Spec me a CPU upgrade - £1000-1200

[DrCrabHands]

Currently have a 8700k with a Corsair H100i, 16gb 3200mhz ddr4, RTX3090 FE and 850w PSU plus m.2 SSD + 3 other SSDs

Im looking for a CPU and mobo upgrade and to move to DDR5 ram. Keep GPU etc. Might also upgrade my AIO at the same time as it's nearly 8 years old!

I'm well out of the loop with the CPU market and i don't care of its blue team or red team. Can some kind soul spec me a good upgrade for my system?

This will solely be for gaming at 1440p and VR

Appreciate the help.

 

[mickyflinn]

Intel just released there 13th gen cpus which seems to the gaming crown 13600k fits nice in your budget. Then threw the 7600x from AMD which is a decent alternative don't think there's a bad choice either way just total cost of platform should be considered.


@Craig_d1 Which way would you go ?

 

[dfour]

Intel

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-370-MS) = £359.99
• 1 x Kingston FURY Beast EXPO RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (KF560C36BBEAK2-32) (SKU: MY-29R-KS) = £269.99
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer II A-RGB High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 240mm (SKU: HS-07P-AR) = £99.94
• 1 x Intel Core i5-13600KF (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6B8-IN) = £356.00

Total: £1,096.42 (includes delivery: £10.50)​

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AMD

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Kingston FURY Beast EXPO RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (KF560C36BBEAK2-32) (SKU: MY-29R-KS) = £269.99
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer II A-RGB High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 240mm (SKU: HS-07P-AR) = £99.95
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 7700X Eight Core 5.40GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DF-AM) = £419.98
• 1 x Gigabyte X670 Aorus Elite AX (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5B9-GI) = £350.00

Total: £1,150.42 (includes delivery: £10.50)​

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I think it would be best to change the cooler as the last thin you want is it to fail wth you new hotter cpu.

 

[Craig_d1]

Intel just released there 13th gen cpus which seems to the gaming crown 13600k fits nice in your budget. Then threw the 7600x from AMD which is a decent alternative don't think there's a bad choice either way just total cost of platform should be considered.


@Craig_d1 Which way would you go ?

Haven't tried pricing up a new intel rig yet..from quick look, new z790 boards seem just as expensive as x670e boards..if leaning that way prob go with a cheaper z690 board. seems z790 give you gen 5 nvme..seeing as most people happy with gen 3, gen 4 should be more than enough, esp for gaming, and no future upgrade path so wouldn't bother with more expensive z790 board
if going ddr5 though, seeing as all new build, I'd lean towards amd..drop a new cpu in 3 years from now would require a new mobo for intel, and guess price of those will be higher than now with inflation, so an am5 x670e (would actually pay for pcie 5/nvme 5 now) board now with gen5 gpu and gen5 nvme will be fairly futureproof(one hopes in 3/4 nothing will be bottlenecked by those)
for ram buy elsewhere..the below is 6000C32 so tighter timing should help in gaming and is available elsewhere for £226. I've just moved abroad and things more expensive here, but can get that equiv £210, and pc parts expensive here..£299 too much
My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Kingston FURY Renegade RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C32 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MY-29Q-KS) = £299.99

Total: £299.99 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

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[Craig_d1]

Prob one of these boards would be my choice(top 3). all are gen 5 gpu slot and have 1 gen 5 nvme slot..the gaming e also has digital post display for error codes etc...still finding it weird where a b650e board can have a pciegen5 gpu slot when a x670 board doesn't..the tuf gaming board x670e has more sata connections(6) if you require them, the strix b650 boards have 4.. The tuf x670e and gaming e support 4 nvme, the gaming f has 3. would want to see reviews about vrm's though, esp if dropping a more powerful cpu a few years down the line.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Asus ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6JX-AS) = £309.95
• 1 x Asus ROG Strix B650E-E Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6JW-AS) = £364.99
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming X670E-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6J9-AS) = £349.99

• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6K0-AS) = £242.99

Total: £1,267.92 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

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if not bothered about gen5 anything, as think gen 4 will not be a problem in future,the the tuf gaming B660-plus seems good enough, and price not too outrageous​

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@mickyflinn which way would you go?​

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[mickyflinn]

@Craig_d1 I think I would lean towards AMD also as they are known for platform support, but it's just the sheer cost to jump on the new stuff . I think this will get intresting in the sense of value for money when the 7600 or 13400 are released.

