Oof, yea I’d say looking at a dual channel kit of faster RAM would be worth your time, something like this 16 gb (8x2) PC3600/CL16 kit is just $50: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X8DVDZZ

Dual channel RAM will help with “CPU” bottlenecks, what type of RAM are we talking about (DDR4/5 and what speed?). What kind of storage are you using? Is resizable BAR enabled in the BIOS? High framerates but weird long pauses can also be storage related if you are doing all of this on a slow SATA SSD/spinning drive depending on where your drives are installed? I also agree with the poster who indicated watch out for bloaty programs that peg system resources at inopportune times.

A 12700 is only around 5-10% slower than a 13600k in games, and the 14600k is only an incremental bump from the 13th gen part. I’d question how big an upgrade ANY of the CPUs listed would be from the 12400, really depends on the workload and costs involved.

Interesting, I’ve installed at least a half dozen of the 240’s and not one issue so far. Where did you source them from?

The Thermalright Frozen Notte 240 and 360mm represent some of the best values in AIO’s out there, otherwise the Thermalright Frost Spirit is a monster for $40:
https://www.amazon.com/Thermalright-Spirit-Cooler-Technology-1500RPM/dp/B0C6CP3FDK

I’m sorry you live in a country with terrible pricing on computer components.

I wouldn’t suggest carrying that RAM forward, rather sell the mainboard/memory/cpu and cooler together and replace them outright as a bundle. I also think a 14600k is pointless given no significant improvements over the 13600k, no APO support… you are simply paying more for an arbitrary digit in the model number.

The 13600k is going to offer a good value for gaming and productivity workloads paired with a decent mainboard + PC6000 DDR5 RAM kit but you’re looking at close to $500 at current prices. Bundles are the way to go.

If you want a better long term upgrade path and live near a Micro Center the $400 7700x and $470 7800x3D bundles on the AMD side are hard to beat. The 13700k bundle is also good at $450 if you prefer Intel or want a bit more multicore juice for productivity tasks.

What’s your use case and what are you looking to improve? If you are just gaming it’s a pointless upgrade to either of those CPU’s, as the 12400f is already a capable 6-core/12-thread processor so the 12600k would absolutely be a sidegrade at best for $110 unless you really need the e-cores for something? The 12700kf is also a good processor but I’m not sure how big an upgrade it would be from your 12400 either… depends a lot on what you use it for.

Spending $110-$170 on something that has no meaningful impact on performance vs what you’re starting with is a bad purchase. Without more info it’s impossible to give a useful recommendation.

You’re straddling some interesting AMD combos at those prices.

At $400, the Ryzen 7 - 7700x combo is faster at gaming than the 12900k and is fairly close in productivity, while using significantly less power (100-150w less). You can run it with a cheap PA120 air cooler and leave nothing on the table performance wise, unlike the 12900k which will need an AIO to avoid thermal throttling limiting maximum performance. Between the cooler and the larger PSU you’re looking at another $50-90 on basic system components in otherwise identical builds starting with the two similar priced combos.

For $100 more than the 12900k/7700x, or $50 more than the 14700k combo you can get the 7800x3D combo which, in addition to requiring *200 watts* less power under load, is faster in most gaming benchmarks. https://youtu.be/8KKE-7BzB_M?t=579Again, it’s fine to air-cool with a budget air cooler unlike either the 12900k or 14700k…

Factoring in the necessarily larger PSU and more robust cooling solution to avoid performance lost to throttling there really isn’t a price advantage to the “cheaper” 14700k vs 7800x3D combo in a total system build budget, if anything there’s a slight advantage to the AMD option if you are building net new factoring in a 200w larger PSU and a budget 360mm AIO like the $70 Thermalright Frozen Notte vs the $33 Peerless Assassin)

For a productivity focused build I’d hang out for another round of black Friday specials on the 13700k in a combo, I think that’s where you’re going to see the best bang for the buck unless they get crazy and do a cheap 12700k/13600k deal. I run a 13700k in my primary work/production and occasional gaming build vs a 7800x3D in my gaming-only setup where dual CCD / Xbox game bar core parking or e-core drama isn’t a thing.

I’ve used numerous Microcenter 7700x/MSI pro b650/32 gb g.skill flare combos, they work great without RAM issues (assuming you update the BIOs at build time, which you should with all main boards) and can be cooled with a cheap Peerless Assassin, etc.

The RAM kits in the Intel bundle are the same Samsung/cl36 modules as the AMD kit, just with an XMP vs EXPO profile. I’ve used dozens in both flavors without issue.

The 12900k bundle isn’t bad, it’s a less power efficient architecture that runs hotter and games slower.