UPGRADE TIME - New CPU & Mobo? £600 max.. help!

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27 Nov 2012
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So I'm thinking of upgrading my system since the CPU & mobo are coming up to 5 years old, looking to may get a new CPU, Mobo, Ram & Case? £600 ish max.. my current specs are:

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor @ 4.3 ghz OC
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo Air CPU Cooler
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
AMD RX480 8GB Graphics Card
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM 2133hz
XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply
Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbs Solid State Hard Drive
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gbs 32MB Cache - OEM
Asus PCE-N15 300Mbps 802.11BGN Wireless PCI-E Network Adapter
OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case
Acer 27" 75 hz 1080p monitor

Looking to upgrade with:

Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2 GHz QuadCore 8MB Cache Processor
Asus Z170 Pro Motherboard (Socket 1151, Z170, DDR4, S-ATA 600, ATX)
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB DDR4 3000 MHz CL15 XMP 2.0 High Performance Desktop Memory Kit - Red
Corsair CC-9011052-WW Carbide Series SPEC-03 Mid-Tower ATX Gaming Case with Red LED Fan - Black

in the future I will be getting a 144hz 1440p monitor too

Will those upgrades all work together, and with what will be remaining of my current hardware? would you recommend anything different?

Thanks!
 
Soldato
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5 Nov 2014
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7,465
You will have issues using the 7700K on a Z170 mobo, by default the Z170 mobo supports up to Skylake.

To get the Z170 to work with the 7700K you will need to make sure its on the latest bios and it supports Kaby lake.

What do you use the PC for? is it just gaming? If so save the money as your current system will be fine for 1080P. I'm not too sure at 1440p with a I5 will be ok as it maybe more gpu usage than cpu.

If you do video editing then the 7700K will make a improvement with the extra threads.
 
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THanks for the reply,

Ah I see.. what motherboard would you recommend for the 7700K to work well?

It is mainly for gaming and browsing, works fine for most games at 1080p, but I heard the hyper threading in the I7 helps greatly with games like Battlefield 1, my current CPU could be bottlenecking some games

Also again not sure on the 1440p gaming whether it will come down to my CPU or GPU? I might look at the new AMD Vega GPUs when they come out?
 
Soldato
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You can use the Z170 motherboards but as said you will need to ask OCUK to make sure its on a bios that works with kaby lake.

if you don't want the hassle of the bios then go for the Z270 motherboards.

I have had a quick look at the recommended specs for battlefield 1 and you meet the requirements for the gpu (rx 480) but for the CPU it states a I7 for recommended and a I5 for minimum.

Do you have a budget for the upgrade at all?

If your changing cpu\mobo\ram you could always look into Ryzen unless you wish to stick with Intel?
 
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Ah okay yeah I see.. I wouldn't want a lot of hassle with the motherboard if its an issue updating to a bios that allows kabylake.. I mean how hard would it be to update the bios yourself, or would you need a skylake cpu on it first to load up and allow you to update?

If it's hassle then some recommendations for equally good motherboards that allow the 7700 are welcome :) the

MSI Intel Z270 SLI PLUS 7th/6th Gen USB2 Motherboard - Black, seems a good mobo?

I have the budget, as said before around £600 which i was hoping would cover the new cpu, mobo, ram and a new larger case.. Maybe some extra fans too

I've looked at ryzen, and I think I'd rather stick with Intel since its familiar, and I don't use video editing so the extra cores and threads on the ryzen wouldn't be a big benefit I don't think? Will be looking to overclock a new cpu to near 5ghz too.

Its just if the upgrade will be worth it so, gaming at 1440p 144hz, on a ultra wide monitor will run smooth etc.. And not be held back by my current specs
 
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