LF CPU Upgrade

[Sukiru]

Hello all,

I am just looking for a CPU upgrade as I feel as if I my CPU is limiting my PC.

My current specs are;
i3-2120 processor 3.3GHz
8GB ram
GTX 960 Nvidia
430W PSU
Intel H61 Express

My budget is around £120-£160 and have looked at things like the i5-6400, is this good for gaming? The reason being is that my FPS is lower than benchmarks and I think my CPU may be "bottlenecking" my PC. I plan to play the new Conan Exiles, while I do play a lot of Rust and Rome Total War. I appreciate any help and thanks.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

For the i3 6400 you would also need a new board.

I would save for a new setup at this point.

 

[Mr Kagouris]

At a £160 budget upgrading to a newer socket really isn't an option. You'd need to also replace your motherboard and possibly your RAM (there are LGA1151 motherboards with DDR3 slots but you can only use low power DDR3 in them, as normal DDR3 will slowly kill the CPU). However, you can get a used i5 2500 from Amazon sellers for a fairly low price.

 

[Sukiru]

Thanks for the replies, that's a shame but that makes sense... I will look for a new motherboard which suits my other parts as well.

4GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Blu Memory would be considered a RAM that would kill the motherboard? (2x 4GB) and would the i5-2500 be suitable for my current setup without needing to upgrade the motherboard?

 

[Mr Kagouris]

An i5 2500 would work without requiring a motherboard change.

Yes, your RAM would slowly kill any Skylake or Kabylake chip. Low-power DDR3 runs at 1.35V, yours runs at 1.5V. I guess with a Z170/Z270 board you could undervolt it, but then you might end up bottlenecking the chip because you'd need to also lower the clock speed to keep the RAM stable.

In short, i5 2500 is your best (or rather cheapest) option.