nick3232

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:eek: :eek: hi i just built a 7k system with a 990x then sandy bridge e comes along and crushes me do i build it all over again or just leave it will it lose tremendous value??!! :cry: :cry:
 

singemagique

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Wow, can you post your build? I don't think I've ever seen anyone spend 7k on a single build. From Tom's latest review (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-3960x-x79-sandy-bridge-e,3071-6.html) the 990x holds its own, and for gaming will be more than adequate.
 

nick3232

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Intel i7 990x =$850 1tb of raid 0 ssds $1200 two gtx 580 asus mars $4000 blue ray and dvd drives $123 ps $ 300 $mobo 600 sound card and bluetooth and wifi $156 total $7,229 !! ill post pics but right now i am on mobile
 
Well, computer hardware lose its value the day you bought it (unless something like the flood in Thailand happens and drive HDD price up).

It is a fast machine with no doubt. But it is not a recommended for gaming because the higher price for the 3 channel memory and 6 core does not make games faster (games not optimise for 6 cores and 2 channel RAM in the the 1155 mobo is by no mean a bottleneck). Thus the higer price is not justified for gaming purpose.

Also, the 1155 mobo are compatible with yet to release IB cpu where as the 1366 mobo is replaced by 2011 mobo therefore there will be no upgrade path for you.

I am sorry man. You go into a dead end.
 

nordlead

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If I had that kind of money I'd spend ~$2-2.5k on my first build, and then probably a little less on each subsequent build. After the first build the only parts you'd have to replace are the CPU, Motherboard, RAM, and GPU. Everything else could be re-used. The only way I could justify spending more than that on the initial build is if I was buying 3 monitors at the time, but that should only be an extra $1-1.5k.
 

singemagique

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So I went back in my Newegg history (from where I have ordered every computer system I've built) and since 2003 have spent ~$11,000, on six computer builds!! These aren't all gaming machines mind you, and include a file server and HTPC, but I'm still in awe that you spent $7,000 on a computer...
 


The 3960X only is some 12% faster overall than your 990X, so is it worth it to eBay your new CPU, mobo and maybe memory? Also, the rumors were floating around a couple months ago that SB-E would come out on Nov. 14th, so personally I would have waited a bit for the reviews.

Anyway, if you do 'upgrade', I'd go for the 3930K (around $550 once the novelty wears off and availability increases), and then oc it with decent water cooling. I'd also get a minimum of DDR3-1600 quad memory - 4 x 4GB for 16GB total. Games don't need the huge bandwidth the CPU is capable of handling, so more than that (sweet spot IMO), is a waste.
 

lightus

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New technology is constantly being released. As soon as you build something, it's old.

This does not mean, however, that your machine is useless. I built a computer two years ago for about 1K. In order to play DX11 games I recently purchased a GTX 570. Now I can play everything on its highest settings fairly easily.

The moral of the story (at the risk of sounding cheesy) is: your rig will always decline in monetary value, but its true value is assigned by you.
 


If you plan on a 3960X or a 3930K, yes you'll need an X79 (s2011) mobo, as they won't fit on your LGA1366 mobo.

However, if I were you, I would wait until January or February, as (1) there is supposed to be a new stepping for these CPUs out, with probably a few tweaks and higher performance, (2) the X79 chipsets available by then should have a boatload of 6GBps SATA ports by then, instead of just 2 (the rest being 3GBps), possibly native USB 3 by then (although Intel seems to be dragging their feet on a technology they and Apple inventied IIRC - Intel would like to move everybody to Lightpeak optical interconnects instead), and (3) the 28nm next-gen GPUs should be out and tested by then. I've seen some rumors of huge performance increases on these GPUs (well at least the ones fabbed by TSMC). As long as you are selling off your not-so-old system, maybe you can eBay those 580's and get some what - 680s instead?? :p.

IOW, I wouldn't go buy anything for the next 3-4 months, and instead enjoy that monster system you already have. And next time, come here to THG first and find out about what's best and more importantly, what's just around the corner..
 

my thoughts exactly! That would be one sweet production machine. Too bad a $3-4000 build could likely keep up with it for games though.

In the game of computer building you need to know going in that you will be out of date within 2 years, and nearing irrelevance in 5 years. If you have that money to blow then go all out on the things you dont need to replace every build (monitor, keys, mouse, powersupply, case, fans/coolers, etc), and then buy upper end equipment for the core system that you replace every year or 2 (mobo, proc, ram, HDD/SSD). That computer is worth 5000 the minute you take the parts out of the box, and will be worth $3500 within 2 years... now that is depreciation.

Also it is good to know how software works. Games take advantage of 4 cores max, nothing can be done about this until consoles upgrade and software writers begin coding for 6-8 cores, but that will be in another 2 years so it dosnt matter.
 

nordlead

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This should be that most games take advantage of 4 cores max. I know that Microsoft Flight Sim and Dirt 3 can use 8 cores. I know it makes a difference on MFS, don't know how much it really matters for Dirt 3.
 

jhafner

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no don't buy a new mobo, the pc that you already have is future proof for years to come, but next time before upgrading or buying ask about it in forum and do some reaserches !