Upgrading my CPU

Crystalbeam

So I have this PC and I'm looking to upgrade it.

Processor - AMD FX-4170 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard - MSI 760GM-P21 (FX) Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Memory - Kingston 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Storage - Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Seagate Surveillance HDD 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive

Video Card - GTX 970
Case - CiT Vantage ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply- ACE 500W BR PSU
Optical Drive - LG GH24NSC0 DVD/CD Writer
Wireless Network Adapter - TP-Link TL-WDN3800 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter

My budget is roughly 400 but it's relatively flexible. I'm willing to stretch to 500 but only if it's really worth it. I think the main issue is the cpu and possibly the motherboard and ram (since most upgrades seem incompatible with what's there).

I'd like to be able to boot up quickly and load applications quickly, with the option of playing games in high quality smoothly.

If it's better to start fresh with the gtx 970 as a backbone, then Id be willing to push the budget up to about 600 as I'd get rid of the existing one.

BloodBath

I'd go for a Ryzen 1600 + B350 board, 16gb of ddr4 3000Mhz and a cooler will set you back about €480-500.

Sell your old board, cpu and ram. Probably get around €100-120 for them.

Alpha8

As @BloodBath suggested. This is about €465

PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/VMkWCy
Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/VMkWCy/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£188.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£81.33 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£138.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £408.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-15 21:06 BST+0100

Crystalbeam

BloodBath wrote: »

I'd go for a Ryzen 1600 + B350 board, 16gb of ddr4 3000Mhz and a cooler will set you back about €480-500.

Sell your old board, cpu and ram. Probably get around €100-120 for them.

Thanks for this, am I right in saying that the Ryzen is better or equivalent to i5 6600k? This was the processor I was originally considering.

TerrorFirmer

It's better in the longer term, 6600K will perform slightly better now and overclocks much better too but it's pretty inevitable that over the next few years the 6 core/12 thread 1600 will be the far better option than a 4 core/4 thread part.

Depends on the type of user you are, what games you play and how frequently you upgrade but for the average user now, there's not any real reason to chose an i5.

BloodBath

The caveat in intel performing better is that you will need a high end graphics card like a 1080ti and a 144Hz+ monitor.

The difference between the 2 will not be noticeable in most cases as you will hit a gpu bottleneck before cpu usually. Overall the Ryzen is a fair bit better than the i5 but intel still have the single thread performance and clock speed crown. Ryzen has 2 more cores with multi threading and it's cheaper.

There's a better upgrade path with Ryzen as well with gen2 and gen3 coming on the same board afaik and there are 8 core options. You could go for a gen3 8 core Ryzen in a few years if needed but that Ryzen 1600 should be good for at least 5 years. I don't think the the i5 will be.

Doge

BloodBath wrote: »

I'd go for a Ryzen 1600 + B350 board, 16gb of ddr4 3000Mhz and a cooler will set you back about €480-500.

Sell your old board, cpu and ram. Probably get around €100-120 for them.

You get the wraith cooler included with the Ryzen 160 (not with the 1600x) and its meant to be beast as far as stock coolers go. Certainly better than Intels stock coolers anyway.

BloodBath

It's a good stock cooler alright. You can overclock to around 3.8Ghz with it which is near the max possible anyway.

To get closer to 4Ghz takes something better though. Probably not worth it for marginal gains.

Crystalbeam

Thanks for all the advice guys! I've got them on my amazon list now