[SOLVED] Looking to build a new system - looking for CPU guidance/recommendations

Apr 30, 2020
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Hi guys,

I am getting to a point where I am starting to think about replacing my current system. It's running an i7-3820 and a SuperJetstream GTX 980, 32gb of DDR3 ram etc. I have been using it for 5 years or so and think it is time to move on.

I'm an 18 year old, not earning massive amounts, paying car bills, phone bills etc and as a result I think my best option is to slowly piece together a PC rather than ordering cheaper parts to put together soon. I currently use a 1080p monitor and have no plans of upgrading. I do not do any rendering of any sorts and the PC will be used for gaming only as well as university work. I had been looking at a 5960x or a 6700k, but wanted advice on whether spending the money on either of these is worth it, or whether I would be better looking at an i5. Any other part recommendations, especially mobos are always welcome.

Thanks
 
Solution
I personally don't think you should get a 1080. NVIDIA's new cards are apparantly releasing by the end ofthe year and by then, that card will be pretty outdated. Also, I think it is a bit overkill. Maybe go for a 1660 super? Also for AMD, and i agree with the other guy who said you should get a 3700x with a b450 board, but with AMD, the platform's sweet spot for ram is 3600 CL16/14. For your budget, I would probably go for CL 16.

I cannot afford the majority of new cards, hence the reason I am currently running a 980. I cannot see the benefit of buying a 1660S over a 1080 other than that it is 3 years newer. Where I am, a 2nd hand 1080 is only around £70 more than a 1660S. I would love to know what the benefits would be...
Apr 30, 2020
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Shopping in the UK. Ive been shopping on ebay for cpu so not fussed about it being brand new, however would like the mobo and ram to be new - I don't really want to spend over £250 on the cpu, over £125 on the mobo and maybe £80 on the ram. Once i've got these components, i'll put them into my existing case etc and upgrade the other components when i can. Cheers
 
Apr 30, 2020
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Most recently I had been searching for 6700Ks on ebay and can find them for around £260 used, I had also been looking at a Z180 K3 which was around £60. The cheaper the better for me, however I am willing to spend a little more if there would be a significant gain.
 
Pfft. Your budget is plenty to have a current-gen platform.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor (£181.11 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI MPG X570 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard (£169.98 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£74.98 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £426.07
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-30 15:34 BST+0100

OR


PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (£255.91 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI B450M MORTAR MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£93.98 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£74.98 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £424.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-30 15:36 BST+0100
 
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Apr 30, 2020
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Thank you for your help - I had not been considering AMD as I had poor experience in the past and knew very little about the Ryzen lineup. I think I will go for the 3700x, the B450M and the Ballistix. I am using a Corsair VS650 at the moment, will this be suitable or should I be looking to upgrade this too? I am also unsure on the cooling situation, should I be looking at buying a cooler for the 3700x or is the included cooler sufficient (shouldn't be overclocking). Many thanks again
 
Apr 30, 2020
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Okay I will stick with the cooler for now - can always upgrade at a later date.

I'm aware the VS650 isn't great, however I bought it at 15 and it was about the only thing I could afford. In the future I would like to also upgrade GPU and so would like to consider this now whilst i'm upgrading everything else. I was thinking about going up to a 1080 (unless you can recommend anything else). If so, any PSU recommendations? I had also seen Patriot Viper 4 that was a little cheaper than the cruicial ram, is it still worth sticking with the crucial memory?

Thanks
 
My opinion - as long as you get DDR4-3200MHz CAS 16 (or better), or 3600MHz CAS 18 (or better), you're fine.

If (for example) you're looking at a long list of DDR4-3200 CAS 16 kits I feel like there's two things to consider:
  1. Aesthetics - heatsink color, RGB lighting
  2. Height - what's the height of the heatsinks. Taller heatsinks can pose clearance issues with air coolers. (The AMD stock cooler shouldn't have any issue)
 

k1nationIG

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Apr 9, 2020
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[QUOTE="mh19, post: 21721666, member: 2812855"
Okay I will stick with the cooler for now - can always upgrade at a later date.

I'm aware the VS650 isn't great, however I bought it at 15 and it was about the only thing I could afford. In the future I would like to also upgrade GPU and so would like to consider this now whilst i'm upgrading everything else. I was thinking about going up to a 1080 (unless you can recommend anything else). If so, any PSU recommendations? I had also seen Patriot Viper 4 that was a little cheaper than the cruicial ram, is it still worth sticking with the crucial memory?

