Sanity check upgrade options

[2Drunk2Funk]

Background
Son wants to speed up PC.
Currently has Asus H110M-A with an i5-6400.
Recently added a Zotac 1060 6gb card and 16gb (2x8) Corsair 2133 DDR4 memory (max MHz board will take)
He plays on 24" HD screen @ 144, mostly Fortnite...
He tried to stream his games as well but CPU is 100% and notices freezes playing game (far less so now 16gb memory from 8gb)

Upgrade
Mobo site shows supported CPUs
Appears i7-7700 and i7-7700K are best options after mobo bios upgrade.
K variant appear big price jump compared to 7700 for its increase in performance looking at these benchmarks

So i7-7700 seems best value for performance increase with current hardware?

To throw spanner in, looks like an AMD Ryzen 2700 (avg £80 cheaper than intel) has better benchmarks than the i7-7700.
Would it be worth getting AMD mobo (Which?) and Ryzen 2700 over upgrading current CPU and would the recent DDR4 memory be okay with it?

Basically looking to play his games and stream same time with stutter free gaming at highest fps

Thanks

 

[Plec]

As you have an H board - you only need the i7 7700 if you went down this route - as your board can't clock a K series CPU.

If you're considering Ryzen (a worthy consideration for streaming) - i would wait until Ryzen 2 comes out - only a couple of months to wait.

Plus, if you waited until Ryzen 2 release (and it lives up to the hype) the i7 7700 will probably start appearing more and more in the Members Market and the bay - should be cheaper too so a win win for you whichever flavour you decide on.

 

[EsaT]

That CPU has very little zero muscle for streaming anything.
Not that 7700K would have that much more being also quad core of precisely same architecture.
Hyperthreading isn't replacement for real cores and Intel's SMT implementation was weaker from the start... Before all the bubblegum and duct tape fixes for Intel's vulnerabilities no doubt affecting it.
(also would be first time to for old Intels to have price corresponding to real value)

For getting most bang per buck and longevity would be good to forget streaming for few months and wait for Zen2.
Computex is likely release date for Zen2 Ryzens.

(max MHz board will take)

Memory is always capable to working at slower speed that advertised.
Advertised speeds are actually overclocks over JEDEC standard speed.

 

[2Drunk2Funk]

Not looked at Ryzen2 so not sure what it brings to table.
Will it still give him a new mobo and cpu to outstrip current offerings and some longevity? (Also assume his recent ddr4 memory will be viable)

 

[EsaT]

Not looked at Ryzen2 so not sure what it brings to table.
Will it still give him a new mobo and cpu to outstrip current offerings and some longevity? (Also assume his recent ddr4 memory will be viable)

Zen2 likely brings 9900K level processing power to £200-250 level.

And even if Zen2 architecture decouples clock speed of CPU's internal Infinity Fabric bus, making memory speed dependancy similar to Intels, 2133MHz is slow.
That slow memory causes penalty also to Intels, even if it's smaller than in current Zen1(/+) Ryzens.

 

[Double07]

Not looked at Ryzen2 so not sure what it brings to table.
Will it still give him a new mobo and cpu to outstrip current offerings and some longevity? (Also assume his recent ddr4 memory will be viable)

The smart money is on waiting for Zen2 where possible as it really could be a bit of a game changer. Even if its not what everyone hopes it is then a more informed choice can be made at that time rather than guessing just now with such a fundamental decision in terms of mobo/cpu/ram overhaul.

 

[2Drunk2Funk]

Thanks for all advise. Convinced him to wait for Zen2 and upgrade then, may well do my unit same time