i5 2500K upgrade spec - partial build

jarvis82

jarvis82

jarvis82

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Joined
10 May 2008
Posts
285
Location
Sandhurst, United Kingdom
Hi all,

My son is now 14, and has suddenly reverted to wanting to game on his PC after a few years of solid PS4'ing.

I built the PC for him a few years ago, probably overkill at the time for the 'younger' games he was playing at the time. I've upgraded a few components over the years, and now its a bit mismatched. The recent addition of a second hand GTX 1070, is causing the obvious CPU bottleneck. The Gigabyte board doesn't seem to want to allow an overclock of the 2500K above 4.2, which is quite restrictive.

Anyway, cut a long story short, its prob time to try and sort him out with a more relevant build.

CPU
Motherboard
RAM
Cooler

Current PSU is a Corsair CX650, so should be fine I'm assuming. Currently gaming at 1080p, but would aim to get him a 1440 monitor at some stage in the not too distant future. Am assuming the 1070 (a Gigabyte SC edition) can run 1440 happily?

Happy to move to AMD if need be, as am guessing thats best bang for buck. I have no experience with overclocking AMD though, but presume it isn't difficult?

Budget, not set in stone, but would be nice to do it for £400 - £550.

Any input appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Nothing wrong with what he has, throw some games on it and see which ones you can't run at ~60fps then decide if it is worthwhile. Personally I'd either bank the cash and wait, or buy a really nice 1440p monitor now which will make a big difference to everything that is done in front of the screen not just gaming. :)
 
I had a similar system myself (albeit I was clocking my 2500k @ 4.3GHz) and decided to upgrade myself and was suggested this as an good route:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £381.47 (includes shipping: £10.50)​
​

I also went from a GTX970 to a Vega 56 but my understanding is that your GTX1070 is on a par with that anyway so I think you are good in that department.

The one thing I didn't take into account was pretty poor airflow in my case as I understand that the Ryzen chips run quite a bit hotter than the Intel chips - this ended up with me upgrading the stock 2600 cooler and even a new case!

From what I've read though, the stock wraith cooler should be fine if you aren't overclocking!

RAM-wise I had a faulty set and ended up plumping for the Team Dark Pro Edition with the Samsung B-dies to have a better chance of my XMP memory settings working at the full 3200MHz speed - but you could easily be lucky and the RAM above work fine out of the box!
 
jarvis82 said:
Am assuming the 1070 (a Gigabyte SC edition) can run 1440 happily?
Click to expand...
1440p 60hz, yes. 1440p 144hz, no.

StevieP said:
1 x Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £91.99
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rather get the mortar for the same-ish (£3 cheaper) price or the bazooka if needed to save some pennies...

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £180.08 (includes shipping: £11.10)

​
ilc72 said:
I thought it would be useful to post a great video looking at the best AMD motherboards from BuildZoid at GamersNexus at different price points.


Spoiler Alert:

Best High End X470’s:
Gigabyte AORUS Gaming 7 WiFi
Asrock Taichi Ultimate (10GbE LAN)

Best Extreme Overclocking:
Asus Crosshair VII Hero

Best $180 Mid-Range X470:
1. Asrock Taichi
2. Asus ROG Strix X470-F (No WiFi)
3. MSI Gaming Pro Carbon (Manual Overclocking Only for 2700X)

Best $140 Motherboards:
Gigabyte X470 Ultra Gaming (Not recommended for 2700X Overclocking)
MSI X470 Gaming Plus (No WiFi)
MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC (WiFi) (Best in category for 2700X)
MSI B450 Tomahawk (No WiFi)

Best mATX Motherboard
1. B450M Mortar (Recommended for Ryzen 2600 upwards)
2. B450M Gaming Pro

Best Mini ATX
MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC (WiFi)

Best mATX for APUs:
Gigabyte B450I AORUS Pro WiFi

Best Mini ATX for APUs:
Asus TUF B450M-Pro Gaming (No WiFi)
Click to expand...

tamzzy said:
xda4pmf92pw11.png
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gtx 1070 and intel for 1080p hands down !


BB CODE
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £524.46 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​

at 1440p intels leads is cut down - maybe 5-10fps difference at that point .

2600 all core boost is 3.6ghz with stock cooler ,2600x is 3.9ghz - both can do 4.2ghz all core with overclock and good cooler
9600k all core boost is 4.3ghz (need a cooler) , enable M.C.E and will hit 4.6ghz all core (good cooler), overclocking you'll kit 5.1ghz normally but need a good air or CLC unit

q2 when X570 and then coming weeks when B chip boards follow will be interesting - board designs look nice :)
 
Still can't see the point in buying a brand new board/CPU/RAM now if you fully intend to get a good 1440p monitor. It's even more sensible to get one now since Nvidia now support Freesync with their cards just with a driver update. Get the monitor first, then get a new system later in the year once things settle down.
 
Journey said:
Still can't see the point in buying a brand new board/CPU/RAM now if you fully intend to get a good 1440p monitor. It's even more sensible to get one now since Nvidia now support Freesync with their cards just with a driver update. Get the monitor first, then get a new system later in the year once things settle down.
Click to expand...

true, most of it depends on games currently played or intending to play in future . since devs finally coding for more threads.

Nvidia and their freesync support.... mixed bag, surprised not a single samsung screen is on their list and im lucky enough to have tried their 2 new HDR Freesync 2 monitors that blow every monitor out for visuals .
think theres more then what they deem 'worthy' which is a shame , but least its a step in the right direction

just picturing Micro LED Gaming monitors in the future..... damn!
 
orbitalwalsh said:
Nvidia and their freesync support.... mixed bag, surprised not a single samsung screen is on their list and im lucky enough to have tried their 2 new HDR Freesync 2 monitors that blow every monitor out for visuals .
think theres more then what they deem 'worthy' which is a shame , but least its a step in the right direction
Click to expand...

You can enable it on any monitor, not just the ones they say you can. It's Nvidia's way of protecting the Gync screen owners from feeling burned, that list will be 100+ in 6 months once the Gsync monitors disappear and people get used to the fact they were ripped off. ;)
 
Journey said:
You can enable it on any monitor, not just the ones they say you can. It's Nvidia's way of protecting the Gync screen owners from feeling burned, that list will be 100+ in 6 months once the Gsync monitors disappear and people get used to the fact they were ripped off. ;)
Click to expand...

guessing they could limit the sync frame rate , to give G-sync owners the privilege. interesting times . just waiting for Sony to join in with sync tech and enable it to match xbox
 
Journey said:
You can enable it on any monitor, not just the ones they say you can. It's Nvidia's way of protecting the Gync screen owners from feeling burned, that list will be 100+ in 6 months once the Gsync monitors disappear and people get used to the fact they were ripped off. ;)
Click to expand...

Ohh how i think i have 2 freesync monitors...!
 
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