Going with X99/Haswell-E?

[HassanD]

I have been watching Linus's videos for quite a while now and browsing this forum but with all that I just can't make a decision. I think this is mostly because I don't really have any 'real' experience with PC gaming so I cant use my experience to make a decision.

 

I am looking to build a gaming PC and to get the best experience I would like to aim for the best build that I can afford. So I am thinking of going for a Haswell-E build for multiple reasons, however I am not really sure about one of them.

 

1) I am currently teaching myself how to program and would like to start making games soon. Now I probably won't just dive straight into intensive 3D design but at some point down the line I will be doing that.

 

2) 4K gaming. I will not be getting two GTX 980s from the start but a month or two after I buy the PC I will be getting the second card. Now from all you experienced gamers out there, is 4K really worth it? I haven't tried it out myself but I have heard things about scaling problems with windows, text, some games, etc. Is it worth investing in a 4K monitor as of now. 

 

3) Future proof. This is the one I am not so sure about. Will the X99 platform be the mainstream platform so all new releases will be based on it? So by this I mean no more new CPU's will be out for the z97? I know that the X99 platform will have DDR4 so my guess is that this will be the focus of AMD and Intel?

 

I will be getting this computer in about two or three months so things could change specially for reason two, thought I'd say that just in case it's relevant.

 

Now since I am not loaded with money (the only reason I can afford this is because I don't have any responsibilities yet  ) I do want my build to last me quite a few years. If I am going to be spending £2500 ($3921.59, yeah UK tax sucks hard) I want the build to last me quite a while with maybe some few upgrades down the line if necessary.

 

For those interested, here is the build I am going for http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/nchTNG (the list does not include the mouse, monitor and headset which I will be buying too, the total should then add up to 2500 or more depending on the 4K monitor).

 

What do people think? Is it worth it as of now?

 

 

 

 

[Fate]

2) I can't recommend 4k until the scaling issues are fixed, sure games look amazing and there's so much room for productivity, but the scaling issues are really bad/annoying. You absolutely need to use Windows scaling otherwise everything is incredibly small and just flat out unusable unless you want to have your face glued to the monitor/you have eagle eyes.

It's up to you whether it's worth it or not because some people will say yes, others will say no. (currently using a 4k monitor btw)

[HassanD]

2) I can't recommend 4k until the scaling issues are fixed, sure games look amazing and there's so much room for productivity, but the scaling issues are really bad/annoying. You absolutely need to use Windows scaling otherwise everything is incredibly small and just flat out unusable unless you want to have your face glued to the monitor/you have eagle eyes.

It's up to you whether it's worth it or not because some people will say yes, others will say no. (currently using a 4k monitor btw)

 

So should I buy a 1080p/1440p monitor for now and then buy a 4k monitor in a year or so?

[Fate]

So should I buy a 1080p/1440p monitor for now and then buy a 4k monitor in a year or so?

You could get a 27" 1440p monitor which don't have scaling issues due to only have ~20 more ppi. I recommend you go and try both out for yourself, maybe you have a friend with a 1440p/4k monitor or maybe there's a store near you that does. 

[runit3]

-snip-

1) For productivity, especially rendering and encoding, X99 is the way to go.

2) Can't speak to 4k as I've never used a 4k monitor. The general consensus is that 1440p is a much better all around experience.

3)No, X99 will never be mainstream. It's an enthusiast platform. Broadwell is due to release on 1150 (Z97), Skylake no announcements yet but it will be almost guaranteed to be on a different socket.

 

X99 boards are generally the most feature-packed but there's plenty of Z87/97 boards out there that are comparable. Running in x8 SLI (1150) vs x16 SLI (2011-v3) has no effect, even on the 980's, so for the time being there's no benefit either way unless you need the extra lanes of 2011-v3 CPU's for peripherals.

[Spev]

X99 is gonna cost you probably twice as much as z97 just so you know.

[runit3]

X99 is gonna cost you probably twice as much as z97 just so you know.

Depends on the CPU. 5960X, yes, 5820k, no

[Spev]

Depends on the CPU. 5960X, yes, 5820k, no

DDR4 prices...

[bomerr]

I think this is mostly because I don't really have any 'real' experience with PC gaming so I cant use my experience to make a decision.

