Assistance with choosing a CPU

[Len]

Hi there!

I've been collecting and buying parts for the past 6-7 months to build my own PC,

Now I'm only left with a CPU to choose, I saw that Intel released their Kaby Lake CPU's and I was wondering if somebody could
shed some light regarding which CPU should I choose (Twitch Streaming, Gaming, work purposes)..

I'll be running on Air Cooling (Arctic Freezer 13 CO),
and I have no purpose to OC now nor in the future, so I'm not looking at K CPU's.


I was checking some benchmarks and I saw that the grades and differences are really minor,
I was wondering if somebody has some experience with any of the Kaby Lake CPU's in comparison to Skylakes.

I'm trying to decide between

i5 7600
i7 6700
i7 7700

Is there a huge difference for the purposes I will need ? Is it worth the extra buck and take 7700 or 6700 instead of the 7600?

If anyone would be kind enough to help out and give some advice,
I'll be more than happy and appreciate it.

Best Regards,
Len.

[Croga]

It all depends on what you're going to do with it.....

If you do 3D rendering or movie editing then by all means go for the 7700.
If you play World of Warcraft with it, get an i5 7400. Anything more is wasted money. You could probably go less without noticing significant change.
I have raided Mythic on an i3-6100U and never dropped a frame.... (I wouldn't recommend it for raiding in 30-man groups though; you need a bit more oomph there )

[Len]

Hey Croga and Raamul,

Thanks for the reply,
Like I wrote, I'll be playing some games, and also Stream on Twitch probably..
And I'll be using it for some work stuff (VM).

Edit:

I understood that Twitch, and streams in general work better with i7's cause of the Hyper Threading,
but I read that Kaby Lakes were built specifically to work well with Streams and Graphics in general

[tikcol]

listing your other parts would be helpful

[Len]

Sorry,
I was sure I wrote it..

Gigabyte Geforce 980TI G1 Gaming
HyperX Fury 16GB 2133mhz
ASUS H110m-K
Arctic Freezer 13 CO
NZXT S810
Seasonic X-560 560W 80+ Gold
Samsung EVO 850 500GB
WD Caviar Blue 1TB

[Denpepe]

Unless you have a way to update the bios without a CPU you will be stuck with Skylake CPU's for your motherboard (i5 6***), if you bought it like half a year ago as stated, it won't have the bios needed for the new Kaby lake CPU's.

On the bright side, skylakes seem to run a tad cooler and there is nearly no performance difference other then kaby lake having some higher clockspeeds out of the box.

I would advise an i5 6600k even if you don't overclock it it the best gaming CPU from it's generation.

[Len]

Oh,
so my mobo doesn't even support Kaby Lake CPU's?

[Zenny]

Oh,
so my mobo doesn't even support Kaby Lake CPU's?

It does support it, but if the motherboard was made before October and shipped with a older version of the bios then your motherboard needs to be updated to support it. In order to update it yourself, you will require a CPU. So unless your local computer shop or a friend has a CPU they can pop in...

[Len]

Oh!

Alright, got ya..
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can sort something out..

Is there a way to check if there's the upgraded version of BIOS for it ? or when it was made?

Also, anyone else who could give some advice regarding the CPU's ?

Cheers!

[Artorius]

@Len Kaby Lake and Skylake share the exact same uarch and therefore work the exact same way when matching clocks. I'm not talking about minor improvements here, it's literally the same thing. The difference is in the manufacturing process (I could elaborate but I doubt the information is important) which allow Kaby Lake to clock slightly higher. And a new media module that allows some new features like 4K Netflix to work, it has nothing to do with working better with "streams and graphics in general".

Between an i5 and an i7 it basically comes to slightly higher out of the box clocks, more cache and hyperthreading. If you're not going to OC there's no real point in buying any of the unlocked CPUs, and the higher clocks of the 7700 compared to the 7600 (it's literally 100MHz) is as meaningless as it can possibly be. The HT IS useful in some tasks and can give you a measurable difference but don't expect better gaming performance in most games (it still gives some difference in some snowflake games that work better with 8 threads, like BF1). In most cases you won't notice the difference between the i5 7600 and the i7 7700, you will if you do extremely CPU-bound tasks or a ridiculous amount of simpler tasks at the same time, but you won't, relax.

