Black Friday 2020 Discussion & Deals

[freeagent]

I didn’t get any killer deals over the course of this week, but they were ok. I got a 3600XT for the same price as a 3600. Today I got a Strix b550-f for 220 I think. The WiFi one was 30 bucks more. There are some really good deals on 9th gen stuff. I was sooo tempted to stick with Intel for 10th gen.. But the cash outlay.. I did buy some nice ram though, it cost more than my board and their was no deal and 20 bucks for shipping on top of because they are coming from the states. Looking forward to getting it going!

 

[sswilson]

I didn’t get any killer deals over the course of this week, but they were ok. I got a 3600XT for the same price as a 3600. Today I got a Strix b550-f for 220 I think. The WiFi one was 30 bucks more. There are some really good deals on 9th gen stuff. I was sooo tempted to stick with Intel for 10th gen.. But the cash outlay.. I did buy some nice ram though, it cost more than my board and their was no deal and 20 bucks for shipping on top of because they are coming from the states. Looking forward to getting it going!

I'm in the market for an AMD motherboard (I'll grab a processor for it sometime over the holiday season) but I noticed there are a lot more deals on intel stuff ATM than I'm seeing for AMD.

Not sure I'd want to go as high as $220, but I'm seesawing between $150(ish) and $200(ish) and not completely sure there's anything out there as a BF sale that makes it a "must buy now instead of waiting to see if something better comes along" purchase.

 

[Lysrin]

I have been toying with the idea of picking up a 9900K if the price was low enough.

When I bought my Maximus X Code board and the 8700K it was with the intention of being able to update the BIOS and drop in a 9900K at some point. With all the AMD changes that has made me hesitate, but a 9900K would still give this system some considerable longevity I think.

MemoryExpress had $420 but they are out of stock now. Newegg.ca has $530 + 1% Rakuten.

But is that nutty to put that money into a 9900K at this point? Better to just ride out the 8700K until a full upgrade in the future?

 

[JD]

MemoryExpress had $420 but they are out of stock now. Newegg.ca has $530 + 1% Rakuten.

This link still shows $420?

Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake 8-Core 3.6GHz CPU Processor - Newegg.com

Buy Intel Core i9 9th Gen - Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake 8-Core, 16-Thread, 3.6 GHz (5.0 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 (300 Series) 95W BX806849900K Desktop Processor Intel UHD Graphics 630 with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.ca

You'd still gain an extra 2 cores and a bit of an IPC bump too, possibly slightly higher overclock as well? Probably around 10% overall by the looks of things. Obviously any heavily threaded workloads would have higher gains.

 

[Lysrin]

This link still shows $420?

Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake 8-Core 3.6GHz CPU Processor - Newegg.com

Buy Intel Core i9 9th Gen - Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake 8-Core, 16-Thread, 3.6 GHz (5.0 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 (300 Series) 95W BX806849900K Desktop Processor Intel UHD Graphics 630 with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.ca

You'd still gain an extra 2 cores and a bit of an IPC bump too, possibly slightly higher overclock as well? Probably around 10% overall by the looks of things. Obviously any heavily threaded workloads would have higher gains.

Ah I see. I was looking at the 9900K on newegg in at this link:

Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake 8-Core, 3.6 GHz (Turbo) Desktop Processor - Newegg.com

Buy Intel Core i9 9th Gen - Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake 8-Core, 16-Thread, 3.6 GHz (5.0 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 (300 Series) 95W BX80684I99900K Desktop Processor Intel UHD Graphics 630 with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.ca

What's the difference? I can see an I in the part numbers, but that's about it: BX80684I99900K vs BX806849900K for the cheaper one.

$420 is better, and those are the changes I was considering, but it's still $420 + tax. Hard to say if it's worth it, but it is cheaper than a full upgrade!

However, $420 towards a new GPU at some point, and keeping the 8700K might be money better spent?

 

[Herne]

Any thoughts on the Dell S2721HS for $220? I have picked up another contract, meaning I have to create a 3 system configuration for my desk. The portrait is needed unless I VESA mount, which can make for ergonomic weirdness. (Did 2x24" before but found I was torqueing left for hours at a time)

My wife and kids have U2417s but the ultras aren't cheap.

(edit- gaming system is separate, this is for hours of staring at and writing documents and spreadsheets)

 

[Lysrin]

Any thoughts on the Dell S2721HS for $220? I have picked up another contract, meaning I have to create a 3 system configuration for my desk. The portrait is needed unless I VESA mount, which can make for ergonomic weirdness. (Did 2x24" before but found I was torqueing left for hours at a time)

My wife and kids have U2417s but the ultras aren't cheap.

(edit- gaming system is separate, this is for hours of staring at and writing documents and spreadsheets)

It's IPS and 75 Hz which is nice but I'm not sure I would want 1080p at 27". DPI might be a little low? I don't mind 1440p at 32" though so maybe it would be similar.

Also vertical resolution for spreadsheet work is nice. I find 1080p for that stuff feels cramped to me now and prefer to work at 1440p.

 

[Marzipan]

Any thoughts on the Dell S2721HS for $220? I have picked up another contract, meaning I have to create a 3 system configuration for my desk. The portrait is needed unless I VESA mount, which can make for ergonomic weirdness. (Did 2x24" before but found I was torqueing left for hours at a time)

My wife and kids have U2417s but the ultras aren't cheap.

(edit- gaming system is separate, this is for hours of staring at and writing documents and spreadsheets)

I agree with Lysrin, for 27" you NEED 1440p a minimum. running 1080p at that size is like looking at a VGA screen.

 

[Bond007]

I have been toying with the idea of picking up a 9900K if the price was low enough.

When I bought my Maximus X Code board and the 8700K it was with the intention of being able to update the BIOS and drop in a 9900K at some point. With all the AMD changes that has made me hesitate, but a 9900K would still give this system some considerable longevity I think.

MemoryExpress had $420 but they are out of stock now. Newegg.ca has $530 + 1% Rakuten.

But is that nutty to put that money into a 9900K at this point? Better to just ride out the 8700K until a full upgrade in the future?

It would definetly be an improvement, but I don't think the improvement would even come close the the cost. I would ride the 8700k out as long as you can, and put the money to something else.

 

[sswilson]

Yeah, nothing really jumping out at me other than the Basic MSI X570 board @ $180 and I don't think that's a BF price so I'll hold off for now. B450 looks to be the sweet spot ATM, but I don't have a compatible ryzen to flash a new bios and it doesn't make much sense to buy a 3XXX @ only $100 less than a 5600X would cost me in the new year.

Amazon.ca has the next higher tier MSI X570 listed @ $200 but looking a bit closer it's a "sold by a Chinese company, and shipped from China" product so no thanks.