X99 vs Z97... very close price wise

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Legend

Legend

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Putting together the two, I am only seeing about a £135 difference, based on the two builds below... that seems pretty good, so why WOULDN'T you go for X99 in this case to give you that bit more future proofing? I know you can spend an absolute fortune on X99, but do you need to? And looking at the below, would Z97 still be preferable?

Option #1: X99 - total cost = £632.93
MSI X99S SLI Plus
Intel 5820K 3.30GHz
TeamGroup Elite 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4

Option #2: Z97 - total cost = £497.93
Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle
Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB
 
Uses for the PC?

You could go for X99 for the e-peen, but Z97 would be preferable in most applications (gaming etc) :)

That is quite a small gap though!
 
Shivy011 said:
Uses for the PC?
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All rounder, so graphics, gaming, video etc.

The 2-for-1 offer on the Gigabyte boards makes it a bit more interesting, as that's money off a future build... but obviously you'd still need CPU and RAM if you went X99 (or another chipset) in the future. And if going X99 now gives you longer, then that might be preferable.
 
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Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere mostly.

I've been firmly in the Z97 camp up until I started to look at the pricing, and realised it's not that far off. Maybe I've chosen not so great X99 components above though? It's a solid Z97 build I know that.
 
£140 difference could mean the difference between a 970 and a 980, or make's a 970 half price.

Z97 would be my choice, unless you were doing more heavier design work.
 
ThaReaperGuy said:
£140 difference could mean the difference between a 970 and a 980, or make's a 970 half price.

Z97 would be my choice, unless you were doing more heavier design work.
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Very true, and that's not lost on me. I can't say I've seen any really strong arguments to go X99 yet, because I don't really think there are any unless you're at the far end of the spectrum for certain things. I guess I'm just looking ahead and if it will give me that much more future proofing to justify the extra cost?
 
In that case X99 is probably the way to go (Are you at 1080p?)

Going for a 980 > 970 at 1080p won't make a great deal of difference, both will destroy it, however on the design side the extra cores/threads will make a difference in speeds

However saying this I believe photo-editing is only single core which I think the 4790k will beat X99 at sooo...
 
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I'm at 1440p on a 27". Eyeing up the 21:9 Dell also (when it's released), so that will increase my width.
 
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Z97!

You just dont sound like you are doing enough to need X99 extra cores, the Z97 will be faster at everything else.
 
I think you may be right, for now, and I don't want to spend the extra unless I'm going to get the benefit... and by the time I do, something bigger and better will likely be within reach.
 
And also by the time you need something new, if that happens within 3 years you get the deal for that board upgrade.
 
The price difference is not that much and the cheapest X99 board has a lot more ports (USB/SATA) than most high end Z97 boards. The X99 will also sell for more when you upgrade later on and if you overclock the frequency difference will not be that much.
 
FredFlint said:
The price difference is not that much and the cheapest X99 board has a lot more ports (USB/SATA) than most high end Z97 boards. The X99 will also sell for more when you upgrade later on and if you overclock the frequency difference will not be that much.
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I don't think that is 100% true. Its all to do with supply and demand. I'd say the 4790k would be more in demand due to its cheaper platform (and DDR3 RAM)
I'd say you make about the same percentage back.

Yeah you can over clock but from the reviews I've seen the 4790k over clocks much better and clock.for clock it out performs the 5820k in games by around 5%. Considering it'd cheaper too...

It may not be relevant for this OP if he's doing Rendering/editing but going Z97 gives the option of having only 8gb of RAM which is enough for ganing. That's another chunk saved (for the average gamer).

The extra cores (haven't been proven too) don't add any extra performance to current games.
 
I'm trying to work out what to do between the platforms too, looking for a virtualisation rig and general stuff, would like to upgrade to a nice 27" monitor
 
Doomedspeed said:
I don't think that is 100% true. Its all to do with supply and demand. I'd say the 4790k would be more in demand due to its cheaper platform (and DDR3 RAM)
I'd say you make about the same percentage back.

Yeah you can over clock but from the reviews I've seen the 4790k over clocks much better and clock.for clock it out performs the 5820k in games by around 5%. Considering it'd cheaper too...

It may not be relevant for this OP if he's doing Rendering/editing but going Z97 gives the option of having only 8gb of RAM which is enough for ganing. That's another chunk saved (for the average gamer).

The extra cores (haven't been proven too) don't add any extra performance to current games.
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This.

As someone who does do a lot of rendering the availability of a 6-8 core processor is a wonderful prospect.

But for simple gaming and occasional editing....I don't see the benefit.
 
you know were I stand on this.

Im not going to talk about the hardware because its all been said. so il try a philosophical approach.

Would you consider yourself an enthusiast? Are you spontaneous?

it may sound silly but these type of character traits can lead you to an unpredicted place or previously unknown interest. knowing you have very capable hardware it may give you confidence to branch out into something new by tinkering with your setup or playing on a powerful graphic design program. I don't see the point in putting limits on capability just to save a few pounds because in a way your limiting yourself aswell.

I just lost my job because of a knee injury, its not going to stop me spending a little extra on sumthing I like messing around with. im doing a microatx build because iv never done one before and want to see how cool I can get it running without going full custom loop. If I need to change board so I can go triple sli in future for 4k gaming, so what! its been fun, isn't that why we all buy the hardware?

enjoy yourself poking around with new tech. you could be dead next week and the saved money or free motherboard upgrade will mean jack :)
 
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