[MicroCenter In-Store] i5-6600K $179.99, i7-6700K $259.99, i7-5820K $309.99, i7-6800K $329.99

[RussianSensation]

Micro Center

Old vs. New Prices:

i3 6100 $109.99 -> $99.99
i5-6600K $199.99 -> $179.99
i7-6700K $299.99 -> $259.99
i7-5820K $329.99 -> $309.99
i7-6800K $399.99 -> $329.99

Rumoured prices on i7-7700K are $349.99. Assuming Kaby Lake overclocks to 5-5.1Ghz with 1.48V, most i7-6700K can also overclock to 4.7-4.8Ghz with 1.48V as well, that means Kaby Lake i7-7700K will be about 6-8% faster in the real world for possibly $90-95 higher price that's better used towards a larger/faster SSD or a faster videocard such as moving up from a GTX1060/RX 480 to the GTX1070.

$30 combo discount with Asrock Z170 Pro4 and $25 rebate would get you a nice Z170 board for $55!

 

[Ranulf]

If I lived near a Microcenter.... I'd be in trouble a lot. I wish Fry's actually had deals worth driving for.

 

[fleshconsumed]

Fry's typically has a deal on intel cpu or combo on Sunday after BF that's usually worth driving for, but you got to be there right when they open doors. I think two years ago I got 4790k for $220 I want to say?

 

[Ranulf]

Yeah I may keep an eye out for deals but I think I'll wait on Kaby Lake at this point.

 

[RussianSensation]

Fry's typically has a deal on intel cpu or combo on Sunday after BF that's usually worth driving for, but you got to be there right when they open doors. I think two years ago I got 4790k for $220 I want to say?

I've never shopped at Fry's so not sure. If you already have an i7 4790K, you can probably wait into Ice Lake in 2018. 2015 Skylake, 2016 Kaby Lake, 2017 Cannonlake/Coffee Lake are all the same underlying Skylake architecture. Essentially until 2018 Intel will not have any true new CPU architecture which means Haswell i7 4770/4790K should last 4-5 years.

I suppose if you can offload your 4790K and DDR3/Mobo and upgrade for $100 to 6700K and DDR4, it could be a cheap upgrade just to play with new parts.

If I had i7 2600K 4.8Ghz and a single GTX1070/980Ti and 1440p monitor, I would probably still be using it today. But I was coming off an i5-2500K and I got 1070 SLI so it didn't make sense for me to stick with Sandy. With a 4.5Ghz Haswell i7, the bottleneck is going to fall largely on the GPU in most games.

Yeah I may keep an eye out for deals but I think I'll wait on Kaby Lake at this point.

Ya if you don't have MC around you, then paying full price for 6700K at this point isn't a good idea. Kaby Lake and Z270 are expected to be short-lived as Intel should launch Z370 and 10nm Cannonlake in late 2017. If 7700K cannot reliably hit 5-5.1Ghz overclocked on air at reasonable voltage, it will be disappointing.

 

[hennarot]

Micro Center

Old vs. New Prices:

Curious to hear what you're thoughts are on those X99 parts. With X299 and Skylake-X/Kaby Lake-X a ways off I'm waiting to see what kind of overclocks the 7700k is capable of before considering a new platform.

Main uses are some photo editing and BF1. Given that BF1 seems to respond well to more threads, figured X99 was still worth considering despite it being a dead end.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I saw those deals this morning and am tempted by the BW-E, but I think I'll hold out a little longer. The nearest MC to me is about 2 hours away but I'm still not convinced it is time to give up on the rig in my sig yet. At this stage, I could see canceling my upgrade next year (for the fourth year in a row) and waiting to see what Ice Lake brings, though I suspect I'll be disappointed.

 

[Ranulf]

Just saw that the Amazon price is currently $299 for 6700K.

 

[pcslookout]

Just saw that the Amazon price is currently $299 for 6700K.

Yep and when you include tax with Microcenter for $259.99 it is about the same price.

 

[ElFenix]

6700k's been this price for a while, keep getting hits on my SD microcenter alert for it. 6600k and 6800k pricing may be new. it's kinda getting hard to resist.

 

[RussianSensation]

Curious to hear what you're thoughts are on those X99 parts. With X299 and Skylake-X/Kaby Lake-X a ways off I'm waiting to see what kind of overclocks the 7700k is capable of before considering a new platform.

Main uses are some photo editing and BF1. Given that BF1 seems to respond well to more threads, figured X99 was still worth considering despite it being a dead end.

I watched a bunch of YouTube videos a while back on comparing i7 6700K vs. i7 6-10 core in photo editing and Skylake won every time. Adobe Premier and PhotoShop run faster on i7 6700K than any other processor right now.

i7 6700K is also better for MP3 conversion

Where 6-10 core CPUs shine is rendering, video encoding and compression/decompression
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i7-broadwell-e-6950x-6900k-6850k-6800k,4587-4.html

For BF1, what GPU do you have and what monitor? Are you trying to achieve 120-144 FPS?

I saw those deals this morning and am tempted by the BW-E, but I think I'll hold out a little longer. The nearest MC to me is about 2 hours away but I'm still not convinced it is time to give up on the rig in my sig yet. At this stage, I could see canceling my upgrade next year (for the fourth year in a row) and waiting to see what Ice Lake brings, though I suspect I'll be disappointed.

