with the 7700k right around the corner, is $299 a good deal on a 6700k (plus $30 off on a compatible mobo)?
Kaby should be the smallest performance improvement yet, it's basically a refresh of Skylake. That's a good deal for a 6700K+motherboard, so you might as well bite.
its been awhile since i built my pc and thinking of upgrading. a few questions:
- is watercooling worth it?
- whats the difference between pcie and sata ssd drives?
- any good guides i can read?
AIO water cooling or custom loops? The best AIO coolers outperform the best air coolers but cost more and are noisier. Arctic's seem like a good balance of noise, performance, and cost, but when I tried one it was DOA. Pump wouldn't run.
Custom loops improve performance and should reduce noise over AIO ones, but it's even more expensive and requires upkeep.
So I guess it depends on your budget, dedication, and priorities. I don't think that many people need anything beyond a decent aftermarket cooler like a $30 Cryorig H7, that will do well for basic multiplier-based overclocking with minimal further tweaking. Beyond that the benefits evaporate pretty quickly. I have a NH-D14, and I'd say it's way overkill for my usage (settled on 4.5GHz core + cache as a daily OC on my 6600K).
PCIe and M.2 drives are faster than SATA ones, but it's not a huge improvement. For gaming and general usage you are fine withe either.