Would this be a suitable use case for a 7350k?

[Allegrif]

So my autistic brother runs a Celeron G3900. It's terrible. It makes him want to spray lemon juice in his neighbours' eyes when doing... anything. He mainly uses this PC for standard stuff like web browsing etc, but he also plays the ancient title Sim City 4, with hundreds upon hundreds of third party mods and add-ons. Being so old, SC4 is purely single-threaded, but we find it's actually surprisingly CPU-intensive. It completely maxes out one of his 2.8 Ghz cores and causes a lot of lag with occasional crashing. 

 

I know everyone laughs at the 7350k for being mainly useless due to the true quad core i5s being barely more expensive and far superior for most gaming applications, but he would have literally no use for those extra 2 physical cores. They won't make YouTube faster and they won't make SC4 faster. Would going for the 7350k and overclocking the balls out of it (4.9 - 5Ghz?) be my best option to upgrade him? 

[Droidbot]

this would be the only use case for a 7350, I'd say go for it

[NTDaws]

get a 7100.

[Allegrif]

1 minute ago, Being Delirious said:

get a 7100.

That was my go-to, but I reckon the 7350k would give him an entire extra GHz once overclocked. That's a lot of extra power in a single-threaded app. It's quite a bit more expensive though too. Decisions, decisions...

[Cyracus]

just make sure you get it at a reasonable price https://pcpartpicker.com/product/tTVBD3/intel-core-i3-7350k-42ghz-dual-core-processor-bx80677i37350k  because https://pcpartpicker.com/product/psPzK8/intel-core-i3-7350k-42ghz-dual-core-oemtray-processor-cm8067703014431

[Enderman]

Yeah, good CPU choice.

[ThatTechKid]

I am sad to say this, but get it. If the motherboard is OVERCLOCKABLE, get it. There is no other choice.

[yathis]

1 hour ago, Allegrif said:

So my autistic brother runs a Celeron G3900. It's terrible. It makes him want to spray lemon juice in his neighbours' eyes when doing... anything. He mainly uses this PC for standard stuff like web browsing etc, but he also plays the ancient title Sim City 4, with hundreds upon hundreds of third party mods and add-ons. Being so old, SC4 is purely single-threaded, but we find it's actually surprisingly CPU-intensive. It completely maxes out one of his 2.8 Ghz cores and causes a lot of lag with occasional crashing. 

 

I know everyone laughs at the 7350k for being mainly useless due to the true quad core i5s being barely more expensive and far superior for most gaming applications, but he would have literally no use for those extra 2 physical cores. They won't make YouTube faster and they won't make SC4 faster. Would going for the 7350k and overclocking the balls out of it (4.9 - 5Ghz?) be my best option to upgrade him? 

If the price diff isnt much, just buy the i5 instead of the i3.

Your best bet is to buy a used refurbished 4th gen i5 unit from newegg or bestbuy for $240-$300

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100019096 601190659&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=36

 

3rd gen i5 $180-$200

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100019096 601190659&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=36

 

Because what if he finds another game that he really enjoys and starts playing, then what. You gotta buy another CPU.

Its just such a waste.

 

[Allegrif]

13 hours ago, yathis said:

If the price diff isnt much, just buy the i5 instead of the i3.

Your best bet is to buy a used refurbished 4th gen i5 unit from newegg or bestbuy for $240-$300

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100019096 601190659&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=36

 

3rd gen i5 $180-$200

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100019096 601190659&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=36

 

Because what if he finds another game that he really enjoys and starts playing, then what. You gotta buy another CPU.

Its just such a waste.

 

He's played one game since about 2007. I don't think he'll venture too far away from it lol. He really doesn't do change. I've tried to get him to try Cities: Skylines on my PC, which is basically Sim City 4 but more modern and much better, but he doesn't even want to entertain that idea. 

[jjohnthedon1]

Get the pentium