Question I7 8700K or an additional RAM upgrade

[TheFlyingMonkey]

I have a b360m mobo with 8gb 2666mhz ram on it. I plan to upgrade my CPU to an i7 8700 and get an additional ram stick. When i went to check the prices, i found that for me to upgrade to i7 8700K and for me to get a 8gigs ram stick is the same price. I plan to change my mobo in 3-4months time and get a 3200mhz ram sticks that go along with it

So would it be wise to go with the i7 8700K now and upgrade the mobo and ram in 3 months time and overclock the i7 8700K later ?

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

This is difficult.
On one hand, the 8700 is competent on its own, and while the speed of your current ram is totally fine, 8GB is kind of on the minimum side for gaming.

On the other hand, you plan on upgrading the motherboard.

I would say both.

Start with upgrading to a 16GB kit of 2400MHz or faster (whichever you can get the cheapest honestly)

Then, you can sell your current ram for some pocket money, then upgrade the motherboard to a Z series chipset.

Then sell your old motherboard for some more pocket money, then when you get the money together, you'll primed and ready for an overclockable K series CPU.

After you get a K series CPU, you can then sell the old CPU and use the money to get a decent CPU cooler for your new overclockable CPU.

And in the meantime, you can use the stock cooler from the 8700 to run the 8700K at stock settings.
(Assuming the cooler you are currently using is the stock cooler)

 

[TheFlyingMonkey]

So as per your advice its

16 gb -> Z Series mobo -> K series cpu

Right ? Thank you so much for your input bro. Much appreciate it

 

[geofelt]

What are your current parts now?
What is the main use for this pc?

There are some caveats:

1. One can not count on adding another 8gb of ram and expect it to work.

Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
The internal workings are designed for the capacity of the kit.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards, can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when more sticks are involved.
That is why ram vendors will NOT support ram that is not bought in one kit.

If you do buy more disparate sticks, they must be the same speed, voltage and cas numbers.
Even then your chances of working are less than 100%

What is your plan "B" if the new stick/s do not work?

Sometimes increasing the ram voltage in the bios will make things work.

If you want 16gb, my suggestion is to buy a 2 x 8gb kit that matches your current specs.
Then, try adding in your old 8gb,
If it works, good; you now have extra ram.
If not, sell the old ram or keep it as a spare.

2. If your main use is for multithreaded batch applications, then a i7 with more threads is very good.
If your main usage is for gaming, then faster single thread performance is all important.
Your motherboard does not support overclocking of a K suffix processor which is what you need to do for maximum performance.

3. What are you looking for to cause a change in motherboard?
If you are also looking at K processors, yes, you want a Z370 or Z390 based motherboard.

4. Intel ram controller is very good in anticipating ram need. Because of that Intel does not depend on fast ram.
Buying new, 3000 speed is about right, at most 3600 speed.
At equal speed lower latency is better.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

So as per your advice its

16 gb -> Z Series mobo -> K series cpu

Right ? Thank you so much for your input bro. Much appreciate it

Yep.
The amount of RAM you have now is kind of at the minimum requirements of video games these days.

16GB is good and will last for a good while until games start requiring more than 16GB. Which at this point in time, they don't even require 16 half the time.

Then the motherboard upgrade can come first since you have to look at it this way, if you upgraded the CPU first, you still wouldn't be able to overclock, so it doesn't matter which one you get first, you'll need both in the end before you can start overclocking.

And again, unless you have a good aftermarket cooler already, then you'll need to get one for overclocking.

But worry about that when the time comes.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

However, since you are already looking to upgrade RAM, CPU, and mobo, you might want to just hold off and save some money, then sell your current RAM, CPU, and mobo as a combo used for a good chunk of money, then get ryzen.

 

[TheFlyingMonkey]

Yep.
The amount of RAM you have now is kind of at the minimum requirements of video games these days.

16GB is good and will last for a good while until games start requiring more than 16GB. Which at this point in time, they don't even require 16 half the time.

Then the motherboard upgrade can come first since you have to look at it this way, if you upgraded the CPU first, you still wouldn't be able to overclock, so it doesn't matter which one you get first, you'll need both in the end before you can start overclocking.

And again, unless you have a good aftermarket cooler already, then you'll need to get one for overclocking.

But worry about that when the time comes.

Makes alot of sense to me, since rather than waiting to change a motherboard to unlock the full potential of the cpu, might as well spend the money on a good mobo and later on get a newer K series chip or a Ryzen whichever seems to be relevant

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

If you were to get ryzen, you would need to make sure you buy an AMD motherboard, as well as 3000MHz or faster RAM.