The Mighty i7-2600K in 2024 - is this CPU still worth $30?

[@w19ely85]

My CPU upgrade path went from core 2 duo to I5 2400, to I7 2700k to i7 4770k. Literally a magical time to be in PC gaming, the upgrade from core 2 to i5 2400 was absolutely amazing

[@DaiAtlus79]

right? i had to be a lil 'slummin' it' and got a Pentium 4 3ghz (LGA775 and Hyperthreaded) with a 250GTS and 4gb ram til i got upgraded to an Athlon II X2, then the X3 and paired with a laughable 630GT 2GB DDR3 GPU and 4gb ram (in 2016). I managed in one year to go from that lil rig, that with mods played Fallout 4 in Windows 7, and had the CPU overclocked on an OEM board thanks to NVidia System Tools that lets you use the nForce chipset to increase multipliers, clock speed, PCI-E 16x slot speed etc so when i got a triple core it was even better, and then i had doubled the ram to 8gb and had a 2gb Radeon 6870 slotted in and was enjoying even more til a friend dropped their dying Alienware on my lap and said to have at it. i puilled its Mobo. CPU and ram then paired it with my HDD and GPU, then within two months a friend sent me his old 660ti 2gb, and i was set. Now im still not keeping current with my hardware but im not suffering - i7-4790, 16gb DDR3, 10603gb, 120gb SSD, 4tb HDD and a 750wPSU and two older Dell LCD monitors. i did notice the jump when i went to Haswell, as the speeds all around on the hardware had improved, with the ram able to go faster (2600 is limited to 1333mhz with DDR3, Haswell can do 1600mhz) as well as the PCi-Express speed is faster (GPU is handicapped by vram but is still powerful), the CPU can turbo to 4ghz, and the only shortcoming i seem to have is some games are relying more on an SSD and my games all run off of spinning disk (both drives are 4 years old and bought brand new while the PSU in this is gently used second-hand and was with the Haswell hardware when i had gotten it). the lil tweaks and curiousities about hardware you learn along the way tends to stick with you as well (the nForce chipset thing is fun, im hoping to find another mobo like that for my WinXP Crysis build im doing now that has a 5770 Radeon in the wings awaiting it). also high five, Haswell is a nice progression from Sandybridge!

[@Ares14]

Yeah. My upgrade path was a i5 760 to i5 3470 to i7 4790k which i stayed with until about 2020.

[@MindsMouth]

I still have a core 2 G620 duo rig with R7 250 2gb, 500gb HDD. I use it for really old games lol.

[@KeyToTime]

Pentium 4 to Core 2 was the best jump. I remember being blown away going from a 3.2Ghz P4 to my Q9650.

[@solocamo3654]

@@Ares14We're similar but I went from FX-8120, FX-8350 and then was gifted a FX-9590. Got frustrated and just slapped a 4790k rig together when it came out and held onto until 2020. Went 10900 then 11900k from there.

[@raptor6600gt]

I had a 2700K @ 5Ghz years ago. Bloody legend of a CPU.

[@mapesdhs597]

I have seven of them to get rid of. :D Complete 2700K systems I mean, all on ASUS M4E/Z mbds. I've kept a couple more for general tasks and benchmarking. I always loved the fact that 5GHz with a 2700K was utterly trivial just with a TRUE and one fan, good temps and acceptable noise, though I often used an H80 in final builds (with better NDS fans) for near silent running. One can even set dynamic voltage for optimal power. I typically always used GSKill TridentX DDR3/2400 CL10, set to either 2133 or 2400 depending on the proclivities of the CPU, 16GB or 32GB, though Ripjaw @ 2133 was also fine.

[@GTX1650X]

I have i7 2700k how I get 5ghz

[@raptor6600gt]

@@GTX1650X You need a good air cooler or watercooling + good mainboard + luck that your 2700K can reach 5Ghz. Try for 4.8Ghz stable first and then increase clock speeds steadily.

[@stavriminev5325]

I had it running at 5ghz also with a custom water-cooling. Sold it in 2014

[@Gnocke]

Have that CPU still OC on 4.6 with rx 5700xt and still going strong!! Love it.

[@christophermullins7163]

What a legend. Do it the respect it deserves and get lil frame to hang it on the wall behind your PC.

[@djukic921]

Ćao brate, imam isti procesor samo je overklokovan na 4.5ghz. Hteo sam da kupim istu tu grafičku al bih je uzeo samo zbog CS2 pa me zanima ako bi mogao da mi kažeš koliko fpsa može da izgura na deathmeču na dust2 sa sledećim podešavanjima: rezolucija 1280x960, MSAA x2, senke na high i sve ostalo na low podešavanjima. Ako ti nije problem baš bi me usrećio i pomogao. Pozdrav

[@Gnocke]

@@djukic921 eeee brt javljam ti cim pogledam, pazi cs2 je vise Cpu intense i to na single coru, ja pikam uglavnom na 2k ali sve ostalo na low podesavanjima sem senki i u competitivu 5v5 bije od 150-60 do 200

[@djukic921]

@@Gnocke Lol ja toliko fpsa imam sad na ovim podešavanjima koje sam ti naveo ali u paru sa gtx 950 na competitivu hahaha. Nego sam primetio da je na dmu fps oko 130-150 kad se napuni server i hoće da padne i ispod 100 nekad. Mislim da je to zbog single cora i zato što nema avx2 instrukcije pa me zato najviše zanima. Tako da ako se setiš da probaš javljaj obavezno. Jel si probao možda the last of us ili cyberpunk na toj konfiguraciji?

