What CPU Should I Buy? - Intel Edition 2016
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,938 words · ~9 min read
0:00
Intel's desktop CPU lineup contains at
0:03
least, depending how you divide them up, six distinct segments with a total of
0:09
nearly three dozen processors ranging all the way from under 50 bucks to
0:14
around $1,700.
0:17
And while this is admittedly a huge improvement over the last generation
0:21
4000 series, which had twice as many in
0:24
the desktop range and over 250 total,
0:29
it's still super confusing. So, I fired
0:32
up ARC, Intel's handydandy product database, extracted the most pertinent
0:37
information, and put it in a spreadsheet that you can download below. That should
0:41
make choosing the right CPU much, much
0:44
easier. And give me a kickback if you buy using the included Amazon
0:57
links. Tunnel Bear is the simple VPN app
1:00
that makes it easy to browse privately and enjoy a more open internet. To try
1:05
Tunnel Bear for free, check out the link in the video description. TLDDR. If
1:10
you're building on the cheap, a Pentium G4400 dual core at around 60 bucks is
1:15
your best bet. Because if you were willing to spend $92 for the
1:20
G4520's marginal speed improvement, the Core i36100 is worth the extra 25 more
1:27
thanks to its higher clock speed and hyperthreading. From there, if you're a
1:32
heavier multitasker or a light content creator, the whole nont Core i5 lineup
1:39
makes a fair amount of sense with the Core i56500 coming in strongest in my mind
1:45
thanks to its 19% base clock advantage over the 6400 for only a 10% price
1:51
premium. If I was going to spring for an
1:55
i56600, personally, I'd pay the extra 20 or so for the K variant. It's got a
2:00
higher TDP, that means more power consumption. But with an extra
2:04
investment in a Z series motherboard, it supports overclocking, which can either
2:09
give you a bit of extra oomph near the end of your computer's usable lifespan
2:13
or improve resale value when the time comes to sell it and start from scratch.
2:19
This is basically as high as I'd go for
2:22
a pure gaming machine. For aspiring
2:25
content creators, let's say gamers who also stream or edit together their game
2:30
plays for later upload to YouTube, the Core i7
2:34
6700K takes everything that's good about the 6600 K and adds hyperthreading, more
2:40
cache, and the highest base and boost
2:44
clocks across Intel's entire current generation lineup. And you can find
2:48
links to all of these processors in the video description. Okay, so the TLDDR is
2:54
over, kids. Let's see how we got there. I'm going to start with the easy way.
2:59
Weed out products that have zero
3:02
customer reviews. A given skew can have
3:06
more reviews for a number of reasons. Sometimes it's because the people who
3:11
buy them have invested very heavily and feel compelled to shout from the
3:16
treetops, especially to each other, about how justified they were in doing
3:19
so. Though the psychology of consumer behavior is far beyond the scope of this
3:24
video, but the most common reason is that someone else out there has already
3:29
done the grunt work research to determine that, for example, the Core
3:34
i36100 at $117 makes more sense than the
3:40
i36300 at $138 with its barely higher
3:44
clock speed, extra 1 meg of cache,
3:47
and marginally faster onboard board graphics. There are exceptions to this,
3:53
but some solid indicators aside from
3:56
reviews are adequate stock and properly
4:01
filled out product information pages and
4:04
photos. Not to mention the availability of a box version directly from Intel.
4:10
Though for a specialty, let's say a super low power consumption build, you
4:16
might not be able to avoid nonbox, that is to say tray or OEM parts. The Core
4:23
i56400T from the T low power series is a
4:28
standout here as a 35W true quad core at 2.2 to 2.8 GHz for
4:35
170 bucks. Though we can see that the comparison here is somewhat unfair
4:40
because realworld pricing of similar chips like the
4:44
6500T is way off of Intel's suggested
4:47
price on ARC. This is pretty normal on
4:51
these niche SKs though and yet another reason to gravitate towards the higher
4:56
volume chips that every retailer in their dog is competing hard to sell so
5:01
that they not only sell the CPU but also all the other accessories that go with
5:05
it. In fact, for these high volume items, it's not uncommon to see them
5:10
going for even less than Intel's MSRP on
5:13
sale. Now, let's go deeper. You've probably noticed Xeon processors
5:18
sprinkled in with the core branded consumer ones. I included those in my
5:22
spreadsheet for the sake of completeness, but in a nutshell, Xeons
5:26
at the same specs in the same socket
5:29
perform identically to desktop chips and
5:33
differ from consumer CPUs primarily in
5:37
their ability to use ECC error correcting memory, which you can learn
5:41
more about here. Most 1000 series Xeons
5:44
can even actually run unofficially though in the same consumer LG1 1151
5:50
motherboards as everything else that I've talked about so far. So if you find
5:54
one you like, you can do that. Though, please note that ECC memory support
5:59
depends on the motherboard chipset, too. So, you'd lose some of the benefit that
6:04
you're usually paying extra for in that case. Moving up higher than the 6700 K
6:11
means we're getting into two different territories here. Both of which require
6:15
moving up to the big boy pants socket LGA
6:19
20113. Proumer and professional use where dramatically reducing project
6:24
times with more processing cores will improve productivity and therefore
6:29
profit. or because I can land where
6:33
often knowing what they're doing, enthusiast consumers will drop obscene
6:37
