I will build a pc for a friend, mainly for daily tasks(movies, internet, skype) plus some light photo editing/video capture/and game play.
I am thinking about 6600 or 6600K, I am quite sure he wont ever overclock, still I am confused by a few things:
* I read in a few places, K versions can be better quality, since they are overclockable. If I dont ever overclock, would the quality difference make any difference in day to day usage ?
* They consume different amount of voltages, saving some money on electricy bill+the initial cost of the cpu(K version is like 25 dollars more where I live) vs the extra performance, which makes more sense or both are insignificant gains so it doesnt make any difference ?
* And using this cpu with ddr3 rams he already has, would be good ? or should he get new ram too(he has 16gb kingston hyperx)
teh k will be faster just because of its higher clock speed and the fact you can push it higher.
if he's getting a Z170 mobo, why not go for the K.
If you know that he's not going to OC then you don't need the K. But just as @The_Space_Bear said, if you go with a Z170 board, might as well go the whole 9 yards.
not to mention the K has a higher base clock and will be faster period.
but if he's doing video editing maybe look into a 6-10 core Xeon with a 3ghz~ or better clock speed.
z710 and ddr3 wouldnt be worse than a ddr4 option right ? or at least the difference would be small ? I was thinking about asus, https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z170-P-D3/ maybe something like this ?
go for DDR4, its faster and newer, we may be facing a DDR2 like situation with DDR3, where they stop making it in a year or two and prices shoot way up.
plus DDR4 is dirt cheap atm
He already has 16 gb of not so bad ddr3, that he doesnt wanna throw away. I dont think he will regularly upgrade the pc anyway. From the stuff I found googling, they said ddr4 isnt that superior to ddr3. Would he get a significant increase in performance with ddr4 ?
Many benchmarks show that DDR4 barely matters for gaming. Like 2-3 FPS difference. And if you have a decent DDR3 kit like 2600+ MHz, then DDR4 matters even less. So if you want to keep an old kit with your new configuration then it's okay to go with a DDR3 board, but if you are building a completely new PC, then go with DDR4 because it's a newer technology and is a longer-term strategy. Maybe in 1 year we will see much better DDR4 kits and you will be able to upgrade without a motherboard upgrade, although that's a speculation. If DDR5 comes you will still have to upgrade the motherboard. All in all ram doesn't matter much. I've seen DDR2 configs running the latest games perfectly. It's mostly about the GPU and somewhat about the CPU. You need about 8-16 GB of whatever ram you can find.
yes, and he can always just sell his DDR3.
and 90% of tasks ram speed doesn't mater, but its newer, faster and generally a better choice.
Skylake only supports ddr3L not standard ddr3, so reusing it from an old build won't work.
I would go for the k even if he isn't overclocking. If he ever wants to he can, and it would be more valuable to resell later on.
it comes down to a fuew things, but mostly wank factor.
for example I got a Z170 gaming MB with a 6700k because i wonted an over the top build .
but for my brothers pc i went for a B150 gaming cipset (cheeper) and a 6700 non K (he wouldn't settle for less then an i7). the B150 board was alot cheaper but still had the "high end" audio that the Z170 had.
No K for that. Cheaper CPU, cheaper board. More money for other stuff. Like SSDs.
I already ordered a board and a cpu for him, for the mother board specs it says :
Great-value ATX Z170 with 5X Protection II for dependable stability, flexible DDR3/DDR3L compatibility
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z170-P-D3/overview/
I hve checked with him about what kind of ram he has, he has 4X 8gb Kingston Hyper Beast ram. You think it wouldnt work ?
