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coffee lake i5 8400/8600k or ryzen 1600?

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25 Sep 2017
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140
thinking about upgrading from my fx6300
I run a 780ti cpu currently.

Ill also need recommendations on RAM and MOBO's please?

not sure whether to go for ryzen or one of the new coffee lake CPU's now they are released im not so sure on what benefits ill have.

have seen some good things about the 8400 aswell as the 8600k some saying the 8400 is more than enough with a high boost clock speed?

Would like to play games such as pubg and destiny 2 at 1080p

TIA for any help.
 
Pubg and destiny 2 perform better on intel CPU's.
The 8400 is capable of extracting all the power from a 1080ti at 1080p.
The downside to the 8400 at the moment is it requires a Z series motherboard which cost more and doesnt allow the 8400 to be overclocked.
My advice here would be to wait until the lower end coffeelake boards get released and pair it with the 8400, or get the 8600k.

Of course there is ryzen but it doesn't perform as good as the 8400/8600k at 1080p

would a MOBO such as this not be any good?
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...cket-1151-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-32j-ms.html

what speed of Ram would you recommend?
 
If you could stretch a little more I'd recommend this board instead
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...cket-1151-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-6aj-as.html
The VRM's are much better on this board, though not really an issue if not overclocking to the max.

As for ram, in my own testing I saw diminishing returns after 3600CL16. I even got to 4000CL19 and the difference was almost nil.
3200-3600 should be good.

I think 8400 will be my choice i can't justify the extra £100 for the unlocked cpu.

would a 3200-3600 be the best still?
 
Lots of options currently available to you then, how long have you had your FX6300, and do you envisage keeping this setup a similar amount of time?

Ive had the fx6300 about 3 years but only really played games like wow untill recently and have decided to sell my PS4 and get into PC gaming.


Do you have any plans, or the budget to change the GPU at any point in the near future (3-6 months)?
I've not got many plans to change it unless I heavily get involved in PC gaming through the winter. Not sure what the logical next step is.


Are you keeping the monitor and resolution for the foreseeable future?

I only said 1080p as I'm certain my monitor isn't 4k and I don't have the budget to change it just yet.

Once you've answered those questions, you can start to narrow things down a bit, also do you have a fixed or flexible budget, and what is it currently?

With budget in mind I'd like to get as much bang for my buck. I'd like to keep sub 400 or close to for cpu ram and Mobo. I also need a new case!
 
Well given your budget of £400, and owning to needing a new case as well, then you have roughly £350 to get the rest of your components. The main sticking point presently is the cost of RAM, due to worldwide shortages of DRAM, memory prices have gone up significantly in the last year, and you can expect to pay around £140-150 for 16GB (2x 8GB) of DDR4 RAM, which doesn't leave you much room for the rest, so you'll be forced to settle for 8GB only for now. You've got one of two choices, buy 2x 4GB sticks and have the ability to run with dual channel memory, or buy a single 8GB stick with slightly less performance and add a second stick when you have the funds to do so.

So, buying 8GB is going to leave you with £270 for the board and CPU which is plenty, and lots of choice. I don't think there is a huge need to upgrade the graphics card for now, if you are running at 1080p/60Hz, the 780Ti performance sits between a GTX 1050Ti and A GTX 1060 3GB, so to get any upgrade you'd be looking at spending £250+.

If you don't need any fancy features, and RGB lighting etc. then I'd be looking at the cheapest board you can find that supports 4 RAM slots (if you chose to go 2x 4GB first), in the case of a choosing a Ryzen CPU, then you'd be looking at the £80ish B350 offerings from ASRock/Asus/MSI/Gigabyte none of them are terrible, none of them are particularly great, but they will all get job done, and allow you to overclock the CPU as well, should you want to. Again, taking the view of keeping it for three years+, then an R5 1600 (£180) is probably a good choice, as I would imagine that newer games coming out in the next few years will really start to make use of the 6c/12t CPU's and it may allow you to keep the system longer.

