I realize that this review is a year old. However, I am currently looking to upgrade my personal home PC, and was doing HW research. My current system, an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400/Asus P5C-Q/8GB PC3-10600 1333MHz/Geforce GT 710 system, has served me well but just isn't cutting it anymore.
I have used both AMD and Intel in the past (used to have an IT repair consulting business, have been in IT for over 20yrs, and have done many builds for others) and am not necessarily a fanboy of either per se. I am simply looking for honest, solid, objective reviews so that I can make the best HW decision I can for my needs and budget and get the
best value for my $ based on the current HW offerings and prices.
After reading this review and almost every comment (all 8 pages) and having some laughs along the way (thanks), I think I am going to go with the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X on an Asus x570 platform.
I always love how the average gamer/fanboy tends to poo-poo on anything they don't personally have because of... jealousy?... bad feels?... ignorance? the realization that their kick-ass rig from 2017 is no longer "top dog"?... or assume that everyone cares only about high-end gaming? (and that no one would ever use a desktop for anything else). There is nuance involved in each person's use case for a desktop.
It seems like the average (non-pro) gamer tends to know a lot about marketing specs, benchmarks, etc, but doesn't have any deeper understanding of the technology and other real-world factors regarding how it all has to work together, beyond a surface-level reading of the advertised specs.
Real-world performance? Hey, "this artificial benchmark graph shows that the bloated marketing propaganda theoretical maximum that this HW can do has a number 30 points higher and a different color line than the bloated marketing propaganda theoretical maximum that this other HW can do" for said pieces of HW. Sorry, I am not really a gamer and so I am not spending $500+ on a GPU only to have it be considered "garbage" next year!
More RAM, a better CPU, and faster storage is where I want to invest my $.
I remember 20 yrs ago when people would buy AMD due to budget constraints (Intel was more expensive then too) and then overclock just to get 1 extra fps out of Quake. Seems like the same gamer-focused bs is still going on today.
Overclocking made sense back then when Intel mid-range PCs were easily $2000+ and overall performance wasn't that great for most any software/game title (as compared to today) so you would overclock because the hardware was weak in the sub $1500 PC. But you could save a few $ by going AMD and overclocking.
To me, almost any modern system is pretty damn powerful enough for almost any mainstream task. Overclocking seems like it is more about "coolness points", bragging rights, and potentially shortening the life of your HW for not very much performance gains. Who cares... any HW I choose will be leaps and bounds over my current system. I want a good blend of performance/stability/reliability. My upgrade cycle tends to be long (7-9yrs... ah to be 20yrs old again and irresponsibly blow all my rent $ on an overpriced rig while eating ramen everyday
). I just want objective, real-world performance reviews and not all the fanboy BS I see in the comments on a lot of review sites.
I am not a hardcore gamer. I occasionally play Rocket League and CS:GO. I mostly use Skype, watch YouTube, check email, surf the web, do light A/V editing, programming, and fire up a few VMs. Anything I could purchase today will destroy my 11yr old system. But I am so disappointed that all the Intel fanboys are telling me to go with the Core i7-9700 (currently $348.99 on Amazon) because that was the "sweet spot" 2yrs ago when they bought their pre-built rig, whereas the Ryzen 9 3900X is currently $422 on Amazon and comes with a cooler.
"Oh don't get an AMD... Intel gets 5 more FPS out of
<insert game title that I will never play here>" (split hairs much?), and ignore all the other factors that affect overall system performance and have to work together to make a well-rounded "sweet rig".