CPU upgrade confusion

ManuMitra

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So I am in a fix and this is keeping me from going and buying new CPU . So I am a budget builder so every penny saved is a lot. I have 2 options-
1. i5-6402p with a Gigabyte H170 D3H mobo and avexir core green 8gb ddr4 single stick ram
2. i5-6500 with a Gigabyte g1.sniper b7 and avexir core green 8gb ddr4 single stick ram.

So the situation is budget is giving me 2 options, which are either a weaker cpu with a better h170 board or better cpu with a 1 tier lower motherboard a b150.
I don't need RAID feature from H170 but does the XMP profile help me to a 2400mhz ram on a board which supports 2133 by default.?

Please help, I will take my final decision based on the community's reply so please give me the best value for money option. Thank you in advance.
 
Solution
The difference between the 6500 and 6402 is quite minor, the 6500 is about 5% better performer (3.2 GHz vs 2.8 GHz). It also has a much better integrated GPU, but you are not using it as you have a GTX 970. So it costs about 15% more and offers 5% more performance: not worth it in my book, when $$ is a concern. You won't see any noticeable difference in actual gaming.

As for XMP, i was wrong (my bad, sorry): XMP depends on the chipset, and indeed the business oriented B150 does not use XMP profiles, and is capped at 2133. Now the question is: would that impact your gaming? Probably not much, RAM speed is crucial for the iGPU, but you have a dGPU.

So the trade-off is between a slightly faster CPU and slightly slower RAM, or the other...
There are some very minor differences in the chipsets of the two mobo's, but they probably won't make any difference for you, see here a comparison: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Z170-H170-H110-B170-Q150-Q170---What-is-the-Difference-635/

Most boards will accept faster RAM than the official specs indicate, you shouldn't have any problems using 2400 DDR4 instead of 2133.

If your concern is $$, go with the cheaper option. This is a forum of gamers and tech enthusiasts, most people here will tell you it's a good idea to spend a little more to get a little more preformance. But the difference between both CPU/Mobo combos is negligible, i'd pick the cheapest one and spend the difference on a girl ;)
 

ManuMitra

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I am gonna use it for gaming and rendering the gameplays in various editing software I have a gtx 970. I am from India so price difference is a lot here.

 

ManuMitra

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well whats the diff between the performance of i5-6500 and i5-6402p? and will a B150 board support XMP while H170 natively supports XMP natively, coz this ram thing is a deciding factor.
and lol that girl part is witty, if I had a girl in my life then I wouldn't have money for all my geeky needs
 
For gaming and rendering, the additional speed of the 6500 outweighs everything else. 2.8 vs 3.2 is significant. Running only one thread is not so bad because it can use the Turbo Boost to the full, but when all four threads are going, say in rendering, you will be at least 10% slower. Faster memory will not compensate only mitigate (a bit)

 
The difference between the 6500 and 6402 is quite minor, the 6500 is about 5% better performer (3.2 GHz vs 2.8 GHz). It also has a much better integrated GPU, but you are not using it as you have a GTX 970. So it costs about 15% more and offers 5% more performance: not worth it in my book, when $$ is a concern. You won't see any noticeable difference in actual gaming.

As for XMP, i was wrong (my bad, sorry): XMP depends on the chipset, and indeed the business oriented B150 does not use XMP profiles, and is capped at 2133. Now the question is: would that impact your gaming? Probably not much, RAM speed is crucial for the iGPU, but you have a dGPU.

So the trade-off is between a slightly faster CPU and slightly slower RAM, or the other way around: i would pick the faster CPU (so the 6500 + B150), i think this is were you'll see the biggest difference (small as it may be).

Hope it helps!
 
Solution

ManuMitra

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Thanks for clarifying this aspect.

 

ManuMitra

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hmm I guess even a H170 wont let me OC ram as well at the H170 board is also capped at 2133, so I guess going with a 6500 and B150 gaming fitted board will be a better option. Thank you for narrowing it down