Sigh. I've just found out that one year ago and even half a year ago used 7700Ks sold for 1/3 less than they do now, at least where I live.
For ease of reference, once again, my current rig is i5-6600 (non-K),
Asrock Fatal1ty K6 z170, 2x8GB G.Skill Ripjaws 3000/15 (DDR4), (Colorful) GTX 1070ti (8+8).
Options include:
7700K, used: ~$310, perhaps 260 if I keep waiting and am lucky ($50 less than a 9700K, WTF!)
6700K, used: ~$210 and going up
7600K, used, delidded + liquid metal applied, vendor claims does 5 GHz < 70C: ~$210
7600K, used, with MSI Tomahawk z270: ~$230 (this has 2 M.2 slots, which I find useful due to already owning a 256GB NVM drive (and only 1 slot on my current mobo; with the Tomahawk I could add a new SDD instead of swapping)
6600K, used: ~$130
9600K, used: ~$200 cheapest, which is great, but the mobos start at at least $130140.
Edit: i3-8350K, used: ~$120, this probably undermines the position of 7600K on the list
I won't bore you with the details, but AMD is not an option.
My own mobo goes for around $100-125 used (not sure who in his right mind would pay the price, though), the non-K 6600 often sells better than the K (people like low TDPs?). So by not bundling them, and by putting them through slow bidding auctions without a BuyNow option, I could probably easily recover the cost of e.g. buying a 7600K with a z270 mobo. If not, the loss would be minimal.
And of course there's the option to try to hack my bios to allow me to OC the heck out of the CPU I already have, though I'd need to buy two 12cm Noctuas for my CPU heatsink. Not sure how far non-K OC goes.
What would you guys suggest?
Due to December being a good month financially, I'm not as cash-limited as I usually am, but I'd normally find it hard to justify spending $500 on just the CPU and mobo. I have other expenses, too, so to avoid crossing the point of highly diminished returns would be ideal basically the best bang for the buck would be ideal. The 7700K, while topping out on my existing slot, is not ideal, as it's just a single-digit percentage improvement in performance over 6700K or 7600K in many applications while costing 50% extra.
I've just checked, and for work I need as much single-core performance as possible, because SDL Trados coders apparently can't learn to use multi-core in 2019. I'll probably OC the CPU
for work because of this, just to avoid slowdowns and lag when translating huge files (20K words plus heavy macros, lots of formatting, etc.) segment by segment with humongous XML-based memories and IATE-sized multiterm dictionaries attached (all of which gets parsed every time you confirm a sentence, which means up to a dozen times a minute).
For games, well, it seems i7's are finally gaining a large lead over i5's, obviously probably due to more cores. But at least games use multiple cores these days and any i5 has 4 or 6 of them, even mine.
There's also, I guess, the option to wait for 10000 CPUs to come out. But let's say I were buying right now, from the list above. What would you suggest?
At this point I've half a mind to grab the cheapest 6600K possible and then put my 6600 on a long auction just for the meantime. That's a $80 difference to a 7600K/6700K! And I'd probably come close to a net 0 loss.
What would you do?
Edit: I've just realized that i3-9100 (4-core) is about on par with 6700K/7600K before you start OC-ing. Those little things are ridiculously cheap at $90-ish. That and the cost of the mobo would be about the same range as 7600K with no mobo. The i3-8350K is about $25 more expensive, and it's basically identical to the i5-7600K. For me, it's the kind of OC'ing CPU I wouldn't really lose my sleep over bricking if something went wrong. Afterwards, I could keep an eye out for Coffee Lake i7s.
However, I'm quite excited about the delid 7600K, which I guess I could push harder. But then, I wouldn't have a new mobo (and the ability to sell my current one). Still, the difference in performance between 7600K and 6600K a single-digit percentage is not large enough to justify the difference in price as per the above lists, and I'm not sure the good delid on the 7600K makes up for it versus just grabbing a 6600K as cheap as possible.
Heck, I've just realized my i5-6600 could probably sell for more than I'd have to pay for the 89th generation i3's.
One seller is selling the 8350K and MSI Z370 Gaming mobo for $205 total. Do I take them?The reasoning: I pay $205 for these things now. I slow-sell the Asrock Fatal1ty and the locked 6600 for as much as I can, through a long bidding auction, meaning certainty that I will at least sell, perhaps unprofitably, but probably not far below $180 in total. Let's double the difference, so let's say I'm paying $50 net plus some time.
However, I might as well splurge out already and set my eyes on the 9600K. What say ye?
EDIT: Just found another 8350K for $90 and got that MSI Z370 Gaming Plus mobo from the first guy for $80.If this works, I'm gonna have a mobo that has my exact RAM on its QVL and room for the whole range of Coffee Lake up to i9, and a processor that clocks at 4 Ghz and still has 4 cores, great for a lot of games I play, plus the work. I'm going to send it for professional delidding, buy two 12 cm fans (or actually 14 + converters / 14 on 12 mounts
) for the Thermalright Ultra and
fry.
Oh, and sell the Asrock and the i5-6600. Who knows if not for about the same money I've just paid. Probably not much less.
Just hope nothing's broken.
Will keep you guys posted. Thanks for putting up with me so far.
