1500; short of HEDT stuff this isn't really an issue. 

 

The main issue I'm having here is deciding between AMD and Intel:

 

• 90% of my use case is gaming @ 3440x1440 resolution 
• Deep down I think I'd like to support AMD since I don't want to give my money to fund intel's complacent nature over the last few years
• AMD has no decent mini itx mobo's (the ONE that's out has no wifi and only 1 M.2 slot)
• Ryzen has RAM issues? I'd like to fully utilise some high speed ram and I'm worried that getting a nice set that's compatible may be a hassle. 
• I think more than 4 cores is where we're headed but all the benchmarks I've seen of Ryzen in gaming are much worse than the 7700k. (though these are mostly 1080p benchmarks.)
• I'm looking at a i7 7700k vs Ryzen 5 1600x (since it has the highest single threaded performance) - cost wise there's about £30 between the two. (surprisingly little).
• I do some multitasking but it's mostly 30 Chrome tabs open and playing games. 

 

So essentially my question(s) to you all are: 

 

Will i be making a large sacrifice in gaming performance picking ryzen (say a 1600x) at my resolution (3440x1440)?

Will the RAM issues with Ryzen stop me from buying ballin' RGB RAM? 

Are there better ITX Ryzen motherboards coming soon?

Is there any logical reason I should buy Ryzen above Intel (apart from my personal feelings)?

Should I wait for new releases coming from intel?

 

Thanks

 

1)No, not one bit.

2) No, and support for RAM with Ryzen is continuing to improve

3)Yes, ASRock has announced that they will be releasing new AM4 ITX motherboards with AC wifi coming

4) Better value and performance in areas other then gaming

4) they will either be incremental improvements, or the next generation.

[Princess Luna]

6 minutes ago, flukey said:

Will i be making a large sacrifice in gaming performance picking ryzen (say a 1600x) at my resolution (3440x1440)?

Will the RAM issues with Ryzen stop me from buying ballin' RGB RAM? 

Are there better ITX Ryzen motherboards coming soon?

Is there any logical reason I should buy Ryzen above Intel (apart from my personal feelings)?

Should I wait for new releases coming from intel?

1. No the higher your resolution is the less a CPU is likely to bottleneck

2. No as long as you go with an Asus or AsRock motherboard

3. There are but none that I think it is worth your attention, you should go micro-atx b350 (if you do wanna a 1600x)

4. Ryzen simply is a better offering at the moment than Kaby Lake, the i7 7700k is still a super solid and great pick specially for a gaming orientated build but you won't be missing by going ryzen while you'll win more threads that can prove worthy.

5. The only release of Intel that will ensure they get better offering is likely to be Canon Lake 10nm processors which will only get here on 2018 Q1 therefore it is a long waiting.

[flukey]

@Princess Cadence @BluJay614 @kelvinhall05

 

Thanks all for the replies so far, it's really helping me weigh my options. I think I may wait for the end of June to see the new Ryzen itx offerings (I'm afraid it can only be ITX due to the case size). 

 

One extra question (apologies for keeping asking) - One thing that attracts me to the AMD platform is their use of sockets seems to last a lot longer (unlike intel which changes every few years). In my head this means my CPU will be upgradable for longer. Is there any indication that this will continue to be the case? 

[BluJay614]

1 minute ago, flukey said:

@Princess Cadence @BluJay614 @kelvinhall05

 

Thanks all for the replies so far, it's really helping me weigh my options. I think I may wait for the end of June to see the new Ryzen itx offerings (I'm afraid it can only be ITX due to the case size). 

 

One extra question (apologies for keeping asking) - One thing that attracts me to the AMD platform is their use of sockets seems to last a lot longer (unlike intel which changes every few years). In my head this means my CPU will be upgradable for longer. Is there any indication that this will continue to be the case? 

So far, yes. The Threadripper line will be on a different socket, but would have a different purpose. Otherwise, the AM4 socket is supposed to be around till 2020

[Princess Luna]

2 minutes ago, flukey said:

One extra question (apologies for keeping asking) - One thing that attracts me to the AMD platform is their use of sockets seems to last a lot longer (unlike intel which changes every few years). In my head this means my CPU will be upgradable for longer. Is there any indication that this will continue to be the case?

LGA 1151 last family will be Coffee Lake coming around october or november, which is the last 14nm refresh from Intel, it will feature the same old polishing with less than 10% improvements over Kaby Lake.

