Which CPU would you buy?

[mhonor]

For gaming:

 

i7-4790    -  $250.00

i5-6600K  -  $220.00

Xeon E3-1231 v3  -  $210.00

i5-4690K  -  $200.00

i5-4590    -  $160.00

 

(Microcenter prices, all within my budget, just want best bang for buck)

[byalexandr]

Xeon all the way bby

 

But most other will suggest the 4790 or 6600K.

[desertcomputer]

Xeon E3-1231 v3  plus you can do some video editing on it..

[PlayStation 2]

Personally, the Xeon. That's a good fucking deal for a CPU that's normally $250. Unless you need the iGPU of a 4790, get the Xeon.

[Hydrogen1803]

Xeon is a great choice, but I also recommend the 4790k for both as well. The i5's are better for just light gaming and work.

[Guest]

I have taken an interest myself in Xeons because of the support for ECC memory and they seem to be great workstation cpus, I would choose the Xeon

[VagabondWraith]

If buying new, I would go 6600K since its the newer platform and all.

[i_build_nanosuits]

the Xeon

[mhonor]

added i5-4590 because of the cheap price. 

[i_build_nanosuits]

2 minutes ago, mhonor said:

added i5-4590 because of the cheap price. 

still the Xeon.

[Biggerboot]

Yeah, that Xeon is a steal.  The i5 4590 wouldn't be bad either if you want the minimum you need for a high end GPU.

[WarWeeny]

Well, seeing you want to have future performance, you might as well go for any skylake CPU, since it supports DDR4.

TBH though, you cannot go wrong with any of the CPU listed.

[mhonor]

Thanks everyone! 

 

Just realized that the i5-6600K is $20 cheaper when bundled with a motherboard, so I'll have some decision making to do but this is really helpful. I should probably just stop nickle-and-diming every aspect of my build and go with the best choice, right?

[Morgan Everett]

6600K, as a good balance between performance and price. Obviously, this is assuming you overclock it. 

[mhonor]

I've decided to go with either the 6600K or the Xeon. I hope you can weigh in on this:

 

I'm not a frequent upgrader, so what I am most concerned with is picking a CPU which will serve me well for years. A lot of people have recommended Skylake for an upgrade path, but I'm not sure that really applies to me because the next time I get around to an upgrade could be 5+ years from now (GPU is an exception, obviously).

 

So the Xeon and Skylake are kind of on even ground for me. With that in mind, which do you think will have the longest value performance-wise?

• 6600K has the advantage of overclocking. 
• I've heard that in the not-so-distant future more games and programs will utilize hyperthreading, so would it be better to have the additional threads of the Xeon instead of higher clock speeds on the 6600K?

 

[Agent_Niraj]

XEON E3!

[diapersarefullofshit]

I would go Xeon if I need more cores for streaming or editing videos, else I would go a more standard K processor that fits your mobo.