Opinions welcome! - 4 or 6 cores? Mainboard?

[Alchibiades]

Hey there!

 

I'm going for a new office rig, that has to handle lots of browser-workload (different browser with a significant number of tabs handling different complex websites) and a bunch of office applications with as little delays as possible: Sounds a bit odd - who doesn't want that? But since I need to switch between applications a lot, I noticed the times are adding up over time significantly. At work, that's expensive time.

 

So, there are a few things I don't feel the need to discuss:

 - SSD 500 GB

 - HDD 2TB

 - 16 GB RAM

 - GTX 1050 (pricy and found a model offering 4 video outputs, which is important)

 - sweet case with a decent airflow

 - power supply

 

However, when it comes to the CPU, I'm a bit confused about the i7 (yes, Intel pls) and mainboard variations that are out there. To make it simple: Can you give me a recommendation for both?

 

The main questions I'm struggling with: 4 or 6 cores? And is overclocking necessary? Regarding the variety of applications and no "peak load" like in gaming or video encoding, I would say: 6 cores and overclocking doesn't rly matter. But let's say: Why not? Would it make a difference in terms of the price when it comes to a mainboard, that needs to support that? Browsing the store of my trust, I'd go for a i7 8700K 6x 3.70GHz or i7 7700K 4x 4.20GHz.

 

Thanks!

[Zeorth]

2 minutes ago, Alchibiades said:

Hey there!

 

I'm going for a new office rig, that has to handle lots of browser-workload (different browser with a significant number of tabs handling different complex websites) and a bunch of office applications with as little delays as possible: Sounds a bit odd - who doesn't want that? But since I need to switch between applications a lot, I noticed the times are adding up over time significantly. At work, that's expensive time.

 

So, there are a few things I don't feel the need to discuss:

 - SSD 500 GB

 - HDD 2TB

 - 16 GB RAM

 - GTX 1050 (pricy and found a model offering 4 video outputs, which is important)

 - sweet case with a decent airflow

 - power supply

 

However, when it comes to the CPU, I'm a bit confused about the i7 (yes, Intel pls) and mainboard variations that are out there. To make it simple: Can you give me a recommendation for both?

 

The main questions I'm struggling with: 4 or 6 cores? And is overclocking necessary? Regarding the variety of applications and no "peak load" like in gaming or video encoding, I would say: 6 cores and overclocking doesn't rly matter. But let's say: Why not? Would it make a difference in terms of the price when it comes to a mainboard, that needs to support that? Browsing the store of my trust, I'd go for a i7 8700K 6x 3.70GHz or i7 7700K 4x 4.20GHz.

 

Thanks!

If you have a GTX 1050 those cpus are very unnecessary. I would go with like a i3 8100 or a lower end Ryzen. 

[AskTJ]

The 1050 is going to bottleneck the 8700K. Get an i3 8100 or i5 8400 for more cores.

[Sauron]

22 minutes ago, OreoPandas said:

If you have a GTX 1050 those cpus are very unnecessary. I would go with like a i3 8100 or a lower end Ryzen. 

 

14 minutes ago, AskTJ said:

The 1050 is going to bottleneck the 8700K. Get an i3 8100 or i5 8400 for more cores.

He said it's not for gaming...

26 minutes ago, Alchibiades said:

The main questions I'm struggling with: 4 or 6 cores? And is overclocking necessary? Regarding the variety of applications and no "peak load" like in gaming or video encoding, I would say: 6 cores and overclocking doesn't rly matter. But let's say: Why not? Would it make a difference in terms of the price when it comes to a mainboard, that needs to support that? Browsing the store of my trust, I'd go for a i7 8700K 6x 3.70GHz or i7 7700K 4x 4.20GHz.

From what you said it seems to me you'd benefit first and foremost from a really fast ssd. The cpu isn't that important if you won't be doing any encoding or rendering and the majority of modern cpus will handle plenty of browser tabs without issue. I'd say get the cheapest quad core cpu you can get that supports nvme m.2 ssds.

[dizmo]

I agree with @Sauron, just grab an affordable NVME drive and you're good to go. It's office work, you don't really need something super powerful, definitely not an i7.

The SX6000 is usually quite affordable.

38 minutes ago, OreoPandas said:

If you have a GTX 1050 those cpus are very unnecessary. I would go with like a i3 8100 or a lower end Ryzen. 

See below.

30 minutes ago, AskTJ said:

The 1050 is going to bottleneck the 8700K. Get an i3 8100 or i5 8400 for more cores.

It doesn't bottleneck in his use case.

[Alchibiades]

Thanks for your replies, @Sauron and @dizmo. Didn't thought about a an NVME yet. I will do some research.  In terms of the i7, from my personal experience and my requirements, I do not wanna miss it. If it's in budget at the end, I'll go for it.

 

Regarding the prices I've seen an NVME could be an option. Mainboard needs to support it - fine. Is there anything else that's important?

[Sauron]

3 minutes ago, Alchibiades said:

Regarding the prices I've seen an NVME could be an option. Mainboard needs to support it - fine. Is there anything else that's important?

Not really, just be aware that anything you put on the HDD will be slower.

