11700K + ASUS Z590-P Prime WiFi - $270. Microcenter - In Store Only

FTFY.

They took our MC away years ago up here in the SF Bay Area :(

It's like a 5 or 6 hour drive now to the one south. :(
Yeah it is quite a bit harder to justify with a wife and kid. I mean back in the day when I was single and gas hovered below 2 bucks a gallon I could possibly parlay with a trip to Disney or Universal but yeah... not these days

Ah yes you're right, I meant "me" moving from California. But it does seem odd that a store couldn't make it in that area.
Rent on commercial space most likely as I doubt they had that big of a profit margin, plus back when they left only places like Newegg were taking off making MC less relevant
 
Would this be a good stop gap upgrade from a 9700k without having to buy new ram? I have 32gb of ddr4 3200. This would be the cheapest option to reuse that or should I get the 5600x and a new motherboard?
 
Would this be a good stop gap upgrade from a 9700k without having to buy new ram? I have 32gb of ddr4 3200. This would be the cheapest option to reuse that or should I get the 5600x and a new motherboard?
You can reuse your ram. Only you can answer if its a good "stopgap upgrade". What's the temporary need? Motherboard die on the 9700K system? Planning on getting a new AMD or Intel system when then new CPU's drop later this year? Then, sure. This is a good deal. If your 9700K is working fine then, depending on your use case, you may not see much of a real world performance upgrade. You get a slightly better ipc and multithreading from the new cpu plus pcie 4 from the new mb. If you are just gaming then expect 5-10% increase in frames at 1080p and about 0% in 4k.
 
You can reuse your ram. Only you can answer if its a good "stopgap upgrade". What's the temporary need? Motherboard die on the 9700K system? Planning on getting a new AMD or Intel system when then new CPU's drop later this year? Then, sure. This is a good deal. If your 9700K is working fine then, depending on your use case, you may not see much of a real world performance upgrade. You get a slightly better ipc and multithreading from the new cpu plus pcie 4 from the new mb. If you are just gaming then expect 5-10% increase in frames at 1080p and about 0% in 4k.
Let me just say thanks for the well articulated response. Honestly there is really no pressing need, I would like some more performance in games at 1440p. I just upgraded the GPU to a 3080 and thought maybe the 9700k was holding it back. I suppose I was hoping it be a worthwhile upgrade without having to go all out. I think now that I'll hold till the 13600k and just bite the bullet on ddr5.
 
Let me just say thanks for the well articulated response. Honestly there is really no pressing need, I would like some more performance in games at 1440p. I just upgraded the GPU to a 3080 and thought maybe the 9700k was holding it back. I suppose I was hoping it be a worthwhile upgrade without having to go all out. I think now that I'll hold till the 13600k and just bite the bullet on ddr5.
My understanding is there may be DDR4 capable MB's releasing with the 13 series. It'll be an interesting release, for sure.

In the meantime, this is still a good deal for anyone needing a new cpu/mb.
 
My understanding is there may be DDR4 capable MB's releasing with the 13 series. It'll be an interesting release, for sure.

In the meantime, this is still a good deal for anyone needing a new cpu/mb.
Isn't the 13 series backwards compatible with the 12 series chipsets? I thought I read that somewhere, if that's the case there's already Z690 and below boards that will support DDR4 and the 13 series regardless if the Z790 and it's lower chipsets include the option.
 
Would this be a good stop gap upgrade from a 9700k without having to buy new ram? I have 32gb of ddr4 3200. This would be the cheapest option to reuse that or should I get the 5600x and a new motherboard?

I would argue that it is probably one of the few deals in your case if you need 16 threads instead of 8 and you plan on sitting out upgrading for 1-3 years to see how the new stuff shapes up. Its basically pay $270 now for cpu and mobo that will last you another 3-5 years if necessary or wait and see what comes out later this year and next that will cost you double for a new cpu/mobo/ddr5. Thats if you really want the 8c/16t over 8c/8t. For gaming, probably not a huge difference for a year or two to stick with a 9700k. Gaming wise, I don't think ddr5 is worth the money yet.
 
Isn't the 13 series backwards compatible with the 12 series chipsets? I thought I read that somewhere, if that's the case there's already Z690 and below boards that will support DDR4 and the 13 series regardless if the Z790 and it's lower chipsets include the option.
I believe some z790's will support ddr4. Waiting to see what hits the shelves.

Some z690's are already getting bios support for 13th gen.

So, yes, you may have DDR4 support on either chipset as long as you pick the right MB.
 
I believe some z790's will support ddr4. Waiting to see what hits the shelves.

Some z690's are already getting bios support for 13th gen.

So, yes, you may have DDR4 support on either chipset as long as you pick the right MB.
But isn't that only if the CPU itself supports DDR4?

If some Z690 boards are getting 13 support I'd bet they're only the ones that currently support DDR5. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
 
But isn't that only if the CPU itself supports DDR4?

