CPU Buying Advice Request

[desktopia]

Hey all. I'm taking forever to build my box. It's a replacement for my old iMac mid-2008 whose GPU died a few months ago. I used it for mainly Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom/CameraRaw and Excel (big sets, heavy duty, which is going to suck because Excel for Mac sucks anyway but oh well). I have an ASUS Z170-A ATX DDR4 board already. I'm looking for a CPU that doesn't break the bank and that will ensure maximum compatibility/ease of Hackintosh setup. Will I be happy with something as cheap as the Core i3 7100? Should I go i5? How cheap can I get while still having a satisfactory experience?

 

[samisnake]

all of them will be satisfactory, especially compared to your core2 imac.
the main factor is money and time. the more money you spend on your cpu going from 2 to 4c, or possibly 4c with hyperthreading, the less time tasks will take.

have you considered using a 2nd hand 6700 or similar. older tech so should be cheaper on ebay.

 

[Jamesbond007]

Hey all. I'm taking forever to build my box. It's a replacement for my old iMac mid-2008 whose GPU died a few months ago. I used it for mainly Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom/CameraRaw and Excel (big sets, heavy duty, which is going to suck because Excel for Mac sucks anyway but oh well). I have an ASUS Z170-A ATX DDR4 board already. I'm looking for a CPU that doesn't break the bank and that will ensure maximum compatibility/ease of Hackintosh setup. Will I be happy with something as cheap as the Core i3 7100? Should I go i5? How cheap can I get while still having a satisfactory experience?

Please take note that if you go for a new Kaby Lake CPU (Core i3 / i5 / i7 7xxx) your motherboard may require a BIOS upgrade before it can detect the new CPU, especially if you have not bothered to upgrade the BIOS after you got it.

I agree with samisnake above that you might want to consider a second hand Skylake CPU.

 

[desktopia]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I forgot that the Kaby Lake was the 7 series. I'm definitely sticking with Skylake. I'll see what eBay has to offer.

 

[trs96]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I forgot that the Kaby Lake was the 7 series. I'm definitely sticking with Skylake. I'll see what eBay has to offer.

Just a word of warning. The I7-6700s that you'll see very cheap on Ebay are generally ES or Engineering Samples. It's best to avoid these. It's really not even legal to sell them. Do some Googling about this to learn more.

 

[desktopia]

Thank you for the warning. Ended up with a 6500.