Upgrading to 6600k, unsure which motherboard to choose

[CK011885]

I'm browsing through Newegg, and short of sorting by rating and just picking one, I don't really know which to settle on. What're some things to look for when picking out a motherboard?

 

[Jetster]

Your budget

Will you SLI or Crossfire?

M.2 SSD ?

Size?

Are you serous about over clocking? Or just want a mild OC

Any particular color?

 

[CK011885]

These upgrades are Christmas presents from two family members. One ordered the 6600k and fan already, the other is probably willing to spend between 300-400. Are there any 1151 boards where I can use my existing 8GB 1333 DDR3 RAM, and if so how much of a performance hit would I get using older/slower RAM? I was looking at the Samsung 950 SSD ($197 for 256GB on Newegg) to replace my several year old 70GB SSD. So if I were to get that, it would leave around $200 tops for any other components I'd need.

I don't think I plan to SLI, I have a single GTX 970, and a lot of the games I play often tend to be more CPU heavy than GPU. As for size, ATX is what I have in my case now. Aesthetics don't matter to me.

Edit: Forgot to mention overclocking. When I first get it, I probably won't overclock much (If any at all) but later in the chip's life I probably will. I tend not to go too extreme with overclocking, my i5-2500k is running at 4.2ghz right now which I consider a good overclock, but clearly not pushing it to its limits.

 

[Jetster]

You don't want to reuse your DDR3. DDR4 all the way. (most 1151 boards only take DDR4) You in the US?

 

[R-T-B]

There ARE boards that can reuse your DDR3, but I'd advise new ram if possible. It's more future proof and massively expands your board selection.

 

[CK011885]

You don't want to reuse your DDR3. DDR4 all the way. (most 1151 boards only take DDR4) You in the US?

My birthday is in January so I guess I can get the SSD around then if I need to buy RAM instead. And yeah, I live in New York.

 

[oinkypig]

If you only want a faster cpu than I would be getting the 2600k. The 6600 i5 cripples skylake architecture compared to the 6700k just like your 2500k vs the 2600k, and if you dont buy the 6700k it really isnt worth it in my opinion. Both CNE 11.5 records show from hwbot that a 4.9ghz 6600k and a 4.9ghz 2600k a score of 9.5points. I like my old x58 system with its given performance compared to WHATs offered today in terms of cpu performance. Going from x58 to x67 (1366vs1155) is for those who want nothing else eother than sata 3 which had its limits in terms of hardware raid that was problematic until x99.x97 (2011.1150) which capped the limit to 1500mbs. The only step up once owning the i7 920 lowest i7 model monster clocker at 4.4ghz worthy of an upgrade was using that exact socket for my now Xeon x56xx 6 core which is faster that any 4 core model out to date. You will get absolutely no performance gain with a mild overclock on a 6600k that you wouldnt already get from the same cpu socket you are currently using. so buy a 2600k. Unless you really want to spend the money on that m.2 drive

 

[oinkypig]

i never realized that the i7 2xxx's and i7 3xxx shared the same socket. Just get the 3770k~4770k because it remains stable at a higher frequency than the 4770k. IF you have no intentions on overclocking any cpu you have ever owned than by all means only skylake is worth the upgrade with its featured chipset.

 

[CK011885]

The 6600k was already purchased, and I don't really want to go through the hassle of having the person return it cause I changed my mind. Still interesting information though.

 

[LightningJR]

My requirements for mobos are minimum 8 pin mobo power connector, heatsinks on the VRMs, I count the mosfets and try to find one with close to 10 or more as well. While I have had many mobos with no SLI I do always regret it since now I wish I had an SLI capable mobo to have the opportunity to get another 670 until pascal comes out. Go Z170 as well, you'll need it to overclock at all.

 

[oinkypig]

Consider a motherboard possibly with m.2 slots @ 8x bandwidth or you wont see full speed capable of a 951/950 m.2 drive. Surprising to me that the 950 pro actually is faster than the 951 counterpart.