If you are satisfied with your existing performance, just keep the i7 2600K because it has more or less bottomed out in resale value. You should still be able to sell it for $90-100 in a year or 2. I already responded a similar dilemma in Moonbogg's thread here. Summary: I think if an i7 2600K user plans on keeping the 980Ti/GTX1070 level GPU until Volta in 2018, might as well upgrade to Ice Lake and skip all the refreshed in-between. If you skipped 6700K, I don't really see how 7700K or Skylake-X changes anything for you. Think about it, 300mhz overclocking headroom on 7700K over 6700K isn't going to make a dramatic performance difference in games and if you didn't upgrade to a 4.7Ghz 6700K, then what's the difference between that a 5Ghz 7700K?

"Even so when looking at average frame-rates in titles where we are truly CPU-bound for the majority of the duration, there are some notable results: in GTA 5, the 6700K is 20 per cent faster than the 4790K, 34 per cent faster than the 3770K, with a 38 per cent uptick compared to the 2600K. Also noteworthy is Far Cry 4: 17/40/43 per cent faster respectively than its predecessors - Devil's Canyon, Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-intel-skylake-core-i7-6700k-review

If that didn't get Sandy i7 users to upgrade, then it makes no sense why they waited 1.5 years for 7700K OC that is going to be what 6-8% faster than 6700K max OC? (5.1Ghz / 4.7Ghz = 8.5%). That's a big IF because I am hesitant to believe 7700K will hit 5.1Ghz on air with 1.400V.

Also, as you know i7 7700K is short lived as it will be superseded by 300 series chipset and Cannonlake and Coffee Lake in early 2018.

That's why it's a Sandy Bridge dilemma. Sandy user kept their CPU for 6-7 years and in the process skipped 2 full Intel CPU architectures (Haswell and Skylake). Since Intel has moved to a 3-year-cadence, everything from 2015-1H of 2018 will be "Skylake or Skylake+", nothing else. That is exactly why IDontCare gave an insanely solid & forward looking advice of buying a 6700K and logging off the forums for 5 years.

Don't get me wrong, 7700K and Skylake-X will be better than 6700K, but in the context of time, 1.5 and 2 years will have passed, respectively. That's a long time to get more or less similar level of performance, while bottlenecking a GTX980Ti and faster GPU all that time. It also means 2600K is end of the line for 1080Ti and faster, which means those planning on getting those GPUs will be forced to upgrade in 2017 or stand to lose 25-30% performance in minimum FPS.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

If you are satisfied with your existing performance, just keep the i7 2600K because it has more or less bottomed out in resale value. You should still be able to sell it for $90-100 in a year or 2. I already responded a similar dilemma in Moonbogg's thread here. Summary: I think if an i7 2600K user plans on keeping the 980Ti/GTX1070 level GPU until Volta in 2018, might as well upgrade to Ice Lake and skip all the refreshed in-between. If you skipped 6700K, I don't really see how 7700K or Skylake-X changes anything for you. Think about it, 300mhz overclocking headroom on 7700K over 6700K isn't going to make a dramatic performance difference in games and if you didn't upgrade to a 4.7Ghz 6700K, then what's the difference between that a 5Ghz 7700K?

"Even so when looking at average frame-rates in titles where we are truly CPU-bound for the majority of the duration, there are some notable results: in GTA 5, the 6700K is 20 per cent faster than the 4790K, 34 per cent faster than the 3770K, with a 38 per cent uptick compared to the 2600K. Also noteworthy is Far Cry 4: 17/40/43 per cent faster respectively than its predecessors - Devil's Canyon, Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-intel-skylake-core-i7-6700k-review

If that didn't get Sandy i7 users to upgrade, then it makes no sense why they waited 1.5 years for 7700K OC that is going to be what 6-8% faster than 6700K max OC? (5.1Ghz / 4.7Ghz = 8.5%). That's a big IF because I am hesitant to believe 7700K will hit 5.1Ghz on air with 1.400V.

Also, as you know i7 7700K is short lived as it will be superseded by 300 series chipset and Cannonlake and Coffee Lake in early 2018.

That's why it's a Sandy Bridge dilemma. Sandy user kept their CPU for 6-7 years and in the process skipped 2 full Intel CPU architectures (Haswell and Skylake). Since Intel has moved to a 3-year-cadence, everything from 2015-1H of 2018 will be "Skylake or Skylake+", nothing else. That is exactly why IDontCare gave an insanely solid & forward looking advice of buying a 6700K and logging off the forums for 5 years.

Don't get me wrong, 7700K and Skylake-X will be better than 6700K, but in the context of time, 1.5 and 2 years will have passed, respectively. That's a long time to get more or less similar level of performance, while bottlenecking a GTX980Ti and faster GPU all that time. It also means 2600K is end of the line for 1080Ti and faster, which means those planning on getting those GPUs will be forced to upgrade in 2017 or stand to lose 25-30% performance in minimum FPS.

Sigh I'm still on a first gen i7 and I'm tempted to upgrade but it's really hard to justify it. I play on my 4k TV but I have the games windowed so I have no issues with FPS or lag. It's just an itch cause it's been 10 years but I feel like retiring my i7 is kind of a waste since it still runs so well.