 

For those interested, here is the build I am going for http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/nchTNG (the list does not include the mouse, monitor and headset which I will be buying too, the total should then add up to 2500 or more depending on the 4K monitor).

 

What do people think? Is it worth it as of now?

That build is ALMOST good. 

 

For reference this is my X99 build.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/bomerr/saved/fBnNnQ

 

The 5930k does not offer most people an advantage over the 5820k and the asus deluxe mobo is hella overpriced. 

Basically you need to get a 5820k and a cheaper motherboard like a x99-ud4 or an asus x99-a. 

 

Monitor is really important because it basically determines how powerful of a GPU you need. 

The Acer 32" 4K display is IPS so it is the only 4K monitor i could recommend. 

I think it is still a little bit overpriced at like 1100 USD BUT then again I don't expect 32" IPS 4K panels to drop in price lower than 500 USD during the next year. 

For a 1440p panel I recommend the QNIX but it is still 350 USD sooo

350 + 500 USD = 850 USD at a min for the 2 panels. 

So if you are willing to splurge buying that acer might wouldn't be too bad of an idea.

 

I'm personally waiting to upgrade to a 4k display once i find a reasonably priced set. 

[runit3]

DDR4 prices...

One component does not equal double the price for the entire build, just that one component, which happens to cost twice as much as its DDR3 counterpart. Most i7's on Z97 I've built have run between $1100-1300, my rig ~$2400. If I put a 5820k in it I would have paid $1740, and that was with a more expensive DDR4 kit, could have chopped another $100 off if I went with 2133....or less HDD's...or cheaper ones... point is, you can make an X99 build for ~$1500-1700 fairly easily, not that much more than a top-end Z97 build.

[Spev]

One component does not equal double the price for the entire build, just that one component, which happens to cost twice as much as its DDR3 counterpart. Most i7's on Z97 I've built have run between $1100-1300, my rig ~$2400. If I put a 5820k in it I would have paid $1740, and that was with a more expensive DDR4 kit, could have chopped another $100 off if I went with 2133....or less HDD's...or cheaper ones... point is, you can make an X99 build for ~$1500-1700 fairly easily, not that much more than a top-end Z97 build.

I'm not saying you have to buy Asus motherboards but look: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006519%2050001315%2040000280%20600533616&IsNodeId=1&Manufactory=1315 The motherboards are more expensive typically, the ram is way more expensive, the CPU (not always) but a LOT of them are more expensive. When I said double I didn't literally mean double, I was referring to having to pay a lot more than you would for z97. Depending on your build I would say x99 would cost you at least 30% more to build. My point is you will be paying at least hundreds  more. If we just look at 2011 v3 (was a link here...) if you aren't going for the lower cost CPUs they can easily be 300-1000. My point is that if he's going x99 he's going to be paying a lot more, how much I'm not gonna say otherwise I'll just get corrected I'm just letting him know to be prepared to spend more money.

 

Edit: for some reason my link won't post. It was linked to newegg and 2011 and 2011v3 cpus, from 300-1000...

[runit3]

-snip-

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ymfCt6 X99

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZZxCt6 Z97

 

$178.91 difference. If he's planning on SLI 980's I doubt that will be a significant barrier, or be considered a lot more. I'd take 2 extra physical cores and 2 HT's for $178.91, especially in a productivity oriented machine.

[Spev]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ymfCt6 X99

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZZxCt6 Z97

 

$178.91 difference. If he's planning on SLI 980's I doubt that will be a significant barrier, or be considered a lot more. I'd take 2 extra physical cores and 2 HT's for $178.91, especially in a productivity oriented machine.

Hmm, ya not too bad I guess. Definitely less than I thought. As I mentioned at least hundreds, I guess in this case more like $200, I was thinking $300. It all depends on what you're doing at the end of the day. If serious editing or content creating then it's worth it to do so. Personally in my build I just am putting together now (specs in sig) I decided to opt out of that. Last build I went with a 6 core processor and kind of regretted it. I would rather have the better performance in gaming and save some money. At the time I was doing a lot of rendering and stuff so it was good, but I think in the future I might stick to strong quad cores until games start utilizing 6 regularly. I think it might also depend on the parts you choose too. I remember I put myself together an x99 build and it was 300-400 more dollars than my z97. He seems to have a pretty balanced build for the price.