[@Gnocke]

@@djukic921 gledaj nema sta nisam igrao na ovoj konfiguraciji od Cyberpunka do RDR2 sada sam skoro presao Halo infinite, nisam pikao last of us jer mi nije zanimljiva tako da to nisam skidao, svakakooo ti preporucujem 5700xt jer za dat novac najvise dobijas a sto se tice sc2 nije ti tu nesto grafika preterano bitna jer je fokus na Cpu,msm da imas na YT i test 5700xt sa i7 2600k jedina stvar gde sam video da je i7 ostario jeste onaj warzone 2.0 i tu se mucio na momente.

[@latro666]

Still running in on my old PC (2011)! downstairs my wife uses for playing Sims. Only upgraded to a 12600K! last year. Could not bring my self to sell it or retire it, its still going strong! - The windows PC name is OldFriend

[@MrSamadolfo]

🙂 me too, i pretty much keep all my old computers, i'm actually giving some of them new cases just for fun

[@latro666]

@@MrSamadolfo Yea this one is still in the same case. Antec Nine Hundred Two V3 they dont make em like that these days, that case will outlive me.

[@Bynming]

I still remember my i5-2500k, absolute legend.

[@reubenmorris487]

My first PC build was with an ASRock Z68 motherboard (mistake), GTX 560, and an i5-2500K. It worked no problem at 3.9GHz. Later on with with a Z170 prematurely, a 6600K, then stepped up to a 7700K. The 2600K might be OK, but the Z68 chipset doesn't support the stuff we're used to like M.2 SSDs, the PCIe lanes...

[@eqbal321a]

I'm watching this video on a PC with an i7-2600k, it is paired with a Gtx 1650, 16 gig ram, and my daughter players Boulder Gate on it with a high setting

[@geoman1420]

I still use my i7-2600K overclocked @ 4.4Ghz with a Noctua cooler and P8P67 Asus board built in 2010. Runs fine!

[@carlssonandreas661]

What gpu? :)

[@carlssonandreas661]

I have the same board so thats wy i wonder dont know what gpu to get:)

[@geoman1420]

@@carlssonandreas661 I use an RX470 but i only game in HD (no 4K or above)...

[@kapseldigital]

got literally the same build, both noctua cooler and P8P67 PRO, but the motherboard died recently... so i bought a P8P67 Deluxe for $25 and we're still running

[@tehfoxxy9630]

Ah yes, my old CPU before i upgraded to a 13700k.

[@vigilant_1934]

Massive upgrade right that there. Light years faster

[@Willbme4EVA]

I highly doubt that, but you made me laugh

[@tehfoxxy9630]

@@vigilant_1934yes sir havin a blast with my new system after sticking with my old one for years

[@hoffybeefe]

I had my work machine upgrade very similar. 2600k -> 12700k :)

[@AK90]

I did something similar going from a 4790k to a 10700k. The performance jump was insane xD

[@heymarton]

That motherboard is a beast! My boss gave me his old gaming rig for work a couple years ago with exactly this combo, it’s still kicking as my living room gaming PC.

[@icalexander]

The old i7's were beasts. I was running a 2nd gen i7 in an Alienware laptop up until 2017 and it played everything I wanted.

[@saricubra2867]

I own a Haswell i7-4700MQ laptop from 2013. Still usable to this day, it gives me high framerates on Counter Strike 2 (like 80fps), i used a pseudo 1440p CRT monitor with it (VGA is still a blessing). Since Haswell has AVX2, it can run every single current program. Now i have an i7-12700K from Alder Lake now, very niche CPU but i need it for complex works on Digital Audio Workstations.

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

Tech YES City - Still mighty in 2024!

[@jritechnology]

The 2600K is still a monster CPU in 2024. I have one running a 2k movie Plex Media Server and TrueNAS with a 580ti and 32GB of DDR2. It's a workhorse.

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

When it's finally time to retire Sandy Bridge for modern gaming, it shouldn't be forgotten that it's a banger Windows XP retro gaming system.

[@Willbme4EVA]

I7 2600k vs I7 860 hahaha let the games begin

[@benfoster93]

Just gave my PC some Tech Yes Lovin and now I'm watching the big show, with a cup of fine Yorkshire tea. It's a good day

[@KryptonicHD]

My brother sold his PC because he didn't really "game"; Ryzen 1700, GTX 1650 and 16gbs of ram. 1 year later he's itching to play games, but he doesn't have a PC to game on! II always have spare parts I never want to let go of! I built him a "Spare Parts PC" and I personally liked it even more than his Previous PC build! He now has a PC with a i7 2700k (LOVED that it was just not the standard 2600k heheh) 32gb of RAM, GTX 980Ti, and a 1TB SSD! The value from older hardware is amazing, and I understand that even nowadays first gen ryzen chips are basically free from how cheap they are! BUT something about using trophy pieces of time feels so daing right! And I mean isn't it better to use these parts, over just having them in a drawer collecting dust ;) People nowadays want to upgrade PC parts or PCs as a whole , almost as often as they change phones!!! It's crazy because it's NOT needed whatsover, but the sensationalism is crazier than ever with "who will have the latest and greatest".

[@micahottaway8455]

I remember my old 2600k. It was a beast for years. I didn't upgrade it until Ryzen came around. Oh yeah, the overclocking was phenomenal on those days.

