Warm: Micro Center Only i7-6850K for $299 In-Store Only

Damn two of the closer locations are sold-out. That leaves option #3 haha.

3pm update.
(Option #3 now sold-out. It wasn't before lunch tho)
Probably for the best haha - patience is a virtue.

Frankly it was surprising seeing the NoVA store have so many available, when it's usually the first DMV location to sell out.
 
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These won't last, many locations are already sold out. In-Store ONLY

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.aspx?sku=040071

6-cores/12 threads
40 PCIe lanes
Soldered IHS
Generally OC to 4.4-4.5, a few will go higher

X99 boards are pretty cheap right now, solid deal for those who haven't already upgraded to Kabylake, RyZen or Skylake-X

Just an FYI, the 6850K generally doesn't OC that high. It'll hit 4.2-4.3GHz fairly reliably with reasonable vcore, but beyond that the amount you have to increase the vcore is pretty hefty to squeeze out another stable 100-200Mhz. Broadwell-E didn't hit higher clock speeds as easily as Haswell-E; but made up for it in IPC increases.
 
Yep but those sales are relatively small and have been in effect for a few weeks already. The 6900K/6950X are basically priced to match the new Skylake-X prices. This 6850K is clearance pricing, they won't last through the day.

Just an FYI, the 6850K generally doesn't OC that high. It'll hit 4.2-4.3GHz fairly reliably with reasonable vcore, but beyond that the amount you have to increase the vcore is pretty hefty to squeeze out another stable 100-200Mhz. Broadwell-E didn't hit higher clock speeds as easily as Haswell-E; but made up for it in IPC increases.
Early batches topped out at 4.2-4.3, but most folks I know who bought one this year managed to hit 4.4-4.5 below 1.35V, allowing them to beat my 5930K quite easily due to the similar clocks + IPC gains. I also had a 6950X for a month that hit 4.3GHz stable, I should have kept it in hindsight seeing how Skylake-X has so many warts.

I'll probably end up waiting for Coffeelake 6c for a real gaming-focused upgrade at this point.
 
Damn, I was at the local MC yesterday and saw these on the shelf at a higher price. Web site says it's all sold out now.
 
Pricematch against staples.com and get an additional 10% off of the price difference, which equates to $35. The total for me was $280 after tax.
 
Yep but those sales are relatively small and have been in effect for a few weeks already. The 6900K/6950X are basically priced to match the new Skylake-X prices. This 6850K is clearance pricing, they won't last through the day.


Early batches topped out at 4.2-4.3, but most folks I know who bought one this year managed to hit 4.4-4.5 below 1.35V, allowing them to beat my 5930K quite easily due to the similar clocks + IPC gains. I also had a 6950X for a month that hit 4.3GHz stable, I should have kept it in hindsight seeing how Skylake-X has so many warts.

I'll probably end up waiting for Coffeelake 6c for a real gaming-focused upgrade at this point.

Ah ok, I only followed the 6850K when I had one before my 6950X. And agreed, Skylake-X does not seem like an upgrade at all from a 6950X. I have mine running at 4.2GHz at 1.23v - don't plan on upgrading anytime in the near future.
 
How does this compare to a Ryzen 1700 (non x) - which seem to top off around 3.8 stable - Mainly looking at content creation, editing, photoshop etc. I have a Ryzen 1700 but am annoyed at the ram speed issues.
 
I'm still tempted to grab one of these and try credit card price matching. Would pair well with an open box X99 board for sub $100. I'd love to get rid of my KL.

Wish I would have had a crystal ball when I was there a day before this started.
 
How does this compare to a Ryzen 1700 (non x) - which seem to top off around 3.8 stable - Mainly looking at content creation, editing, photoshop etc. I have a Ryzen 1700 but am annoyed at the ram speed issues.

For gaming with 99% of current generation titles at 1080p or less.
I7 7700k > I7 6850k > Ryzen 1700.

if you game at 1440p or 4k with a single video card - it just doesn't even matter between these processors. The differences are negligible because the video card is the bottleneck.

For workstation/content creation/media work and future proofing.
Ryzen 1700 > I7 6850k > I7 7700K

For all out max core productivity the X99 chipset supports Xeon processors with up to 22 cores (with a BIOS update).

These server class Xeon CPUs are prohibitively expensive now, but in will go for dirt cheap on ebay in the next couple years as they get surplused out of the server rooms on the 3-4 year replacement cycle of most businesses).