aghh it says in compability list :
KINGSTONKHX1600C9D3P1K2/4G4GB(2 x 2GB)SSN/AN/A-1.5V●●
KINGSTONKHX1600C9D3K2/8GX（XMP)4GBSSN/AN/A11-11-28-391.65V●●●
KINGSTONKVR16N11S8/4(版）4GBSSKINGSTONU317X8BRRA1911-11-11-28-391.50V●●●
KINGSTONKHX1600C9D3K3/12GX(XMP)12GB(3x4GB)DSN/AN/A9-9-9-271.65V●●●
KINGSTONKHX1600C9D3T1BK3/12GX(XMP)12GB(3x4GB)DSN/AN/A9-9-9-271.65V●●●
KINGSTONKHX1600C9D3K4/16GX(XMP)16GB ( 4GB x4 )DSN/A/A9-9-9-24-331.65V●●
KINGSTONKHX1600C10D3B1K2/16G16GB(8GBx2)DSN/AN/A9-9-9-24-331.5V●●
KINGSTONKHX16C9K2/1616GB(8GBx2)DSN/AN/A9-9-9-24-331.5V●●●
KINGSTONKHX1600C9AD3/2G2GBDSN/AN/A9-9-9-24-331.65V●●●
KINGSTONKHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX(XMP)4GB(2 x 2GB)DSN/AN/A9-9-9-271.65V●●
KINGSTONKHX1600C9D3/4G4GBDSN/AN/A9-9-9-24-331.65V●●●
KINGSTONKVR16N11/4(矮版）4GBDSKINGSTOND2568GEROPGGBU11-11-28-391.5V●●●
KINGSTONKHX1600C9D3T1BK3/6GX(XMP)6GB(3 x 2GB)DSN/AN/A9-9-9-271.65V●●●
KINGSTONKHX1600C9D3P1K2/8G8GB(2 x 4GB)DSN/AN/A9-9-9-27-391.5V●●●
KINGSTONKHX1600C9D3K2/8GX8GBDSN/AN/A11-11-11-28-391.65V●●
KINGSTONKHX16C10B1K2/16X(XMP)8GBDSN/AN/A9-9-9-24-331.5V●●
KINGSTONKHX16C9P1K2/16(XMP)8GBDSN/AN/A9-9-9-27-391.5V●●●
KINGSTONKVR16N11S/44GBSSKINGSTOND5128EC4BPGGBU1.5V●●●
KINGSTONKVR16N11/44GBSSKINGSTOND5128EC4BPGGBU1.35V●●●
KINGSTONKVR16N11/8-SP8GBDSKINGSTONBJM730C3G-M1.5V●●●
KINGSTONHX316C10F/44GBSSN/AHeat-Sink Package1.5V●●●
KINGSTONHX316C10F/48GBDSN/AHeat-Sink Package1.5V●●●
KINGSTON68209862GSSNANYANT5CC256M16CP-DI11-11-11-281.35V
what he has is KHX16C9T3K2/8X, so it wouldnt work ? or it means that this specific ram was not tested ?
Personally I would avoid DDR3 for skylake. My thinking would be:
Budget build: bring your old RAM, socket 1150 basic but solid board and an i5 without the K, Evo 212 or so
Modern build: everything new, value DDR4, basic but solid 1151 board and 6500/6600 still no K, Evo 212 or so.
OC build: Z170 board with good power delivery, fast DDR4, 66/6700K, massive cooling like Noctua dual tower or AIO.
If your building for a friend, go non-K. You save a couple bucks, and if he can't build his own computer, he probably isn't going to be overclocking. You could overclock for him, but if it degrades over time, you would have to redo his OC which would be really annoying to have to do. I go buy the rule of thumb that if its a build for a friend that doesn't have the knowledge to build it for themselves, than they probably aren't the type of people to overclock either.
I did build him one with k, and got myself the non k. I use my ddr3 with it, quite stable and very fast compared to my laptop with i7 3630qm so far, thought I agree with you all, if I had bigger budget I would just get ddr4 instead....
All you do is add cost and complexity for a computer you essentially are responsible for supporting once you ship it off.
Take the money you would spend on the K cpu, Z board, and aftermarket cooling solution and invest the same money into practical things for a base level consumer such as an SSD, increased RAM, or a better quality GPU in an attempt to extend the lifespan of the hardware.
If you don't need to over-clock it then you don't need the K!
For most of the tasks you mentioned the standard 6600 will actually work fine.