Z170 and X99 advice

[MageTank]

If you think about it, it would make a bit more sense that minimum rates would be slightly higher, since if the CPU was storing things in the RAM related to the game/textures/etc, it could access them that little bit quicker.

 

I definitely notice a big big difference in synthetic stuff comparing 1600 CL9 to my max OC of 2800 CL9 for intel's XTU benchmark:

 

I should try doing some tests later in Tomb Raider and see if it makes any difference, seems like a cool idea!

Let me know when you do. I'd love to see the results too. I was wanting to test it on my brothers i5, but he won't let me overclock his memory. He has a very nice set of Samsung memory that will run 2400mhz at CL9 with ease (they are only 1.25V, but you throw 1.55V at them, and they will go far). 

[vanished]

Let me know when you do. I'd love to see the results too. I was wanting to test it on my brothers i5, but he won't let me overclock his memory. He has a very nice set of Samsung memory that will run 2400mhz at CL9 with ease (they are only 1.25V, but you throw 1.55V at them, and they will go far).

If he won't let you OC them how do you know that?

[Lays]

Let me know when you do. I'd love to see the results too. I was wanting to test it on my brothers i5, but he won't let me overclock his memory. He has a very nice set of Samsung memory that will run 2400mhz at CL9 with ease (they are only 1.25V, but you throw 1.55V at them, and they will go far). 

 

 

Yes my kit also has Samsung chips on the PCB, 2600 c11 runs pretty easily at stock volts IIRC, to get 9-12-12-17 1T with 2800+ mhz with super super tight secondary timings and tertiary timings it takes 2.1v  (This is actually OK with good RAM kits like TridentX / dominator plats if they have Samsung chips, because they have higher quality PCB's than most RAM)

 

Highest I've gotten to run a benchmark at so far:

 

[MageTank]

If he won't let you OC them how do you know that?

Because i used them before him. They are 4x4gb, and i moved on to ITX. I did not have the heart to separate them, so now he has that full kit. I currently use a G Skill 2133mhz CL9 kit. It's still pretty great, i just wish i had a better board for OCing.

[vanished]

Because i used them before him. They are 4x4gb, and i moved on to ITX. I did not have the heart to separate them, so now he has that full kit. I currently use a G Skill 2133mhz CL9 kit. It's still pretty great, i just wish i had a better board for OCing.

Oh. Well if they've already been run like that why not continue? Oh well

[kitsune1324]

This is all great information! Stay with me as I try to remember my questions to some of your points..

 

PCI lanes: What issues would I have with gaming performance on the Z170 using two 970's, a pcie sound card (xonar phoebus), and a pcie wifi card (ac68). 

 

Gaming will be this PC's main use with the only occasionally design in solidworks and cad software for school.

 

Overclocking is awesome but I don't usually try to bench to the extremes. OCing the memory is interesting as well, I've never had a good experience with that on my 8150.

 

Power comsumption is not too much of an issue to me, I was just running a 590 with my oc'd 8150 and now sli 970's with an oc'd 8150.

 

So X99 will still be used for the next processor? If so, any idea what the price would be? One of my issues is that I would be making a hard loop watercooled rig and constantly having to re-mold the loop from switching motherboards would be obnoxious.

 

I'll post more as questions come up. Thank you for the help so far!

[MageTank]

This is all great information! Stay with me as I try to remember my questions to some of your points..

 

PCI lanes: What issues would I have with gaming performance on the Z170 using two 970's, a pcie sound card (xonar phoebus), and a pcie wifi card (ac68). 

 

Gaming will be this PC's main use with the only occasionally design in solidworks and cad software for school.

 

Overclocking is awesome but I don't usually try to bench to the extremes. OCing the memory is interesting as well, I've never had a good experience with that on my 8150.

 

Power comsumption is not too much of an issue to me, I was just running a 590 with my oc'd 8150 and now sli 970's with an oc'd 8150.

 

So X99 will still be used for the next processor? If so, any idea what the price would be? One of my issues is that I would be making a hard loop watercooled rig and constantly having to re-mold the loop from switching motherboards would be obnoxious.

 

I'll post more as questions come up. Thank you for the help so far!

Seeing as that sound card only uses 1 PCIE lane, and that wifi card also only uses 1 lane, you should be perfectly fine on the Z170 platform. Both GPU's will run at x8 a piece in SLI, and your other two PCIE cards should work flawlessly. If gaming is the main focus, then Z170 will have you covered. 

