Upgrade thoughts R2.0!

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1

Since my previous topic answered all my question. I came up with some new idea´s

Like i allready said, im going to upgrade my Evil Red build to intel, but i have some new idea´s that i wanne to discuss on. i would like to bring X99 into the discussion. since im working with virtualization this could maybe be interessting for me. since the 2 extra cores and 4 extra threads.

Z97.

  • 4790K       €300
  • Asus maximus 7 Hero  €175,-

X99 platform.

  • 5820K €355
  • Msi X99 sli  €205
  • 2x4GB DDR4 €125

System will be used for all day ussage offcourse, virtualization, gaming, littlebit rendering. The reason why i wanne upgrade is because i have issues with my current AM3+ board, And i dont feel that its worth if for me, to invest €185 in a Asus crosshair V Formula Z which is allready 3 years old. since there will be nothing new out there for this am3+ platform. 

My base plan was to upgrade to Z97 with a 4790K. Because its basicly the cheapest significant upgrade for me, because i can re-use my current 16GB ram. However im also thinking about the 5820K with an eye on virtualization, and just the raw performance of the 5820k chip. The 5820k with DDR4 will offcourse be the new 4 year platform. DDR3 will be slowely abandoned.  But yeah the price diffrence between both upgrade ways is arround €255

I would like to discuss what you guys think about it? would 5820k be worth the extra €255,- extra investment in the long run or not?

I decided to not upgrade my gpu for now, but to wait till amd bring theire new 300 series to the table, just to see what they are up to. 

On the other hand, going with Z97 saving me €255 which is allmost a nice gpu upgrade.

Lets debate ☺

2

go with x99 if you wanted to upgrade NOW.  Simply for the fact that you won't have to worry about upgrading too often if you feel the need to to do so. I believe Socket 2011 Chips get released a year after the mainstream platform. Plus really it's an entry level 6 core. The most you are going to have in the system is 2 AMD GPU's (We all know that AMD is your preference lol) so you won't have to worry about lack of PCIe lanes in the slightest. Plus the per-core performance is just better.

But then again if I were you since you Prefer AMD I would just wait for AMD's Zen Architecture. You'd probably get the most with your money from there. AMD could drop a 12-Core or 16-Core who knows. Also by then DDR4 will replace DDR3 in about 2 years. and by then Ram will be cheaper. Which is an extra bonus for you as well. 

3

yes indeed the 5820k could maybe be interessting for me.

on the otherhand, i also have a spare case laying arround, and some hard drives and such, which i can basicly trow my amd setup back in. As a second rig.

The Thing is that the FX8350 is a great chip for virtualization.

I also thought about waiting till 2016 skylake or zen, but the problem is, i got the money to upgrading laying under my matras lol ☺

4

You could save a little bit more. Lol as much as I doubt it, AMD could drop zen and throw you under the bus and charge 800 dollars like they did with the 9590 (don't know the conversion in your currency) but only time will tell. But i'd wait a bit for Zen it looks more promising than X99 to be honest.

5

The performance in virtualization (linux based) of an FX8350, is comparable to that of the 5820, even though the 5820 is a faster chip. AMD has virtualization down, Intel is just starting with it.

Also, AMD is now moving towards binary-blobless drivers for ALL of their hardware. They had announced before that they were working on that for their GPU's, but they've announced yesterday that they will be doing that for everything, including the HSA functionality (which is only available in linux, so it makes sense that the kernel modules for it should be open source).

That means, that there will never again be driver problems, because the kernel modules are always the same, and open source, so available for anyone to adapt for specific applications. The Catalyst driver itself doesn't have to be open source any more at that point, as it can do no evil in userspace in linux, and the kernel modules being open source allows for SELinux to work at full force.

So if you would "upgrade" to Intel, you would actually "upgrade" to a system that isn't capable of full HSA...

Why don't you wait a bit and see what happens in the industry. I think you might be surprised in what's coming, and I really don't think X99 is a viable platform, and I really don't think it's opportune right now to buy into ANY of the existing x86 systems. For Intel, the golden rule is to never buy any of their CPU SKU's for which they have extended the pipeline. They did that for Haswell, Haswell-E is the same. It's not as high performance as you might think it is. I think you might be disappointed in the long run.

If I were you, I'd find a good enough and dirt cheap mobo to run your current system on (which is still more than capable enough for today's applications, and you can't really get better performance out of Intel in terms of virtualization anyways). I've seen Gigabyte or MSI boards for 40-60 EUR that can safely handle an FX8350 with a decent overclock in stores here in Germany. I wouldn't go for Asus because they're really unreliable in terms of features like IOMMU, especially on AMD, and Asus doesn't make any motherboards any more anyways, all of their motherboards come from the same manufacturer as the mobos from AsRock e.a..

6

yeah i know, thats why i have a spare case arround, and still will use the FX8350 as second rig.

Maybe the best thing for me is just upgrade to 4790K or maybe broadwell with Asus maximus 7 hero board. for my gaming etc etc. And just keep the FX for virtualization.

Instead of going with 5820k. im basicly still interessted in the 5820k 6 core 12 threads cpu, however for gaming they dont make any sense at all.

