That is … not cheap. I am probably going to be cheap in 2020 but the suprt USB motherboard does sound nice!
That’s like: $1570 in US Doller-a-doos.
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I’m going to bed to leave you guys to your adult conversation. I probably should have overclocked my system long ago. But…well…lazy…
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That’s like half a 2080ti right?
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Pretty much 
Yeah I am hitting the power button on my PC right now. It is waaay to late for me to start this process. Tomorrow!
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It’s only 3PM in Metric!
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Not cheap indeed - I also got a H150i Pro RGB to keep the 9900k cool as my old H80 (non-i) would likely be over-taxed. That then required a new case to suit the radiator - a Corsair Obsidian 750D airflow edition.
My previous build was a ASUS Sabertooth P67B3 with an Intel i7-2600 (not the K unlocked kind!) as I didn’t think I would ever conceive of overclocking. The K models were sold out with a backorder timeline of a few months when I went to buy, so I figured with no O/C I’d just get the 2600 and save $30. With DCS updating, I needed something more but I couldn’t overclock. I also needed more than 16GB RAM and spending that on DDR3 didn’t make alot of sense given the CPU.
I got 8 years out of that build - so I decided to go all-in again as I plan to keep this rig rolling equally as long at least.
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So why in the heck don’t/didn’t CPU manufacturers just do during manufacturing what the de-liding process does? Was it really that much more expensive to use a different thermal paste right from the get go? How much could that have added in cost on such a large scale of economy? $.50 or $1?
I’m asking this, of course, after I bought a $300 O+ headset that I had to spend $60 to make comfortable. LOL. I think I answered my own question.
That lazy cat is apparently industry too.
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To quote our county medical director regarding a procedure that they’re looking at implementing in traumatic cardiac arrest patients who are already flatlined when treatment begins (where the survival rate (not recovery, merely they have a pulse) is about .7%-1.5% (yes less than 2 percent)) “what’s the worst complication that can happen? They die more?” I say go for it!
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If @fearlessfrog LiveStreams the LID cracking procedure, I will SMASH that subscribe button!
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That’s really nice stuff. Lots of dollars as well.
(I’d link to pcpartspicker, but I’ve got loads of builds with my kids names all over them, so won’t, hence crappy screenshot):
My parts list is for the two scenarios:
(a) ‘Where I skip being an idiot’
(b) ‘Perhaps University for two kids is overkill?’
Prices in Canadian peso’s, no tax. I should also say that I put stuff like this in the tax accounting munger, so actually get it back eventually.
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Before answers we have more questions (sorry!) - these cover some of the issues I came across when deciding my new build so hopefully there’s some helpful considerations:
Comments on Build A:
- Motherboard only has 6 back panel USB ports. How many do you need? Can you make up the gap with potentially 2-4 front panel ones on the case?
- How long do you expect that processor to be effective? If you have to replace it in a couple years, just bite the bullet now as later you may need a new socket motherboard. I assume VR may be a factor here too.
Comments on Build B:
- What GPU do you have now? Does it need to be upgraded?
- Much better on the back panel USB connections.
Overall comments:
- Do those motherboards satisfy your SATA or M.2 drive connection needs (or future desires)? Most boards that offer two M.2s will cut off a couple SATA ports cut or a PCIE slot (one of the smaller ones, or the second full one) so if you use expansion cards for WiFi etc - will they be in the clear? Note which PCIE slot is killed off, if it’s a concern as you also may lose one behind the GPU due to it being a two-slot height. This could mean you effectively lose two PCIE slots. These details hide in the motherboard manuals typically - the spec pages usually aren’t as detailed. I would like to eventually go to M.2 SSDs - one for Windows, and one for DCS, but I still have a few other drives/SATA SSDs for other things - hence my mobo criteria to not affect my SATA count.
. - Are these prices legit, like can you order from them with free shipping? I’ve never used PCPartsPicker, but these numbers are/look below retail. (Canada Computers / NewEgg.ca)
. - Overall, I’m partial to go-big or go-home strategy. If you cheap out now and have to upgrade later it will likely cost more overall as you allocated funds to a component twice. For exmaple, the i5 is $339 but if you replace it two years later with an equally priced equivalent then you have spent $678 instead of having spent $639 for the i9-9900k from the get go. With how long I keep a machine, you can see that would really start to add up.
. - Counter to my above, you can offset that by selling old parts. I passed along my old case, h80, i7-2600, mobo, ram, pricey wireless ASUS PCE-AC68 card (I use cable and my new mobo has WiFi which wasn’t part of my purchase criteria but came as a result of the others criteria) and capture card (I use software encoding with OBS now instead of a AverMedia C985) for $500 to a friend and he has rebuilt it with a new PSU, SSD & HDD and a RTX2070. He’s not into triple-A titles or sims, so that will suite him very well for a few years and what parts he bought he could carry forward if needed.
. - Of course, budget is the decider - which is why I spent $750 (with tax) when my 660ti died on a 1070ti rather than buy a 1080ti for $1600+ (before tax).
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For USB ports, because of the Oculus Rift I had on this PC, I have a micro PCI 7-slot USB 3.0 card (powered direct from the PSU rather than the PCI lane), so I’ll probably use that again. It’s a good point to count them to check.