[@sweetasdude]

Still have mine, running mineos for the kids, ran it with an 8800gts and then a 6990hd back in the day,. (before moving to 4790k)

[@ivey77426]

Uh, Sandy Bridge is a legend, true, but the video is not telling the whole picture. In 2019 I upgraded from 2600k to 9700k and in some more demanding titles like AC: Odyssey the stutter that was constant with 2600k just went away on 9700k. And it is similar for many games, while average fps was pretty strong on 2600k, it was constantly microstuttering and that what showed it's age compared to newer CPU. Still, trading blows on avg fps with 12400f is mind blowing, shows how little actual progress was made decade later.

[@Willbme4EVA]

Baby steps

[@mmllmmll22]

On the other side - a lot of 2600k could be OC to speeds like 5GHz. Same with 3770k (i ran mine @4.5 for daily).

[@ArtisChronicles]

Sometimes stuttering reduces on a fresh windows install too. So there's a lot of factors that can cause a lot of stuttering. But more cores more better for a smoother experience in games these days. A lot of games are multithread now.

[@PalatechGaming]

AC Odyssey has the same behaviour even with Ryzen 3000 setups due to it being a quite unoptimized dx11 title. The performance gets fixed with DXVK (Dx to Vulkan), the difference in performance is mind-blowing. And the same thing happens with AC Origins and other old dx9-10-11 games, especially if you're using a new amd gpu.

[@HerrAlien]

Using INSPECTRE to disable spectre and meltdown patches boosted up the FPS in CS2 quite significantly (i5 2400).

[@xAnAngelOfDeathx]

Still using a i7 2600 in 2024, upgraded my gpu thrice currently using a GTX 1660 ti. Gonna build a new rig this summer.

[@samserious1337]

Doesn't the 4060 only have 8 PCI-e lanes? And since the i7 2600k only has PCI-e 2.0, we are left with 8 lanes on PCI-e 2.0 which is a substantial bottleneck.

[@techyescity]

Yeah that's true except the games are getting near 100%, especially robocop it's virtually the same. So on a GPU like the 4060 I guess it doesn't matter a whole lot.

[@raptor1672]

Yes, you are right it does only use 8 lanes.

[@zbigniew2628]

@@techyescity it matters a lot, especialy with 1% lows and soo on.... Anyway this CPU is bottleneck for it. Anyway, you used medium settings not ultra, when this GPU can perfectly fine run Robocop in 50-60fps with them. (probably with DLSS quality) Lower settings probably allows for lower bandwidth. PCIE 2.0 x8 is like pcie 3.0 x4, which limits even rx6500xt... rx6700xt is way better for CPU like this, thanks to PCIE x16.

[@ArtisChronicles]

​@@zbigniew2628 Is it really ultra quality if you're running DLSS? My opinion is that it's not.

[@lorsheckmolseh3345]

Depending on game, in most cases the data to display (meshes, textures, shaders) is copied over the bus to card not for every frame, but before start and depending on player's movements. If some transfer to and copyback from the card is done permanently, e.g. for special effects, shadowing, ... results will go into cellar. At 60fps transfering 67MByte/frame will 100% alloc the 4GByte/s bus.

[@peternedermann6751]

I used mine @4.5, with optimised setting in a Gigabyte board, never exceeding the 95W TDP, so a Hyper 212 was all I needed, with temps maxing out in the high 60s when encoding (and of course much less while gaming). Loved that chip to bits 🙂. Thanks Bryan for revisiting it in 2024 🙂

[@rudesssolo]

Legendary CPU still rocking after 13 years.

[@Tanzu15]

Why though??

[@ArtisChronicles]

​@@Tanzu15 if it still does everything you want, then why not?

[@alchemicalanarchist]

It was not 13 years ago, it was 8

[@Tanzu15]

@@alchemicalanarchist dawg what? The 2600k released in early 2011. Can you not math?

[@alchemicalanarchist]

@@Tanzu15 No it didnt. Your information is way wrong. It released August 5, 2015

[@yanpaingoo7553]

i7 2600k + msi z77 set only cost 28$

[@clunkclunk2099]

My 12 year old kid games on my old i7-2600K system and it's older than he is. He's not a super intense gamer - 80% of his time is in Minecraft but it's still amazing what this system can do all these years later. My original GTX 970 died, so I replaced it with an RX 470, added in a SATA SSD and it's still chugging away in 2024.

[@nonaurbizniz7440]

At this point 4th gen haswell is the lowest gen you realistically want to go. Supports all the needed api and such and is about as cheap if not cheaper because there are so many of them on the office refurb scene. An i7 k chip with a good oc can still put in work.

[@GeminionRay]

Agreed. Haswell aged really well, plus they are still easy to obtain these days. I still daily drive one of those (i7-4790 + H97 mobo), even though I do have a 10400 + B460 combo I got for cheap recently.

[@EliteRock]

Delidding and LM'ing Intel 3rd to 8th gen is the way to go, it's like upgrading one or even two generations for all of them. I just did it to a 3770K which now scores higher than the average 4770K in Cinebench at 4.6GHz 1.28-1.30v (passes all stability tests and stays under 70°C in P95 smallest AVX).

[@zbigniew2628]

@@EliteRock Probably it is just better to buy i5 8500 or 9400f, which does not need delid, coz some versions have soldered IHS.... Probably it is going to cost even less than these i7, so better sell it when it is worth something. I did it with i5 4690k and i5 8400 long ago, which cost me almost nothing, by buying used parts, which cost ~30% more than us. Later moved to ryzen 5500, which again cost me not much more.

[@Tanzu15]

Nah. 6700k z170 is still the best lowest.

