Question Upgrade from i5-6400 on Asus H110M-A

[kydenm]

I am looking to upgrade my CPU as it seems to be the last thing throttling my performance while gaming/multi tasking on my computer.
I have currently an Asus H110M-A motherboard with 16g ram DDR4, and a GTX 1060 6g video card. 500pws.

With the current motherboard I have is there anything within its family that is worth getting that would make a decent improvement from the 6400, or would it be worth the future investment in finding a motherboard to support a newer CPU?

Obviously I understand the investment would be worth it in the future, but my total goal is the biggest bang for the buck.

Thanks a ton!!

 

[AngelTech]

What's your CPU budget?

 

[kydenm]

@TGFallenOne I really don't have one but would rather not spend the extra money for the motherboard etc if I don't need to. But I don't know exactly what is the highest CPU that I could run on this motherboard. Anything around 150-300$ would be ideal. Just looking for suggestions of good CPU's etc that maybe are a bit outdated and cheaper, etc.

Thanks for replying!

 

[Karadjgne]

Unfortunately, the 6400 was a 3 legged dog. I have no idea why Intel ever released it. It gets beat for fps by a stock i3-6100 in almost every game. It's only advantage over the i3 being in production software where the cpu is over @ 80% and the I3's bandwidth is saturated with the hyperthreading.

So yes, an upgrade is definitely a good idea.

Your upgrade choices are simple. Anything 6th or 7th gen. First thing first, update the bios to the very latest version. That'll allow for 7th gen cpus. Then go shopping.

Personally, I'd be looking at the i7-7700k as a best option, it has the highest clocks, highest threads. Then the i7-7700, i7-6700k, i7-6700. I'd not even think about any of the i5's as that'll be more of a faster side-grade and less of an upgrade. 4 thread cpus are just as binding/bottlenecking as what you have now.

 

[AngelTech]

I agree with Karadjne

also, 6th-9th gen support the same socket and your MOBO supports all the CPUs listed by Karadjne

 

[Karadjgne]

Ahh. Not same socket. Just same pin count. Lga1151v1 was for 6th and 7th, Skylake and Kabylake. Lga1151v2 is not electrically compatible with lga1151v1, so is only for CoffeeLake and Refresh, 8th and 9th gen.

Intel was already tool and dye setup for manufacture of 1151, so didn't spend the cash to retrofit that part, just changed where the pins actually connected on the pcb. Confusing for users, cheaper for Intel.

 

[AngelTech]

Ahh. Not same socket. Just same pin count. Lga1151v1 was for 6th and 7th, Skylake and Kabylake. Lga1151v2 is not electrically compatible with lga1151v1, so is only for CoffeeLake and Refresh, 8th and 9th gen.

Intel was already tool and dye setup for manufacture of 1151, so didn't spend the cash to retrofit that part, just changed where the pins actually connected on the pcb. Confusing for users, cheaper for Intel.

Oh, I didn't know that think you for that info!

 

[kydenm]

@Karadjgne thanks for that info! That was extremely helpful, so i7 7700(k) should be compatible as long as I upgrade my
Bios right? Just essentially plug and play?

 

[Karadjgne]

Yep. Your mobo was manufactured before the release of 7th gen (probably) but subsequent bios releases after that made backwards compatible the 6th gen series. Updating bios to the last published just makes any 6th or 7th gen cpu compatible. But since it is a H110 chipset, you won't be able to OC, just use the K for the fastest stock cpu, with hyperthreading. A 7700 would be almost as good. Depends which you can get cheaper. I've seen many ppl buy old prebuilts like Dell extremely cheap, just to rob the cpu out of it and junk the rest of the build.

 

[mitch074]

Actually, you CAN put more recent CPUs on that mobo - provided you hack the firmware and don't overclock too much.
Thing is, you're leaving a low - clocked 4 core CPUs for a higher clocked 4-core CPU on which you need to disable hyperthreading for security reasons. Yes it's an upgrade, no it's not worth it.

 

[mdd1963]

Only problem with i7-7700K plan is the price; at $364 current Amazon pricing (plus $50 for a cooler), one could instead choose between/have an i5- 9400F/Z390 combo, R5-2600/B450 combo, or, just wait 20 days for R5-3600X....(the latter rumored to game as well as at least the 9700K..)

 

[TJ Hooker]

^+1, the 6th/7th gen upgrades you could do without getting a new mobo are poor value at typical prices, to the point where you could get a newer CPU + new motherboard for a similar price.

 

[Karadjgne]

Ebay.

And no, even with hacked bios/firmware there was nothing gained other than a somewhat stable(ish) windows. As soon as loads were introduced, crash.

Op is running 2133MHz ram. Not going to do him any good on Ryzen base, he'd need new ram too just to not flop.

It's a bad area, skylake/kabylake is new enough to still be quite viable, but only in the i7's, to get your money out of Ryzen would mean new ram, even a 2600 is barely better than the 7700k, which is about equitable to a 1600. Cheapest upgrade is eBay for a 7700. Can be had for @ $150. Best upgrade would be a 2600/ram/b450 but figure on $400+ there.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Cheapest upgrade is eBay for a 7700. Can be had for @ $150.

Cheapest I'm seeing is ~$250 + shipping. Unless you're talking about those $150 7700Ts, that are used engineering samples (so basically stolen) from China.

Edit: So for around the price of a used 7700 you could, for example, get a new 9400F + motherboard. Clock speeds are nearly the same (only 0.1 GHz difference) and you get 50% more cores, plus the option to upgrade to a 8 core CPU in the future without changing motherboards.

 

[kydenm]

Okay sorry, I know like 75% of what has been said. So simply it may be worth it to just make the investment in a motherboard that would support newer hardware and find a cpu essentially the same as a 7700k that I could continue to upgrade if needed. Would my current ram support that? With new releases in July are any of these prices expected to go downward? I appreciate all the help as it is teaching me a lot!

 

[kydenm]

Or would it be most worth it to save my money for a future build? I wanted to upgrade as it was the last thing bottlenecking my performance it seemed, and could help me get by for a mother 2-4 years or so without upgrading much while still enjoying my favorite games without sacrificing performance.

 

[TJ Hooker]

If you find the performance you're getting from your CPU is still satisfactory, then you may as well wait.

Yes, you could use your current RAM with a new motherboard. But as noted above, Ryzen CPUs tend to be more sensitive to RAM speed than Intel, so assuming your RAM speed is less than ~3000 MHz or so it'd be sub-optimal for an AMD system.

Intel doesn't typically drop prices on their CPUs. Don't know what AMD will do with their older CPUs when Ryzen 3K comes out. Prices have already been drifting downwards, so there may not be any dramatic drop upon Ryzen 3K release, but who knows.

 

[logainofhades]

What is the speed of your ram, and what is the make/model of that PSU? Assuming 2133, but figured I would ask.

 

[kydenm]

What is the speed of your ram, and what is the make/model of that PSU? Assuming 2133, but figured I would ask.

you are correct, 2133

 

[logainofhades]

Yes, Ryzen would require you to by new/faster, ram. I am in the same boat, as I started with H170, with my 6700k, so bought low latency 2133, and just reused my ram, when I went Z270. I bought the board cheap, as a stop gap, to get me up and running. When/if I go Ryzen 3000, I will have to go with new ram, board, and cpu. Even some games are starting to show ram sensitivity, with Intel rigs, now, though. You could still see a performance penalty, in some titles, but it probably will not be quite as bad as you would see with Ryzen. Fortunately ram has gotten fairly cheap, so it might not be a big deal to buy more, and just sell, or repurpose your old hardware, elsewhere.