I mean, you said I should waste my money on a CPU upgrade that would make no difference in 1440p gaming. That's money I can't spend on a better GPU, which would make a difference in 1440p gaming.

You realize you're mentioning a 2600 right? Which will place a tremendous limit on 1440p gaming?

My suggestion over the included build is spending $10 more on the build and getting a 10600K.

Silicon Lottery has found 100% of 10600ks will do 4.7 Ghz sustained all core.

Even at that number it will easily out perform a 3600 in a meaningful way. Over 70% of them do 4.9 Ghz which where it starts to reach i9 levels of performance in gaming by the way...

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And the cherry on top over the 3600 is you can actually buy the i5 outside of Microcenter. Microcenter is the only place carrying the 3600 for $180... but they also have 10600k on perma-sale for $250.

Meanwhile outside of Microcenter the 3600 is rarer than hen's teeth while the 10600k is widely available at $270. I happen to have 5 microcenters within an hour or so of me, but most people don't have that luxury.

A 2600 + RTX 3070 will outperform a 10600k + 5700XT in 1440p gaming. You're way overestimating how much a 2600 would bottleneck the GPU.

Making a wrong statement confidently doesn't making true.

Benchmarks:

Ryzen 5 2600 + RTX 3070[1]

    80 FPS - Ghost Recon: Breakpoint 1440p / Very High
    78 FPS - Horizon Zero Dawn 1440p / Ultimate
    72 FPS - Red Dead Redemption 2 1440p / High
    115 FPS - Death Stranding 1440p / Very High
    220 FPS - Doom Eternal 1440p / Ultra
    124 FPS - Resident Evil 3 1440p / Max
    75 FPS - Gears 5 1440p / Ultra

i7-10700k + RX 5700XT[2] (I couldn't find benchmarks for an i5-10600k with this GPU from the same source. The 10700k should be as good or better than the i5 though)

    67 FPS - Ghost Recon: Breakpoint 1440p / Very High
    73 FPS - Horizon Zero Dawn 1440p / Ultimate
    70 FPS - Red Dead Redemption 2 1440p / High
    111 FPS - Death Stranding 1440p / Very High
    185 FPS - Doom Eternal 1440p / Ultra
    104 FPS - Resident Evil 3 1440p / Max
    77 FPS - Gears 5 1440p / Ultra

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkQuyRIbWpI

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzSxytXsiTc

Those numbers are hilarious, there's a reason you found them on some random Youtube channel with no methodology or explanation...

I hopped on Gamer's Nexuses 3080 review just to get a number for a 5700XT and an i7 and Horizon Zero Dawn comes in at 10 more FPS: https://www.gamersnexus.net/images/media/2020/rtx-3080-fe/hz...

You can spot check the other numbers and find similar discrepancies...

Of course the reason I can't find a proper reviewer doing this exact setup is because the idea of buying a 2600 for a new build doesn't make any sense period...

Even the i3-10100 beats it in gaming, and that costs as little as $100...