[SOLVED] Upgrade after 10 years (i7 2600)

[Kemetblk]

Hello all,

I am looking to finally upgrade my ancient Core i7 2600 (non K) based system. I have wanted to do this for a few years now, but always put it off and end up piecing together small upgrades instead (increased RAM from 8GB of 1333 to 16GB of 1600, moved from Radeon 6670 to GTX 970, HDD to SSD, etc.) so as to not break the bank.

I think I would like to upgrade my CPU, MB, RAM and SSD right now and work on a GPU upgrade later. My priority is video transcoding, audio creation and gaming, in that order. I will be reusing my case (CoolerMaster Masterbox), psu (CM VM750) and fans (CM EVO 212 LED, and 5-6 Corsair 140mm). I was looking at going with the Asus TUF X570 or MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk paired with either the R5 3600 or R7 3700X, and 32GB of DDR4 3200. Should I pull the trigger on this, or would it be best to wait for AMD's next socket since this is likely the last gen for AM4? Any advice is appreciated as I haven't built a new rig in almost a decade.

 

[popatim]

AMD's next socket won't be here until the end of 2022 so unless you want a long wait I would upgrade now and then to AM6 when it comes out
3600 is what I have been using to upgrade from the 2600 too.

 

[kerberos_20]

Hello all
...
I think I would like to upgrade my CPU, MB, RAM and SSD right now and work on a GPU upgrade later.
My priority is video transcoding, audio creation and gaming, in that order.
...

video encoding is much faster on GPU then on CPU

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqCG1OAiLWQ

 

[Karadjgne]

Depends on the software. Using NVenc, yes, much faster on an nvidia card, using Sony Vegas Pro, not so much so as they much prefer AMD cards.

Also have to consider that while an overblown gpu with a mild cpu gets good in the video encoding, it does not much at all for the audio, primarily cpu bound.

So budget is king here because you'll need a balance of cpu and gpu, where either can do the job expeditiously.

Honestly I'd say a 5600x and 3060ti would be a good pairing, but good luck getting either of those soon, or at a respectable price. Scalpers are Killin ppl left and right, high demand and 0 retail supply.

Leaving the 3700x and 2070Super as good if you need something right now. I'd also opt for 3600 Cas16, it'll be somewhat faster overall than 3200 Cas16 and roughly the same price. It's as much performance gain as you can get out of a 3000 series cpu without seriously tinkering with the ram settings.

 

[Kemetblk]

I appreciate all the advice. I want to keep the cost to less than $700 ($800 max), not including the GPU. I'm pretty sure I want to stick with Nvidia for the GPU and since it doesn't look like the 3070 will be readily available anytime soon I'll have to continue waiting (and saving) for that part. I haven't read up about the 3060ti, I guess I need to see how comparable it is to the 3070 and the price difference. My monitor is 1440p/165hz so while I don't need to push major pixels, I do want something that can push high frame rates.

 

[Karadjgne]

Haha. You do realize that 1440p has @ 1.7x as many pixels as 1080p.. That's a pretty tall order that precludes most every gpu below a 2070Super to get even respectable framerates in an average game, never mind attempting to get close to Ultra with DLSS and Ray Tracing enabled. Just a simple game like Minecraft can drop 100ish fps with Ray Tracing enabled.

In terms of vs, a 3060ti is about equitable to a 2080Super in ability, but has the advantage of better DLSS and direct render, which can alleviate some stress on the cpu at times. Biggest difference right now is not just price, but availability.

 

[Kemetblk]

I started pulling the trigger on what I could currently get. I went with the MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk WiFi board and 32GB of G.Skill Ripjaws 3600/CAS16 RAM. I also scored a 2TB WD Black SN750 NVMe drive for cheap. Debating if I want to continue waiting for a R5 5600X or just get a 3600/3700x now. Is the 5600x truly better than the 3700x?

 

[Karadjgne]

Depends on what you are doing. The 5600x has slightly stronger single thread, so in lighter threaded games like CSGO it gets considerably better fps, once you add in the IPC, core speeds etc. In heavily threaded games, it's barely better in some barely worse in others.

Production stuff, anything from Winzip, encoding etc, 3700x extra 4 threads are a bonus the 5600x can't match.

But since games are really not being made like CSGO anymore, no more dual threaded stuff, and many more 4-12 thread stuff, there's not really much discernable difference. Not to anything but a benchmark.

I just moved from a i7-3770k to the R7-3700x, and with that kind of upgrade missing a few fps by not waiting 5 months for the 5600x isn't hurting my feelings in the slightest.