[@SirSomnolent]

Both my desktops are old haswells I scrapped together from old builds I had sitting around. They drive 4k displays, pcie 3.0... with a GPU capable of av1 and other goody hardware decoding you really can't tell until compiling or wanting to plug in a USB 3.2 device

[@Beary98]

I JUST picked up a tomahawk z87 motherboard with a 4790k, and sli 1080ti's for $160 It was in a MASSIVE old haf case...

[@66racer]

Funny enough, I was thinking about powering up my i7-2700k build over the weekend. It has a GTX 770 in it. It is a time capsule to me, so much gaming was done on that system.

[@Klatchan]

I tend to just build these things for friends who want to jump into pc gaming but balk at the prices of decent prebuilts, maybe asking for a bit on the top of the cost of parts for my labor instead of flipping them. But still, videos like these are Lifesavers.

[@brkbtjunkie]

I used a 2600k from 2011 to 2019, now it sits in my GF wow classic rig and crushes that haha. Great value. Back in the day many people questioned why you would get a 2600k when a 2500k was so much cheaper. Well those 8 threads really provided longevity as mine is 13 years old and still used daily. I’ve got two other 2600 chips pulled from various computers. I just can’t throw them away!

[@KhizarKhan2001]

Performance is much better than expected but i wouldn't wanna go lower than 4th gen

[@hliasunknown]

i guess for avx2

[@lorsheckmolseh3345]

@@hliasunknown , performance "improvement" from AVX to AVX2 isn't especially great.

[@Pasi123]

@@lorsheckmolseh3345 Some games are starting to require AVX2

[@hliasunknown]

@@lorsheckmolseh3345 there will be games that need avx2 to open

[@hliasunknown]

@@lorsheckmolseh3345 there will be games that will require avx2

[@blackmore99]

Still using this cpu @4.2. Personally I wanted to see you compared it with x58 besides new gen i5 because they are basically the same architecture and price/performance beasts. Great video.

[@SuprousOxide]

Big problem with running old cpus is finding the compatible motherboards, which tend to cost more than the cpus.

[@mattmills9354]

I've been keeping all my old gear. Still can't believe how good it still plays modern games.

[@EXOWill]

I ran an i5-2500k from launch to 2021 when I built my i5 -10600k system.

[@pituguli5816]

What the hell happened? Did the overlords shadow ban your channel? They didn't like your fiat toilet paper videos it seems. Best videos you've made imo Bro, time for the eepshays to wake up.

[@techyescity]

Not sure man, my channel being getting quite the beating, though doesn't bother me dude I just keep doing me! Thanks for watching.

[@Willbme4EVA]

He has been hanging his soccerballberrie thingies out there for quite a while, never a foul mouth. I applaud Bryan for showing how much we all have been sleeping.

[@buildyourcomputer]

ai overlords don't know how to sort the videos with mixed content like that. They want you to only do one type of video for a channel.(not tech and also economic content)

[@walter274]

This was a fun video. Comparing an i3-12100 to the i7-2600k would be cool. I would love to see a revisit of the 8 core xeon on x79. I had that cpu and 2060s for 4 years. I had an x79 board and a quad channel ram kit, so it was a nobrainer.

[@GeekInspire]

Really interesting video ! I had an i5 2500K back in the day, with a 4.5GHz overclock. I then switched up to Ryzen when it launched. Nice to see these old CPUs still keeping up !

[@jarnom85]

Mine did back in the day hit 5.3Ghz with LCPC V10 case with build in phase change cooler. Could probably have gone much higher but didn't end up doing so. Had Maximus IV Extreme mainboard.

[@aghostyboi3075]

The fact we are just now starting to get to the age were processors come stock 5ghz is wild, it’s also crazy that 5ghz was possible on this chip, a true legend.

[@phoenixbird7579]

Watching this video with my 2600K air-cooled since I bought it back when it was released with a GTX 1080, still working like a champ, no issues ever.

[@PapiJonk]

Before I upgraded a couple years ago, my system was a 2600k paired with a sapphire rx580 8gb. love that PC so much Played so much MW 2019 on that haha

[@HitsuTwistedTalong]

My first high-end CPU was back in 2011 and gave me gaming joy until its MB died in 2016. I sold it to a tech repair guy and I think it still working. The funny thing is I replaced it with a new build with Ryzen 5 2600, which was life-changing.

[@AC-dd3rb]

Rocked one of these with 64gb and a 5700xt before moving to a 5900x and a 6700xt during that worldwide lockdown. Great CPU I managed 4.4ghz OC on air on mine back when overclocking could really make a difference. Nice to see for budget gaming it's still an option worth considering.

[@mundocpc]

I used to have one reliably overclocked at 5Ghz for many years. It was really an awesome CPU that lasted me almost a decade. The last GPU I paired it with was a 2080 Super and I was able to play Doom Eternal in 4K at consistent 60fps 😊

[@LegionGamingTV]

I love older CPUs. I have an i7 4790K that overclocks to 4.8ghz on a 120mm cooler, and it does great in every game I play, BUT Escape From Tarkov.. That game you have to have extreme single thread performance, or cache. But being able to build a complete PC for less than $350 that destroys modern titles is amazing. Newegg in the U.S. sells refurbished 6650xt and 3060s for $150-$180 all day everyday which makes budget PCs a great seller over here.

