Upgrade my existing i7 Spec for COD Gaming

[GodMac]

Hi, I currently have the below spec and looking to pass my mobo, RAM and i7 onto my son so he can play more modern games. He has a AMD FX-8320 and even on lowest settings COD Warzone v2 is struggling. I'm looking to spend about £500-£800 on the mobo, RAM and CPU/Cooler. I'm open to AMD and Intel but I have been quite happy with the Intel i7 for the last 8 years and it still performs.

I have also been impressed with the Gigabyte mobo but also open to change for the right reason. I mainly use my PC for gaming and video editing. I have an Antec 900 case which I would like to keep but I am looking to keep this spec for another 8 years so recommendations are welcome. Your help and advice is much appreciated.


Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK, i7-4790K (4.4Ghz), Artic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro,
Geforce GTX 1080 Ti, Corsair 620W
2x8Gb Avant, PCIe NVMe Samsung Pro 500Gb SSD (for game loading),

 

[Tetras]

Top-end of budget (Intel):

With Thermalright Peerless Assassin SE (review), which should be under £50. Don't know what AIO coolers are compatible with your case.

Intel Core i5-13600K (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail - £339.95
Asus Prime Z790-P D4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 ATX Motherboard - £239.99
Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey - £99.94

Grand Total: £690.38

Top-end of budget (AMD AM5):

(same cooler as above)

Corsair Vengeance EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C36 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK32GX5M2B5600Z36) - £169.99
Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £229.99
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £260.00

Grand Total: £670.48

Lower-end of budget (AMD AM4):

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X Eight Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail - £248.99
AMD Performance To Enhance Your Adventure - Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection - £0.00
Asus TUF Gaming B550-Plus WIFI II (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard - £149.99
Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 32GB (2x16GB) 3600 MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit (CMK32GX4M2Z3600C18) - £110.00
Scythe SCFM-2100 FUMA 2 Dual Fan CPU Cooler - 2x120 mm - £59.98

Grand Total: £579.46

 

[GodMac]

At first looking at the Intel i5 CPU I thought this was a downgrade to an i7. But looking at the performance metrics this is a top end processor and out performs some of the i7 and even i9 ranges.

I like the ASUS Prime but I don't need wifi so I think that might be an added extra cost I don't need.

 

[turbot1984]

Top-end of budget (Intel):

With Thermalright Peerless Assassin SE (review), which should be under £50. Don't know what AIO coolers are compatible with your case.

Intel Core i5-13600K (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail - £339.95
Asus Prime Z790-P D4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 ATX Motherboard - £239.99
Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey - £99.94

Grand Total: £690.38

Top-end of budget (AMD AM5):

(same cooler as above)

Corsair Vengeance EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C36 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK32GX5M2B5600Z36) - £169.99
Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £229.99
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £260.00

Grand Total: £670.48

Lower-end of budget (AMD AM4):

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X Eight Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail - £248.99
AMD Performance To Enhance Your Adventure - Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection - £0.00
Asus TUF Gaming B550-Plus WIFI II (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard - £149.99
Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 32GB (2x16GB) 3600 MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit (CMK32GX4M2Z3600C18) - £110.00
Scythe SCFM-2100 FUMA 2 Dual Fan CPU Cooler - 2x120 mm - £59.98

Grand Total: £579.46

AM5 one if keeping for a good few years .... LGA 1700 going, AM4 gone.

 

[Tetras]

At first looking at the Intel i5 CPU I thought this was a downgrade to an i7. But looking at the performance metrics this is a top end processor and out performs some of the i7 and even i9 ranges.

I like the ASUS Prime but I don't need wifi so I think that might be an added extra cost I don't need.

For sure, Intel made the 13600K a bit too awesome, it's made the 13700K and the entire 10-12th gen line-up nearly redundant.

I think the only board with WIFI there is the B550-Plus. It's a bit tricky to spec a X570/B550 board because of poor stock availability and odd pricing (e.g. expensive low-end boards, moderately expensive mid-range boards and the odd cheap high-end board).

If you don't care about having a 6 instead of a 7 and are happy to flash the bios, then I'd consider the MSI Z690-A for £180 (for the 13600K). Since you like Gigabyte, the B650 DS3H (AM5) is also available for the same price.

Just a heads-up if you do consider AM5, the 7600X is generally regarded as the worst option (at least, it was at over £300), the 7700X is a better all-rounder, but they're both still beaten by the 13600K in productivity (fairly similar in games) because of the 8 E-cores it has.

 

[turbot1984]

Your help and advice is much appreciated.

Nice to see the 7600x has started to drop a bit in price ... it does rather well in 1080p benches. DDR5 starting to show benefits as we all knew.

