Okay, I used to be really up to scratch on what to buy and the corresponding chip set etc when RAM was peanuts and every grandparent was asking their grandchild to install some in the their computer. That was when Corsair XMS2 6400 was fast! I will use this PC for electronics design CAD which is tame. My current PC is 8 years old and I would like this to last as long-ish. I need fast cores vs many cores for compiling software and synthesising FPGA designs. I would like the system to be as nippy as possible day to day. I will play a game every few months or so this is the last priority. I don't have nay interest in overclocking, it should be quiet and reliable. A high number of USB ports is desirable (why is PS2 and VGA on motherboards popular nowadays!!!?). I'll be using my old GTX 660 for now. I'm thinking of getting the following: - Intel Core i7 8700 - EVGA Intel Z370 micro-ATX - Corsair 16GB DDR4 Vengeance LPX 2133MHz - Intel 760p 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD - be quiet Straight Power 11 550 Watt Full Modular 80+ Gold PSU/Power Supply - Silverstone SG02B-F This lot comes to £1005.90 on Scan. Is there anything I could do better? Thanks
I would suggest looking at AMD with the 2700X. More cores and cheaper too. Remember that you will need to spend about £200 on memory as the Ryzen chips need fast memory as well as tight timings. I’m sure someone will be along shortly and give you a build list.
If you want to stick with Intel its all fine except for the RAM. While Intel benefits much less from fast ram than AMD I wouldn't touch 2133 stuff with a 10ft pole. Two reasons: There is barely any price premium until you get up to around 3600, so no reason to sacrifice performance that much, basically anything below 3000 just isn't worth it, see https://www.scan.co.uk/products/16g...000-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-16-20-20-38-xmp-20 for an example of just little the premium is. The other reason, frankly with 2133 the resale value will be near nil.
What’s wrong with EVGA?? They get masses of praise over here. Maybe it’s a different story for the US than to the UK. I have heard some horror stories about their voltage droop being an issue, though. I know they offer worldwide RMA, though. That’s a plus for some. I’m still heavily leaning towards AMD for this build. It makes sense for the OP.
Well, if your voltage can fluctuate by as much as 0.1v, it can happen at stock or overclocked. Granted that it is more likely under OCed conditions based on the increase in current required, but it still happens, albeit less frequent.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...-3000mhz-dual-channel-kit-blac-my-0a1-tg.html https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...al-channel-kit-grey-tlgd416g30-my-087-tg.html
For CAD (e.g. Solidworks or Autocad) a fast quad-core Intel CPU (even an older gen) will outperform an 8-core Ryzen. Those programs just respond better to faster cores than adding more cores (IIRC EAGLE is even still single threaded if that's happens to be what you're using for PCB design). As for rig improvements: unless your current PSU is some proprietary jobbie you can likely re-use that without issue and save some dosh. If you're not overclocking you can skip the Zxxx series boards and go for Hxxx. ASRock are worth a look too as they generally have a more generous selection of USB ports than elsewhere. RAM has already been mentioned, going up to 2800 is worthwhile, but beyond that you see diminishing returns for most workloads on Intel. On Ryzen, because memory speed is tied into a bunch of other clocks on the CPU there are performance gains as you push RAM clocks higher, but Ryzen (even Ryzen 2) is still finickey with specific DDR dies when it comes to faster memory clocks, so stick the the qualified vendor lists or risk headaches. --- Finally, you may want to take another look at prebuilt machines if you have not already. With supply shortages for individual components pushing retail prices up, you may find that a prebuilt tower works out cheaper than buying the separate parts (barring the SSD, where it may still be worth a prebuilt with the crappiest smallest drive offered and swapping the SSD in yourself) as the big box builders can get vastly better component prices. Also: Dat Warranty, Yo.
Being bored i came up with... i7-7700K ASRock - H270M Pro4 Micro ATX Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 Samsung - 970 Evo 500GB The case stays the same as that's subjective and the PSU would probably stay the same unless a semi-modular comes in cheaper. Thoughts?
