Skylake motherboard update:
Apparently MSI has a solution for the
non-existent "problem" of Skylake motherboards bending: ("Well, there is no problem, but here is a way to fix it". Okaaay, whatever.)
MSI socket brace
What do you mean non-existent problem? It's 100% real. MSI wouldn't be releasing a fix if the problem was just made up.
Overclockers reports 2 deformed/ruined i5-6600Ks. Both CPUs went into 100C throttling mode --> both are useless now. The problem didn't reveal itself for months:
Interestingly enough, they also had a chance to remove the IHS on one of those CPUs and as expected CPU temps dropped 10-20*C (i7 4770K says hi!)
http://www.overclockers.ua/news/hardware/2015-12-18/117188/
Intel's marketing cannot hide the fact that they cheapened out on PCB design and TIM on the mainstream platform. Intel's excellent i5/i7 Nehalem-> Haswell CPUs never had these PCB problems. No excuses.
There is a cheap and effective fix:
Considering the awful performance drops on Core i5 Skylake in modern AAA games such as GTA V, TW3, Crysis 3 compared to the i7, the only 2 CPUs that are actually worth buying long-term for someone with a GTX970/390 or greater are
i7 6700/6700K.
Proof:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g_t_gJnavI
Once we look at current prices of i7 6700K in North America, the i7 4790K looks like a clear winner (and yes you can get
PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds on Z97 too), while if someone can get an i7 5820K/i7 5930K at MicroCenter/Frys for $320-400, the choice is even easier given better all-around performance + 8-10 core Broadwell-E upgrade path.
No doubt SKL-E will fix the mess of the mainstream 1st gen SLK CPUs. Thus far, this is easily the worst mainstream desktop release among Intel's major architectures: Nehalem/Lynnfield -> Sandy -> Haswell. When i7 2600K came out, in overclocked form,
it smoked the previous gen's 6-core CPU in almost all benchmarks. i7 6700K cannot claim any such feats against i7 5820K/5930K, nevermind against the soon to launch 6800K.
With more and more games taking advanage of more than 4 threads, the peasant i5 is struggling while the mainstream quad i7 is looking mighty overpriced against i7 4790K and 6-core X99 chips.
Hopefully the next major architecture Icelake actually lives up to the past greats and maybe Intel finally delivers a 6-core HT mainstream chip. :thumbsup:
The sad part is i7 6700K is actually selling well at
$500 US on Amazon. Earlier today the stock was over 20 units and now it's down to just 11. Fingers crossed Intel doesn't realize how irrational some of its customers are to pay $500 U.S. for a quad-core when it's almost 2016, and decides to raise the price of the quad-core Kaby Lake i7 to $499 based on i7 6700K as a precedent.