PC Upgrade i7 7700K

Discussion in 'PC' started by digitaldragon, Oct 20, 2017.

  1. digitaldragon

    digitaldragon Audiosexual

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    I thought I might post to get some feedback concerning my pending upgrade to my existing production workstation. I'm planning on upgrading from an AMD Phenom II to and i7 7700K.I'm pretty much set on this processor as I'm looking for single core clock speed performance more so than multi core multi threaded performance.
    I'm trying to determine which motherboard to pair this with. The case is ATX. I'd like at least one regular PCI slot for my MOTU PCI 424 card. I'd like integrated Bluetooth if possible, and plenty of USB ports. I plan on using the built in video on the motherboard. I'd like to find a fairly future proof board, but need that legacy slot.
    Also, any recommendations for RAM would be helpful. I want to start with 16GB, and have the possibility to add more RAM chips for further expansion.
    Anyone that could weigh in with this would be very appreciated.
    Thanks in advance, AudioSexers!
     
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  3. Grandy

    Grandy Member

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    you dont need much advice for that, see which socket is 7700k and then go to gigabyte or asus website and filter motherboards for that socket and see if some of those filtered have options that you need and thats it. as for ram go with corsair, ocz, g.skill etc
     
  4. MMJ2017

    MMJ2017 Audiosexual

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    sounds like you on the right track make sure you get a m.2 ssd ( biggest performance notice)
     
  5. digitaldragon

    digitaldragon Audiosexual

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    @Grandy, thank you for that. I did find a gigabyte board which had the options I'm looking for. I'll locate the board model. Maybe someone has had experience with it and can advise for or against.

    @MMJ2017, yeah, I'm going to get one of those in the near future. Don't have the budget for that right now. I do have an SSD though, and the transfer rate is going from 3 to 6 GBs so I'll realize a significant improvement there. Then when I upgrade to an M.2, I'll get to see another boost. Thanks for the tip, though! You've got me looking into them now. Last time I looked they were pretty costly.
     
  6. Zenarcist

    Zenarcist Audiosexual

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    The new 8700k is the replacement CPU for the 7700k. It's cost is not much higher, and it has 6 cores instead of 4. I'd check it out as well unless you are looking for the absolute lowest price.
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2017
  7. digitaldragon

    digitaldragon Audiosexual

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    @Zenarcist, I had looked at that, and the clock speed is slower. I believe I have to look at single core performance vs multicore. Sonar seems to tie alot of processing to a single core which makes sense to me as it must be processed in series.
    Everything I've read seems to indicate that there wasn't much improvement in terms of instruction set optimization for the 8700. I think the biggest improvement was the increase in core count. If the clock rate was better, I'd jump on it as the pricing is pretty close between the two. Thank you for the input!
     
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  8. Zenarcist

    Zenarcist Audiosexual

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    It's got a lower clock speed, but a higher turbo speed throughout all cores, and it overclocks nicely too. There is something about the new architecture that I don't quite understand 100%, but there should be some real world benchmarks on the web by now.
     
  9. pandroid

    pandroid Member

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    Not quite true. If you look carefully 7700k is 4.2/4.5 turbo and 8700k is 3.7/4.7 so you can assume the 8700k can be easily overlocked up to 4.5-4.7 what makes it a really workhorse cpu. I look forward to make a build with it. The only disadvantage though is 64GB RAM limit .
     
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  10. anonymouse

    anonymouse Platinum Record

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    8700k is faster. Getting a 7700k now would be insane.
     
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  11. digitaldragon

    digitaldragon Audiosexual

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    Sounds like I need to look at the 8700K a little harder. This is exactly the reason I posted up here, hoping for feedback like this. Thanks, @Zenarcist, @pandroid, @anonymouse for the useful info and advice.
     
  12. MMJ2017

    MMJ2017 Audiosexual

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    yes, i already have the 7700k , so im happy with it
    but you should get the 8700k if looking to buy.
    i went from 6700k to 7700k that all the cpu upgrading i can do for while i just got my gtx 1080 ti upgrade so im set for bit in pc stuff.( as far as what i can do personally)
     
  13. SineWave

    SineWave Audiosexual

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    I'm using ASUS Prime Z270-K [and Z170-A] motherboards currently. Very reliable, excellent motherboard. I can wholeheartedly recommend it. It's got 2 PCI slots. Pairing it with a 7700K is perfect for audio/video tasks. I'm still waiting for AMD Ryzen platform to mature a little before I start recommending it. It does look very promising, though.

