Upgrade Advice - UK, not a gamer, some photoshop work and streaming

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Nordic_Painter_1933@reddit

[https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/hTcs4p](https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/hTcs4p) New CPU, CPU Cooler, 1TB SSD, Mobo, RAM, GPU for 840GBP

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Aedion499@reddit

Going with a better cpu and 32gb of ram and a more budget video card would be a better use of the funds. A 5950x or 5900x with an rtx 3050 would be much better for Photoshop.

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photoshop only mainly uses 8 cores well I thought was the case for 99% of tasks so why would you get a 16 core CPU? Highest clock speed on 8 cores with good IPC is most important, 9700x is really good but is DRR5 only so DDR4 wise I'd go for something like a 14700k for photoshop.

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Aedion499@reddit

If Photoshop is using 8 cores, and you have an 8 core cpu, what's handling all the windows tasks and background tasks? You have to factor these things in. You can't assume he's going to force stop everything on his PC just to run Photoshop. The windows scheduler womt assign 8 cores to Photoshop if you only have an 8 core cpu, it would leave enough free for background tasks which would hurt Photoshop performance. Quick Google search should confirm this for you.

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Errorr404@reddit

Yea but its not even fully utilizing those 8 cores so you have plenty of headroom. If you want headroom then Intel is best for this as you have 8 fast performance cores for tasks and all the efficiency cores for background tasks instead of 16 sluggish cores.

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Aedion499@reddit

How do you know he's not fully utilizing all the cores? The goal with a workstation build is maximum headroom. Why would you purposely give yourself less headroom? I have a 14700k and I'm a big fan of Intel, but calling a 5950x "sluggish" is just pure slander. The 16 cores of the 5950x are slower than the p cores of the 14700k for sure, but they are still much faster than Intel's ecores. It balances out, stop acting like it's a massive landslide difference when in reality it's quite close.

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Errorr404@reddit

I don't think you understand how photoshop scales with CPUs, if it was utilizing all those 16 cores then sure it would be the better choice but as clock speed and IPC on 8 cores is more important for photoshop you'd basically have much worse performance from the 5950x as only half the CPU will go utilized to the most important task which is photoshop leaving those 8 extra cores unused for the main task unlike intel which would be utilizing 8 much faster cores. Compared to what performance you'd get with the better clock speeds and higher IPC of the intel performance cores it makes 0 sense to spend the same money on a 5950x. Streaming wise intel wins also, not sure why you would suggest OP to buy a worse product for their use cases but you do you.

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Aedion499@reddit

If you read my other comments you'd know that I did infact recommend Intel over AMD, a 14700k would be better than a 5950x for Photoshop. You're just blowing the difference out of proportion. It's a marginal difference at best. If you read my other comments you'd also know that you're failing to factor in extra costs like needing to go 360mm AIO minimum, as appose to a cheap air cooler. If you want to go off benchmarks, yes the 14700k is marginally better. Never denied that. You're just acting like it's a blowout without factoring in other things like much more expensive (and necessary) cooling solutions that don't last half as long as a reliable air cooler. I highlighted both options as being viable and good choices depending on the specific pricing in OP's area. You just sound like a fanboy trying to sway someone to a specific cpu at all costs, ignoring important factors. I'm a self proclaimed Intel fanboy, but that doesn't make me biased. I understand the benefits of both, something you clearly don't. Mad annoying to be on team blue when there's so many people like you on my side. Ugh

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Errorr404@reddit

360mm aio is cheap as chips from arctic with 6 year warranty, you don't need a lian li watercooler any will do. Even a dual tower cooler like the TR Peerless Assassin 120 would do since 100% of the CPU isn't getting utilized anyway so you'd have 150-175w power draw tops not to mention doing -0.15v in bios for CPU voltage would further decrease power consumption which everyone does if they're not overclocking. The 14700k is much better in single threaded so not sure what you're smoking but I want some too if you think the performance difference would be marginal lmfao. You would basically be only using half the 5950x which would be like running a 5800x which doesn't even come close to a 14700k so I'm not sure what your point is. I just buy whatever makes the most sense and not what company is on the packaging.

