New Build Help Wanted AMD vs Intel Selection (Please)

A

archalien

n00b
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Sep 30, 2006
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Ok so I know this is a flame war just waiting to happen, I hope any responses look at me requirements and can advise based on those only.

First and Foremost I am long time [H]'er, I read front page daily, lurk in forums rarely, however I am not a MASTER RACE gamer! I like my rig to be powerful enough to play PC games at decent quality when I want to, but being honest I never do. I also dont overclock....please dont tell Kyle.

Im upgrading my (2012 original built) desktop from:
Gigabyte Z77xudp5TH and Asus Z77 Sabertooth
Ive Bridge 3770K
32GB dual channel ram of average speed,
850 evo SATA SSD,
RX480 8GB

My main daily use cases are:
browsing web/amazon/reading [H]/youtube/multitasking
Power programming across 3x 1080p 24" monitors (will be upgrading to 4x 4k soon enough)
3D design and printing/cnc
Occasional video editing/encoding

Why Im upgrading:
I dont lack for power in any area, its just the motherboards I have are long in the tooth(pun intended) are not being updated by manufacturers, have a few flaws that will never be resolved, and are lacking some modern features.

What I want:
Essentially a similar (tech inflation adjusted)spec'd build but in todays landscape.

Ill will be buying new MB, Proc, Proc Closed Water Cooler, RAM, M2 Drive(s), Dont need new vid card just yet.

Im sure I could throw shit to any wall and it will stick and get what I want. Even though Im on [H} every day, I dont dip into the weeds like I used to or source offsite news on hardware either.

On the RAM,M2, and PROC cooler Ill be just fine what I really am looking for are recommendations on Proc/Motherboard combo that just makes sense/hits a sweet spot for me, being sufficiently future proof wwithout overshooting the moon. And this is where Im stuck, I am very much a feature freak when it comes to motherboards, but I dont know the landscape like I used to.

I know I want a shit ton of PCIE lanes across x16 ports and M2 slots, Lots of USB 3.2 Type C internal/external, a complete lack of legacy ports, superb uefi/config interface, TPM built in, and a appropriately count/cost multicore proc to sit in it.

Im just at a complete loss to begin a decent evaluation of intel Z370/Z390/X299/X399(?) AMD AM4(variations/upgrades) vs something coming in next few months, Core i7 v i9 v AMD ryzen g1/g2.

Again not looking for a flame war, just some recommendations based on above, or at least suggestions of the succint questions I can ask to myself that with drive answers that narrow the field for me.

I feel lazy and shitty asking here like this, but Ive got to start somewhere and I can think of no better place to start than to get insights from fellow [H]'ers.

Thanks
-arch
 
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Despite being a current Intel owner, I'm currently 100% in camp Ryzen for anyone building a PC, unless their use case is 100% high end OC'd gaming. I feel Intel wins in that specific use case, but in all others AMD wins or is super competitive and does so at a cheaper price point. Don't get me wrong, Intel has good kit, I just think the value proposition isn't there and I think they disrespect their own customers with their near-criminal platform hopping.

I would stick with consume rlevel stuff, considering you are getting by with your 3770K right now there's no need to move to the HEDT platforms. A nice Ryzen 7 2700, or a 8700K if you want to stick with Intel, and you'll be fine. Your system isn't bad overall as it is. RAM is expensive though, and 32 GB of DDR4 will set you back a bit, so there is that to worry about.

On the chipset side, AMD's B450 is pretty good. You can go X470 if you want, but unless you're going SLI there isn't much difference. For Intel, I'd stick with the Z series.
 
Have put together a half a dozen workstations based on the Asus WS C422 PRO/SE LGA2066 ECC DDRE4 M.2 U.2 ATX Motherboard for Xeon W-Series Processors
Gives you 48 PCIe lanes.

