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Would I waste my money if I bought an i5-6400?

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Denis54

Member
I need to build a new computer. I am not a gamer. I surf the web and do some simple and Word and Excel work. I have a 250 GB Samsung SSD but I need a new CPU + MB.

Would I waste my money if I bought an i5-6400 instead of an i3-6100?

For my use, would there be any advantage to getting 16 GB vs 8 GB of memory?

I know I do not need a very powerful computer but I like speed.
 
Denis54 said:
I need to build a new computer. I am not a gamer. I surf the web and do some simple and Word and Excel work. I have a 250 GB Samsung SSD but I need a new CPU + MB.

Would I waste my money if I bought an i5-6400 instead of an i3-6100?

For my use, would there be any advantage to getting 16 GB vs 8 GB of memory?

I know I do not need a very powerful computer but I like speed.
Click to expand...

If you can afford it, get the i5 and 16GB of RAM. I have the i3-6100 and 8GB of RAM, and it's mostly adequate, but I kind of wish I had gotten an i5, and 16GB of RAM. The i3 isn't all that strong for Distributed Computing, and I like to have extra RAM.

That said, if you're on a strict budget, the i3 with 8GB is "enough". Just not "great".
 
The i5 would actually be slower then the i3,the i5 runs at 2,7Ghz with boost up to 3,3 the i3 works at 3,7 all the time.
Only if you work with really big databases in excel would you get better speeds with the i5,everything else is low usage even if you open up a lot of pages.
8Gb will be very comfortable for normal use.
 
I have a Haswell i3 in my wife's computer, and an Ivy Bridge i5 in mine. 99% of the time I can't tell them apart. The i5 benches a little better in some games, but none that we play show a perceptible difference.

I don't think you'll use more then 8GB of RAM doing what you're doing, though you might consider going with 1x8GB stick rather than 2x4GB, leaving room for an upgrade down the road when RAM is cheaper.

Might I suggest going ITX, or perhaps even NUC, if you don't need a discrete video card? There seems little point in going with something as large as a midtower if it's going to be almost completely empty.
 
The 6400s are an abortion and should never have been sold. 😡

They are 500MHz behind stock speed compared to an 6500 which is $20 or less more.
 
I have an i5 2400 at 3.1 and have not noticed any slow response in any apps. I do have 16gb of ram though... Ever since Sandybridge any processor will be good enough
 
Yuriman said:
I have a Haswell i3 in my wife's computer, and an Ivy Bridge i5 in mine. 99% of the time I can't tell them apart. The i5 benches a little better in some games, but none that we play show a perceptible difference.

I don't think you'll use more then 8GB of RAM doing what you're doing, though you might consider going with 1x8GB stick rather than 2x4GB, leaving room for an upgrade down the road when RAM is cheaper.

Might I suggest going ITX, or perhaps even NUC, if you don't need a discrete video card? There seems little point in going with something as large as a midtower if it's going to be almost completely empty.
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I would personally grab 2 memory sticks to utilize dual channel. And buying memory in pairs is usually better as they were designed to work together. I've done some testing in games here recently and was quite surprised at the difference seen.
 
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I think I am in the dual channel camp as well, since RAM seems to be among the cheaper upgrades. If the OP is old school like me he can stick with an ATX board with four slots and just reprise his initial purchase later for 16GB.
 
I ordered an i3-6500 and 16 GB memory. I prefer to waste a few dollar than regret later that I did not get what I wanted
 
Denis54 said:
I need to build a new computer. I am not a gamer. I surf the web and do some simple and Word and Excel work. I have a 250 GB Samsung SSD but I need a new CPU + MB.

Would I waste my money if I bought an i5-6400 instead of an i3-6100?

For my use, would there be any advantage to getting 16 GB vs 8 GB of memory?

I know I do not need a very powerful computer but I like speed.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure a 10 years old computer will do a FINE job searching the web and doing simple word/excel........

My advice: find some old PC and use it.....you don't need 16 or even 8 gb.....nor do you need "SSD".
 
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If you like running Cinema4D and Winrar at the same time all the time, then you're wasting your money. But since you're not, then no, not wasting money.
 
escrow4 said:
The 6400s are an abortion and should never have been sold. 😡

They are 500MHz behind stock speed compared to an 6500 which is $20 or less more.
Click to expand...

They have a 3.1 GHz quadcore turbo clock though, like the i5-4440 and 200 MHz behind that of the i5-6500. I know Haswell chips will run at their highest turbo clock for the number of cores active when under load. Is it not the same with Skylake?
 
I honestly couldn't tell any difference whatsoever in light tasks like web browsing after upgrading my $60 Pentium G3258 to a $250 Xeon E3-1231v3. Of course the difference was night and day for gaming, but if you're not doing anything heavy with your computer then there is no reason to buy a heavy duty cpu like an i5 or higher. I wouldn't go with less than 8GB of RAM though, moving from 4GB to 8GB was hugely noticeable for me on just web browsing.
 
escrow4 said:
The 6400s are an abortion and should never have been sold. 😡

They are 500MHz behind stock speed compared to an 6500 which is $20 or less more.
Click to expand...

You know I was wondering about it, and sure enough according to Wikipedia the 6400 can QC turbo to 3.1 Ghz whereas the 6500 can only QC turbo to 3.3 Ghz. Since the base of the 6500 is 3.2 you'd have to think that most 6400s can maintain the full turbo indefinitely. So unless you get really unlucky on binning the difference would only be 6-10% (and not 20%) which for 20 bucks seems fairish.
 
My feeling is that while you'll rarely need more than the i3, when you *do* need it or at least want more, it won't be there. The little bit more $ is totally worth it when viewed from that perspective.
 
happy medium said:
I have the 6100 and it fast enough for everyday tasks and can game too.
Click to expand...

Yeah, great chip. Very impressed with mine. I know that if I toss a great graphics card in here I can play games no problem. Otherwise it's fast has heck for everything else. I figure I can always toss a 7th or 8th generation i5 in there when the time comes, if the time comes.
 
Either one of these chips with at least 8GB of ram is absolutely enough for almost anything.

Since you're going with a SSD, it's going to be fast and stay fast for quite some time.
 
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