Thinking of getting i5 6600 for a CPU-focused build about ~$900-$1000 - thoughts? alternatives?

[Doctor Hedron]

I'm planning to build a PC for just under $1000; maybe closer to $900 (I'm not in the US, but we have very similar prices for hardware). I'm not all that much of a gamer, though in part that's because my current PC is quite ancient (late 2007) so it's not like I had the chance to play the new games. So I'm thinking of getting just a "decent" GPU like a GTX 960 that could manage current gen games at high settings and stay relevant for a couple more years, and focusing on CPU instead.

I do a fair bit of music and it's likely that I'll do video-related stuff in the future (shooting and editing footage for youtube, semi-personal projects, all this stuff). Also coding and data crunching, 3D modeling and other reasonably CPU-intensive tasks are within my interests. I've researched and plan on getting i5 6600 (non-K) for this. In terms of price, it fits me very well. The i7 6700 would almost tear the budget apart - I could manage it if 6600 is absolutely wrong for this, but I'd really rather not. If 6600 is "good" for this and 6700 is "amazing", I'd rather stay on "good".

However, I don't have much "feel" for what 6600 is capable of. I don't need an absolutely monstrous CPU, I just need comfortable work.

- Will I be able to edit 1080p footage comfortably with it? Read: without lags / freezes / etc; no need for all that "insanely fast rendering of full HD while another game is streaming to Twitch". (you should see the slideshow on my Core2Duo from 2007!) I'm not planning on doing it commercially or even on a regular basis, but I certainly don't want to suffer every time I need to get smth done.

- What about 4K (not exactly aiming to do this, I have nothing to shoot it with and no reason to - just wondering about the next several years, because who knows if it's going to blow up)?

- Will I be able to watch 4K videos without stutter?

- For gaming, I require nothing special. Modern generation games running at high, maybe med-high, at 1080p. No need for ultra. It just needs to be still relevant for a few more years.

I found this article which recommends i5 6500 in a budget build for 1080p editing and i7 6700 in a build for "professional grade work up to 4K", but there's a lot of other stuff that's different between those builds so I don't know what to make of it. Also, they seem to pick very pricey motherboards where a "bare minimum" solution would work, but that might be just me.

I also read somewhere that Skylake doesn't support output of 4K at 60 fps unless some specific features are present on the motherboard. Tbh, I don't see myself getting a 4K monitor in the next few years, but who knows - I'd prefer to know in advance.

Half a year ago, when I was considering 1150 processors, a person pointed out about Xeon processors to me - which were basically "i7 without integrated GPU almost for the price of an i5". I don't need integrated GPU (though I suppose I could find some use for it if I had it), I don't need overclocking, and 4/8 cores/threads seemed very nice as opposed to that generation i5's 4/4. But with Skylake Xeons, I read that they now require very specific chipsets on motherboards. And at least where I live, there are only a few of these mobos and they're somewhat more costly than those that suit i5/i7 Skylakes. Still, I wonder - are there any obvious advantages?

For reference about the other parts in the build, I'm thinking of GTX 960 graphics card and any relatively cheap motherboard with a B150 chipset - I don't care about overclocking or SLI. As for RAM, 16 GB of DDR4 (if the CPU will be Skylake). About ~ $160-ish on storage (SSD+HDD).

Any thoughts or suggestions? It would be much appreciated. Maybe a 6600K instead of 6700? (though I never did any overclocking in my life; also this would affect the mobo choice... etc).

And as a semi-related question, I heard that Skylakes are so cold that box coolers work absolutely fine with them. Any thoughts? I don't really want to spend a ton on a cooler that would be mostly useless.

 

[DarnitD]

6600 is about 5-10% slower then the 6600k the K series can overclock though to be 20-25% faster.

it would be fine for 1080p Video editing.

if you will have a dedicated gpu skylake not supporting 4k@60fps isnt going to be a problem and id imagine that limitation is from the ports used on the motherboard not skylake, but i don't know.

im no expert but and may be wrong, but Xeon for personal use aren't worth it. they almost always cost more and the motherboards are more expensive.

the gtx 960 unless you can get it at like $150 or less doesnt seem worth it at the moment the rx480(4gb) which cost $20-$25 dollars more is a whole tier ahead of it and if you don't want an amd card the 1060 it just around the corner.

stock cooler should be fine.

edit
Intel Xeon Processor E3-1231V3B is 255 on amazon and seems to be a good price though.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

For compiling huge amounts of code, i7/Xeon would be better .
Video editing, i7/Xeon would be better.
In reality, you will feel much better with i5 and the faster/larger SSD.
I'd go for 6600K+Z170+16GB DDR4 2400. Basic , practical overclocking is fun and not complicated. You get 10-20% performance "for free"
It is also an opportunity to learn about it.
For a 1000$ US prices a very decent work/gaming machine can be built.
The only thing that worries me in your build, is 960. We are at the video cards refresh. The GTX 1050, GTX 1060, RX 470 and RX 460 are all supposed to be out within a month with better price/performance values.
If you want, i can make suggested list of parts for your build

 

[Doctor Hedron]

Xeon for personal use aren't worth it. they almost always cost more and the motherboards are more expensive.

