Upgrade options?

Dave Burton

Dave Burton

Dave Burton

Associate
Joined
29 Oct 2002
Posts
698
Hi all,

I'll start by saying my current PC has served me well, but is now a few generations behind and I'm now starting to look at upgrade paths. Budget is TBC, but I'd expect around the £650-£750ish mark, could go higher but would need a solid reason, this would cover CPU + MoBo + Ram.

The current setup is an I5-6600K @ 4.5Ghz, MSI Z170M Mortar, and 32Gb of pc-2400 DDR4, all paired with a 1080Ti. This setup was an upgrade from an I5-760, and proved to be a huge boost, so I'd be aiming for the same sort of performance increase, if it can be done.

I've read up on the 8th & 9th gen Intel, but also have an eye on the 3000 series AMD chips which look like a solid contender to the Intel chips. I'd like to overclock (cos why not??) so Intel would be a "K" chip however I'd not used AMD since the old T-bird chip waaaay back in the day so I'm at a loss of what a decent "mid-range" platform would be, i'd guess something around the Ryzen 5 3600x?

I'd guess that going from 4C/4T to 6-8C/12-16T would offer the biggest boost so what would my rough options be? Oh, forgot to add, Matx max sized board!

I will also note that I've read a lot of the current "spec me" type posts, and have a rough idea of what's what, I'm just after a little extra guidance.

Many thanks!

DB
 
Dave Burton said:
I'm just after a little extra guidance.
Click to expand...
Wait!

You have a very respectable setup already - certainly more than enough power to carry you through until Ryzen 2 relese. Even if you aren't sold by the new Ryzen releases the price of CPUs should be affected significantly if AMD price their initial releases aggressively (as hoped).
 
Plec said:
Wait!

You have a very respectable setup already - certainly more than enough power to carry you through until Ryzen 2 relese. Even if you aren't sold by the new Ryzen releases the price of CPUs should be affected significantly if AMD price their initial releases aggressively (as hoped).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the prompt reply! I'm not in a great hurry, I'd likely source the bits I need over a few months, and assemble once it's all arrived. I usually wait till a new platform is released, then bag the older gen hardware cheaper as people upgrade etc. I'd even consider looking at the 2600X as an option, simply due to more cores and threads, but I guess it depends on the pricing structure of the newer chips.
 
Dave Burton said:
Thanks for the prompt reply! I'm not in a great hurry, I'd likely source the bits I need over a few months, and assemble once it's all arrived. I usually wait till a new platform is released, then bag the older gen hardware cheaper as people upgrade etc. I'd even consider looking at the 2600X as an option, simply due to more cores and threads, but I guess it depends on the pricing structure of the newer chips.
Click to expand...
The 2600X are great value - but personally i would be looking at Ryzen 2 if i was upgrading from a I5-6600K @ 4.5Ghz.

Guestimate/leak/fake guide pricing - but you won't know for sure until release: Clicky

*Excuse edits - wrong page quoted and then distracted with phonecall...
 
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Plec said:
The 2600X are great value - but personally i would be looking at Ryzen 2 if i was upgrading from a I5-6600K @ 4.5Ghz.

Guestimate/leak/fake guide pricing - but you won't know for sure until release: Clicky

*Excuse edits - wrong page quoted and then distracted with phonecall...
Click to expand...

Thanks Plec, that's the article I'd been reading. Naturally, until the product is actually released, I'm skeptical about most of the stuff in the article, but it's piqued my interest in making the switch from Intel to AMD as they seem (if the rumors are true) to be outstanding in terms of value for money.
 
Dave Burton said:
Naturally, until the product is actually released, I'm skeptical about most of the stuff in the article,
Click to expand...
Rightly so, but if AMD follow their usual aggressive, release/pricing structure there hopefully won't be any nasty pricing surprises.

Either way - you're sitting pretty with your present setup while you watch and wait...

...it's what i'm doing. Although, i want to play with the Ryzen 3600X (maybe the 3700) just for the kicks.
 
In addition to what Plec has said, why do you feel you need more cores/threads? Are you using software that takes advantage of these and will likely see a productivity boost as a result or are you just playing games? Is adding a 2nd hand 6700K an option? That will likely give a decent boost with software that can use the extra oomph

This video shows the performance difference between some old and new CPUs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7ybUQAU498
 
ExRayTed said:
In addition to what Plec has said, why do you feel you need more cores/threads? Are you using software that takes advantage of these and will likely see a productivity boost as a result or are you just playing games? Is adding a 2nd hand 6700K an option? That will likely give a decent boost with software that can use the extra oomph

This video shows the performance difference between some old and new CPUs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7ybUQAU498
Click to expand...

Hey! It's mainly gaming I do, I suspect my 1080Ti is being throttled by the CPU since I went 4kUHD, so was looking for potential upgrade routes. I suspect I'm going to hold on till the new Ryzen chips arrive, then see what I can pick up. Cheers for the input! :)
 
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