[SOLVED] Should I go for this i7-10700K parts list or alternate i7-9700k parts list?

Nova43

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My max budget is $1,000. Please advise on the list below for an i7-10700k build. Is it over priced for my needs? (Development work, heavy Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, and probably premier pro work). No gaming whatsoever. I mostly want a very fast, snappy, smooth, work horse of a PC. I don't want to go for the Ryzen build, just my personal choice. Any advice on the parts list would be much appreciated. BTW, I will be reusing my existing CPU cooler, PSU, and Computer Case. Thanks.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-10700K 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor ($409.99 @ Best Buy)
Motherboard: MSI Z490-A PRO ATX LGA1200 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($178.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 580 8 GB PULSE Video Card ($174.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $913.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-23 02:14 EDT-0400


What's your opinon on this critical review for the i7-10700K processor? Specifically no support for Gen4 PCIe.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/SingleProductReview?reviewid=10463052

I have this alternative i7-9700K build. Which build list would you choose?

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($379.39 @ Walmart)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME Z390-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($178.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 580 8 GB PULSE Video Card ($174.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $913.35
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-23 02:25 EDT-0400
 
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Solution
1.) Being that this mobo is designed for dual channel RAM, is it best to install 2 x 8GB ram sticks or is 1 x 16gb OK? If I install a 1 x 16GB stick, then I could easily upgrade to 32GB with an extra and identical 16GB stick rather than waste the 2 x 8GB sticks in favor of installing 2 new 16GB sticks (I understand that you can't use 2 different RAM types or capacities on a dual channel).
You should definitely use a kit containing 2 sticks of RAM to allow it to run in dual-channel mode. Using a single kit cuts maximum memory bandwidth in half, which can hurt performance in many applications.

As for the choice of i7-9700K versus i7-10700K, the 10700K is more or less an i9-9900K at a lower price point, while the 9700K will...
Definitely the i7-10700K. Better single thread performance. Better multithreaded performance. More threads due to hyperthreading. It has a sizeable benefit in Photoshop (~10%) and Premiere (~15%).


Also the last I checked. nVidia cards tend to do better with Adobe.
 
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Nova43

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Definitely the i7-10700K. Better single thread performance. Better multithreaded performance. More threads due to hyperthreading. It has a sizeable benefit in Photoshop (~10%) and Premiere (~15%).


Also the last I checked. nVidia cards tend to do better with Adobe.
Thanks for your feedback. I'll go with the i7-10700K build. I do remember now that only certain video cards are compatible with Adobe. So, I'll change it in the parts list.

Should I worry about the i7-10700K CPU's lack of support for Gen4 PCIe?

Also, which online store is better to buy my PC parts, Newegg or Amazon (I have Amazon Prime)? Please take a look at the two links below for the unlocked CPU. Thanks.

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-107...ld=1&keywords=i7-10700k&qid=1590216524&sr=8-2

https://www.newegg.com/intel-core-i7-10700k-core-i7-10th-gen/p/N82E16819118123
 
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Thanks for your feedback. I'll go with the i7-10700K build. I do remember now that only certain video cards are compatible with Adobe. So, I'll change it in the parts list.

Should I worry about the i7-10700K CPU's lack of support for Gen4 PCIe?

Also, which online store is better to buy my PC parts, Newegg or Amazon (I have Amazon Prime)? Please take a look at the two links below for the unlocked CPU. Thanks.

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-107...ld=1&keywords=i7-10700k&qid=1590216524&sr=8-2

https://www.newegg.com/intel-core-i7-10700k-core-i7-10th-gen/p/N82E16819118123

Whichever is cheaper. Although returns are easier on Amazon.

The real disadvantage of not having Gen 4 right now are top end NVMe speeds. Which may make a difference in large high bitrate RAW video projects in Adobe Premiere. Although Pugetsystems only makes a distinction between NVMe and SATA SSD for this. I'm not aware of them performing tests of Gen 4 NVMe drives vs Gen 3 NVMe with Premiere.

