Upgrading time

[Professor Frink]

When did you last check @scan. As far as I can see, they currently have the 6700K in stock, albeit for a FAT £335. I too am looking to get one for a new build with specs very similar to yours. I really don't need it yet as my current 3770K with Maximus V Formula build is still very potent, but I just WANT the 6700K!!!

Still in stock at Scan. I mentally justified £300 but an extra 12% increase in price in a couple of days might need me to think about it again. I used to total system upgrade every 2-3 years but my current system has lasted about 5 years so I'm getting itching feet (technology seems to be slowing down). I don't need Skylake but I do NEED it =P

I think if I go for the I5-6600K I will just spend the next 2-5 years thinking I should have just spent a little bit money and feeling a little bit sad for myself.....

Your system is a lot newer than mine (and not on it's last legs) so it might be harder for you to upgrade.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Since DX12 and Vulkan promote better multi-threaded the Core i7 5820K is a better choice than than the Core i7 6700K. The Core i7 6700K is not worth £100 to £130 over a Core i5 6600K either.

Just because the Core i7 6700K is newer does not make it a better buy IMHO.

[KeyboardDemon]

Paying big money for small improvements makes sense if you can see those improvements every day - a dedicated encoding machine always busy with work that's 15% faster is a significant improvement. A gaming machine that'll only see the benefit in 2% of frames in every 10th game is a much weaker case for paying double the cost for that 15% improvement.

Thanks for clarifying that, I see your point now and agree with it, it makes sense as a logical argument, had I applied that logic to my current PC I would be rocking a 3570K and getting an average of 2 frames per second less than I get now, not really a game breaker, and I don't think any or at least many games take advantage of hyperthreading so the i7's increased performance probably only comes from the bigger cache. But what can I say, I picked my CPU based on an emotional judgement and not on the merits of logic, I just had it in the back of my mind that if I had bought an i5 I'd always be thinking that I could have got an i7 and then the buyer's remorse would kick in.

If they're USB then they're separate sound devices and aren't using your onboard audio at all.

So for needs at least, a basic £80 mobo with a simple on board soundcard would be all I need. That's helpful information.

My point was more that you need to take a wide view of these things. It's easy to go down the options list or buy something because it's expensive but understanding what you want and looking at the alternatives benefits everyone. You get the best possible system and the manufacturers are kept on their toes by having to offer value for money against companies producing completely different products, not just other motherboard divisions that think the same way.

Agreed. I think in the case of the OP, he should look at what devices will be used for output, so if like me, he is using USB speakers and a USB headset then he wouldn't need a high quality soundcard, if he has studio grade speakers and spends a lot of time listening to high quality audio then it would make sense to get a good quality soundcard or DAC to feed audio into his amp to feed the speakers.

Since DX12 and Vulkan promote better multi-threaded the Core i7 5820K is a better choice than than the Core i7 6700K. The Core i7 6700K is not worth £100 to £130 over a Core i5 6600K either.

Just because the Core i7 6700K is newer does not make it a better buy IMHO.

Unless you were one of those people that would use the extra benefits from the platform on a daily basis as described by EndlessWaves above, however for around the same money you could get 6 cores/12 threads which does make more sense, plus there is scope to upgrade to a higher spec CPU with the 5930K and 5960X both being compatible with an LGA 2011-v3 mobo should an upgrade be required at a later date.

[Daheelah]

Still in stock at Scan. I mentally justified £300 but an extra 12% increase in price in a couple of days might need me to think about it again. I used to total system upgrade every 2-3 years but my current system has lasted about 5 years so I'm getting itching feet (technology seems to be slowing down). I don't need Skylake but I do NEED it =P

I think if I go for the I5-6600K I will just spend the next 2-5 years thinking I should have just spent a little bit money and feeling a little bit sad for myself.....

Your system is a lot newer than mine (and not on it's last legs) so it might be harder for you to upgrade.

Yes, mine has some mileage left in it yet, but I still do need to build a new rig for my four offspring to keep them off mine and I would rather base it on latest technology for future-proofing so I have been really tempted (LUST!!!) to just go for the new beast for myself and let them fight over the 3770k rig, but really cannot value-justify doing the 6700K at the current inflated prices. I am waiting a while in the hope that the prices will drop to a justifiable level.

[DanceswithUnix]

What is that used for?

When my kids go and stay there, they game on it. That it probably the hardest it gets worked.

[Professor Frink]

I7 6700K up £354.20 at Scan

[watercooled]

It's really a terrible rip-off at that price. IIRC supply is fairly limited for now so the retailers with stock left just seem to be fleecing people who desperately want one.

I agree with what others have said on this thread that there are better options, but if you really want one, Dabs seem to be about the cheapest with stock remaining (at time of posting they have 2 anyway). Still overpriced though.

From my experience CCL and Dabs have been fairly good?

[Professor Frink]

It's really a terrible rip-off at that price. IIRC supply is fairly limited for now so the retailers with stock left just seem to be fleecing people who desperately want one.

I agree with what others have said on this thread that there are better options, but if you really want one, Dabs seem to be about the cheapest with stock remaining (at time of posting they have 2 anyway). Still overpriced though.

From my experience CCL and Dabs have been fairly good?

Cheers, was looking for under £300. Don't know how I missed Dabs.

[Millennium]

There are apparently supply issues with Skylake even in the US.

I snagged a 6600k (can't justify the extra for the hyperthreading and binning, already had a 2500k!) for £168.53 and am still hoping for 15% cashback on that price. Love a bargain!

