Question 11700K worth it for 270 USD?

Pextaxmx

Reputable
Jun 15, 2020
418
59
4,840
So local MicroCenter is selling 11700K for 270, and gives out free ASUS Z590-P Wifi along with it.
Worth upgrading from my teenager's 11400+B560??
He got a new 3060 Ti FE and wondering if he would benefit from it. He plays recent first person shooting games and he has a 300Hz 1080 monitor. Maybe he gets more frames with 11700K?
I can take that 11400 to upgrade from my personal 6th gen computer (even though i5 6500 PC is still fast enough for what I do with it)
 
So local MicroCenter is selling 11700K for 270, and gives out free ASUS Z590-P Wifi along with it.
Worth upgrading from my teenager's 11400+B560??
He got a new 3060 Ti FE and wondering if he would benefit from it. He plays recent first person shooting games and he has a 300Hz 1080 monitor. Maybe he gets more frames with 11700K?
I can take that 11400 to upgrade from my personal 6th gen computer (even though i5 6500 PC is still fast enough for what I do with it)
IT IS EXTREMELY WORTH THE DEAL THEIR GIVING, the issue in lies with your wanting it for fps gain, and as much as there will be a gain it won't be to the extent of what a lot perceive as a gain, it would most likely be a net gain of 25fps avg
 
So local MicroCenter is selling 11700K for 270, and gives out free ASUS Z590-P Wifi along with it.
Worth upgrading from my teenager's 11400+B560??
He got a new 3060 Ti FE and wondering if he would benefit from it. He plays recent first person shooting games and he has a 300Hz 1080 monitor. Maybe he gets more frames with 11700K?
I can take that 11400 to upgrade from my personal 6th gen computer (even though i5 6500 PC is still fast enough for what I do with it)
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-11700K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-11400/4107vs4112
 

shady28

Distinguished
Jan 29, 2007
425
297
19,090
So local MicroCenter is selling 11700K for 270, and gives out free ASUS Z590-P Wifi along with it.
Worth upgrading from my teenager's 11400+B560??
He got a new 3060 Ti FE and wondering if he would benefit from it. He plays recent first person shooting games and he has a 300Hz 1080 monitor. Maybe he gets more frames with 11700K?
I can take that 11400 to upgrade from my personal 6th gen computer (even though i5 6500 PC is still fast enough for what I do with it)

Like the other guy said, that is a screaming hot deal.

I have to say, with a 3060 Ti he probably won't see huge difference on average FPS as he'll be limited on the GPU more often than not. There will be some exceptions in newer titles, and certainly he'll be able to handle new GPUs like a 4060 or some such later on with an 11700K, while the 11400 not so much.

But if you have any plans to upgrade that OG Skylake kit, that 11700K combo at $270 is probably the best deal you're going to see this year. Z590 is also quite a bit more capable chipset than the B560.
 
  • Like
Reactions: white.a.drew

punkncat

Champion
Ambassador
To be fair, I probably wouldn't do it. The 11700K has been available at a great price for some time, and in conjunction with the $20 they offer with compatible motherboards anyway...they are kind of forcing you to take a board they can't sell alone for $70 (90) with a deal they have already offered on that CPU.
 
To be fair, I probably wouldn't do it. The 11700K has been available at a great price for some time, and in conjunction with the $20 they offer with compatible motherboards anyway...they are kind of forcing you to take a board they can't sell alone for $70 (90) with a deal they have already offered on that CPU.
yes the 11700k has been up for sale on a bunch of great offers lately, however the factor you are getting it from a reliable source with a free motherboard ontop of it, from what he said. this is a killer deal. he wouldnt be upgrading jist one system he would be upgrading two out of it. this is a great deal
And it's a higher end Mobo then what's already there it's worth it
 
  • Like
Reactions: shady28

shady28

Distinguished
Jan 29, 2007
425
297
19,090
To be fair, I probably wouldn't do it. The 11700K has been available at a great price for some time, and in conjunction with the $20 they offer with compatible motherboards anyway...they are kind of forcing you to take a board they can't sell alone for $70 (90) with a deal they have already offered on that CPU.