Their recommendation is Primary SSD for OS/Apps, Secondary for Project files, Tertiary for Media Cache/Scratch and possibly HDD for long term storage of old projects. That's for serious workloads though. If you're just doing the occasional Premiere project a single NVMe should offer plenty of performance. Something like a nice Samsung 970 Evo Plus. If you want something budget friendly. Look at the HP EX950 as it's right up there with the 970 Evo and often the 970 Evo Plus in benchmarks.

You could go Ryzen. A 3950X should be better for Premiere but Photoshop may suffer some. As most filters aren't heavily multi-threaded. It would however allow you to use a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.
 
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Nova43

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Whichever is cheaper. Although returns are easier on Amazon.

The real disadvantage of not having Gen 4 right now are top end NVMe speeds. Which may make a difference in large high bitrate RAW video projects in Adobe Premiere. Although Pugetsystems only makes a distinction between NVMe and SATA SSD for this. I'm not aware of them performing tests of Gen 4 NVMe drives vs Gen 3 NVMe with Premiere.

Their recommendation is Primary SSD for OS/Apps, Secondary for Project files, Tertiary for Media Cache/Scratch and possibly HDD for long term storage of old projects. That's for serious workloads though. If you're just doing the occasional Premiere project a single NVMe should offer plenty of performance. Something like a nice Samsung 970 Evo Plus. If you want something budget friendly. Look at the HP EX950 as it's right up there with the 970 Evo and often the 970 Evo Plus in benchmarks.

You could go Ryzen. A 3950X should be better for Premiere but Photoshop may suffer some. As most filters aren't heavily multi-threaded. It would however allow you to use a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.
OK. Thanks. I guess the lack of gen4 support wouldn't apply to me since I will be using my existing non PCIe Samsung 860 Evo SSD.

Should I buy one of the i7-10700K CPUs listed below? I'm leary as they are available even before the official May 27th launch date, and on top of that they are both unlocked. I'm having doubts as to whether they are genuine i7-10700K CPUs. Another forum post says early sales are just pre-orders, but they aren't even indicating this on the listing. It seems like it will ship 1 or 2 days after the order. Should I wait after May 27th to order it then? Thanks.

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-107...ld=1&keywords=i7-10700k&qid=1590216524&sr=8-2

https://www.newegg.com/intel-core-i7-10700k-core-i7-10th-gen/p/N82E16819118123
 

Nova43

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Thank you all for the replies. I have decided to go for the 9th Gen i7-9700K build as the 10th Gen i7 CPU will surely require quality, feature rich parts that will bump up the total to over $1,000, probably over $1,200. But, please advise on the updated parts list below and related questions. Thank you.

Updated i7-9700K parts list:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($379.39 @ Walmart)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 GAMING X ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury RGB 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($88.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus Radeon RX 480 8 GB ROG STRIX Video Card
Total: $618.37
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-23 22:08 EDT-0400


A few questions related to this list:

1)
Is my existing Cooler Master V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP good enough for this CPU, although compatible in this parts list? My cooler is 7 years old with an unknown power rating. And online reports say I need a cooler with at least a 130W power rating for this CPU, preferably an AIO cooler. What should I do?

2.) Is it OK to overstep Intel's specs for this CPU requiring DDR4-2666 RAM and go for the DDR4-3200 RAM which is compatible in this parts list?

3.) According to Adobe, the Asus Radeon RX 480 GPU is compatible, and it has 2 HDMI ports which I need. It hits a sweet spot between compatibility, desired features, and price point for me. What's your opinion? Here's Adobe's the GPU compatibility list: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html

4.) Would any of these parts in this list cause bottlenecks and significantly affect CPU performance and vice versa?

Thanks in advance for your advice and feedback.
 

Phaaze88

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1)If you plan to run heavy loads on that cpu on a daily basis, a 130w cooler will not cut it. The 9700K is capable of up to 200w with AVX instructions in use - I don't know if any of your work will actually utilize AVX or not, so you might wanna check that.
With the standard SSE instructions, it'll do like half of the AVX draw. So the answer is yes and no depending on AVX.
The power rating for your cooler is 180w. Link in red.

