I recently inherited an old gaming rig, what can I do with it? intel i7 2600k

[iggzor]

I am a noob but I intend to build my own PC sometime in the near future. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, I am now the lucky owner of an old gaming rig. I've tried gaming on it before and it was pretty terrible but that was with zero upgrades. From the best I can tell, it was built in 2012 and its probably been sitting dormant since 2016. I upgraded it to SSD and it is super snappy and I've started using it quite a bit. After doing some research I realized that the CPU is actually pretty legit and seeing as how everything else still works really well, if I upgrade the GPU, I could have something that I can actually game on.  I do intend to build my own PC with modern components but its kinda hard to spend that kinda of money all at once. So what I'm thinking is if I get this rig into decent shape and I actually stick with gaming, I can take the graphics card and put it into the new rig once I get around to building it. So, I need a recommendation for a video card that the current components in my PC can handle but also one that I can take into the future with me. My initial thought is a 2070 Super(thats the most I'm willing to spend) but its a total shot in the dark from me.  I'm not sure how to check the compatibility of everything and how to prevent it from being super bottlenecked causing me to have a bad gaming experience and make me upset for spending all that money on a crap experience and just give up on gaming?  

 

Here is my rig's current part list that I've been able to put together to the best of my ability:

CPU -     Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4 GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-D14 64.95 CFM CPU Cooler
MOBO - MSI Z77A-G45 ATX LGA1155 
GPU - HIS Radeon HD 7850 2 GB IceQ Video Card
Power - Raidmax 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply
RAM - 16 Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600
Case - NZXT Phantom ATX Full Tower Case
Storage - Samsung 860 EVO 500 GB SATA  ( I have more storage that I can add later, not worried about it)
Ethernet cable 

 

Can you please give me bench marks, such as which games I would be able to comfortably play with whichever card is recommended. I've heard some games are CPU heavy and some are GPU heavy so I kinda wanna know what my limits are with my CPU, I don't even know where to begin to figure that out. End goal is to be able to play all the modern titles but as you can probably tell, I don't really game and I don't even have any idea what the best games out there are since I refuse to play on console and have been waiting to build a pc. So game recommendations are welcome too

[iggzor]

USA, I'm willing to spend up to 500 bucks if its going to be worth it

[Starelementpoke]

23 minutes ago, iggzor said:

USA, I'm willing to spend up to 500 bucks if its going to be worth it

GPU is probably the way to go. Could check around Hardware Swap for a solid deal on a 480/580/1060/other equivalents would be a solid bump. Check Hardware Swap for them, usually have a good deal. Try to find some more details on the PSU to double check it's quality as well.

[Bombastinator]

You should be able to play anything you want that is out now.  You might not be able to use very high settings or resolutions though.  My personal move would be to OC the cpu (if it hasn’t already been done) and not put a dime into it until the new GPUs come out.

The cpu and mobo are totally usable for the moment, but how much longer is unknown.

If money were to be put into this machine the move would be to replace the entire motherboard/cpu/ram and perhaps a PSU as well.  Basically gut the thing.  The cooler is nice.  It might be possible to find an am4 adaptor bracket that would fit it. Storage may still be good.  The PSU is overkill.  They wear out though.  How old it is is important.
 

You’ve got a good cooler so you should be able to make a decent overclock.  The 2600k is 4/8 with not great ipc.  If you can get the OC over 4 ghz it should play most current things.  With a good OC it should come near enough to a 3100x in power.   After the new console games come out all bets are off though.  The paste on it might also be old.  That might need to be redone.

 

 The hard bit is the GPU.  It’s not nearly as strong as your CPU.  It’s not going to be able to handle anything over 1080p at all and might have trouble with that.  So one option is to simply get a better gpu.  The problem is it’s a pretty terrible time to shop for a gpu at the moment.  New ones are supposed to come out in September.

[iggzor]

3 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

You should be able to play anything you want that is out now.  You might not be able to use very high settings or resolutions though.  My personal move would be to OC the cpu (if it hasn’t already been done) and not put a dime into it until the new GPUs come out.

The cpu and mobo are totally usable for the moment, but how much longer is unknown.

If money were to be put into this machine the move would be to replace the entire motherboard/cpu/ram and perhaps a PSU as well.  Basically gut the thing.  The cooler is nice.  It might be possible to find an am4 adaptor bracket that would fit it. Storage may still be good.  The PSU is overkill.  They wear out though.  How old it is is important.
 

You’ve got a good cooler so you should be able to make a decent overclock.  The 2600k is 4/8 with not great ipc.  If you can get the OC over 4 ghz it should play most current things.  With a good OC it should come near enough to a 3100x in power.   After the new console games come out all bets are off though.  The paste on it might also be old.  That might need to be redone.

