CPU Upgrade - i5-6500 to i7-7700K

[Abel Boni Bangari]

Hello, 

I currently have an Intel core i5-6500 with an MSI B150M Night Elf Motherboard Socket LGA1151. After running some test, results shows that I am CPU bound by CPU intensive games. 

I therefore did some research online and saw and Intel core i7-7700K second hand being sold for 7,200 MUR (~167 USD). I know it fits the same socket and because of the motherboard B150M Chipset I won't have the Overclocking capabilities. But I would still have a performance gain cause the cores' frequencies are higher and it is hyper-threading enabled. 

 

I however have 3 questions:

1. At that price, it is a good deal and worth it? Please keep in mind that computer hardware stores are very limited in Mauritius; with limited stock and variety and that shipping from abroad costs quite a lot. 

 

2. If I do upgrade, could there be compatibility and/or stability issues? 

 

3. What are the questions I can ask the seller to know the state of the CPU?

 

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

Kind Regards, 

Abel. 

 

[porina]

The mobo lists 7700k on its compatibility list so should be ok. You might want to update it to latest bios before you swap it in. What cooler do you have?

 

Can't comment on pricing since as you say it will depend on what options you have locally.

 

Also consider the 6700k and non-K versions of both. If available might be cheaper.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Going for a 6 core ryzen 3600 with a used b450 board will prob cost the same or be slightly more expensive, ram upgrade prob uneccesary depending on what ic you have but most ics are capable of atleast 3200mhz, youll get alot more performance out of upgrading to ryzen rather than sticking on an outdated platform

 

Though upgrading on your current platform can be considered if you can find i7 under 120$

[Abel Boni Bangari]

1 hour ago, porina said:

The mobo lists 7700k on its compatibility list so should be ok. You might want to update it to latest bios before you swap it in. What cooler do you have?

 

Can't comment on pricing since as you say it will depend on what options you have locally.

 

Also consider the 6700k and non-K versions of both. If available might be cheaper.

I have recently upgraded my CPU cooler to a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Spectrum. I already checked the rated TDP and it should be ok, considering that I won't be doing any overclocking. I previously had a Cooler Master Seidon 120 V2 AIO; but the pump was starting to fail so I changed it. 

 

The second hand market is extremely limited; this i7 is the only one that I found actually, lol. Other options are Pentium 4 and Core 2 Duo. 

And on the new market, there are only 10th gen, 11th gen and 12th gen Intel. Even Ryzen are very difficult to find, right now I think there's only Ryzen 5000 series (Ryzen 5 and 7) available. 

 

Upgrading to Ryzen would also mean changing a motherboard and memory as mine are DDR4-2166 and I don't want to make unnecessary expenses. 

 

Thank you @porinaand @Somerandomtechyboi for your response

[YoungBlade]

16 minutes ago, Abel Boni Bangari said:

The second hand market is extremely limited; this i7 is the only one that I found actually, lol. Other options are Pentium 4 and Core 2 Duo.

And on the new market, there are only 10th gen, 11th gen and 12th gen Intel. Even Ryzen are very difficult to find, right now I think there's only Ryzen 5000 series (Ryzen 5 and 7) available. 

 

Upgrading to Ryzen would also mean changing a motherboard and memory as mine are DDR4-2166 and I don't want to make unnecessary expenses.

If you can afford to do it, going to 12th gen on a B660 DDR4 board with an i3 12100(F) would be a massive upgrade and, while the RAM speed will hurt the performance somewhat, it will still be way better than a 7700K ever could be. Plus, on a B660 board, you have plenty of upgrade potential, as it should support 13th gen, and you can always upgrade the CPU and RAM down the line.

 

If the costs are comparable between the i3 12100(F) and a B660 board vs getting the i7 7700K, I'd go for the i3 every time, 8 days a week and twice on Sunday.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

1 hour ago, Abel Boni Bangari said:

I have recently upgraded my CPU cooler to a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Spectrum. I already checked the rated TDP and it should be ok, considering that I won't be doing any overclocking. I previously had a Cooler Master Seidon 120 V2 AIO; but the pump was starting to fail so I changed it. 

 

The second hand market is extremely limited; this i7 is the only one that I found actually, lol. Other options are Pentium 4 and Core 2 Duo. 

And on the new market, there are only 10th gen, 11th gen and 12th gen Intel. Even Ryzen are very difficult to find, right now I think there's only Ryzen 5000 series (Ryzen 5 and 7) available. 

 

Upgrading to Ryzen would also mean changing a motherboard and memory as mine are DDR4-2166 and I don't want to make unnecessary expenses. 

 

Thank you @porinaand @Somerandomtechyboi for your response

What country?

Budget?

 

Ram is not neccesary to change as most rams overclock to 3200 with abit of tuning

[Abel Boni Bangari]

7 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

What country?

Budget?

 

Ram is not neccesary to change as most rams overclock to 3200 with abit of tuning

Mauritius

About 10,000 MUR (~230 USD)