[SOLVED] What would you say to this person?

[pr0t0typ3]

My not-tech-savvy friend asked me to help building him a new PC for streaming and gaming. I told him that he is just in time, Ryzen 3000 is coming. He thought about it and said he refuses to build a Ryzen-based PC and also refuses to wait for 2 weeks for the reviews, he wants to build and Intel-based system right now. Mind you, Intel prices still haven't changed, the 9900K is still 500+ usd, while its (at least) equivalent has been announced at 320 usd, not to mention the upgrade path and the option to step up later up to 16 cores, as opposed to buying into a platform which is a dead end already.

I tried everything but his decision is final, his reason being "I had Intel+Nvidia for the past 10+ years and it has been working fine."

I have 2 questions for you guys:

1: what is your message to this person?
2: how hard should I flame him in 3 weeks when Ryzen 3000 goes up for purchase and he will be sitting there with a brand new intel 9th gen system?

EDIT
Sorry, I was not clear on what is happening exactly. He is on a set budget and a 9900k does not fit in it, but a 3700x does, easily. Also, he is my friend so some flaming is always in order

EDIT 2
His budget is about $1500. Keep in mind that in our country, everything is about 10-15% more expensive than the international MSRP, sometimes more. For reference, a 9900k is currently $565 here.

 

[King_V]

I'm really glad to see and read this question has Not gone to a typical Amd vs Intel back and forth feud that has gone on and on for years.

Agreed. While I lean in the Ryzen direction for now, even if Intel were the choice, I'd absolutely insist on backing down from the 9900k to maybe the 9900, 9700k, or 9700, for example.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Currently, the Intel Core I9 9900k is the top performer.
However, If you can't afford it, It makes sense to wait for a big product release promising 9900k performance for less money. Especially if this release is only 20 days away.
If Ryzen 3000 doesn't offer I9 performance for less money, you will have to pick a lower tier chip, same as if you bought a CPU now.

 

[Crosslhs82x2]

Damm i missed a few posts
I should have refreshed before hitting post .
Damm work lol.

 

[Dugimodo]

While I personally agree that a Ryzen 3 series will be better value and worth the wait I also disagree with the thought that buying intel is stupid. People are entitled to personal preference.
For most gamers the honest truth is that it doesn't really matter. Any i5 or i7 or ryzen 5 or ryzen 7 from the current models will game and stream very well and your friend will likely be very happy with any of them.
He would also be happy with the newer Ryzens if he waited I'm sure.

A possible exception is for someone who wants very high refresh games on a budget. Waiting might be the right choice in that case. High refresh gamers have typically stuck with intel for it's higher gaming performance and until we see figures for the new Ryzens that is still the truth of it. For anyone else it's far less important.

I've been with intel since the core 2 series came out but last year replaced my i7 6700K with a Ryzen 2700X and while I'm very happy with it for the games I play it proved to not feel like an upgrade at all. Games either play the same or in some cases slightly worse than on my 3 year old i7. Streaming would make a difference of course, most of the time I have a bunch of unused cores doing practically nothing and feel like I should have gone for a 6 core. My thought is over time the extra cores will come in handy though.

 

[jsmithepa]

Your money, you are boss.

 

[pr0t0typ3]

Massive thanks to everyone, we did it. I've shown him this thread and he decided to wait for the reviews to see what Zen 2 brings to the table!

I'm really glad to see and read this question has Not gone to a typical Amd vs Intel back and forth feud that has gone on and on for years.

Yes setting back and waiting for bugs or kinks to get worked out is good and lets the market restabilize.

You and your friend are going to have to sit down and go through the component jungle to figue out what exactly fits in that $1500.00 budget.
He may not know the tech but you evidently have some knowledge.
If this system is from ground 0 case and components to win 10 build you know that a decision has to be made onboard video or video card which could be a good portion of his budget and maybe not get him to his High End Expectations.

Make up some builds on pcpartspicker intel and amd based then use say userbench build and comparing each to give him some kind of an (Idea) what he can get for his budget.
Let him see for himself the numbers and the graphs for the builds.

