[SOLVED] What would be the best spec upgrade strategy for me?

[The_4_]

I am looking for a significant bang for the buck upgrade with, let's say, a budget of 500 to 700 euro's, or preferably, less if possible.
My machine intention is gaming. Now I do not want to say my rig lets me down, as it's a pretty solid bang for the buck rig with reasonable good performance, but my machine seems to struggle keeping a 100% smooth (no stutters, no drops) 144hz experience with games like Battlefield 1 , V and 2042, Modern Warfare, PUBG, Squad and Mordhau etc.

• My OS is tweaked and configured in a correct, non performance harming way. (Non essential for gaming services, start up tasks, settings etc)
• I used a Windows 10 bloatware removal script. Link: https://github.com/Sycnex/Windows10Debloater
• My CineBench benchmark score:
  
  (Multi-threaded)
• My all round cooling is fine, and my CPU is well thermally pasted, and does rarely reach above 65 degrees Celsius at a full workload.

 

[Why_Me]

What country are you located?

 

[The_4_]

What country are you located?

The Netherlands

 

[Why_Me]

https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B09RMQ39QW
Gigabyte B660 GAMING X DDR4 €159,00

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B660-GAMING-X-DDR4-rev-10#kf

https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B09MDFH5HY
Intel Core i5-12400F €174,90

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...2400f-processor-18m-cache-up-to-4-40-ghz.html

https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B07YV6DKJK
G.Skill AEGIS DDR4 3200 32GB (2x16GB) CL16 €89,00

i5 12400 / 12400F gaming benchmarks.

 

[The_4_]

https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B09RMQ39QW
Gigabyte B660 GAMING X DDR4 €159,00

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B660-GAMING-X-DDR4-rev-10#kf

https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B09MDFH5HY
Intel Core i5-12400F €174,90

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...2400f-processor-18m-cache-up-to-4-40-ghz.html

https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B07YV6DKJK
G.Skill AEGIS DDR4 3200 32GB (2x16GB) CL16 €89,00

i5 12400 / 12400F gaming benchmarks.

Wow, this is reasonably cheaper than what I expected. I will definitely bookmark these listings. Thank you very much

 

[Gamefreaknet]

The Netherlands

Personal advice here though might not be the "best" but from personal build experience here is a minimal upgrade I would do:
Do note this build below is assuming:
You're going to keep your motherboard: (personally I'd recommend upgrading this but I do also know in England which is pretty similarly priced to The Netherlands it can cost £160+ extra for a motherboard upgrade)
Your i5 9600KF is fine (although spending just a bit more for the 9600K would be good for the iGPU in case your Nvidia GPU fails) for a while and I would say it would probably handle up to a 3070ti... (the 2GB GPU Vram on your 1660 is going to be a bottleneck in a lot of games).
The 1330mhz on your RAM is DEFINITELY a bottleneck... for gaming these days you want 2667mhz+ although if you are going to go for a 3050 or better I would recommend no lower than 3200mhz
Your SSDs are fine for a while however for not much more (around £100 (euros)) you can upgrade to 1TB storage and a dedicated "boot" storage
The case was randomly selected as I am not sure what you are currently using


�����������

Component		Selection	Base	Promo	Shipping	Tax	Price	Where
CPU		Intel Core i5-9600KF 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	€249.99				€249.99	Buy
CPU Cooler		Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition 59 CFM CPU Cooler	€48.85				€48.85	Buy
Motherboard		Asus TUF B360M-PLUS GAMING S Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard					No PricesAvailable		Buy
Memory		Kingston FURY Beast 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-2666 CL16 Memory	€94.90		€3.95		€98.85	Buy
Storage		Crucial P2 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	€47.90				€47.90	Buy
Storage		Crucial P3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	€75.90				€75.90	Buy
Video Card		Asus Dual GeForce RTX 3060 V2 OC Edition GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card	€419.00		FREE		€419.00	Buy
Case		Deepcool MATREXX 55 MESH ATX Mid Tower Case	€49.99		€5.95		€55.94	Buy
Power Supply		Cooler Master MWE Bronze V2 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	€58.90				€58.90	Buy
Base Total:	€1045.43
Shipping:	€9.90
Total:	€1055.33

Buy From Amazon Netherlands
(Update: made stupid mistake of assuming motherboard would support all RAM speeds (supports up to 2667mhz))

 

[Why_Me]

Wow, this is reasonably cheaper than what I expected. I will definitely bookmark these listings. Thank you very much

Here is a cpu cooler to consider for that cpu I linked up above.

https://www.megekko.nl/product/1994/1117527/CPU-Luchtkoeling/DeepCool-AK400
DeepCool AK400 €34,90

https://global.deepcool.com/product...AK400-Performance-CPU-Cooler/2021/15222.shtml

