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Planning for a new PC build later this year, 5960x vs 8700k vs 7900x

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15 Jul 2012
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37
I've had my 5960x system for quite a few years now. Normally at this point i'd just replace the GPU & continue using it, but there's been some.... complications. To put it in a tl;dr form - chassis is falling apart, some fans are failing, wiring is gone to hell, etc etc. So i will be replacing the chassis AND the GPU, AND the whole cooling system. At which point I might as well consider upgrading my Mobo/cpu.

My plan is to have the new system use the 1x whatever new Nvidia card comes out (Ive given SLI too many chances.. no more! SLI can go F itself), with idea that I will eventually be upgrading it to the "1180ti" or "Titan". This will be for a top-end gaming 4k gaming PC with some (not often) 3d / simulation rendering in maya, nuke, houdini etc.

Now, 5960x has been a decent processor but i really do want more clockspeed. I am running it on stock (mostly because due to aforementioned "complications" i cant give it enough cooling to safely oc it), but I plan to have the next system use Noctua DH15 or something similar, which would let me OC stuff. The question is, do i want to use 8700k or 7900x instead?

5960x seems to have lower performance than 8700k, but they are about the same when OC'd i think. The problem is losing considerable memory bandwidth by switching to 8700k. So it seems to be more of a sidegrade than an upgrade.

7900x seems to be overall a fantastic chip, the problem is that its clocked lower by default (which would normally be fine since you can OC, however...), however based on the few benches I saw, for it to reach same clock performance as other chips it heats up to something close to a volcano. I do not mind spending £££ if 7900x gives me better performance, however im afraid that unless i go for some uber custom loop, i will be getting LESS from it than I otherwise would from 5960x or 8700k. Almost every report says that 7900k requires a ******* fridge to work properly...

To put this into some perspective, i do not plan to use liquid cooling. My plan is to have something like Noctua DH15, Dark Rock 3 or Scythe FUMA + case fans in a large tower. Im too unexperienced to risk custom loops (+I want to avoid maintenance) and i dont trust AIOs (plus they dont seem to be better than air anyway). If i can run the CPU around 4.6-4.7 or so while gaming, that's fine by me - i dont need to push into 5+. I do however multitask while gaming (i.e. i'd be watching some movies, or a twitch stream on 2nd monitor while 4k gaming on primary monitor, or downloading some torrents etc), so im not sure if i can trust the default Turbo boost, hence the need to overclock.

Another factor to keep track of is age/socket. 8700 and 7900 are using the new 14nm, while my 5960 is 22, and the fact that 5960 is relatively older socket means it less "future proof". There is also issue of PCIe lanes etc - although im really stupid in this regard, and know nothing about whats good or bad.

Given all this, would you recommend i:

1. Get the new mobo for my existing i7 5960x, and OC it?
2. Get the new mobo AND i7 8700k and OC it?
3. Get the new mobo AND i9 7900x and DONT OC it?
4. Get the new mobo AND i9 7900x and OC it?
5. Do nothing, ducttape the system until Icy Lake comes out?

Cheers!
 
What do you mean a "dead-end"? As in, outdated? I dont really mind that, as long as it performs well enough not to cockblock the rest of the system. But i do agree that it might make sense to futureproof so that when next cpu comes out, i dont have to replace mobo AGAIN just to swap the chip out.

However, you say "wont offer much improvement". Does it mean it will actually offer improvement? My issue was that I wasn't sure if 8700k and 7900x were upgrades. 8700 seems like a sidegrade at best (possibly downgrade in some aspects while gaining clockspeed), while 7900x has requirements that might render it unuseable. Or am i wrong?

Budget is not an issue, i dont mind spending some ££ to get new mobo and chip if it means objective improvement. I just dont want to spend £1k to gain 1fps and lose quad channel for ram...
 
Based on your responses and those of other places, i seem to be more and more inclined to think that the best option for me is to OC my 5960 to something like 4.1-4.2 and stick with it until 2020 or something. Would I be gimped CPU/Mobo wise if i do that, sometime in future? Assuming i update my GPU etc as they become available?

(Also im planning to reuse a lot of stuff from my current build, like RAM, PSU etc)
 
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