I know Userbench IS NOT THE ALL MIGHTY but in this case it may help a little.
Good Luck.
Good Building

Me too, I'm glad we kept it civil and free of fanboyism. Now we'll have all kinds of options to consider. I am hoping to somehow squeeze in a 2080/1080Ti for him along with an 8-core chip. I'd prefer a 20 series card for that amazing new NVEC encoder. As others have said, Ryzen 2600 and 2700 will probably get price cuts so I'll definitely look at those, and of course the 3700x. I hope Intel will be smart enough to cut prices on the 9700(k) and 9900(k) and if so, those are on the table, too. I can't wait to see the single core performance of Zen2. I really hope this time around AMD will be a more viable option for high refresh rate gaming (he already has a 144hz monitor and besides AAA titles, he plays e-sports titles like Overwatch and a lot of LoL).

Agreed. While I lean in the Ryzen direction for now, even if Intel were the choice, I'd absolutely insist on backing down from the 9900k to maybe the 9900, 9700k, or 9700, for example.

Agreed, although I feel like once Zen2 is out, 9th gen chips will only make sense if they get a price cut. We'll have to wait for the reviews to know for sure though. The problem is, I can't seem to find the non-k versions for sale (9900, 9700). Does this have to do with the shortages maybe? i am not sure. I saw the 9600 for sale, but if we went with that chip (which we almost certainly will not) I would want that k at the end so we can push it a bit if 6 cores become restricting in the future. I am using a 6-core chip (1650v2@4.7 GHz) and can confirm that even Overwatch maxes out 6 threads if you push high frame rates (250+). I tested this by turning HT off and all 6 cores were pegged at 100% for the entire session with nothing running in the background. Granted, it is an older Ivy Bridge-E chip, but that does not affect the number of threads the game utilizes.

While I personally agree that a Ryzen 3 series will be better value and worth the wait I also disagree with the thought that buying intel is stupid. People are entitled to personal preference.
For most gamers the honest truth is that it doesn't really matter. Any i5 or i7 or ryzen 5 or ryzen 7 from the current models will game and stream very well and your friend will likely be very happy with any of them.
He would also be happy with the newer Ryzens if he waited I'm sure.

A possible exception is for someone who wants very high refresh games on a budget. Waiting might be the right choice in that case. High refresh gamers have typically stuck with intel for it's higher gaming performance and until we see figures for the new Ryzens that is still the truth of it. For anyone else it's far less important.

I've been with intel since the core 2 series came out but last year replaced my i7 6700K with a Ryzen 2700X and while I'm very happy with it for the games I play it proved to not feel like an upgrade at all. Games either play the same or in some cases slightly worse than on my 3 year old i7. Streaming would make a difference of course, most of the time I have a bunch of unused cores doing practically nothing and feel like I should have gone for a 6 core. My thought is over time the extra cores will come in handy though.

I disagree with you on this one. Brand preference in PC parts is objectively not reasonable, unless we are talking about graphics card or mobo OEMs, where looks and features come into play to a degree. Don't get me wrong: preference for, say, single core performance or core count or better power efficiency are not stupid, those are absolutely reasonable factors to consider when looking it parts to fit your particular use case. But saying I buy this because it is [insert chip maker] is just not reasonable, it never is.

Regarding your switch to the 2700x, it is kind of obvious it was not going to be a proper upgrade. Generally speaking, single core performance is still king in gaming and Skylake is better at that than Zen and Zen+ was (and by extension, 7th, 8th and 9th gen chips too, since they are essentially just Skylake). If you had a 6600k though, in many titles it would have been an entirely different story as games are starting to make use of more threads. Watch the Hardware Unboxed video I posted earlier in this thread, interesting perspective.

 

[mdd1963]

The customer is always right...

It's his/her money, let them spend it as they choose, you can only offer guidance, but, of course no one is forced to listen...

Ont he positive side, even if the 3800X and 2900X are faster, most people could not tell the difference in 135 fps vs. 140 fps..(if the 9900K is out of budget, perhaps the 9700K is not; still wicked fast!)

 

[NightHawkRMX]

By the way, intel rarily cuts prices.

Someone else here said that the last time they did was with the AMD Athlon 64 creamed the Pentium 4s.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Why must you say anything?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

The truth is painfull sometimes...

 

[King_V]

@pr0t0typ3 - glad to know that he's decided to wait and see. As long as he realizes you're trying to get him the best possible performance for his budget, then he's on the right track.