# i5-10600 vs i5-10600K



## Jokii (Dec 4, 2020)

I'm putting together an Intel-based system with a Z490 motherboard and 3600MHz (CL16) memory.
It's intended mostly for general usage and some music making. Gaming is not a priority for now.
I don't plan on overclocking, because it seems these CPUs are already pretty hot/power hungry as it is and don't overclock much anyway.

With that said and with the CPUs running at stock, how would the 10600 and the 10600K compare? How much does the higher base clock matter? I couldn't find any proper tests.

Also, does this matter:
https://www.techpowerup.com/267757/...re-i5-in-circulation-only-one-comes-with-stim
So the K has soldered TIM and the non-K has thermal paste, which means lower temps for the K all things being equal, right?
But besides that, in terms of inter-core latency, performance, all-core clocks and stuff?


(I'm still considering the 10700 as well, although that's a significant increase in price. And let's keep AMD out of this, please. ).


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## sepheronx (Dec 4, 2020)

I think the 10600 should be sufficient.

10700F I think are at a good price too.


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## Kissamies (Dec 4, 2020)

10600K has a better resell value. And who knows if you want to try OC'ing it some day.


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## Tatty_One (Dec 4, 2020)

Either would be good, although if you are going to buy a Z490 and not one of the lesser chipsets because you want the faster memory support then I would probably go for the 10600K, it is likely a better investment plus you will gain flexibility for the future (if you decide to give overclocking a go) and have a little more Mhz on top.

A decent air cooler would give you some overclocking headroom but if you want to go any higher than 4.9gig or adopt an all core turbo boost you are likely to need something beefier.


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## Kissamies (Dec 4, 2020)

Tatty_One said:


> A decent air cooler would give you some overclocking headroom


And at least with a Finnish price point, 50EUR is more than enough to get a good air cooler


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## sepheronx (Dec 4, 2020)

Heck, I used a snowman cooler I got for $30 cad over from AliExpress (dual fan one) that cooled my 10500es no problem. Solid cooler for its price.


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## RandallFlagg (Dec 4, 2020)

What's the price difference?  If it is what I have seen here in the states they're so close in price that it's basically a wash other than needing an air cooler for the 10600K.  

And if you do not power unlock the 10600, then there is a big difference in performance.  It can be north of 10%.  

If you do power unlock the 10600 though, then you'll need a better cooler than the stock one that comes with the 10600.  That makes price a wash.

So I would get the 10600K + a fairly cheap 125-150W air cooler if money is an issue.  I think that is the best bang for the buck.


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## Devon68 (Dec 4, 2020)

If you are willing to go for a Z490 board, make that one more step and get the 10600-K cpu.
If you said you are thinking between the H470 and Z490 then I would have changed my answer, but since you went straight to z490 go straight for the K variant.


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## newtekie1 (Dec 4, 2020)

Jokii said:


> So the K has soldered TIM and the non-K has thermal paste, which means lower temps for the K all things being equal, right?



Yes, it means the K will have lower temps.



Jokii said:


> But besides that, in terms of inter-core latency, performance, all-core clocks and stuff?



Most things will be the  same.  Obviously the K has a much higher core clock, but unless your cooling sucks under load the CPUs will be running under turbo clocks so base clock doesn't really matter.  However, the K also has a 100MHz higher all-core turbo clock speed. Not a big difference, but worth noting.  Also, the 10600 is only a 65w CPU while the 10600K is 125w.  This does actually make a performance difference.  The under constant load, the 10600 is going to throttle due to power long before the 10600K.  In fact, the 10600K will likely maintain its all core-turbo constantly while the 10600 will likely throttle to keep the power consumption under 65w.  With the Z490 board, you can manually adjust the power limits.  But I'll honestly say I don't know if you can do that with the non-K CPU, I've only ever had a K CPU in a Z series board.

IMO, since you are getting a Z490 board, I say get the K processor.


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## thebluebumblebee (Dec 4, 2020)

newtekie1 said:


> With the Z490 board, you can manually adjust the power limits. But I'll honestly say I don't know if you can do that with the non-K CPU,


I thought this is what the OP was trying to do with a "Z" motherboard and an non-K CPU:








						Intel Core i7-10700 Review - Way to Overclock without the K
					

In our Intel Core i7-10700 review, we're taking a look at one of Intel's most affordable 8-core/16-thread processors. Its low TDP of 65 W makes it power-efficient, but also limits performance. We unlocked that limit and gained up to 30% real-life performance without ever risking an unstable system.




					www.techpowerup.com
				






sepheronx said:


> 10700F I think are at a good price too.


Keep the IGP if only for troubleshooting.


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## Kissamies (Dec 4, 2020)

thebluebumblebee said:


> Keep the IGP if only for troubleshooting.


Or grab a cheap emergency card with few bucks/euros/etc, I have many boxes full of GPUs and haven't paid lot of those.


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## sepheronx (Dec 5, 2020)

Yeah, igpu doesn't mean much for me these days. A used GPU that is basic of windows 10 support is still easy and cheap to get.  I guess it's good if you are limited in budget. But if one can afford a 10700, z490 and 3600 ram, I think they can spend about $40 on a used 7950 to use as a test GPU.


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## Jokii (Dec 5, 2020)

Thanks all!

Regarding the iGPU: is there really no use for it if you have discrete card, for something like Quick Sync maybe?


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## Khonjel (Dec 5, 2020)

Jokii said:


> Thanks all!
> 
> Regarding the iGPU: is there really no use for it if you have discrete card, for something like Quick Sync maybe?


Quicksync (Intel) and NVENC (Nvidia) you use in an emergency or if you just want to stream. Not if you want to compress file size or want quality.


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