Confused by Intel chip names and Motherboards.

[Deleted]

First of all I have been an AMD user for a very, long time. I understand their code names, and where they come in the pecking order of AMD chips, and most suitable motherboards for them. However I now find myself in the position where I can finally start planning the switch from AMD to an Intel Build.

What I am confused about though I have no idea which is the better chip for gaming, ie Haswell, Sandybridge, skylake (?) Broadwell etc.
Also which motherboard should I be looking to get to be able to support multiple GFX cards and a decent number of sata ports and overclocking potential (with possibility to water-cool in the future) and would also like the hardware to last a few years without the need for a major upgrade

I am looking at the Following initially,
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/nhXX7P

Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming G1 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor

so can any explain the order of intel chips for gaming performance, and how to tell which mobo chipsets (eg Z97X) are better. Sorry if this makes no sense :S

[mrgreenthump]

There are basically 2 that matter for now.

Z motherboards are for unlocked processors for example 4690k, 4790k etc
H motherboard is basically Zxxx board without many overclocking possibilities usually used for Xenons and locked i5/i7.

[Shadow Fox]

There are basically 2 that matter for now.

Z motherboards are for unlocked processors for example 4690k, 4790k etc
H motherboard is basically Zxxx board without many overclocking possibilities usually used for Xenons and locked i5/i7.

Not... 100% sure on that. I'll admit my computer knowledge is limited in the details, but, I hve full functionality with my i7-4770 on a Z97-AC board. (Not a flagship processor, on a Gaming motherboard.) And it still overclocks with a limited range with MSI Genie.

[Khalus]

You really don't need to know about anything else Intel related besides the two new i5-6600K and i7-6700K Socket 1151 CPUs announced officially today and will be purchasable on Aug 14th. According to the reviews and benchmarks they're just a hair faster than whats already available but they cost the same, so it'd be dumb to buy the older gen when the new gen is the same price and offers the new Z107 MB Technologies and DDR4 Ram.

You obviously have to buy a new MB to upgrade to Intel regardless so get the new stuff! There are tons of nice new features with Z107 MBs and DDR4 ram, but not gonna go into it here when the reviews cover them in detail and explain it way better than I could.

[Deleted]

There are basically 2 that matter for now.

Z motherboards are for unlocked processors for example 4690k, 4790k etc
H motherboard is basically Zxxx board without many overclocking possibilities usually used for Xenons and locked i5/i7.

so using the parts I am considering. The important part for overclocking would be
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming G1 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor.

how does the the underlined 97X part work.
on AMD 990FX would support multiple GFX cards at x16, where the 990X would support multiple cards at x8

How does it work on the intel variants ?

You really don't need to know about anything else Intel related besides the two new i5-6600K and i7-6700K Socket 1151 CPUs announced officially today and will be purchasable on Aug 14th. According to the reviews and benchmarks they're just a hair faster than whats already available but they cost the same, so it'd be dumb to buy the older gen when the new gen is the same price and offers the new Z107 MB Technologies and DDR4 Ram.

You obviously have to buy a new MB to upgrade to Intel regardless so get the new stuff! There are tons of nice new features with Z107 MBs and DDR4 ram, but not gonna go into it here when the reviews cover them in detail and explain it way better than I could.

Hmm, this is even more to think about, Intel so confusing for me at the moment

[mrgreenthump]

i5-6600K and i7-6700K Socket 1151 CPUs will be purchasable on Aug 14th.

You can already buy them and the retailers here have the 6600k on shelves.

[Svisalith]

z97 is the chipset for overclocking Haswell. The CPU has 16 pci-e gen 3.0 lanes and most z97 boards wire them x16 or x8/x8.

You picked a lucky time to be buying because Skylake released today so you should probably be looking at an i5 6600k and.. z107? I have not looked into the motherboards that much yet it looks well worth using over Haswell. Decent performance per clock improvements (~7-13% usually, as far as i've seen) but OCing a bit better too and support for ddr4, better mobo support for nvme SSD's etc.

You can already buy them and the retailers here have the 6600k on shelves.

Yup, on the shelves since this morning. CPU's, Mobo's, everything.

[mrgreenthump]

so using the parts I am considering. The important part for overclocking would be
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming G1 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor.

how does the the underlined 97X part work.
on AMD 990FX would support multiple GFX cards at x16, where the 990X would support multiple cards at x8

How does it work on the intel variants ?

The X is just something they add to for the model name. The chip itself is still a Z97.

[Khalus]

You can already buy them and the retailers here have the 6600k on shelves.

What? Every etailer I've checked shows pre-order for Aug14th release only, and only the i5s, no i7 listed yet.


Apparently not available in MO, cause no local PC shop has them in stock yet, called them all including Micro Center who usually gets new hardware a week in advance. Pre-Order for i5 only at both Newegg and Tiger Direct, nothing listed on Amazon. My guess is only available internationally today, Aug 14th in the US.

- - - Updated - - -

Hmm, this is even more to think about, Intel so confusing for me at the moment

The reason for the prices being the same is because Intel basically has a Monopoly on the CPU market, thus never having to drop their prices{there is no competition} and just replace older tech{which is discontinued} with new.

