X(99) Marks The Spot?

[Caneighdian]

Hey guys!

 

Hoping you can provide some advice here.

 

I've gotten my hands on an i7-6850k for a great price, and I'm wondering if I should make the jump to X99. I still need to buy a new motherboard and RAM.

 

I've currently got an i7-4790k on the Z97 chipset, and that's working fine for me, but I'd like to take advantage of some of those enthusiast features, like more cores, more PCIe lanes, or support for full speed M.2 drives. I want to get the most from my ROG Swift PG279Q, a task I suspect may require two GPUs.

 

However, I've heard that the LGA-2011v3 socket won't be used for Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X. And some of the new Z270 boards that are coming out look quite temping as well, especially with their support for Intel's upcoming Optane tech.

I mostly do digital drawing and gaming, though I do use virtual machines from time to time. Do you think I'd be better served making the jump to the enthusiast X99, or finding some other use for my new CPU, and stick with consumer platforms like Z270 or (gasp) AMD's Ryzen?

 

Thanks for your time!

[The Sloth]

the 6850k is one of the high-end cpu that's out right now, its a really good upgrade. i would go for it. 

[AnonymousGuy]

Considering what you already have I wouldn't move to X99. 

[stealth80]

I had the option of going X99 when I (like you) got my 4790k and I regret it. Games are headed for more cores and if you got that CPU at a great price I would jump all over it. 4790k to 7700K aint really worth it in terms of the whole platform outlay. However you could sell your current cpu., ram and board and probably generate enough to cover the cost of the X99 platform - just make sure you pick up some fast DDR4 - I would totally do it in your position

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Considering your use of the machine, I'd say that consumer platforms are good enough.  If you were thinking about intensive VM usage with GPU passthrough or 3-way or 4-way SLI, then of course X99 would be the way to go,

 

Personally I don't recommend upgrading unless you either run into your current system's limitations on a regular basis or until it breaks. 

The 4790K is still more than capable of running most of today's games (of course there's the badly coded ones where no amount of CPU power is enough) and it sounds like your other use isn't pushing it anywhere near its limits either.  So based on the first post, I'd guess that you should be good for a couple of years still. 

 

FYI I upgraded from an i5-2500 on Z77 to an i7-5930K on X99 last year.  I use a lot of VMs and wanted to do GPU passthrough, so that upgrade made sense. 

But even a year later I'm still wondering if it was the right choice.  Perhaps all I needed was to swap out the old CPU with an i7-2600 or i7-3770.

[Caneighdian]

Thanks for all of the helpful advice! I greatly appreciate it!

 

On the off chance that I do end up making the jump to X99, is there a particular motherboard you might recommend? 

 

I've definitely had my eye on the ASUS X99 Deluxe II, but other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!