 

 The hard bit is the GPU.  It’s not nearly as strong as your CPU.  It’s not going to be able to handle anything over 1080p at all and might have trouble with that.  So one option is to simply get a better gpu.  The problem is it’s a pretty terrible time to shop for a gpu at the moment.  New ones are supposed to come out in September.

Hmm yeah you're right, I haven't really played with OC yet, I guess this would be a good machine to try that on. If it breaks, it breaks, it hasn't really cost me anything thus far. And gaming on that GPU is just painful and not worth it. Perhaps i can get a used GPU or something as a stop gap to practice gaming and just get better. That way i will really appreciate it when that new new drops in September I can proceed with the new build. I guess the new question is, what do you think would be a decent GPU that can get me through the summer? If this was all you had, and you had 200 bucks to drop on a GPU, which one would you get??

[Vishera]

You got a legendary CPU 

What i recommend is to overclock it to 5GHz or at least 4.8GHz (not sure if the motherboard can handle it since it's a cheap one)

At 4.7GHz the performance starts to get decent and will have no problems with new games.

 

And upgrade the GPU of course

 

Here is what Steve from Gamers Nexus said about the Sandy Bridge 2600K after benchmarking Intel CPUs form the past decade:

Another video form a year ago:

 

[Bombastinator]

28 minutes ago, iggzor said:

Hmm yeah you're right, I haven't really played with OC yet, I guess this would be a good machine to try that on. If it breaks, it breaks, it hasn't really cost me anything thus far. And gaming on that GPU is just painful and not worth it. Perhaps i can get a used GPU or something as a stop gap to practice gaming and just get better. That way i will really appreciate it when that new new drops in September I can proceed with the new build. I guess the new question is, what do you think would be a decent GPU that can get me through the summer? If this was all you had, and you had 200 bucks to drop on a GPU, which one would you get??

It would be a great chip to try that on.  The 2600k is one of the best OC CPUs that ever existed.  Without OC it won’t hold up but with it it will.  There’s just that much OC there to be had.  You’ve even got enough cooler.  There are arguments that the D14 is better than the D15 which is noctua’s current best cooler.

The chips have been known to hit 5ghz. It required an unusually good mobo though which you don’t have.  This is why I put my minimum at 4ghz rather than 4.7.  If you can OC it enough it will still hold up against CPUs sold new today.  It might already be overclocked, or has been before.

[Vishera]

Just now, Bombastinator said:

It would be a great chip to try that on.  The 2600k is one of the best OC CPUs that ever existed.  Without OC it won’t hold up but with it it will.  There’s just that much OC there to be had.  You’ve even got enough cooler.  There are arguments that the D14 is better than the D15 which is noctua’s current best cooler.

The chips have been known to hit 5ghz. It required an unusually good mobo though which you don’t have.  If you can OC it enough it will still hold up against CPUs sold new today.

The 2600K is a legend,still good even 9 years after launch.

[iggzor]

1 minute ago, Vishera said:

The 2600K is a legend,still good even 9 years after launch.

Wow yeah I'm super happy about the CPU!! Now I need to match it with a decent GPU.  I wanna rip it apart this weekend and get some new thermal paste in there and replace the GPU. What would be a good recommendation?? Lets say I OC it to a conservative 4 ghz because, it is 9 years old after all.  Would something like a GTX 1660 Super make sense?? Would I be able to squeeze all the performance out of a 2060?? Is a 2060 even better than a 1660 super?? I'm still trying to figure out these naming conventions and not sure which card I should pick to match my legendary CPU.

[TheDankKoosh]

Best bet with that would probably be to grab something like a 1660 super and overclock the cpu and ram to good levels, I'd try to shoot for 4.6-4.8ghz around 1.4-1.45v and 2133 cl11 on the ram with tuned timings, this should manage damn well for 1080p gaming without breaking the bank.

[TheDankKoosh]

2 minutes ago, iggzor said:

Wow yeah I'm super happy about the CPU!!  not sure which card I should pick to match my legendary CPU.

Don't set your expectations too high though, the 2600k is still perfectly usable, but by no means comparable to current offerings like the 3300x, it will require an overclock to extract good performance out of it and it will kick out a fairly significant amount of heat.

[iggzor]

4 minutes ago, TheDankKoosh said:

Best bet with that would probably be to grab something like a 1660 super and overclock the cpu and ram to good levels, I'd try to shoot for 4.6-4.8ghz around 1.4-1.45v and 2133 cl11 on the ram with tuned timings, this should manage damn well for 1080p gaming without breaking the bank.