Thanks
[/QUOTE]
I personally don't think you should get a 1080. NVIDIA's new cards are apparantly releasing by the end ofthe year and by then, that card will be pretty outdated. Also, I think it is a bit overkill. Maybe go for a 1660 super? Also for AMD, and i agree with the other guy who said you should get a 3700x with a b450 board, but with AMD, the platform's sweet spot for ram is 3600 CL16/14. For your budget, I would probably go for CL 16.

For PSU's, corsair and seasonic usually make really good ones and for your build, you probably won't need something about 550 -600 w
 
Apr 30, 2020
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Thanks
[/QUOTE]
I personally don't think you should get a 1080. NVIDIA's new cards are apparantly releasing by the end ofthe year and by then, that card will be pretty outdated. Also, I think it is a bit overkill. Maybe go for a 1660 super? Also for AMD, and i agree with the other guy who said you should get a 3700x with a b450 board, but with AMD, the platform's sweet spot for ram is 3600 CL16/14. For your budget, I would probably go for CL 16.

I cannot afford the majority of new cards, hence the reason I am currently running a 980. I cannot see the benefit of buying a 1660S over a 1080 other than that it is 3 years newer. Where I am, a 2nd hand 1080 is only around £70 more than a 1660S. I would love to know what the benefits would be as at the end of the day I am looking for the best performance I can get for the money. I do not really want to spend over £350 on a GPU. I am happy to stick with my 980 for now. The Patriot ram I found seems to be CL16, so I should be good to go with that?
I have also looked around at CPUs, and have found that the 3800x is only £25 more than the 3700x. It seems to be a no brainer to get the 3800x for only £25 more?
 

k1nationIG

Great
Apr 9, 2020
163
12
95
I personally don't think you should get a 1080. NVIDIA's new cards are apparantly releasing by the end ofthe year and by then, that card will be pretty outdated. Also, I think it is a bit overkill. Maybe go for a 1660 super? Also for AMD, and i agree with the other guy who said you should get a 3700x with a b450 board, but with AMD, the platform's sweet spot for ram is 3600 CL16/14. For your budget, I would probably go for CL 16.

I cannot afford the majority of new cards, hence the reason I am currently running a 980. I cannot see the benefit of buying a 1660S over a 1080 other than that it is 3 years newer. Where I am, a 2nd hand 1080 is only around £70 more than a 1660S. I would love to know what the benefits would be as at the end of the day I am looking for the best performance I can get for the money. I do not really want to spend over £350 on a GPU. I am happy to stick with my 980 for now. The Patriot ram I found seems to be CL16, so I should be good to go with that?
I have also looked around at CPUs, and have found that the 3800x is only £25 more than the 3700x. It seems to be a no brainer to get the 3800x for only £25 more?
[/QUOTE]
Watch that video and maybe I read your statement wrong but a 1080 and a 1660s has a 500 USD difference. Idk anything about the 3800x becaue overall I dont like amd but I am about to buy a 3700x and 2070s because I have asked around different forums and watched tons of videos and the 3700x seems like the best price to performance ratio cpu in the market right now. The 1660s is also one of the best price to performance ratio GPUs on the market. The 2070s is also pretty good and maybe the 5700xt.
 
Solution
Apr 30, 2020
17
2
15
I personally don't think you should get a 1080. NVIDIA's new cards are apparantly releasing by the end ofthe year and by then, that card will be pretty outdated. Also, I think it is a bit overkill. Maybe go for a 1660 super? Also for AMD, and i agree with the other guy who said you should get a 3700x with a b450 board, but with AMD, the platform's sweet spot for ram is 3600 CL16/14. For your budget, I would probably go for CL 16.

