Selling new i7-6700k, now i7-8700 or i7-8700k?

[LTVETTE2]

Now that I am finally getting to do a new build, and I have an i7-6700k and Asrock Extreme7+, and all the other goodies less a GPU. I have decided to get up to date.
Is it worth going for the 8700k at 95 watts, vs. the 8700 at 65 watts? I will use an Asrock Tiachi MB, and sell off the Extreme7+, Tiachi Z270, and the 6700k.
my main concern is whether the k version of coffee lake is worth the extra $40-$50, plus the extra 30 watts of power. Oddly enough 30 watts sounds small, but my electricity here is very expensive. Machine will be my business system, always on, doing CAD and occaisional video editing if I ever learn how to fly mavic pro. That you for reading, and appreciate any ones feelings on this. I'm holding off until I hear some knowlegable ideas from you folks here. Larry T

 

[Darkbreeze]

Honestly, for CAD, I'd put that money into a good workstation card, rather than the CPU. You are not going to see enough of a difference to justify the cost of the upgrade. The 6700k, especially with a nice 4.5Ghz OC sitting on it will run any CAD program out there currently, just fine.

Now, if there is going to be a minimal investment due to getting a good price for your current setup, then by all means, do what you gotta do, but I wouldn't pursue it otherwise. You'll get a lot more performance gain and capability from putting that money into a workstation card than you'll ever see from the CPU upgrade. Memory is a factor as well. I'd recommend no less than 16GB and preferably 32GB, depending on how advanced your CAD use will be.

 

[punkncat]

A long time "go by" for Intel procs has been to wait at least 3-4 generations before upgrading. I don't use CAD programs, but based on the benchmark results we see from the selections you suggest, you are talking about a few seconds of your time vs hundreds of dollars in new proc as well as motherboard and RAM options....and of course, unless you have some in, or are cheating, a new license (on Windows).

 

[Darkbreeze]

You don't need a new Windows license if you are using Windows 10. It's a digital entitlement, assigned to YOU, not to the motherboard ID string, as it used to be. There should be no problem installing the OS fresh after an upgrade. That does not however really affect the fact that a CPU upgrade from the 6700k, which happens to be the same CPU I have, isn't going to give you a dramatic improvement in performance.

Certainly there will be some improvement, but again I will say that if you don't currently have a very good Quadro workstation card, or an AMD equivalent, (Preferably Quadro), then would be a far better place to begin.

Also, if you have less than 16GB (Preferably more), then memory should probably be a consideration AND if and when you do upgrade later it will be memory that you can move to the newer system anyhow. Most CAD programs show a direct and linear improvement with the addition of more memory. If you DO already have a good workstation card or a high end gaming card, and still want to upgrade the CPU anyway, then IMO it IS worth the extra money for the unlocked K sku as you can scrape out a decent bit of additional performance with a nice stable overclock but you'll also want to be sure you have a CPU cooler that is highly capable as well as a case and fan arrangement that allows for substantial air movement WITHOUT having to run the fans full speed at all times.

Nothing more annoying than trying to work on a project while your PC is trying to fly down the runway.

 

[LTVETTE2]

Thank you guy's, My CAD is only 2D, can't afford full on AutoCAD, so there is no 3D. I may be doing some video editing when I finally get my Mavic Pro flying (a little nervous yet. Flew R/C as youngster, and full scale in 1983) I do have 32 gb ram DDR4 @3200, got at half of today's price, and is 2 x 16GB. Have a Dark Rock pro 4 for cooling, and old GTX 780 that I may use? Plus a couple of NvME's, one Samsung 950PRO 512nd a WD Black NvME. So most is there, just was concerned about using a 2 generation old CPU and chipset? I alos have fresh new versions of Win 7 Pro, and win 10 pro. Always thinking ahead, but finding other things to do. I love to buy stuff!!! But work is slow for this 62 y.o. carpenter, they young guns are taking over!! Plus once a potential builder hears my age, they suddenly go deaf. Statistics do show that construction workers over 55 are a risk, and I have had 2 small knee ops. Plus I live on an island basically, you can find out everybodys dirt in about 3 calls. Especially in construction. And we all know how fast BAD news travels!!

 

[Philballer17]

Something like an NVidia Quadro Series card will boost performance like you've never seen before.

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you're only doing 2D stuff, then that's even more reason to not honestly need the latest CPU. If you had an older CPU than Haswell, then I'd say sure, upgrading is a great idea. But with a Skylake CPU there is no reason at all to upgrade right now unless you simply WANT to do so just for the sake of being on the latest platform, which in all honestly, is only a very mild increase in performance from what you already have.

For 2D stuff, any middle of the road graphics card, gaming or workstation, would be perfectly fine. I'm using an older R9 280 with my 6700k@4.5Ghz right now and there is practically no applications that I can't run acceptably well on there, for average projects, whether 2 or 3D.

 

[LTVETTE2]

If you're only doing 2D stuff, then that's even more reason to not honestly need the latest CPU. If you had an older CPU than Haswell, then I'd say sure, upgrading is a great idea. But with a Skylake CPU there is no reason at all to upgrade right now unless you simply WANT to do so just for the sake of being on the latest platform, which in all honestly, is only a very mild increase in performance from what you already have.

For 2D stuff, any middle of the road graphics card, gaming or workstation, would be perfectly fine. I'm using an older R9 280 with my 6700k@4.5Ghz right now and there is practically no applications that I can't run acceptably well on there, for average projects, whether 2 or 3D.

 

[LTVETTE2]

Thank you darkbreeze, makes sense. How about any photo editing I may do once I develope the nads to fly my $1000 drone. Someone on a Mavic forum says I can get insurance on it for $60 from State farm with ) ded,,,,sorry, I go off course a lot lately. Aging maybe? It seems like PC's got to a point where they are fast enough now to satisfy most people, and paying a couple grand on a new build only reaps a few seconds. If I do the build with a Skylake and use 2 NvME drives, it will seem like the F22 on my profile pic. And what actually uses the 6 cores?? And I can use Optane, but I believe that is "old" tech for HDD's or am I mistaken. I really do appreciate the privilege of your time and knowledge Larry T.

 

[LTVETTE2]

One other quick question. With 2 mobo's in hand, one AsRock Z170 Extreme7+, or AsRock Z270 Tiachi. When I use my Skylake 6700k, which board should I use? I'll just Ebay the other.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Honestly, I think either board is satisfactory, and I'm not certain the Z270 chipset offers much if anything not present on the Z170. I believe the Extreme7+ is a higher end board than the Taichi, but you might want to check reviews on that to verify.

As far as drives go, I think I'd wait. There will be new drives coming out soon using the Phison E12 controller which make Optane look somewhat antiquated even in random workloads where Optane normally shines. Look at reviews related to Phison E12 controller for details on those upcoming releases.