Upgrade i5 4570 to coffee lake (8600K or 8400) for gaming

[aralbald]

Hey!

Some devil got me last week and i decided i want to upgrade my mini-itx gaming machine. Current spec is a Haswell i5 4570 @ 3.2 Ghz (3.6 GHz turbo), Asrock B85M-ITX Motherboard, 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 RAM, MSI 1060 GTX 6GB GAMING X running on a SSD. I'm playing on a 1080p@60Hz tv display and it is ok for most games, but started seeing more and more stutters and generally can't hit a stable 60fps. I suspect it's a mix of poorly optimized games and the hardware showing it's age, so i decided to remove the hardware factor and upgrade.

The machine will be used only for gaming on 1080p@60Hz, but I can see getting a 4K display in a year or two. I will be staying in 60Hz territory in the foreseeable future, so i'm not pushing for high refresh rates.


Option 1 (full charge to coffee lake)

MB: GB z370n
CPU: i5 8600K (stock cooler, upgrade later and OC)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3000Mhz (C15)
GPU: MSI 1060 GTX 6GB GAMING X
SSD: SAMSUNG 970 EVO NVMe 500GB
PSU: Corsair CX550M
CASE: Fractal Design node 304
Approx. cost: 974 EUR


Option 2 (hello coffee lake)

MB: ASRock B360M-ITX/ac (maybe get the GB z370n for 50 EUR more, just to keep my upgrade options open)
CPU: i5 8400
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 2666MHz (C16)
GPU: MSI 1060 GTX 6GB GAMING X
SSD: Keep my current Intel SSD (add an NVMe if needed later)
PSU: Corsair CX550M
CASE: Fractal Design node 304
Approx. cost: 626 EUR


Option 3

Keep current Haswell platform and try to find a cheap i7 4790, maybe get more RAM (from 8GB to 16GB). Upgrade 1060 to 1070?
Approx. cost: unknown... 47** are around 200-300 EUR with a good cooler. Prices for new ddr3 ram are crazy > 150 EUR for 16GB. Even if i find them used for 100 EUR, the cost is still around 400 EUR for a i7 CPU and RAM, which is very close to Option 2.


Option 4
Keep everything and get a gtx 1070 or just stop pondering and play some games


The question is - am I going to see that ~1000 EUR in real gaming scenarios? I think the answer is probably no. Sure it will iron out some stutters and maybe raise the minimum FPS, but the price is a little bit steep. Option 2 has a nice compromise on price, and yeild the same-ish result as Option 1, but it's pretty much limited on upgrade options, e.g "just" an i7 8700. Option 2 also removes the possibility of overclocking, which in an mini-itx can be a upside. Now, option 3 is the cheapest, but i'm putting money in an 5 year old platform, which in two or three year will be considered "scrap" material.


Cheers!

 

[sizzling]

You have summed it up nicely, I guess it comes down to how much you want to spend today. As a 4670k @4.3Ghz (16gb) owner who also is starting to see more issues trying to maintain a minimum of 60fps my vote goes for the 8400 option. It looks to have great headroom for 60fps gaming so hopefully will last many years.

 

[01002920]

I read many threats, and of course Tom's hardware recommendations and the 8400 is the 1080p Budget edition(because if you want 1440 you'll need to spend some sweet money on a display).

If you could and WAnt to spend more go for some 8600K (because they need more expensive z370 mobos). I just recently upgraded to a 8400 and an Aorus h370 wifi (from an old 3450, bacause my mobo started to give me certain bootloop problems), and in my whole life, with more than 24 years of gaming on PC (I played original Doom as a AAA new game, I swear) I've never felt the need to OC the CPU, the GPU on the other hand it has been more important (i'm running a 970) and if you could invest in a 1070 or 1080ti (I notice you like the intel+nvidia combo).

Also I noticed your GPU it's a 1060, and that's premium GPU for 1080 and mediocre for 1440. I'd recommend to stick on 1080+ 60fps and dual or 4 displays( tv support hdmi), it's pretty cool to: 1. watch the ball game, 2. play games @60 fps, 3. watch the whole transformers trilogy on netflix, and 4. play your favorite videos on youtube or twitch.

Also with the saved money from the K CPu and the z370 Mobo, you could get a cheap case and fill it with RGB fans and RGB led strips, because that's what i'm going to do with my 8400 and h370

 

[aralbald]

Hey, thank you both for taking the time to answer!

I was almost sold on the 8600k, but then it struck me that i need a cooler, because the K chips ship without a stock one. Having a mini-itx case this becomes a problem. My current case is a cooler master elite 120, which can house only low profile coolers (up to 65mm) and i still haven't found one which can handle a overclocked 8600K. If I go for the node 304 case I can put a cooler up to 165mm which *should* handle the overclocked 8600K with no problems.

That being said i'm still researching cases and coolers. If I find a good combo and the price is right i will go for the 8600K and play with some overclocking, otherwise i will just get a MB + 8400 + RAM + PSU and stick it in my current case, which will cut the cost to ~520 EUR. Hell, i can even keep my current 430W Corsair PSU (just have to replace it's rattling fan) and cut another 80-90 EUR.

Cheers!