If some Z690 boards are getting 13 support I'd bet they're only the ones that currently support DDR5. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
That is definitely not correct at least on the board end, MSI has already pushed out BIOS updates for their DDR4 and DDR5 boards getting them ready for Raptor Lake (13th gen) I found out by checking my board for a new bios then reading what the updated BIOS did.
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/8735...ng-supports-intel-raptor-lake-cpus/index.html
 
But isn't that only if the CPU itself supports DDR4?

If some Z690 boards are getting 13 support I'd bet they're only the ones that currently support DDR5. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
13th gen cpu supports DDR4 and 5, some Z690 mb's are getting bios support to for the13th gen cpu and 700 series mb's have been announced that support ddr4. So, take your pick. It's going to be interesting.
 
My friend is thinking of picking this combo up today to put in a 3U rack case for a multi-purpose server. It will run a few things in his house and he would also like to run some VM's off it etc. I don't see him pushing it very hard. With that being said, do you think this cooler would suffice or should he up his budget another $20-$30 and get something better? This reviews a little better than a Hyper 212:

https://www.microcenter.com/product...control-supported,-4-heatpipes,-120mm-rgb-fan
 
Ah yes you're right, I meant "me" moving from California. But it does seem odd that a store couldn't make it in that area.
Cost of living in the Bay Area is too expensive for minimum wage employees to work at a mc and live. I guess they could commute but why, they can find the same pay closer to home.
Plus what others have said about commercial property rent in that area being bonkers.

There would be a MicroCenter in the area if it was feasible and could be profitable.
 
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Cost of living in the Bay Area is too expensive for minimum wage employees to work at a mc and live. I guess they could commute but why, they can find the same pay closer to home.
Plus what others have said about commercial property rent in that area being bonkers.

There would be a MicroCenter in the area if it was feasible and could be profitable.
Ahh didn't think about the employees. But certainly you have service based low paying jobs in the Bay Area?
 
You can reuse your ram. Only you can answer if its a good "stopgap upgrade". What's the temporary need? Motherboard die on the 9700K system? Planning on getting a new AMD or Intel system when then new CPU's drop later this year? Then, sure. This is a good deal. If your 9700K is working fine then, depending on your use case, you may not see much of a real world performance upgrade. You get a slightly better ipc and multithreading from the new cpu plus pcie 4 from the new mb. If you are just gaming then expect 5-10% increase in frames at 1080p and about 0% in 4k.
Seems like single thread performance gets a pretty decent upgrade going from the 9700k to the 11700k:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i7-9700K-vs-Intel-i7-11700K/3335vs3896

Those extra cores probably don't hurt either.
 
Cost of living in the Bay Area is too expensive for minimum wage employees to work at a mc and live. I guess they could commute but why, they can find the same pay closer to home.
Plus what others have said about commercial property rent in that area being bonkers.

There would be a MicroCenter in the area if it was feasible and could be profitable.
I think it would still be possible in east bay where things aren't ludicris in terms of cost. Of course then you have to worry about other stuff...

Microcenter doesn't seem to care about catering to every local market and just keeps stores that are making money and trying to make them the best they can be. I like it. A bit of a different approach than the 'takeover the whole market get the cash and then figure out how to run the business' model that is common these days.
 
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Ahh didn't think about the employees. But certainly you have service based low paying jobs in the Bay Area?
You do, but 'low' these days is like $22/hr for fast food jobs, which pushes everything else up and then there's a point where the numbers just don't work because customers won't absorb all the increases and move to online, which is how amazon became so big with their tax advantage over retail stores for better part of a decade. If they had to collect taxes from day one, places like compusa would probably still be around. :(
 
I see this combo at $200 in Tustin CA store just now. Not sure how long this will last and I think this is a super good deal. Unfortunately I'm in the bay area and that's a 4-6 hours drive depending on traffic.

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I see this combo at $200 in Tustin CA store just now. Not sure how long this will last and I think this is a super good deal. Unfortunately I'm in the bay area and that's a 4-6 hours drive depending on traffic.

View attachment 502539
Yeah, it's back to $200 on my side. Must have been something weird with their system
 
They may have accidentally flipped the discount and final prices on the webpage. I would complain and say they need to sell it to you at the advertised price, not change it at checkout.
 
Cost of living in the Bay Area is too expensive for minimum wage employees to work at a mc and live. I guess they could commute but why, they can find the same pay closer to home.
Plus what others have said about commercial property rent in that area being bonkers.

There would be a MicroCenter in the area if it was feasible and could be profitable.
I don't believe MC employees are paid minimal wages. Here in Maryland stores they pay at least $15. Still not enough in the bay area for sure.
 
So, this deal is going on (the I7-11700k bundle is $299.99) and now you can combine the motherboard with the I9-11900k for $349.99 also. I just put my reserve in for the I9 bundle. My 5820k is getting a little old for blue iris and the quicksync should help a bunch.

Forgot to add there is also a $25 rebate for the motherboard.
 
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Ok, finally got the 11900k installed. It is kicking the 5820k's ass. Blue Iris remote viewing cpu usage went from 99% to 18%.
 
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