X99 or Z170?

[mormonsniper]

Hi folks. It's been 7 long years since i built my computer. Time for another. I am trying to catchup with the technology. My E8400 is still plugging along. I had to replace my video card since it was not recognized by Windows 10. I am not much of a gamer at 60+ years old. I do like to help out with folding though and enjoy having a nice computer that does far more than I ever can hope to learn. I like the X99 platform since I can migrate to the Xeon processor should I decide to. That said, I was wondering where the Z170 might be headed in the future? I'd also like recommendations on a motherboard. My current is a 775 Gigabyte that has worked well. I did have to send it back once. Probably capacitors. It has not failed since. I did OC my E8400 but it was on air so I backed it down to stock. One of the cores got a little warm all the time. I didn't do anything extrodinary to try to fix the heat problem other than reposition the heat sink a couple of times.

 

I plan on utilizing the M2 slot as well as pci-e for storage and speed.  Games - possibly but not probable. Cores for folding. 

 

Thanks!

 

ms

 

(yes, I am)

[Enderman]

there are also xeons on z170, just like there have been on z97 and other sockets

[Aytex]

do you edit/render/CAD?

[shypin]

x99 will have the advantage when it comes to folding

 

for mobos i like the x99-ws if you want reliability or x99-deluxe if you want features

my favorite one is the rampage v extreme (one of the best motherboards) but its usually targeted at gamers

[EugeneCustomBuild]

Hi folks. It's been 7 long years since i built my computer. Time for another. I am trying to catchup with the technology. My E8400 is still plugging along. I had to replace my video card since it was not recognized by Windows 10. I am not much of a gamer at 60+ years old. I do like to help out with folding though and enjoy having a nice computer that does far more than I ever can hope to learn. I like the X99 platform since I can migrate to the Xeon processor should I decide to. That said, I was wondering where the Z170 might be headed in the future? I'd also like recommendations on a motherboard. My current is a 775 Gigabyte that has worked well. I did have to send it back once. Probably capacitors. It has not failed since. I did OC my E8400 but it was on air so I backed it down to stock. One of the cores got a little warm all the time. I didn't do anything extrodinary to try to fix the heat problem other than reposition the heat sink a couple of times.

 

I plan on utilizing the M2 slot as well as pci-e for storage and speed.  Games - possibly but not probable. Cores for folding. 

 

Thanks!

 

ms

 

(yes, I am)

Z170, X99 i7 5960x etc dont perform any better than i7 6700k in most cases Z170 is the first to have usb 3.1 and L4 cache

[EliasNM]

Z170, X99 i7 5960x etc dont perform any better than i7 6700k in most cases Z170 is the first to have usb 3.1 and L4 cache

ummm, where did you get that info from?

[EliasNM]

I would recommend a X99 build if you plan on using cores for folding like shypin mentioned, the Z170 is heading in the right direction with DDR4 native support but right now its not the best buy, we'd have to wait for future chipsets to see better performance from smaller architecture CPUs.

[Curufinwe_wins]

If in the US, x99 is cheaper and better than i7 z170.

 

It will massively be better for folding as well.

[SPAS-ID]

go with Z170

[mormonsniper]

do you edit/render/CAD?

I can't even spell render/CAD... So no. I was never very smart.

[mormonsniper]

If in the US, x99 is cheaper and better than i7 z170.

 

It will massively be better for folding as well.

In the US. I am retired now and live in Florida.

[Curufinwe_wins]

In the US. I am retired now and live in Florida.

So microcenter has 5820k for 299 or less, grab a msi x99s sli plus mobo (for around 170-190 dollars) and that will be cheaper than mid range z170 mobo (which has significantly less features than the x99s sli plus) plus the 360 dollar i7 6700k.

 

Only issue is x99 doesn't have igpu so diagnosis of failure to post is a little bit harder, and I must confess x99 boot times are pretty slow (like 20-30 seconds...) but if the comp is on folding most of the time who cares?

 

Otherwise the 5820k is 390 dollars but is still better price to performance than the i7 6700k by quite a bit.

[mormonsniper]

So microcenter has 5820k for 299 or less, grab a msi x99s sli plus mobo (for around 170-190 dollars) and that will be cheaper than mid range z170 mobo (which has significantly less features than the x99s sli plus) plus the 360 dollar i7 6700k.

 

Only issue is x99 doesn't have igpu so diagnosis of failure to post is a little bit harder, and I must confess x99 boot times are pretty slow (like 20-30 seconds...) but if the comp is on folding most of the time who cares?

 

Otherwise the 5820k is 390 dollars but is still better price to performance than the i7 6700k by quite a bit.

My old E8400 is on around the clock. I am a member of the WCG for folding; since 2008 I think.

[Schoolofmonkey]

Only issue is x99 doesn't have igpu so diagnosis of failure to post is a little bit harder, and I must confess x99 boot times are pretty slow (like 20-30 seconds...) but if the comp is on folding most of the time who cares?

 

Otherwise the 5820k is 390 dollars but is still better price to performance than the i7 6700k by quite a bit.

 

I noticed this myself, I went from a 4790k/VII Hero where boot times were extremely quick, to the 5820k/MSI x99a Gaming 7 where boot times are around 15 - 20 seconds (Bios to Windows), but I very rarely shut down my PC so that's a non issue for me.

 

I'm quiet happy I went the x99 route, I notice the performance difference in video encoding, mp3/flac conversion stuff like that, but in everyday use (web browsing, office etc) there's no visible difference.

In gaming well to the naked eye no difference, but benchmarks with my 5820k@4Ghz I jumped 1200 points in Firestrike Extreme, over the 4790k@4.5Ghz, same MSI GTX980ti Gaming card in both systems.

[m_tieu]

I would go with x99 with a 5930k. More cores for computing and more PCIE lanes for SSD's, graphics cards and more.

[mormonsniper]

So, X99 seems to be the "winner". Based on my future activities, folding, the desire for computing power (not much interested in graphics but I am open to the GPU helping out doing calculations and so forth. Upgradeability to Xeon multi core CPUs is very possible... more is better???  Is there a particular board I should be looking at? I do like the idea of wifi in addition to great pci-e lanes.  Once again, thanks for the help. I hear good things about ASUS and I have been using a Gigabyte board. I know nothing of MSI and ASRock.  Not sure I want a mATX board. ATX or E-ATX is fine.

 

Blessings to all,

 

ms 

[mormonsniper]

Bumping this for a very good/great motherboard recommendation.

 

Thanks!

[Metro]

Z170, X99 i7 5960x etc dont perform any better than i7 6700k in most cases Z170 is the first to have usb 3.1 and L4 cache

 

It was not the first for USB 3.1, the MSI X99 Godlike has USB 3.1 on it.

[typographie]

ummm, where did you get that info from?

 

Skylake can reach higher clockspeeds at faster IPC, and so is technically faster per-core than anything on X99. Hell, the i7-4790K was already able to match or even beat the 5960X in most games. X99 systems can be overwhelmingly faster in certain applications that scale well with as many cores as you can give them, though.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Bumping this for a very good/great motherboard recommendation.

Thanks!

X99(s for 3.0, a for 3.1) sli plus from msi.

Cheap (yet good) mobo that has an insanely top end feature set.

But x99 boards are basically all the best of the best anyways so just grab one you like the look of and has the features you want.