[Alchibiades]

2 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Not really, just be aware that anything you put on the HDD will be slower.

Sure, just looking for something for the OS and the applications I'm using. HDD will be used only as storage for data I do not need daily.

 

Any suggestions for a mainboard? - My main concern is the pricing with one or more proper PCIes, possible overclocking option and 4 RAM slots. (In the ideal world.)

[Sauron]

2 minutes ago, Alchibiades said:

Sure, just looking for something for the OS and the applications I'm using. HDD will be used only as storage for data I do not need daily.

 

Any suggestions for a mainboard? - My main concern is the pricing with one or more proper PCIes, possible overclocking option and 4 RAM slots. (In the ideal world.)

Any H370 motherboard will do, personally I like Asus boards because in my experience they come with the best BIOS but AsRock, Gigabyte and MSI make good boards too.

[Alex Atkin UK]

1 hour ago, Alchibiades said:

Thanks for your replies, @Sauron and @dizmo. Didn't thought about a an NVME yet. I will do some research.  In terms of the i7, from my personal experience and my requirements, I do not wanna miss it. If it's in budget at the end, I'll go for it.

 

Regarding the prices I've seen an NVME could be an option. Mainboard needs to support it - fine. Is there anything else that's important?

An NVME REALLY shines if you start running low of RAM and Windows starts swapping things out to virtual memory, something which is easy to happen with a lot of tabs.

 

Just make sure it IS an NVME, there are a LOT of M.2 drives that are merely SATA so no better than a 2.5" SATA SSD.

[Sernefarian]

A short and incomplete list of NVMe SSDs around your capacity desire.

 

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/GQL48d/adata-xpg-sx8200-480gb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-asx8200np-480gt-c

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/rJm323/western-digital-black-nvme-500gb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-wds500g2x0c

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/P4ZFf7/samsung-970-evo-500gb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-mz-v7e500bw

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226885&cm_re=mushkin_pilot-_-20-226-885-_-Product

http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/SpeedTest/206552/BPX

[brob]

Overclocking will not make a sufficient difference to justify the cost.

 

I'd suggest more memory (32GB) before an NVMe ssd. Although both would be good.

 

A six core i5-8500 or i5-8600 would likely do a very good job. If budget is not so much of an issue, I'd suggest an i7-8700.

 

I wonder about the hdd. It is potentially a serious bottleneck. How will it be used?

[Alchibiades]

19 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

An NVME REALLY shines if you start running low of RAM and Windows starts swapping things out to virtual memory, something which is easy to happen with a lot of tabs.

Right, that's an important notice - especially when RAM is quite expensive and if I run out of RAM at all, seems to be a good way of covering the peaks.

 

18 hours ago, Sernefarian said:

A short and incomplete list of NVMe SSDs around your capacity desire.

Thanks for the list! I made good experiences with Samsung in the past, even though there a cheaper products. Reliability is important.

 

16 hours ago, brob said:

Overclocking will not make a sufficient difference to justify the cost.

 

I wonder about the hdd. It is potentially a serious bottleneck. How will it be used?

Possible, that I will have to handle heavier load later on. If it's in-budget at the end, fine. If not - also fine.  The HDD is just meant for storage purposes, where I can move old data. And to be honest - that's the first thing I'd cut for budget reasons. Just in case I got some smaller old ones, that would also do the job.

 

Mainboard:

This is what I found so far that looks suitable: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813119037 (ASUS TUF Z370 Plus Gaming LGA 1151)

What do you guys think? Any options?

[Sernefarian]

TUF Boards aren't the best at their price point as far as VRMs for the CPU, but the VRMs that cover the RAM are quite solid.

 

This one is close to the same price and has a little sturdier VRM for the CPU. If you do OC The MSI board should be more stable than the TUF for CPU Overclocks. TUFs 3 Phase VSOC might win for ram OCs over the MSI Boards doubled 2 phase VSOC, though the MSI doubled(interleaved?) 3 Phase should be sturdier and a bit more stable for CPU OCs.

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144111

Edited July 22, 2018 by Sernefarian
Redundancy stays because lazy rewriter.

[Alchibiades]

@Sernefarian Thanks, that's the kind of feedback I need. I'll check it out!

[Ethameshep]

Boost clock will make more of a noticeable difference than more cores or overclocking.  Hyper-threading is always nice to have, but it really only benefits in large, sustained workloads.  Also, yes, to overclock an unlocked CPU requires a more expensive motherboard with a Z-series chipset.

 

I would suggest either the i5-7600 or i7-7700 with an H270 motherboard of your choice.  They have the same boost clock speed, the main difference being the i7 has hyper-threading.

[Alex Atkin UK]

I'm not so sure, the thing with lots of tabs is I believe each Window (at least in Firefox) is locked to a single CPU core.  So while yes having a high boost clock helps there, if you have say six cores then you can have 50% more Windows open (with a bunch of tabs per window) than a four core, as the load will be spread across the cores then.

 

Its a tricky work load to figure out as we have no idea what those tabs are doing.

 

If my machine wasn't with gaming in mind I might have picked a Ryzen with more cores over the 8600k I have, as I think it would scale much better for the rest of my workloads.