2)Yes.

3)Unfortunately, I have to answer this one with a question: Do you intend to acquire a 2nd hand RX 480? Those aren't in production anymore, but the RX 580 is. It's basically a factory overclocked RX 480.
There are RX 580s with the 2 HDMI ports: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#H=2,3&c=391&sort=price

4)velocityg4 looks to be more familiar with the applications you use, and I believe they'd be able to better answer this one.
 

Nova43

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Thanks again for the replies.

1)If you plan to run heavy loads on that cpu on a daily basis, a 130w cooler will not cut it. The 9700K is capable of up to 200w with AVX instructions in use - I don't know if any of your work will actually utilize AVX or not, so you might wanna check that.
With the standard SSE instructions, it'll do like half of the AVX draw. So the answer is yes and no depending on AVX.
The power rating for your cooler is 180w. Link in red.

2)Yes.

3)Unfortunately, I have to answer this one with a question: Do you intend to acquire a 2nd hand RX 480? Those aren't in production anymore, but the RX 580 is. It's basically a factory overclocked RX 480.
There are RX 580s with the 2 HDMI ports: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#H=2,3&c=391&sort=price

4)velocityg4 looks to be more familiar with the applications you use, and I believe they'd be able to better answer this one.

It's hard to determine if Adobe CC 2020 uses AVX. And I can't find any cooler on PCPartspicker that supports 200W+ CPU TDP.

I updated the list with a RX 580 video card.

For hdmi can you also use a dvi+adapter if necessary.

Yes, currently, I'm actually using a DVI adapter with one monitor and direct HDMI with the other.

My updated list, including existing parts:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($379.39 @ Walmart)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master V8 GTS 82 CFM CPU Cooler ($159.63 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 GAMING X ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($63.97 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 580 8 GB ARMOR OC Video Card ($174.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill RISE ATX Full Tower Case (Purchased For $0.00)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 850 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $0.00)
Total: $927.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-24 11:20 EDT-0400


Questions:

1.)
Being that this mobo is designed for dual channel RAM, is it best to install 2 x 8GB ram sticks or is 1 x 16gb OK? If I install a 1 x 16GB stick, then I could easily upgrade to 32GB with an extra and identical 16GB stick rather than waste the 2 x 8GB sticks in favor of installing 2 new 16GB sticks (I understand that you can't use 2 different RAM types or capacities on a dual channel).

2.) Being that I'm not a gamer, can I do with a non gaming mobo? But it seems like it's hard to find a non gaming mobo in general, let alone one that satisfies my needs and performance metrics. Any advantages or disadvantages of using a gaming mobo instead? And do gaming mobos provide better performance and future proofing?

3.) Any potential bottlenecks between these parts?

Once again, thank you in advance for your advice.
 
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Phaaze88

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Will I need AVX with Adobe CC 2020? I can't find any cooler on PCPartspicker that supports 200W+ CPU TDP.

I updated the list with a RX 580 video card.
It's not that you 'need' AVX, but the support for it is already implemented by the developers of the software.
I had to look it up, and Adobe CC does indeed support AVX.
Any application which uses Intel IPP / Intel MKL.
Any application which uses OpenBLAS, Apple Acceleration Library, Eigen.
Most of the Signal / Image Video Processing Filters (And Image and Video Compression libraries).
Compression utilities.