[runit3]

I'm not even sure what you are comparing to? I see his x99 build I'm not sure what you are referring to as being cheaper though.

 

Edit: Give me a minute it's getting late and I'm pretty retarded right now.

The Z97 build is $178.91 less than the X99. Parts are identical aside from CPU, MOBO, and RAM.

[Spev]

The Z97 build is $178.91 less than the X99. Parts are identical aside from CPU, MOBO, and RAM.

Yeah I edited my post. I will admit it is much less of a difference than I expected. I expected at least 300-400. As I mentioned in my x99 build I was planning before I changed it to z97 it was easily that much of a difference, but I think I my CPU/mobo were much more expensive. Not as bad as I thought in this case though.

[runit3]

Yeah I edited my post. I will admit it is much less of a difference than I expected. I expected at least 300-400. As I mentioned in my x99 build I was planning before I changed it to z97 it was easily that much of a difference, but I think I my CPU/mobo were much more expensive. Not as bad as I thought in this case though.

When I first spec'd out an X99 build the RAM was astronomical because the only thing available was Corsair's ridiculous Dom. Platinum's. Had my 4790k build together, G. Skill released their kits, and I sold it to go for the X99 But I do less gaming and really needed a machine for encoding workloads, most of the OC'd encoding benchmarks out there sold me on the 5960X and it keeps me on my 5 yr upgrade habits.

[Spev]

When I first spec'd out an X99 build the RAM was astronomical because the only thing available was Corsair's ridiculous Dom. Platinum's. Had my 4790k build together, G. Skill released their kits, and I sold it to go for the X99 But I do less gaming and really needed a machine for encoding workloads, most of the OC'd encoding benchmarks out there sold me on the 5960X and it keeps me on my 5 yr upgrade habits.

not upgrading for another 5 years eh?

[XiaoPineApple]

if u building gaming PC
Z97 is the path,
get X99 if u do alot of stuff in ur computer, like working,streaming, productivity and rendering so on.
or u just simply want to dump 3 gtx 980,

X platform is never mainstream , is for enthusiast,
4k monitor is expensive, scaling issue and 2 GTX980 may not guarantee smooth 60fps for alot of the games.
 

[Sandvich]

Well you should spend you  money on a build like this: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/sr7gpg and upgrade if you need it.

[bomerr]

Yeah I edited my post. I will admit it is much less of a difference than I expected. I expected at least 300-400. As I mentioned in my x99 build I was planning before I changed it to z97 it was easily that much of a difference, but I think I my CPU/mobo were much more expensive. Not as bad as I thought in this case though.

When I spec'd out my X99 build it was only about 200-300 more expensive than Z97 because I had a microcetner combo deal on the cpu/mobo and DDR4 Crucial ram was slightly less than double as expensive compared to DDR3.

[Glenwing]

I have been watching Linus's videos for quite a while now and browsing this forum but with all that I just can't make a decision. I think this is mostly because I don't really have any 'real' experience with PC gaming so I cant use my experience to make a decision.

 

I am looking to build a gaming PC and to get the best experience I would like to aim for the best build that I can afford. So I am thinking of going for a Haswell-E build for multiple reasons, however I am not really sure about one of them.

 

1) I am currently teaching myself how to program and would like to start making games soon. Now I probably won't just dive straight into intensive 3D design but at some point down the line I will be doing that.

 

2) 4K gaming. I will not be getting two GTX 980s from the start but a month or two after I buy the PC I will be getting the second card. Now from all you experienced gamers out there, is 4K really worth it? I haven't tried it out myself but I have heard things about scaling problems with windows, text, some games, etc. Is it worth investing in a 4K monitor as of now. 

 

3) Future proof. This is the one I am not so sure about. Will the X99 platform be the mainstream platform so all new releases will be based on it? So by this I mean no more new CPU's will be out for the z97? I know that the X99 platform will have DDR4 so my guess is that this will be the focus of AMD and Intel?

 

I will be getting this computer in about two or three months so things could change specially for reason two, thought I'd say that just in case it's relevant.

