i7 2600 vs. i5 3570k

[cooper69]

On the fence about a purchase decision. So far here are my thoughts:

i7 2600 pros: 8 threads
i7 2600: cons: No overclocking

i5 3570k pros: overclocking, slightly higher IPC, newer
it 3570k cons: 4 threads/no HT

CPU will be used for general office use/watching videos and light-moderate gaming. I'm leaning towards the 3570k but what are your thoughts?

 

[Ken g6]

i7 2600 pros: 8 threads
i7 2600: cons: No Only 4 bins of overclocking

FTFY. How much do you plan to overclock?

Edit: And why aren't you getting a more current processor? Do you have an existing motherboard and RAM? Specs?

 

[hojnikb]

for intended use, i5 should be a better pick. Although unless you already have the mobo, something more recent will make more sense.

 

[cooper69]

Yep, I already have a board for it, otherwise I'd be getting something newer haha.

Gigabyte Z77X UD3H + 2x4gb 1600mhz RAM

 

[cooper69]

FTFY. How much do you plan to overclock?

Edit: And why aren't you getting a more current processor? Do you have an existing motherboard and RAM? Specs?

When you say 4 bins of overclocking - does that mean I can get 3.9 ghz across all cores, since 4 core turbo is 3.5 ghz?

 

[Geforce man]

You should be able to go to I believe 4.2 as a maximum for 1 core, and 3.9 for all. Even without that, I would do the 2600. Its so hard to use sub 4 threads anymore, at least for me in gaming.

Pulled from another forum:

"400Mhz is a decent overclock. Certainly worth doing. Nothing to it either just change the multiplier. No need to change voltage and you can even do it with stock cooling. Some boards will let you overclock all the cores to the max of 42x multiplier. So effectively overclocking the whole chip to 4.2Ghz. Just play around with the settings and see."

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Unless I'm mistaken, the 2600 doesn't support PCIE 3.0, but the 3570K does.

I actually bought a "used motherboard bundle" with an unabused 3570K in the socket and 16GB Corsair XMS RAM two years ago. Essentially, the 3570K went into my brother's system upstairs. We haven't tried to delid or overclock it, although we may eventually do the latter.

I love my Sandy systems, but the oldest has served me 5 years and I'm building a Skylake-K replacement.

If you don't need hyperthreading (HT), I'd go for the Ivy Bridge-K for the reason I cited. Even so, PCIE 3.0 only buys you certain things, and you're not going to see much of a change if any for putting a dGPU in the first x16 socket.