Awesome, that's literally what I was just looking at. Any recommendations for brand? More specifically 

MSI VENTUS XS OC vs 

Gigabyte OC

[iggzor]

1 minute ago, TheDankKoosh said:

Don't set your expectations too high though, the 2600k is still perfectly usable, but by no means comparable to current offerings like the 3300x, it will require an overclock to extract good performance out of it and it will kick out a fairly significant amount of heat.

Oh yeah I totally understand all that. I just want something almost as a stop gap to game on for the summer until i figure out what i really want and what games i end up being into.

[Bombastinator]

2 minutes ago, iggzor said:

Wow yeah I'm super happy about the CPU!! Now I need to match it with a decent GPU.  I wanna rip it apart this weekend and get some new thermal paste in there and replace the GPU. What would be a good recommendation?? Lets say I OC it to a conservative 4 ghz because, it is 9 years old after all.  Would something like a GTX 1660 Super make sense?? Would I be able to squeeze all the performance out of a 2060?? Is a 2060 even better than a 1660 super?? I'm still trying to figure out these naming conventions and not sure which card I should pick to match my legendary CPU.

The only way CPUs really age is if they get hot. If the cpu stayed cool enough it should be as good as when it was produced.  The thing is how good that is isn’t known.  There were 2600ks that could hit 5ghz.  There were also 2600ks that couldn’t make 3.5 though.  We don’t know what you got.  Overclocking may already have been done though.  It’s got the hot rod cooler and the hot rod PSU, so it makes sense that it would have been tried. Maybe just boot it and see what cpuz says.  The worry with this one is the mobo.  I don’t know how much voltage that thing will take. Overclock is about increasing wattage.  Overclocking it enough would easily triple the wattage over stock.  Considering that monster PSU the former owner thought a lot.  How right he was I don’t know. 
 

 

 

 

 

[Vishera]

23 minutes ago, iggzor said:

Would something like a GTX 1660 Super make sense??

Yes it makes sense.

23 minutes ago, iggzor said:

Would I be able to squeeze all the performance out of a 2060??

That's probably where the limit of the CPU is,it would be a good choice.

23 minutes ago, iggzor said:

Is a 2060 even better than a 1660 super??

Yes,the 2060 is better,but the difference is neither significant nor small.

[Vishera]

28 minutes ago, TheDankKoosh said:

and 2133 cl11 on the ram with tuned timings

There is no need for that,RAM performance barely scales on Sandy Bridge so it's a waste of time to do that.

20 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

There were also 2600ks that couldn’t make 3.5 though.

Almost all 2600K CPUs have no problem of achieving at least 4.5GHz,only a small amount can't.

[TheDankKoosh]

58 minutes ago, Vishera said:

There is no need for that,RAM performance barely scales on Sandy Bridge so it's a waste of time to do that.

 

Many post 2015 games scale with ram speed and latency and a jump from 1600 cl11 to 2133 cl11 would be fairly significant along with a good core oc, especially so with frametimes

[Bombastinator]

7 minutes ago, TheDankKoosh said:

Many post 2015 games scale with ram speed and latency and a jump from 1600 cl11 to 2133 cl11 would be fairly significant along with a good core oc, especially so with frametimes

Debatable.  I’m not saying you’re wrong or right.  I don’t know.  I’m saying consider use case.  Worry about a usable cpu overclock first. Ram overclocking is both an order of magnitude more annoying to do and an order of magnitude less useful.  This thing just isn’t going to be the fastest thing that exists anymore.  It might be gotten to learn the basics and find out what you like levels though

[Vishera]

59 minutes ago, TheDankKoosh said:

Many post 2015 games scale with ram speed and latency and a jump from 1600 cl11 to 2133 cl11 would be fairly significant along with a good core oc, especially so with frametimes

It's in the micro-architecture,the first micro-architecture to leverage higher RAM speeds was Coffee Lake.

There is a benchmaek video about the matter with Kaby Lake,and there is little to no difference,and that was in the end of 2016:

 

[TheDankKoosh]

8 hours ago, Vishera said:

It's in the micro-architecture,the first micro-architecture to leverage higher RAM speeds was Coffee Lake.

There is a benchmaek video about the matter with Kaby Lake,and there is little to no difference,and that was in the end of 2016:

 

First off, coffee lake has no architectural differences compared to kaby lake, just more cores to feed bandwidth to, secondly, the more cpu demanding a game is, the more ram speed will matter, this affects ALL cpus and if a ram oc can make the difference for above 60 fps minimums then it seems worthwhile to me. A core oc is no doubt more important, but many people overlook ram on older platforms since pre ryzen platforms didnt have the insane scaling like ryzen.

[Bombastinator]

2 minutes ago, TheDankKoosh said:

First off, coffee lake has no architectural differences compared to kaby lake, just more cores to feed bandwidth to, secondly, the more cpu demanding a game is, the more ram speed will matter, this affects ALL cpus and if a ram oc can make the difference for above 60 fps minimums then it seems worthwhile to me. A core oc is no doubt more important, but many people overlook ram on older platforms since pre ryzen platforms didnt have the insane scaling like ryzen.