[@Obie327]

Being the owner since new of and MSI p67-gd65/i7 2600k, I can definitely say.. What an impressive platform with long legs into the future. (13 years later) I'm still rocking a GTX 680 2 gig but can install a Maxwell GTX 970 to see how it performs. I run mine also at 4.2 ghz and higher. Thanks Brian for showcasing this Legendary CPU.

[@michaelthompson9798]

Tbh I was quite surprised how well the i7-2600K w/ RTX 4060 was handling Robocop at 1080p compared to the i5-12400 😱🤯. I’d love to see this pc setup put through a variety of newer gaming titles 💪🥰👍

[@xDIGITONIUMx]

Used parts are stupid expensive. My cousin gave me his mini-ITX PC with an i7-3770 and 8GB DDR3 a couple of years ago. I built an emulation box and gave it to a friend, who ended up not using it. Thankfully I was able to get it back and put together, along with a 1660 Ti, a Linux-based desktop for old school gaming. This board is listing for $300 USD used on Amazon.

[@JakonDeluxe]

Very interesting. Thank you. Would be interesting to see the same test with a 4790K.

[@alltheotherhandlesaretaken]

It’s a bit difficult to recommend older intel parts when used older AM4 parts have gotten almost as cheap. You pay little extra to be on a newer platform with potentially better performance depending on what CPU you can get for a deal. Then you have future upgrades set with the 5600 or even the 5700X3D.

[@YonOtto]

I had a 3930k for 8 years before feeling the need to upgrade. All core 4.8ghz. Absolutely futureproofed back in 2012. Best part is I bought it 2nd hand for £380. Still have it in a back up system with a 1070.

[@folterknecht1768]

I'm still running a 3770K @4.8 GHz. From my personal experience with the 3570K I had before, you probably should have also mentioned or shown a 2500K in your comparison. The difference in many multicored - modern titles between the i5 and i7 is massive to the point, that the i5 is pretty useless in many cases. You even notice it when mutlitasking on the desktop with browsing (many active tabs), Office and other applications. I have no problem with these old i7s, 16GB RAM and a SSD, when a budget build is needed for parents and what not, an old i5 I wouldn't touch - it just isnt smooth anymore. Even the older generations got used the smooth handling smartphones in the last 5 years and are confused with a pc-experience like in the late '90 or earlies 2000s, where nearly every input was delayed till results showed up on the screen.

[@beezle1976]

There's just something fun about playing with older gear that was once high end and putting it through its paces with contemporary software. They can be "modest" vs current gear, but can still run decades of great software very nicely and can still cover "minimum requirements" for a lot of newer titles too.

[@sirjarko8762]

My first gaming pc has this cpu with a hyper 212 evo,16gb of ram, windows 7 and a gtx 580 3gb for a while and my i7 which i still have was stable at 4.5ghz. I got a lot of milegage out of that PC and im currently rebuilding it to be a PC alongside my OP XP/Vista machine and my main windows 11 PC. These CPUs where stupid good value.

[@jrherita]

My 2600K was happy at 4.7 GHz all day at ~ 1.33 volts, and for benchmarking 4.9 GHz at 1.39 volts / 5.0 GHz at 1.41 volts. Happy to see this video :)

[@SGTMacBC]

We must be In sync this week. I just picked up a Gigabyte GA-P75-D3 with a 2nd gen i7. Turns out the bios is locked up, and I will work through that eventually. But I tested out the CPU on another older system. I was amazed at how snappy it is for being a non K variant. Even if I can't get the board up and going. The other parts from the deal were very well worth what I paid.

[@DarkPuIse]

I rocked one of these until 2021 when I finally upgraded to a Ryzen 5900X system. It's probably the best CPU I've ever owned, and considering I've built computers for over 20 years and this CPU lasted a solid ten of those... that's saying something.

[@Matt08719801]

i settled at 4.2ghz on mine and its a great balance of having performance and reliability , its been a stable system for the last 7 + years with no issues

[@Duvoncho]

Ha I got my old sandy bridge in 2011. It saw 4 GPUs until I replaced it with a 3900X at the tail end of 2019. It now lives in a box frame on my wall (mobo included). Truly a historic chip.

[@Swordmaster1337]

I would recommend checking out recycling centers if you ever fly out to the US. I've been getting cpu, board and ram combos with coolers for 30 - 35 bucks. I got a i7 4790k, maximus 6 hero, 16gb of ddr3 1866mhz memory for 35 bucks

[@daryodaryo8583]

I ve had this CPU untill a few months ago.I used it along with an Asrock P8H67 mobo , 32gb ddr3 HyperFury x ram and an Amd Rx480 Sapphire Nitro 8gb 256 bit. It did fine for me for a few years (3 or 4 years ) .The mentioned build kind of had a sentimental value to me, because it was my 1st build made from scratch, not just upgarding older parts. I ve made this setup from the ground up, on a budget, with very much patience , waitin for bargains.If you are on a very very tight budget and you want to have a taste of the newer gen games, you could still choose this CPU . The thing is, it will just make it enough to run them with no further expectations, depending on the GPU you want to pair it with. The downside in my build mentioned above, was the mobo. It did not know things as OC, no XMP , nothing, so that makes a difference, now seeing your video. Nonetheless, i ve upgraded to an Asus Maximus VIII Gene along with the "Frankenstein" i9 QQLS (i ve saw your video where you presented this crazy chip) and it was pretty much the confirmation that i needed to go along with this kind of contraption,As a side note, i remember you mentioning that it s a power hungry chip once you start pushing it ...I agree, but if you have the nerve to test it in various conditions along with XTU , you will find the sweet spot in power/temp/stability ratio (currently running 4ghz , 1.160V , 234A with a 280mm BeQuiet AIO , i get 29C idle, 75 in 100%load. In addition, i ve got 32gbb of DDR4 and the latest upgrade, a GTX 1080TI (because budget build :) ) .I can now run any game at 1080/1440 p , very high - maxxed out settings with at least 60FPS (with the respectable dips to 50, depending on the game in question) . Nonetheless, great content! TBH, i`ve been watching your content for sometime now, not obsessively, but frequently enough to have me as a subscriber :) > i really like your idea of budget builds , finding deals, bargains , stuff that is really still capable, but at a normal price , especially as i`m inclined to this way of getting hardware also. Keep up the good work man!

