Would you upgrade to an i5-6600K for $220, or wait for Kabylake?

[VirtualLarry]

I currently have three SKL rigs. Two Z170 Pro4S (BIOS 3.00 - ucode 0x74, SKY OC capable) ATX boards, both with OCed G4400 CPUs. (4.3 and 4.4), and an i3-6100 in an Asus H110 board.

There's a "major vendor" on ebay selling the i5-6600K for $219.99 FS.

I live perhaps an hour or less from a Microcenter. MC has the i5-6600K for $209.99. Plus gas and tolls.

So the ebay price, and the convenience of having it delivered to my door, makes that a fairly attractive / competitive deal.

But then again, SKL can't do H.265 Main10 or VP9 in hardware, two things that Kabylake are supposedly able to do.

Hmm, just realized that that really shouldn't matter, as I would be pairing them up with dGPUs. Either 7950 3GB or GTX950 2GB.

 

[aigomorla]

with the layoff's and sorts from intel, also the annoucement of a third addition to the dead tick tock cycle, your best off getting the 6600k now instead of waiting.

 

[ElFenix]

I currently have three SKL rigs. Two Z170 Pro4S (BIOS 3.00 - ucode 0x74, SKY OC capable) ATX boards, both with OCed G4400 CPUs. (4.3 and 4.4), and an i3-6100 in an Asus H110 board.

There's a "major vendor" on ebay selling the i5-6600K for $219.99 FS.

I live perhaps an hour or less from a Microcenter. MC has the i5-6600K for $209.99. Plus gas and tolls.

So the ebay price, and the convenience of having it delivered to my door, makes that a fairly attractive / competitive deal.

But then again, SKL can't do H.265 Main10 or VP9 in hardware, two things that Kabylake are supposedly able to do.

Hmm, just realized that that really shouldn't matter, as I would be pairing them up with dGPUs. Either 7950 3GB or GTX950 2GB.

isn't that mostly just a power consumption issue? i'd expect SKL has the grunt to just do it.

 

[Denithor]

OMG what's the world coming to?

escrow is downgrading to Celerons and VirtualLarry is upgrading to a "big" CPU?

Say it ain't so...

 

[crashtech]

That's a good price, I'd do it. My 6600K was a great performer.

 

[Justinbaileyman]

Noooo don't do it... You already have a i3 6100. Why waist another $219 just for a few FPS more. Screw that noise!! Just hold off for a little bit longer to get a 6700K or a Kabylake of your choice.

 

[escrow4]

OMG what's the world coming to?

escrow is downgrading to Celerons and VirtualLarry is upgrading to a "big" CPU?

Say it ain't so...

Old thread. My main office box now uses a 5930K:



VL, I'd scrap and sell all three rigs and pick up that i5 at a minimum, if not an i7. You know you want a CPU with some real balls behind it finally.:sneaky:

 

[crashtech]

It's fun to build lots of different, inexpensive rigs. It's also pretty fun to have one OCing beast. I think you are ready, Larry!

 

[nerp]

I'd do it. But you won't see much improvement over that i3 except for some games and demanding stuff, but for day-to-day use, might want to wait for kabylake.

 

[nenforcer]

Your only 3-4 months away from Kaby Lake and they will be backwards compatible with your Z170 boards despite the release of the Z270 boards if I'm not mistaken. I'd say wait and you can either get a great deal on an i5-6600K or get a Kaby Lake i5-7600? brand new.

 

[gorion]

I'd wait for Kaby Lake and Zen.. Then get the most interesting of the two

 

[AtenRa]

Your only 3-4 months away from Kaby Lake and they will be backwards compatible with your Z170 boards despite the release of the Z270 boards if I'm not mistaken. I'd say wait and you can either get a great deal on an i5-6600K or get a Kaby Lake i5-7600? brand new.

Kaby is a Q4, that is more than 4 months away. As for the 6600K, at $210 its fine today, Kaby will not get any more significant IPC gains over Skylake.
But if you want the extra features (better iGPU perf, better H256 etc etc) wait for Kaby.

 

[ShintaiDK]

isn't that mostly just a power consumption issue? i'd expect SKL has the grunt to just do it.

It doesn't leave much for a 128mbit HEVC main 10(Bluray4K). You sit with 60-75% on a 6700K with no GPU acceleration (GTX980).

 

[ShintaiDK]

Hmm, just realized that that really shouldn't matter, as I would be pairing them up with dGPUs. Either 7950 3GB or GTX950 2GB.

The 7950 is pretty much useless for any video decode. The IGP is light years ahead of it. The GTX950 however is up to any task.

 

[ShintaiDK]

http://jell.yfish.us/

Testfiles for video decode.

 

[Arachnotronic]

There is no reason to wait for Kaby Lake if you have a GTX 950.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I would wait for Kaby, if my purpose was to use its integrated graphics. However, the wait might take a while, I doubt we will see anything before Q4 (a wild guess, though).

But if you are mentally prepared to go "big", go for 4C/8T (like 6700k) instead and just swallow the added cost, the extra threads do help in day-to-day activities. 4C/8T 4.2 Ghz > 4C/4T 4.5 Ghz and with likely less watts.

I would consider the upcoming BD-E platform* as well, but after selling most of your gear first. You need to learn to let things go

*if you're okay to longer POST times & the mandatory use of dGPU. This platform is likely to outlive anything we have here today, though. But again, be aware of the cons, and slightly higher power consumption doing simple tasks, because of the added features. If you want something compact and power efficient, X99 isn't for you. I know at one point, you were very much concerned about power consumption. Maybe check out some deals on i7-5775C as well. Amazing design, but harder to find for the right price.

 

[escrow4]

It doesn't leave much for a 128mbit HEVC main 10(Bluray4K). You sit with 60-75% on a 6700K with no GPU acceleration (GTX980).

Everyone talks 4K but I know no one over here who actually plays it or has a library. I have zero plans to get a new player and new hardware and even more expensive BDs, for what? Prettier pictures? I'm been using 480/576p or 720p for so long, switching for more pixels eh. That said the lack of a decent hardware decoder for x265 is irritating. Maxwell or nothing. Eh.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Everyone talks 4K but I know no one over here who actually plays it or has a library. I have zero plans to get a new player and new hardware and even more expensive BDs, for what? Prettier pictures? I'm been using 480/576p or 720p for so long, switching for more pixels eh. That said the lack of a decent hardware decoder for x265 is irritating. Maxwell or nothing. Eh.

Same here. Albeit, I'll admit 4K looks great, even though I have become fairly indifferent to video quality these days (more concerned with actual content instead). Too bad, X99 doesn't have any onboard GPU for exactly these things, picking a dGPU jsut for video playback is just meh. I suppose you can CPU decode everything but at what power cost?

 

[TeknoBug]

Noooo don't do it... You already have a i3 6100. Why waist another $219 just for a few FPS more. Screw that noise!! Just hold off for a little bit longer to get a 6700K or a Kabylake of your choice.

^ that, I'm going to throw in an i7 6700K in my i3 6100 sys later on (even if I'm not going to OC it, 4GHz stock clock is sick) or see what KLake turns out to be.