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Any Intel fans that have switched back to AMD?

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Again, I don’t think you understood what I actually said, ES and QS chips are available *before* retail parts, with a little knowledge, you can in some cases buy retail stepping chips for significantly less than retail price.
Sure but in very limited quantities so hardly equivalent as a comparison against new retail parts.
Also your choice of compatible motherboards is often much more limited with these chips
Most I've seen don't use the same stepping as the retail parts and the ones that do tend to be priced higher.
 
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When I built my PC last fall I strongly considered going the AMD route seeing that coming from a 2600k, anything would be an upgrade. However for gaming and VR where single thread performance and clock speed are still king, the gap was just too much so went with 9900k. Had The new Zen series been around the corner, I would have waited but waiting 10+ months wasn’t an option. Alol said and done, 0 regrets going Intel but still cheering for AMD to be very successful with the new chips.

I’m more rooting for them to do the same on the GPU space.
 
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Sure but in very limited quantities so hardly equivalent as a comparison against new retail parts.
Also your choice of compatible motherboards is often much more limited with these chips
Most I've seen don't use the same stepping as the retail parts and the ones that do tend to be priced higher.

Presumably when you googled what I said and finally realised you were wrong, you read far enough to question the board choice, if you’d read a little more, you might have discovered that other than pre-built OEM hardware (eg Dell/HP/Intel) which would obviously come with a CPU anyway and aren’t really the kind of systems anyone here would build, ASRock/ASUS/Gigabyte/MSI all produce boards that are known to work with ES/QS chips on X99, yes you do need to check specific models as not all boards have the microcode for all CPU’s, but you generally pay a fraction of the price, the general rule is the later the stepping, the higher the price, but you always pay a fraction of retail.
 
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Never owned an AMD CPU... Got my first PC in 2007 and my chip history is: E6300 -> E8400 -> i5 750 -> i5 3570K. The 3570K is showing its age and I'm wanting to upgrade this year - to a Ryzen 3000 me thinks!
 
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Presumably when you googled what I said and finally realised you were wrong, you read far enough to question the board choice, if you’d read a little more, you might have discovered that other than pre-built OEM hardware (eg Dell/HP/Intel) which would obviously come with a CPU anyway and aren’t really the kind of systems anyone here would build, ASRock/ASUS/Gigabyte/MSI all produce boards that are known to work with ES/QS chips on X99, yes you do need to check specific models as not all boards have the microcode for all CPU’s, but you generally pay a fraction of the price, the general rule is the later the stepping, the higher the price, but you always pay a fraction of retail.
I've bought 2 or 3 ES CPUs from eBay in the past and eBay have been known to pull sales of Intel ES although that is fairly random as is often the case with eBay. :)
I think we are generally in agreement and I was mainly adding a note of caution for those new to the wonderful world of ES.
I did install an ES in a Dell system one time and it worked but that may be a rarity for OEM systems; not something I've investigated.
Do you think the golden era of the ES has ended since Intel stopped support for Xeons on HEDT?
I'm out of the loop so not sure what ES chips are sold these days and for what platforms.
HEDT seemed ideal as it was aimed at desktop users whereas the motherboards for the current Xeon platform may be more expensive and more variable in suitability for home use.
 
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I'm still on my trusty 2500k, but I'm really really excited by Ryzen 3000. I hope this is it. I almost went with the ole Phenom 955 back in the day, the 2500k was the correct choice in the end!
 
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I've bought 2 or 3 ES CPUs from eBay in the past and eBay have been known to pull sales of Intel ES although that is fairly random as is often the case with eBay. :)
I think we are generally in agreement and I was mainly adding a note of caution for those new to the wonderful world of ES.
I did install an ES in a Dell system one time and it worked but that may be a rarity for OEM systems; not something I've investigated.
Do you think the golden era of the ES has ended since Intel stopped support for Xeons on HEDT?
I'm out of the loop so not sure what ES chips are sold these days and for what platforms.
HEDT seemed ideal as it was aimed at desktop users whereas the motherboards for the current Xeon platform may be more expensive and more variable in suitability for home use.

X299 was the new ES game, realistically between Ryzen and TR x299 makes little sense now for a lot of the user base, Zen2 will just push the point even further. Don’t get me wrong, in some circumstances, i’d still buy intel, but those circumstances are rapidly becoming more and more limited.
 
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X299 was the new ES game, realistically between Ryzen and TR x299 makes little sense now for a lot of the user base, Zen2 will just push the point even further. Don’t get me wrong, in some circumstances, i’d still buy intel, but those circumstances are rapidly becoming more and more limited.
What are you running these days?
Another value option is buying a Dell refurbished server when the Dell Outlet have a 30% off code or so.
More work as you'd need to sell the excess RAM etc and more useful for very high core counts and even dual socket, but if your workloads scale that well they can be a steal.
 
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What are you running these days?
Another value option is buying a Dell refurbished server when the Dell Outlet have a 30% off code or so.
More work as you'd need to sell the excess RAM etc and more useful for very high core counts and even dual socket, but if your workloads scale that well they can be a steal.

I just dismantled my 2630v3 (ES) rig and began selling it off. That leaves a single 6800K/32GB/NVMe ESXi box and a Ryzen 1700/32GB + a load of storage running Unraid. I had planned on pushing to a higher end E5 2667 or similar, possibly push to 2T or TR, but TBH Zen 2 core counts and IPC could make it a viable contender to consolidate everything in a single box for not a lot compared to running as many physical machines as I currently do.
 
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Not really sad as the 980Ti card is still a great GPU, even at 1440p. It would definitely benefit from more than a 4 core 4 thread Ivybridge i5 at 4.4Ghz. ;)

Definitely. Using a 980 Ti at 1440p I saw a huge uplift in frame rates for some games such as War Thunder and BF1 when I upgraded from a 4690K at 4.7GHz to my current 8700K, even before OC. The card is still a strong performer given it's age.

Sure but in very limited quantities so hardly equivalent as a comparison against new retail parts.

That was exactly my point.
 
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I am keeping an eye on what's happening, but I am not spending anything until my current CPU or mobo dies. Been rocking hard since 2011 and I know I'll need new CPU / mobo / memory at some point. Just, not yet :)
 
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Used to be AMD when it was affordable and good, such as Athlon days... even my 939 x2 system was awesome!

Unfortunately Intel took the lead, quite considerably, so I have been with them since C2D.

I would jump to AMD and try a 3000, but this 8700K is more than sufficient and by thew time I'll be looking for a new system, I'd imagine Intel will have bounced back.

Swings and roundabouts!
 
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I wouldn't exactly call myself an Intel fan but I went from my 2500K to a 7700K on launch date and in April I went for a Ryzen 7 2700 that cost £200. It easily O/C's to 4.1 on all cores rock solid with my bequiet Dark Pro cooler although TBH I've put it back to stock as I can't tell the difference in games between the 7700K/2700. In synthetic benchmarks yes but I don't play them. I also got a decent X470 mobo so I can upgrade to Zen 2 when prices fall and I feel like it. Happy chappy indeed.
 
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