You could also try the Intel option if you so desire, it'll cost you more, £110 for the board, and £180 for the i5-8400, but may offer a slight edge in performance, in certain games, especially if you intend not to overclock the R5 1600. Obviously it will put you slightly over budget, and you won't get the full benefit of it with your current GPU, but should you get something as fast as a 1080 Ti in the next couple of years it would hold up slightly better (in today's titles) getting more FPS for you. Can't tell what it will fair like against a CPU with more available threads, but I doubt there will be much in it, and I am sure both options will satisfy the 60Hz requirement of your current screen.

Either choice you make won't be a bad one, and both options have draw backs and benefits, the next big upgrade cycle will be 2020 when you will have had this just over 2 years, and if you are still in to PC gaming, then maybe you might have a harder choice to make, with a bigger budget. For now, flip a coin, or just stick inside your budget, save some of the remainder for more RAM, or a nicer case (especially if you have to look at it), as long as you get to enjoy your games, I am sure you'll end up happy. :)


Thanks you that has actually really helped. I didnt realise there was such a Intel / AMD war!

is there a older style intel i could possibly use if the speeds on the 8400 aren't guaranteed? could that save me some money and not bottle neck me in the future if i upgrade my cpu?

Could i still get reasonable money for my zotac 780ti?
 
Just look for benchmarks and make your mind up from that. Most of the people in here recommending ryzen don't even own one themselves. And No, the 8400 won't run at 2.8ghz in normal use, we've already seen them boosting to 3.8ghz on all cores whilst gaming. 2.8ghz will be the absolute worst case scenario using heavy loads of avx and have poor cooling.

i think this will be the way i go.

Thanks for your help Gavin
 
Since you mention that you want to play a lot of Destiny 2 and PUBG, I recommend going Intel over AMD as their CPUs perform better in these games at 1080p.

Also, how long do you intend to keep this new setup for?

Maybe a few years im not big into gaming hence why i don't want to spend fortunes to not use it 6 months later. just getting bang for my buck
 

Will i need the cooler too if im not overclocking?
 
You could always buy one later, the stock Intel coolers are terrible, and may stop you getting a decent all core turbo due to poor thermals. Also it will be quiet. :)

ah i see thank you.

Do you think its worth considering older i5 7600k? or would the 8400 be much better due to 6 cores over 4? is a bit annoying theres no stock of the 8400.

really not sure what route to take...

Also thinking now if i upgrade my GPU could i run at 4k next year too on any of these CPU's or would i then need to upgrade further?
 
Don't buy a 7600K, if you are doing that you might as well get the 8350K, with the newer chipset, since they are both 4c/4t CPU's.

Depends if you think 4K is worth it, most people would say go 1440p Ultrawide for a more immersive experience
i dont think i can afford he 600+ for the monitor and justify it haha
 
Shopping around a bit I've found a Z370 motherboard + 16GB DDR4 3200mhz + i5-8400 for £428. I've left out the better CPU fan, as the 8400 might require it, but until someone tests it we don't know for sure.

Which compares to £416 for a Ryzen 1600 + B350 motherboard + 16GB DDR4 3200mhz. So it's not much of a difference when you shop around.

none with the 8400 instock though :(
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NkzSgLaP00

If you look at the temps of the 8400 in this video you can see it's being taxed fairly heavily at 3440x1440p. In the comments, the OP of the video says he's using the stock intel fan, and doesn't appear that MCE is enabled. Could this mean that the i5-8400 doesn't need aftermarket cooling to maintain 3800mhz across all cores with MCE disabled?

Looks very promising!

Looks like i also need to decide on a new mid case!
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/fractal-design-focus-g-window-midi-tower-case-black-ca-07a-fd.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/coolermaster-masterbox-5-midi-tower-case-black-ca-36a-cm.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-eclipse-p400-midi-tower-case-gun-metal-window-ca-043-pt.html
 
Aye, at first it was decent. Going forward I've had a few issues with it. eg 2 sata ports no longer work 100% of the time, though moving the drive to another port and back again solves it? The MSI mystic light is also trash imo
The main issue I have with MSI is the support, the mods over there a idiots imo. Any complaint about the board or software will get deleted. Then when you submit a support ticket you get a generic response from someone that can barely string a sentence together.
What board would you suggest for a over lockable 1600?
 
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