CPU/MOBO/RAM Combo - Recommendation Needed Please.

Hey All!

So, I've been out of touch with the Hardware Market for a while and I'm really needing to Finally upgrade.

I'm still rockin an i5 2500K CPU with DDR3 1333 RAM and a GTX 1070. My GPU I'm gonna have to live with but I at least need a new CPU/MOBO & RAM.

The real kicker is, I have less than $400 for a Combo upgrade. Can someone please give a good recommendation? Maybe even a Link? Doesn't matter to me if it's Intel or AMD.

Appreciate it !!!

PS - Gaming would be the Focus...

Now I'm British, but looking at PC Partpicker with the U.S selected, probably something like a Ryzen 7 5800X With a B550M motherboard. You'd need to check the board has the latest BIOS update to take the R7 5800X though. Add to that at least 16GB of DDR4 RAM should come just under $400,

@Bond007uk: is the 5800X the best CPU for the Performance to Price point? Thanks?!

For your budget, you would have to look at 5600X, as the selection of quality B450 mobos does not seem to be that great, and the ones in stock cost as much as B550 anyway. So the combo:

5600X ~ $157

MSI B550 Tomahawk ~ $170

G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 ~ $57

Asrock B450 Steel Legend seems to be available on amazon for $122, but I don't think it will support Zen3 out of the box and it does not support BIOS flash without compatible CPU.

At that budget you would be better off looking at second hand market.

@Xtraflo: If you don't want to have to upgrade again for a while, I'd say the main thing to look for is a cpu with 8 cores and 16 threads. Probably have to get one that is a few years old, but if you can find an Intel i7 that's at least 10th gen, or an AMD Ryzen 7 that's 2700 or newer, those would still be viable for gaming years from now.

Aim for $200ish for the cpu, leaving you $150 for your mobo, and $50 for 16gigs of ram. Give or take on all those.

@judaspete: Awesome! I was looking at the Ryzen 7 2700 earlier! I saw a CPU MOBO Combo with Ram for Less than $400 on Amazon. I'll probably go that route!
Thanks!!!

@Xtraflo: Nice. One more thing though, make sure the mobo supports PCI-express 4. You'll probably want that when you upgrade your gpu.

That's just dumb. 5600X is on average 70% faster in games at 1440p than 2700x and 80% at 1080p.

@rmpumper: @Xtraflo: 5600X may be the be the better option. I was thinking 6c 12t would become an issue long term. Would you disagree?

No reason to buy Ryzen 2000, or even 3000 series. 5000 performs a lot better, so 5600X or better. 5800X3D is probably the best choice. Or you could get an Intel 12/13 gen with DDR4, I think they offer similar value, they're just more power hungry.

@PfizersaurusRex: https://www.amazon.com/16-Thread-Unlocked-Processor-ProSeries-Motherboard/dp/B0B6WM5TWN/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5II87RMXA5VI&keywords=Ryzen+7+2700+motherboard+combo&qid=1678117507&sprefix=ryzen+7+2700+motherboard+combo%2Caps%2C175&sr=8-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.c3015c4a-46bb-44b9-81a4-dc28e6d374b3

I found this - Mobo isn't anything special but wadda ya think?

@Xtraflo: Looks like a good deal to me.

Get the most recent CPU you can regardless of core count, unless all you play are strategy games as those are the only ones that benefit from core count over IPC. In any other case, a 4C/4T 12100F is beating the older 12C-16C/24T-32T 3900X/3950K CPUs, not to mention the outdated crap like 2700X.

@rmpumper: That's good to know. Thanks.

@PfizersaurusRex: A very late response to something that isn't really important but I ended up getting a 7600x/Asus TUF B550 Plus-Wifi/32GB Corsair DDR5-5600, all for $578.00

Couldn't be more hyped! Thanks again for the advice while back!!

@Xtraflo gets today's NECRO THREAD AWARD for rezzing at least four separate threads that are more than ten days old. Well done. :-)