Best Upgrade Path from I5 6600k - advice sought!

2004typer

2004typer

2004typer

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Hi All,

Just looking for some advice - currently have an I5 6600k paired with a 1070. Had this now for around 4 years and still runs great.

However - with Cyberpunk and MS Flight Sim et al on the horizon I'm thinking the time to upgrade is looming.

To spread the cost a bit, was considering getting a Ryzen CPU, MB and Ram, and keeping the 1070 for a little while whilst I make a final decision on the GPU.

Budget for this first phase will be around 500 quid - for the people in the know, what would you advise?

(Can go more if not enough).

(Would I see any small gains in the interim as well while I'm still rocking the 1070?).
 
Ryzen 3700X and B450 mobo. Although I've read here there may be a new range of B550 mobos coming out soon.

What ram do you have currently? Whilst 3600MHz is the standard to aim for with Ryzen, if you currently have 3000 MHz ram (as I did when I had a 6600k previously) then that will work fine. I still use my 3000MHz ram with my 1700X.

You should see some minor gains in current games I would have thought, depending what you play. But moving from 4 cores to 8+8 will be a big futureproofing step I think and will then work well with the new GPUs coming out hopefully later this year.

You might need to budget for an AMD AM4 cooler or mod kit. I was able to get a mounting plate for my cooler to keep the one I originally had for the I5.

My basket at Overclockers UK:



​
 
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Cheers Dan,

Ram - I've got:

TeamGroup Dark Pro 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TDPGD416G30

Copied description from my OCUK order - 25th July 2016.

One more question - power supply I've got is:

Super Flower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power

Assume this will still be ok (tried to pick a semi decent model at the time, hasn't put a step wrong while I've had it).

Thanks.
 
2004typer said:
Hi All,

Just looking for some advice - currently have an I5 6600k paired with a 1070. Had this now for around 4 years and still runs great.

However - with Cyberpunk and MS Flight Sim et al on the horizon I'm thinking the time to upgrade is looming.

To spread the cost a bit, was considering getting a Ryzen CPU, MB and Ram, and keeping the 1070 for a little while whilst I make a final decision on the GPU.

Budget for this first phase will be around 500 quid - for the people in the know, what would you advise?

(Can go more if not enough).

(Would I see any small gains in the interim as well while I'm still rocking the 1070?).
Click to expand...

be daft to upgrade now unless there is a really good bargin on. as the new amd stuff will be out soon and a lot faster. not only that a lot of the kinks from the previous gen chips will be ironed out. so just wait for them to come out. your pc is more than adequate until then.
 
2004typer said:
Cheers Dan,

Ram - I've got:

TeamGroup Dark Pro 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TDPGD416G30

Copied description from my OCUK order - 25th July 2016.

One more question - power supply I've got is:

Super Flower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power

Assume this will still be ok (tried to pick a semi decent model at the time, hasn't put a step wrong while I've had it).

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Ram and PSU both fine.


2004typer said:
Plus have got this cooler on my I5

be quiet! Pure Rock Cpu Cooler - 120mm

Will I be able to use this?
Click to expand...

I don't know you'd have to see if it came with an AM4 bracket or if you can get one. However the retail 3700X will come with its own cooler anyway which by all accounts are pretty good.


~>Dg<~ said:
be daft to upgrade now unless there is a really good bargin on. as the new amd stuff will be out soon and a lot faster. not only that a lot of the kinks from the previous gen chips will be ironed out. so just wait for them to come out. your pc is more than adequate until then.
Click to expand...

Could be still 10 to 12 months away for zen3 and delays to B550 mobos as well?

The 3700X is £50 cheaper on other sites so if it turns up in any sales for say £200 its a good buy i think.


I agree though dont spend unless you feel its necessary. Personally Im holding back on GPUs now as although I could do with an upgrade I don't want to buy a product close to new ones coming out.
 
2004typer said:
TeamGroup Dark Pro 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TDPGD416G30


Super Flower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power
Click to expand...
Those memories might be very well overclockable.
Thaiphoon Burner could tell if those are Samsung B-dies.
http://www.softnology.biz/files.html

Golden Green HX again was bait and switch model changing from quality Chemicon caps of Golden Green to cheap C(r)apXons.
Though that CPU and GPU haven't stressed it that much, so it should be good for few years.
 
EsaT said:
Those memories might be very well overclockable
Click to expand...

