- Joined
- Jun 24, 2015
- Messages
- 7,547 (2.34/day)
- Location
- Western Canada
System Name | ab┃ob |
---|---|
Processor | 7800X3D┃5800X3D |
Motherboard | B650E PG-ITX┃X570 Impact |
Cooling | PA120+T30┃AXP120x67 |
Memory | 64GB 6000CL30┃32GB 3600CL14 |
Video Card(s) | RTX 4070 Ti Eagle┃RTX A2000 |
Storage | 8TB of SSDs┃1TB SN550 |
Display(s) | 43" QN90B / 32" M32Q / 27" S2721DGF |
Case | Caselabs S3┃Lazer3D HT5 |
Power Supply | Corsair HX1000┃HDPlex |
She's got dust, a good number of marks and scratches from all the places she's been in the past few years, and the 1510 has that many more scrapes (and stickers ).
I'm thinking it's time to step up to a more recent platform. Why? Well, Devil's Canyon is a great platform, but due to a number of different reasons, I'm feeling a particularly serious upgrade itch.
I'm thinking it's time to step up to a more recent platform. Why? Well, Devil's Canyon is a great platform, but due to a number of different reasons, I'm feeling a particularly serious upgrade itch.
- 4790K is hot AF. I'm not kidding. I'm in a position where I can't (nor would I want to) tame it with water, and despite punching well above its weight (and size), the NH-D9L really, really feels the heat when all four cores are coming online even at their stock turbo table max clocks. For the past two years, I've resorted to limiting it artificially to 3.5GHz across all four cores, but that in turn bars the 4790K from competing with the latest silicon in the only way it knows how: clockspeed. I didn't exactly win the silicon lottery either, so my 4790K requires a good helping of voltage, which isn't exactly conducive to thermals. Needless to say, it probably wasn't 5GHz material to begin with, not that I could have accommodated that sort of hellish heat.
- The H97N-WIFI was never a very feature-laden board at any point in time; it was simply the most logical replacement for an absolute bargain-basement MSI H81I that succumbed to PCB flex early on. I'm thinking that I would like to take advantage of M.2 sooner or later, whether in SATA or NVMe form, which would allow me to run 3 SSDs without the need for a perpetually-connected external 2.5" enclosure, which takes up a precious USB port. It would most likely be beneficial to have an extra fan header as well. Currently, the newest drive (Blue) displaced the oldest drive (850 EVO) into external storage. The NCase only really comfortably fits 2 x 2.5" drives under the front panel, in the manner that it's currently set up. I'm can't remember why it is this way, but the provided USB 3.0 front header cable fails to reach the header on the motherboard, so I've never managed to make use of the front ports.
- There's nothing wrong with the Fury DDR3 kit that has been trudging along in there, but in the spirit of keeping with the times, it's probably a smart idea to step up to DDR4 and invest in a 32GB kit, to perpetuate my poor Chrome tab-closing habits (or lack thereof ).
- Intel. i7-8700. I'm over the -K hype. I just want something with improved IPC to support the few archaic games I still have, while still being part of the MOAR CORES trend. As for boards, it's a choice between the Asus Z390 Strix, ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming, and the ASRock Z390M-ITX/ac. The former two are the showy wallet killers (while they do have impressively well-rounded feature sets, being top-end boards), and the latter is the practical choice with one significant advantage: 8 USB ports. But the Phantom is the priciest, and the ITX/ac has a questionably outdated audio set and (sadly) 2 fan headers, so this battle is still a stalemate.
- AMD. Ryzen 2700. I took a hiatus from the PC scene on the eve of AMD's astonishing redemption, but from what I have seen, the refresh is promising. The only reservation on the CPU side is that the slightly lower single threaded performance and the lower clock designed to meet the 65W TDP result in too little a difference to justify the upgrade. It reminds me of the Vishera days, how those extra cores are all for naught unless you can use them (obviously, the current situation in AM4 is much preferable to AM3+). There's barely any cost savings to be had in my case; I won't be settling for a gimped B-series chipset, so the Asus X470 Strix is quite literally the only option.
- Wait another year. It could also make sense to wait for the release of Ice Lake and Zen 2, but that would mean being stuck in awkward external storage limbo until that time. I just purchased the 1TB Blue 3D at a really good price thanks to a combination of Dell rewards and a surprise sale, but I don't see any more 2.5" drives in my future, given how M.2 has exploded in popularity. And it's not without reason - I don't wish to repeat the frustrating contortion it took to make 90 degree SATA connectors and two closely stacked SSDs work together under the NCase's front panel.