For how long of keeping the chip, I reckon only 2 or 3 years for this one. A lot of it will depend if DCS and X-Plane moving to Vulcan actually helps the multi-processor case or not, as even a 6-core i5 would be enough for now.
I don’t use Wireless, as have 700 Mbps direct connection in the office. We do use four Google Wifi mesh points through the house for laptops/phones/kids rooms on the three floors, and I recommend those, but for gaming I always hardwire.
For M.2, I still have about six SATA3 SSDs to move across, so not looking at that just yet. Maybe a boot one down the road a bit (plus interested to see how @Fridge’s goes for sure). Apart from the GPU and the USB board, I should have PCI slots free if not having a motherboard with a second or third M.2 slot.
The site https://pcpartpicker.com/ doesn’t sell parts, it aggregates from stores like newegg.ca, etc. What you do is select the stores you like and then it finds (and alerts!) the best prices for your parts list. It also checks your parts are all compatible too. Here’s the shops I usually use, plus let the prices shown include the 12% HST in BC.
As for selling stuff, we’re a household of about 17 PC’s and laptops, so I don’t sell stuff.
For a video card I use a heavily overclocked GTX 1070, which is show its age in VR, meaning that I dial stuff back in DCS and X-Plane to hit a solid 45 fps in VR. I think the 2080 Ti is the a little on the wrong side of the cost / value curve for me, so was thinking of going 2080 for now. Again, lifetime of about 2 or 3 years.
The min or max purchase lists is really about if I just hang on a bit, as am pretty curious about what’s up next for Intel. This i5 failing just sort of happened at a bad time.
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Awesome reply!
So with your upgrade cycles the i5 would likely be OK then as if you want more you can do that on the next gen with a potentially new socket, and just hand it down. I agree 100% on the graphics card in that case - I am looking to eventually do VR (but I will have to make a post regarding my vision conditions that maybe you could chime in on before deciding if VR is “for me”) so I would need better than my 1070ti as well. VR considerations were an area I couldn’t really speak too.
Could you link the USB card? I got one that uses a secondary USB3 header on my board, but only has two ports (I didn’t need many as spares) just for future reference in case!
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This little guy - they are very small (you can see the PCI-E end is like 3 cm wide), and because the Oculus Rift drew so much juice from the USB ports was needed even if I had USB 2.0’s free. I believe I got it from Amazon.ca back in the day.
https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Superspeed-Ports-PCI-Expansion/dp/B00FPIMICA
The new VR headsets only use a single USB 3.0, so it was just a quirk of its time. When combined with how many USB3 you get on the motherboard, plus the front header then it works out.
For VR, whatever you do is get somewhere on with the concept of trying it out for a week and then seeing if it works for you or not.
I love it, but am very much in the camp that it is not a universal thing for simming. It’s a whole area of compromises where the highs are (for me) worth it but the lows not to be ignored. I think you could very much try a Rift S from Amazon (or the Microsoft Shop, anywhere with easy returns) with that 1070ti and i9 combo and then decide what you want to do. If it feels like it really works for you, like you don’t think you’ll go back to 2D, then either keep the Rift S or return it and look at other newer things happening this summer (HP Reverb etc etc) and then start planning a 2080 or 2080 ti future!
I think you’re right about the i5 9600K, it’s just that ‘well, if I’m buying stuff now’ temptations of course. lol
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@fearlessfrog guess what I came home from work to?
My brother’s PC refused to POST - CPU Fan fault. He’s got a corsair cooler.
I jumpered a case fan into the CPU fan socket so it would boot. CPU temperature? 98 degrees C!
Pulled the cooler - thermal paste was dried out and one of the standoffs was loose. New paste and tightened down - still 98. Scrambled to find his stock fan cooler and got that in. He’s stable for now, but it’s time for a new cooler.
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I could bring my vice around! 
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I’m excited to see how this delidding business goes - I have the same CPU OC’d and watercooled as you and I’ve invested in 32GB of RAM in the current infrastructure too.
I’d like to keep it on life support as long as possible to delay the inevitable cost of the next step up (new CPU + Mobo + RAM) and delidding might be another (perhaps extreme but kinda fun) avenue to do so.
The other avenue would be to find an i7 4790k to replace the i5 4690k with and stay with the 1150 socket for a bit longer but those seem really expensive for what you get…not that I know what I’m talking about but still
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I’ve ordered it, but it’s saying ‘May 13 - Friday, May 24’ for delivery. Somewhere in Zhuzhou, China there’s someone in a tin hut on 14 cents an hour getting a SMS to put some pellets into the mold machine, and Canada Post takes it from there as slowly as humanly possible.
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Delidding definitely sounds like something no human should be doing to anything. It just sounds sinister…
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For the performance increase, even used I would say that’s not worth it. If you had no budget to upgrade, and it the i5 was dying - then maybe.
If you were happy with the i5, but wanted additional threads (i7 hyper threading) to say edit some video and could sell the i5 to recoup some cash…that would also work.
For DCS, with it being single thread performance dependent going to an i7 won’t net you much if anything unless you have a lot of other background activity.
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