Worth upgrading i7 5820K to i7 5960X?

Gripen90 · 9 Oct 2017 at 19:18

I own an Intel Core i7 5820K 6 core cpu, and now coffee lake has been released I am feeling the upgrade itch and the i7 8700K seemed really tempting

However I have gotten an offer for an Intel Core i7 5960X 8 core cpu for £300, which I find real tempting since I don't need to change platform (reinstall windows + programs). Would it be worthwhile the upgrade? Have any of you done the same upgrade path?
I can probably get £150~180 for my current cpu, making it an £120~150 upgrade.

Panos · 9 Oct 2017 at 19:29

No. 5960X even if overclocked at 4.5Ghz, is in par of a Ryzen 7. Which you can buy new for £260 (1700), £280 (1700X), and a good board for future upgrades. (Zen+ in Feb).
X99 and 5960X has only the 6950X which I doubt you will find £300 ever. By that time you could be able to buy better chips for the money, and having a worthless mobo.

So you either keep the current setup until Zen+ or 8core what ever Intel releases in 7 months (making 8700K+Z370 absolete). Or sell now it has some value.

And if you want to see where your CPU sits atm, check the 1600X @ 4Ghz benchmarks. If you OC the 5820K @ 4.4 is of similar perf.

darket · 9 Oct 2017 at 20:29

I'd say go for it, a 5960x is a bargain at £300. My 5960x smashes games and day to day applications with ease. X99 is a fully mature and stable platform and has plenty of life left in it, plus you'll get at least £150 for the 5820k.

Just do it, unless you need an insane amount of cores everything is still a sidegrade to X99 right now.

P.S I went from a 5820k to a 6800k to the 5960x.

Gripen90 · 9 Oct 2017 at 20:52

darket said:
I'd say go for it, a 5960x is a bargain at £300. My 5960x smashes games and day to day applications with ease. X99 is a fully mature and stable platform and has plenty of life left in it, plus you'll get at least £150 for the 5820k.

Just do it, unless you need an insane amount of cores everything is still a sidegrade to X99 right now.

P.S I went from a 5820k to a 6800k to the 5960x.[/

Sounds good! What made you go from 5820k to 6800k and then to 5960x?

Also do you run with the 5960x OCed? And if so what MHz, voltage, cooling

Panos said:
No. 5960X even if overclocked at 4.5Ghz, is in par of a Ryzen 7. Which you can buy new for £260 (1700), £280 (1700X), and a good board for future upgrades. (Zen+ in Feb).
X99 and 5960X has only the 6950X which I doubt you will find £300 ever. By that time you could be able to buy better chips for the money, and having a worthless mobo.

So you either keep the current setup until Zen+ or 8core what ever Intel releases in 7 months (making 8700K+Z370 absolete). Or sell now it has some value.

And if you want to see where your CPU sits atm, check the 1600X @ 4Ghz benchmarks. If you OC the 5820K @ 4.4 is of similar perf.

The reason why I am thinking of the core i7 5960x is due to its (supposed) longevity with 8 cores/16threads, and for the X99 platform I assume it would make it decent enough for approx 2 years time. Also a benefit would be i don't need to reinstall stuff and reactivate windows 10 (was a real hassle last I did that).

I have a small htpc/LAN rig with an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 @3.8Ghz with stock cooler, and in productivity it is very capable and not far behind the 5820k, that's for sure. But for my main gaming rig I do prefer a little bit more umpf

Panos · 9 Oct 2017 at 20:56

Gripen90 said:
Sounds good! What made you go from 5820k to 6800k and then to 5960x?
Also do you run with the 5960x OCed? And if so what MHz, voltage, cooling

The reason why I am thinking of the core i7 5960x is due to its (supposed) longevity with 8 cores/16threads, and for the X99 platform I assume it would make it decent enough for approx 2 years time. Also a benefit would be i don't need to reinstall stuff and reactivate windows 10 (was a real hassle last I did that).

I have a small htpc/LAN rig with an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 @3.8Ghz with stock cooler, and in productivity it is very capable and not far behind the 5820k, that's for sure. But for my main gaming rig I do prefer a little bit more umpf

Hence I said Ryzen 7 not 5

jigger · 9 Oct 2017 at 20:59

Assuming you can get the same clock speed I'd go for it. The only possible gotcha could be heat and power use but if your cooling and PSU are up to it £150 for a drop in upgrade isnt a bad deal.

Aneskimo · 9 Oct 2017 at 21:38

I had the chance to buy a 5960x and move on my 4770k I would have needed extra ram and a different board, just out of interest what did I miss out on?

