Which Rig is better

X99 gives you option to go for more than two GFX cards w/o the overhead of a PLX chip. The cost of X99 generally puts a crimp on budget which oft results in compromising other components. So if unlimited budget, go X99 w/ 3 or more GFX .... otherwise I'd stick with 1150 and max out GFX and storarge subsystems.

BTW, you'd want a 4 x kit for X99 as its quad channel .... 2 x kit on 1150

I'd say the i7-4790k due to its higher clock speeds more cores probably won't matter, most games only use 4 cores

the i7-5930k is just an over kill for gaming and the i7 4690k will perform better.

I don't know what future games would be. Would they support more than 4 cores? I don't know but if you are getting the i7-5930k for gaming you are wasting money, you better of getting a better GPU

The 5930k is in fact faster in some games ... slower in others.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1260?vs=1316

In average FPS out of 5 games tested , the 5930k is faster in 3, slower in 1 and tied in 1
In minimum FPS out of 5 games tested , the 5930k is faster in 2, slower in 3

Yes sure but its not a huge win, its like 2-5 FPS for $200 more.

Fast RAM is by no means pointless. The mindset that its is comes from the early days when DDR3-1600 was $100 and DDR3-2400 was $200+ ..... the reviews all correctly stated that paying double for faster RAM was not worth the marginal returns. In a $2000 box, the extra $100 was a 10% increase in system cost for a 2-5 % average increase in gaming speeds..... clearly hard to make a ROI case for that expense.

What has happened tho is a) production lines improve and therefore yields of higher speed RAM increase greatly and b) now that higher speed RAM is no longer in short supply, prices tumble. So where are we today ?

Right now, we still see the argument being put forth that there is no reason to buy anything greater than 1600. That is no longer true in any sense.

a) Looking on newegg among the major vendors, the cheapest set of 2 x 8GB is $149.95 and it is a 2133 CAS 9 set with Hynix modules. So why in the world would you pay more for 1600 or 1866 when 2133 is cheaper ?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226420

b) While the differences are small, faster RAM does in fact increase fps. The average is from 2 - 5% but can range from 0 in games like Metro2033 to 11% in games like F1

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/32-gb-ddr3-ram,3790-10.html

Other games that benefit considerably are the STALKER series.

3. Let's look again at that ROI.

When DDR3 first arrives, no it didn't make sense to increase your build cost by $10 % for a 2 - 5% increase in performance. But now the cheapest 2 x 8GB set from a reputable supplier for 1600 is $155
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226314

The cheapest 2 x 8GB set of 2400 from a reputable supplier at 2400 that I can get is $160
(USD $20 off w/ promo code BTS09FNLS135, ends 9/15)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231589

So .... looking today we see that the old "faster RAM is not worth it" mantra no longer applies. Our $2000 system now cost just $5 more, a mere 0.25% increase in system cost for that same 2 - 5% improvement. The ROI there is 8 to 1 at even 2% performance increase.....44 to 1 with F1 !

Nothing has changed with the regard to the magnitude of the performance increase .... still from 0 - 11% but what has changed is the magnitude of the cost which is negative for 2133 and insignificant at 2400.

On the other hand, while 2666, 2800, 2933 and 3000 remain starting at $550 .... no that's is still "silly territory" from a ROI perspective. But again, if ya got the disposable income and it makes ya happy, why not ?

I agree 100% .... that's why i said in my original post, that the money is better spent on GFX. If build say includes a 5930k and two 970s, (because 980s kills the budget), then I'd rather have the 4970k and two 980s. But if there's still money left, the X99 platform gives you a slight CPU boost, a small but not insignificant RAM boost and the ability to add a 3rd and 4th GFX card.