Best CPU upgrade route? ~£200 budget

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Current spec

i5 8400
H310M mobo
16GB 2666 DDR4
RTX2060

So I'm wanting to upgrade my pc and I realise that the CPU is definately my bottleneck at this point.

I don't know what my best course would be with that kind of budget. Do I go 9th gen Intel with like a 9600/9600k (worth noting that the mobo is out of a pre-build and though the spec sheet for the model officially supports 9th gen the bios is completely different and I cannot seem to update it as it appears to be a slightly bespoke model so I can't 100% confirm this) or do I go pre-owned Ryzen with a second hand Zen2 CPU and Mobo (if that's even in my budget) and bottleneck my RAM (as I know Ryzen prefers 3000+ RAM).

Thanks in advance.
 
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3500x and B450 should be doable for £200, your ram will overclock to 3000mhz no problem.

my first ever DDR4 was the cheapest of cheap 2400mhz and it hit 3000 easy.
 
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3500x and B450 should be doable for £200, your ram will overclock to 3000mhz no problem.

my first ever DDR4 was the cheapest of cheap 2400mhz and it hit 3000 easy.

It's Corsair Vengeance LPX RAM so do you think I should be ok?

More info needed on the motherboard or model number of the pc.

The 8400 is not a bad cpu going to a 9500 will give you between 10% to 20% performance boost.

The motherboard is a MSI H310M Pro M2 and came in a MSI Codex 3 pre-build (of which only the CPU/mobo remain) but as mentioned the bios is none standard and I have been unable to flash it with the standard stuff.
 
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I don't think I'd want to upgrade an 8th gen i5 to a 9th gen i5, it's the same CPU, just a bit faster. I guess if it's really cheap, but even then. A 3600 wouldn't be a massive step either, but it does have more threads.
 
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It's Corsair Vengeance LPX RAM so do you think I should be ok?

The motherboard is a MSI H310M Pro M2 and came in a MSI Codex 3 pre-build (of which only the CPU/mobo remain) but as mentioned the bios is none standard and I have been unable to flash it with the standard stuff.

Corsair lpx is fine.

Email msi to check about the bios and ask them to email you a link OR file to update the bios if you want to go that route.
 
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Corsair lpx is fine.

Email msi to check about the bios and ask them to email you a link OR file to update the bios if you want to go that route.

They have a bios for it when you look up the pre-build but it hasn't been updated since about a month after release unlike the standard one which has had about 10 revisions.
 
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Well MSI were no help at all, they basically said that the codex 3 bios is the only one I could use and ignored any reference to the fact the motherboard were the same model and would not confirm 9th gen support either way on the board.

Looks like it's definately new board time.

Would I see much of a performance increase moving to a 10400 over my 8400 or am I better going 9600/Zen2 second hand?
 
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Do you really want to spend all that money on a new motherboard and CPU just to have a slightly higher clock speed (9600) and/or 6 more threads (10400)? Your call, but not one for me that.
 
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Considering the janky mobo and it's weird bios, I think i'd like to at the very least replace that and while I have the money surely it makes sense to move either to Zen2 or 10th gen to allow an upgrade later down the line in 12 months or so.
 
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Considering the janky mobo and it's weird bios, I think i'd like to at the very least replace that and while I have the money surely it makes sense to move either to Zen2 or 10th gen to allow an upgrade later down the line in 12 months or so.

If you can use Google, and manage to find the 3500x you could pick up a good b450 with the leftover cash.

That will give you a clear upgrade path to 5000 line of cpu's and would give you a solid upgrade here and now
 
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