Gripen90 · 9 Oct 2017 at 21:41

Panos said:
Hence I said Ryzen 7 not 5

Ah yea I missed that

jigger said:
Assuming you can get the same clock speed I'd go for it. The only possible gotcha could be heat and power use but if your cooling and PSU are up to it £150 for a drop in upgrade isnt a bad deal.

Yea I hope that it at least can do 4.1Ghz at a reasonable voltage and temperature on air with Phanteks ph-tc12dx, untill i get something better for cooling.
The PSU is 1500watt so it shouldn't have a problem with it.

jigger · 9 Oct 2017 at 21:44

They can get very hot apparently.

darket · 9 Oct 2017 at 21:56

Gripen90 said:
Sounds good! What made you go from 5820k to 6800k and then to 5960x?
Also do you run with the 5960x OCed? And if so what MHz, voltage, cooling

The reason why I am thinking of the core i7 5960x is due to its (supposed) longevity with 8 cores/16threads, and for the X99 platform I assume it would make it decent enough for approx 2 years time. Also a benefit would be i don't need to reinstall stuff and reactivate windows 10 (was a real hassle last I did that).

I have a small htpc/LAN rig with an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 @3.8Ghz with stock cooler, and in productivity it is very capable and not far behind the 5820k, that's for sure. But for my main gaming rig I do prefer a little bit more umpf

The 5960x (at the time) was a bargain buy and my previous chips were crappy overclockers so i thought what the hell.

I'm currently running my 5960x at 4.6 1.27v and ram at 3200 mhz. cooling wise i'm running a custom loop and the hottest i've ever seen a core is 72 degrees in Ibt, when gaming the cpu hovers in the mid 50's.

Like i said £300 is a steal for a 5960x. The only thing you'll regret is not buying it

Aneskimo · 9 Oct 2017 at 22:15

darket said:
The 5960x (at the time) was a bargain buy and my previous chips were crappy overclockers so i thought what the hell.

I'm currently running my 5960x at 4.6 1.27v and ram at 3200 mhz. cooling wise i'm running a custom loop and the hottest i've ever seen a core is 72 degrees in Ibt, when gaming the cpu hovers in the mid 50's.

Like i said £300 is a steal for a 5960x. The only thing you'll regret is not buying it

Could you tell me how much of an improvement I’d of seen over my 4770k? I had the chance to get a 5960x and may still be able to

jigger · 9 Oct 2017 at 22:22

Aneskimo said:
Could you tell me how much of an improvement I’d of seen over my 4770k? I had the chance to get a 5960x and may still be able to

In anything multi threaded the 8 core will hammer the quad into dust.

Aneskimo · 9 Oct 2017 at 22:24

jigger said:
In anything multi threaded the 8 core will hammer the quad into dust.

What my thoughts were, with the price of chip and board and extra ram is it worth it or go Ryzen?

jigger · 9 Oct 2017 at 22:31

You'd have to price up the two systems. The AM4 rig only needs 2 sticks of memory so has a slight edge on price and has a little more longeverty.

The performance between the two will be very similar.

Panos · 9 Oct 2017 at 22:33

jigger said:
You'd have to price up the two systems. The AM4 rig only needs 2 sticks of memory so has a slight edge on price and has a little more longeverty.

The performance between the two will be very similar.

True. Also if someone bothers to use the FlareX kit, can easily use BLCK OC to 150 on the CH6, to make it run at 3200C12. The CPU perf goes up by a hefty 7%, compared to the pre-configured DOP at 3200C14 at 100 BLCK

And before someone argues.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclocking-amd-ryzen,5011-8.html

jigger · 9 Oct 2017 at 22:44

Panos said:
And before someone argues.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclocking-amd-ryzen,5011-8.html

Pretty sure a couple members will be along shortly.

Gripen90 · 9 Oct 2017 at 22:52

Well waiting for the guy to reply back since I told him I'd gladly pick up that cpu.

Panos · 9 Oct 2017 at 23:52

Gripen90 said:
Well waiting for the guy to reply back since I told him I'd gladly pick up that cpu.

Cool stuff, enjoy. FYI if your cooler is good, many of the 5960Xs, clock well past 4.5Ghz, while regardless will complement your SLI.

DragonQ · 10 Oct 2017 at 07:57

jigger said:
You'd have to price up the two systems. The AM4 rig only needs 2 sticks of memory so has a slight edge on price and has a little more longeverty.

The performance between the two will be very similar.

You don't have to use 4 sticks of RAM when your CPU has a quad channel memory controller.

bimbleuk · 10 Oct 2017 at 08:06

I posted on another thread but 5820K CPUs are going for £220-230 with retail box. 6850K I was bidding on went for £277 which I considered a bargain so that's a good price. I ended up buying a 5820k for £195.0 to replace a Xeon 8 core which was clock limited to 2.5 GHz as I was going to use the system more for gaming.