[Deleted]

z97 is the chipset for overclocking Haswell. The CPU has 16 pci-e gen 3.0 lanes and most z97 boards wire them x16 or x8/x8.

You picked a lucky time to be buying because Skylake released today so you should probably be looking at an i5 6600k and.. z107? I have not looked into the motherboards that much yet it looks well worth using over Haswell. Decent performance per clock improvements (~7-13% usually, as far as i've seen) but OCing a bit better too and support for ddr4, better mobo support for nvme SSD's etc.

Yup, on the shelves since this morning. CPU's, Mobo's, everything.

Yeah wont be for a month or so before I start picking parts up, so by that time there will have been plenty of time to watch and read reviews, the main problem I was having is getting my head around chip codenames and chip sets. Thanks to mrgreenthump, and others in the thread I understanding it a lot more

The X is just something they add to for the model name. The chip itself is still a Z97.

That has cleared a lot up, Feeling a little more educated now

[Svisalith]

Finally the US gets something last for once :P

Intel never drops prices. They just add new stuff, even when AMD was more competitive

[mrgreenthump]

Intel never drops prices. They just add new stuff, even when AMD was more competitive

Retailers do sales to get rid of their stock though when new products come out, so you might see cheap 4690k and 4790k processors soon. And Motherboards.

[Vash The Stampede]

What I am confused about though I have no idea which is the better chip for gaming, ie Haswell, Sandybridge, skylake (?) Broadwell etc.

Haswell -> previous generation as of today
Sandbridge -> generation before Haswell
Skylake -> Just came out today
Broadwell -> Meant for ultra low power but Intel brought it to desktop anyway. Plus has Iris Pro Graphics.

so can any explain the order of intel chips for gaming performance, and how to tell which mobo chipsets (eg Z97X) are better. Sorry if this makes no sense :S

For most gaming needs Haswell is cheaper and fine right now, and Z97 is latest chipset for it. Skylake will be a while before prices drop, and it currently only has one chipset. Benchmarks show that Skylake has a very very minor edge over Haswell. Sandybridge is too old to buy. Broadwell is equivalent to Haswell and Skylake in performance but has much better built in graphics.

Stick to Haswell for now with Z97 board. There's also a good chance that Skylake will get a DDR3 chipset so motherboards can support that type of memory. Cause as of right now DDR4 doesn't have a huge advantage over DDR3, and it's more expensive.

[Artorius]

LGA-2011 was never this appealing... It's, honestly, a better deal than Skylake.

[Dedweight]

Here's Intel's explanation of the naming conventions for the processors: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/...r-numbers.html

Hopefully that clears up some of the confusion at least.

[Remilia]

Here's Intel's explanation of the naming conventions for the processors: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/...r-numbers.html

Hopefully that clears up some of the confusion at least.

Oh hey they finally explained it.

There's also a few things that aren't noted. This may have changed in Skylake, I don't know.

Z boards allow CF/SLI as it allows different PCI-E configurations other than a PCI-E x16 for the video card.
Of course people mentioned CPU overclocking.

B## boards are business boards, or so it's supposed to be.
H#1 are the lower end boards of H#7.
H#7 are pretty much stripped down Z#7s.
Z#7 are the typical enthusiast board with overclock and dual video card support.
X## boards are LGA 2011 boards. Fits i7-E processors and Xeon E5s. More PCI-E lanes and typically more RAM slots along with quad channel.
Has overclocking capabilities with proper CPUs, some Xeons don't have unlocked multipliers.

Xeons support ECC RAM when accompanied with a MoBo that supports ECC RAM.

[Svisalith]

Benchmarks show that Skylake has a very very minor edge over Haswell.

About 7-13% gains plus 5% from better overclocking. Hair better temperatures too and simpler OCing because of no IVR to go with the slightly increased headroom.

[Deleted]

For most gaming needs Haswell is cheaper and fine right now, and Z97 is latest chipset for it. Skylake will be a while before prices drop, and it currently only has one chipset. Benchmarks show that Skylake has a very very minor edge over Haswell. Sandybridge is too old to buy. Broadwell is equivalent to Haswell and Skylake in performance but has much better built in graphics.

Stick to Haswell for now with Z97 board. There's also a good chance that Skylake will get a DDR3 chipset so motherboards can support that type of memory. Cause as of right now DDR4 doesn't have a huge advantage over DDR3, and it's more expensive.

The difference between a skylake processor and a AMD FX6350 processor is quite a bit though I would imagine. So when I upgrade, Skylake is looking far more like the correct chip range to be considering over the previous generation of Haswell, and since I am making the switch from AMD to Intel this obviously means a new Motherboard and with DDR4 prices being only slightly more expensive than DDR3, it makes more sense to consider a Skylake+DDR4 current generation package over a previous generation Haswell+DD3 package.

Hair better temperatures too and simpler OCing because of no IVR to go with the slightly increased headroom.

Temperatures will not be an issue, as I already have a Custom 240mm push-pull loop