i7 980 Upgrade

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For the last 5 years I've been running an i7 980 (non x) currently running at 4.1 Ghz with 24GB of DDR3 1600Mhz ram.

I'm thinking of upgrading to a 5960x or 6900k but was wondering if the performance gain is worth it? I do a bit of everything with this PC (Gaming, VMs etc).

Also considering waiting a bit as zen isn't to far off to spice things up a bit.

Really on the fence at the moment so any opinions please?

 

[Caracus2k]

an eight core CPU on X99 will be an upgrade but as per normal your mileage will vary greatly depending on what your doing.... the extra two cores and IPC improvements will benefit you mostly with VM's rendering etc but less so with gaming. Either way you have access to far more modern IO with an X99 board and have easy access to newer storage tech like NVME m.2 drives.

If your overclocking go for the 5960X over the 6900K (I'm assuming you will OC given your current setup?)

- Haswell-E clocks better that Broadwell-E on average with less power used and less heat generated which more than makes up the ground on any IPC increase with Broadwell-E

- Haswell-E CPU's also tend to be cheaper

 

[reef]

I just went from a Xeon 5650 @ 4.4GHz (similar to your 980x) to an i7 5960x at 4.6GHz and in what I mainly use the machine for (encoding) its exactly double the speed so very much worth it.

I don't really game much, but its quite far ahead in single thread performance too, so should be a decent upgrade.

 

[FastAd]

Thanks for your input.

Had a quick shop, prefer air cooling so have the D15 but will I see much better results from a AIO water cooler? Having looked around a bit seems theres only a few degrees in it? May add a few extra case fans and already have a 1080 GPU. Thoughts?

Sorry this is creeping into a general hardware thread

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Kingston HyperX Predator 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (HX432C16PB= £199.99
• 1 x Corsair HX1000i 1000W '80 Plus Platinum Digital Modular Power Supply (CP-9020074-UK)= £199.99
• 1 x Asus Strix X99 Gaming Intel X99 (Socket 2011) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £279.95
• 1 x Fractal Design Define R5 Midi Tower Case - Blackout Edition Window= £102.95
• 1 x Intel i7-5960X Extreme 3.00GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - Retail (BX80648I75960X)= £949.99
• 1 x Noctua NH-D15 Dual Radiator Quiet CPU Cooler with two NH-A15 Fans= £82.99
• 1 x Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive= £299.99

Total: £2,129.95
(includes shipping: £14.10)
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[Caracus2k]

Thanks for your input.

Had a quick shop, prefer air cooling so have the D15 but will I see much better results from a AIO water cooler? Having looked around a bit seems theres only a few degrees in it? May add a few extra case fans and already have a 1080 GPU. Thoughts?

Sorry this is creeping into a general hardware thread

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Kingston HyperX Predator 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (HX432C16PB= £199.99
• 1 x Corsair HX1000i 1000W '80 Plus Platinum Digital Modular Power Supply (CP-9020074-UK)= £199.99
• 1 x Asus Strix X99 Gaming Intel X99 (Socket 2011) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £279.95
• 1 x Fractal Design Define R5 Midi Tower Case - Blackout Edition Window= £102.95
• 1 x Intel i7-5960X Extreme 3.00GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - Retail (BX80648I75960X)= £949.99
• 1 x Noctua NH-D15 Dual Radiator Quiet CPU Cooler with two NH-A15 Fans= £82.99
• 1 x Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive= £299.99

Total: £2,129.95
(includes shipping: £14.10)
​

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Few points.....

Ditch the Corsair PSU and get a Superflower one instead (Superflower is a better brand)

You (almost certainly) wont be able to run that ram at 3200MHz on a Haswell-E CPU (and all CPU's on X99 show very little benefit over 2666Mhz ram anyway) so save yourself some £££'s there

Something like this or something rated at 2666MHz remember that Haswell-E CPU's are only rated to run 2133MHz ram anything above this is overclocked. Pretty much any CPU should be able to handle 2666Mhz but not all Haswell-E CPU's will run 3000Mhz ram and play nicely due to the difficulty in overclocking quad channel ram due to the more elaborate ram controller over say a dual channel memory controller on a Skylake CPU

An overclocked X99 CPU, especially an Octo core should really be under water. Air-cooling an overclocked eight core CPU like the 5960X would require very good airflow to keep temps otherwise in check. I would recommend a 240mm RAD AIO as a starting point for cooling an overclocked 5960X

 

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Thanks Caracus.

Made some changes (PSU, RAM and cooler). That AIO cooler ok? The trigger finger is getting itchy

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Asus Strix X99 Gaming Intel X99 (Socket 2011) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £279.95
• 1 x Intel i7-5960X Extreme 3.00GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - Retail (BX80648I75960X)= £949.99
• 1 x Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive= £299.99
• 1 x Super Flower Leadex Platinum 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Platinum" Power Supply - Black= £189.95
• 1 x Kingston HyperX Predator 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000Mhz Quad Channel Kit - Black (HX430C15P= £189.95
• 1 x Corsair Hydro H110i GT 280mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060019-WW)= £112.99
• 1 x Fractal Design Define R5 Midi Tower Case - Blackout Edition Window= £102.95

Total: £2,139.87
(includes shipping: £14.10)
​

​

 

[Caracus2k]

Thanks Caracus.

Made some changes (PSU, RAM and cooler). That AIO cooler ok? The trigger finger is getting itchy

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Asus Strix X99 Gaming Intel X99 (Socket 2011) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £279.95
• 1 x Intel i7-5960X Extreme 3.00GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - Retail (BX80648I75960X)= £949.99
• 1 x Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive= £299.99
• 1 x Super Flower Leadex Platinum 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Platinum" Power Supply - Black= £189.95
• 1 x Kingston HyperX Predator 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000Mhz Quad Channel Kit - Black (HX430C15P= £189.95
• 1 x Corsair Hydro H110i GT 280mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060019-WW)= £112.99
• 1 x Fractal Design Define R5 Midi Tower Case - Blackout Edition Window= £102.95

Total: £2,139.87
(includes shipping: £14.10)
​

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That AIO should be fine