Hi guys! Could really do with some advice here on how to go ahead with a possible new build. I've been sort of on the fence for a good 6 months now, waiting to see what new stuff comes out and how pricing and stock levels go ( and we all know how that's ended up ). At this moment in time I only need the CPU, Mobo, RAM and Cooler. Budget is £500, no more ideally, the less the better but main aim is solid bang for the buck and something that would last a while, doesn't have to be the latest and greatest but at the same time not the cheapest either. Purpose of build would be pretty much entirely for gaming and general browsing. Currently running an i5-4690k, GTX970 ( which I can't upgrade for obvious reasons ) and 16gb of DDR3, the 4690k is starting to show its age now and I've never been all that happy with its single core performance in some of the older games I play sometimes. My top choice at the moment is an i5-10600k, MSI Z-490-A Pro, 16gb of Corsair Vengeance CL16 3600mhz DDR4 and a Noctua NH-U12S. The cooler is probably overkill as I'm not really planning on OC'ing but would like to have the option. All my builds since the 2000's have used stock coolers that came with CPU's and never ran into issues with them when running the CPU's at stock speeds. Although I like intel ( not a fanboy, just always found their stuff reliable ) I would be happy to go AMD too but a 5600X is outside of my budget now thanks to the price hikes over in the UK ( 360 quid! Up from 290 ) so I would be looking at 3rd gen Ryzen's but even with these the 3600X which I had my eye on for the longest time has climbed back up to 250 quid but it does come with a cooler which is a bonus. I could stretch to a 3700X but not sure if I would really benefit from the extra cores as I'm not into streaming and never will be because I have a face for radio. The 10600k also seems to beat both CPU's in gaming, albeit by a small margin, which makes it desirable and I can get one for 207 quid. Where it gets tricky is of course Rocket Lake. I was planning on waiting for Rocket Lake CPU's but then I started thinking about how wonky the market is at the moment. Is intel going to be able to supply enough of these chips or will they be drip fed to retailers ? AMD is struggling a bit at the moment and on top of that have hiked up prices across the board it seems. If intel can't provide enough new CPU's to satisfy the market then can we expect to see price hikes for Comet Lake ? Whatever I would buy today would be a pretty big upgrade over what I have but what I have is still functioning and I will confess that I want new and shiny stuff and I got that itch where my finger is hovering over the buy button a lot but somethings stopping me from committing. What also bugs me is that back in August 2020 I could have bought a new 3600X for 180 quid but ended up waiting for AMD's new offerings and then things went the way they went so I'm conscious of the possibility of that happening again with Rocket Lake. So yeah, sorry to ramble on but I've been weighing my options for months now and been trying to figure out the best approach but I swear I'm starting to lose the plot now so any tips, ideas, suggestions would be very welcome! TLDR: is it an utterly dumb move to upgrade to a 10600K now ?
If you get a z490 that supports 11th gen then you could get 10600k now and in distant future you'll have option to sling 11900k or something in there. Don't worry about uber fast ram as you can OC good ram yourself. Liquid Freezer II for cooling.
Just go amd route. If you get a b550/x570 board and 3600 which is like 200$ you can easily jump to 5800x or even 5900x one day. It makes more sense.
Damn this is actually a pretty tempting option too, the 3600 is no slouch and as you say, very affordable. You guys were supposed to make this easier, not harder!
4690k is old.upgrade you should. 10600kf is a great option,cheaper than 3600 atm and it'll smash it in gaming.I'd personally buy a 10700f tho. as for z490 mobo - check the features you need. having more m.2,usb,better audio,better quality components - this all matters a lot in the long run.mobo is like psu - you should never cheap out. get faster ram too.3600 c16 at least.
Agreed. AMD has had the best upgrade path for a long time now. I got a B450 with the option to go to a Ryzen 5000 series in the future if I find the need.
Thanks guys for all your input, I pulled the trigger on the 3600 in the end as it came nicely under my budget with an option to upgrade in the future which means the missus can have the 3600 when I'm done with it since hers is going to need upgrading too at some point. Went with the MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus mobo, it had pretty decent reviews and it ticked all the boxes I needed. As for RAM I stuck with the CL16 3600mhz corsair which I mentioned in the OP. Anything I saved I'll put towards a GFX card when one eventually surfaces somewhere.
Good choice thats a very nice upgrade and didnt break the bank. With a little tweaking you can easily reach 3600x performance which isnt far off from 10600k. As for gpu you'll have to wait like the rest of us.