[@elcapitano75]

I just recently just retired mine, i had it running windows 11, using for media-movies on the big TV with a old 1050ti. Finally retired it though, as the motherboard always had little annoying issues that i just had enough of at this point. But that CPU i had at 4.3ghz and always did the job and ran cool at that level.

[@OneDollaBill]

Those 2nd 3rd 4th and 6/7th gen i7s are still pretty decent for budget builds. Specially if you can find those cheap with a motherboard.

[@pirotehs]

I was using i5 2500k until four month ago (bought when cpu came out in 2011). Wasn't very fast, but CPU wasn't the problem. 8gb ram was a problem and I was not willing to spend ~50usd for ddr3. Nvme drive was a desired upgrade too. So I went with 7800x3d. I hope I will use it for next 10 years.

[@ramiressrauul7705]

Great video love x58 and Sandy, still great performance, Brian can you look into the polemic generated by forza motorsport's devs leaving out tons of radeon rx 580 gamers, they droped support for that card after months of releasing!! the game was running just fine since launch and now after updates they refuse to support it, look at the steam reviews and forza forums, people are pissed after playing houndreds of hours with their rx 580 and 570 cards suddently they cant play anymore because devs silently upgraded the requirements

[@Aliothale]

Just recently put an RTX 4060 on my 4.5ghz 1.35v 3770k that's living in my friends PC now, his GTX 970 died and I had already benched the 3770k with an RTX 3070 (75-99% usage). He's completely happy playing pretty much 99% of his games at 1080p Ultra 60fps. He can even do tons of 1440p/1620p DLDSR now as well. Just an absolutely legendary CPU.

[@mustangpapi76]

Thank you for this video. It lets me know my old CPU still kicks butt. I just swapped out my 3gb 1060 for a 8gb 1070. Haven't tried it out yet in games. Giving the new set up. To my nephew.

[@ChrisKadaver]

I've never heard anyone not getting the i7 2600K to 4.4Ggz. I had mine running on 4.6-4.8Ghz with a cooler master 212 evo. But with modern games you really need to overclock the ram. I ran my 1600Mhz ram at 2133Mhz and I gained a whole lot performance from that. Maybe hard go get wity 4 sticks though? But 1866Mhz should be doable at least?

[@GrainGrown]

It's 1600 MT/s, not MHz. (Notice that upper case H also) The RAM is running at 800 MHz when it's doing that 1600 MT/s speed.

[@xX12VincEXx]

True. My i7 3770k reaches 4.5GHz without even changing the Voltage. i5 3750k and i5 2500k were the same. So the i7 2600k should also easily handle it

[@grlmgor]

Past 4.4GHZ you really see diminishing returns in heat.

[@genericyoutubeaccount579]

I just upgraded from a 2500k and Nvidia Quadro 2000. But I won't be selling the rig from 2011. Instead it is going to be a web browser for my parents. My dad hasn't used a desktop since Windows XP.

[@schifferu]

I just used the i7 3770 with an rx 480. It does pretty well. Helldiver's 2 at 50fps on medium and cyberpunk as well. Not bad for such old cpus!!

[@joaogrrr]

hey, it's my guy! i'm rocking it still but i'm looking to upgrade because it's actually FINALLY showing its age

[@RocketRenton]

Built my 1st PC with the i5-2500k, it was such a longstanding CPU, wonder if we will have a generation that will go on as long as this one did?, as well as those Xeon's which at the time were sold for 1000's for servers.

[@m8x425]

probably not until the CPU innovation war between Intel and AMD halts. what made Sandy Bridge so special in the first place is it took AMD 6 years before they had a legit answer to Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge. Intel focused on efficiency and the iGPU until Ryzen came out. AMD fans might try to say the FX-8150 and 8350 could keep up with the 2600k, but it never did, Bulldozer was never close. The other thing that made Sandy Bridge so special is it was a legit +15% IPC increase over Nehalem/Westmere and it could overclock insanely higher than a 1st Gen CPU ever could. My old i7-920 could do +4.1GHz at 1.35v, and my 2600k did 4.8GHz at the same voltage.

[@TakMan2012]

My favorite generation of Intel CPUs! Keep the budget build coming, thanks always

[@ants9230]

I can get a Ryzen 1600 for £30 in the UK. Boards and RAM are plentiful. I'd get NVME support, DDR4 support, and in a couple of years I could driop in a 5700/5800 x3d. The board and RAM might end up costing a little more, but in the long run it would be a far more sensible option.

[@neiliewheeliebin]

Ryzen is such good value. Out of curiosity I tested a 5800x in a B450 motherboard & it ran great with 3200mhz ram

[@rubyvolt]

I have a couple of all-in-one touch screens that were plain i3 and a Pentium of the line. I slapped in 2600Ks, max RAM and my wife still uses hers in her classroom.

[@Igoresplayroom]

I have a I7 2600k been using it forever. I don’t game much but kits been an ok cpu as a daily driver. It does most things ok, I did finally upgrade and built a new rig. But still have the I7 2600k and se it to work as a miner

[@KratosAurionPlays]

This was my cpu until early 2021. Then I upgraded the whole pc and the new one had a 10900k.

[@2muchjpop]

I think the 4770/90k are probably the gold standard for modern budget builds. The modern instruction sets and support for PCIe 3.0 helped it age better. The IPC is also decent considering haswell is over a decade old now. Ivy bridge is that weird in between.

[@LogHorizon4]

i got my 2600k back in 2014 Now OC'd to 4.4 ghz with a DP67BG ( bought it as a prebuilt pc with 4 Gb Ram back then) and a Monitor for only $110 US , since then got a Corsair Rm1000x used for $50 US and a 32 Gb Hyper X Fury DDR3 for $60 USD 4x8 GB Kit and recently got a RTX 3060 12GB for $230 Used. Packed it full of ssd's and Hard drives Totaling almost 20TB. Still plays everything I want to play. GTA5 , DBXV2 , Spiderman Remastered , Uncharted 4 as well as AOE4,3,2,1 ... games like The Last of US also running at around 40fps with drops into the low 30's but in my eye I'm fine with a 13 y PC getting console expierience 30fps at high settings . I also use RPCS3 and most games are playable but those first party titles are quite difficult to emulate i.e Killzone 3 ( 26+- fps) & Gran Turisimo 5 ,6 (15-20 fps)

[@BrucifyMe]

The Sandy Bridge to Haswell run was a great time for everyone. It's crazy how well they've aged, especially Haswell i7s.

[@irwanchel]

This is a legendary cpu. I still rocking after 13 years. I will use it until it dies. Hope it last till 2030

[@KnurdMonkey]

I had a 2500k and a 2600k both overclocked to 4.5GHz and they were so good. I upgraded to an x79 platform with a Xeon 1650v1 only for the core count and the triple channel (used bargain). I kept that until 10700k.

[@DaiAtlus79]

Oh man i only stopped using my non-K about a year ago, when i had an i7-4790 non-K with its Dell XPS board included fall into my lap. I was using the 2600 with an Acer board (ive got two of them, the other has an i5-2400 and is paired with a 2gb 950gtx and 14gb mix n match ram to use with my projector) and a DeepCool cooler (underrated cheapo cooler, a tenner and you're golden) and now it's going into a nice build im doing for a friend of mine (i7-2600/3gb R9 280 w/Neimez drivers/16gb DDR3) cannibalizing her old Alienware and parts i had around. This old timer is still going strong, and i use its little brother, the i7-2600s in our HTPC with 16gb DDR3, and the Polaris 21/640sp 4gb lil purple Yeston RX550 (seriously good lil card, the size of a box of smarties, great for a SFF build snagged it almost 4 years ago off of AliExpress, got it 'free' after it came super late and i got refunded then came a week later lol), and i can do things like 4k video, play games like Starfield (Steamdeck mod pack), Hogwarts, etc and the wife has no complaints she was happily playing Baldurs Gate 3 for days on it. Sandybridge is better than wine, it ages like a War Bond!!!

[@mikeymaiku]

i loved my i7 2500k when i dailied 3 way gtx 480.that was a fun time to be alive. laptop cpus are my jam right now, 13900hk ES and its rolling 5.5 all core at 1.24v. thing still pulls 150w

[@Alpha-ms9nj]

I just did finish a build sort of similar to yours but with an Asrock Z87 and an I7-4770K. You got a nice score getting that case for free! Your GPU rocks compared to the EVGA GTX 1060 6GB I tossed into my build. I installed all my components into a new Gamdias Talos E2 Elite that was on sale for $54.I got $333 into it. Hey can you shoot a video on a build with what looks a white Montech case? I had a used one in new condition delivered the other day and I haven't decided what I'm going to put into it. I have more 4th gen stuff or 6th gen with I7-6700K or 8th gen with a modest I5-8400. Love this channel for the ideas and different builds and the flips. I've learned so much thank you!

[@imhafdhom]

Legendary CPU. Used to let this beast ran at 4.4 ghz all cores 24/7 hosting torrents.

[@Lurch-Bot]

I am trying to sell a PC right now that has an i7 4790S and GTX 1080. I was surprised with just how well the 1080 performed with the old i7 but then again, they are contemporaries. There was no appreciable difference with running the 1080 with an overclocked R5 2600. The only problem with the pre-Haswell CPUs is the lack of AVX2 support which will become increasingly relevant. Microsoft has said upcoming updates will prevent Windows 11 from running on any system without AVX2 support. I was getting 4.4GHz all core boost on the 4790S which resulted in a benchmark score you won't likely see on a 2600K under any circumstances, short of using liquid nitrogen. I found a great use for those older i5s. They're awesome for retro gaming. I just built a 3rd gen i5 with a GTX 560 Ti 448 for playing games from the '00s and early 2010s from my digital libraries on Windows 10. I've even found some disc based games that work on Windows 10 like AC, Crysis, Mercenaries 2 and Ghost Recon AW. I also think it is kinda dumb to play a game like FO3 on my modern gaming PC. It is just unnecessary wear and tear when I can run it just as well on a 12 year old GPU. Same goes for general internet use and streaming video.

[@S1EJ0]

I've only just upgraded from 4700K it was still fine. Boot times were a bit slow. Missing out on a few instruction sets after nearly a decade but was working well with my gtx980 which I was also sad to see go

[@45eno]

I ran my 2700k from 2012 to late 2019. Overclocked at 4.7ghz for 7yrs on a good Megahalems air cooler. But it was showing its age with SOTR. I bought a Ryzen 2700x to replace it. I have since used 5 different CPU’s since the 2700x now on a 7800x3D.

[@Wushu-viking]

The disable Spectre/Meltdown patch makes these old CPU's perform as they *should (*without Microsoft handicapping them).Also DDR3 setups is still fine. Especially those 2400 MHz DDR3 Ram-kits can outperform standard DDR4-2400 (lower cl on DDR3). The old X58 and X79 can run DDR3 @triple and Quad Channel, giving a lot higher bandwidth (around DDR4 @dual channel) I'm still amazed how the X58 with an old i7 9xx 4c/8t can go through tough mud, giving pretty consistent (not high) FPS, once CPU is clocked to 3.5 to 4 GHz, using DDR3-1600 @triple channel(cl8)

[@webtax]

Remember you can disable mitigations with inspectre if it suits your use case, to claim back performance. I had a 2500k@4.5 at +0.040offset, stable at anything i throwed at it, good long term temps & didn't need to increase fan speed, that was until 2022 and upgraded to 12700K. Gave it away to family. The lack of cores/thread was becoming an issue, but other than that, didn't feel that different for my usage. 2600K/2700K was kind of expensive here, so i still feel the 2500K was the better deal. Best CPU i ever had.

[@dannyvanlaarhoven]

Damn that is long ago I was rocking a 2600K Sandy Bridge. Still have it somewhere around in it's case it came with back than. Upgraded to a 4790K in the days. Nowadays still happy with my 10900K.

[@JimmyRJump]

I used to run my 2600K at 4.9GHz stable on air (Arctic Freezer eXtreme Rev.2), constantly for just over three years

[@nathanbutcher7720]

Had one of these back in 2011. Yes, it was amazing and along with an SSD it felt as if I didn't need a faster computer ever again (but of course I did!)

[@cjpowretired]

You're very correct about the very stable and steady clocks of the older-gen Intel chips. Even on a half-broken stock cooler, my 4670k could push good overclocks and not reach any dangerous temps.

[@AirIUnderwater]

13:31 Transformers: Animated Movie poster. Awesome.

[@rubyvolt]

I am using a 9900K and have no plans of getting anything new for a long time.

[@mapesdhs597]

I've built numerous 2700K systems with that very same mbd (M4E/Z), which is one of the best P67/Z68 mbds one can use for oc'ing (if not the best, the feature set is excellent). Any 2700K will do 5GHz+ no problem on an M4E/Z using just a 120mm air cooler and one fan, with good temps and noise. They can be pushed higher, but I always stopped at 5GHz. I still use two such setups for various things, though I do have another seven I need to sell off (still have all the original boxes and accessories for most of them, I don't throw away PC parts packaging). I always use GSKill TridentX or Ripjaw RAM, 16GB or 32GB, normally CL10, running at 2133 or 2400, though I found the Corsair DDR3/2400 or 2133 also worked ok. Hence, your config is definitely on the low side of what is possible, especially if using an M4E/Z. There are however two caveats with the 2600K/2700K, one of which you've already noted, ie. some games rely heavily on a single games/physics thread which means their potential depends strongly on single core/thread performance; you mentioned CSGO and similar titles, another is Subnautica, for which using a 1080 Ti I was able to double the fps by switching to a 5600X/B450. Other games though care far less about IPC, especially if one is running at higher resolutions and using more powerful GPUs, it can often push the bottleneck away from the CPU, but it depends very much on the specific game, settings, resolution, etc. A second issue is specific to the ASUS M4E/Z mbd, namely that its onboard NEC USB3 controller isn't very good, it has a firmware bug which means one can experience dropout and other issues on the related ports. The best solution is just to fit a 4-port USB3 PCIe x1 card (that's how I dealt with it, worked fine), or don't use the ports controlled by the NEC. For a time, for gaming, I switched to an Asrock Z68 Extreme7 with the same CPU/RAM and 1080 Ti, because it didn't suffer from the USB3 issue, but the mbd couldn't sustain anywhere near the same level of oc, on the Asrock I settled on 4.5, whereas like I say any 2700K will do 5+ on an M4E/Z. You're right about finding mbds, it's hard to obtain good ones like the M4E, though ironically I have half a dozen complete setups to offload. :D

[@m8x425]

Right after the Cougar Point fiasco was over, I passed up the M4E/P67 version in favor of the WS Revolution and I still regret it. I did get a RIVE board with a 3930k a year later and I have ZERO regrets.

[@mapesdhs597]

@@m8x425 Indeed, the R4E was a great board; along with the related P9X79 WS and E variants, I build about a dozen such systems, mostly using 3930Ks, but also employing the 4820K, 4930K, 4960X and certain XEONs such as the 2680 v2. My lesser gaming rig is still an R4E with a 4930K @ 4.5GHz and GTX 980. I know what you mean about the WS Revolution. I did something similar a few years earlier when I opted for the ASUS M2N32 WS Professional to go with a 6000+, but alas ASUS later chose not to roll out proper BIOS updates to support Phenom II, which was really annoying.

[@JohnHoggard_aka_DaddyHoggy]

Have only just retired my i5-2500K based PC. I'm still happily running a i7-4770 with 32GB RAM and a 1080Ti.