 
Thanks for the replies, turns this is more about MB features for me, and right now it seems the GIGABYTE X399 AORUS XTREME sTR4 AMD X399 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 Extended ATX AMD Motherboard is leading the pros v cons vs the semi-equivalent intel Z390 boards.
PCIE lanes galore and usb 3.1 gen 2 m2 slots. The quad channel ram is nice to have though not a great factor based on some reviews Ive read on real world returns, the biggest con is no Blluetooth 5 oob.

I was prepared to go w/ ASUS forever as I had issues w/ the bios on my last gigabyte, but it seems based on the [H] review that they may have matured beyond their old offereings to be on par w/ ASUS, alas I did not find a good equivalent ASUS board to sway me away.

With the recent announcement of quad channel on 9th gen intel, Im not sure its worth waiting for the board, bios update, or the ram needed for it....

Thanks
for the responses, please keep the feedback coming if you have got any.
 
The wifi/bluetooth is generally not on the motherboard itself, but a tiny card in a mini pcie or m2 wifi slot. So they are usually able to be upgraded to newer wifi/bluetooth specs. Some boards that don't have wifi/bluetooth have these slots so it can easily be added.
 
It sounds a bit like you've got some confusing design goals here.

You say that your current rig doesn't lack in performance, you're just looking for some more modern features on your motherboard. That's fair, of course. But then, your current target you say is a $400+ X399 motherboard for AMD's HEDT (Threadripper) platform.

Functionally, that's a bit like coming into a car forum and saying I'm looking to replace my 2008 Honda Civic that meets all my needs, but I want some more modern features, and my current leading candidate is a fully decked 2018 Cadillac Escalade.

You said you don't want to overshoot the moon, well, you're on your way to Mars for sure.

What you said you wanted was something 'similar tech inflation adjusted spec', and that's going to be the non-HEDT platforms. Following that request, that'll mean X470 (for AMD) or X370/390 (for Intel) and either an 8-core AMD or 6/8-core Intel. Any of these systems would have 4 slots of dual-channel DDR4 for a maximum of 64 GB RAM, and a similar number of PCIe lanes since that's controlled by the CPU and chipset and not the motherboard manufacturer. Most motherboards differentiate themselves now by the quality of their onboard audio, USB options, looks (wee RGB lightinng), and overclocking stability, not all of which may matter in your case. You seemed to want BT 5 and already mentioned Gigabyte, so $170 gets you an X470 board with USB 3.1 Gen 2 in both type-A and type-C, dual M.2 NVMe support, an Intel NIC, WiFi, BT 5, and good quality onboard audio. On the Intel side, this $200 board looks similar. In both those boards cases, you're paying about an extra $30+ for the WiFi+BT5, since versions of them exist with the same feature set but without the WiFi/BT for that much less. Either setup would spank the crap off what you have now.
 
sinisterDei said:
It sounds a bit like you've got some confusing design goals here.

You say that your current rig doesn't lack in performance, you're just looking for some more modern features on your motherboard. That's fair, of course. But then, your current target you say is a $400+ X399 motherboard for AMD's HEDT (Threadripper) platform.

Functionally, that's a bit like coming into a car forum and saying I'm looking to replace my 2008 Honda Civic that meets all my needs, but I want some more modern features, and my current leading candidate is a fully decked 2018 Cadillac Escalade.

You said you don't want to overshoot the moon, well, you're on your way to Mars for sure.

