Kaby or Ryzen b4 the build?

[pavel]

I'm a bit confused and unsure about the choices. So, I was hoping to get some opinions.

I hope to build a system before the year is out. Ideally, this would be by the end of summer. I can wait to see what is going on. I've read through a few threads in the Intel and AMD sections and various other sections/build posts.

I still find Ryzen to be a bit expensive for a budget build. Also, Ryzen processors are compared to Broadwell (not Kaby Lake). But, Ryzen is still said to be the 'best deal.' I thought extra cores/threads would be ideal/good for what I do but then I read that you have to figure out if the software can make use of the extra cores? Did I express that, accurately/correctly?

So, here's some questions (rapid fire):
a) My plan was to get a decent mobo, ssd and get a budget cpu - and upgrade the cpu later.... so, for e.g. Ryzen - R5 1300/1400 & Kaby Lake - G4600 - good idea?
b) I noticed that the B350 motherboards don't have the 'best' features - it's almost like you have to pay $200 for a mobo to get them.... should I care? For e.g., to get ALC1220 chipset for audio and Intel LAN, you need X370 motherboards? Has anyone compared the sound quality for these chipsets or LAN (Intel vs Realtek)? Finding out the answers might help me decide whether I can go with the cheaper B350 boards
c) should I go with Ryzen or Intel/Kaby Lake - Ryzen seems to offer the best price/performance even with the more expensive chips/chipsets. But, there are a number of kinks to iron out still? Those should be settled eventually? I will dual boot Windows 10 and Ubuntu/Linux.... none of this tilts it towards either?
I think power/temps stats are more important than pushing the cpu to its limits... I figure either will OC but I plan on upgrading anyway when I have the $$ and an i7-7700 or R7 1700 (I think it would be between those two then) will do plenty...maybe even overkill but I don't mind if the Intel chip is faster or easier to OC.

I still Kaby Lake is good and the difference in price is not that different for those chips, right? So, I need encouragement or persuasion/reasons for why to choose Ryzen, still? What are they?

I had more questions but I guess I forgot them (for now).
Edit: I remembered one.... I am unsure about the form factor.... I like SFF but apparently, AMD/AM4 doesn't have much to offer for mATX or ITX yet.... maybe I should just go with ATX anyway since there's more choice/ prices are lower in comparison..... ???

Edit #2: Oh yeah, I thought I should probably mention... I'm coming from LGA 775, P45 mobo and Q6600 cpu.

 

[Bandalo]

a) I'd never plan on buying a low-end CPU and upgrading later. It's usually better to wait a bit longer, save up the cash, and get the "good stuff" right out of the gate.

b) Onboard audio varies widely from motherboard-to-motherboard, regardless of which DAC or chipset is being used. It's all in the grounding and power isolation, and the specific EM environment of your case and PSU. Intel NICs are almost always better than RealTek, but "better" is a relative term. For 95% of home use, you're not going to notice a difference. If you're doing firewall/router applications, building a server, or using bare-metal VMs, then I'd go all Intel every time.

c) If I had to buy today, I'd go with Intel. AMD is moving in the right direction, but I want to see how Ryzen does for a few more months, and what they have on tap for a follow-on before I'd buy in.

Intel still wins the OC battle, most of the Ryzen chips seem to have little to no headroom right now.