Replacement for 2500K

lovelyhead · 18 Oct 2014 at 13:35

I have a 2500K currently and due to motherboard issues which I can't be bothered trying to resolve I have decided to upgrade both CPU and motherboard.

What would your recommendations be for a new CPU and motherboard? I have a GTX 970 and have no plans on ever going down the SLI route. I don't do any CPU intensive things apart from gaming so I don't need a 10 core monster cpu or anything. Just the best CPU for gaming. I have a budget of around £400 but would like to spend less if possible.

Thanks in advance!

~Dockie · 18 Oct 2014 at 15:26

Something like this?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £106.99
Total : £296.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).

If you wanted you could spend another ~80 and get the 4790k, but i'm not sure you would benefit from it.

lovelyhead · 18 Oct 2014 at 15:55

~Dockie said:
Something like this?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £106.99
Total : £296.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).

If you wanted you could spend another ~80 and get the 4790k, but i'm not sure you would benefit from it.

That looks pretty good. Thanks.

pastymuncher · 18 Oct 2014 at 16:43

The Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5 (stupid manufacturers both using the same name for their board!!) comes with a free Gigabyte gaming keyboard worth £48.

tamzzy · 18 Oct 2014 at 16:45

crazy thought i know, but you can just get a cheap z77 board 2nd hand on the bay and save £££?

KelDG · 18 Oct 2014 at 17:09

tamzzy said:
crazy thought i know, but you can just get a cheap z77 board 2nd hand on the bay and save £££?

Exactly what I did when my Asrock Extreme 4 keeled over and died, banged in a £70 Gigabyte z77 and perfect. Same boat as you OP with a 2500k

lovelyhead · 18 Oct 2014 at 23:50

Do you know what, after looking at some reviews of the latest CPU's which happened to have a table comparing them to the 2500K cpu I decided they are totally not worth it. It was going to cost me £300 for a new CPU and motherboard vs about £60 for a Z77 motherboard and for next to no difference in gaming performance. It was a no brainer really.

So I went and bought an Asus P8Z77-V LX motherboard.

It is crazy how the 2500K is still a competent CPU for gaming!

Evian · 19 Oct 2014 at 00:55

Still got a 2500k also, Still a great CPU, Not sure when I'll upgrade mine :eek:

Chvz144 · 19 Oct 2014 at 10:58

lovelyhead said:
Do you know what, after looking at some reviews of the latest CPU's which happened to have a table comparing them to the 2500K cpu I decided they are totally not worth it. It was going to cost me £300 for a new CPU and motherboard vs about £60 for a Z77 motherboard and for next to no difference in gaming performance. It was a no brainer really.

So I went and bought an Asus P8Z77-V LX motherboard.

It is crazy how the 2500K is still a competent CPU for gaming!

I have the same CPU/Mobo. Works fine, I still need to OC it though...

almighty15 · 19 Oct 2014 at 11:10

I would just upgrade to a 2600/2700k or a 3770k if your board will take it.

There's no need to upgrade your whole platform just for the sake of a single GTX970, especially as your 2500k will push it to the max in all but a handful of games.

pillow · 19 Oct 2014 at 13:03

I've had my 2500k for over 30 months now. I think it's one of the best purchases I made. Every time intel has released new processors I can't help but think that it just isn't enough of an improvement to justify it (bearing in mine I moved from an E8400!)

Nasher · 21 Oct 2014 at 09:46

You most likely won't see a noticable performance increase by upgrading the CPU. No games will stress a 2500/2600k, even at stock speeds :/

P4Clock · 21 Oct 2014 at 09:58

I would just get a new motherboard, a lot of ppl will tell you that intel released the 2500k at the wrong time, if intel had known what they know now the cpu would only just be coming out. other than pci-e 3 there is no need to upgrade

Nasher · 21 Oct 2014 at 10:08

I don't think they released it at the wrong time. It's just that the later generations have been sloppy

RobCrezz · 21 Oct 2014 at 11:14

Im not upgrading my 2500k yet. If you can clock it to around 4.3+Ghz then you should have no need to upgrade for gaming tbh.

almighty15 · 21 Oct 2014 at 12:51

I moved from a 2500k to a 2600k and the extra threads did make a difference in Crysis 3, Battlefield and a few others.

So personally I would buy a 2600k or a 2700k as they tend to overclock better.

Disco_P · 22 Oct 2014 at 08:12

Still rocking a 2550K, £155 new and still kicking every game in the but. Yet I have been through 4 GPU upgrades since.

almighty15 said:
I moved from a 2500k to a 2600k and the extra threads did make a difference in Crysis 3, Battlefield and a few others.

So personally I would buy a 2600k or a 2700k as they tend to overclock better.

i7 would be such a marginal upgrade for OP that it wouldn't be worth the cost.

MOOGLEYS · 22 Oct 2014 at 09:15

I went from a 4.5ghz 2500k to a 4.5ghz 4770k with SLi 780's at the time. Tbh I saw no noticeable in game difference in anything.

Disco_P · 22 Oct 2014 at 19:50

MOOGLEYS said:
I went from a 4.5ghz 2500k to a 4.5ghz 4770k with SLi 780's at the time. Tbh I saw no noticeable in game difference in anything.

Interested, I have always been told I need an i7 for SLI. I have also ignored pretty much everyone of those people.

mikemod · 22 Oct 2014 at 21:31

I bought my 2500K back in August 2011, still going strong @ 4.5GHz

As said before I would just get a cheap Z77 off the bay.