Well, for the 1150 socket, E3-1231v3 cost almost exactly in between i5-4460 and i7-4790, and was very very close to that i7 apart from not having an integrated GPU. Those Xeons also worked with the same chipsets as i5s and i7s, so it could be pulled off in terms of compatibility. But in this case, these exotic Xeon-only chipsets are quite a problem (mobos are expensive).

As for the RX480, unfortunately there are only a few of those available where I live, and they are all upwards of $300 sadly. To be honest, I'm quite fine with my choice of GTX 960, after reading people's opinions on it, watching video comparisons, etc. It's available for ~ $200 here. And after all, I can always replace the GPU after a few years, but replacing a CPU would be much trickier.

The GTX 1050, GTX 1060, RX 470 and RX 460 are all supposed to be out within a month with better price/performance values.

What are the expected prices of those?

And an additional (maybe very stupid) question - am I right that Z170 is the only chipset for 1151 that supports overclocking?

 

[synphul]

I think you'd be fine with a 6600. It's not that i5's can't edit video, i7's are just faster. Especially if you only do it occasionally and not for a living. The 960 should do ok for 1080p though how many years it will remain a 'good' video card are hard to determine. It's more of a lower end mid range gaming card. You may have to turn settings down to med or med/high for some games to reach 60fps at 1080p.

Given how old your current system is I'm sure the new one will feel quite a bit faster. Assuming a core2duo or core 2 quad, the 6600 is much faster. Unfortunately it's difficult to get accurate benchmarks comparing the two directly, different versions of windows and programs for benching might make it really hard to compare fairly.

This is a comparison of a q9650 vs the 6600.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/49?vs=1646

A 6600k would only be a bit more expensive but you're right, it would require a z series motherboard and an aftermarket cooler. The skylake k series cpu's no longer come with even a stock cooler so buying an aftermarket cooler isn't an option it's a necessity.

The xeons were a cheaper alternative to an i7 for haswell (4th gen intel) and were worth considering because they dropped into any of the typical mainstream motherboards, z97, h97 etc. Intel changed things up this time around and skylake xeons don't just drop into a b150, h170, z170. They require different boards and there aren't as many choices. Mostly c232 sockets and a couple x150's I think they are. They're xeon specific boards.

The rx480 would be worth considering once aftermarket cards come out and they hopefully fix the power design. The oem versions are hard to recommend, they don't quite meet specs and have an issue where in some circumstances they pull more power from the motherboard's pcie slot than they're supposed to, more than the pcie standard allows. It could cause shutdowns or possibly damage the motherboard in its current state. If looking to invest in a gpu for the next couple years I'd wait and see how the 1060 is priced and performs or wait for other companies to fix the booboos of the rx480. You'd get more for your money.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

The GTX 1050, GTX 1060, RX 470 and RX 460 are all supposed to be out within a month with better price/performance values.

What are the expected prices of those?

And an additional (maybe very stupid) question - am I right that Z170 is the only chipset for 1151 that supports overclocking?[/quotemsg]

130-300$ for all of those. Newer GPUs will also feature better support for video encoding. for your build, ~200$ GPU is logical choice that will last longer and give you much more freedom of what you can do with your system.
Yes, overclocking requires Z170 MB. they are starting at ~80$

 

[Doctor Hedron]

I see. I suppose I'll wait for these new GPUs first and see from there.

I did some quick googling and found that those GTX's are expected to come in 3GB and 6GB variants. Too bad, I already figured that 4GB was the optimal choice for me.

In terms of price, something like ~ 200 USD would be perfect, yes. And depending on the final price of the GPU I'll settle on getting, I'll choose between 6600 and 6600K. Their price is very similar, but the difference in prices for the motherboard is more noticeable, so that will be the defining factor. It will be either 6600 + B150 or 6600K + Z170 for me.

Just out of curiosity (and at the risk of derailing the original discussion), how much Watt will the power supply need to be?

 

[n0ns3ns3]

your system, even overclocked will consume up to 350w under heavy load.
It is advised to have a quality PSU in 520-650w range for 60-100$ for such build