Upgrade advice

[renkenkyo]

Hi Guys Needs some advice on an upgrade:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
60% Gaming, 20% Engineering SW (solidworks, FEA/CFD, Matlab, etc), 20% Web/Video watching

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
~$1500 or less including shipping and tax

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
US, California

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, Mobo, Ram, Maybe video cards

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
GPU: 2x EVGA GTX 780 HydroCopper (interested in upgrading to 980's depending on money left over from build)
Case: Phantek Enthoo Primo
Cooling: Custom water loop (560 & 280 rad, pump, supremecy hf, 2 full cover blocks, etc)
SSD: 2x Samsung Evo 1TB
PSU: EVGA Super Nova 1000W P2
Monitor:2560x1440 Achieva Shimian (Do want to upgrade to 4k or 21:9 1440p)
VR: Occulus Rift DK2 (eventually want the consumer version)

6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes, only for 24/7 stable clocks though.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
2560x1440, 27" @ 100Hz. Hope to upgrade to 4K. Also run occulus rift

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
immediately or within the next month

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)?
USB3, SATA3, SLI, Raid

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit retail

I'm currently on a I7-980X with an X58 gigabyte board (UD3) after my EVGA classified died from a water leak. I have 16GB of ram but more would help with the engineering program.

 

[defaultluser]

If you live near a Microcenter, go to the store and pick one of these up:

http://www.microcenter.com/product/437205/core_i7-5960x_30_ghz_lga_2011-v3_boxed_processor

http://www.microcenter.com/product/437913/X99S_SLI_Plus_LGA_2011-3_ATX_Intel_Motherboard

http://www.microcenter.com/product/...133_(PC4-17000)_C15_Desktop_Memory_Module_Kit


Otherwise, you're probably limited to 6 cores (unless you bump your budget by around a couple hundred more so you can get 32GB ram), same as you currently have. You can afford 6 cores plus a lot of ram and a good motherboard for that $1500 budget in Newegg or Amazon, but it would be even nice for you to increase your core count as well.

 

[renkenkyo]

If you live near a Microcenter, go to the store and pick one of these up:

http://www.microcenter.com/product/437205/core_i7-5960x_30_ghz_lga_2011-v3_boxed_processor

http://www.microcenter.com/product/437913/X99S_SLI_Plus_LGA_2011-3_ATX_Intel_Motherboard

http://www.microcenter.com/product/...133_(PC4-17000)_C15_Desktop_Memory_Module_Kit


Otherwise, you're probably limited to 6 cores (unless you bump your budget by around a couple hundred more so you can get 32GB ram), same as you currently have. You can afford 6 cores plus a lot of ram and a good motherboard for that $1500 budget in Newegg or Amazon, but it would be even nice for you to increase your core count as well.

So you'd recommend to go the the X99/5820K over Z97/4790K? I do have access to Microcenter.

Does the MSI X99S_SLI have good reviews/bios? I can't find to many reviews on it, most everyone got the Asus Deluxe it seems.

For memory what frequency is the best of 24/7 overclocks? I heard that 2666 was the sweet spot.

I'd go for the 5960X but with ram and mobo, that'd put me out of my price range. Ideally, if I had enough left over I could spring for a GTX980 + waterblock.

 

[defaultluser]

So you'd recommend to go the the X99/5820K over Z97/4790K? I do have access to Microcenter.

Does the MSI X99S_SLI have good reviews/bios? I can't find to many reviews on it, most everyone got the Asus Deluxe it seems.

For memory what frequency is the best of 24/7 overclocks? I heard that 2666 was the sweet spot.

I'd go for the 5960X but with ram and mobo, that'd put me out of my price range. Ideally, if I had enough left over I could spring for a GTX980 + waterblock.

Hey, that's why I didn't make any concrete suggestions, because I figured based upon your budget and current machine, you'd have some idea of what you wanted. But still, you didn't make it clear what you currently found LACKING in your system (other than RAM), so it was hard to make a good call. That's why I made general suggestions, and pointed-out good deals if you so-desired.

So, my thoughts:

1. I only recommend 6 cores if you think you still need them. You have to make that decision - YOU'RE the one running the engineering crap Also, you might as well go Haswell-E because you state your current memory at 16GB is limiting, and if you do 32GB on z97 that's as high as you can go. So I'd recommend 4x8 DDR4 on x99, which leaves you an upgrade path to 64GB.

