How far can I go with a ASUS Z170-P Motherboard, and is it worth it?

Mel_P

Mel_P

Mel_P

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Hello Wise Ones,

AS a group you have provided me with upgrade advice before, and now my 13 year old grandson (130 miles away and not seen / seeing for a while) is looking for an upgrade.

This is now a question on his computer (or rather my computer he has use of but thinks is his!).

I bought the "innards" of this PC as a bundle in 2017 for him to use, as I already had Windows (retail), case, power supply, monitor but no processor (well an old Pentium!).

So the bundle was:
- ASUS Z170-P motherboard
- Intel Core i5-6400 2.7MHz
- 4 GB DDR4 memory 2400MHz, PC4 19200

I have since upgraded:
- the memory to 2 x 8GB DDR4 same speed.
- added an AMD RX580 graphics card.

He has used it for homework and games, starting off with Roblox, then Fortnite, etc, then flight simulators and truck simulators. These are about its limit and he has ideas to update with "Christmas present money".

I learnt this when my daughter said - he wants to upgrade - he asked her for a "Ryzen 5 2600X with wraith cooler" -should I buy it!

Well as we know AMD and Intel aren't interchangeable, and the board is now "old technology (6th Generation Intel". So I told her - NO -don't buy it (yet anyway) as it wont work with that motherboard.

I have looked up the motherboard and the latest CPU that it can run is a Core i7-7700 (3.6GHz, 4C, HT, L3:8M, Intel HD 600 series, 65W, rev.B0). This is 7th Generation and seems a ridiculous price - £380-£700 and I suspect not really the way to go? Comments?

So probably I would think that the cheapest upgrade is an MSI motherboard / Ryzen 5 3600, reusing the RX580 and the DDR4 memory. From comments I have seem the Ryzen 5 2600X is not good value compared to the 3600? Comments?

I bought the MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk motherboard with advice from OCUK Forum - Is that still the best option? Comments?

I have told the grandson to accumulate his money for now whilst I think / gather advice from the Wise OCUK Men!

Thanks for any advice.
 
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Barely anything is good value right now unfortunately, especially on the AMD side. The 10400 is much cheaper than the 3600 now with similar performance. If you go that way and you're keeping the memory then I'd get a cheaper B460 board instead of a Z one too, since the stock memory speed for a 10400 is only 2666.

You can get modified BIOS for many 100 series motherboards to fit 8th or 9th CPUs, so could be worth looking into, though the CPUs aren't cheap either.
 
Would prefer to keep a memory upgrade as an option at present but looking at my past orders it may be only 8GB - 2x4GB -
(Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C14 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK8GX4M2A2400).

(My grandson reports it has 16GB in "System" - have to check how that is made up)

As a longer term bet - with the GPU - AMD RX580 (not GTX) and the 16GB memory would this be a good purchase? (with a view to a memory GB and speed upgrade and a GPU upgrade as Grandsons birthday / Christmas funds allowed?

My basket at Overclockers UK:
​

he has an SSD / HDD / Windows / monitor / kb / mouse

Mel
 
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The 10400F (doesn't have onboard graphics) is a better buy, not in stock right now though.

The motherboard is really expensive, especially to be paired with a 10400. It is your call, but I'd much rather have a cheaper B460 myself. There aren't many games that use more than 16GB of memory, so an upgrade seems unlikely and if he went for an i7 or i9 in the future, it would still support up to 2933 Mhz memory. Alternatively there are cheaper Z490 motherboards.
 
Tetras said:
The 10400F (doesn't have onboard graphics) is a better buy, not in stock right now though.

The motherboard is really expensive, especially to be paired with a 10400. It is your call, but I'd much rather have a cheaper B460 myself. There aren't many games that use more than 16GB of memory, so an upgrade seems unlikely and if he went for an i7 or i9 in the future, it would still support up to 2933 Mhz memory. Alternatively there are cheaper Z490 motherboards.
Click to expand...

Thanks re 10400F - not urgent at present. Is there a 10600F and is there a benefit to the 10600?
Re motherboard - I wanted to get a "future-proof" model - so that it would support say an i7. I will have a look at the B460 range. Would this be a good buy -
B460 AORUS PRO AC (SOCKET LGA 1200) DDR4 ATX MOTHERBOARD?

I basically want to future-proof the motherboard re cpu upgrades.

Thanks
 
Mel_P said:
Thanks re 10400F - not urgent at present. Is there a 10600F and is there a benefit to the 10600?
Re motherboard - I wanted to get a "future-proof" model - so that it would support say an i7. I will have a look at the B460 range. Would this be a good buy -
B460 AORUS PRO AC (SOCKET LGA 1200) DDR4 ATX MOTHERBOARD?

I basically want to future-proof the motherboard re cpu upgrades.

Thanks
Click to expand...

10600F, not that I know of. 10400F v 10600, it's faster obviously, but £140 to £210? Not a budget upgrade anymore.

B460 Aorus Pro AC, from what I can gather, there's a M-ATX one at £110, an ATX with wireless £140-£150 and an ATX without wireless around £100. I'd pick the non-wireless assuming they're otherwise the same.

If you pay much more than £100, you might as well get a Z board, since they start around £120 - £140.

I can't comment on specific boards, but if you want to make sure it'll run with more powerful CPUs, you'll need a decent VRM and cooling, so avoid the very low-end.
 
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