With that in mind, here are a few air and liquid cooling options:
Air
Noctua NH-D15S
Noctua NH-U12A
be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT
Scythe FUMA 2
Cryorig R1 Ultimate

Liquid - 240/280/360mm
Arctic Liquid Freezer 2(available in all 3 sizes)
NZXT Kraken X53/ X63/ X73
Corsair H115i Pro/ H150i Pro
Cooler Master ML240R/ ML360R

Q & A:
1)2x 8GB. When adding on memory, you are playing the 'ram lottery'. It is not guaranteed to work, even if the frequency and timings are the same - those simply have the highest chance to be compatible.
2)I know what you mean. While I do play games from time to time, I don't care about the gaming moniker at all; it's an eyesore to me. There are some without the gaming name in them, but they cost more than the mobo in your list.
-No pros or cons between them.
-Motherboards are about their feature sets.
-Some mobo vendors try to be sneaky and one-up each other by base clock overclocking their motherboards, squeezing a little extra performance - but there's a problem with that.
Base clock overclocking OCs EVERYTHING(cpu, cpu cache, ram), and some cpus and memory modules DO NOT react well to that. Some users spend days, or months troubleshooting their PCs, eventually giving up and never figuring out what the cause is.

3)Not that I know of, but I am not as knowledgeable about Adobe as some others here, but I just happen to be around and able to answer some of your questions.
 

Nova43

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It's not that you 'need' AVX, but the support for it is already implemented by the developers of the software.
I had to look it up, and Adobe CC does indeed support AVX.
Any application which uses Intel IPP / Intel MKL.
Any application which uses OpenBLAS, Apple Acceleration Library, Eigen.
Most of the Signal / Image Video Processing Filters (And Image and Video Compression libraries).
Compression utilities.

With that in mind, here are a few air and liquid cooling options:
Air
Noctua NH-D15S
Noctua NH-U12A
be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT
Scythe FUMA 2
Cryorig R1 Ultimate

Liquid - 240/280/360mm
Arctic Liquid Freezer 2(available in all 3 sizes)
NZXT Kraken X53/ X63/ X73
Corsair H115i Pro/ H150i Pro
Cooler Master ML240R/ ML360R

Q & A:
1)2x 8GB. When adding on memory, you are playing the 'ram lottery'. It is not guaranteed to work, even if the frequency and timings are the same - those simply have the highest chance to be compatible.
2)I know what you mean. While I do play games from time to time, I don't care about the gaming moniker at all; it's an eyesore to me. There are some without the gaming name in them, but they cost more than the mobo in your list.
-No pros or cons between them.
-Motherboards are about their feature sets.
-Some mobo vendors try to be sneaky and one-up each other by base clock overclocking their motherboards, squeezing a little extra performance - but there's a problem with that.
Base clock overclocking OCs EVERYTHING(cpu, cpu cache, ram), and some cpus and memory modules DO NOT react well to that. Some users spend days, or months troubleshooting their PCs, eventually giving up and never figuring out what the cause is.

3)Not that I know of, but I am not as knowledgeable about Adobe as some others here, but I just happen to be around and able to answer some of your questions.

Thank you for your time and advice. And thanks for the cpu cooler suggestions.

Now that I have a workable parts list, I'm going to drill down more on each part and compare with other similar parts in detail, if needed. And then I'll make a final purchasing decision. Thanks again for everyone's advice and time.
 
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Nova43

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Nothing will hurt if you try your old cooler first. As said already a 180watt tdp cooler and most of the times people will use it when even overclocking even if just a little.
Thanks. I'll consider this. But what worries me is that my existing old cooler has seen over 7 years of frequent use. So I'm thinking that its metal parts and fans have reached their full lifespan.
 

Nova43

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Nothing will hurt if you try your old cooler first. As said already a 180watt tdp cooler and most of the times people will use it when even overclocking even if just a little.
Thanks. I'll consider this. But what worries me is that my existing old cooler has seen over 7 years of frequent use. So I'm thinking that its metal parts and fans have reached their full lifespan.
 

Nova43

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Might be and am not saying you shouldn't get a new one. Think if it still works fine on a current system it might well do on a next. Only thing might be fan that really gets old and fails.

Thanks for the update. I'll definitely keep this in mind.

Also, I'm thinking about replacing my old PSU with a new one. My decision is in part due to a PSU's inefficiency or failure of its capacitors after many years of use, thus outputting or delivering less clean and insufficient power to the new PC parts. The last thing I want is my old PSU frying or putting the new parts out of commision. And it's fine with me if the total exceeds $1,000 by a few dollars after adding a new PSU.
 