2. I don't recall any poor reviews, but if MAXIMIZING overclock is your primary concern, you'll want Asus for the better BIOS and tools. The build quality of the two boards should be similar. I only picked it so that I would present to you a way that you could afford eight cores + mid-range overclockers board + 32GB DDR4, if your heart so-desired. As I said before, you can afford whatever the hell board you want if you can live with six cores, but I can't give you any *personal* insight into what to buy beyond the reviews you can easily read for yourself. I don't own an E-platform, and I don't currently need an upgrade form my 2500k.

3. Dunno. Pop your head in this thread here:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1832238

4. With the combination of parts I linked, it was within your budget. Just a thought experiment, nothing more. I wouldn't drop the cash for 980s yet, unless your engineering software can make use of the improved compute throughput. The gaming performance increase is relatively small (only 30%) for the massive price you pay. Also, it's fairly clear that a bigger version of Maxwell is due-out soon (next 6 months), so I wouldn't waste your money now on such a small performance improvement, unless you have no other way to satisfy that upgrade urge

You decide what to spend your money on.

 

[renkenkyo]

Hey, that's why I didn't make any concrete suggestions, because I figured based upon your budget and current machine, you'd have some idea of what you wanted. But still, you didn't make it clear what you currently found LACKING in your system (other than RAM), so it was hard to make a good call. That's why I made general suggestions, and pointed-out good deals if you so-desired.

So, my thoughts:

1. I only recommend 6 cores if you think you still need them. You have to make that decision - YOU'RE the one running the engineering crap Also, you might as well go Haswell-E because you state your current memory at 16GB is limiting, and if you do 32GB on z97 that's as high as you can go. So I'd recommend 4x8 DDR4 on x99, which leaves you an upgrade path to 64GB.

2. I don't recall any poor reviews, but if MAXIMIZING overclock is your primary concern, you'll want Asus for the better BIOS and tools. The build quality of the two boards should be similar. I only picked it so that I would present to you a way that you could afford eight cores + mid-range overclockers board + 32GB DDR4, if your heart so-desired. As I said before, you can afford whatever the hell board you want if you can live with six cores, but I can't give you any *personal* insight into what to buy beyond the reviews you can easily read for yourself. I don't own an E-platform, and I don't currently need an upgrade form my 2500k.

3. Dunno. Pop your head in this thread here:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1832238

4. With the combination of parts I linked, it was within your budget. Just a thought experiment, nothing more. I wouldn't drop the cash for 980s yet, unless your engineering software can make use of the improved compute throughput. The gaming performance increase is relatively small (only 30%) for the massive price you pay. Also, it's fairly clear that a bigger version of Maxwell is due-out soon (next 6 months), so I wouldn't waste your money now on such a small performance improvement, unless you have no other way to satisfy that upgrade urge

You decide what to spend your money on.

Good info, and yes ultimately it's up to me to make the decision, it's always good to get a few extra opinions to see if I didn't consider something.

Basically the upgrade comes as a result of a couple things.

1. My current mobo is crap as it was an emergency board when my X58-classified died (due to water), it lacks USB3 and SATA6Gb/s. This is limiting my SSDs and I think my ram might have been damaged during the water incident as I'm not able to keep stable overclocks at anywhere close to where I used to.

2. I orginally got the 980X because I was doing consulting so it was my workstation as well which justified the additional cost (Business write-off). I now work for a corp, so I have my work gear supplied. I only use the engineering software if I want to do some light work at home or a consulting job here or there (5-10hr/wk).

3. The primary purpose of the new computer will be for gaming as (60% or more) and for VR. I want to have a platform that will support what I'll need moving forward to hi-res gaming and occulus gaming.

4. 16GB of ram gets saturated pretty quickly on engineering programs but DDR4 is also massively expensive. I think 32GB would be sufficient for now but having the ability to move to 64 at a later date is pretty tempting. I think for now I could live with 16, covered at 32, and future proof at 64. I don't believe any games I've play have ever used more then 8.

Based on reviews it does seem that the 5820K would provide me with the same amount of cores which should will allow me to do fine in my non gaming applications. But since this is primarily a gaming rig, will the 4790 be everybit as good?