exar333
Diamond Member
- Feb 7, 2004
- 8,518
- 8
- 91
Q6600 situation was far worse. Barely 10 months after its release, its price fell to $300 from $851. Are we going to get a 6-core CPU 10 months from now from Intel for $300? No way. So buying a $599 3930K is actually better than buying a Q6600 was back in 2007 for $595 or $851. :thumbsup:
Of course, if you don't need the 2 extra cores, it still represents bad value, but if you do want more cores, then it's arguably one of the better priced enthusiasts CPUs in a long-time. Given that IVB-E likely won't launch for a while and AMD is totally a no-show on the high-end, Haswell still being neutered to a quad-core on 1150, it'll probably be a solid 2.5-3 years before Intel sells us a 6-core CPU for $300.
Certainly a $600 6-core SB is a lot better than a $1000 990X. So at least there is some progress still happening, albeit at a much slower pace than expected.
Lack of native USB 3.0, limited # of SATA 3 ports, and lack of PCIe 3.0 lanes on the CPU, cheapest 8-dimm boards starting at $300, well now those are bigger gripes for me. I remember Gigabyte sold an excellent X58 board for about $200-225. The CPU itself is as expected.
The 3960X model, now that one I don't get at all for enthusiasts. At overclocked speeds, the extra cache barely makes any difference vs. the 3930.
I think the 3930K is really not that bad. If prices comes down to $555, it'll be 76% more expensive over the 2600k but offer 50% more cores. Of course if you take MicroCenter combo deals on the 2600k, then ya, the value equation is diminished greatly. Still, it's not like the Pentium 4/D EE editions that commanded huge price premiums but were slow as molasses 5 years later. I doubt 3930K will be that slow in 5 years.
I think it's great there are early adopters like you that help Intel reap even larger profits and reinvest that $ into newer processor architectures that eventually will trickle down to the rest of the population at more affordable prices. There is nothing wrong with someone buying a $1000-2000 CPU if they can afford it/want it.
However, part of the fun to me is buying cheaper parts and overclocking them to make them faster. I think buying a $300 CPU and overclocking it to reach a $1000 one is part of the fun. The problem is, Intel doesn't sell us a 6-core $300 CPU at the moment. But if they did sell a 3925 6-core for $300, I'd buy that over the 3960 even if I could easily afford the 3960I just like the general idea of taking an 'underdog' and making it better. Like taking a 4 cylinder engine and smoking a V8, or having a twin-turbo V8 that smokes a 12 cylinder, etc.
The i7 920 was a rarity in that it OCd almost as high as the 965 at the time, for only 1/3-1/4 of the cost. I cannot remember another case where a flagship enthusiast CPU was released < $300. That's an amazing value.
If Intel released a sub $300 hexacore on 2011, it would invalidate everything on 1155. I would be REALLY HAPPY if this was case, but it's just not the market now. If BD was rocking right now, you can probably bet the 3930 would be maybe $100-150 less.
Lastly, replacing your CPU and MB is really cheap these days. DDR3 has been around for 3 years, 24-pin PSUs have been around for 8 years or so now, and you can usually get a mounting kit adapter for a new socket (for free or close to it). It's simply taking your old out, putting the new in.
With how boring GPUs have been in the last 18 months, a new CPU is always fun.
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