Wondering if I made the right choice still.

Syribo

Syribo

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 9, 2008
Messages
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After five years I finally decided it was time to update my PC. My 4690K has held up well, and is actually still very useable. But after having to stop at micro center for something else this week.. I decided to update on impulse. I ended up with a 9600K, MSI Gaming Plus Mobo and 16gb of crucial ram. After getting home.. I began having the regrets.

I know the new Ryzens are great, especially for the price. I don't do streaming or any productivity work, so I mainly just use my PC for gaming. But I still had remorse. I decided to return the 9600K and grab the 9700K ($299 at microcenter along with the $30 off my Mobo). Now, while I could afford this.. it was still not a smart choice. I definitely shouldn't be spending the money, but alas.. I did.

Now my problem is that I'm hoping I won't be unhappy with the 9700K in the future. While I would love to return it yet again for the $450 9900K, that would financially be stupid for me. Yet I can't allow myself to be happy about my purchase. I just keep seeing people talk about how the 8 threads and no HT will make the 9700K age do much faster and basically be obsolete in two years already. I made it over fine years with my 4690K, overclocked of course, so if I can get five years of decent performance... That should be fine.

I'm just worried now because I see so many people talking about the 9700K like it's absolutely awful and old already. I'm hoping I didn't make a bad choice? I have it paired with a 1080, and at the moment I game on either my 1080p 144hz monitor, or my 1440p 60hz monitor. I haven't used the parts yet, as I am going back to Canada where my PC is next week. I just am hoping I won't regret it... I've never had PC buyers remorse before.
 
i bought a 9700K from microcenter open box for $240. i'm happy with it. i expect 5 years of good use and probably more especially with overclocking. i would not pay over $400 for the 9900K, esp. with those new speculative vulnerabilities due to hyperthreading. i have no regrets whatsoever.
 
the 9700K is quite strong CPU and will last a long time barring some kind of microprocessor advancements that would obsolete 9900K as well. Take it from personal experience, if you keep "chasing the dragon" with hardware upgrades, you'll end having spent all your money and time and still wanting more. There's always a faster CPU/GPU/memory/disk; seems like you've chosen the best you can fit into the budget and have chosen well. Intel vs AMD is basically a wash right now until you go over 8 cores and your 9700K is perfectly competitive with say a 3700X.

Tbh I've gone thru the same thing for a whole year now- went from i5 2320 to Zen 1600 to Zen 3600 and from GTX 760 to GTX 1070 to RTX 2080 (huge mistake, way too expensive, ended up reselling it quickly) to Vega 64 to RTX 2060 Super. Now I can't stop thinking about "should have I gotten a 3700X instead? should I have gotten a 2070 Super instead? should I have gotten bigger SSDs? X570?" etc. Just gotta say NO I'm DONE upgrading lol

My answer is, fit your budget and then once the machine is put together, focus on enjoying what you've got because there will always be "just one more step up the product stack!" to reach for and that's not something many of us can actually afford. my 0.02$
 
KATEKATEKATE said:
the 9700K is quite strong CPU and will last a long time barring some kind of microprocessor advancements that would obsolete 9900K as well. Take it from personal experience, if you keep "chasing the dragon" with hardware upgrades, you'll end having spent all your money and time and still wanting more. There's always a faster CPU/GPU/memory/disk; seems like you've chosen the best you can fit into the budget and have chosen well. Intel vs AMD is basically a wash right now until you go over 8 cores and your 9700K is perfectly competitive with say a 3700X.

Tbh I've gone thru the same thing for a whole year now- went from i5 2320 to Zen 1600 to Zen 3600 and from GTX 760 to GTX 1070 to RTX 2080 (huge mistake, way too expensive, ended up reselling it quickly) to Vega 64 to RTX 2060 Super. Now I can't stop thinking about "should have I gotten a 3700X instead? should I have gotten a 2070 Super instead? should I have gotten bigger SSDs? X570?" etc. Just gotta say NO I'm DONE upgrading lol

My answer is, fit your budget and then once the machine is put together, focus on enjoying what you've got because there will always be "just one more step up the product stack!" to reach for and that's not something many of us can actually afford. my 0.02$
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Haha yeah, it feels like it's somehow gotten worse since the last time I upgraded. Or even the first time I built, back in 2008, with my Q6600. And with the 4690K, I don't remember hearing people say "Oh that's a waste, the new consoles are going to be more powerful than that processor next year" for those either... but now, it's gone crazy it seems lol. I legit have never had such a dilemma like this before! My 4690K may not be great in games anymore, but everything is playable after over 5 years. So if I can get that much time from the 9700K, maybe not ultra-high max settings years down the road, I will be happy!

clownfish27 said:
i bought a 9700K from microcenter open box for $240. i'm happy with it. i expect 5 years of good use and probably more especially with overclocking. i would not pay over $400 for the 9900K, esp. with those new speculative vulnerabilities due to hyperthreading. i have no regrets whatsoever.
Click to expand...
I feel so thankful about living so close to a MicroCenter. Especially after seeing the prices of hardware in Canada, where I am living part time. I will always come back to NY to buy parts from MicroCenter haha. My boyfriend grabbed an ASUS Strix 1080ti for only $329 yesterday. Guy who traded it in had it for less than a year, and traded in for a 2080ti. Pretty good deal for a card like that, I love that place so much.
 
Hyperthreading doesn't do much for games, it's more useful for compression and encoding. It's the larger cache that gives a few frames more to the 9900k over the 9700k in gaming benchmarks.
 
microcenter was definitely a game changer for me also. i used to go to computer shows to get a good deal but not anymore. along with that 9700K, i scored an open box z370 asus prime and 16gb of ddr4 rip jaws with the $30 combo discount all for $356. i read a thread here about how frys is closing. i hope microcenter does not go that route.
 
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