 

[Nighthawk117]

If your getting stutters and sudden frame drops then you need a more powerful CPU in my mind. @Why_Me suggestion of a 12400F is a good choice. The 1660 Super will do 144hz at 1080p for things like BFV if your willing to compromise on graphical settings like run at medium for example. An alternative is the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/list/Bx8LXy

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X 3.4 GHz 8-Core Processor (€212.95 @ Azerty)
CPU Cooler: Asus ROG Strix LC 240 80.95 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (€167.00 @ Amazon Netherlands)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard (€172.95 @ Megekko)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory (€99.90 @ Amazon Netherlands)
Total: €652.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-12-30 13:59 CET+0100

At the upper end of your budget but gets you significantly faster RAM and more of it plus a much more powerful cooler. The 5700X is not a particularly hot CPU but I would put more than a Hyper 212 on it personally.

 

[The_4_]

Here is a cpu cooler to consider for that cpu I linked up above.

https://www.megekko.nl/product/1994/1117527/CPU-Luchtkoeling/DeepCool-AK400
DeepCool AK400 €34,90

https://global.deepcool.com/product...AK400-Performance-CPU-Cooler/2021/15222.shtml

Does the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition fit on the cpu socket?

 

[The_4_]

If your getting stutters and sudden frame drops then you need a more powerful CPU in my mind. @Why_Me suggestion of a 12400F is a good choice. The 1660 Super will do 144hz at 1080p for things like BFV if your willing to compromise on graphical settings like run at medium for example. An alternative is the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/list/Bx8LXy

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X 3.4 GHz 8-Core Processor (€212.95 @ Azerty)
CPU Cooler: Asus ROG Strix LC 240 80.95 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (€167.00 @ Amazon Netherlands)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard (€172.95 @ Megekko)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory (€99.90 @ Amazon Netherlands)
Total: €652.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-12-30 13:59 CET+0100

At the upper end of your budget but gets you significantly faster RAM and more of it plus a much more powerful cooler. The 5700X is not a particularly hot CPU but I would put more than a Hyper 212 on it personally.

Thank you for this alternative build, appreciate it.

 

[The_4_]

Personal advice here though might not be the "best" but from personal build experience here is a minimal upgrade I would do:
Do note this build below is assuming:
You're going to keep your motherboard: (personally I'd recommend upgrading this but I do also know in England which is pretty similarly priced to The Netherlands it can cost £160+ extra for a motherboard upgrade)
Your i5 9600KF is fine (although spending just a bit more for the 9600K would be good for the iGPU in case your Nvidia GPU fails) for a while and I would say it would probably handle up to a 3070ti... (the 2GB GPU Vram on your 1660 is going to be a bottleneck in a lot of games).
The 1330mhz on your RAM is DEFINITELY a bottleneck... for gaming these days you want 2667mhz+ although if you are going to go for a 3050 or better I would recommend no lower than 3200mhz
Your SSDs are fine for a while however for not much more (around £100 (euros)) you can upgrade to 1TB storage and a dedicated "boot" storage
The case was randomly selected as I am not sure what you are currently using


�����������

Component		Selection	Base	Promo	Shipping	Tax	Price	Where
CPU		Intel Core i5-9600KF 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	€249.99				€249.99	Buy
CPU Cooler		Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition 59 CFM CPU Cooler	€48.85				€48.85	Buy
Motherboard		Asus TUF B360M-PLUS GAMING S Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard					No PricesAvailable		Buy
Memory		Kingston FURY Beast 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-2666 CL16 Memory	€94.90		€3.95		€98.85	Buy
Storage		Crucial P2 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	€47.90				€47.90	Buy
Storage		Crucial P3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	€75.90				€75.90	Buy
Video Card		Asus Dual GeForce RTX 3060 V2 OC Edition GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card	€419.00		FREE		€419.00	Buy
Case		Deepcool MATREXX 55 MESH ATX Mid Tower Case	€49.99		€5.95		€55.94	Buy
Power Supply		Cooler Master MWE Bronze V2 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	€58.90				€58.90	Buy
Base Total:	€1045.43
Shipping:	€9.90
Total:	€1055.33

Buy From Amazon Netherlands
(Update: made stupid mistake of assuming motherboard would support all RAM speeds (supports up to 2667mhz))

I am currently a fan of @Why_Me's upgrade strategy as it's the cheapest, and I am not looking for a high budget upgrade plan at the moment, 422 euro's seems enough for me. But thank you anyways I appreciate it.

 

[Why_Me]

Does the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition fit on the cpu socket?

Contact Cooler Master and they will send you a LGA1700 bracket for your cpu cooler.

https://store.coolermaster.com/eu/storeclosed