1.) Being that this mobo is designed for dual channel RAM, is it best to install 2 x 8GB ram sticks or is 1 x 16gb OK? If I install a 1 x 16GB stick, then I could easily upgrade to 32GB with an extra and identical 16GB stick rather than waste the 2 x 8GB sticks in favor of installing 2 new 16GB sticks (I understand that you can't use 2 different RAM types or capacities on a dual channel).
You should definitely use a kit containing 2 sticks of RAM to allow it to run in dual-channel mode. Using a single kit cuts maximum memory bandwidth in half, which can hurt performance in many applications.

As for the choice of i7-9700K versus i7-10700K, the 10700K is more or less an i9-9900K at a lower price point, while the 9700K will perform more like an i5-10600K in most applications. Comparing the two, performance will only be slightly faster on the 10700K in most applications, but in certain heavily-multithreaded applications that can make full use of a large number of cores (things like video encoding and CPU-based rendering), the 10700K's additional threads should provide significantly better performance. Intel basically cut prices of their "10th gen" parts compared to the 9th-gen to better compete with Ryzen, with i7 performance now available at i5 prices, and i9 performance available at i7 prices. Of course, availability of these new processors is extremely slim at the moment, so they might be hard to come by on a timely basis.

As for the PCIe 4.0 thing, none of Intel's processors currently support it. It was supposed to be in these 10th-gen parts, but apparently failed to work properly for Intel so Intel cut the feature, even though support was added for it in motherboards. AMD has had PCIe 4.0 support for the last year with their Ryzen 3000 processors. It's arguably not a particularly important feature to get at this time though, so it probably doesn't matter much.
 
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Nova43

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You should definitely use a kit containing 2 sticks of RAM to allow it to run in dual-channel mode. Using a single kit cuts maximum memory bandwidth in half, which can hurt performance in many applications.

As for the choice of i7-9700K versus i7-10700K, the 10700K is more or less an i9-9900K at a lower price point, while the 9700K will perform more like an i5-10600K in most applications. Comparing the two, performance will only be slightly faster on the 10700K in most applications, but in certain heavily-multithreaded applications that can make full use of a large number of cores (things like video encoding and CPU-based rendering), the 10700K's additional threads should provide significantly better performance. Intel basically cut prices of their "10th gen" parts compared to the 9th-gen to better compete with Ryzen, with i7 performance now available at i5 prices, and i9 performance available at i7 prices. Of course, availability of these new processors is extremely slim at the moment, so they might be hard to come by on a timely basis.

As for the PCIe 4.0 thing, none of Intel's processors currently support it. It was supposed to be in these 10th-gen parts, but apparently failed to work properly for Intel so Intel cut the feature, even though support was added for it in motherboards. AMD has had PCIe 4.0 support for the last year with their Ryzen 3000 processors. It's arguably not a particularly important feature to get at this time though, so it probably doesn't matter much.

This is very enticing and purchasing the i5-10600K seems appealing, on top of its affordable $260 price point and added benefit of hyper-threading. And I don't anticipate doing a lot of heavy video encoding or CPU rendering. But, what worries is the likelihood of the need to purchase high end parts to accommodate the 10th gen Intel CPU, like a high end CPU cooler, a quality LGA 1200 mobo, and more expensive RAM, for example. That will probably bump the total to over $1,300. This is what's holding me back, on top of my limited custom PC building skills and knowledge. Also, as noted, getting my hands on a 10600K will be hard given its current high demand and rapid depletion from the shelves once it comes out on May 27th.

yeah that is pretty old and worth replacing. Could keep it as a back up/test psu.

Thanks. I'll do that.
 
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Nova43

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Just a question, what is your problem with Ryzen?

It's my very limited experience with and knowledge of AMD builds in general and Ryzen in particular. Besides, most online reports say that, overall, Intel CPUs are better than AMD CPUs, especially the newer gens. Also, it seems like they still haven't fixed the issues between AMD chipsets and Samsung SSD drives, particularly the 860 Evo which I currently own.
 
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