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Aedion499@reddit

Do you have a 14700k? I hit 100c regularly with an arctic freezer 3 pro 420mm AIO. They are designed to run at TJMax under load. I don't undervolt because I prioritize stability above all, and I'm on latest microcode and bios. The better of a cooler you have, the better 14th Gen Intel performs under load. You are quite literally thermally limited when it comes to performance on these chips. Buying a 120mm air cooler for these chips is like putting 87 octane in your racecar. Why the fuck? You're just limiting thermal headroom which in turn limits performance, because it's directly related on these chips. A 360mm arctic freezer is not pennies. It's 4x the cost of a peerless assassin. There's no point buying 14th Gen Intel because all that extra IPC is gone if you don't sufficiently cool it, it's just going to throttle sooner. It's going to throttle no matter what, but the more cooling headroom the better, and that costs more money. I wouldn't own my 14700k with any other cooler honestly. With a cpu designed to run at TJmax, why the hell wouldnt you get the best cooler possible? Just wasting performance headroom with an air cooler.

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Errorr404@reddit

If you're hitting 100c on a 420mm rad then your setup is the problem, I don't even hit 82c when video rendering 75-90% CPU usage on stock voltage on an arctic freezer 420mm rad and then with the undervolt it has the exact same stability but 77c max on a sustained load. I can even undervolt and OC to 5.8ghz without any stability issues lol. A 14700k can run on a TR Peerless Assassin 120, it would be louder than water cooling solutions but it would still work if you're not utilizing 100% of the CPU which OP wouldn't be doing with photoshop or streaming. Rendering uses most of my CPU so cooling is important there. No shit you're gonna have bad performance if you can't even set your shit up correctly.

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Aedion499@reddit

My argument is about headroom, specifically under max load. You will never have a 14700k that doesn't hit 100c under max load, even at stock clocks. Simple as that. My cpu rarely sees above 70c but if I'm rendering, encoding, code compiling, simulating physics, it hits 100c very quickly. You're correct Photoshop and streaming on its own won't have it hit 100c, but using the cpu to its fullest will and I'm simply trying to state the importance of headroom. Better to have the headroom and not need it than not have the headroom when you do need it. Programs will only get more cpu intensive as time goes on, why not give yourself the most headroom possible? If your system draws 600w under max load, do you buy a 600w PSU?? God I hope not

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Errorr404@reddit

I agree that headroom is important but here we are limited by current RAM pricing, if DDR5 made sense then the 9900x absolutely shits on anything value wise and efficiency wise. The 5950x is good for other tasks and is fairly efficient but missing out on single threaded performance of the 14700k which scales much better for OPs use cases is a really tough call especially at a similar enough price. 14700k still has efficiency cores and roughly 4 efficiency cores has similar performance to 1 performance core if the programs can scale well with more than 8 cores. I would check and re-mount your cooling as you have very high temps. You can also run the separate cables for the pump to increase the RPM accordingly or leave it at 70-80% static as I believe the all in one cable runs the pump at too low of RPM for the load if you are using the aio cable. I run my pump at 50% static speed for silent operation so my temps are higher than normal for a 420mm rad. 14700k is 250w-284w power draw at 100% CPU usage at stock voltage and these 420mm thick arctic rads can hold 300w+ easily, TR Peerless Assasin 120 is rated for around 200w (and in my experience is pretty quiet up to \~60% fan speed) so with undervolting and power limits you can run it only losing \~5% performance when you exceed 75% CPU usage and hit the power limits. System power draw you get plenty of transient power spikes so 600W PSU with 600W load would cause instability pretty quickly but then again depends on the PSU, some higher quality ones can take transient spikes well above rated power and some cheaper units can trip the PSU protections quickly lol. Some GPUs can spike power usage up to 3x for a couple of microseconds with transient spikes so its a dangerous game to play, I can imagine tripping protections constantly wouldn't be the best for the PSU or workflow.