A Ryzen can't touch something like a Xeon X5-2699 v4 on x99 with it's 22 cores and 44 threads. For that matter - the upcoming AMD Threadripper can't either.

As to the PCI-E lanes. Right now, two 8x 3.0 lanes are sufficient for dual graphics cards. Ryzen x370 chipset gets you that. B350 chipset does not. B350 chipset is only sufficient for a single GPU. (those are the cheaper Ryzen motherboards so be careful in selecting your motherboard based on your needs. There are no other significant differences between b350 and x370. If you don't plan to run two GPUs ever - then just get the b350 board with a Ryzen.

I have three Ryzen 1700 systems on x370 boards and one X99 system with a 6800k. They are very comparable. I bought the four systems on a 4th of July sale with plans to part them out. I think I'm going to keep the Intel system.

It's fully mature and stable - lacks nothing, and will have the influx of cheap Xeon chips over the next few years offering further upgrade capability. Also X99 has quad channel memory support which allows for faster memory bandwidth (you'll want four sticks of memory to take full advantage of memory bandwidth capability). Ryzen is only dual channel. (you only need 2 sticks of memory) (even so Ryzen is better served by faster memory say PC3200 DDR4 - whereas Intel X99 doesn't gain much speed with faster Mhz rated memory --- decent improvements stop on Intel due to the quad channel interface at about PC2400 DDR4)

As far as upgrade capability AM4 CPU socket (what Ryzen is built on) is guaranteed to be supported by AMD for the next 3 years - until 2020 or 2021.

X99's LGA 2011 v3 (6850K motherboard) and z270 for 1151 (7700k motherboard) are both at or nearing dead ends. Only what's available now will be available in the future. (Maybe with the exception of six core cofee lake for 1151 socket)

The X99 boards are better than the z170 and z270 motherboards for features, capability, PCI-E lanes, and Xeon support (1151 has NO Xeon support - so you will be limited to a 4 core CPU.
frown.gif
)

The X99 boards are prosumer class boards -- if you will.
The Ryzen boards are consumer enthusiast class (x370) and consumer class boards (b350)
I'd say the z270 board is a consumer class board as well.

As far as motherboard stereotypical feature set --
x99 > x370 > z270 > z170 > b350
IMO


I don't think you can go wrong either way with a Ryzen 1700 and a X370 or one of these 6850K and a X99 board. You might have a bit of growing pains with your X370 and Ryzen, but most of those early kinks have been worked through. The X99 should be painfree at this point.

Both are lacking nothing as far as features -- Thunderbolt, USB 3.1, NVME --- etc is available on both setups.

Finally --- clock for clock the Intel 6850k will be about 5-15% faster than the Ryzen processor at instructions per clock. So if both are running 4.0Ghz and both were using 6 cores -- you can assume the Intel is faster. But with its 8 cores on a multi-threaded app the AMD will gain the edge with 25% more cores. Not much uses 8 cores yet (not much uses 6 cores either -- outside of content creation) -- but that future is coming soon, and will gain steam with console development continually using more cores for the latest gaming consoles.

Oh and one more thing -- the Intel will clock higher with an overclock further widening the gap. You'll not hit above 3.9Ghz, or 4.0Ghz typically on a Ryzen CPU, but you might hit 4.4Ghz Ghz on the Intel 6850k with an overclock.

Energy consumption is largely moot. The Intel is much more power hungry overclocked (almost double), but they'll idle about the same - so unless you are constantly maxing out your CPU in workload - it's largely immaterial - and probably amounts to less than $10 a year in power consumption difference for most users.

I'm going to keep my x99, out of the four machines, as I think it's more polished at this point, has more features, and has the extra PCI-E lanes to future proof that much more over the Ryzen.

The main advantage for the Ryzen is that you'll have new CPU options for the next 3 years plus being designed for your platform. (more speed --- but probably not more features)

You can't go wrong with either. I would argue that you'd be going wrong with a 7700k at this point as compared to a 6850k on x99 or 1700 on x370. I think they are more future proof than the 7700k on 1151 socket, strictly because of core count.
 
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Alright my dudes, microcenter in Denver had 1 in stock. I bought it, don't need it. Anyone want it?
 
i don't know anything about file servers. wouldn't that be hilariously overkill?

Yeah, but it'd be doing double duty, Plex and file serving. The Asus matx ws motherboard even has dual gb nics for teaming.

Also as a heads up, monoprice is selling these for $370 on eBay. If you've got a cash back coupon or tech one it's a pretty good deal.
 
My local MicroCenter magically had 3 back in stock as soon as the price went back to $400.
 
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