6600k or 6500

[IGetKillsFTW]

I have an r9 380 4gb strix oc edition and I'm wondering if I should get the 6600k or 6500. I have a z170 mobo so I can oc both but I don't know if an extra 20-30 bucks for a 6600k is worth it.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Do you already have a cooler? If you didn't have anything yet I'd say there's not much reason to go with the 6600k. Already having a Z170 board, I'm more tempted to say go with the 6600k. If you have a cooler, I'd say you may as well.

 

[IGetKillsFTW]

Do you already have a cooler? If you didn't have anything yet I'd say there's not much reason to go with the 6600k. Already having a Z170 board, I'm more tempted to say go with the 6600k. If you have a cooler, I'd say you may as well.

all I have is the board

 

[TJ Hooker]

Well, the 6500 will perform very well, and is more than enough for a GPU like the R9 380. In the short term, you probably won't really notice a difference in performance. In the future, if you upgrade your GPU and/or your CPU starts getting old, the 6600k might have a little more staying power. You're looking at $20-30 extra for the CPU, plus ~35$ for a decent cooler like a Cryorig H7. Up to you if that's worth it. You could justify it by saying you're looking to get the most life out of your current platform and view that cost as being spread over the the whole duration you'll be using the CPU (years).

Do you like the idea of OCing? If it's something that interests you in itself, that would would make the decision easier, haha.

 

[synphul]

Personally I'd go with the 6600k since you've already got the z board. In the long run an oc'd cpu will remain viable longer in terms of performance, in some instances right this minute depending on the program/game the oc will offer improved performance. The i5 6500 will reach up to 3.6ghz with turbo boost enabled if only one core is active. If more than one core is under load the top turbo speed will drop a bit to around 3.4ghz.

Most i5 6600k's should be able to reach 4.5-4.6ghz with little trouble using a decent cooler. At 4.5ghz that's a little over 32% faster than the 6500. Since intel's cpu's have been gaining around 5-10% with each release it should be faster than 6500, 7500, and might even be a bit faster than an 8500 or whatever model numbering scheme they use.

It does cost a bit more but that's the nature of things. An i5 6600 costs more than a 6500 costs more than a 6400. Not everyone like to overclock, I personally have fun with it. No right or wrong way to look at it from that perspective. Even if you don't oc right away it can be nice having the extra performance potential down the road from my experience. When a locked cpu becomes an issue the only solution is to replace it. By then there are usually newer models out that require a new motherboard and it means half a new build again along with a windows reinstall.