Advice for gaming build - increase in performance worth the cash?

[creasy1132]

hello together,

I am considering really hard if the time has come to upgrade my build. I have started the process last year and bought a 2k 144hz dell with g-sync which runs pretty decently even on my current setup. Which is:

Intel i5-3470 @ 3.2ghz
16GB RAM
MSI 970GTX

I am looking to build a desktop PC mostly for gaming. I play the usual AAA titles like Witcher 3, Far Cry-s and some other FPS games. I am thinking of the following setup. What I am not quite sure is which pc cooler, motherboard and RAM to pick as there are plenty and all look very similar to me. Also is it worth the investment? I would like to keep it unchanged for the coming let's say 5 years. I can't really reuse much of the old machine as I would pass this forward in case I decide to get a new one.

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/qdGy7W

help much appreciated

 

[originalletmepicyou]

I have a few comments on your build.
First, I heartily recommend considering a 9th gen Intel Core chip vs the 8th gen i7 8700 you have picked. Personally, I run the i7 9700k, which is arguably the best gaming CPU on the planet right now. Not only do you get the performance increase from gen 8 to 9, but Intel is starting to roll out hardware changes in the microarchitecture of the chips to mitigate the Meltdown and Spectre hardware security flaws I'm sure you've heard about. So being "current gen" has more benefits than just performance.

Second, and I say this as a long time die-hard Windows 7 Ultimate 64 user...the time to move to 10 is pretty much here. I see you are also choosing a z370 board. Might I again recommend that, if you intend to upgrade anyway, go current gen and get a Z390 board, many of which don't support anything BUT Windows 10, I'm afraid.

Personally, I would go 16 gb of ram and put the money saved into an AIW water cooler or move up 1 notch on the video card scale. Unless you do video editing, or run huge game servers while streaming, there is no real need for 32 gb. Will that be different in 2 or 3 years? Perhaps. But you can always add more ram down the road if it does become an issue.

As to referring to it as an "investment", investing in computers yields a typically low ROI, lol. Is it worth the cost, though? Depends on if you'd rather have a pile of money, or purchase something WITH the pile of money that might have more entertainment value. Piles of money are cool and all, but they get boring after a while. After I play in my money pile for a bit, I'm always left wanting more. So I usually spend my money pile on things like...video cards. Is it worth it for me? Absolutely. Is it worth it for you? That's 100% on you, my friend. You tell us!

 

[creasy1132]

I have a few comments on your build.
First, I heartily recommend considering a 9th gen Intel Core chip vs the 8th gen i7 8700 you have picked. Personally, I run the i7 9700k, which is arguably the best gaming CPU on the planet right now. Not only do you get the performance increase from gen 8 to 9, but Intel is starting to roll out hardware changes in the microarchitecture of the chips to mitigate the Meltdown and Spectre hardware security flaws I'm sure you've heard about. So being "current gen" has more benefits than just performance.

Second, and I say this as a long time die-hard Windows 7 Ultimate 64 user...the time to move to 10 is pretty much here. I see you are also choosing a z370 board. Might I again recommend that, if you intend to upgrade anyway, go current gen and get a Z390 board, many of which don't support anything BUT Windows 10, I'm afraid.

Personally, I would go 16 gb of ram and put the money saved into an AIW water cooler or move up 1 notch on the video card scale. Unless you do video editing, or run huge game servers while streaming, there is no real need for 32 gb. Will that be different in 2 or 3 years? Perhaps. But you can always add more ram down the road if it does become an issue.

As to referring to it as an "investment", investing in computers yields a typically low ROI, lol. Is it worth the cost, though? Depends on if you'd rather have a pile of money, or purchase something WITH the pile of money that might have more entertainment value. Piles of money are cool and all, but they get boring after a while. After I play in my money pile for a bit, I'm always left wanting more. So I usually spend my money pile on things like...video cards. Is it worth it for me? Absolutely. Is it worth it for you? That's 100% on you, my friend. You tell us!

thanks mate for your insights! I guess I switch to the 9th gen - didn't even consider that. The price difference is not significant there so basically what I will have to live and deal with is the Win10

RAM - yeah, probably useless waste of money, I just felt like I should put some more in from the start, but can be spent better

and regarding the cash thing. hmm sure it can be spent on something else. but if I get the new setup, will I really see the difference? I certainly hope so

 

[originalletmepicyou]

As far as "will I really see a difference?"...see the following...

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-9700K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-3470/4030vs2771

It is a seriously stout proc, man. I was on a 4790k on a Giga board that I built back in '14 (I think...) but the Gigabyte board started to go wonky on me (GA Z97X UD5H BK...yeah, a black series. Didn't last as long as I thought it would.) so instead of hunting down another socket 1150 board I just decided to upgrade to the 9700K. Even from the 4790k I see a considerable increase in performance. It is very snappy.
Current setup:
CPU: i7 9700k (stock clocks)
COOLER: Corsair H110i AIW
MOBO: Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro Wifi
GPU: Asus Strix GTX 1080
RAM: 16GB DDR4-3200 Gskill Trident RGB
BOOT: 500 GB Samsung 950 Pro M.2 NVMe
STORAGE: 2x 1TB Samsung 860 EVO in RAID 0
PSU: Sparkle Magna Gold Pro 850 watt
Win 10 Pro

Fastest rig I've ever built, by far.

 

[originalletmepicyou]

Here's my actual benchmark from UserBenchmark…

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/12855419