That is a $200 motherboard on Microcenter's site. A quick look shows it ranged from $175 to $270 at online stores. The 11700K is around $300 at Newegg and Amazon.

If you built that combo anywhere else, it would run you $475+ and he can get it for $270.

That is easily the best deal I've seen this year.
 

Pextaxmx

Reputable
Jun 15, 2020
418
59
4,840
thank you for all the great advice. I appreciate different perspectives as well.
I think I am going to have a trip to MC tomorrow :)
Just that, his CPU cooler is coolermaster 212 evo - would that be enough to cool 11700K?
 
  • Like
Reactions: shady28
thank you for all the great advice. I appreciate different perspectives as well.
I think I am going to have a trip to MC tomorrow :)
Just that, his CPU cooler is coolermaster 212 evo - would that be enough to cool 11700K?
That's plenty and I would recommend turning off turbo stepping in bios for this CPU will help preserve the life of it this CPU is plenty enough for what it will be handling, turbo won't do much but heat the CPU even more
 

punkncat

Champion
Ambassador
The reason I say this is basically due to the CPU being a dead end at this point. I own an 11600K that I purchased on release. A couple of months back MicroCenter was selling the 11700K @ 199.99 and the 11900K at @249.99. I picked up the i9 due to that price as well as a discount offer I had (and having already purchased a Z590I to put it in).

A 12400 system would likely put you in the neighborhood of $325 (give or take) which will perform basically as well as any of them. If Intel follows it's normal procedure then 13th gen should be a viable upgrade for a good mobo with a BIOS update. The 12th gen should keep things running well enough until just before 14th release, which will then drive 13th gen down to similar stellar sale prices. We are already seeing some sales going on 12th gen.

It's a "deal" in a sense, sure, but ultimately it is going to top your system out on what is already a dead end with no upgrade path aside from a whole new mobo and CPU and RAM. It is also worth considering that this update is going to require a new OS license as well. I would much rather purchase a license on a 12th gen and then swap up the CPU on that same load/license than to do that over again as well.

This "deal" is kind of blinding to the reality of the chipset/gen.

note @shady28 , that same mobo is readily available for $123.99 on Amazon. I have seen them (or similar ones) be available for less.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pextaxmx

shady28

Distinguished
Jan 29, 2007
425
297
19,090
thank you for all the great advice. I appreciate different perspectives as well.
I think I am going to have a trip to MC tomorrow :)
Just that, his CPU cooler is coolermaster 212 evo - would that be enough to cool 11700K?

You don't need to do anything to the power settings with that cooler. The cooler will handle around 140-150W continuous and the 11700K will come stock settings that throttle it to 125W continuous, higher on burst. You might want to get some high quality thermal paste and make sure the cooler is mounted properly, but that's about it.

The Asus board will also allow some mild automatic OC (AI Tuner) that, if you run it (the teenager probably will) will adjust the power settings a bit higher to what your cooler can handle. This might result in some fan noise so be aware if you run that it'll push your cooler.

If you look around on overclockers.net, you'll find that Rocket Lake has the best IMC (memory controller) ever made, at least right now. RAM OC is a thing and can significantly boost its performance. At 1080P TPU showed the 11700K getting about 10% higher fps than an 11400, but that was on Z590 vs Z590. You also get double the DMI channels (bandwidth) for chipset connected devices like USB 3.2 devices, SATA devices, network / wifi and so on with a Z590 vs the B560.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pextaxmx
The reason I say this is basically due to the CPU being a dead end at this point. I own an 11600K that I purchased on release. A couple of months back MicroCenter was selling the 11700K @ 199.99 and the 11900K at @249.99. I picked up the i9 due to that price as well as a discount offer I had (and having already purchased a Z590I to put it in).

A 12400 system would likely put you in the neighborhood of $325 (give or take) which will perform basically as well as any of them. If Intel follows it's normal procedure then 13th gen should be a viable upgrade for a good mobo with a BIOS update. The 12th gen should keep things running well enough until just before 14th release, which will then drive 13th gen down to similar stellar sale prices. We are already seeing some sales going on 12th gen.

