Gaming PC CPU Upgrade from Core 2 Duo E8500

[seanyd78]

It is finally time to upgrade the CPU in my rig as its age is really starting to show. I have an Core 2 Duo E8500 that I have been running for the last 7-8 years. It has been great, but it is just not up to running the future games anymore. While gaming, the CPU and memeory are both running at almost 100%.

Current System:
CPU - Core 2 Duo E8500
Motherboard - Foxconn MCP73M01H1 (from HP Pavillion a6300f)
Ram - 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 (Max allowed on mobo)
Drive - Samsung 840 SSD
Video - Gigabyte Gaming G1 4GB GTX 970
Games played - World of Warcraft and Diablo 3. Both played at 1920x1080 @ 60htz
Oprating system - WIndows 7 Pro 64-bit

Goals:
I plan on sticking with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit for the time being and will probably upgrade to Windows 10 Pro 64-bit towards the end of this year. I am looking for a CPU to compliment the GTX 970 and not create a large bottle neck. I do not plan on running SLI. I would also like to be able to use it for future games and not worry about having to upgrade for the next 4-5 years at least. I plan on running at stock speeds for now, but I will eventually overclock when the bug hits again. I have a budget around $300-400 fro both new motherboard and CPU.

I have been looking at the following:
I5-4690K
I7-4790K
I3-6300
I5-6500
I5-6600K

All help and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

On the basis that gaming is the primary function of your PC, I'd take the i5-6500 with an H170 motherboard and 8GB or 16GB of DDR4 RAM.

The reason being is that overclocking the CPU only improves gaming performance when the CPU is weak. Given that the 6500 is already a strong CPU, overclocking won't add anything. If you were photo or video editing, or you just enjoy overclocking as a hobby, then it would be worthwhile.

 

[synphul]

You'll need new ram either way, either ddr3 or ddr4 so that will need to be factored in. With that budget it counts out the i7 since the cpu is $330 alone. An i5-6500 cpu, mobo and 8gb ddr4 ram can be had for around $350, the 4690k with 8gb ddr3 ram and z motherboard can be had for right at $400. The i5 6600k would likely be a hard stretch at that budget since it requires an aftermarket cooler whether you intend to overclock right away or not. It doesn't come with a cooler, and the cpu runs $250 alone.

Either 4th or 6th gen should last pretty well and would be suitable for those games and that gpu. I imagine the gpu is bottlenecked pretty bad, my oc'd e8400 was bottlenecking my hd 7850 and it's not near as strong as the gtx 970. My suggestion would be an i5 over an i3.

Overclocking won't likely make a difference now when everything is new, it's when things start to age and the cpu needs a boost keeping up. For instance in your current situation, oc'ing the cpu would reduce the bottleneck. Whether or not that's worth paying a bit extra for and considering to keep the system performing better down the road vs a locked cpu is up to you.