 

[CK011885]

A number of people in this thread recommended going with a motherboard that uses DDR4 RAM in lieu of using my existing DDR3, but from what I can tell from various benchmarks I googled, there really isn't a performance increase of any kind using DDR4 at the moment. Are the perks of DDR4 just being able to futureproof and having a wider selection of motherboards to purchase?

I was looking at this one which supports DDR3 RAM, it seems decent and has an M.2 slot if I do decide to go ahead and get a Samsung 950:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132572

Is it really that terrible of an idea to stick with DDR3? I feel like I'm going to be more impressed/happy with the M.2 SSD and new processor over 6600k+DDR4 RAM.

 

[Jetster]

Newegg still has the Samsung 850 EVO 500Gb for $150 with a game


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ription=samsung+850+evo+500gb&N=-1&isNodeId=1

 

[CK011885]

Newegg still has the Samsung 850 EVO 500Gb for $150 with a game


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ription=samsung+850+evo+500gb&N=-1&isNodeId=1

Having used this old 70GB SSD for years, I think I'll be fine with the 256GB from the Samsung 950 which is $50 more and 4x as fast as the 850 (Max Sequential Read Up to 2200 MBps vs Max Sequential Read Up to 540 MBps). If capacity, the free game and price difference aren't a big deal to me, are there any other benefits to the 850 over the 950?

 

[hat]

FWIW, I will never recommend the 6700k. At least on Newegg, the 5820k is cheaper with 6c/12t and other benefits of x99. Not sure about the price difference in motherboards, though. Not really relevant to anything in the thread, just saying... I'm shocked at the price of the 6700k.

Whatever you do, I'm sure you'll be happy with your 6600k. As others have said, you probably don't want to use your DDR3 again. It's only 1333, which is slow now. Try to get a nice 16GB DDR4 kit. Don't worry about SSD speeds. Unless copying files back and forth between drives on the same PC (since SSDs go well over 1Gb/s gigabit LAN) is a priority to you for some reason, forget it. Get whatever the biggest size is you can for the best price. Or get a smallish SSD for your OS and programs (using 28/128 of mine, but to be safe I recommend 128GB) and then get a fat HDD for games, and whatever other junk you have to store.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

If you only want a faster cpu than I would be getting the 2600k. The 6600 i5 cripples skylake architecture compared to the 6700k just like your 2500k vs the 2600k, and if you dont buy the 6700k it really isnt worth it in my opinion. Both CNE 11.5 records show from hwbot that a 4.9ghz 6600k and a 4.9ghz 2600k a score of 9.5points. I like my old x58 system with its given performance compared to WHATs offered today in terms of cpu performance. Going from x58 to x67 (1366vs1155) is for those who want nothing else eother than sata 3 which had its limits in terms of hardware raid that was problematic until x99.x97 (2011.1150) which capped the limit to 1500mbs. The only step up once owning the i7 920 lowest i7 model monster clocker at 4.4ghz worthy of an upgrade was using that exact socket for my now Xeon x56xx 6 core which is faster that any 4 core model out to date. You will get absolutely no performance gain with a mild overclock on a 6600k that you wouldnt already get from the same cpu socket you are currently using. so buy a 2600k. Unless you really want to spend the money on that m.2 drive

Cripples skylake? Idk about that. Its a 6700k without ht and 2mb less of l3 cache. I wouldn't say it cripples it. It not like actual cores are disabled, or the imc is hamstrung etc.

Still its the same story if the rig is purely for gaming and not enough in the budget for the i7, the unlocked i5s are excellent alternatives for gaming centric builds. Now if you have money to blow or will be doing more multi threaded dependent tasks like video encoding the i7 is the better option.

Also in reply to one of your other posts, x58 and P67 are totally different market segments. X58 is the enthusiast platform succeeded by x79. P67 is the mainstream platform which succeeded P55 lga 1156.