[Len]

@Len Kaby Lake and Skylake share the exact same uarch and therefore work the exact same way when matching clocks. I'm not talking about minor improvements here, it's literally the same thing. The difference is in the manufacturing process (I could elaborate but I doubt the information is important) which allow Kaby Lake to clock slightly higher. And a new media module that allows some new features like 4K Netflix to work, it has nothing to do with working better with "streams and graphics in general".

Between an i5 and an i7 it basically comes to slightly higher out of the box clocks, more cache and hyperthreading. If you're not going to OC there's no real point in buying any of the unlocked CPUs, and the higher clocks of the 7700 compared to the 7600 (it's literally 100MHz) is as meaningless as it can possibly be. The HT IS useful in some tasks and can give you a measurable difference but don't expect better gaming performance in most games (it still gives some difference in some snowflake games that work better with 8 threads, like BF1). In most cases you won't notice the difference between the i5 7600 and the i7 7700, you will if you do extremely CPU-bound tasks or a ridiculous amount of simpler tasks at the same time, but you won't, relax.

Thanks Arto!
Appreciate the answer.

I was just wondering,
as far as Twitch Streaming, and Graphic Editing,
Would there be a difference if I use i5 7600 or i7 6700?

[Mythbredor]

Thanks Arto!
Appreciate the answer.

I was just wondering,
as far as Twitch Streaming, and Graphic Editing,
Would there be a difference if I use i5 7600 or i7 6700?

Yes there would but you're talking the difference between an I5 and I7, idealy you'd be looking at I7s apples to apples. 7700k 6700k. Yes the I7 line will give you better performance in streaming terms, probably not leaps and bounds better but it would be noticeable for streaming. The 6600k/7600k are designed with mainly for gamers but are fine for other uses aswell. I don't know if you're going to OC if not don't buy a "k" cpu.

[Shadow Fox]

From what I'm hearing from CES... KabyLake isn't worth buying unless you absolutely want the new features they can provide, otherwise got a Broadwell, or Skylake. Some results showing that it was performing fractionally worse.

[Sorshen]

It is worth getting, but not at current prices (unless you really want that 5GHz on air). If the locked versions get down to Skylake prices, then you have a decent choice.

[Len]

I still haven't found a definite answer regarding i5 7600 and i7 6700,
Which one would be better in terms of Twitch Broadcasting, Music/Graphic editing,
As far as Value-for-money, is the 6700 worth the extra buck over the 7600 ?
Or is the difference not noticable ?

Thanks again to everyone who spared their time to answer,
Much appreciated.

[Tokas]

I still haven't found a definite answer regarding i5 7600 and i7 6700,
Which one would be better in terms of Twitch Broadcasting, Music/Graphic editing,
As far as Value-for-money, is the 6700 worth the extra buck over the 7600 ?
Or is the difference not noticable ?

Thanks again to everyone who spared their time to answer,
Much appreciated.

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare...00K/3885vs3502

[Len]

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare...00K/3885vs3502

Thanks,
I've already checked the Benchmarks, and I was referring to the Non K version.

[Deleted]

Thanks,
I've already checked the Benchmarks, and I was referring to the Non K version.

I think Mythbredor and Artorius have provided as close as you going to get to an answer without testing in your use (i5 vs i7).

There is a similar or larger difference going for a K over a non-K than going from skylake to kaby, purely in base clock/turbo speed. A K gets you a higher base clock, but there is at the most 15% or so in it (Skylake non-K vs Kaby K) and whether this is noticable comes down to application.

[Denpepe]

i7's are generally better if you are going to multitask a lot or use heavily multithreaded software like movie editing etc...

Not sure about those thing you mentioned, you should look into it if the software can make use of more threads.

[willtron]

Unless you're playing really modern games like Battlefield 1 or doing rendering works get the i5 x600. If you do either of those two I listed and plan on playing more modern, future AAA titles, get the i7 x700 series.

(despite popular belief, hyperthreading is beginning to make a difference in games and it will on future titles too)

Seeing as you're going for the non-k version, go with Kaby Lake, the 7000 series.

Obligatory 'wait for Ryzen', then be disappointed because AMD always over hype and fall short.