[Professor Frink]

There are apparently supply issues with Skylake even in the US.

I snagged a 6600k (can't justify the extra for the hyperthreading and binning, already had a 2500k!) for £168.53 and am still hoping for 15% cashback on that price. Love a bargain!

Not bad, where from?

[Millennium]

Bespoke offers (it's a "new" price beating service, you give it a link and they try and beat the price, just like flubit). I used them through the topcashback website so hoping my extra 15% off will track.

Almost don't want to let people know, don't wanna see the bottom drop out of the uk PC supply chain, but there it is. I'm sure if you're doing a corporate order the extra trouble of dealing with suppliers indirectly is hardly worth it. Also it took around a week extra compared to just ordering off Scan, including the time it took for them to send me 'beat my price' prices.

PS I'll try an let people know if my extra 15% off does track...

[Professor Frink]

Bespoke offers (it's a "new" price beating service, you give it a link and they try and beat the price, just like flubit). I used them through the topcashback website so hoping my extra 15% off will track.

Almost don't want to let people know, don't wanna see the bottom drop out of the uk PC supply chain, but there it is. I'm sure if you're doing a corporate order the extra trouble of dealing with suppliers indirectly is hardly worth it. Also it took around a week extra compared to just ordering off Scan, including the time it took for them to send me 'beat my price' prices.

PS I'll try an let people know if my extra 15% off does track...

I used them for a quote on eBuyer for my mobo. They don't like Dabs so could do it for my CPU.

[Professor Frink]

Not liking Dabs atm. Ordered the 6700k from them last week when the website said they had it in stock. Still not received it so was checking the progress and they are saying 'Awaiting stock from supplier, delivery delayed' now. Fuming.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Core i7 6700K is just overpriced especially since the Core i7 5820K has dropped in price too. I don't understand why people are willing to buy £300 for a chip that has the size of a Core i3 die - they are only promoting Intel ripping us off even more.

Its the smallest quad core die Intel has ever made outside of Atom. Yet its the most expensive consumer socket base Core i7 made.

Its 122.4mm2:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9505/s...ckage-analysis



My old Sandy Bridge Core i3 was larger and was £90.

The desktop Haswell Core i3 chips are salvaged from the quad core dies and are nearly 50% LARGER!!

The Broadwell Core i7 5775C is a few times larger than the Core i7 6700K,costs the same and is made on 14NM too.

Yet,people are determined to get the PROJECT RIPOFF chips - Champagne glasses at Intel now being taken out....!

FFS,there is not even a £5 cooler and look at this:

http://hexus.net/tech/news/cooling/8...ga1150-cooler/

£20+ for a crap stock cooler - for such an overpriced chip,they should be plonking one in for free.

Now a Core i5 K series is £200 - I have stopped bothering buying overclocking chips now because people seemed to be determined to pay stupid money for them.

I really hope it does not mean the socket 1151 Xeon E3 quad cores with HT are £250 for a base one,since if that is the case,I think I won't bother upgrading for a few years.

The "enthusiast" segment is now become the joke "lets see how far we can milk people" segment. If people didn't pay above the odds for such things,the prices would drop - its simple economics.

I wouldn't normally care,but its pushing up the price of all the chips under them too.

Soon,it will be back to £150 for a base Core i5....if we are lucky.

The Core i7 5820K has been on offer for £229 and £248 twice in the last two days from Ebuyer!

What type of universe are we in,when the the server derived platform is around the same price or cheaper than higher profit margin,mass market chips??

You will see what happens with Broadwell-E,Intel won't bother again with a lower cost 6 core chip and then we will be back to £400+ ones,since they cost more to make.

This is the same thing with graphics cards - all the people who paid stupid money for them,just ended up pushing all the cards one price tier up.

Now people think £500+ cards are good "value" and then the rest of us more midrange lot get planted with underwhelming cards like the GTX960 and R9 380.

Heck,my mates £100ish HD7850 which he got nearly two years ago is going tits up and guess what he actually gets less or similar performance for his price now unless he spends more.

It ruins it for everybody in the end.

[DanceswithUnix]

Good rant Cat

The cost per transistor at 14nm is supposed to be about the same as 22nm. They are better transistors, Intel claim therefore they are better value transistors, but they don't cost any less so we can't get the usual trick of doubling the number on a given die size to improve performance. That forces the die size down. What it doesn't do is force the price up.

I notice that GTX960 cards are starting to come down to almost sane prices, almost low enough that if they were that price 4 months ago I might not have bought the 285. But they weren't so I did.

[watercooled]

Yeah it was only a couple of years ago the sweet spot for graphics cards was around the £150 mark, I think I got my 4850 and 5870 for around that, and both were excellent cards not far off the single-GPU flagships of the time. Good luck managing that for even double the price now!

I agree the current Skylake prices are absurdly high though. TBH the wholesale prices are only slightly higher than Haswell (which does still make it expensive considering the small die), but retailers are just plain fleecing people because they're in short supply and some people simply must have TEH LATEZT TING, stuff logic.

Personally even if I was set on getting a Skylake part, I'd wait for the non-k parts or at least for the pricing for the k models to stabilise. Especially for things like gaming, spending a lot more for a few notches higher on the clock speed achieves next to nothing in real-world performance. But again, MUST HAVE TEH BIGGEST NUMBAH!

But like you say, especially while competition is slack it's a case of constantly inflating prices to see what you can get away with. Look at how much 7970s were going for during the Bitcoin craze, especially in the US - they were still profitable for the miners at the insane prices retailers were charging and they were selling all they could get hold of for that price.