7

With X99, you could totally go with an Asrock board that has the 4x pcie m.2 slot and get an xp941 at some point (remember those benchmarks from a different thread? 1gbps iirc), or not, whatever works best for you. Personally, I think that something like the 5830k (I like excessive pcie lanes), and Extreme6, and then 2x8gb DDR4 (the quad channel doesn't really help at all in-game) would set you for a good long while. I think that it would be a worth while investment. I doubt that you would have to upgrade anytime soon what with that single core performance, and 12 threads.

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You already know ... I vote for the Hero ... I want one     :?)

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With X99, you could totally go with an Asrock board that has the 4x pcie m.2 slot and get an xp941 at some point (remember those benchmarks from a different thread? 1gbps iirc)

Transfer rates up to 32Gbps ... fastest SSD on the market

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yes for gaming quad or dual channel ram, does not make any sense. The whole X99 platform doesn realy make sense for gaming. But for some other tasks it could be.

offcourse i know all ins and outs, pro´s and con´s from both systems allready. But i would like to see everyone´s opinnion, before i gonne make my final decission. ☺

THe reason why the 5820k attracks me is, that its only €50 more then the 4790k. Offcourse X99 mobo´s and DDR4 ram is a bit more expensive, especialy if i take in mind, that i dont have to buy new ram, wenn i upgrade to Z97.

i allready have 2x8GB DDR3 ram ☺

I thought that the 5820k could maybe be interessting for virtualization, however Zoltan has a good point, it wont be much better then my current FX8350 for virtualization. So i could basicly still keep my FX8350 as second rig for that, that puts things in a little diffrent perspective, because for gaming, and a littlebit of rendering the 5820k is offcourse a bit overkill.

11

X99 is a bit senseless for gaming .

Save the money , and maybe get yourself a nice extra SSD , gpu or other .

12

yeah i will definitely grab a new gpu, maybe the new R9-380X or R9-390X or maybe the GTX970, its a bit depending what the new amd cards are upto.

The reason why i wannt upgrade to intel, is also because if i buy a new highend gpu, i also wanne get the max performance out of it. i want my system to be ready for that. ☺

13

You might just want to go 7870 Crossfire with X99

14

No .

7870 crossfire is useless , same perf as a R9 290 , and takes 2 slots , 1/2 the Vram .

Single card . Only do dual cards for very big budgets , where there is no single card equivalent .

15

Its basicly not a bad idea, but 7870´s cf will still mean vram limitation. 7870 is realy starting to get retared now days. It has a hard time to play new todays games realy well.

But as far as the gpu side goes, i gonne wait till the new R9-300 series are there, and just see that they are upto. then i can allways decide which route i go with a gpu. GTX970 is currently interessting, however, in the Netherlands they are upto €400,- and the Sapphire 290 VaporX is €325,- with free games, so yeah, that also an option still.

I saw the GTX970 benchmarks allot, and it realy seem to perform verywell, on 1080p. however if i ever plan to go higher res or multiple monitors, im still doubting about its smaller bus interface and such.

About the plannend switch to intel. im still not completely sure yet. which route to go. End of this month, i well get a littlebit more money, and in December aswell, so yeah.

Still not sure which route to choose.

16

I'd personally go with Z97 because the only benefit with x99 is that warm happy feeling you get inside knowing that you have such fancy hardware even though it'll more likely most of the time never be used to it;s full potential or anymore than z97. I'd also personally spend more money on a 980Ti or 395x2 (or equivalents) and crossfire/SLI them or watercool them :)

17

I have to agree here.  I built on the X58 platform when the first i7s were coming out.  I spent a lot of money to get the latest and greatest hardware.  If you are willing to pay the premium go for it.  Just be aware that this is all new tech and prices are high.  

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All the 395x2 are water cooled already   ;... but you knew that  XD

19

z97 or good h97 board + xeon (1231v3 or 1271v3) = heaps of leftover cash for a nice gpu. ~ 970's are pretty hard to beat price/performance/power consumption wise.

Unless you could truly justify going to x99 for heavy workstation use then its kinda a waste imho. 

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i agree about the X99 is a waste for gaming, i thought that it could maybe be interessting for virtualization, however Zoltan has a good point, it wont be much better then my current FX8350 wen it comes to virtualization.

Z97 is basicly totaly fine for my needs, The only thing is that i want a system that lasts me a couple of years. The FX8350 lasts me allmost 2 years and still works great realy, But i dont want to invest in a new 3 year old mobo anymore. The only thing thats a bit bothering me right now, is the abandoning of DDR3 in 2016 allready.

About GPU´s i agree that the GTX970 is a good value for money, in terms of performance and powerconsumption, however, powerconsumption is not realy something i care about too much. the Gigabyte GTX970 G1 gaming, cost arround €400,- but the Sapphire triX is only €310, and the VaporX is €325,-. So yeah thats still an significant price diffrence. for only a few FPS more.

i dont know if €75,- price diffrence is worth it for a GTX970 over a Sapphire 290 VaporX. Because it seems that the 970 not realy blowing it out of the water. only a few fps diffrence.