New Build - i5-6600k or i7-4770k

[TechnoJoe]

i am finally able to build a new machine after a long time. I was set on the i7-4770k, but after seeing early benchmarks for the i5-Skylake I am reconsidering my choice. The i5 seems to meet or exceed performance of 4770k and saving 100 bucks on the processor to put towards a better or additional video card, or perhaps a sound card would be nice. I would like to future proof the machine to allow a good upgrade path.

The PC will have a pretty balanced use; gaming, office productivity, music creation/sequencing (FruityLoops, Reason, etc), and music recording.

Which of these processors should I go with?

 

[airwalkrr]

For your uses, even the 4770k doesn't seem necessary. The i5-6600k would necessitate a motherboard upgrade because it uses the LGA1151 slot and they aren't even available until August 14. In theory it's more future-proof to go with the 6600k, but for gaming it isn't necessary. Do you have a budget? Is this for a whole system?

Assuming you already have an LGA1150 socket motherboard, you could go with something like an i-5 4690k with similar performance for a much lower price than the 4770k.

 

[aznricepuff]

The skylake i5 will definitely give you a more future-proof upgrade path, and looking at your intended uses for your PC nothing really screams the need for an i7. I would say go with the i5 for the cheaper price (on the CPU at least - some of the price savings will be eaten up by the more expensive Z170 boards and DDR4 RAM) and more modern chipset.

 

[airwalkrr]

Yea, it really depends on your budget. Although some z170 motherboards (the ones for Skylake) support DDR3, many just support DDR4. So you're looking at a more expensive motherboard and ram if you want the i5 6600k. Also, if you are overclocking, the i5-6600k will probably require a more expensive cooling solution than the 4770k. I still think an i5 4690k would be fine for your purposes. Depends how future proof you want. Will you be upgrading in 2-3 years? The 4690k would be fine at that point.

 

[TechnoJoe]

I don't already have a motherboard. This will be a completely new build. Budget of roughly 1400 but is flexible.

You mention that my uses to really scream the need for an i7. In what use cases is an i7 needed? I really want this customer to scream!

 

[aznricepuff]

Ha, no, I said it doesn't scream the need for an i7.

 

[TechnoJoe]

Sorry, I must have been half asleep when typing that. I know that you stated that my needs don't scream the need for an i7. Can you provide some use cases where an i7 would be justified? I want the computer to be very fast.

 

[aznricepuff]

The cases where an i7 would be beneficial over an i5 would be anything that is CPU-intensive and can scale well with more threads/hyperthreading: video encoding, multi-track video editing, 3D rendering, etc.

 

[TechnoJoe]

Didn't even think of video encoding. One of the things I would like to do is to rip the blue-rays or dvds that I purchase to my hard drive so that I can watch them from my LAN enabled TV without having to change a disc every time. If I am going to do this often, will I see a huge reduction in time to accomplish this with an i7 vs i5?

 

[aznricepuff]

Between specifically the i5-6600k and the i7-4770k: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/836?vs=1544

For encoding benchmarks, pay particular attention to the Handbrake and x264 tests.

In summary the results are very similar, with the 6600k in this case actually beating out the 4770k in some of the encoding benchmarks, likely due to advances in architecture leading to modest improvements in multi-threaded IPC. But ultimately all the results are within +/-5%, so there is not going to be a huge difference here.

 

[airwalkrr]

In terms of raw speed the difference will be minimal. In gaming, you will only see a significant improvement with the i7 in the few games that actually utilize all cores like Battlefield 4. Most games utilize 1, 2, or four cores (and recent games often use 4), for which the i5 is well-suited. For your purposes the only other case I could see the i7 being an advantage is if you do a lot of multitasking. For example, will you be encoding or performing other CPU-intensive processes in the background often while gaming? If so, the i7 is probably a better bet as it is capable of hyperthreading which is sort of like doubling your cores (it makes your computer work as if it has double cores anyway). It still sounds to me like you would be better off with the i5 unless you do a lot of the above.

Also, from where are you purchasing? Is your 1400 budget $US? Also will that include a monitor and OS?