    Regarding RAM, just buy a Kingston HyperX Predator Black 2x8GB kit and be happy. :wink: You can always add 2x8GB more of the same RAM easily. Depending on the usage pattern you can still get away with even 8GB easily, 16GB being the "sure option", but you might need more in the future, yes.

    Intel i7-7700K is a really great choice for multimedia editing computers. Excellent single-thread processing and you have 4-cores of it. However, 8 cores is better for running complex projects... like new Ryzen processors and future Intel processors when they finally decide that people do really need 8-core processors after all. :rofl: ah Intel, love and hate relationship with them... I'm a bit more of an AMD fan because they're just not so full of shit.

    p.s. I know there are newer Z370 chipsets available... but it always better to wait for any platform to mature a little. Like one year or so, at least. And the difference is negligible anyway. Z370 is generally for new Kaby Lake Intel processors.
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2017
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  14. kimikaze

    kimikaze Platinum Record

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    We all know by now that freq don't mean much with last few generation of intels, even 1ghz difference is less than 10% in real word performance. 500hz difference at default speed is like nothing and 8700 is even better overclocker if freq mean a lot to you. And now what really matter is two additional cores or 4 hyperthreads more. Maybe not now but in near future that will make most difference between two. Even if you think you don't need two additional cores right now, you will be a lot more future proof. In few years you will be glad. There will be more and more software, that utilize more cores. This may not be beneficial to you in audio domain, for example if you will still use software that don't know how to use more cores, but windows probably will, so this mean, you could do additional stuff using the rest of available cores, not related to your curent work. So you could for example copy files or whatever in background and your audio production performance would not be affected. In all seriousness, make yourself a favor and just buy 8700 if you can.
     
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  15. SineWave

    SineWave Audiosexual

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    Yeah, if you don't care about stability just buy Asus Z370-A and Intel 8700K [it opnly works with a Intel x370 chipset]... install W10 on top and enjoy hours of bug hunting, firmware and software updates until next year, while we're all nicely making music on our a bit outdated computers. Absolutely sound advice! :wink:

    btw. Z370-A doesn't have PCI slots, so you have to use PCI risers to be able to use PCI cards. Not a really good solution in my book... :(
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2017
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  16. kimikaze

    kimikaze Platinum Record

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    Yeah like his previous amd build was 100% bug free :) I'm of belief, one or two possible baby bugs, which may not even affect you, should not scare you so much, that you are willing to overlook 33% of pure additional power from core count. And this is 8th generation of same old technology, just further optimised, so there should not be any big negative surprise in cpu-motherboard relation. Intel platform with all motherboard vendors are by now well established and well supported environment, but of course, there will be always bugs here and there in new products.

    But your last point is a lot more valid to his position and this may be problem or not for him.

    For ram i would go with Kingston or Gskill. But maybe smarter decision, first choose motherboard and then download compatibility list for motherboard model and go look which memory are supportet and compatible fully(for using in all 4 slots) with chosen motherboard. Now those compatible memory modules may not be the fastes, but choosing from compatibility list, you will increase the chance to have stable system.
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2017
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  17. Nick12

    Nick12 Platinum Record

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    The 8700-k is around 35-55% faster than the 7700-k in multi-core. This is especially indeed because of the extra cores. The 8700-k is around 8% faster than the 7700-k in single-core. Right now the 8700-k is the best processor for single core I thought, but also a little bit more expensive of course and actually the performance growth is little compared to the 7700-k in single-core. Price difference is around €70, isn't it? I bought a new PC with the 7700-k not so long ago. I regret now, haha.

    16GB RAM is fine. But if you work with for example big orchestral libraries and stuff you will probably need at least 32GB or maybe more if you find you really need to. So maybe go for a motherboard where you have at least 64GB. Just in case, right? There are motherboards with 128GB. But who needs 128 or more than 64GB?

    I saw it only works with a Z370 chipset according to SineWave. Maybe is the MSI Z370-A Pro something?
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2017
  18. Andrew

    Andrew AudioSEX Maestro Staff Member

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  19. NicoDPS

    NicoDPS Platinum Record

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    And, I believe that the 8700k works only with win 10, if you're a win 7 user you'll be "stuck" with the 7th generation.
     
  20. tarakapand

    tarakapand Member

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  21. Tabby

    Tabby Kapellmeister

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    Yes, 8700k has hugely improved multicore speed and slightly improved single core speed as compared to 7700k.
     
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