 

As far as overclocking goes, you have to remember that with Z170, FIVR or the Fully Integrated Voltage Regulator has been moved off the chip, and back on the board. You cannot buy a super cheap board and expect to get great OC results. You also have to understand that even with the high end boards, some will OC better than others. While i personally do not know which board will be best for you, i suggest you check out some reviews of boards, and make sure they have the additional features you might also want (USB 3.1 type A and/or type C, built in WiFi, etc). So far, the average OC of the 6700k seems to be somewhere between 4.6 and 4.7ghz. 4.5ghz seems to be very easy to obtain. 

 

Also remember that the TIM is not soldered on the Z170 SKU's, so you might have issues with some cores varying in temps, ranging anywhere from a 5-15C difference between cores. For example: Core 1 might be 60C at load, but core 4 might be 75C at load. While this is not always the case, there have been extreme cases like this, in which a delid was used to remedy the problem. X99 SKU's are soldered, they do not have this issue. If your temps are an issue, you can lap the IHS and the contact plate on your CPU cooler for a very flat, even surface. This can also help temperatures out when OCing.

 

Power consumption should only be a problem for people using older or weaker PSUs, or people looking to run servers/HTPC's. Lower TDP might also be important for ITX users, as dissipating hot CPU's in smaller enclosures can be hard when your CPU cooling selection is very limited. In your specific scenario, you shouldn't have to worry about either.

 

X99 and Z170 both have another series of CPU's coming out for them. X99 will be getting Broadwell-EP, and Z170 will be getting Kaby Lake. Kaby Lake (from what we know so far, not really confirmed yet) appears to be shaping up to be a side-grade, similar to what Broadwell was to Haswell. The reason we say this, is that its rumored to feature the same features as Skylake (with the exception that Kaby Lake will have SGX, and Skylake does not) but will ship with stronger iGPU's. Now, this rumor is roughly 4 months old now, and we have not heard anything else since, so do not treat it as fact. For more information on Broadwell-EP, look at the following quote: 

 

 

LGA 2011-v3 socket:

• Broadwell-EP: to be marketed as Xeon E5-2600 v4 etc., while using the C610 Wellsburg chipset platform. Up to 22 cores and 44 threads, up to 55 MB of total cache and 40 PCI Express 3.0 lanes, with 55–160 W TDP classes. Maximum supported memory speed is quad-channel DDR4-2400.^[11]
• Broadwell-EX: Brickland platform, for mission-critical servers. Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) is expected to be updated to version 1.1, enabling seamless scaling beyond eight-socket systems. Maximum supported memory speeds are expected to be DDR3-1600 and DDR4-1866.^[12][13] Up to 24 core and 48 threads, up to 60 MB of L3 cache and 32 PCI Express 3.0 lanes, with 115–165 W TDP.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadwell_(microarchitecture) , http://wccftech.com/massive-intel-xeon-e5-xeon-e7-skylake-purley-biggest-advancement-nehalem/ , http://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-to-release-22-core-xeon-e5-v4-broadwell-ep-late-in-2015-company/

 

It also appears my previous information was incorrect. Broadwell-EP will be coming out in Q4 of 2015 (sometime soon). Broadwell-EX on the otherhand, will be coming out in Q2 of 2016. Seeing as these two specific SKU's will not be for gaming, you do not need to concern yourself with them. That being said, i would advise you read up on them anyways just to understand what they would be used for. As far as pricing goes, i would say "very expensive" as most higher end Xeons are. Way higher than even the 5960X. 

[kitsune1324]

Seeing as that sound card only uses 1 PCIE lane, and that wifi card also only uses 1 lane, you should be perfectly fine on the Z170 platform. Both GPU's will run at x8 a piece in SLI, and your other two PCIE cards should work flawlessly. If gaming is the main focus, then Z170 will have you covered. 

 

As far as overclocking goes, you have to remember that with Z170, FIVR or the Fully Integrated Voltage Regulator has been moved off the chip, and back on the board. You cannot buy a super cheap board and expect to get great OC results. You also have to understand that even with the high end boards, some will OC better than others. While i personally do not know which board will be best for you, i suggest you check out some reviews of boards, and make sure they have the additional features you might also want (USB 3.1 type A and/or type C, built in WiFi, etc). So far, the average OC of the 6700k seems to be somewhere between 4.6 and 4.7ghz. 4.5ghz seems to be very easy to obtain. 