I cannot afford the majority of new cards, hence the reason I am currently running a 980. I cannot see the benefit of buying a 1660S over a 1080 other than that it is 3 years newer. Where I am, a 2nd hand 1080 is only around £70 more than a 1660S. I would love to know what the benefits would be as at the end of the day I am looking for the best performance I can get for the money. I do not really want to spend over £350 on a GPU. I am happy to stick with my 980 for now. The Patriot ram I found seems to be CL16, so I should be good to go with that?
I have also looked around at CPUs, and have found that the 3800x is only £25 more than the 3700x. It seems to be a no brainer to get the 3800x for only £25 more?
Watch that video and maybe I read your statement wrong but a 1080 and a 1660s has a 500 USD difference. Idk anything about the 3800x becaue overall I dont like amd but I am about to buy a 3700x and 2070s because I have asked around different forums and watched tons of videos and the 3700x seems like the best price to performance ratio cpu in the market right now. The 1660s is also one of the best price to performance ratio GPUs on the market. The 2070s is also pretty good and maybe the 5700xt.
[/QUOTE]
Overall I do not like AMD either but it seems like they are the best value for money. I do not see the point of saving £25 by buying the 3700x so I am going to go for the 3800x. Regarding GPUs, I am looking at used 1080s, which is also how I bought my 980. In my country, a used 1080 goes for around £300. A new 1660s goes for around £260 so there is a £40 difference in my market. Personally I would rather go for the 1080 in this situation as the performance of the 1080 seems to be much higher. I have not researched prices of the 2070s yet so maybe I will do that next.
 
Apr 30, 2020
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It is also worth mentioning, I cannot afford to buy a new GPU at the moment anyway, so I will come back to consider my options later in the year when I have some spare money. Thank you all for your help.
 

k1nationIG

Great
Apr 9, 2020
163
12
95
It is also worth mentioning, I cannot afford to buy a new GPU at the moment anyway, so I will come back to consider my options later in the year when I have some spare money. Thank you all for your help.
Yeah no problem. I am sure you know this but Linus Tech Tips on YT offers great advice. He backs everything with experiments and evidence.
 
Regarding GPUs, I am looking at used 1080s, which is also how I bought my 980. In my country, a used 1080 goes for around £300. A new 1660s goes for around £260 so there is a £40 difference in my market. Personally I would rather go for the 1080 in this situation as the performance of the 1080 seems to be much higher.
Another card you might consider is the RTX 2060. If you are looking at UK prices, 2060s start around £300 for a brand new card. On average, performance in older games will be just slightly behind a GTX 1080 (typically a few percent), but in newer games optimized for the 2060's updated architecture, the 2060 can at times pull ahead. Overall, performance should typically be fairly similar between the two, but the 2060 offers some additional features, and of course, you get new hardware with a fresh warranty. If a used 1080 should happen to fail some months down the line, you'll be in the market for another card, whereas new cards typically come with two to three years of warranty coverage.

RTX 2060:
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=436&sort=price

As for the 1660 SUPER, I would pass on that, since it arguably isn't quite fast enough to be worth the upgrade over what you have. And of course, if you are upgrading your graphics card later in the year, there may be even better options available in the price range you are looking at.
 
Apr 30, 2020
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Another card you might consider is the RTX 2060. If you are looking at UK prices, 2060s start around £300 for a brand new card. On average, performance in older games will be just slightly behind a GTX 1080 (typically a few percent), but in newer games optimized for the 2060's updated architecture, the 2060 can at times pull ahead. Overall, performance should typically be fairly similar between the two, but the 2060 offers some additional features, and of course, you get new hardware with a fresh warranty. If a used 1080 should happen to fail some months down the line, you'll be in the market for another card, whereas new cards typically come with two to three years of warranty coverage.

RTX 2060:
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=436&sort=price

As for the 1660 SUPER, I would pass on that, since it arguably isn't quite fast enough to be worth the upgrade over what you have. And of course, if you are upgrading your graphics card later in the year, there may be even better options available in the price range you are looking at.
Thanks for the advice, I had been against the 1660S as like you said it could be argued that it isn't a vast upgrade over what I have. I will look into the 2060 as that could be another option.

I thought it may be worth asking as I had not really considered this, what would give me the biggest performance boost? Going from my existing cpu and ram setup (3820 and 32gb ddr3) to the ryzen 3800x and 16gb ddr4 and sticking with the 980, or sticking with the existing cpu/ram and upgrading the gpu to something like a 2060. This may sound a silly question but I would rather check before spending the money.
 
Apr 30, 2020
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And when I say performance boost, I really mean FPS boost when gaming as that is the primary focus. I usually play cs, minecraft with shaders, warzone, nfs heat, dirt rally, r6s etc but would like to play more in the future.