numnums

The "open" side of the fans (the side that does not have the blades obstructed by the frame holding the motor) are the intake side of almost all fans universally.

NO
You have the privilege to have 2 bottom fans, they should absolutely blow air straight on the GPU...

GPU's intake air from their fans and push it out the faces as exhaust. It would not suffocate the GPU. 

imo the MSI B450 ATX boards will do. Max boards adds larger capacity BIOS chip with 3rd gen compatiblity into the box, but even non Max boards allow BIOS update without compatiblity CPU so they are just as viable.

what's the Haswell system in your signature doing?

100-150 dollars. Depends where you live though.
 
You better of buying used rx 580 8gb with same price. It is same in games as 1060 6gb but it has 2gb more vram.
Used 1650 super might be better too.

If he's still gonna use that 1050 ti, a CPU won't matter too much for most modern games.
 
Overall will be much better but gaming will still be limited by that 1050 ti

I'll be the contrarian-- it depends on his resolution. The higher the resolution, the lower his CPU requirements will be unless he's looking for high refresh gaming.
 
I went from an OC'd X5675 (i7-950 era 6 core Xeon) to an R5 3600 this last month, both paired with a 1080ti and a 3440x1440 monitor.
 
To be quite honest, I haven't noticed a difference in gaming performance. Both systems were able to exceed my monitor's refresh rate on ultra settings in the games I like to play (Tomb Raider series, racing games). Objectively speaking, I am certainly getting more FPS. Subjectively speaking, I can't tell, and my gaming experience is no different than it was before. I'm content with the upgrade for other reasons, so this lack of a tangible difference is not a dealbreaker.
 
All that is to say....depends on resolution/frame rate desires. If your friend is happy with what he's got, he'll be happier keeping it than burning a few hundred bucks to not notice a difference. If he's struggling with GPU bottlenecking now, though, then upgrading is a good choice.

Honestly, I'd just tell him to stay with his current platform if he isn't willing to upgrade the video card as well, as even a locked Sandy Bridge i7 isn't going to bottleneck a 1050 ti. It'd just be a waste to upgrade the platform with such a low end card. If anything upgrade the gpu if he wants more performance. 

Most assuredly. Newer games are quite likely too much for the ancient beast i7 2600

@themctipers was just talking about an upgrade from a 3770K to a 3600, quite the leap.

Yes, your friend will get better gaming performance with an R5 3600. 

Yes you do.

yes you do, unless its windows 10, windows 10 seems to take care of itself

290x should have a 3 year warranty...try that first
 
secondly i would go for a 390x based on jay's newest video.....seems he did some thorough testing on the card

Sorry to hear about your 290x. Although it's a little sad to be upgrading from a 290X to a 390 (non-x) and getting a 5-10 fps difference for $400. Not trying to condemn your decision, it is your money after all.
 
But if you could save the $400 and maybe make it a $600 - $650, a Fury X or 980Ti wouldn't it be a better investment? It's just what i think, depends on what specs your monitor is running as well
 
Also, your 290x has ran out of its warranty period?

As a gtx 970 owner, the following video makes me a bit sad...

you're welcome  and i would go for the r9 390 over the 970. I have a 970 and it runs pretty well. I get over 60 fps on ultra settings in shadow of mordor, but from what it see so can the r9 390, which also has more vram so youll be able to run higher resolution games better. the 970 has 50 mhz more clock speed than r9 390 but you wont notice it, especially if you overclock it.

Yeah, the 390x actually isn't much more powerful. It gets an average of 3-5 fps more than the 390. It's better, but I couldn't see 3-5 fps justifying the extra $100 you would have to pay for the 390x

I am getting the r9 390, mainly because of the 8GB and the fact that I want to do some 4k/higher res stufff. Maybe not gaming, but yeah. I think that the gtx 970 is also perfectly in your range, but I am taking the 390 because I have previously owned AMD for a while. Never have owned a high-end card before, but I think that my above two mentioned will be the best shot you have
 
My suggestion: r9 390.
 
I am getting the Gigabyte G1 Gaming from newegg @ 330 USD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125792

I would go for the r9 390. It's about $349 and its one of the newer cards by amd
http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16814121962&ignorebbr=1&cm_re=PPSSDLPPKMVQUW-_-14-121-962-_-Product

Linus actually made a video for this card and says to never buy it huehue.

Linus actually made a video for this card and says to never buy it huehue.

If you have the stock cooler, put that one back and check if it works.
It's possible the card is fine and there is no damage apart from the cable.

Wow. Either a fan was jammed and tried to draw way too much current or you had something short circuit.
Don't suppose your warranty is any good now with the Accelero being installed?
You could try reinstalling the stock cooler but I think you're into the card replacement zone now.