Not interested in OC, just a mini ITX gaming build (Air cooled) i5 4660 vs. i5 4590k

[alazar14]

As the title says, I am building a mini ITX desktop PC and want it primarily for multimedia and gaming. Given that it is a mini ITX build, and that I do not want water cooling (i.e., will rely on air cooling) I was not planning on overclocking anytime soon. Given that, I decided to get a i5 4460 instead of the i5 4690k as I was able to get the 4460 for about $180 vs. the 4690k $235. After reading a lot of forums I am a bit concerned if I made the right choice given my situation. 

 

Questions I have are the following, 

 

Will a i5 4460 have trouble keeping up with an R9 280X? This is the card that I plan to get around December / January (till then I will use an R7 260x). 

 

Was the i5 4460 a better choice than an FX 8350 for gaming? 

 

Will an i5 4460 keep up with an R9 290X if I were to ever buy a GPU that beefy? 

 

I Don't think I'll ever buy a 290X, my needs simply do not call for one (1080p gaming on high / ultra settings), but if I did I just want to know if the CPU would bottleneck the system. 

 

Thanks! 

[Swndlr]

If youre not overclocking then the 4460, 4590, and 4690 are great choices.

And yes, they can all keep up with basically any high end card right now.

[ThatOneRussian]

Why get an unlocked chip if youre not OCing get a non K cpu it will be fine

[Darth-Marius]

if no oc, then no k series

[vanished]

Why get an unlocked chip if youre not OCing get a non K cpu it will be fine

(original post removed)

nvm I've been misled

[SteveGrabowski0]

As the title says, I am building a mini ITX desktop PC and want it primarily for multimedia and gaming. Given that it is a mini ITX build, and that I do not want water cooling (i.e., will rely on air cooling) I was not planning on overclocking anytime soon. Given that, I decided to get a i5 4660 instead of the i5 4690k as I was able to get the 4660 for about $180 vs. the 4690k $235. After reading a lot of forums I am a bit concerned if I made the right choice given my situation. 

 

Questions I have are the following, 

 

Will a i5 4660 have trouble keeping up with an R9 280X? This is the card that I plan to get around December / January (till then I will use an R7 260x). 

 

Was the i5 4660 a better choice than an FX 8350 for gaming? 

 

Will an i5 4660 keep up with an R9 290X if I were to ever buy a GPU that beefy? 

 

I Don't think I'll ever buy a 290X, my needs simply do not call for one (1080p gaming on high / ultra settings), but if I did I just want to know if the CPU would bottleneck the system. 

 

Thanks! 

 

There is no i5-4660. Did you get an i5-4670 or i5-4690? And a locked i5-4430 or better (hell, locked i5-2300 or better) is excellent for running any single GPU out there if you're targeting 60 fps.

[arnavvr]

I think a Skylake Core i5 6400 will better suit you.

[vanished]

I think a Skylake Core i5 6400 will better suit you.

isn't that + the Z170 board a lot more expensive though? 

[arnavvr]

isn't that + the Z170 board a lot more expensive though? 

 

depends on what Z170 board. And the 6400 can be overclocked.

[alazar14]

There is no i5-4660. Did you get an i5-4670 or i5-4690? And a locked i5-4430 or better (hell, locked i5-2300 or better) is excellent for running any single GPU out there if you're targeting 60 fps.

 

Oops! Big mistake on my part, I wrote down the wrong processor, it is the i5 4460

[alazar14]

If youre not overclocking then the 4460, 4590, and 4690 are great choices.

And yes, they can all keep up with basically any high end card right now.

 

Thank you! One more question, I hear the thermal paste on the CPUs from Intel kind of sucks. Should I add more paste when installing the stock cooler, or is the one that comes with it fine? I've also heard that to much thermal paste can be bad. 

[SteveGrabowski0]

Oops! Big mistake on my part, I wrote down the wrong processor, it is the i5 4460

 

Oh ok. The 4460 is an awesome CPU and you'd be great with a 390x. Don't expect the 280x to still be available at decent prices by December/January though. It has gone up quite a bit in price since June when the 200 series got retired. There are currently still two nice XFX 280x at great prices (e.g., sub $215 after rebate), but it might be tough to find a 280x for a good price in a few months.

[SteveGrabowski0]

Thank you! One more question, I hear the thermal paste on the CPUs from Intel kind of sucks. Should I add more paste when installing the stock cooler, or is the one that comes with it fine? I've also heard that to much thermal paste can be bad. 

 

The pre-applied thermal paste works great for me on my Xeon E3-1231v3 (pretty much an i7-4770) with the stock cooler.

[Swndlr]

Thank you! One more question, I hear the thermal paste on the CPUs from Intel kind of sucks. Should I add more paste when installing the stock cooler, or is the one that comes with it fine? I've also heard that to much thermal paste can be bad. 

You can get aftermarket paste if you want, the one Intel sells the CPU with is perfectly fine, they wouldnt sell you thermal paste that doesnt do a good job.

A tube of thermal paste isnt expensive, like $10, you shouldnt be putting too much on your chip. If you wanna know how much to put on, just look up a video on YouTube, there are tons of videos that show how to correctly do it. You should basically be applying a blob about the size of a pea.

[Nena Trinity]

Any i5 will work with 280X also the FX is weaker than the i5 in most games but the FX sometimes shines over the 3rd gen one but that is rare...