Help with a build - upgrading my CPU

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Finetouch
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2019 10:38 am

Help with a build - upgrading my CPU

Post by Finetouch » Fri Jan 04, 2019 1:09 pm

Hi guys, I used to have an account here a few years ago but I forgot username/email

I'm planning to replace my CPU. Right now I have an i5-4460 with 4 x 3.4 GHz which is 13.6 GHz total and I want to at least double that. I'm looking at Ryzen 5 2600X (6 x 4.2 GHz + 10% extra for hyperthreading is around 28 GHz) or even Ryzen 7 2700X which clocks at around 38 GHz using this measure. I'm running stuff that parallelizes very well so don't bug me about this wonky benchmarking ;)

- The 2700X sells in Germany for only 340 €, and I'm surprised that it's almost 100€ cheaper than i7-9700K, and 2600X is even more cost effective. Is there a trick to this? Am I counting the turbo boost wrong?
- Suggestions about MOBO? I've got an M.2 and six HDDs so I'll need lots of connectors and a PS/2 in case of USB problems (Win 7).
- Take 1x16GB or 2x8GB RAM, what works better with Ryzen? I don't really know anything about DDR4
- My PSU is be quiet Straight Power 10 400W, several years old, should I upgrade?

CA_Steve
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Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: Help with a build - upgrading my CPU

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Jan 04, 2019 3:52 pm

Welcome to SPCR...and I'm not going to touch whatever you are doing mixing cores and GHz. :) However, I suggest you look at some benchmarking sites to get a better idea of how the processors compare for tasks similar to yours. Anandtech's Bench is a good start.

Your PSU is fine.

Finetouch
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2019 10:38 am

Re: Help with a build - upgrading my CPU

Post by Finetouch » Sun Jan 06, 2019 7:14 am

Thanks for the link, it seems i7 is faster at some of the things but my stuff makes decent use of hyperhtreading when not at capacity, and I think I'd probably need a new PSU for i7, so I'm going with Ryzen.

What about this motherboard: ASRock X470 Master SLI https://asrock.com/MB/AMD/X470%20Master ... /index.asp, is it cost effective? I think it supports everything I have and it has Windows 7 drivers too :)

Can you suggest RAM for Ryzen 5 2600X or 7 2700X? Some sites say I need DDR4-2933, I'm not sure if that means 2933 and faster or 2933 and slower. Should I spend money on RAM with a heatspreader? RAM looks pretty expensive ATM

Olle P
Posts: 711
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:03 am
Location: Sweden

Re: Help with a build - upgrading my CPU

Post by Olle P » Fri Feb 15, 2019 7:23 am

Motherboards with B450 are more cost effective unless you need the extra bells and whistles of an X470.
As for RAM it's your motherboard that dictate what specific models work best.
You should opt for (at least) 2x8 GB rated for around 3,000 MHz (or more). With a high memory frequency the latencies within the CPU goes down.
You don't need a RAM heatsink, but the type of RAM you want will come with it. (Removing the provided heatsink is optional.)

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: Help with a build - upgrading my CPU

Post by Abula » Fri Feb 15, 2019 8:08 pm

Finetouch wrote:- The 2700X sells in Germany for only 340 €, and I'm surprised that it's almost 100€ cheaper than i7-9700K, and 2600X is even more cost effective. Is there a trick to this? Am I counting the turbo boost wrong?
Buy what you need, if you benefit form your workload, then go for it, its a great CPU, if not then go with 2600x. I would grab a decent air cooler like Scythe Mugen5 RevB.
Finetouch wrote:- Suggestions about MOBO? I've got an M.2 and six HDDs so I'll need lots of connectors and a PS/2 in case of USB problems (Win 7).
ASRock X470 Taichi, solid board, 8 sata ports (its likely two will be disable because of the use of an m.2), has a PS/2.
Finetouch wrote:- Take 1x16GB or 2x8GB RAM, what works better with Ryzen? I don't really know anything about DDR4
Get good memory, in kits of 2. Ryzen has gotten better with X470, but i would suggest to go with a G.SKILL Flare X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) AMD X370 / B350 Memory (Desktop Memory) Model F4-3200C14D-16GFX, probably one of the few that work really well and in almost all cases will accept the xmp.
Finetouch wrote:- My PSU is be quiet Straight Power 10 400W, several years old, should I upgrade?
Depends on the rest of your hardware, but if the GPU isnt a very high consumption i think you should be fine with what you own. You can always upgrade the PSU if you need to, later on.

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