Go with skylake or haswell in 2017?

[mAmArC]

Hello I want to upgrade my i3-4160 proc to i5-4690 (or 4460) this december. I know a lot of people would recommend skylake but its a 180$ build difference. I already have a mobo and 2 hyper x fury 8gig ddr3 ram, if i go with skylake path (more future upgrade options) i would have to spend a proc, a mobo and another ram. I need help and i'm on tight budget, but if its worth the performance i would have to think about it.

 

[manddy123]

Going with newer tech is almost always the best option.

As Kaby Lake is approaching, no need to rush a Skylake product now, as they may drop prices soon. but that's no reason to get a old architecture either.

Zen is coming out as well, now is simply not a great time to upgrade if you can really wait up a bit more.

My opinion: Wait for Kaby Lake/Zen, see the prices and performance, then make up your mind based on that.

 

[Eximo]

Nothing wrong with picking up a Haswell i5 or i7/Xeon for your build. Certainly the cheaper option than doing a full re-build.

 

[Ecky]

Nothing wrong with picking up a Haswell i5 or i7/Xeon for your build. Certainly the cheaper option than doing a full re-build.

Agree with this. Skylake/Kaby bring ~10% more performance per clock and slightly lower power usage, but in my opinion it's not enough difference to justify replacing motherboard and RAM too.

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

If your on a tight budget sticking with Haswell is a great option.

 

[why_wolf]

All depends on how much you want to spend. Going Haswell is by far the cheapest route, especially if you pick up a used CPU for even less. Going Skylake/Kaby Lake/Zen will require new cpu, mb and RAM and frankly will only net you a 10-20% improvement at best.

 

[dudeman509]

Just pick up a 4590 and enjoy. Save your upgrade budget for a few years down the road and upgrade to a platform that will be ENTIRELY better than Skylake at the time.