amounts of money knowing that they aren't getting a good value. Let's try
6:41
to cover both of them. All 2011 3 processors require a $50 to $100 more
6:47
expensive motherboard, but they support more PCI Express lanes and quad channel
6:53
versus dual channel memory. Though this is of dubious value to the typical gamer
6:58
with core branded products and 1000 series Xeon EPS limited to one CPU on a
7:05
motherboard, 2000 series Xeon EPS, bumping that up to two CPUs on a
7:10
motherboard, and EXClass Zeons capable of running four CPUs on a single
7:15
motherboard, though you'll pay a significant premium for that feature. In
7:20
the core range, the i76800 K stands out to me. It comes with
7:24
28 PCIe lanes, so two-way SLI, the
7:28
highest we recommend, is all good. You get 94% of the clock speed at 73% of the
7:35
price compared to the 6850K, which also boasts 40 PCIe lanes
7:40
if you're an expansion fiend. And like the rest of the HEDT or high-end desktop
7:46
Core i7s, it supports overclocking,
7:49
meaning that the clock and architectural disadvantage versus the 6700 K that
7:55
comes with being based on the slower updated server workstation platform are
8:01
a little more palatable given the reasonable $100 premium for 50% more
8:07
processing cores. It's got six of them. The rest of the 20113 Core i7s seem to
8:13
be priced more like high clock speed, high power consumption Xeon SKs. The
8:19
6850K and the 6t900 K hold their own
8:22
pretty well against the very similar
8:25
E51650 and E51660 if you want to trade ECC support
8:30
for overclocking. But as for the 10 core
8:34
6950X extreme edition, while it enjoys a
8:38
significant max turbo boost clock speed advantage over the entire Xeon range,
8:42
with a couple exceptions, including this weird quad core that I wouldn't
8:46
recommend over a lowerriced LG 1151 model, it doesn't make as much sense to
8:51
me as the similarly priced E52680 V4. I
8:56
mean, if you need 10 cores, wouldn't you also benefit from 14 and probably ECC?
9:02
Because that's the basic process for choosing a Xeon. In theory, clock speed
9:07
times the physical cores and total logical cores provided by hyperthreading
9:11
technology, which you can learn more about here, where applicable for
9:15
multi-threaded workloads like CPUbased video encoding or 3D modeling and
9:20
scientific number crunching, will give you total
9:23
performance sort of. And you'll need to weigh that then against your sensitivity
9:28
to high power consumption and high price. Though again, it isn't quite that
9:34
simple. The base clock is not necessarily representative of the speed
9:39
at which the chip will actually operate and neither is the boost for that
9:43
matter. This handy chart that I found
9:46
for current generation Xeon EP processors reveals that in heavy AVX
9:51
loads, the 14 core 2690 V4 costs 20%
9:56
more than a 14 core 2680 V4 and appears
10:01
to enjoy a 10% clock speed advantage. but in actuality only runs 7% faster
10:08
with up to six cores boosted and only three and a half% faster with all 14.
10:14
Furthermore, for workstation use, uh, virtualization, that technology that
10:19
allowed me to have 10 gamers running off of a single computer here, or bursty,
10:24
uh, singlethreaded application use, games love high performance cores. High
10:29
boost clocks can be as important as many
10:32
cores, if not more so, as our comparison
10:35
between the 6700 K quad core, which
10:38
costs 350 bucks, and the 6T50X10 core,
10:43
which costs 1,700 demonstrated with the
10:46
6700 K being a clearly superior gaming
10:49
chip due to its higher peak clock speed. I'll have that chart linked below as
10:55
well. Which leads us to two more things.
10:59
I haven't touched on some specialized features like trusted execution
11:03
technology. If you need that, your decision is pretty simple. Buy one of
11:07
the few SKs that supports it. And finally, it almost never makes sense to
11:12
buy a last generation CPU brand new.
11:15
Clearance deals do happen, but they're rare because Intel usually carefully
11:20
manages supply in their distribution channels. So, basically nothing is left
11:24
by the time the new ones start hitting shelves, usually at the same price for
11:28
something slightly better than the old one. Secondhand chips, on the other
11:31
hand, can be a steal. I'd take this aging six core for 200 bucks at the time
11:37
of writing and overclock the stuffing out of it over our current generation
11:40
quad for certain workloads. But watch out, CPUs, especially older ones,
11:46
generally outlast their motherboards by a considerable margin. So finding a
11:51
compatible board at all, let alone one at a reasonable price with a somewhat
11:56
up-to-date feature set, can make this approach less
12:00
feasible. So then, have you made it this
12:03
far and still feel lost? I'll have some references. I talked about some of them
12:07
linked in the video description, but worst case scenario, join the
12:10
linesttips.com forum and ask for help. Our community is awesome and someone
12:15
would be happy to help you find the right CPU for your new machine. So,
12:19
thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked or it was too long, you know what
12:23
to do. But if it was awesome, share it, get subscribed, hit that like button, or
12:28
check out the link to where to buy the stuff we talked about at Amazon in the
12:32
video description. Also linked in the description is our merch store, which
12:35
has cool shirts like this one, and our community forum, which I already mentioned, and you should totally join.
12:40
Now that you're done doing all that stuff, you're probably wondering what to watch next. So, click that little button
12:44
in the top right corner to check out our latest video over on Channel Super Fun.