 

[GodMac]

Wow, that i5 packes a punch especially with DDR5 RAM

I am tempted to go Ryzen as AMD have come leaps and bounds in the last few years against Intel. How soes Intel CPU's compare against AMD Ryzen nowerdays?

 

[Tetras]

How soes Intel CPU's compare against AMD Ryzen nowerdays?

From the benches I've seen: in games, with the 7600X/7700X and 13600K there's not much difference really, in the reviews (and depending on the game) they seem to switch places and at higher resolutions it's a wash.

In productivity, the 13600K destroys the 7600X and usually beats the 7700X.

Power consumption/efficiency, untuned: AMD wins, tuned AMD versus stock Intel: AMD wins by a mile. Haven't seen any Intel tuned benching, TechYesCity showed some pretty big gains, but there's no 7600X/7700X in the charts I saw.

 

[Haz123]

I am looking to keep this spec for another 8 years so recommendations are welcome. Your help and advice is much appreciated.

If you are planning to keep this new kit for 8 years then I would say go for an AM5 based platform. In 5 years time there will be Ryzen 5 or 6 cpus for AM5 that will be a drop in upgrade and could prolong the lifespan of the PC even further. The current X670 mobos are massively over engineered for current Ryzen 4 cpus so I can only assume they have designed them with future cpus in mind. Yes they are expensive but it could turn out to be the best choice. Just look at the people who held onto X370 mobos and upgraded to 5800X3D and are sorted for the next 5 years.

Edit- changed X570 to say X670 like intended.

 

[GodMac]

OK my brain is literally fried! There are so many options. While I am drawn to the i5 13600K, I am drawn to the longevity of the Ryzen 7 7700X on the AM5 platform. Yes it may cost more but in the long run it might keep me going for another 6-8 years. £359.99

In respect to the Mobo, I like the look of the ASUS Prime, and its the same price for the board with or without wi-fi, so if there is no difference in spec I'll go with the wi-fi included. Something for nothing I like a bargain. £279.95

As for the cooler fitting my Antec 900, I originally had the Tuniq Tower which looks about the same size so that would fit. £35.00

As for RAM, the Corsair Vengence 32Gb seems good. £169.00

Grand Total = £843.94

Just over my top end but worth it for the logenvity. Any last suggestions?

 

[Tetras]

In respect to the Mobo, I like the look of the ASUS Prime, and its the same price for the board with or without wi-fi, so if there is no difference in spec I'll go with the wi-fi included. Something for nothing I like a bargain. £279.95

FYI: For AM5 I actually suggested the B650 TUF-Plus, not the Prime (that's an X670 model, no?), but eh, doesn't matter

OK my brain is literally fried! There are so many options. While I am drawn to the i5 13600K, I am drawn to the longevity of the Ryzen 7 7700X on the AM5 platform. Yes it may cost more but in the long run it might keep me going for another 6-8 years. £359.99

The 7700X is still a decent choice and the recent price cut makes it more competitive. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

As for RAM, the Corsair Vengence 32Gb seems good. £169.00

The EXPO kit, right? For AM5 I'd get EXPO.

 

[GodMac]

@Tetras what are your views on the asus-prime-x670e-pro-wifi?

Yes I'm happy with the 7700X and would go nicely with the ASUS X670E above

And Yes your selection on the corsair vengance EXPO

Also, what CPU paste should I get? Ones i hav eare pretty old?

 

[Tetras]

@Tetras what are your views on the asus-prime-x670e-pro-wifi?

I haven't seen any reviews of any AM5 boards, so I'm just guessing based on their specs and that the TUF B650-PLUS is a more reasonable price for a board (in my opinion). The X670E-Pro is £350 so that'd be a hard pass from me, just because of the price, but if it has features you need that aren't available on the cheaper boards, then that's your call.

 

[GodMac]

I'm looking at the PCIe raiks and for 4-5 years time the extra rails will become more useful especially as technology moves more to NVMe so should be able to get more in on this board and maintain performance.

 

[Tetras]

I'm looking at the PCIe raiks and for 4-5 years time the extra rails will become more useful especially as technology moves more to NVMe so should be able to get more in on this board and maintain performance.

I see, I assume you mean lanes? The TUF B650-PLUS has 3 M.2 slots, 1 is PCI-E 5.0, 2 are PCI-E 4.0, I'd imagine that's enough for the average user, but the Prime has an extra slot and a 4 lane PCI-E slot that you may be able to add an additional one (through an adapter) for a total of 5.

 

[GodMac]

@Tetras & @Haz123 Thank you for all your help and advice, I have ordered everything from OC just now from OC apart from the Assassin Cooler which there was 2 left on Amazon. I went with the Asus Prime in the end as the extra "lanes" will ensure no bandwitdh blocking in the future and it looks a really nice mobo. Reviews on it were awsome as well. Altogether £900+ but what the heck, you can't take it with you