i7 7700k to i7 12700k worth it ?

Mad Maxx said:
I've got everything I need for my i7-12700k build except the mobo. I'm thinking it might be better to give it a few months to see what the Z790 boards bring to the table. I'm not in any rush to build a new PC, so don't mind waiting.
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Why buy the 12700k now, if you aren't going to use it now?
 
Dan_D said:
For the most part, I'd agree with you. However, it's more complicated than that. A lot of the features on the higher end DDR5 boards are things you want and not having them could be deal breakers for some individuals. I need the 10GbE NIC and I don't know of any DDR4 boards that have one. Yeah, I could use an add-in board but I wanted to do a vertical GPU mount which precludes the use of an add-in board. I also use custom watercooling, so temperature sensors and the thermal probes are attractive features and you don't get this stuff on lower end boards.
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Valid, albeit niche reasons.
Dan_D said:
The people bitching about DDR5 boards now are probably the same people who bitched about the high end X570 boards and recommended the MSI X570-A Pro or the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4. These were right around $170 to $180 dollars. I often get these things for free and I wouldn't put them in my machine. I have an X570-A and a MEG X570 GODLIKE. They are polar opposites of the spectrum, and while my review of the former is far more positive than most, it's inferior to the latter in just about every way it could be. There is this idea that the expensive boards are expensive without justification and it's just not true. I'd agree that the prices on some boards are outrageous and some of that is artificial inflation or due to the times we are living in. But a 90A power stage is more expensive than a 40A or 50A one. It's just the way it is. Now, throw 18 of them on a board, add Thunderbolt, add IC's for OLED screens or whatever, fancy M.2 heat sinks, thicker PCB's, specialized IC's for measuring waterflow and temperatures, add in dual BIOS ROMs, onboard power and reset buttons, voltage monitoring points, etc. and the price goes up.
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Those things are useless for 99.99% of the people, though, even PC enthusiasts. The context of the bitching would matter here.
Dan_D said:
It's up to you to decide if these things are worth the cost. However, don't think for a second that a $160 is the same or just as good as a $500+ board. It just isn't.
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It is the same up to a point. I'm guessing that was often the rationale. Once it provides a certain level of features and power support, it's practically the same as any (then unjustifiably) more expensive board.
Dan_D said:
The thing is, your motherboard is the system at this point. It's what determines how many USB ports you have, what kind of connectivity and I/O options you have and the general feature set of the machine. Now, it's not the determining factor of game performance or anything, but it can and does impact the user experience a lot of the time. You go with cheaper boards, you get weird internal USB hubs to multi-plex the ports which creates certain issues. You go with cheaper boards, your VRM's may be as hot as the sun. Go with a cheap board and your more limited on storage options. Some people find these limitations somewhere between undesirable to entirely unacceptable and various degrees of in-between.
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Other than potential USB hub issues, those are ticks on a need/don't need features list.
Dan_D said:
People have different hang ups about board layout, feature sets, and will disregard a board for a variety of edge cases or personal hang ups. I see it all the time in comments related to reviews I've done. It's often strange to me what criteria people have for discounting a motherboard. Sure, price is often a determining factor, but I've seen people snub their nose at fantastic boards because of one PCIe slot and where it gets placed or for any number of things that wouldn't matter to very many other people.
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No different than your feature priorities above
Dan_D said:
I said it before, and I'll say it again. A lot of people who buy the latest GPU's and CPU's or spend $2,000 GPU's and $500+ motherboards aren't going to be happy with some mid-range DDR4 motherboard.
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I would bet many wouldn't be able to tell a difference.
Dan_D said:
The hardest part is putting yourself into other people's shoes. If you only play World of Warcraft for six hours a week and use Excel the rest of the time a high end DDR5 board doesn't make sense. However, if you tend to keep your machines for 3-5 years and you run it hard with video editing and heavy gaming, I'm going to tell you to get a DDR5 board as soon as the availability improves. Why? Well, in a couple of years you'll probably upgrade to extend the life of the machine a bit before your ready to drop $3k+ on a new rig. In that case, DDR5 will probably be cheaper than DDR4 and just as available, if not more so.
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That's more of a reason to save the money for little if any performance compromise now, and upgrade to DDR5 later when it is both cheaper and more differentiated performance wise.
Dan_D said:
f you are going to keep the rig longer, I think its beneficial to go with something that's more feature rich and higher end now, as it will be less painful to use it or upgrade it down the road. Not only that, but overbuilt VRM's will run cooler and more efficiently than overworked 40A or 50A phases on a $200 DDR4 board. Thus, making it more likely that the board will last until its time to upgrade or replace the system after years of hard use and abuse.
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Passed some obviously underpowered board, chances are there will be no perceivable difference in performance and longevity. Passed some initial minimum quality that usually excludes only the low end or flawed products.
Dan_D said:
Obviously, I like expensive hardware. But, it's not for everyone and it's not appropriate for everyone's needs. I don't recommend my friends buy the same stuff I do when they can't build machines themselves. I build them. Similarly, being told that a DDR4 board is just as good and fit everyone's needs is simply untrue. It's technically inaccurate even if it is reasonably good advice for the vast majority of end users.
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Everyone's, no. Almost everyone's, currently yes.
 
Mad Maxx said:
I've got everything I need for my i7-12700k build except the mobo. I'm thinking it might be better to give it a few months to see what the Z790 boards bring to the table. I'm not in any rush to build a new PC, so don't mind waiting.
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I can say the MSI Tomahawk DDR4 board is very good if you want to go that way
 
Darksunsun said:
Can a i5 7700k be upgraded to anything better ?
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No*

*I think there are a couple of Z170 mobos which you could do a pin mod and a modded bios, to get an 8 series chip mostly functional. But....I wouldn't recommend going that route.
 
Mad Maxx said:
'Cuz a friend sold me his brand new still sealed in its box 12700k for $200. ;)
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If you're not going to build now, then you should just sell the CPU. If you're going to wait for Z790, then you might as well wait for the 13700k.
 
kirbyrj said:
If you're not going to build now, then you should just sell the CPU. If you're going to wait for Z790, then you might as well wait for the 13700k.
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Or better yet do like I did. Built a 12700K and Z690 now and then I'll pass it down to my daughter and build a Z790 13700K in the fall. :)
 
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DooKey said:
Or better yet do like I did. Build a 12700K and Z690 now and then I'll pass it down to my daughter and build a Z790 13700K in the fall. :)
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Exactly. Realistically, I'll probably build a Zen4 or 13 series build and my father will get this ADL setup.
 
kirbyrj said:
If you're not going to build now, then you should just sell the CPU. If you're going to wait for Z790, then you might as well wait for the 13700k.
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I threw mine away. No time to sell it.

Plus there is no place around here to give it away to.
 
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