What you said you wanted was something 'similar tech inflation adjusted spec', and that's going to be the non-HEDT platforms. Following that request, that'll mean X470 (for AMD) or X370/390 (for Intel) and either an 8-core AMD or 6/8-core Intel. Any of these systems would have 4 slots of dual-channel DDR4 for a maximum of 64 GB RAM, and a similar number of PCIe lanes since that's controlled by the CPU and chipset and not the motherboard manufacturer. Most motherboards differentiate themselves now by the quality of their onboard audio, USB options, looks (wee RGB lightinng), and overclocking stability, not all of which may matter in your case. You seemed to want BT 5 and already mentioned Gigabyte, so $170 gets you an X470 board with USB 3.1 Gen 2 in both type-A and type-C, dual M.2 NVMe support, an Intel NIC, WiFi, BT 5, and good quality onboard audio. On the Intel side, this $200 board looks similar. In both those boards cases, you're paying about an extra $30+ for the WiFi+BT5, since versions of them exist with the same feature set but without the WiFi/BT for that much less. Either setup would spank the crap off what you have now.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, Ill definitely look into your links. Maybe I should have mentioned, only if I start going much north of 2k will I be worried on price/shooting the moon, I may tip toe if I go with the 2950x, but otherwise I shouldnt have to sweat anything else.
I think the honda civic comparison not quite apt, the computer I built in 2012 was 1 or 2 top grfx cards away from being a full blown monster and I would have gone with an intel x series back then but iirc even games then were more gpu than cpu dependant so getting the X wasnt going to improve much other than my e-pen, and the boards lacked features the z series had.

Similarly, Im not going for a 2k proc and dual rtx2080's here, thats more inline with shooting the moon, or as I was thinking. the 2950x may be more than I need, would prefer something more competitive in specs price to the 500$ i9.....but choices have to be made...I mean do I wait for ces 2019 7nm AMD and hope it ships sooner rather than later?

Again thanks for the feedback Ill compare your links to what I was looking at and will reply back here if it changes my direction!
 
On this side of the pond a 1950X is only £80 more expensive than a 9900k. The motherboards are pricey though. I bet it would be fast at compiling and linking your code.
 
archalien said:
iirc even games then were more gpu than cpu dependant so getting the X wasnt going to improve much other than my e-pen
Click to expand...
This is still the case; the HEDT processors are all still niche compared to their mainstream cohorts. They are all much wider (more cores) but those cores run at lower clockspeeds and in the case of the Threadrippers you have NUMA memory to consider which cripples some workloads.

TheFlayedMan said:
a 1950X is only £80 more expensive than a 9900
Click to expand...
Perhaps, but a 9900 is faster under some pretty common workloads; faster than the 2950x in some even. This isn't really the 1950X or 2950X's 'problem', because in the things where the 1950X/2950X excel they absolutely *spank* any of the mainstream hardware, simply based on threadcount.

It's pretty simple math; do you need >8-Cores/16-Threads in your workload? If so, consider the HEDT CPUs; if not, stick with mainstream stuff. In the case of archalien, he's currently accomplishing his tasks, which by his admission he's not performance limited, with a 4 core CPU from 2012. To me, that rules out the need for >8 cores in the near future. The other reason to consider the HEDT stuff would be if there was some platform magic supported by one and not the others, but that's not the case since they've got relative parity at this time.
 
You are right the sensible option for him would be a 2700X or an 8700K. The reason I suggested the TR as an option for him was because of his power programming use case. This makes me think that quad channel ram would be useful along with lots of fast storage options (PCI-E lanes). Lots of cores for running multiple VM's for testing software under different OS's and just for the [H] of it lol
 
TheFlayedMan said:
You are right the sensible option for him would be a 2700X or an 8700K. The reason I suggested the TR as an option for him was because of his power programming use case. This makes me think that quad channel ram would be useful along with lots of fast storage options (PCI-E lanes). Lots of cores for running multiple VM's for testing software under different OS's and just for the [H] of it lol
Click to expand...

What he said! ;-P

Again its all a bit of overkill, even though moving up to evo 970 m2's will be a big boost over my sata ssds. Again this is mostly about board features and the fact I dont think Im getting some of the current critical hardware updates due to age of chipset/proc.
So while we do our upgrades, why would we get a bunch of extra horse power?, Because we can!!

Almost pulled the trigger on the gigabyte x399, but that core i9 review on here got me tempted for that on an asus z390.... decicions deceisions
 
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