So far out the PC loop, upgrade a i5 2500k system?

kinger8938

kinger8938

kinger8938

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Hi guys.

I have been out of the PC gaming space for a year or 2. I never went for a super high end set up but then to sit comfortably with mid range kit.

Currently my aging PC consists of an it 2500k (not sure what motherboard but from the same time I guess) 16gb of ram (again not sure what i have from memory) and a GTX1070. Also have an SSD plus a standard HDD

I'm happy to keep the 1070 as for my needs this should still be adequate. However what should i be looking at to upgrade the main PC itself?

I wouldn't mind a smaller form factor as I plan to play it hooked up to the TV but it should be able to go behind it if overall size can't be reduced

In terms of budget I'm not really sure as I say, I'm so far out of the hardware loop that I'm not too sure what to expect. Mid range I guess
 
Gray2233 said:
This is basically what you're looking at for a 'mid-range' system:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £332.97 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​

Take your pick of M-ATX cases.
Click to expand...

Tbh that's pretty much bang on what I would like to spend. I assume my current PSU will be fine.

That processor certainly sounds great. Must admit I've not used AMD processors before but i doubt theres much in it between them and Intel at this level?

Will i notice the difference? I'm assuming so as my i5 is like 8-9 years young now
 
It really depends.

Is that a sandybridge i5?

I mean i5 2500k, 16GB ram and a 1070 isn't a bad setup even today. Yes the CPU will be affecting your minimum FPS in places but....

You will notice a performance gain of course with new CPU/RAM and motherboard but I'm not sure how much of a gain you would notice versus the hole in your wallet.

The reason I mentioned Sandybridge is they are great overclockers, do you have some kind of aftermarket cooler? Give you case a good dust out and overclock it, get a few more FPS out.

Are you getting issues with minimum FPS drops in games? I mean if not, I probably wouldn't bother and hold out another year (or two?) depending.
 
BUDFORCE said:
It really depends.

Is that a sandybridge i5?

I mean i5 2500k, 16GB ram and a 1070 isn't a bad setup even today. Yes the CPU will be affecting your minimum FPS in places but....

You will notice a performance gain of course with new CPU/RAM and motherboard but I'm not sure how much of a gain you would notice versus the hole in your wallet.

The reason I mentioned Sandybridge is they are great overclockers, do you have some kind of aftermarket cooler? Give you case a good dust out and overclock it, get a few more FPS out.

Are you getting issues with minimum FPS drops in games? I mean if not, I probably wouldn't bother and hold out another year (or two?) depending.
Click to expand...

It is a sandy bridge, aftermarket cooler and overclocked to 4.5 if memory serves.

It's been a very future proofed CPU that's for sure. I'm not really sure if its affecting my fps or not, just as I want to move to as smaller form factor for our living room I thought it would make sense to finally let the old girl go. But if it's as you say it is, maybe I'm fine still for a while longer?

I've not turned the PC on for over a year. I assume my bios overclock settings will still be intact, otherwise I'll be lost as to what my clock settings were etc as I feel really unfamiliar with PC in general after this break.

I'll hook mine up to the TV this weekend and try out a few games, see how it holds up
 
kinger8938 said:
It is a sandy bridge, aftermarket cooler and overclocked to 4.5 if memory serves.

It's been a very future proofed CPU that's for sure. I'm not really sure if its affecting my fps or not, just as I want to move to as smaller form factor for our living room I thought it would make sense to finally let the old girl go. But if it's as you say it is, maybe I'm fine still for a while longer?

I've not turned the PC on for over a year. I assume my bios overclock settings will still be intact, otherwise I'll be lost as to what my clock settings were etc as I feel really unfamiliar with PC in general after this break.

I'll hook mine up to the TV this weekend and try out a few games, see how it holds up
Click to expand...

Yeah so what happened is...

The Sandybridge seriies i3/5/7 were like a peak of CPU performance for a while, they were super fast for the time, much better than anything out there, ran cool, great overclockers, really a high point in CPU tech.

Wheat happened after is they released the Ivybridge, ran hot, inferior IMO, suceeded by a whole ine of "eco friendly" CPUs there was supposed to be better for the envirnment but really i believe it was an excuse to put out weak CPUs with marginal improvements. During this point also AMD were almost obsolete (for gaming anyway) their CPU's were terrible compared to Intel (Faildozer anyone?). I believe Intel pushed out some great tech to deal a blow to AMD, which i believe worked, for a while anyway and then basically didnt need to improve things for a while.

So, effectively what happened is, after the Sandybridge range, you had a lump in CPU performance, which didnt really pick up for a good 5 or so years IMO until more recently.

Yes ok, never CPUs mean newer motherboards, access to more cores, higher RAM speeds of course, acess to better bus speeds and all that jazz, and yes the more recent CPUs are getting much better, its also nice to see AMD competative again.

