Upgrade time CPU is getting dated

brendonp

brendonp

brendonp

Associate
Joined
19 Nov 2014
Posts
73
I brought the OcUK Gaming Vision VR Gaming PC - Intel 8th Generation 3.6GHz Quad Core last year..
Intel Core i3-8100 3.6GHz (Coffee Lake) Quad Core Processor
Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C14 2400MHz
Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 Mini 6144MB
I want to upgrade my mobo and CPU as i cant overclock my current one, i think the graphic card is pretty solid for now. Any advice on which cpu to go for which will last and be able to overclock.
cheeers
 
@brendonp

A Ryzen R5 2600 or R5 3600 and a B450 board such as the MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX. Your current ram is a bit on the slow side for Ryzen so I would look at overclocking that too using the Ryzen dram calculator.

What is your budget ?
 
MB and Lee make good sense but honestly you just wont see much difference.

£300 give or take for a very few fps increase and the ryzen chips are so well optimised that oc'ing isn't really going to give you much.

Spend it on games or save it for a graphics card imo (i agree yours is fine for now)
 
As it's a Z370 board you can overclock any K series cpu on it although it's a low end board with poor vrm's so I would stick at no more than a 8700k/9700k and even then only a slight overclock. Bios updates are usually just to increase system and memory stability/compatibility, security fixes and add support for new cpu's. Your board has had several updates for 9000 series cpu's and the latest bios is F14. If you are going to update the bios download the latest and put it on a USB stick then reboot the pc and enter the bios and use the flashing tool built into the bios. Do not flash using any windows based software. Be aware that flashing the bios will reset everything to default so any changes that you have made should be written down before flashing.


As for cpu's you could drop in any of these (9000 series needs the bios updating first):-

i5 8600k - 6 core/6 thread, 3.6Ghz base clock/4.3Ghz boost clock.
i5 9600k - 6 core/6 thread, 3.7Ghz base clock/4.6Ghz boost clock.
i7 8700k - 6 core/12 thread, 3.7Ghz base clock/4.7Ghz boost clock.
i7 9700k - 8 core/8 thread, 3.6Ghz base clock/4.9Ghz boost clock.

I would not buy any of these brand new, especially the ridiculously priced i7 cpu's because for just £20 more than the price of a new i7 you could switch to AMD's Ryzen platform and have a new cpu/motherboard and fast memory which would be a much better investment.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £397.47 (includes shipping: £10.50)​
​
 
if you are not doing video/graphics editing i would stick with intel for gaming. The i5 8400 is very hard to beat for value just check out gaming benchmarks
 
Yes but you can't overclock it. Your i3 8100 has a clockspeed of 3.60 ghz and four cores. The i5 8400 has six cores and a base clock of only 2.80Ghz and boosts to 4Ghz on a single core. From what I can find out with reviews the i5 8400 boosts like this:-

1 core 4Ghz
2-4 cores 3.9Ghz
5-6 cores 3.8Ghz.

I don't feel that a pair of extra cores and a all core boost of 3.8Ghz, only 200mhz more than your i3, is a worthwhile upgrade. If you are going to upgrade you should aim for a maximum bang for buck.
 
Last edited:
Still don't think it's a worthwhile upgrade but it's your money. If you must get a i5 go for the newer i5 9400. The retail version is the same price as the oem version of the 8400. A even better buy would be the i5 9400F which is £34 cheaper than the 8400/9400. The F means that it doesn't have onboard graphics but as you have a gpu that's not a problem. In every other way it's exactly the same as the normal i5 9400. The 9400/9400F has a base clock of 2.9Ghz and a max boost of 4.1Ghz. It boosts to the following:-

1 core - 4.1Ghz
2-4 cores - 4Ghz
5-6 cores - 3.9Ghz

Slightly faster than the i5 8400 and if you went for the i5 9400F it's quite a bit cheaper. You will need to flash the motherboards bios to at least version F12 (F14 is the latest) with your current i3 8100 installed. It's easy to do so don't panic. Simply download F12 or you may as well get the latest F14 from here. It's a .zip file so you need to unzip it and then put it on a usb stick. Reboot the pc and enter the bios. In the bios find the Q-Flash tool and fire it up. Point it to the usb stick that the new bios file is on and follow the instructions. Let it do it's thing and whatever you do don't interrupt the process. When complete it will either reboot or prompt you to reboot. ***Pleas note that flashing the bios will reset everything to default so if there are any changes to the bios that you have made and want to keep write them down on a bit of paper and re-enter them after the flash.***

Not sure if this works on locked cpu's but if you go into the bios, under the M.I.T tab you will find Enhanced Multi Core Performance. If you set this to enabled it may fix your all core max boost speed to the max single core speed of 4.1Ghz meaning that when loaded your cpu may boost all six cores to 4.1Ghz. It works on my 9600k but that's a unlocked cpu but it's worth a try for some extra free performance.

Yes you will need some new thermal paste.
 
Thanks for Your help. Do u think I should upgrade my PSU as well?? As it's Kolink 500W 80+ Bronze Rated PSU ? Would that effect the cpu power?
 
Yes, it's crap. Their bronze psu's are terrible low quality units and have nowhere near the total power available on the 12v rail where it's needed. The Kolink Core series 500w only has 396w available on the 12v rail and I doubt if it would even manage that. The KL500M is even worse with a pathetic 360w on it's 12v rail. Not only that but they have disclaimers on the label not to exceed a certain wattage, normally 100w below what they are supposed to be rated at when running continously. So much for them being 500w psu's!! In my opinion they are garbage psu's that are barely better than a generic unit from Ebay.

The psu is argueably the single most important component in a pc and is not a place to save money. Buy a good quality one and it will last you many years through several upgrades. he Superflower Leadex III Gold 550w is on offer at a cracking price at the moment. It's a high quality, gold rated, fully modular psu with a 12v rail of 549.6w and a 7 year warranty.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £78.49 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​
 
Wouldnt touch the i5s, utter junk now in 2019 - you will be back to feeling the need to upgrade in 6 months time.
A second hand drop in 8700k would be good, but i wouldnt pay much for the 9700 as i just dont rate it especially as you can get better more future proof chips for not a lot more.

If you can run to a new platform go 3600x, if not then the 8700k is decent.
 
So I've installed the i5 9400f but notice it keeps spiking to 100% in task manager while gaming the temperature is around 40/50 I maybe need to dust better might hoping a new PSU is going to help
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom