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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tech YES City - Still mighty in 2024!

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.

Love these videos. Keep it up tech man.

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

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

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

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 💪🥰👍

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".

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.

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)

i7 2600k + msi z77 set only cost 28$

Love this content. Best Tech Yes City stuff imo

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

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 !

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 🙂

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.

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.

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.

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.

Such a good channel

Wait, I just got a E5-2699 v4, now this. 😁 Great video!

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.

Good job.

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.

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

This channel is awesome

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...

I daily drive this CPU. For me it’s now a simple part of a storage server but I did use it for FlightSim 2020 partnered with an RX580. (It’s about to be retired sadly) That was in 2020 and no it wasn’t pushing high frames and settings at 1080 but wow for such an old CPU and GPU I was impressed with it at the time. Still have the RX580, currently in original retail box. This CPU was part of my first gaming PC build, my first time building a PC!! I couldn’t be happier with the CPU and it spurred me onto bigger and better builds. I have to say, it was my prime PC for around 8 years and it’s sad that I’m about to retire this CPU. Thanks for the video and the 2600k love! 😊

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

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.

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

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.

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

I have a Haswell laptop with i7 and it performs as well as some of my newer laptops

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.

Legendary CPU still rocking after 13 years.

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!!!

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

My very first cpu ever back in 2015.

It's still running my 8 camera CCTV system. I still had it paired to a 970 and was playing games till a couple of years back.

Awesome Vid I still offer 2nd and 3rd gen CPUs with the friend and family discount where they still find enjoyment out of them. With how cheap 2500k are and how prevalent 2nd gen intel prebuilts are in my area how could I not. But if they wanted something brand new, I would go for an AM4 system with a 5-15$ R3 1200/AF/1300X, and a cheap mobo with a nothing case and 16GB of random RAM for another 5-15$

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

I had a Sandybridge-E System for years. Absolute monster. Wasn't until I upgraded to a 2080ti that I needed to upgrade.

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.

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!!

I'd love to see you do an fx series cpu from the same Era to see the performance jump

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.

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

Bryan, might be interesting to cover the AliExpress 2011-3 combos at the moment around $80-$90 AUD for a 2650 V4 or similar, X99-P4 and 16GB DDR4 kits. VRM temps, feature sets and performance versus more current platforms might be considerations given their perceived values seems strong, even foregoing quad channel due to a H81 chipset. Would be keen to hear your opinion in 2024.

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!

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.

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.

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

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!

Mine is the ivy bridge i7 3770 that is still running today with the mighty gigabyte motherboard.

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

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.

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!

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.

Thx, its usally performs like 1-st gen Ryzen

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

It just won't die !

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

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.

My first cpu ❤

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)

Bougth one for my little brother, with a noctua NHU12S 16GB of ram and and ASROCK P67 Extreme for 60e

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.

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.

Id love an X58 revisit in 2024! Wonder how close a 5650 would be to a 2600k with the extra cores but lower ipc

My first gaming PC was a Dell with the non K version of this CPU. I've only played games at 1080p so the incremental updates over the years feel like bad expenses.

Still in use . With a other Legend cal rx580x. Still Run fine

Interesting video! I wonder how the i7-2600k compares to the 2011 v3 cpu's like the e5 2680 v4. I don't have an apples to apples comparison but I do have a build with an rx 5700 + e5 2680 v4. In CS2 I got 105 average fps, 1% low of 57, and 0.1% low of 36. The 4060 is quite a bit more powerful than the rx5700 though so it's difficult to compare.

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

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

Make a video with 9 series and eight series mounted on z170 chipset PLEASE

I couldn't get my i7 3770 ddr3 1600 16gb to work well with the 5600xt, thinking now the mobo could be the issue. I gave up and plumbed for b550 5700x no issues now!

I seem to remember that I had issues with a 2500 not having uefi and being incompatible with newer gpus

Amazon has an Asus Z68 for only $165, man what a steal. Only 10 left in stock so I better hurry. You are right about wanting to buy the 2600k and motheboard combo.

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.

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.

had one at 4.7ghz at 1.435 in bios for years miss it :C

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!)

Just found out that the HP Envy systems with 6th gen intel will take a standard power supply. No weird mobo/psu adapters needed. And they don't have any oddly positioned cables or brackets to prevent a dual slot GPU from fitting. Side vent will accept 120mm fans too. Given how cheap I've seen them ($50usd complete systems) it might be an option. The mobo is also regular matx and has normalish connector positions. Might need a couple pins shorted to recase but should be easy.

would have liked seeing some more modern games

I have the 2600k in my old rig, 5ghz custom loop with SLI GTX 780's 😆I thought about buying a used 1080ti with a water block as a last hurrah but I already have another rig setup.

Did you overclock the ddr3 memory as well?? That'll really help boost the numbers. Bandwidth matters!!!