To Wait on Skylake or Not to Wait

[stockwiz]

double post.

 

[alcoholbob]

Skylake will be dual channel right? So RAM will be far more expensive on Skylake than 1150 since you have to get the same amount of RAM with half the slots available. It's pretty achievable to get 32GB of DDR4 on X99. Getting it with a Skylake system will be what 2 sticks of 16GB DDR4? That's pretty prohibitive.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Yeah I got a couple of MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming motherboards on sale at Fry's Electronics for about $30 each after rebate last Fall with the hope that they would be compatible with Socket 1150 Broadwell.

Jeez! I paid way more for mine...

 

[Geforce man]

Skylake will be dual channel right? So RAM will be far more expensive on Skylake than 1150 since you have to get the same amount of RAM with half the slots available. It's pretty achievable to get 32GB of DDR4 on X99. Getting it with a Skylake system will be what 2 sticks of 16GB DDR4? That's pretty prohibitive.

Joke, right ? 4x8gb = 32gb, still in dual channel. Same as basically every chip ever. quad channel x99 requires MINIMUM 4 slots, but supports 8. 8x8=64, still in quad channel.

The 1151 boards will have 2 slots on the itx/matx, but 4 on the atx / eatx (possibly even the matx depending on manufacturer). Same as 1150, 1155, s775, etc.

 

[pandemonium]

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. Keep them coming; more always welcome!

 

[ClockHound]

Don't wait! Get Skylake NOW! And report back this week with some benches! We NEED mo' data! (And coars). Don't let Intel's legal weasel team make you sign any kind of NDA either.

However, if you have to wait with the rest of us rabble until Intel releases Skylake into normal channels in whatever the new normal delivery time frame is, then tough call. Expect some early adopter pain vs X99 which is almost a mature platform now, except for the DDR4 part.

Oh, well, it's only a month or two. Or 3 to 6 and then we can definitively assure you 6 HW-E cores are better than 4 Sky-S ones. ;-)

Either platform will be a substantial upgrade over the Q9400. Probably the last great upgrade of this decade. So, no pressure, but choose wisely. :biggrin:

 

[alcoholbob]

Joke, right ? 4x8gb = 32gb, still in dual channel. Same as basically every chip ever. quad channel x99 requires MINIMUM 4 slots, but supports 8. 8x8=64, still in quad channel.

The 1151 boards will have 2 slots on the itx/matx, but 4 on the atx / eatx (possibly even the matx depending on manufacturer). Same as 1150, 1155, s775, etc.

You know some people, especially gamers, prefer to not run their RAM at 2t timings? Also filling all the RAM slots gets in the way of some GPU backplates. There's plenty of reasons not to be filling all RAM slots. I mean, obviously if you don't buy computers for gaming or performance I'd understand why you'd think its a joke, but that's cool. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[CakeMonster]

I don't get it. What makes 4 sticks of RAM worse on Skylake than any previous mainstream platform? I do indeed buy my computers for "gaming and performance" and whatever minuscule RAM OC potential is hindered on 4 vs 2 sticks is completely negligible.

 

[Walter E Kurtz]

Upgrade path? Tell that to any early adopter of Haswell, 2 years ago, and see what happened with Broadwell (Beginning the day that Intel announced that old 8-Series Chipsets would not support it). They will be rolling on the floor laughning since the initial launch platform has nowhere to go, even today. Only useful upgrade would have been going from a low end Celeron/Pentium to a Core i5/i7.
Anyone that wants to purchase Skylake not for what it is, but because they think it will be possible to upgrade it in the future, may as well play Russian Roullette with all the chambers loaded. Since Intel totally screwed up the "upgrade path" in LGA 1150, you must have some real faith to trust them, specially considering Kaby Lake announcement, which signals serious node issues. The world is literarily crumbling, so forget about solid upgrade paths on Intel platforms.

Yes you are right being skeptical. That's also why I said "assume", there is no guaranteed upgrade path of course. In any case socket 1150 is on the way out and on an older chipset. I would always wait to see what the newer stuff is like before making the decision to buy.

 

[IntelBob]

I face exactly the same decision as OP, my now ~6 years old Q9400 and 560Ti are crapping out and no longer deliver the performance I need. Build for longevity and gradual upgrades (HDD, vidcard) after 2-3 years. Also plan on CF/SLI x2 and not more.

Have pretty much decided to go with X99 and 5820K for now as my platform. Compare a build of 5820K with X99 with a Devil's Canyon build (same price as Skylake-K). Not much difference and you get more PCIe lanes on X99.
X99 is pretty uptodate and socket 2011-3 should support upcoming Skylake-E, newer boards are hitting the streets soon with USB3.1 incl type C connectors if you wait few weeks.
Also more memory (slots, addressable by CPU and bandwith) and pop in a Skylake-E or Skylake-E Refresh (if there will be one) in 1-2 years, thus only buying the cheap 5820K for now. You still get NVMe support on X99 and other current interfaces.
Personally I'm buying the new case, R9 390 vid card (waiting on Pascal next year for dual cards) and watercooling equipement now and remaining hardware in 1-2 months once the USB3.1 C-port motherboards hit the vendors.

 

[desura]

I vote don't wait. Because when Skylake comes around something new and exciting will be right over be horizon ... And again and again.

Hell, I'm still pretty impressed by the cpu performance of my $100 Bay Trail tablet.

 

[rtsurfer]

From what I have heard Skylake brings in good CPU performance improvements & overclocking. Also appears to have good BCLK overclocking Capabilities & able to handle 4000 Mhz+ memory.

But it also seems to run pretty hot & Intel is still using that crappy TIM.

So it boils down to if you want those 6 cores or not. Average 5820Ks are able to make it to 4.3-4.5G with no problems.

 

[pandemonium]

With the recent reviews of Skylake, my original decision on the 5820k stands. Now, I'm just waiting for Skylake to hit the major shelves (Newegg) for a hopeful price drop on X99 and LGA2011-v3 components. Also, DDR4 availability seems spotty (plus the particular DDR4 set I have my eyes on has been mostly out of stock on Newegg, but in stock elsewhere; I'll order from elsewhere if the price is reasonable or get a different set if need-be, but I'm a solid Mushkin supporter/fan).

The hardest part about this build turned out being the case selection actually. I want something that will be able to accommodate just about anything with ample room for cooling and such, but doesn't look or feel cheap, so the Lian-Li V1000-LB is my current choice. There are some concerns, with the plastic retaining clips for the panels, and it's overly large depth dimension (about 1.5-2" too much for an ATX build). Overall, it's exactly what I want though. I just can't seem to find something that's similar without those faults.