New Build, Upgrade my x58, go z68, or go "full retard" and get x79?

[daviddoran]

So, I find myself needing (well wanting really, my current rig is plenty for me now) to upgrade. Here is what I currently have:

MSI Big Bang Xpower x58 Motherboard
Intel Core i7 930 (running at 4GHz)
12GB G.SKill DDR3 1600
3 OCZ Vertex 2 SSDs in RAID 0 (I get 600MB/s in benchmarks, its very fast)
2 GTX 570 in SLI
1 8800GT
Blu Ray Drive
4 1TB storage drives
Antec 900 case

My original idea was to get the 3930k, new x79 ASRock Extreme9 Mobo, 32GB Gskill ram, 2 Vertex 3s, and a new Antec p280 case. That setup will run about 2 grand.

Then i started to think that 2k was a lot to spend. Coupled with the fact that 3930k chips are out of stock everywhere, I started to think of alternatives.

What I'm thinking now, is to get the new ram, new SSDs and new case, but get a z68 board, and a 2x00k chip (probably the 2600k) then, in a few months when the x79 chips are easier to find, swap out the cpu and mobo, and upgrade my backup pc (the x58 I have now)

My last idea was to just grab a 6 core CPU like the Core i7 970, or 980, or find a 980x or 990x for cheap for my current x58 mobo and wait for ivy bridge to upgrade.

Most other sites where this question has been asked, results in "Games get z68 encoding get x79" but for multiboxing, games and more cores/threads goes hand in hand.

Thoughts?

[MiRai]

I would say P67/Z68 (1155) is the route to stick with right now unless you really need more than four cores. I found this post (http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=32803883&postcount=21)
the other night on the Anandtech forums and I completely agree:


In the case of X79 vs. Z68 the total platform is largely a wash, and without absolutely needing the extra PCI-e lanes, I'd even go as far as
saying Z68 is a superior platform/chipset because it actually supports SSD caching whereas X79 does not (seriously, wtf)

X79 was supposed to be a beastly chipset and make s2011 truly stand apart from 1155 with up to 10 x SATA6 ports including support for
SAS and its own 4x PCI-e channel connection to the CPU to provide plenty of bandwidth for all those potential hard drives

Then it was like Intel said screw it, AMD can't compete so lets just rip everyone off by not advancing our chipset/platform at all and charging
everyone an arm and leg for it regardless. Seriously, as a chipset X79 is ultimately no better than P67. As a platform s2011 does offer
advantages such as 6+core CPUs, quad channel memory, and extra PCI-e lanes, but that's all in the CPU now...so why is intel charging
so much for X79 and driving s2011 motherboard costs up?

I mean... I would ultimately look at what you need to accomplish outside of multiboxing World of Warcraft -- The 2600K (or
2700K) can accomplish quite a bit and has a lot of room to OC the shit out of it for much cheaper than an X79 system. You'll
probably want to spend the money you save buying an 1155 system on the new 28nm GPUs this year.

[daviddoran]

Very good point. I've been reading that 2700K chips are likely binned to be good overclockers, some system builders even claiming that 99% hit 5GHz and many hit more. And I can get a CPU and motherboard for less than just the 3930k

I just really want 6 cores, just for that Uber leetness, not that I need it at all. Actually im typing this on my old Q6600 and quite frankly, once I put an SSD in it, it doesn't feel any slower than my x58 does...

[Igg]

I just upgraded my x58 setup almost identical to yours to the z86 / 2600k, sitting at 5.0ghz :)
Been happy with it so far.

Awaiting the AMD 7970 release tomorrow to finish the build and upgrade from the 6970 currently.

[confusedtx5]

What about just upgrade your CPU to a 6-core variant? There must be some still around somewhere...
I was never really that keen on z68 due to the lower RAM slot count, and no EVGA classy, but that's just me.

[daviddoran]

What about just upgrade your CPU to a 6-core variant? There must be some still around somewhere...
I was never really that keen on z68 due to the lower RAM slot count, and no EVGA classy, but that's just me.

I was thinking that as well. The cheapest 6 core is $600, which is the same as the 3930k, so at that point, I'd be much better off getting an x79 for a couple hundred bucks more and reap the full benefits.

Now that they've announced the z77 chipset, z68 looks like a dead end chipset, unless a BIOS update will make it compatible with Ivy Bridge.

I've decided to either stick with my x58 for a while, maybe look for a used 6 core, or go for the 3930k. The way I see it, is it's "only" $400-$500 more to be top of the line, and I'm ok with that.

[d0z3rr]

Upgrading from a four core to the 6core AMD was a huge performance increase for me when I 10boxed. Definitely go 6core.