[SOLVED] Gaming upgrade recommendations

davidzvi

Distinguished
Nov 9, 2010
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18,510
I'm not a gamer but I'm trying to get some information for one of my kids.

He's running:
Older i7-2600k
AsRock Z77
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC GAMING, ACX 2.0 - 6gb (not 100% sure which version)
Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Crucial MX300 (OS and a game or two)
4TB HDD

Considering i3-8350k / i5-8400 / i5-8600k / Ryzen 5 2600 / Ryzen 5 2600X ... and ?

The i7-2600k is running at stock speeds but it has a decent Noctua cooler and I had it up to 4.4-4.5 in the past, so a stable 4.2-4.3 should be simple. I also have another SSD I could let him have as well. Would OCing and the additional SSD make a difference (splitting OS and the games)?

I read one review that says the i3-8350k is great, another says it's not much better than what he has. Many reviews seem to say the 2600X and i5-8400/8600k are great gaming CPUs, but there's another video that seems to say an OC'd i7-2600k is pretty close to the i5-8600k.

I've never really built a gamer and really haven't paid attention to AMD CPUs, so any advice is welcome.

Thinking CPU / MOBO / RAM only and leaning Ryzen 5 2600X with a B450 mobo.

He's not into OC'g / tweaking, he just wants an upgrade. He's also not local so it's not something I can take time to set tweak and test (hence the 2600X and not the cheaper 2600 tweaked).
 
Solution
hi,

i would just go for the safe 4.4ghz oc and add the sdd.
In my opinion there is no need to replace the cpu, it shouldn't bottleneck the 1060 at all, so any upgrade in the near future would be a waste of money.

If your kid wants to upgrade the cpu now (for any reason) the only thing which would make sense is the r5 2600 (non x) (~150$). You don't even have to oc manually 'cause XFR2 does a decent job. Pair it with a B450 as you already said and the system is fine for the next years.

Cheers

Twin-Frozr-1212mV

Honorable
May 19, 2017
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10,660
hi,

i would just go for the safe 4.4ghz oc and add the sdd.
In my opinion there is no need to replace the cpu, it shouldn't bottleneck the 1060 at all, so any upgrade in the near future would be a waste of money.

If your kid wants to upgrade the cpu now (for any reason) the only thing which would make sense is the r5 2600 (non x) (~150$). You don't even have to oc manually 'cause XFR2 does a decent job. Pair it with a B450 as you already said and the system is fine for the next years.

Cheers
 
Solution