X99 system build, which CPU?

Which one?

  • i7-6900K

    Votes: 2 14.3%
  • i7-6950X

    Votes: 5 35.7%
  • Forget it, just get a xeon and use your i7-5960X

    Votes: 7 50.0%

  • Total voters
    14

Deimos

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
Messages
1,164
I'm building another X99 system, I want at least 8 cores, gaming performance is high priority, and I will be watercooling+overclocking (EK-CoolStream XE 480 for the CPU).

Simple question; 6900K or 6950X? Money is not a consideration.
 
I say stick with the 5960X (I have mine overclocked to 4.2GHz). What video card are you using?
 
I currently have a pair of 980tis but I'll probably get something newer, just waiting for AMD or nvidia to release their latest and greatest.
 
Yeah the 6950x is about $170 cheaper ($1580 on pcpartpicker) than it was back at its launch date, making it a slightly better deal, but it's a terrible overclocker.

If you have a 5960x already, it's either get the 6950x or keep the 5960X. The 6900K is not worth it at all (it clocks similarly and there is a very small IPC increase). Only get the 6950x if you really need the 2 extra cores, because you won't hit the higher clocks that you can get with the 5960x. Then again, if you have a program that can make use of many cores, it might be better to get a Xeon instead.
 
I wouldn't call it a lame duck. I just use a Corsair h115i with some Noctua NF-A14's on it for my 6950x and I've gotten it up to 4.4 at 1.38v with temps around 80c under stress. For every day use though I keep it at 4.3 with no issues, temps top out at 74c under stress (25-45c average during 4k gaming/streaming). I'd love to try and get more out of it but I'll have to build a custom loop for that...
 
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