 

AM4 on the other hand will be featuring processors all the way to Zen+ so yes it will last a lot longer as AMD's up-to-date socket and chipset.

[flukey]

8 minutes ago, BluJay614 said:

So far, yes. The Threadripper line will be on a different socket, but would have a different purpose. Otherwise, the AM4 socket is supposed to be around till 2020

 

7 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

AM4 on the other hand will be featuring processors all the way to Zen+ so yes it will last a lot longer as AMD's up-to-date socket and chipset.

 

In my mind this is a strong case for AMD, if I can still get AM4 motherboards and compatible CPU's in 3 years it will be very nice - especially if AMD pull it out the bag with Zen+

I'm 100% going to wait and see the new ITX offerings before the final decision now (it's so tempting just to go for it!) thanks for all the help guys. 

[RedSpade]

34 minutes ago, flukey said:

Will i be making a large sacrifice in gaming performance picking ryzen (say a 1600x) at my resolution (3440x1440)?

Will the RAM issues with Ryzen stop me from buying ballin' RGB RAM? 

Are there better ITX Ryzen motherboards coming soon?

Is there any logical reason I should buy Ryzen above Intel (apart from my personal feelings)?

Should I wait for new releases coming from intel?

1. Already got your answer

2. Nah, the new AGESA (or whatever) update will be coming out in June (I think) that will increase compatability and RAM speeds

3. Already got your answer

4. Yeah, there are reports of minimum frame rates being higher on Ryzen which means smoother performance (I've noticed this in Total War Warhammer)

5. I wouldn't, or else you'll always be waiting for the 'next big thing coming x months away'

25 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

2. No as long as you go with an Asus or AsRock motherboard

I've got an msi B350M board and it works perfectly fine with corsair vengeance LED ram. So long as @flukey checks the compatibility of the motherboard.

[flukey]

1 minute ago, RedSpade said:

I've got an msi B350M board and it works perfectly fine with corsair vengeance LED ram. So long as @flukey checks the compatibility of the motherboard.

@RedSpadeThanks mate

 

I'll have to make sure to do that when considering the options, though hopefully there's been significant bios updates by the time the ITX boards I'm waiting for come out - and this is much less of an issue. 

 

Do you know if the 1600x vs 1600 is worth it? from what I've been reading you can just OC the 1600 to the specs of the 'X' variant. The 65W TDP is also interesting for a mITX build, I wonder if it'll go sky high the second you start overclocking

 

[BluJay614]

8 minutes ago, flukey said:

@RedSpadeThanks mate

 

I'll have to make sure to do that when considering the options, though hopefully there's been significant bios updates by the time the ITX boards I'm waiting for come out - and this is much less of an issue. 

 

Do you know if the 1600x vs 1600 is worth it? from what I've been reading you can just OC the 1600 to the specs of the 'X' variant. The 65W TDP is also interesting for a mITX build, I wonder if it'll go sky high the second you start overclocking

 

It shouldn't. Granted, (for whatever reason, and I think it was a bad idea for AMD to do it) Ryzen reports temps at +20C. Otherwise, it should be fine. Basically what the 1600X gives is XMP, and a higher base clock. The 1600 is a better buy right now if you are willing to overclock.

[RedSpade]

13 minutes ago, flukey said:

@RedSpadeThanks mate

 

I'll have to make sure to do that when considering the options, though hopefully there's been significant bios updates by the time the ITX boards I'm waiting for come out - and this is much less of an issue. 

 

Do you know if the 1600x vs 1600 is worth it? from what I've been reading you can just OC the 1600 to the specs of the 'X' variant. The 65W TDP is also interesting for a mITX build, I wonder if it'll go sky high the second you start overclocking

 

No problem, considering you're getting a really small case you might not want to overclock. If you already have a decent cooler, that fits, and can get an AM4 adapter then get the 1600x (or if you can easily afford a decent cooler). Otherwise I'd say to get the 1600 as the difference in price is actually quite a bit when you include the cooler.

Just now, BluJay614 said:

It shouldn't. Granted, (for whatever reason, and I think it was a bad idea for AMD to do it) Ryzen reports temps at +20C. Otherwise, it should be fine. Basically what the 1600X gives is XMP, and a higher base clock. The 1600 is a better buy right now if you are willing to overclock.

IIRC they fixed that problem and there's a post somewhere.