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One year out CPU already obsolete....

M

MountainKing

Senior member
Made a rig when the I3 7100 debuted. Was so happy with it and was tired of ever waiting for AMD. 10 months later ryzen was born and I was left thinking what could have been!!
Thinking that I will not upgrade my setup in the next 5-7 years, I was thinking of dropping a 7700/7700K in its place while it's still appropriately priced...

Thoughts?
Swap it? OR ride it out and make a new CPU/MOBO replacement down the line?
 
Do you need or could make use of more cores and threads? The 7700/7700K should be fine if all you need is 4c/8t./
 
MountainKing said:
Swap it? OR ride it out and make a new CPU/MOBO replacement down the line?
Click to expand...
Ride it out. If you ever get the chance to buy a 7700 at the cost of a new gen i5, do so. Whenever you consider upgrading, compare with a new gen CPU + MB at similar cost. If new gen is close or equal in pricing, opt for the new hardware.

If I were to consider upgrading the i5 6600K in my Plex server, only option would be 7700(K). With current prices for Kaby Lake parts I could buy a i5 8600 + new motherboard for the same price of a 7700, which makes CFL option a lot better, especially considering I get to keep/sell a combo mb+cpu, not just a single part.

Wait out as long as your system feels comfortable. Ideally upgrade after Zen 2 launches and Intel responds. Both brands will have excellent offerings for your use case.
 
Like others asked, what's your use case? Also, is your current mobo a Z model or something else?

If you are up for overclocking, a 6700K might make sense for the right price.
 
The i7-7700 is ~$300 at Newegg right now while the i5-8400 is ~$200 and a new decent motherboard can be had for ~$70 to ~$100. The Ryzen 5 2600 and 7 2700 with SocketAM4 boards can be at similar price points.
 
Use is multi tasking
- usually 60+ threads open in chrome, including some youtube, fb etc ....
- running mumu (android emulator) to play games.
- downloading stuffs

The PC does get sluggish with many chrome tabs open...

edit: mobo is non Z. So limited OC available...
 
MountainKing said:
Use is multi tasking
- usually 60+ threads open in chrome, including some youtube, fb etc ....
- running mumu (android emulator) to play games.
- downloading stuffs

The PC does get sluggish with many chrome tabs open...

edit: mobo is non Z. So limited OC available...
Click to expand...
Sounds like you could see some major benefits for upgrading to the Ryzen 5 2600 and new board.With 6c/12t your PC shouldn't fell sluggish at all.
 
People talk about "future proofing" a PC all the time. However, any i3 CPU will never ever be part of that debate. They are a budget unit that are designed for today's needs/uses, and are priced as such.

If you don't want to build for a while (especially 5-7 years), you pretty much need to be looking at the top mainstream consumer CPU available (not necessarily a HEDT CPU). So in your case, that would be an i7-8700(k) or even a Ryzen 2700X based PC. Depending on your use, you might be fine with a Ryzen 2600(x) as well.

The 7700k will likely help you for several years, but since Intel has already released 6-core CPUs as mainstream units, programmers and operating systems will move towards that trend over the next several years.
 
it's not really a lot worse than it was 1 year ago, should still be fine for most games and regular use... it's the same as the Pentium G5600 (well, a little better since it supports AVX I guess), which is still $80-90...



UsandThem said:
People talk about "future proofing" a PC all the time. However, any i3 CPU will never ever be part of that debate. They are a budget unit that are designed for today's needs/uses, and are priced as such.
Click to expand...

i3 530 OC was a good CPU for many years, even the locked SB/IB i3s aged ok for a few years.
 
SPBHM said:
i3 530 OC was a good CPU for many years, even the locked SB/IB i3s aged ok for a few years.
Click to expand...

They do ok for a bit, no doubt. But when wanting to build a PC that will remain relevant for 5-7 years, they just aren't really enough (unless it's a "mom" PC for checking email or playing solitaire).