It's a "deal" in a sense, sure, but ultimately it is going to top your system out on what is already a dead end with no upgrade path aside from a whole new mobo and CPU and RAM. It is also worth considering that this update is going to require a new OS license as well. I would much rather purchase a license on a 12th gen and then swap up the CPU on that same load/license than to do that over again as well.

This "deal" is kind of blinding to the reality of the chipset/gen.

note @shady28 , that same mobo is readily available for $123.99 on Amazon. I have seen them (or similar ones) be available for less.
You don't need a new license key at all that is false I have built 100s of PC's not one required me to buy a new product key because I upgrade a system Mobo or CPU or any of that I don't know what your doing to cause this issue. But just because you upgrade it doesn't force any new keys to be installed
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pextaxmx
So local MicroCenter is selling 11700K for 270, and gives out free ASUS Z590-P Wifi along with it.
Worth upgrading from my teenager's 11400+B560??
He got a new 3060 Ti FE and wondering if he would benefit from it. He plays recent first person shooting games and he has a 300Hz 1080 monitor. Maybe he gets more frames with 11700K?
I can take that 11400 to upgrade from my personal 6th gen computer (even though i5 6500 PC is still fast enough for what I do with it)
If it's 270 for both the 11700K and the board then yes that's defiantly a good deal. It's an old platform but I'm not sure that really matters. A Hyper 212 though won't be enough to cool it as it's quite a hot CPU. I would recommend something like a Dark Rock Pro 4 or 280mm AIO. Artic do one that is a good performer for the price:
https://www.newegg.com/arctic-cooli...c_280mm-_-35-186-248-_-Product&quicklink=true
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pextaxmx

shady28

Distinguished
Jan 29, 2007
425
297
19,090
If it's 270 for both the 11700K and the board then yes that's defiantly a good deal. It's an old platform but I'm not sure that really matters. A Hyper 212 though won't be enough to cool it as it's quite a hot CPU. I would recommend something like a Dark Rock Pro 4 or 280mm AIO. Artic do one that is a good performer for the price:
https://www.newegg.com/arctic-cooling-liquid-freezer-ii-280-liquid-cooling-system/p/N82E16835186248?Description=artic 280mm&cm_re=artic_280mm--35-186-248--Product&quicklink=true

The Hyper is plenty at stock power limits. Once you start power unlocking Rocket Lake air probably won't be enough. But I did not get the impression OP would be doing any of that, in which case the Hyper 212 is plenty, at stock the CPU will only dissipate 125W max load. It won't even be doing that under any normal or gaming load. My 10850K with power limits set to 220/250W after a few hours of play and work yesterday showed a peak 95W and average 43W, and it's a hungrier animal than the 11700K.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pextaxmx
The Hyper is plenty at stock power limits. Once you start power unlocking Rocket Lake air probably won't be enough. But I did not get the impression OP would be doing any of that, in which case the Hyper 212 is plenty, at stock the CPU will only dissipate 125W max load. It won't even be doing that under any normal or gaming load. My 10850K with power limits set to 220/250W after a few hours of play and work yesterday showed a peak 95W and average 43W, and it's a hungrier animal than the 11700K.
I was assuming power limits removed for max performance, I didn't think the 11700K was any less hungry than the 10850K. I have a 10850K as well, and I know that the Hyper 212 cannot cope with it unless it was running at it's base frequency which is why I suggested a larger cooler.
 
I was assuming power limits removed for max performance, I didn't think the 11700K was any less hungry than the 10850K. I have a 10850K as well, and I know that the Hyper 212 cannot cope with it unless it was running at it's base frequency which is why I suggested a larger cooler.
I can agree with what your saying and I understand where your coming from, however the system having plenty of venting and proper layout the CPU should stay cool at stalk
 
I was assuming power limits removed for max performance, I didn't think the 11700K was any less hungry than the 10850K. I have a 10850K as well, and I know that the Hyper 212 cannot cope with it unless it was running at it's base frequency which is why I suggested a larger cooler.
I can agree with what your saying and I understand where your coming from, however the system having plenty of venting and proper layout the CPU should stay cool at stalk
 

punkncat

Champion
Ambassador
As far as cooler, and from a person that owns (2) 11th gen chips...don't cheap out. These run HOT. I run my i9 on an AIO, and the i5 on a Noctua tower cooler.

