i7 6700k, i7 6800k or wait for Kaby Lake?

[haroldj97]

I have been considering upgrading my system for a while now, however unexpected costs stopped me from doing it in the past. However, I now have the means to do it and was wondering what is best and whether it is worth it.

I have been using an i5-2500k for coming up to 5 years. It has been a great processor, could never overclock it because of my motherboard, but has stood up well in most games. Recently, I purchased a 1070 however I experienced considerable stuttering in the majority of games and eventually after trying a lot of things to stop it stuttering, I ended up sending it back. Added to the fact that I am going to be starting a Computer Science degree soon which involves graphic design, 3D modelling and software development along with gaming at 1440p, I am considering upgrading.

I already have a case (H440), a power supply (XFX Pro Black Edition 750w), SSD's and hard drives and a graphics card (MSI 970) so won't be needing these. Also my case is black/blue so would like a all black or black/blue motherboard. I have put together these builds:

Skylake Z170:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£308.28 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler (£67.25 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI Z170A SLI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£138.54 @ More Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£83.68 @ Novatech)
Total: £597.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-15 12:31 BST+0100

Broadwell X99:

vPCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6800K 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor (£407.99 @ Novatech)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler (£67.25 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI X99A SLI PLUS ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (£183.81 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£83.68 @ Novatech)
Total: £742.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-15 12:32 BST+0100

Haswell X99:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor (£368.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler (£67.25 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI X99A SLI PLUS ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (£183.81 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£83.68 @ Novatech)
Total: £703.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-15 12:33 BST+0100

I was wondering if this would be a worth while upgrade for what I am going to be doing and if so whether I should go with Skylake, X99 or wait to Kaby Lake comes out?

 

[Compuser10165]

Great build choices (especially the cpu cooler (It runs great and quiet on my i7 6700K)). Considering that you have an i5 2500K I would wait a bit for the i7 7700K. I guess the 7700k willl be marginally better than i7 6700k (my estimate is ~10%) but when it launches it will drive the price of the i7 6700k down a bit (so the 6700k it may be worth it price wise). Anyway, just wait a bit.
You can also go for the 6800K but I suggest doing so if you do video editing (or sth else which is cpu intensive). I think for just gaming, the i7 7700k would be better. Also if you go for an X99 platform I suggest getting a quad channel DDR4 kit (4x4gb or even 4x8gb). Also, maybe you can also upgrade the gtx 970 next year (altough it is fine right now). P.S. I have an R9 390 and I don't plan to upgrade untill affordable gpus that can do 4k 60fps easily on demanding games are on the market.

 

[haroldj97]

Great build choices (especially the cpu cooler (It runs great and quiet on my i7 6700K)). Considering that you have an i5 2500K I would wait a bit for the i7 7700K. I guess the 7700k willl be marginally better than i7 6700k (my estimate is ~10%) but when it launches it will drive the price of the i7 6700k down a bit (so the 6700k it may be worth it price wise). Anyway, just wait a bit.
You can also go for the 6800K but I suggest doing so if you do video editing (or sth else which is cpu intensive). I think for just gaming, the i7 7700k would be better. Also if you go for an X99 platform I suggest getting a quad channel DDR4 kit (4x4gb or even 4x8gb). Also, maybe you can also upgrade the gtx 970 next year (altough it is fine right now). P.S. I have an R9 390 and I don't plan to upgrade untill affordable gpus that can do 4k 60fps easily on demanding games are on the market.

That's a good point about the cost decrease when Kaby Lake comes out. If I do go ahead and decide to upgrade, I am planning on keeping it for 5 years, like have done with my current system. Do you think it would be beneficial to go with X99 due to the extra cores/threads?

 

[nikoli707]

unless you are doing non gaming cpu intensive tasks like rendering or transcoding i would just go with the 6700k. the 5820k actually overclocks better than the 6800k with the same cooling solution. that said, those 6 core processors get very hot quickly. with the dark rock 3 i doubt you will break 4.1-4.2ghz on them. 6700k on the other hand will have no problems going north of 4.6ghz with the dark rock 3. so in the end you will be trading single core performance for the extra logical cores and hyperthreads that for the most part will go unused, especially for gaming. four skylake cores running at 4.6ghz+ is pretty fast and even for non gaming cpu work it can still impress.

 

[Compuser10165]

I suggest going for X99 only if you use those extra cores on a regular basis, otherwise the price increase is not justified. Also those newer 4 core i7 have great multi-threaded performance (matching older 6 core i7's) and theit single core performance is better (more suitable for gaming) sometimes even if you overclock. I suggest getting an Z270 mobo along with a i7 7700k (cons: closed platform, it officially supports only windows 10) or z170 with an i7 6700K (cons: slightly less powerful, worse igpu (not that it matters much) than upcoming i7 7700k). Look at reliable benchmarks when the cpu's are released. Also, you can wait for Zen cpu's (early next year) to see what they bring to the table, it may be worth it.

 

[Compuser10165]

unless you are doing non gaming cpu intensive tasks like rendering or transcoding i would just go with the 6700k. the 5820k actually overclocks better than the 6800k with the same cooling solution. that said, those 6 core processors get very hot quickly. with the dark rock 3 i doubt you will break 4.1-4.2ghz on them. 6700k on the other hand will have no problems going north of 4.6ghz with the dark rock 3. so in the end you will be trading single core performance for the extra logical cores and hyperthreads that for the most part will go unused, especially for gaming. four skylake cores running at 4.6ghz+ is pretty fast and even for non gaming cpu work it can still impress.

P.S. My i7 6700k @4.5ghz (same clock as boost of i7 7700k) with the dark rock pro 3 almost never reaches 60 degrees celsius (CPUID HWmonitor) while gaming. I also use it to perform some software simulations.

 

[haroldj97]

Although X99 is tempting, I think I am more lenient towards getting Skylake since I will be spending more time gaming than photo editing and 3d modelling. Does anyone know a rough date/schedule for Kaby Lake release? Also, would it beneficial whilst I'm upgrading to move from a 970 to 1070 for 1440p?

 

[Compuser10165]

Although X99 is tempting, I think I am more lenient towards getting Skylake since I will be spending more time gaming than photo editing and 3d modelling. Does anyone know a rough date/schedule for Kaby Lake release? Also, would it beneficial whilst I'm upgrading to move from a 970 to 1070 for 1440p?

Kaby Lake is supposed to release by the end of the year, no official date set. I suggest you to wait untill then. Concerning upgrading your gtx 970 to a gtx 1070 I suggest no as I don't think the added cost justifies the ~45% increase in performance. I suggest waiting for amd Vega early next year or even Pascal refresh (also next year).
P.S. I have an R9 390 (direct competitor when release now it seems to perform better in some games and about the same in others), playing at 1080p 60hz (using VSR to play at 1440p most of the time) and I have no intention to upgrade untill an affordable gpu that can do 4K@60fps in demanding games is on the market. If you are on 1440p right now, I suggest waiting for Vega or Pascal refresh and see if it's worth the jump.