Heck, 4 years ago I built my son an i3 PC since he really didn't do much on his PC outside of homework and YouTube videos. It was fine for a bit, and then as his PC use advanced, it was quickly outdated. I then decided to upgrade the CPU to an i5 (Haswell), and I figured it would last him until he finished high school. Once again, about a year later it wasn't enough for his use (especially once he started recording gaming sessions / engineering design for his high school concentration). I thought about buying him an overpriced Haswell i7, but decided to just spend the money one last time, and I built him a Ryzen 1700X build. Now his PC can finally handle all the multi-tasking and content creation/gaming/engineering design he does.

Sometimes it's better (and cheaper) to spend the money up front for a better CPU if a person wants it to last.
 
UsandThem said:
People talk about "future proofing" a PC all the time. However, any i3 CPU will never ever be part of that debate. They are a budget unit that are designed for today's needs/uses, and are priced as such.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm not sure why the OP went with an i3-7100 in this context. An i5-7600 or 7600K might have been a better choice last year. The 7600 is what I'm running by the way, and I plan on keeping this for many years. (I had the 7700K briefly, but in my all-in-one system, to cool it required noticeable fan noise under load, so I returned it.)

If you don't want to build for a while (especially 5-7 years), you pretty much need to be looking at the top mainstream consumer CPU available (not necessarily a HEDT CPU). So in your case, that would be an i7-8700(k) or even a Ryzen 2700X based PC. Depending on your use, you might be fine with a Ryzen 2600(x) as well.

The 7700k will likely help you for several years, but since Intel has already released 6-core CPUs as mainstream units, programmers and operating systems will move towards that trend over the next several years.
Click to expand...
I disagree, for his described usage. For example, today an i5-8600, i5-8500, or even i5-8400 would suit the needs of the OP just fine for quite some time.

For Ryzen, it would depend upon the GPU he has. I wouldn't upgrade to Ryzen without a GPU that can support Netflix 4K, for example. That's not necessary on the Intel side, because all their CPUs support Netflix 4K with the on-board GPU.
 
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Look at it this way. The OP started out with a junker CPU. At least it didn't cost a pretty penny. Intel doesn't make bad CPU's spare for the atom and celeron. If anybody buys those two loser chips, we may need the holy water. I am with the previous poster who suggested a 7600K.

I do want to point out that perhaps the 8 core AMD's could seem more reasonable for multitasking. Not just streaming games but switching between games, desktop and in my case watching cable TV on my PC while gaming. Was thinking of skipping the 6 core CPU's and go for an 8 Core 1700 if they ever hit $150. Lowest I am found is $192. Still a bit rich for last years AMD 8 core.
 
Eug said:
I disagree, for his described usage. For example, today an i5-8600, i5-8500, or even i5-8400 would suit the needs of the OP just fine for quite some time.

For Ryzen, it would depend upon the GPU he has. I wouldn't upgrade to Ryzen without a GPU that can support Netflix 4K, for example. That's not necessary on the Intel side, because all their CPUs support Netflix 4K with the on-board GPU.
Click to expand...

I didn't mention the Coffee Lake i5 CPUs, but I did mention the Ryzen 2600(x). But I agree a mid-range Intel CPU might last him for his stated number of years he wants it to last. It really all comes down to what his current usage (and planned future usage) is. Everyone's needs are different, and I was just going on the fact the OP stated he has 60+ browser tabs open, plays games, and downloads "stuffs".

I was just pointing out that when it came to my son's PC usage, I was very short-sighted with two CPU purchases. After he surpassed the i3 relatively quickly, I should have gone to an Haswell i7 instead of cheaping out, and buying the i5 (No Ryzen at the time). One of the things he does (and which I always tell him not to do) is leaving 50+ browser tabs running with HD Youtube videos, and such. He also tends to just leave the various programs open he uses to edit/record/stream videos until he is done for the day. Along with various Microsoft Office documents also open at once, that sort of thing will choke the "budget" CPUs pretty badly.

I personally don't understand leaving so much open at once (maybe it was because I grew up in an age where RAM and HDD amounts were significantly lower than what is the "norm"now), but I rarely have more than 5 browser tabs open at any given time, and once I finish using a program, I close it out. Having a fast NVMe drive with plenty of RAM, it only takes a few seconds to reopen stuff if I need to.
 