That’s the thing.  Ryzen levels of scaling didn’t used to be considered insane.  It’s where you put your base marker.  Even with ryzen which does it better than “sandy bridge lake” for want of a better term it’s still only worth getting faster memory if it’s cheap.  This is part of the reason you see people with ryzen2 rigs buying 3000 & 3200mhz memory even though 3600 is faster.  It’s not worth the cost increase.

[TheDankKoosh]

2 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

That’s the thing.  Ryzen levels of scaling didn’t used to be considered insane.  It’s where you put your base marker.  Even with ryzen which does it better than “sandy bridge lake” for want of a better term it’s still only worth getting faster memory if it’s cheap.  This is part of the reason you see people with ryzen2 rigs buying 3000 & 3200mhz memory even though 3600 is faster.  It’s not worth the cost increase.

The biggest benefit in ram tuning on ryzen can be found by tuning timings, especially so for games, frequency matters as well, but only to a certain point. A memory OC with tuned timings will benefit a 2600k in cpu bound games no matter how you look at it, especially so in frametimes, which is what matters most.

 

It is very possible to tune those lower end memory kits up to 3600 for ryzen 3000, for instance the crucial ballistics sticks that are always micron rev. e, but I don't really see the point in choosing lower end memory like that for ryzen when a 16gb 3600 cl16 hynix DJR kit can be had for $80, not much of an increase in price honestly. But this is getting a bit off topic, I understand what I'm talking about, but I also understand that it isn't for everyone, I just believe that even an increase in frequency will benefit his platform a lot for modern games.

[Bombastinator]

24 minutes ago, TheDankKoosh said:

The biggest benefit in ram tuning on ryzen can be found by tuning timings, especially so for games, frequency matters as well, but only to a certain point. A memory OC with tuned timings will benefit a 2600k in cpu bound games no matter how you look at it, especially so in frametimes, which is what matters most.

 

It is very possible to tune those lower end memory kits up to 3600 for ryzen 3000, for instance the crucial ballistics sticks that are always micron rev. e, but I don't really see the point in choosing lower end memory like that for ryzen when a 16gb 3600 cl16 hynix DJR kit can be had for $80, not much of an increase in price honestly. But this is getting a bit off topic, I understand what I'm talking about, but I also understand that it isn't for everyone, I just believe that even an increase in frequency will benefit his platform a lot for modern games.

Oh sure it will benefit.  It’s cost benefit analysis though. Money and time are cost. Benefit is fps. I’m just saying to do the highest cost/benefit stuff first.

[Zando_]

15 hours ago, iggzor said:

Wow yeah I'm super happy about the CPU!! Now I need to match it with a decent GPU.  I wanna rip it apart this weekend and get some new thermal paste in there and replace the GPU. What would be a good recommendation?? Lets say I OC it to a conservative 4 ghz because, it is 9 years old after all.  Would something like a GTX 1660 Super make sense?? Would I be able to squeeze all the performance out of a 2060?? Is a 2060 even better than a 1660 super?? I'm still trying to figure out these naming conventions and not sure which card I should pick to match my legendary CPU.

1660 Super would be excellent (I have a 1660 Ti, same GPU performance wise). They handle 1080p even 144hz easily, your CPU will cap out before the GPU does in most games at 1080p. If you push beefier titles then a 2060/2060 Super could make sense, they also bring in RTX features if you care for those. I have a 2060 Super on my doorstep waiting for me right now (I run a 1660 Ti currently) so I'll be able to see how well they handle RTX stuff or perform in beefy titles like Shadow of the Tomb Raider and such. 

What res/refresh rate do you play at? If you plan to go to a higher res that's even better, these chips have an even easier time at higher resolutions (same as other old stuff, like X58, which struggles at 1080p sometimes but is fine at 1440p even with a 1080 Ti). 

[Vishera]

2 hours ago, Zando Bob said:

your CPU will cap out before the GPU does in most games at 1080p.

The 2600K wont cap out with a 1660 Super...You are underestimating the chip.

3 hours ago, Zando Bob said:

What res/refresh rate do you play at? If you plan to go to a higher res that's even better, these chips have an even easier time at higher resolutions (same as other old stuff, like X58, which struggles at 1080p sometimes but is fine at 1440p even with a 1080 Ti).

The difference between Nehalem and Westmere to Sandy Bridge is big,

It has significantly higher IPC and a huge difference in overclocking capabilities,

Sandy Bridge can easily get to 4.5GHz on air,but both Nehalem and Westmere require extreme cooling to reach that clock speed.