Need advice on upgrade

jasoncb · 30 Nov 2017 at 15:39

Hi,

I currently have the following spec

i7 2600 CPU
970 GFX
Corsair CX650M PSU
16gb ddr3 RAM
AOC 27" 144mhz Monitor (1080p)

Now I would like a new motherboard, cpu and ram and possibly keep the 970 and PSU (if possible) for now. My budget is around £400-£500. Don't mind AMD or Intel.

StarShock · 30 Nov 2017 at 15:42

Hello, what do you use your machine for? Just gaming? editing? streaming?

jasoncb · 30 Nov 2017 at 15:45

StarShock said:
Hello, what do you use your machine for? Just gaming? editing? streaming?

It will be mainly for gaming.

StarShock · 30 Nov 2017 at 16:40

For gaming you'd be better off keeping your current cpu etc and just upgrading your GPU. Something like a GTX 1070/1070ti would give you a pretty big jump within your budget

But if you're set on a new platform I'd look at the i5 8600k 6 cores, overclocks quite high. Its probably the "best" pure gaming CPU at the moment. Current ram pricing will hurt your budget though, looking at £150+ for 16gb of ram.

If you're just looking to have a modern platform without really pushing the boundaries a ryzen 1600 is a really solid all rounder CPU and quite cheap at the moment, but you'll see next to no actual improvement in gaming from your current i7

orbitalwalsh · 30 Nov 2017 at 17:10

If you did take the jump, going i7 8700 and you'll see the gains and the cost.
As mentioned above , gtx 1070/ti/1080 would get your juices going !

Intel prices are returning to normal with Distributors stopping set allocation numbers

jasoncb · 30 Nov 2017 at 18:14

StarShock said:
If you're just looking to have a modern platform without really pushing the boundaries a ryzen 1600 is a really solid all rounder CPU and quite cheap at the moment, but you'll see next to no actual improvement in gaming from your current i7

So an i7 2600 and a Ryzen 1600 provide the same bottleneck to games? Good to know before I make any decisions.

Tom898 · 30 Nov 2017 at 19:47

jasoncb said:
So an i7 2600 and a Ryzen 1600 provide the same bottleneck to games? Good to know before I make any decisions.

Are you seeing bottlenecking with your current CPU in games? For high refresh rate gaming then intel tends to be better due to it having slightly better single core performance, but I wouldnt expect the 1600 to bottleneck you at 144hz and 1080p