Many valid points guys. Let me address a few issues:

i) Since I was building a PC from scratch (previous build was a core2 duo E6600 lasting 10+ years with addinig ram changing GPU), I had to cut some corners. I thought it would be lag free while browsing and you tubing.

ii) I didnot expect AMD to come out with strong offerings making 4C the new baseline PC norm that fast.

iii) With my usage, a GPU didnot make sense at that point.

So, I think i'll ride it out for 1-2 years and swap the whole thing out. It would probably be CPU/MOBO/RAM combo then...
Thanks guys.
 
MountainKing said:
i) Since I was building a PC from scratch (previous build was a core2 duo E6600 lasting 10+ years with addinig ram changing GPU), I had to cut some corners. I thought it would be lag free while browsing and you tubing.
Click to expand...
The i3 7100 should still be decent for your usage case. Are you running the OS from a good SSD and have 8GB+ of RAM in dual channel?
 
coercitiv said:
The i3 7100 should still be decent for your usage case. Are you running the OS from a good SSD and have 8GB+ of RAM in dual channel?
Click to expand...

Old Samsung 840 SSD (250GB) which had that trim bug and which extended my old PC life by 3+years and 16GB RAM in dual channel mode.
 
MountainKing said:
Old Samsung 840 SSD (250GB) which had that trim bug and which extended my old PC life by 3+years and 16GB RAM in dual channel mode.
Click to expand...
The RAM situation is excellent, the SSD is not: I have the OEM version of that drive on my ultraportable laptop and even with updated firmware it's still occasionally sluggish without the periodic drive refresh (as you probably know these first gen TLC NAND cells experience notable performance drop when reading old data). It's not really that annoying but I can sense the difference between this and my other machines even with casual usage (browsing, email, cloud storage syncs). In fact, if I didn't know any better I could actually blame the performance issues on the 2c/4t CPU 🙂

If you feel an upgrade itch then my first recommendation would be a new SSD. Prices have started to move down again and even the usually expensive NVME drives are looking better each day. If your motherboard supports NVME M2 drives, take a look around. Don't have to rush it though, just keep it in mind as an option for when you want to give the system a nudge in responsiveness. (especially if you notice delays with starting apps, loading files, reading/syncing large folders etc.)
 
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l agree with the other poster. Just close some tabs. When you say 60 threads, I assume you mean 60 browser tabs. How can you possibly need, or even keep track of, that many tabs at once?
 
MountainKing said:
Use is multi tasking
- usually 60+ threads open in chrome, including some youtube, fb etc ....
- running mumu (android emulator) to play games.
- downloading stuffs

The PC does get sluggish with many chrome tabs open...
Click to expand...
If it's mostly just web browsing that's the issue, I'm surprised no-one's given you some common sense advice like:-

1. Install uBlock and / or noScript. Not just about performance, pages look a LOT less cluttered too, plus it kills off hostile background crypto-mining / malware / tracking scripts.

2. Tweak your browser to not unnecessarily render everything in inactive tabs. Eg, for Firefox - media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground = True stops all video's (inc adverts) in background tabs from playing. browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand = True, after starting the browser it only loads each existing tab (from prior sessions) when activated. No-point loading tabs you aren't looking at in that session, etc.

"Needing" a $200 CPU to brute-force through all the cr*p on the web is absurd vs enjoying a 100-500% increase in performance for free by deftly side-stepping the same cr*p in the first place:-
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/10-ad-blocking-extensions-tested-for-best-performance/2/
 
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MountainKing said:
Many valid points guys. Let me address a few issues:

i) Since I was building a PC from scratch (previous build was a core2 duo E6600 lasting 10+ years with addinig ram changing GPU), I had to cut some corners. I thought it would be lag free while browsing and you tubing.

ii) I didnot expect AMD to come out with strong offerings making 4C the new baseline PC norm that fast.

iii) With my usage, a GPU didnot make sense at that point.

So, I think i'll ride it out for 1-2 years and swap the whole thing out. It would probably be CPU/MOBO/RAM combo then...
Thanks guys.
Click to expand...
Be aware, that if you go with 6 or 8 core AMD you will have to add a dgpu as well. The only cpus they have out yet with an igpu are quad core.
 
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