Motherboard + CPU for Roughly £350 Gaming

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OnyxPanda

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Best motherboard + CPU for gaming 2017 for £350?
So basically my old-ish PC is struggling to run a few games recently such as Arma 3 and player unknowns Battlegrounds, now these aren't greatly optimised but I've heard they're CPU heavy so i thought i might as well upgrade my CPU since ive recently upgraded my graphics card, which is now a GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, Should be able to run most modern games, but i think CPU is limiting me.
My current CPU is an AMD FX(tm)-6100 Six-Core Processor. Since apparently an i5 is the way to go, or so i've heard my motherboard is probably not compatible and will most likely need to be upgraded too. Im on a budget however as im a Paramedic Student so wondering if i could get away with spending £200-250 on a processor and £100 on a motherboard. Im not too keen on everclocking so i dont need a fancy BIOS or anything as long as the motherboard doesnt limit my fps maybe i can save abit of cash. Since my aim is to run battlegrounds if you guys could recommend the cheapest parts that would run it, that would be greatly appreciated, so if i could go under £350 that would be perfect, if i have to spend abit more not too much of a problem. Also when you buy a new CPU do you need to buy a fan for it, if so does it have to be a specific one or does the CPU come with a standard cooler? Im quite new to this so any extra info or help would be really useful to me!
 
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LucoTF
This would also run the games you mentioned

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£51.95 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£68.08 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£49.25 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £169.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-02 23:00 BST+0100

but not 60 fps solid. The above ryzen / intel builds are obviously better
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Lucky_SLS

Lucky_SLS

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velocityg4

velocityg4

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It isn't just upgrading the motherboard and CPU. You will also have to upgrade the RAM as your old DDR3 will not be compatible. If your Windows license is OEM (most likely is). You will have to buy a new Windows license.

However, you can put off buying the new Windows license. If you can live with a small watermark on your desktop saying Windows is not activated and the loss of some minor personalization options. You can run Windows 10 indefinitely without activating it.


You can go with AMD Ryzen 5. In which case I would recommend the R5-1600 as it offers the best value for your budget. It can be overclocked, has six cores and includes a decent cooler. The difference in gaming performance between an i5 and Ryzen is overstated. Titles well optimized for multi-threading do quite well on Ryzen than the i5. Some do even better. Typically these limitations you have to be using a Titan Xp or 1080 Ti at some ridiculously low resolution. As more AAA titles make better use of multi-threading (which is on the rise). I'd bet that the Ryzen has a longer useful life.
There are plenty of benchmarks showing Ryzen pitted against i5 with a GTX 1060 or comparable AMD GPU. Showing similar performance between the two.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£206.42 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: MSI B350 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard (£98.97 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£64.82 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £370.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-02 22:34 BST+0100

If you still prefer the i5.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£178.14 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI B250 PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£86.70 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £324.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-02 22:50 BST+0100
 
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LucoTF

LucoTF

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This would also run the games you mentioned

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£51.95 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£68.08 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£49.25 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £169.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-02 23:00 BST+0100

but not 60 fps solid. The above ryzen / intel builds are obviously better
 
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OnyxPanda

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Thank you so much for your quick response and for the breakdown, didn't know id have to upgrade my ram too but its not too bad, just wondering if there is a significant difference between the First setup (ryse) and the second (Intel i5), There is a £50 difference, wich for a student like me is like 2 months worth of internet bills lol, Just wondering if the performance is worth the extra £50, if the fps increases by 10+ id say it is worth it but if it will upgrade to the point where ill be getting over 60 fps anyway its probably not worth, i dont want the best PC with 300FPS on all games, just 60 fps 45 minimum on new gmes like arma 3 and battlegrounds, again thank you very much for the response! Oh and you didnt directly answer, do the CPU's come with their own basic fan or do i need to buy one?
 
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velocityg4

velocityg4

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Based on the benchmarks I have seen with a GPU like yours. In the here and now you won’t see much difference. In some games the Ryzen does better in others the i5 does. What is telling are games like Ashes of Singularity. Which perform better on the Ryzen. The Ryzen will likely have a longer use life as it has six cores, can run twelve threads simultaneously and allows overclocking. In raw performance each core is fairly close in processing power to the i5 per Ghz.

In older games, those that don’t use more than four threads or are poorly optimized for multiprocessing. The i5 will perform better. Many of those games will get extraordinarily high frame rates with either CPU anyways.

So, if you just care about what you’ll get out of games now. Get the i5-7500. If you want room for expansion in the future, have processor which can handle 8+ threads or have other background tasks running. Get the Ryzen.

 
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OnyxPanda

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Are you referring to my current CPU or between i5 and Ryzen?
So if i upgrade from my current to an i5 i wouldn't get a big change is performance?

 
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madmatt30

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LucoTF

LucoTF

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You can do an i5 build even cheaper if you're careful: PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£153.47 @ BT Shop)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£66.70 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£49.25 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £269.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-04 16:25 BST+0100

That said, if you're not getting the g4560 then ryzen 1600 is probably the better pick over an i5
 
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velocityg4

velocityg4

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I'm referring to the differences between i5 and Ryzen. Short term there won't be much difference between the two paired with your current GPU. Long term the Ryzen has a strong advantage. So it should be good still whenever you get your next GPU. Like a GTX 1260/3060 or whatever the mid range name is in two years.

Against your current CPU. Either CPU will be a considerable improvement. I won't venture to guess FPS/settings. As it varies so wildly depending on the game and settings used. Some games will see huge improvements if they are CPU intensive. If they are not there won't be much difference.
 
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OnyxPanda

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I'd just like to Thank everyone for their amazing input, it really impressed me how helpful everyone was. I think ill go with the Ryzon so i dont have to keep upgrading, just another thing, is the motherboard important or can i just go for a cheap sub £100 one? some people say it can bottleneck my CPU, so they're arguing that i can have the best CPU but if my motherboard isn't great then it wont even matter. Is this true?
 
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velocityg4

velocityg4

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