1. #1

    Question Which mobo to which CPU? Which is better gaming?

    I'm building 2 computers next week, and somehow I ordered 2 different motherboards. Not sure which mobo I should put with which CPU. The CPUs are i5-6500 and i5-6600k. The mobos are MSI Gaming Z170A GAMING M3 LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard and MSI Gaming Z170A GAMING M5 LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard.

    Next question:

    2 computers, which one is better suited to being an HTPC that is pretty much only used to play DVDs and MKVs on a 4k TV, and which for gaming. (Games being WoW on low-med, Star Wars MMO on med-high, Minecraft, Garry's Mod, CO:GO, Lego Minifigures Online, BeamNG.drive, Steam games, and also one of my kids wants to start learning to code.)

    First computer is an i5-2500k (not OC'd) that will have 16GB RAM. Second computer is i5-6500 with 8GB RAM. Both will have EVGA GeForce GTX 960 02G-P4-2962-KR 2GB SC GAMING GPUs.

    Thanks for any input

  2. #2
    They could go in either but I'd suggest using the better board with the better chip. 6600K goes to Z170A gaming M5.

    Personally I'd OC the 2500k and use it for gaming but they'd be very very close in performance that way. If you aren't prepared to OC the choice becomes harder. I'm not sure how ddr3 performs against ddr4 but I can't imagine it works as well at half the capacity. I'd again lean towards the 2500k for gaming.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Jakexe View Post
    They could go in either but I'd suggest using the better board with the better chip. 6600K goes to Z170A gaming M5.

    Personally I'd OC the 2500k and use it for gaming but they'd be very very close in performance that way. If you aren't prepared to OC the choice becomes harder. I'm not sure how ddr3 performs against ddr4 but I can't imagine it works as well at half the capacity. I'd again lean towards the 2500k for gaming.
    Thanks Jakexe! The i5-2500k is my current computer (I only play WoW, HotS, Diablo pretty much) and I've never felt the need to OC since I built it 4 years ago. Not sure how I feel about OC while my kids are using it, is monitoring the temps something I'd have to do long-term or is there a "guaranteed" OC I could do that would be "safe?" (It's on an ASRock Extreme3Gen3 mobo with a Hyper 212 EVO cooler, if that matters) I have never OC'd anything before.

  4. #4
    the differences between the two motherboards are extremely slight for the most part. the M5 is "better", but not massively so.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Contrary View Post
    Thanks Jakexe! The i5-2500k is my current computer (I only play WoW, HotS, Diablo pretty much) and I've never felt the need to OC since I built it 4 years ago. Not sure how I feel about OC while my kids are using it, is monitoring the temps something I'd have to do long-term or is there a "guaranteed" OC I could do that would be "safe?" (It's on an ASRock Extreme3Gen3 mobo with a Hyper 212 EVO cooler, if that matters) I have never OC'd anything before.
    You only really have to monitor temps with higher overclocks and even then the worst thing that'll happen is the pc will shut down. There's no actual danger involved.

    If you want to try overclocking there's guides and people here that can guide you through it better than I. You have a chip, a board and a cooler that can handle it all but if you're content with the current performance it's not something major. You might get a few extra fps (single digits) out of it so it depends how much that matters to you.

  6. #6
    Thanks Kagthul (I think you were helping me with picking these parts on the WoW forums)!

    Hmmm, I'll think about the OC, not sure how demanding those games are, but about the only time I have FPS issues now in WoW on the 2500k is on Kazzak, and it's only on some toons, so I think it's an addon problem and not a computer problem.

    Dumb question, should I replace the thermal paste on the i5-2500k? I never have, built it in January 2012. And which thermal paste is considered to be better...Arctic Silver 5 or MX-4? (Somehow I managed to order both...I guess you shouldn't Newegg at 3am when you're exhausted, you end up with all sorts of things you didn't mean to!)

  7. #7
    It'd probably be worth redoing the paste. At a glance it looks like the mx4 is the better paste.
    Last edited by Jakexe; 2015-12-05 at 05:54 AM.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Jakexe View Post
    It'd probably be worth redoing the paste. At a glance it looks like the mx4 is the better paste.
    Thanks! We're still waiting on a few parts...the 6600k shipped before the 6500, via DHL, the 6500 arrived with the m5 mobo yesterday, but DHL hasn't updated the tracking on the 6500k in 3 days, have no idea where it is. The other mobo and the parts it shipped with should arrive Monday. Kids are really excited LOL, I'm making them each build one of the new ones.

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