Upgrading i7 2600K (CPU, Motherboard, RAM)

[deadman_uk]

My PC is used mainly for gaming at 2k (with high/ultra graphics settings). I also do lots of Photoshop/Lightroom work with occasional Office and even less occasional video editing. My current PC is:

Intel i7 2600k @ 4.2GHz
16GB Corsair DDR3 XMS3
Asrock Z68 Extreme4
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti
Windows 10

I understand my CPU is still a power housel but it's getting old now and I feel it straining in some games (like GTA V, Guild Wars 2). I want to upgrade my CPU, RAM and Motherboard. I have my eye on the AMD Ryzen 1700x (1800x is not worth the extra price and I wouldn't benefit from the Threadripper CPUs as I don't do the tasks it excels at and the price is too much anyway)

Can people here recommend me the following:

- Decent motherboard (Any onboard sound would be disabled, USB 3 ports required, onboard graphics a nice fail safe for GPU failure but not really important, will overclock the 1700x if the motherboard has automatic OC settings)

- 16GB DDR 4 3200Mhz RAM

- Alternative CPU if you don't think I should get the 1700x

- CPU Fan (not sure if the Ryzen fans are good enough)

I am in the UK and will be shopping at scan.co.uk, overclockers.co.uk most probably.

Thanks

 

[E4g1e]

Any onboard sound would be disabled

Is there any reason for this? Unless you have a particular high-end (not Sound Blaster) sound card that's designed for music production, a discrete sound card is generally not worth the money as Creative likes to discontinue driver support for even slightly aged cards.

What's more, if your planned aftermarket sound card is internal, you will likely face the very same noise problems as onboard sound.

 

[Daleon]

I don't know, I've had my Sound Blaster Z for quite a while and Creative has hung in there with it for a while.

If your going to OC just get a 1700, it comes with Wraith cooler which is fine for about 3.8 and 1.3v anymore and you should get something better. 1700X will have to buy one.

MB either a X370 Taichi or Strix.

Memory here ya go:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232530

Reusing PSU?
What about SSD\HDD?

Will you see a big improvement? Not big, maybe some. Smooth things out possibly. Are you running 2560x1440 at 60hz or more? If your trying to push 144hz your likely more GPU bound than CPU now. If your not a monitor upgrade might be a more noticeable improvement. Maybe find a cheap 980 Ti used and SLI it up?

 

[SvenBent]

just a simpel advice:
instead of going by what you "feel" is straining it in somegames. why dont you use hte 5 mins to verify it with a propper bottleneck test ?

download and process explore
select the game in the process list and dbl click it
select the threads winfows and look at the thread utilization. if any of those hits 100%number of logical cores then you need a cpu with more core performance.
if you tottal cpu suage hits close tio 100% thenyou need a new cpu with more cores or higher core speed

if none of this is present dont waste money on a new cpu.

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

I'd wait and see what Intel announces for Coffee lake on Aug. 21 before moving ahead with anything.

 

[deadman_uk]

Is there any reason for this? Unless you have a particular high-end (not Sound Blaster) sound card that's designed for music production, a discrete sound card is generally not worth the money as Creative likes to discontinue driver support for even slightly aged cards.

What's more, if your planned aftermarket sound card is internal, you will likely face the very same noise problems as onboard sound.

I don't know, I've had my Sound Blaster Z for quite a while and Creative has hung in there with it for a while.

If your going to OC just get a 1700, it comes with Wraith cooler which is fine for about 3.8 and 1.3v anymore and you should get something better. 1700X will have to buy one.

MB either a X370 Taichi or Strix.

Memory here ya go:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232530

Reusing PSU?
What about SSD\HDD?

Will you see a big improvement? Not big, maybe some. Smooth things out possibly. Are you running 2560x1440 at 60hz or more? If your trying to push 144hz your likely more GPU bound than CPU now. If your not a monitor upgrade might be a more noticeable improvement. Maybe find a cheap 980 Ti used and SLI it up?

Regarding the sound, I have a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD Sound Card so why would I want to use onboard sound? I am very confused by this. I'll have to look at the 1700 vs 1700x but buying a separate cooler is no problem for me.

just a simpel advice:
instead of going by what you "feel" is straining it in somegames. why dont you use hte 5 mins to verify it with a propper bottleneck test ?

download and process explore
select the game in the process list and dbl click it
select the threads winfows and look at the thread utilization. if any of those hits 100%number of logical cores then you need a cpu with more core performance.
if you tottal cpu suage hits close tio 100% thenyou need a new cpu with more cores or higher core speed

if none of this is present dont waste money on a new cpu.

Are you suggesting my 2600k is still good enough for the latest games? I will do the bottleneck test later today

I'd wait and see what Intel announces for Coffee lake on Aug. 21 before moving ahead with anything.

I was unaware of this but that is good advice and I will certainly wait for this

 

[E4g1e]

Regarding the sound, I have a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD Sound Card so why would I want to use onboard sound? I am very confused by this.

The only reason I asked is that I have not been viewing the forums much, and I lost track of any relevant posts that might have been posted since.

And yes, the X-Fi is a relatively old product. However, your particular card is a PCIe x1 card rather than a PCI card, so you should have little trouble installing the card. AFAIK the Windows 10 driver for the card exists only as a beta (but I may be incorrect there, especially since I have not used a Creative Sound Blaster product in any of my recent PCs).

And some of the other posters are correct that your i7-2600K is sufficient for even today's games. It is at a point now that a platform upgrade today would cost you a lot more money than the performance improvement justifies.

 

[SvenBent]

R

Are you suggesting my 2600k is still good enough for the latest games? I will do the bottleneck test later today

I'm telling you that nobody can just tell you that because its depending on
- what games
- what settings you play in
- what parts you have in the system

Basically you need to do a proper testing rather than going by yours or other peoples "Feelings".
Plenty of people have upgraded wrong components because they just "know" that their CPU is fast enough and blah blah blah and ended with no improved performance.
Use my guide and you can easily detect what/how you need to upgrade