X99 Upgrade Build

[Henri108]

Hi everyone!

I would like to upgrade my i7-2600 to a X99 platform (probably i7-5820K, but considering i7-5930K if it's worth the extra money).

My current rig was already upgraded because I upgraded to a Gigabyte GTX770 OC.
This is the current build:

OEM Dell mobo
i7-2600
16GB OEM Dell ram
Gigabyte GTX770 OC
Corsair RM650 powersupply
500GB Samsung EVO SSD
Fractal Design Arc R2
Corsair H100i
Fan controller

Will also upgrade GPU to 9xx series (GTX980) and maybe later go for SLI setup (but never more than 2).

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, Photoshop, Video editing (in that order)
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Everything that makes sense. 1000€ max
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Belgium (buy everything from this shop: https://translate.google.com/transl.../page.html?tk=7&hgid=289&tgid=4139&edit-text= )
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.
Mobo, CPU, Ram
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Gigabyte GTX770 OC
Corsair RM650 powersupply
500GB Samsung EVO SSD
Fractal Design Arc R2
Corsair H100i
6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes, lightly 4.0-4.2Ghz maybe
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1920x1200 24", later maybe going to 34" LG (3440x1440)
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within 2 weeks
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)? UEFI? etc.
Nothing special
5.1 surround support is must
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, win 8.1 Pro


If possible I would prefer a simple looking mobo. Black or black and white. But if these aren't any good I am up to anything. ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte and MSI are available for purchase.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Dangman]

I'm not seeing good reasons so far for you to actually upgrade your current system. Do you actually do a ton of photoshop and video editing work? i.e both of those usages take up 70% or more of your time spent on the PC? Does your photoshop and video editing use requires OVER 32GB of RAM? Since you listed gaming first, that's telling me that you don't need to upgrade since the X99 platform doesn't provide enough of a performance increase in gaming to justify the price of upgrading over your current setup.

 

[Henri108]

Thanks for responding.
Photoshop and Video-editing work on this machine is currently about 50% of the use. This will probably go up to 70% with this new machine because now I also do a lot of my Lightroom and video-editing on my laptop (latest Dell XPS15, which is almost as fast as my current rig for CPU intensive stuff) and will switch a big part of this workload to the new rig.
I was thinking about going for 32GB of RAM, because DDR4 is expensive and the gain of having over 32GB will not be very noticable in my experience (we also have a few Xeon workstations with all the same processor, but different GPU's and RAM amounts, having 64GB over 24GB was hardly noticable in most applications when run alone).
I am now using RAW Cinema DNG files for video-editing and they are ripping apart my i7-2600, I need a big upgrade. I feel like i7-4790K doesn't offer a big enough upgrade over a i7-2600. It's still going from a fast 4-core to a faster 4-core (or am I completely wrong assuming this?). A 6-core would offer 2 extra cores at a faster speed when I overclock. More L3 cache is also very welcome for video-editing.

I personally really like the looks of the completely black MSI X99S SLI PLUS. Is this a good mobo for a build like this? It is also significantly cheaper than any other X99 mobo, is there anything I will have to miss out on? I will look up some reviews too.

So currently I am thinking about this:

i7-5820K
MSI X99S SLI PLUS
32GB DDR4 ram (Crucial Balistix 2400 is the cheapest 32GB kit I can find at 449 euro)

Total price is currently 1037 euro, which is around the budget I was thinking of. (this is TAX included)

I am currently thinking that it might be smarter to spend a little more now and years ahead still be able to use the same mobo and certainly RAM, than to invest in end-of-life DDR3 and Z97 with no upgrade path to 6 and 8 core processors.

 

[Dangman]

It's still going from a fast 4-core to a faster 4-core (or am I completely wrong assuming this?).

Not wrong.

I personally really like the looks of the completely black MSI X99S SLI PLUS. Is this a good mobo for a build like this? It is also significantly cheaper than any other X99 mobo, is there anything I will have to miss out on? I will look up some reviews too.

Unfortunately, you're buying a bit too early. The X99 platform was just released barely two weeks ago. As such, not all or even a majority of the teething issues have been found or ironed out yet. In addition, some of the X99 motherboards (AsRock, MSI, and Asus) I've used at work have been rather finicky with what DDR4 RAM they'll actually work with.

So I would highly recommend that you wait a few more weeks (or even months) for the initial teething issues to be ironed out. That is unless you don't mind dealing with those teething issues. In that case go for it.

I am currently thinking that it might be smarter to spend a little more now and years ahead still be able to use the same mobo and certainly RAM, than to invest in end-of-life DDR3 and Z97 with no upgrade path to 6 and 8 core processors.

While true about the no upgrade path to 6 and 8 core CPUs, do note that with the way Intel has been doing CPU releases, whatever CPU you get now is pretty much the CPU you're going to be stuck with as any new CPU released will not be fast enough to justify purchasing or will be incompatible with your socket. The Ivy Bridge-E CPUs is a priume example of the former.

 

[Henri108]

Thanks for the advice, I will wait a few more weeks and see what comes up then.
It is indeed better not to have to deal with issues on a working machine.
Maybe I'll wait for the second gen of mobo's that might have better featuresets at lower prices.

 

[Dangman]

Thanks for the advice, I will wait a few more weeks and see what comes up then.
It is indeed better not to have to deal with issues on a working machine.
Maybe I'll wait for the second gen of mobo's that might have better featuresets at lower prices.

You might have to wait a few extra months:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=msi_x99_fail&num=1
http://www.legitreviews.com/intel-x99-motherboard-goes-up-in-smoke-for-reasons-unknown_150008

Different motherboards, different PSUs, but same chipset.