MSI Motherboard with Z390 Chipset Surfaces

If you think that Z390 supports any CPUs that Z370 doesn't - you're a really naive person.
They have the same socket, and taking into account how difficult it is for motherboards' VRM to handle an overclocked 6-core Coffee Lake (only a few motherboards heat to less than 90 degrees under heavy load), it should be clear that LGA 1151 is not for those 8-core mainstream CPUs you all are waiting for. I'm sure that Ice Lake will use some new socket, so buying a Z390 motherboard is a waste of money.

 

Intel is up to their typical release tactics again aren't they!?! I seriously wish they'd learn something from AMD, but I guess when you realize how much of a pay cut you'd have to take in order to follow suit of AMD's architecture release plans you mind if get scared.

I want to upgrade so bad, but these prices and garbage incremental upgrade releases are seriously hard to justify spending much more coin today than things were three months ago....

 

There is a high chance this is only for 8 core coffelakes.

Also i think you're thinking about Skylake-X, Coffee-lake VRM's aren't nearly as bad as skylakes were. Least from what i've seen the VRM's in most cases are perfectly fine

Z390, is to create a middle gap between the two platforms from what i can tell, will it be a waste of time for 98% of people yes, just like Skylake-X is for 99% of people. If you think its a waste of money then it's clearly not for you. Just like most high-end stuff its for a tiny portion of people not for everyone. Most people would be happy with a i3 Quad core right now, it would serve them well for anything they might need, heck most people only need dual core since they only use it for internet. Don't assume what is and isn't needed, as everyone has different needs and wants.

 

DeskStar
You shouldn't forget about that cool storage speed drop due to the meltdown patches. The drops are from 10 to 20%, in games it's not that noticeable but to me it sucks a lot, especially taking into account that AMD Ryzen doesn't have these issues, it's upgradable within 4 CPU generations (unlike Intel), there's a budget chipset (B350) that still allows you to overclock both CPU and RAM, while Intel forces you to buy Z370/Z390 to overclock any of these at all. To me Coffee Lake is a must NOT buy, if I was to buy any new PC I would build it with either Ryzen 2000 this year or wait till Icelake is released. I mean, you buy a Coffee Lake PC this year and you can't even upgrade it to the next gen, for the money it costs it's weird.

Ricepudding there are people that go for high-end stuff from the beginning, there are people that don't need any high-end stuff neither now nor in the future. But what about the rest? Say you're a gamer but you don't have money for an i7. You build a PC with an i5. We all remember how the old 4-core i5 CPUs ended up - it's hard for them to handle let's say Battlefield 1 multiplayer, Hitman, Far Cry Primal without noticeable fps drops, the same destiny is waiting for current 6-core i5 CPUs in a couple of years. You bought a Coffee Lake PC with an i5, what will you do when it's not enough for newer games? Yes, you can go for an i7-8700K, but it's expensive as hell and will be still expensive. And now look at the Ryzens - when the next gen is about to be released, the older gen prices drop, and when your Ryzen 1600 struggles you will replace it with any 8-core of any generation and you will spend less money on that.
That's why I wouldn't buy any Coffee Lake at all.

 

There is easy reasons for that, though.

- SKL-X has a 50% higher TDP right out the door
- The X299 Quad-Channel memory with 8 slots takes up a lot of room that otherwise is used for bigger VRMs/Coolers

SKL-X VRMs weren't actually that bad from a technical standpoint if you didn't buy low-end boards, at most they lacked proper passive cooling. Extreme OC people over-exagerated that for most "ordinary" users. At worst slap an extra case fan somewhere that reaches the VRMs.

 

If you are lucky. The 900P on my last build lost 20%-25% in disk performance after the last patch, I had to go back to a previous BIOS.

 

If you read the forums you will notice many users claim they won't. I skipped the 270 and 370 intel products and bought a ryzen system and it is really good. However, like every release before, Intel will continue selling millions of products and continue market domination. Intel's stock is at a 10 year high right now. AMD however continues treading water still down 20% from Ryzen launch against a market that is up 25%. AMD needs some big step ups as we all need more from AMD. So far AMD still hasn't had any meaningful effect on Intel prices.

 

Issue with your statement here is that you think Ryzen platform will keep you going when in-fact it wont either. you're talking about a CPU not being enough anymore which takes quite a few generations. I went from Sandy Bridge to Coffee-lake, from a 2000 Series to a 8000 thats a 6 generation jump because it wasn't the biggest difference, Ryzen yes will allow for Ryzen+ but they already said it wont allow Zen2 (though correct me if im wrong) let alone 6 generations down the line when you will 100% need a whole new system. This saving money on a system just doesn't add up for anyone unless they got a Ryzen 3 and will get a ryzen 7 later on down the line, but this would be the same thing going from an i3 to an i7. Also jumping to any new top end CPU is expensive, the 2700x the AMD new top end one costs around the same as the 8700k.

End of the day pick the product that is best for you at the time, because the upgrade path you talk about isn't so much of a thing and never truely has been due to too many limitations. Also CPU's are lasting longer now than they ever have been ever, they have for the most part reached a limit, thats why we only see small jumps every year. making our processors last an insanely good time, meaning getting an R7 or I7 will last you years now

 

Ricepudding

You forgot that Intel had been wasting our time for 5 years, starting from Ivy Bridge and ending with Kaby Lake. I bet they would still do it but Ryzen came out.

As you may've heard, Intel will release an 8-core CPU, I'm sure it will be Icelake i9 for mainstream (because it's easier to make money [increase price] with i9 than with i7, lol) - you cannot say that there won't be enough difference between 6/12 and 8/16, so you may want to upgrade in a couple of years and you have no options if you own a Coffee Lake-based PC because it's not upgradable, the best CPU you can get without buying a new motherboard is i7-8700K and its price won't drop because check the prices of the older generations at ark.intel.com - they cost the same.

As for Ryzen upgradability - watch

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10155853543333349

I'm pretty sure the guy says that socket AM4 will exist till 2020. Thus there are to be 4 generations that support the AM4 - Zen (2017), Zen+ (2018), Zen2 (2019), Zen3 (2020).

Take into account that it's always cool to be able to just replace your CPU and keep the rest.

 

The only things that you might miss out on by sticking to AM4 for as long as AMD will is PCIe Gen 4 and native 10 Gb ethernet.

Certainly not a serious loss for most people.

 

The way I see the Coffee lake Cpu`s is like a stop gap until Intel get over the shock from what AMD have managed to achieve with their new CPU`s, so not worth buying into at this point in the cycle and do not forget the issues with hardware bugs. If I were looking for cpu/motherboard upgrade I would wait until next year and unless intel can pull a rabbit out of the hat, AMD is likely to be the best option in 2019.