Intel supporting DDR4 is a wise move and AMD missed a trick.

 

[random_matt]

7700X and switch to the X3D next year.

 

[Tetras]

13600K build with some of the cheaper stuff:

Intel Core i5-13600K (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail - £379.99
TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C40 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G5600HC40BDC01) - £179.99
Asus Prime Z790-P WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £269.99
Arctic Liquid Freezer II High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 240mm - £89.99

Grand Total: £930.46

 

[DrCrabHands]

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys. Some great options in there.

How much benefit would there be in spending a bit more and going for a 13700k over the 13600k?

 

[Craig_d1]

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys. Some great options in there.

How much benefit would there be in spending a bit more and going for a 13700k over the 13600k?

Below 9 games using ddr5 and 1080p with a 4090 to max diff between a 13600k/13700k/13900k. The gap is negligible diff to about 5% max in some games..got to 1440p that narrows and 4k again, they're all the same. the spideerman game is meant to be very cpu intensive and had the cpu at 73% for 13600K and 63% for 13700k, but there's still plenty of headroom room..most of the games the 13600k was under 50%

So for me, you wont really see any difference. Not up to speed so much on VR, but vr uses more pixels, so would assume the grunt work would be on the gpu, so like playing on a higher resolution screen, so again, any gap would therefore narrow..

for me I'd go 13600k route if I had to go intel, or amd, 7600x (reviews I've seen 7600x slightly better(we talking a couple fps only so) in gaming, but 13600k trounces when come to productivity when the e-cores really come into play. So a more rounded cpu 13600k but platform end of life, or amd a more games oriented cpu where you can drop a better cpu in a couple years from now without having to buy new mobo and trounce the 13600k

Either way you're going to have a very good gaming experience, and are going to be basically limited by your gpu

What case do you have? Just have to be careful with the arctic aio as thicker rads can be an issue if going with one of those and installing in roof of a case..Just check clearance. i know I couldn't install in mine as fans would interfere with the mobo vrm heatsinks

 

[Craig_d1]

hardware unboxed...13min 20 shows a 12 game av at 1080p, then 13min 45 at 1440p..has the 13600k/13700k/13900k, 7600x/7700x/7900x/7950x all in there

 

[Craig_d1]

)just noticed you running corsair aio..if you like it you can get the h115i (280mm model) elite capellix on offer away for £99
Also kingston renegade rgb 32gb 6000C32 for £226

So £325 combined for the below

• 1 x Corsair Hydro Series iCUE H115i Elite CAPELLIX RGB Performance Liquid CPU Cooler - 280mm (CW-9060047-WW) (SKU: HS-041-CS) = £159.95
• 1 x Kingston FURY Renegade RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C32 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MY-29Q-KS) = £299.99

Total: £459.94 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

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a rung down from the tomahawk @dfour put in above, but the z690 version was the board to beat last year for price/performance and should be more than capable of handling 13600k/13700k, but have to say prefer look of tomahawk. The asus tuf was the other board that was comparable to the tomahawk, but don't see the ddr5 version on ocuk

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-13600K (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6AV-IN) = £379.99
• 1 x MSI Pro Z790-A WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-36Y-MS) = £319.99

Total: £699.98 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

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so combined you're at £1,025​

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or AMD £945 combined​

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My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DG-AM) = £319.99
• 1 x Asus ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6JX-AS) = £309.95

