HTPC CPU choice

[Sund]

Hi!
 

First post, hope this is the right place and format 

 

Planning to build a HTPC that will also occasionally serve as a Minecraft server.

 

I've been looking at this list as reference for what to expect with the single core usage of an MC server: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

 

To me, it looks like an i5 9600K is a pretty good bang for it's price, and it's got onboard graphics. The question is, would that integrated graphics (Intel UHD 630) be enough to also watch 4k movies with? 

Planning to run Ubuntu, with a plex server on the same machine, watching it all in the web interface. Will most likely also watch 4k YouTube and eventually 4k Netflix movies too. 

 

Would it be a better choice to go with a different CPU, without the integrated graphics and get like a GT 710 GPU instead? Or are neither of these capable of what I'm picturing here?

 

[Jurrunio]

UHD 630 can decode 4K 60fps videos (movies are typically in lower frame rates) no problem, no need for graphics card

 

9600k when 10th gen has already been announced and reviewed, I'd rather wait a bit and see how much prices can drop

[Electronics Wizardy]

6 minutes ago, Sund said:

The question is, would that integrated graphics (Intel UHD 630) be enough to also watch 4k movies with? 

Yup, it supports hardware decoding for most formats

 

6 minutes ago, Sund said:

Would it be a better choice to go with a different CPU, without the integrated graphics and get like a GT 710 GPU instead?

the intel igpu s are much better than the 710

 

 

[Sund]

1 minute ago, Jurrunio said:

9600k when 10th gen has already been announced and reviewed, I'd rather wait a bit and see how much prices can drop

I've been looking at the i3 10100, trading the 6c/6t for a 4c/8t vs the 9600k, worse single core performance and about 44usd more with a motherboard today, I'm not sure it's worth it?

[Jurrunio]

28 minutes ago, Sund said:

I've been looking at the i3 10100, trading the 6c/6t for a 4c/8t vs the 9600k, worse single core performance and about 44usd more with a motherboard today, I'm not sure it's worth it?

Of course it's not, but people looking at 9600k may switch to 10600k. You can expect Z390 boards to get cheaper even if CPUs stay at the same price

[Sund]

24 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Of course it's not, but people looking at 9600k may switch to 10600k. You can expect Z390 boards to get cheaper even if CPUs stay at the same price

 

I see! Thank you! Will keep it on my watchlist and see if prices drop soon!