I personally like the Hyper 212 as a budget option but it isn't going to stand up to hard use like rendering or gaming.
 
  • Like
Reactions: white.a.drew

punkncat

Champion
Ambassador
Fair but do you use turbo stepping?

The i5 is on the cheapest B series motherboard I could find being used as an HTPC. It idles at ~40C with a Noctua NH-U9. Part of this is case/placement, but even before I swapped it to the i9 (in my other build*), it never ran "cool".

The i9 is on a Z chipset and is running under "stock" (not stock) parameters aside from what the motherboard manufacturer did. If I go with the thermal boost tech or (further) unlock the power parameters it quickly becomes problematic not only from a temperature perspective, but also power draw. It alone can pull almost 260W and the accompanying heat is too much for a 240 AIO in Lian Li 'Dynamic Mini' with a total of 8 fans unless I disable that setting, so I guess the answer on that would be no also?

I do see the i5 run up to ~4.9GHz on the B chipset, so power delivery there isn't holding anything back for it's proper boost clocks.

The i9 runs up to ~5.1GHz set as above. If I fully unlock it, it will run ~5.3 but....Since the i9 and i7 are basically the same chip aside from the i9 being binned and power limits mildly different, it isn't going to magically run way cooler and especially on a Hyper 212 of which I have owned several and am quite familiar with.
I suppose "acceptable" could have different interpretation based on what temps and fan noise you are comfortable with.

Temps have been a common denominator with the higher end Intel chips since 9th gen. They did so many + revisions that the only thing really left was to open up power limits and let it eat while essentially coming from the factory at or near its OC threshold.
 
  • Like
Reactions: white.a.drew
I suppose "acceptable" could have different interpretation based on what temps and fan noise you are comfortable with.
For some anything less than 100C is 'cool' :)

260W will banish a Hyper 212 to a fiery death. I assumed what we meant by 'stock' was PL2 for 60 seconds and then back to PL1 at a smooth 125W. If that was the case then a Hyper 212 may be adequate but the CPU will just fall well short of it's max performance.
 

punkncat

Champion
Ambassador
For some anything less than 100C is 'cool' :)

260W will banish a Hyper 212 to a fiery death. I assumed what we meant by 'stock' was PL2 for 60 seconds and then back to PL1 at a smooth 125W. If that was the case then a Hyper 212 may be adequate but the CPU will just fall well short of it's max performance.

You have to keep in mind that almost ALL of the Z chipsets for 5xx/11th gen are not playing by Intel's rules on power limits and Tau. Heck, mine basically never hits the clock down, and have found that one of the available XMP settings messes with the CPU boost modifier as a hidden OC. It took me several days to figure out why my i9 kept running at 70C on an AIO at idle with no (known) OC or power limit disturbed.

The Hyper 212 is one of the two go to coolers I utilize for non K or older rigs where there is space in the case. For $25 they are an exceptional deal compared to the piss poor stock coolers (particularly Intel). My other is an Enermax model that I like for low clearance cases.
 
  • Like
Reactions: white.a.drew
You have to keep in mind that almost ALL of the Z chipsets for 5xx/11th gen are not playing by Intel's rules on power limits and Tau. Heck, mine basically never hits the clock down, and have found that one of the available XMP settings messes with the CPU boost modifier as a hidden OC. It took me several days to figure out why my i9 kept running at 70C on an AIO at idle with no (known) OC or power limit disturbed.

The Hyper 212 is one of the two go to coolers I utilize for non K or older rigs where there is space in the case. For $25 they are an exceptional deal compared to the piss poor stock coolers (particularly Intel). My other is an Enermax model that I like for low clearance cases.
I realise that, my CPU was wired up like a Christmas tree by default but you can manually plug in the relevant power limits and Tau if you like or just set the clock speed yourself. I'm not advocating for a course of action, I would get a better cooler personally. It's just technically doable with a Hyper 212 if the CPU is appropriately handicapped :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: punkncat