'4770k + Z87' v 'Ivy Bridge-E + X89' for mega gaming build

[dafadau]

'4770k + Z87' v 'Ivy Bridge-E + X79' for mega gaming build

Allo.

Come pay day I'll be ready to build a new (vanity) gaming system. Budget will be very hefty, and I'll be looking for the system to last a good few years - meaning top quality components.

However, like a few others I'm torn between going 4770k + Z87, or waiting for Ivy Bridge-E + X79.

I could likely afford the crazily priced 4960X if I wait the extra 6 weeks or so for IBE, but I'm not sure spending the money on that is the greatest idea, especially with an "old" chipset.

I'm a pretty hardcore gamer, and the pc does get used as a HTPC as well.

Would any of you knowledgeable people be able to give me some pros/cons of each?

e.g. going for 4770k means I can go for SLI Titans or 4690X means my systems will last 5 years.

Ta.

 

[dafadau]

hmmm hard choice, 4770k sli titan or 4690x.

It'd still be 4690x + single Titan.

 

[dafadau]

Think i'd go with a 3930k and sli 780's, far more sensible, will last for years.

Nope - this isn't a bang for buck build...

 

[dafadau]

i think we need an actual budget to build this too

I've got a decent idea of the rest of the build - I'm going to create a separate thread once I've decided on the CPU & chipset.

The budget is likely to be between 3 - 3.5k. The issue will be that waiting for IBE will be hard!

 

[dafadau]

I guess you are going for IB-E.

If I do, the waiting will be hell!

 

[dafadau]

Buy a secondhand 3820 now and build it, when IB-E launches sell the 3820 and upgrade.

not a bad idea...

 

[dafadau]

Benchmark preview of Intel X79 Ivybridge -E here, conclusion is,



http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/core-i7-4960x-ivy-bridge-e-benchmark,review-32735.html

That article isn't too reassuring...

 

[dafadau]

Will last longer. PCIe 4.0 won't instantly make new cards faster than PCIe 3.0 ones it will be a while after launch until cards run worse on old slots, I.E Titan only loses a couple of FPS at very high res when in a PCIe 2.0 slot. SATA express will have less of an impact than previous revisions, we still don't have a mechanical HDD that can saturate SATA-II and even when you run a SATA-III SSD on a SATA-II controller the real world impact is negligible (talking IOPS, not how many MB/s you can pull when moving .iso's around). Finally four channels of DDR3-2000 has as much bandwidth as two channels of DDR4-4000 so that will help the longevity of X79 (a Core2 Quad isn't that much slower clock for clock than a 1st gen i5, its the DDR2 and chip-set that's really showing its age in C2Q systems).

Good call. I'm still on the fence and thinking of waiting until IBE is released before building anything.