 

Now since I am not loaded with money (the only reason I can afford this is because I don't have any responsibilities yet  ) I do want my build to last me quite a few years. If I am going to be spending £2500 ($3921.59, yeah UK tax sucks hard) I want the build to last me quite a while with maybe some few upgrades down the line if necessary.

 

For those interested, here is the build I am going for http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/nchTNG (the list does not include the mouse, monitor and headset which I will be buying too, the total should then add up to 2500 or more depending on the 4K monitor).

 

What do people think? Is it worth it as of now?

 

X99 isn't a replacement for Z97; Intel runs these two platforms concurrently.  Z77/Z87/Z97, etc is Intel's mainstream platform, and is good enough for the vast majority of users, gamers included.  X79/X99 is the high-end desktop (HEDT) platform, meant for high-performance applications, mostly content creation or other workstation type tasks that really benefit from 6+ cores unlike most tasks, so it's suited for high-budget builds that have a focus on that.  In gaming it's not much better than Z97 platform since heavy multi-core support beyond 4 cores is pretty rare in games, so for purely gaming Z97 is probably a better choice.  That being said, some games do take advantage of 6+ cores though (Crysis 3 and BF3 and 4 are prominent examples) and it's likely there will be more in the future.  Since you are looking for a very long-term build and will use it for things beyond gaming in the future, X99 might make sense for you.

 

I don't really think any current generation graphics cards are really ideal for 4K gaming, and my suggestion would be to go with either a 1080p or 1440p monitor for now, and a graphics card setup to hold you over until the next generation or two comes out, maybe a single GTX 970 or 980.  4K monitors are still plunging in price, and graphics cards still aren't ready for 4K, so it's really not a great time to be investing in 4K for the long term right now.  It's a better idea to continue waiting until 4K prices start to flatten out and graphics cards can deal with 4K much better.

 

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/9zFM6h

[runit3]

not upgrading for another 5 years eh?

Made my previous i7-980X last that long

[Najuno]

X99 isn't a replacement for Z97; Intel runs these two platforms concurrently.  Z77/Z87/Z97, etc is Intel's mainstream platform, and is good enough for the vast majority of users, gamers included.  X79/X99 is the high-end desktop (HEDT) platform, meant for high-performance applications, mostly content creation or other workstation type tasks that really benefit from 6+ cores unlike most tasks, so it's suited for high-budget builds that have a focus on that.  In gaming it's not much better than Z97 platform since heavy multi-core support beyond 4 cores is pretty rare in games, so for purely gaming Z97 is probably a better choice.  That being said, some games do take advantage of 6+ cores though (Crysis 3 and BF3 and 4 are prominent examples) and it's likely there will be more in the future.  Since you are looking for a very long-term build and will use it for things beyond gaming in the future, X99 might make sense for you.

 

I don't really think any current generation graphics cards are really ideal for 4K gaming, and my suggestion would be to go with either a 1080p and 1440p monitor for now, and a graphics card setup to hold you over until the next generation or two comes out, maybe a single GTX 970 or 980.  4K monitors are still plunging in price, and graphics cards still aren't ready for 4K, so it's really not a great time to be investing in 4K for the long term right now.  It's a better idea to continue waiting until 4K prices start to flatten out and graphics cards can deal with 4K much better.

 

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/9zFM6h

 

 

That´s well said! I couldn´t agree more.

 

I bought X99 not for being "future proof" because there is no such thing. I bought it because I´m a die hard OC guy and enthusiast. So I pay top dollar to squeeze as much performance out of my hardware as possible and I run multi GPUs so I need a CPU that has more than 16 native PCIe 3.0 lanes. That brings me to my point here for you...

 

You say you are looking forward to teach yourself how to program games... okay but not with a GTX980... if you are serious about that buy at least a content creation card or a semi professional card such as a Titan Black, where you can benefit from the Double Precision.

 

And 4K and a GTX980 2way SLI... well I had this config and went back to 1440p because even with the GTX980s it´s not the best gaming experience. I had FPS drops in demanding games, just by using high settings, down to 20 FPS. I would wait for the next gen GPUs from AMD and nVidia´s GM200 chip. That could be the first time that 4K actually gets really enjoyable. Oh and sure enjoyable is a word, that can be stretched by far, but for me 20-55FPS are not enjoyable. The constant 60 FPS+ in 1440p with a GTX980 2 way SLI are on the other side .