Is it worth upgrading?

It’s not actually about the wattage; it’s about the quality of the unit itself. Honestly, the power supply you’re running right now is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff—it’s basically a total gamble that could end up frying your entire build.

swiftfalcon89 said:It’s not actually about the wattage; it’s about the quality of the unit itself. Honestly, the power supply you’re running right now is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff—it’s basically a total gamble that could end up frying your entire build.

In that case, I’d really appreciate it if someone could point me toward a reliable power supply so I can just go ahead and pull the trigger on a purchase.

Even with this RAM upgrade, my frame rates are already feeling way smoother than before.

Of course you're noticing the difference. Honestly, 8GB is pretty much the baseline if you want a smooth gaming experience these days, and now that you've got dual channel running, it's a whole different story.

I put together a few more options for you here:

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swiftfalcon89 said:Why even compare them? It’s not like you’d drop $133 on a CPU or $293 on a GPU, plus you're looking at $500 for a board and maybe $350-400 for RAM.
As for why it's "ridiculous"—the i7 2600 actually holds its own in gaming, sitting right around where the Ryzen 1600/1600x performs.

You definitely need to swap that power supply before you try any other upgrades.

The guy is rocking an i5 2500k and he's looking at spending $133 on an i7 2600k just for specific performance gains in certain games, all while putting it on a motherboard that lacks a warranty and could fail any day now. Since I clearly don't know anything and this guy is obviously the smartest person here, I'm done arguing.
p.s. This board survived all these years on a crappy 400W unit!!!

I think he should just leave $2,500 on the table. 😉

Alexander Moore67 said:The guy is rocking an i5 2500k and he's looking at spending $133 on an i7 2600k just for specific performance gains in certain games, all while putting it on a motherboard that lacks a warranty and could fail any day now. Since I clearly don't know anything and this guy is obviously the smartest person here, I'm done arguing.
p.s. This board survived all these years on a crappy 400W unit!!!

It's because you're constantly talking out of your neck without doing any actual research or checking facts. You claimed the Core i7-2600k was laughable compared to a Ryzen 1600, saying that even at its absolute best, the i7 is only equal to it.

I already explained why. He’ll see better FPS in basically every game because his CPU won't be pinned at 100% usage and choking the GPU.
So what if it dies? What's the big deal? He's still spending $133 instead of almost $0.67 just to jump to a processor that's essentially the same power in gaming as that i7.

Don't start an argument if you aren't going to fact-check before spewing nonsense.

And who cares if it worked on a generic PSU? The board isn't pulling 150w—it's not like it fried the unit. I actually have an old LGA 775 build I picked up back in 2008 with a generic 400w power supply, and it ran on that for about six years. Now it's running on an EVGA CX430 with a Q6600 and a Radeon HD 6870, and my cousin's kid is still using it today for stuff like CS and CoD4.

At the end of the day, he can play just fine for $133 instead of dumping $0.67 into a CPU upgrade, so let him figure it out. Personally, I wouldn't go that route. I'd grab the i7, a decent new PSU, and maybe a used RX 570, 580, or a GTX 1060, then just run it until it's obsolete. With a Core i7-2600, he'll still have a perfectly smooth experience on a 60/75Hz monitor.

Does it actually make sense to pair an i7-3770 with that GTX 1060, and maybe even toss in another 8GB of RAM so I'd be sitting at 16GB total??????????

So, should I just hold onto that price gap between the Core i7-2600 and the 3770, along with that extra 8GB of RAM, and put it toward a better power supply instead?

Only if it’s an absolute steal...

By the way, what motherboard are you actually running?
And look, let's be realistic here—don't go overboard trying to slap 16GB of RAM onto such an old platform. Focus on sorting out your power supply and graphics card first, then we can talk upgrades.

Also, if you aren't in the NYC area and happen to find some decent links online, I'd suggest checking out this sale on power supplies: click

Don't skip any steps here.
You already upgraded the RAM, and like I mentioned before, 8GB was plenty for gaming, so having 12GB under the hood now gives you more than enough breathing room.
Next move: swap out that power supply. Seriously, get that junk out of your case and grab something reliable from a decent brand. Once that's sorted, look into a new GPU—you're going to love the difference. If you're happy with how things run on the Core i7-2600, there's no immediate need to swap the CPU, but if you want to clear up those bottleneck issues, you'll eventually want an i7. Whether you go with a Core i7-2600 or a 3770 doesn't matter much; either one will handle an RX 570/580 or a GTX 1060 just fine.

Look, I’m telling you, I am not swapping out my CPU. Like I said before, there’s just no point in trying to upgrade an old system and throwing money down the drain; once I finally reach the end of this build's life, I'll just buy a completely new setup and call it a day.

My motherboard is an ASUS P8H61-M LX2.

I'm heading out to pick up a new power supply and most likely a GTX 1060, since I honestly just feel more comfortable sticking with the Intel and Nvidia combo.👍

I don't really get why they'd pair a K-series CPU with this ASUS P8H61-M LX2 motherboard when you can't even overclock it...

Alright, let's look at the big picture.

Since you've already sorted out the RAM, your next steps are the power supply and the GPU. Once those are handled, you'll be able to run just about anything quite smoothly—though keep in mind that the absolute heaviest titles from the last year or two might require you to dial back the settings and accept a lower FPS. That’s really all there is to it. Down the road, once you've saved up some extra cash, I'd suggest upgrading your core platform first (think a new CPU, motherboard, and RAM). By then, DDR5 systems will likely be even more standard and accessible.

Alexander Moore67 said:I don't really get why they'd pair a K-series CPU with this ASUS P8H61-M LX2 motherboard when you can't even overclock it...

Well, the truth is I basically got it for next to nothing.

They aren't really playing any heavy-duty titles or anything crazy; lately, it's just been my kid running Epic Games and Mojang, and everything runs perfectly fine for now.

Honestly, just stick with the i5-2500K. 😉 Throw a GTX 1060 in there too, and you’ll be good to go. Seriously, just stay on the 2500K.