The best intel build under $2300

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10 Oct 2018
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Hi guys.. I made a 7700k rig in 2016 but I am thinking of moving now to 8th gen. Need an entirely new pc because old board of asus z270a is only compatible with 7th gen only.

So this is my budget. $2300 max.

Want to build a gaming rig.

My previous rig specs:

Asus z270a board
Intel 7700k 4.6ghz OC-able to 5.2 ghz
SSD 480 gb
SSHD Samsung 2TB
Ram Corsair vengence 2x8 16 gb 3200 mhz
Cooler master cooling fans x2
Cooler master 550w power supply
corsair gaming case tower
gpu gigabyte rx480 8gb 256bit DDR5
 
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Hi and welcome to the forums. :)

Save your money as there is very little to gain going from 7th to 8th gen. Seriously, it would be a complete waste of money. A 7700k that can clock to 5.2Ghz isn't going to be struggling anytime soon plus it seems to be a golden chip because most 8700k's can't even clock that high. The only thing that I would change would be a new gpu and even then it would depend on the res that you game at. A new gpu will give you the biggest boost plus if you are gaming at 1080p maybe a new 144hz 1440p monitor to go with it. I wouldn't change anything else. Which series is that 550w Coolermaster psu?
 
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I would hold fire a week see how the 9th gen stacks up. Likely not going to be a huge jump in performance, but there are some questions about how the 9700k 8 core 8 thread compares to the 8700k 6 core 12 thread. Also just at the moment the intel chips are overpriced, hopefully come down a bit.

Also as above unless you have a specific use case that wants the extra cores, that 7700k is still a beast. Most games will see next to no improvement
 
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OP
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Hi and welcome to the forums. :)

Save your money as there is very little to gain going from 7th to 8th gen. Seriously, it would be a complete waste of money. A 7700k that can clock to 5.2Ghz isn't going to be struggling anytime soon plus it seems to be a golden chip because most 8700k's can't even clock that high. The only thing that I would change would be a new gpu and even then it would depend on the res that you game at. A new gpu will give you the biggest boost plus if you are gaming at 1080p maybe a new 144hz 1440p monitor to go with it. I wouldn't change anything else. Which series is that 550w Coolermaster psu?

hey thank you so much.

I am currently gaming on 1080p 144hz. I have a good 2k 144hz monitor. Asus MG279Q.

Currently I am getting around 120-130 fps in Rainbow six siege (the game I play almost daily) with a little tweaking in graphic settings. I want a system who can generate similar amount of fps in 2k. So I was thinking of moving to 8th gen. Since the game demands a lot of processing power. However the load can be shifted on gpu but my gpu isn't that good. Its a mid-tier graphics card.

Its elite v2 550w
 
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I would hold fire a week see how the 9th gen stacks up. Likely not going to be a huge jump in performance, but there are some questions about how the 9700k 8 core 8 thread compares to the 8700k 6 core 12 thread. Also just at the moment the intel chips are overpriced, hopefully come down a bit.

Also as above unless you have a specific use case that wants the extra cores, that 7700k is still a beast. Most games will see next to no improvement

That is true. My main purpose is gaming. My dad sometimes uses it for rendering though. He's an interior designer.
 
Man of Honour
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It's your money but upgrading the cpu and motherboard will cost you a small fortune and give you next to no performance gain at all. A 7700k at 5.2Ghz is a beast. At 2560x1440 the load tends to shift to the gpu so that's what I would replace. As the Monitor is freesync you will need a AMD card to be able to use that capability. A RX580 isn't a upgrade from a RX480 so that leaves the Vega 56 and Vega 64, both of which will give you a substantial performance boost over your RX480.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

A new psu would be a good move as well because the Coolermaster Elite v2 550w is garbage. That so called 550w psu is only capable of 384w on it's dual 12v rails and is only capable of 501.1w total ouput. Even worse is that when Jonnyguru reviewed it he reckoned that total power wouldn't exceed 485w. It's not 80+ rated at all and the internal capacitors are amongst the worst you can get. In the end he gave it 6.6/10 which is dreadful. I value my components and wouldn't even consider a psu that scored less than 9/10. The psu is argueably the most important component in a pc and is not the place to save money. Buy yourself a decent one such as the Seasonic Focus Plus gold series which are 80+ gold rated, fully modular and have a 10 year warranty.
 
Soldato
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Soldato
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save money and get a vega plus the psu or convert to nvidia + G-sync and the psu.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,506.17 (includes shipping: £13.20)

No way a 1080 ti is worth £800 now that the RTX 2080 can be had for less.
 
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Hey thanks guys.. I am upgrading my psu, gpu, extended cooling setup and possibly a new 240HZ monitor or could go for 4k one :)
 
Soldato
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Hey thanks guys.. I am upgrading my psu, gpu, extended cooling setup and possibly a new 240HZ monitor or could go for 4k one :)

I would rather have a nice IPS/VA panel with a high refresh rate over a 240Hz TN one. I doubt you can tell the difference between 240Hz and 144Hz/165Hz anyway. If you go 4K then you are going to be on a 60Hz panel unless you fancy forking out £2K+ for a 144Hz model and a 2080 ti to go with it.
 
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I would rather have a nice IPS/VA panel with a high refresh rate over a 240Hz TN one. I doubt you can tell the difference between 240Hz and 144Hz/165Hz anyway. If you go 4K then you are going to be on a 60Hz panel unless you fancy forking out £2K+ for a 144Hz model and a 2080 ti to go with it.

yeah that would just explode my budget. I have a maxed out budget of $2300.

I am only thinking about gpu, psu and monitor. Will try to get a 144 or 165 hz with g-sync. or a 240 HZ. Omg, its so confusing rn!
 
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