Couple of Build Questions?

So I'm looking to build a PC for a gamer friend. I've built plenty of PC's before, but mostly smaller budget PC's for home use, not much in terms of pure gaming PC.

1. Would it be more beneficial to use an i7-6700K and 16 GB RAM or an i5-6600K and 32 GB RAM?

2. Am I going to have a noticeable jump in performance if I go with like DDR4-3200 RAM over DDR4-2133 RAM? I know "if you have the money make the jump", but is it worth the investment, in terms of "price to performance"?

3. If I have no intentions of overclocking the CPU, do I need liquid cooling? Is liquid cooling going to give me any kind of jump in performance or will a heatsink/fan do enough?

Thanks for any help, like I said this is my first true gaming build, so I just want to make sure I get things right.

Thanks for the advice Eric3742

Anyone else have an opinion on this?

You certainly don't need liquid cooling--even if you were overclocking. If you don't care about the noise level, just go with the stock cooler.

The i7 series does run a bit hotter than the i5s, so if you are the type who gets antsy about temperatures, maybe you'd want to get a mid-level air cooler. The Cryorig H5 and H7 are highly regarded and not very expensive. That would be quieter too.

If you aren't overclocking, there's no over-riding reason to get a K series processor--other than the stock clock speed and hyperthreading. I'm not sure how much hyperthreading on the i7 series helps in gaming.

Choosing strictly between 6700K/16 GB and 6600K/32 GB, I'd guess you'd see slightly superior gaming performance from the former due to the higher clock speed--although it might not be noticeable, depending on the game.

I can't recall anyone saying 32 GB of RAM is remotely a requirement for a gaming PC. Some would even tell you 16 is overkill. 8 GB is fine for the typical PC and most users unless there is a work load like a lot of video processing or VMs.

You can't utilize more than 16 GB on Windows 7 Home Premium regardless.

Regarding RAM speed, the last I checked, the best bang for the buck was around 2666. Yeah, you'll see a benchmark difference going faster than that, but you mention "worth the investment" and "price to performance". How much do you want to spend to get an extra FPS? One dollar? $30? $150? There's a point of diminishing returns and each person reacts to it differently. Ask your friend about this--we don't know about his budget.

Game settings and intended resolution make a lot of difference as does the game itself. We know nothing about your friend's preferences in those areas.

I'd be sure the PC had an SSD, gaming or not, unless the budget is very low--which it clearly is not since you are considering upper level Intel processors.

Hi,
16gb's of ram is plenty by most standards most power is in the gpu and where the best bucks for memory is needed and the GTX 1080's are nice but I'm sure the 1080ti's will be even nicer same as the 980ti's are which have 6gb's of memory.

Memory MHz is budget deal ddr4 2666 is fine :) as long as there are X.M.P profiles you can increase it.

Problem with gamers is OCing is going to happen
Liquid is knocks 10c + off temps easily at high temps possibly more
I don't believe I've ever seen higher than 40c.

1) No

2) No

3) No

But, as always, get the best you can afford.

1. 16GB for gaming is enough unless the person will be doing things that will make the CPU do even more complex tasks(for example, video editing). An i5 6600K is enough for gaming because the i7 6700K is way too overkill

2. There will be improvements but the chances of noticing it is near to impossible.

3. Liquid Cooling is for people who will be overclocking their CPU to max. OCing is fine even on HSFs

shadow2201 said:

1. Would it be more beneficial to use an i7-6700K and 16 GB RAM or an i5-6600K and 32 GB RAM?

The i7 will give you the most flexibility for future proofing as games become more complex. 16 GB of RAM is more than enough, unless you're running virtual machines or opening a crapload of large programs at once.

2. Am I going to have a noticeable jump in performance if I go with like DDR4-3200 RAM over DDR4-2133 RAM? I know "if you have the money make the jump", but is it worth the investment, in terms of "price to performance"?

You'll notice a difference in benchmarks, but real wold performance probably won't be noticeable If you're really worried about it, get DDR4-2400 or DDR4-2666.

3. If I have no intentions of overclocking the CPU, do I need liquid cooling? Is liquid cooling going to give me any kind of jump in performance or will a heatsink/fan do enough?

Liquid cooling will not give you any boost or jump in performance. It will keep your CPU cooler than a HSF, but there is no performance benefit. People use liquid cooling because it allows you to push your system harder in an overclock situation before you hit the temperature wall.