 

Also remember that the TIM is not soldered on the Z170 SKU's, so you might have issues with some cores varying in temps, ranging anywhere from a 5-15C difference between cores. For example: Core 1 might be 60C at load, but core 4 might be 75C at load. While this is not always the case, there have been extreme cases like this, in which a delid was used to remedy the problem. X99 SKU's are soldered, they do not have this issue. If your temps are an issue, you can lap the IHS and the contact plate on your CPU cooler for a very flat, even surface. This can also help temperatures out when OCing.

 

Power consumption should only be a problem for people using older or weaker PSUs, or people looking to run servers/HTPC's. Lower TDP might also be important for ITX users, as dissipating hot CPU's in smaller enclosures can be hard when your CPU cooling selection is very limited. In your specific scenario, you shouldn't have to worry about either.

 

X99 and Z170 both have another series of CPU's coming out for them. X99 will be getting Broadwell-EP, and Z170 will be getting Kaby Lake. Kaby Lake (from what we know so far, not really confirmed yet) appears to be shaping up to be a side-grade, similar to what Broadwell was to Haswell. The reason we say this, is that its rumored to feature the same features as Skylake (with the exception that Kaby Lake will have SGX, and Skylake does not) but will ship with stronger iGPU's. Now, this rumor is roughly 4 months old now, and we have not heard anything else since, so do not treat it as fact. For more information on Broadwell-EP, look at the following quote: 

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadwell_(microarchitecture) , http://wccftech.com/massive-intel-xeon-e5-xeon-e7-skylake-purley-biggest-advancement-nehalem/ , http://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-to-release-22-core-xeon-e5-v4-broadwell-ep-late-in-2015-company/

 

It also appears my previous information was incorrect. Broadwell-EP will be coming out in Q4 of 2015 (sometime soon). Broadwell-EX on the otherhand, will be coming out in Q2 of 2016. Seeing as these two specific SKU's will not be for gaming, you do not need to concern yourself with them. That being said, i would advise you read up on them anyways just to understand what they would be used for. As far as pricing goes, i would say "very expensive" as most higher end Xeons are. Way higher than even the 5960X. 

 

So apples to apples, with both processors comfortably overclocked, will the x99 beat out the z170 even when using all of the pcie lanes I talked about earlier?

Also, I have a Corsair AX850 so I'm covered for power.

[MageTank]

So apples to apples, with both processors comfortably overclocked, will the x99 beat out the z170 even when using all of the pcie lanes I talked about earlier?

Also, I have a Corsair AX850 so I'm covered for power.

Depending on the task, yes. Regardless, you are going to be more than fine with either option. I think X99 might have a longer lifespan (The X platforms tend to get longer support), but Z170 is such a great platform already, that it would be perfectly fine for several years as well. It really is a difficult decision to make.

 

I think my simple explanation earlier still applies. If gaming is the main focus, Z170. If you plan on doing heavier work (compression, video rendering, etc), or multi tasking (Gaming and working) then X99. 

[kitsune1324]

Depending on the task, yes. Regardless, you are going to be more than fine with either option. I think X99 might have a longer lifespan (The X platforms tend to get longer support), but Z170 is such a great platform already, that it would be perfectly fine for several years as well. It really is a difficult decision to make.

 

I think my simple explanation earlier still applies. If gaming is the main focus, Z170. If you plan on doing heavier work (compression, video rendering, etc), or multi tasking (Gaming and working) then X99. 

I see. Well gaming will be my main focus, and after watching a video from Paul's Hardware (

), it looks like the Z170 would have me completely covered.

 

The only thing is even with my three monitors, sometimes I run the game in the center monitor and have a video playing on another with LOTS of tabs open on the third monitor. Do you have any idea how much this would actually affect gaming performance between the processors?

[MageTank]

I see. Well gaming will be my main focus, and after watching a video from Paul's Hardware (

), it looks like the Z170 would have me completely covered.

 

The only thing is even with my three monitors, sometimes I run the game in the center monitor and have a video playing on another with LOTS of tabs open on the third monitor. Do you have any idea how much this would actually affect gaming performance between the processors?

Very little. Technically, i have a dual core G3258, and i game with a couple tabs open myself. I imagine with 8 threads to toy around with, it shouldn't be much of an issue for you at all. 

[kitsune1324]

Alright, well I've made up my mind. Although it will be cool to have better benchmark performance, I'm going to go with the Z170 and a 6700K. Lets see how this thing goes. I'm planning to buy my components around cyber monday next month. 

 

Thank you everyone for all your help!