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SilverLordLaz@reddit (OP)

my ssd is ok i think, and my memory - i think i need processor and gpu?

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Nordic_Painter_1933@reddit

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/zf9cYX A 16 cores processor and a new GPU, 16GB RAM and a new Mobo all under 900GBP

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Aedion499@reddit

This is much better. Just swap out the ram for this https://www.corsair.com/ca/en/p/memory/cmk16gx4m2b3000c15/vengeancea-lpx-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr4-dram-3000mhz-c15-memory-kit-black-cmk16gx4m2b3000c15?srsltid=AfmBOooVBeitoBioU8jlDCXU88Qqkl4UK8vHTm5H7QyabtXyXtVBxAel 3000mhz cl15 to match his current ram.

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SilverLordLaz@reddit (OP)

you guys are totally fantastic! )

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Aedion499@reddit

This build will be better long term than the Intel suggestions we went over - AMD runs a lot cooler and that air cooler is more than enough and will go decades without fail. I love Intel but you pretty much need at least a 360mm AIO if you go with Intel, and AIO's rarely last more than 5 years if you're lucky. Go with whatever fits your budget but if you go Intel route you will have to factor in a much more expensive cooling solution. All depends on local pricing, it might still be cheaper to go Intel.

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mick_jones2@reddit

you are basically say "buy a new pc"

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Nordic_Painter_1933@reddit

He was willing to spend 1000 Pounds

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SilverLordLaz@reddit (OP)

1) not a he 2) Any suggestions on where to buy bits that will go together and **not cost** GBP950plus

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Nordic_Painter_1933@reddit

Amazon https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/zf9cYX

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mick_jones2@reddit

i get it, but you dont need a new pc for "some photoshop work and streaming", a newer gpu would do

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Errorr404@reddit

I wouldn't choose a 5800x for photoshop or editing, usually intel is much better suited for that.

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SilverLordLaz@reddit (OP)

Do I need a new case?

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SilverLordLaz@reddit (OP)

Thank you again for all your help - I'm going to think about this overnight and then come back and do some shopping - you are all so very kind to an old lady :-)

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Aedion499@reddit

Do you have 2x8gb or 4x4gb ram?

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SilverLordLaz@reddit (OP)

looks like 2x8 - do i have to remove to see if DDR3 or 4?

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Aedion499@reddit

Like Nordic Painter said, verify its DDR4 (most likely is) or just tell us the motherboard you have and we'll know from that. If you have 2 more slots it would definitely be worth upgrading to 32gb for your use case by finding 2 more sticks of 8gb. If you can somehow manage to find other ram with the same timings/frequency that would be best case scenario for seamless integration. As for cpu upgrade, you'll be needing a new motherboard. You can save some money buy reusing your ddr4 and going with am4, maybe look into a 5900x or 5950x. Either that or look into LGA1700 with a 12/13/14th Gen i7 or i9. Both of those platforms support ddr4 (some lga1700 Intel motherboards are built for ddr5 so make sure it's a DDR4 board) GPU could definitely use an upgrade aswell. Adobe recommends at least 4gb of VRAM, but the more the better. Problem is just like ram, VRAM is very expensive right now. The important part is having dx12 support and meeting the minimum VRAM. An rtx 3050 would be a good budget option.

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SilverLordLaz@reddit (OP)

thank you Motherboard: ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING

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Aedion499@reddit

Yeah that's 100% a DDR4 board. If you can take your ram out and take a picture of the sticker on the ram we might be able to find another 16gb with same timings.

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SilverLordLaz@reddit (OP)

do you still need to see what the sticker says?

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Aedion499@reddit

No, I think the ram I linked is correct.