However, unlike say GPU technology, which has massively improved over the last 6 - 7 years, CPU's have not.

I still run a Sandybrige i7, which I am not even overclocking that much (long story but MSI motherboard drivers and overclocking support lost to run newer GPUs) but anyway like you, I am running a EVGA 1070 and I am completely satisfied with gaming performance, and I wouldnt not upgrade right now because I dont feel the cost and hassle would benefit all that much.

But, its your money, it might be more important to have the performance and thats fine, that isnt the wrong thing to do, its personal choice. I am just hopefully trying to give you a rougth idea of what you might expect to gain (or not).
 
BUDFORCE said:
Yeah so what happened is...

Snip.
Click to expand...

This is really informative, thank you. Puts things in to perspective for sure.

I have discussed upgrading these parts over the years and am usually met by similar arguments against doing it just yet as that CPU just keeps pumping.

I'll give it some thought, I just assumed by now it would be a noticeable difference to upgrade. Maybe not yet ;)

*side note

If I was to go ahead with a new smaller form factor builds, are there any negatives to consider? Smaller factor I guess limits future upgrade paths like sliding cards etc?
I assume my full size EVGA 1070 will fit in a smaller case
 
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Most modern M-ATX cases have plenty of room for GPU's and Heatsinks etc. They just fit shorter motherboards, which are functionally fine but lack a couple of PCI slots.

My next build will be an M-ATX also, the days of requiring the extra expansion capability of a full ATX board are long gone for me.

Multi-GPU is effectively dead, my audio is all external and connected to my PC via USB so I don't need a soundcard, so an M-ATX board will be ample.

I run a NAS for storage out of sight in a cupboard so I don't need large bulky HDD's in my gaming rig anymore, I'm planning on exclusively using M.2 NvME drives in it. I haven't ran an optical drive in my gaming PC for almost 8 years, so a smaller form factor case makes more sense as I don't need to put a lot in it.
 
I recently upgraded from a very similar system.

went with the Ryzen 3600x, tomahawk B450Max, 16gb ram and a vega 56.

At 1080p it smashes everything.

I was half tempted to frame my 2500k - it had been so damned good I really couldn’t see anything matching the performance and longevity of it in the near future
 
fastwunz said:
I was half tempted to frame my 2500k - it had been so damned good I really couldn’t see anything matching the performance and longevity of it in the near future
Click to expand...

Indeed, basically what I was rambling on about ealier, my Sandybridge i7 is still going strong today.
 
kinger8938 said:
I have discussed upgrading these parts over the years and am usually met by similar arguments against doing it just yet as that CPU just keeps pumping.

If I was to go ahead with a new smaller form factor builds, are there any negatives to consider? Smaller factor I guess limits future upgrade paths like sliding cards etc?
I assume my full size EVGA 1070 will fit in a smaller case
Click to expand...
Performance differences depend on game.
Lots of games have been made in four cores is high end Intel stagnation era or with game engines made for that. (+ of course old tablet level already as new CPU consoles)
Those don't benefit dramatically from higher core/thread count CPUs.
But that's starting to change:
https://youtu.be/7uhXkVI64I8?t=24m40s
(your 2500K certainly performs worser than that 2600K because of having only four threads)

And next-gen consoles bringing underclocked to optimal power efficiency 8 core/16 thread Zen2 (basically Ryzen 3700X) as mainstream in year is certainly going to jumpstart change.
Game developers must be having serious issues in avoiding drooling all over their desks when thinking about that processing power.



Typical mATX board doesn't really have space for another card in good cooling position besides graphics card.
While because of mobo not being that much smaller many cases aren't really that much smaller than ATX cases.
Hence further case size decreases need major cutting of space for storage and working.
Which can be used to make also ATX case smaller in depth.

But it's ITX where major limitations start, with only room for one card and some bigger non-reference graphics cards not fitting into some cases.
Though depending on case design you can still cram pretty high end cooling there as far as CPU is concerned:
https://imgur.com/r/sffpc/Bb1GIY8
 
i must admit that before i finally upgraded the whole rig i changed my 2500k for a 2700k - the difference in BF1 was very noticeable - was a good upgrade for a few months whilst i saved
 
Thanks for all the input everybody.

I finally set up my current PC over the weekend, fresh install of windows and popped on a few of the Gamepass offerings.

The PC still holds up nicely, I'm obviously not going to be able to max too much out at 4k but so far Forza Horizon 4 is running incredibly smoothly at 4k/high preset/with HDR.

Only real issue is the actual size of my TV, it's not exactly entertainment unit friendly. Stuffed it behind the TV for now, fairly noisy too not sure if that's an aging HDD or not.
*(obviously not ideal for air flow and the duck is only hiding so much)

20191110-001211.jpg
 
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