Total: £629.94 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

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Both mobo's offer pcie5 gpu slot and 1 pcie5 m.2 nvme slot, though the Asus board has 3 nvme slots compared to 4 on the msi board. it only has 4 sata ports also if you care about that, but has more usb on the back​

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if you went mid range board like the tomahawk, then intel package is £40 more so £1,065​

AMD equiv then would be the Asus tuf X670E plus wifi at £349 above, so again £40 more so £985, or the b650e gaming E at £1,000 combined. both boards again pcie5 for both gpu/nvme, but get 4nvme/6 sata on tuf and same on gaming e, but get 12 usb ports and also digital post display on mobo too​

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Still scratching my head about reviewers saying intel much cheaper platform at the mo..guess a lot is basis U.S pricing where difference betw cpu is £28, but over here it's £60, and midrange x670e board cheaper than a Z790 board. if you look at last year's intel boards, then you can make £100 back I guess... but again could drop to a b650 plus wifi tuf board at £242 and save close to £70 on amd also​

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Anyway, reads like you're going intel, and if you don't upgrade often, and lime to renew the whole rig, might as well as better allround cpu. Just for gaming though, I'd still lean amd in UK as I think you can get a cheaper rig for same gaming performance, and next cpu if cpu's improve 15/20+% like this year, you can sell the 7600X and drop in the new cpu and you're done​

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From someone on an AM4 platform, in a couple of years, I'll be having to do that, so buying intel now is like me buying AM4 last year(alderlake hadn't launched when i bought)...where's the upgrade path..just something to think about. Why I prefer AMD at mo I guess, as my next upgrade will be new mobo/cpu and ram​

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[DrCrabHands]

Thanks for all the great advice and information. I like the option of AMD for potential upgrade path but saying that I'm only upgrading cpu about every 5 years at the moment

What's swaying me at the moment is power consumption and thermal which from my limited research seems to be AMD as clear winners there.

 

[Tetras]

What's swaying me at the moment is power consumption and thermal which from my limited research seems to be AMD as clear winners there.

High-end AMD CPUs are usually better efficiency with heavy multi-threading (at least, they are against K CPUs, less so with non-K or undervolts), but they're not for gaming, there's not much in it (review gaming efficiency is at the bottom, temperatures on the next page).

Edit: FYI I was looking at the 13600K because that's what you're considering, you can see e.g. here it is pretty similar to the 7600X in power draw when gaming, but I don't know how the 13700K or 13900K perform.

 

[Craig_d1]

Thanks for all the great advice and information. I like the option of AMD for potential upgrade path but saying that I'm only upgrading cpu about every 5 years at the moment

What's swaying me at the moment is power consumption and thermal which from my limited research seems to be AMD as clear winners there.

Intel Core i5-13600K Review - Best Gaming CPU

Core i5-13600K is a gamer's dream! The new processor achieves gaming numbers that match the best AMD Zen 4 offerings, at a much more competitive $320 price point. Our review also shows that 13600K can shine in applications, beating the much higher positioned Core i7-12700K.

www.techpowerup.com

12 game av was 74w on 13600k vs 45w on the 7600x, or frame per watt, 3fps for 13600k v 4.45fps for 7600x(so efficiency 7600x is 149% or to look at another way, if you game for an hour on the 13600k, you can game for close to 1hrs30min on 7600x and use same electricity from cpu) if reading that all correctly....all of which will be destroyed depending on what gpu you have

 

[Darujhistan]

High-end AMD CPUs are usually better efficiency with heavy multi-threading (at least, they are against K CPUs, less so with non-K or undervolts), but they're not for gaming, there's not much in it (review gaming efficiency is at the bottom, temperatures on the next page).

Edit: FYI I was looking at the 13600K because that's what you're considering, you can see e.g. here it is pretty similar to the 7600X in power draw when gaming, but I don't know how the 13700K or 13900K perform.

The 13900K Mount Doom Lake performs like this: