Questions About Broadwell

[Random Guy Esq.]

Hey OcUK,

I'm hoping to build a new rig in the autumn/winter, and it's going to have to last me a good few years. At the moment, I see two options - Z97 Haswell and then possibly upgrade to Broadwell, or go X99.

From looking around, I can't find any concrete info on Broadwell other than it being a smaller process to Haswell, so less heat and power savings etc. Will it bring anything else to the table though? Is it pretty much nailed on that Broadwell will have a maximum of 4 cores like Haswell?

Thansk in advance.

 

[Random Guy Esq.]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I guess by the time more cores and DDR4 are actually "necessary", they'll be cheaper than they will be for early adopters of X99.

 

[Random Guy Esq.]

Cool, may as well go Z97 so! Thanks again.

 

[Random Guy Esq.]

Broadwell is simply the dieshrink of Haswell with better iGPU. Not much is known about the 14nm and how its various dynamics and foibles will effect heat dissipation or clock frequencies. It may clock badly. Unless you intend to make ample use of the iGPU, Broadwell will likely offer almost nothing over Haswell, besides slightly reduced power consumption. Broadwell is supposedly tentatively scheduled for May/June 2015.

X99 and Haswell-E ought to be massively faster than desktop enthusiast Haswell or Broadwell in any highly threaded environment, and the entry chip will be 6 core for the first time. With DDR-4, and future upgrades to Broadwell-E (reduced power consumption will be of bigger benefit to E than desktop enthusiast) and possibly Skylake-E, it also offers more future proofing. It's supposedly coming in August.

Go Haswell or its variant DC, or Haswell-E .. Broadwell will offer nothing and is still a year away and won't offer an upgrade path to Skylake.

Thanks for your input! I wasn't contemplating Broadwell as a starting point - I should have worded it better, but essentially I was wondering if Z97 would last a few years (say, 4) or would I better going X99. Seeing as Broadwell won't be much of an upgrade, the question is then DC or X99 for the next 4 years or so.

Given that Broadwell won't bring any extra cores, maybe X99 would offer more longevity. But as tbh says, I have the luxury of being able to wait for reviews.