~>Dg<~ said:
its end of this year. 3700x at 200 is a good deal anymore at this point its just not worth it
Click to expand...

danlightbulb said:
I agree though dont spend unless you feel its necessary. Personally Im holding back on GPUs now as although I could do with an upgrade I don't want to buy a product close to new ones coming out.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help - so In summary:

Keep the ram, but explore overclocking if identified as suitable via Thaiphoon Burner.

If I can get a 3700x for near 200 quid, go for it (otherwise sit tight for now).

Just as a bit of background, I play on a 144mhz monitor at 1440p, and also have a Quest that I use via link and VD. Granted at the moment can't achieve 144 FPS without turning down quality settings, but have been using freesync that seems to work well. Alyx I think defaults to low/medium (but still looks great).

Want to make sure I've got some more headroom to up the settings for upcoming games.

GPU wise - once I've done the CPU and MB upgrade, what would you advise - not bothered about cutting edge, just the equivalent of what my 1070 was when I bought it 4 years ago (you've probably got a good idea of the system I'm looking for).

Thanks again for any advice, really appreciate it (I gathered the knowledge for my current build from the forums, and it has and is still serving me very well).
 
2004typer said:
GPU wise - once I've done the CPU and MB upgrade, what would you advise - not bothered about cutting edge, just the equivalent of what my 1070 was when I bought it 4 years ago (you've probably got a good idea of the system I'm looking for).
Click to expand...

Your requirements are pretty much identical to mine including running the quest device, except im still on 1080p. I moved from an i5-6600k bought in 2016 to a ryzen 1700X in 2018 but am still on an rx480 gpu from 2016. Personally im waiting for the next gen gpus. In about 8 months time I should be able to select between either nvidia or amd's new range and see where the value for money performance level is.
 
EsaT said:
Those memories might be very well overclockable.
Thaiphoon Burner could tell if those are Samsung B-dies.
Click to expand...

Have just used Thaiphoon Burner - results as below:

[Assume Overclock out of the question - noted the units are Hynix, rather than Samsung].

[I'm also a bit lost with Overclocking, never really tried it (shame on me!!) - is there a decent idiots guide anywhere? - wouldn't mind having a go OC'ing my whole system to squeeze out every last eek of performance, but in a safe way - assume it's a little at a time and steer it back if any instability occurs before frying anything].

9jgrGF5.jpg
 
Those are some old chips.
As in really old because of 4 Gbit size requiring 16 chips&dual rank for 8GB.
They might not clock much and overclocking would be propably completely trial and error without any existing guide lines.

Though by loosening latency to 16 you might get them to 3200MHz which is better for Ryzen and then dual rank would give boost in gaming performance per clock.
 
EsaT said:
Those are some old chips.
As in really old because of 4 Gbit size requiring 16 chips&dual rank for 8GB.
They might not clock much and overclocking would be propably completely trial and error without any existing guide lines.

Though by loosening latency to 16 you might get them to 3200MHz which is better for Ryzen and then dual rank would give boost in gaming performance per clock.
Click to expand...

Bought back in 2016 - do you think I'd be best getting some new RAM when I go for the Ryzen upgrade?
 
15-15-15 is really good for factory 3000MHz, so those could overclock decently by loosening it to 16.
And after 3200MHz it's in diminishing returns area for Zen2.

Though especially flight simulator might like from more than 16GB of memory for high graphics.
Apparently lots of beta testers were chosen based on 32GB of RAM.
 
danlightbulb said:
Ryzen 3700X and B450 mobo. Although I've read here there may be a new range of B550 mobos coming out soon.

What ram do you have currently? Whilst 3600MHz is the standard to aim for with Ryzen, if you currently have 3000 MHz ram (as I did when I had a 6600k previously) then that will work fine. I still use my 3000MHz ram with my 1700X.

You should see some minor gains in current games I would have thought, depending what you play. But moving from 4 cores to 8+8 will be a big futureproofing step I think and will then work well with the new GPUs coming out hopefully later this year.

You might need to budget for an AMD AM4 cooler or mod kit. I was able to get a mounting plate for my cooler to keep the one I originally had for the I5.

My basket at Overclockers UK:



​
Click to expand...

I moved from an i5 6600k to pretty much this exact system. I upgraded my R9 Nano to a RTX 2070s at the same time. I can say the difference was substantial. In particular I use VR for sim racing and now I rarely have any glitches compared with constant reprojection before the upgrade. I also got an SSD for the motherboard which will hopefully give me some future proofing for when the next gen consoles ship.
 
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