Upgrade from i5 6600K

utamaro

utamaro

utamaro

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Joined
2 Apr 2016
Posts
8
Location
UK
Hi all,

I have the itch to upgrade and would like some advice on my shopping list, which admittedly I've mostly gathered from asking Bard/Gemini.

Apart from general computing when working from home (DB admin, PHP coding, network admin, internet research), I do play a few games (at 2K) such as Baldur's Gate 3, Diablo 2 and Heroes of the Storm. I'm not really into overclocking, mainly because I just don't have time to mess about. I'm certainly not a power user - oh and don't require onboard Wi-Fi.

Ideally I want to avoid breaking, say, the £400 mark (I have a family and mortgage to consider), but I might be persuaded to go a bit over if the deal was too good to miss and it made sense for future-proofing.

Current rig:
  • Asus Z170 Pro Gaming Motherboard
  • Intel Core i5-6600K LGA1151 3.5GHz CPU
  • 2 x 8GB Corsair "Vengeance" DDR4 2400MHz CL14 RAM
  • 2 x 4GB ? DDR4 (some crap I picked up from work)
  • Cooler Master RR-212X-17PK-R1 Hyper 212X CPU Air Cooler
  • Gigabyte Geforce RTX 3060 Windforce OC 12GB
  • Cooler Master B-series V2 700w Power Supply Unit 80+ Efficiency

I'm pretty certain the mobo/CPU combo is where I sorely need to work on, so I was looking at plunging for (staying with DDR4):
  • ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO - Tower CPU Cooler with BioniX P-Series case fan in push-pull, 120 mm PWM fan, for Intel and AMD, LGA1700 compatible - Grey/white (~£48)
    I wanted a white fan!
  • ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Motherboard Socket (PC) AMD AM4 (~£145)
  • AMD Ryzen 7 5700X Desktop Processor (8-core/16-thread, 36 MB cache, up to 4.6 GHz max boost) (~£160)
This comes to about £352 and I was hoping to chuck my old DDR4 RAM in it for now, but had my eye on "Corsair VENGEANCE LPX DDR4 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) 3200M" (£66) if necessary, which would push my budget over but do-able if required.

Would be really grateful for any feedback.

Thank you!
 
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I'm going to suggest you look at AM5 platform as you could do mobo , CPU and 32gb of ddr5 for around £400. This would give you a somewhat future upgrade path as it's a new socket type.

Suggestion .
Ryzen 7600
A620 motherboard
32gb ddr5 5600 to 6000mhz

Selling your old stuff will offset any overspend.
 
Wow, yeah, that cooler's way cheaper. I guess I didn't want to feel like I was "cheaping out" and risking undercooling the CPU. Thanks.
 
I confess some of the discussions are up to 9 months old, but I'm reading a fair few warnings about AM5 reliability/stability. Is it pretty accepted that this is all a thing of the past now?
 
utamaro said:
I confess some of the discussions are up to 9 months old, but I'm reading a fair few warnings about AM5 reliability/stability. Is it pretty accepted that this is all a thing of the past now?
Click to expand...
It's teething problems that often bios updates resolve but now it's more if your unlucky with compatability problems but intel have ther fare share also.

Computer components can show the strangest of behaviours and an absolute pain at there worst.

Don't rush your decision and check out reviews, etc .

mickyflinn said:
If we look at your suggestions then spending £48 on a cooler doesn't make much sense, for £20 take a look at the Thermalright Assassin X 120 SE orAssasin King 120 they don't white as well.
Click to expand...
Thermalright makes value performance coolers one of these best is the Peerless assasin 120 that compete with the big boys and costs £30 .

Review.

www.tomshardware.com

Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE Review: Incredible, Affordable Air Cooling Performance

Shockingly cool and quiet, less than $40!
www.tomshardware.com www.tomshardware.com
 
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i agree, AM5 for your budget
can get a 7500F build for about that price (bundle not stocked at ocuk, so you will need to do a bit of google-fu)

 
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utamaro said:
Wow, yeah, that cooler's way cheaper. I guess I didn't want to feel like I was "cheaping out" and risking undercooling the CPU. Thanks.
Click to expand...
The Ryzen 7500F (assuming the shop keeps it for the bundle) and 7600 non-X both come with a cooler, so if budget is a big concern, you don't need to buy one at all.

If you go AM4: Ryzen 5600/5600X have a cooler.

If you go Intel: any non-K CPU has a cooler, even the 14900 :cry: (good luck with that one!).

utamaro said:
I confess some of the discussions are up to 9 months old, but I'm reading a fair few warnings about AM5 reliability/stability. Is it pretty accepted that this is all a thing of the past now?
Click to expand...
It is pretty normal for new platforms to have issues at first, especially when they switch to a new standard of memory at the same time. AM4 was no different when it was released.

To avoid most known problems with AM5, I'd stick to: DDR5 that is EXPO, preferably on the QVL and at 6000 or slower. 2 sticks of RAM only. Update the BIOS to the latest and don't enable XMP/EXPO until you do.

Intel alternative:

Get a discounted 12600K (~£170) or 12700K (~230), use existing memory, a suitable motherboard (like the below, but note that it can't overclock) and the peerless assassin suggested above:

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £158.99 (includes delivery: £3.99)​
 
How does this sound?

1 x CORSAIR VENGEANCE DDR5 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) 6000MHz CL36 @ £107.99 (inc P&P)
1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 (with Stealth Cooler) @ £188.98 (inc P&P)
1 x ASRock AMD B650M PRO RS motherboard @ 141.48 (inc P&P)
Total £438.45

I didn't choose ASUS because I watched a number of YT vids stating they've developed a bit of a bad reputation lately for poor quality control.
I didn't choose Gigabyte as there were reports of hiss/noise when using certain sound jacks.
ASRock seems to have great features and reviews for the price point and has 2.5Gb LAN and more than one M.2 port, which would be good for a little future-proofing (I would almost certainly use 2 of these as I have a lot of storage).

I've definitely seen the light in choosing the Ryzen 5 over the Ryzen 7, so thank you so much for that :)
 
@utamaro looks good.

re: cooler...just get the ThermalRight Assassin King 120 SE. it's £16.50 with a RGB fan (and there's a white version too if you so prefer)
 
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