I5 3550 still worth it?

[Voiceofthevoiceless]

Hello people!
I want to retire my old Core 2 Duo system, and maybe get an I5 3550 (3,7 Ghz) with a Z77 and 8 gigs of 1600 mhz ram for around 160-180 GBP. I would buy an rx 470 for the graphics section. What do you think? It would be fair price for the 3 components, and good inough for Arma games, or i should spend on something else later? Thank you for your answers! Have a good day!
Voice

 

[Steve_170]

Unless you have an serious and immediate need, I would hold off on buying a CPU for a few more weeks. AMD is due to reduce their new CPU line (Ryzen) in Q1 of 2017. While an official release date has not been specified, it is expected to be late February or early March at the latest. Why should this matter to you since you are asking about an Intel? Well, the new AMD chip is supposed to compete, performance wise, with the latest Intel chips. Even if you have already decided you will never buy an AMD, and are dead set on Intel, prices on Intel chips are likely to be reduced if the new AMD CPUs can deliver on performance. This, of course, will likely impact motherboard prices as well since the chipsets on the motherboard are also provided (and priced) by the CPU manufacturer and could be similarly affected.

 

[imsqam]

Actually I am not really convinced that the introduction of new CPU lines has a dramatic effect on existing CPU pricing. If you look at Haswell pricing over the last 18 months you will see the average price is relatively stable after first introduction. That is, after the price drops from when it is first brought to market CPU pricing remains relatively stable. In this 18 month time frame Intel has introduced Skylake and Kaby Lake.

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/cpu/

As to whether to put money into your aging LGA 1155 system, that is the question. There is/will be nothing in the 160-180 GBP range for new Skylake/Kaby Lake or even Ryzen. The i5 3550 is still a valid CPU although starting to lag behind Sky Lake / Kaby Lake i5's. But still faster than an i3-7100.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp%5B%5D=825&cmp%5B%5D=2910&cmp%5B%5D=2924

A 3550 with a RX 470 should have no problem playing Arma at 1080p. A new i5-7500 system can be had for about 300 GBP and would give you better performance but how noticeable it would be is a question. Both the 3550 and the 7500 are tier 1 CPU's in Tom's CPU hierarchy chart. Choice is up to you.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html

PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/YVgwjc
Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/YVgwjc/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£188.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI B150M PRO-VDH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£63.99 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: ADATA XPG Z1 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£52.36 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £304.35
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-02 16:27 GMT+0000

 

[Voiceofthevoiceless]

Thank you for your Answers! I'm on "tight budget", so i can't afford to spend much hundreds of pounds. My budget is maximum 480£ for the whole system, so i need to get a decent gpu with a power supply. In Hungary some new items are a lot more expensive than in the UK, this is why i tryed to find another way. I also saw the CPU hierarchy chart this is why i know, that performance wise there will be no problems. But does these 3 components worth 180£?

 

[imsqam]

Don't know the second hand market there but I believe that they are