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SilverLordLaz@reddit (OP)

is this what you are asking for? Memory SPD DIMM # 1 SMBus address 0x51 Memory type DDR4 Module format UDIMM Module Manufacturer(ID) Corsair (0x029E) Size 8192 MBytes Ranks 2 Max bandwidth DDR4-2998 (1499 MHz) Max JEDEC DDR4-2133 (1066 MHz) Part number CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 Nominal Voltage 1.20 Volts EPP no XMP yes, rev. 2.0 AMP no EXPO no

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SilverLordLaz@reddit (OP)

JEDEC timings table CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC @ frequency JEDEC #1 9.0-9-9-22-31 @ 666 MHz JEDEC #2 10.0-10-10-25-35 @ 733 MHz JEDEC #3 11.0-11-11-27-38 @ 800 MHz JEDEC #4 12.0-13-13-30-42 @ 900 MHz JEDEC #5 13.0-14-14-32-45 @ 966 MHz JEDEC #6 14.0-14-14-35-49 @ 1033 MHz JEDEC #7 15.0-15-15-36-50 @ 1066 MHz JEDEC #8 16.0-15-15-36-50 @ 1066 MHz XMP profile XMP-2998 Specification DDR4-2998 VDD Voltage 1.350 Volts Min Cycle time 0.667 ns (1499 MHz) Max CL 15.0 Min tRP 11.33 ns Min tRCD 11.33 ns Min tRAS 23.18 ns Min tRC 34.68 ns Min tRRD 4.00 ns

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Aedion499@reddit

https://www.corsair.com/ca/en/p/memory/cmk16gx4m2b3000c15/vengeancea-lpx-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr4-dram-3000mhz-c15-memory-kit-black-cmk16gx4m2b3000c15?srsltid=AfmBOooVBeitoBioU8jlDCXU88Qqkl4UK8vHTm5H7QyabtXyXtVBxAel

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SilverLordLaz@reddit (OP)

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SilverLordLaz@reddit (OP)

I'd like to reuse what i can - so my SSD and my Ram i was thinking?

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Aedion499@reddit

Really depends on pricing in your specific area. Definitely go i9 if it's 12th gen, or if it's 13th gen/14th Gen I'd go i7. 13th/14th Gen i9's are a pain in the ass to keep cool. A 5950x would also be really good. Pricing is different everywhere so just go with cheapest option or whatever fits in your budget between those.

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mick_jones2@reddit

download cpu-z to see what ddr are you using

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SilverLordLaz@reddit (OP)

DDR4 dual?

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Nordic_Painter_1933@reddit

Open task manager-->Performance-->Memory/RAM-->Check Speed-->Tell us

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aragorn18@reddit

Do us a favor. 1. Install HWInfo64 2. Start it in Full Mode 3. Click the "Save Report" button 4. Choose "Summary for Clipboard" 5. Copy the output 6. Paste it here.

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SilverLordLaz@reddit (OP)

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K (Skylake-S, R0) 4000 MHz (40.00x100.0) @ 3400 MHz (34.00x100.0) Motherboard: ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING BIOS: 3805, 05/16/2018 Chipset: Intel Z170 (Skylake PCH-H) Memory: 16384 MBytes DDR4 SDRAM @ 1500 MHz, 15-17-17-35 \- 8192 MB PC24000 DDR4 SDRAM - Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 \- 8192 MB PC24000 DDR4 SDRAM - Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 530 (Skylake-S GT2) \[S0/R0\] \[ASUS\] Intel HD Graphics 530, 0 MB Graphics: Zotac GeForce GTX 760 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760, 2048 MB GDDR5 SDRAM Drive: ST2000DM001-1ER164, 1953.5 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s Drive: CT500MX500SSD1, 488.4 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s Drive: ST2000DM001-9YN164, 1953.5 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 1.5Gb/s <-> USB Drive: TOSHIBA MQ03UBB300, 2930.3 GB, Serial ATA 3Gb/s @ 3Gb/s <-> USB Drive: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NSD0, DVD+R DL Sound: Intel Skylake PCH-H - High Definition Audio Controller Sound: NVIDIA GK104 - High Definition Audio Controller Network: Intel Ethernet Connection I219-V Network: TP-Link Wireless USB Adapter OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Professional (x64) Build 19045.6466 (22H2)

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aragorn18@reddit

Confirmed that you have DDR4 RAM.

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mick_jones2@reddit

just get a second hand gpu

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