6850k vs 6900k vs 7280k vs 7900x

[mrt1976]

Hello everyone,

I'm going backwards and forwards between the 6850k, 6900k, 7280k & 7900x and thought I would seek some advice.

Intended use:
The production of 360 degree virtual tours and gigapixel panoramas. The files I work with are huge (50GB+). My current hack has a 2600k with 32GB RAM, SATA 3 SSDs and a GTX680 GPU. This worked fine on my older lower-resolution camera, but larger sensors results in larger file sizes and I now need more RAM (I plan to start at 64GB, but would like the wiggle space to have 128GB in the future). I also need faster storage 2 x 1TB 960 Pros. I will be keeping the GTX680 for now as I don't have sufficient funds to upgrade this at the moment.

Some of the software I use (Photoshop for example) doesn't take advantage of multicore CPUs. When using these programmes, I'd like to be able to OC to keep things moving as smoothly as possible.

However, the software used for other parts of my workflow does run on all available cores. Also, I often multi-task and edit one picture in Photoshop while a HDR batch is processing in the background. I therefore think I'd gain from having more cores.

My experience as a Hackintosher: "Pre-Intermediate"
My current P8Z68-v-Pro with a 2600K and GTX680 was very easy to build. It's also been very stable. This means that I've never really been forced to learn the in's and out's. I've read @kpg 's very detailed guides to X99 and X299. They seem very abstract at the moment, but I'm hoping they'll make more sense when I'm in the process of building the rig.

Short-listed CPUs
I'll go through the 4 CPUs one by one and state the pros and cons that I am aware of for each of them, as well as any questions that I have about them.

i) 6850K

• Pros:
  • cheap
  • doesn't get too hot when OC-ing, so doesn't need expensive water-cooling
  • 40 PCI-e lanes
• Cons:
  • only 6-core
• question:
  • the ASUS X99 deluxe II only seems to have 1 x m.2 port. Is there a way to get 2x960 pros running on the 6850K?

ii) 6900k

• Pros:
  • 8 core
  • doesn't get too hot when OC-ing, so doesn't need expensive water-cooling
  • 40 PCI-e lanes
• Cons: expensive
• question:
  • the ASUS X99 deluxe II only seems to have 1 x M.2 port. Is there a way to get 2x960 Pros running on the 6850K?

iii) 7280K

• Pros:

• 8 core
• not too expensive

• Cons:

• it only has 28 PCI-e lanes. I only plan to use 1 x GPU, but if I ever added a 3rd 960 in the future, I'd hit the PCI-e ceiling and from what I understand, there's quite complex sharing of lanes on the ASUS X299 Deluxe meaning there could be some loss of bandwidth on some devices
• it seems to get very hot when OC-ing, so needs expensive water-cooling

iv) 7900X

• Pros:

• 10 core
• 40 PCI-e lanes

• Cons:

• expensive
• it seems to get very hot when OC-ing, so needs expensive water-cooling

Writing this all down was quite a useful experience for me in itself. That's not to say that I am any clearer about which to buy. If you could let me know your thoughts, that would be really helpful...

Thanks in advance,

Nick

 

[Jamesbond007]

Hello everyone,

I'm going backwards and forwards between the 6850k, 6900k, 7280k & 7900x and thought I would seek some advice.

Intended use:
The production of 360 degree virtual tours and gigapixel panoramas. The files I work with are huge (50GB+). My current hack has a 2600k with 32GB RAM, SATA 3 SSDs and a GTX680 GPU. This worked fine on my older lower-resolution camera, but larger sensors results in larger file sizes and I now need more RAM (I plan to start at 64GB, but would like the wiggle space to have 128GB in the future). I also need faster storage 2 x 1TB 960 Pros. I will be keeping the GTX680 for now as I don't have sufficient funds to upgrade this at the moment.

Some of the software I use (Photoshop for example) doesn't take advantage of multicore CPUs. When using these programmes, I'd like to be able to OC to keep things moving as smoothly as possible.

However, the software used for other parts of my workflow does run on all available cores. Also, I often multi-task and edit one picture in Photoshop while a HDR batch is processing in the background. I therefore think I'd gain from having more cores.

My experience as a Hackintosher: "Pre-Intermediate"
My current P8Z68-v-Pro with a 2600K and GTX680 was very easy to build. It's also been very stable. This means that I've never really been forced to learn the in's and out's. I've read @kpg 's very detailed guides to X99 and X299. They seem very abstract at the moment, but I'm hoping they'll make more sense when I'm in the process of building the rig.

Writing this all down was quite a useful experience for me in itself. That's not to say that I am any clearer about which to buy. If you could let me know your thoughts, that would be really helpful...

Thanks in advance,

Nick

I think you are referring to the Core i7 7820X when you are talking about the "7280K"?
https://ark.intel.com/products/1237...X-X-series-Processor-11M-Cache-up-to-4_30-GHz

The Core i9 7900X has 44 PCIe 3.0 lanes, not 40.
https://ark.intel.com/products/1236...-series-Processor-13_75M-Cache-up-to-4_30-GHz

If you want to use a second M.2 SSD on a motherboard with only one M.2 slot, there are PCIe cards such as the Silverstone ECM20 which installs in a PCIe x4 slot and allows for the addition of one M.2 SSD on it.

The iMac Pro supposedly will be released in December. If it uses hardware related to the X299 platform, then MacOS High Sierra may have native support for the platform. I suggest waiting until after the iMac Pro is released to see if native support does come to the X299 platform.

 

[mrt1976]

I think you are referring to the Core i7 7820X when you are talking about the "7280K"?
https://ark.intel.com/products/1237...X-X-series-Processor-11M-Cache-up-to-4_30-GHz

The Core i9 7900X has 44 PCIe 3.0 lanes, not 40.
https://ark.intel.com/products/1236...-series-Processor-13_75M-Cache-up-to-4_30-GHz

If you want to use a second M.2 SSD on a motherboard with only one M.2 slot, there are PCIe cards such as the Silverstone ECM20 which installs in a PCIe x4 slot and allows for the addition of one M.2 SSD on it.

The iMac Pro supposedly will be released in December. If it uses hardware related to the X299 platform, then MacOS High Sierra may have native support for the platform. I suggest waiting until after the iMac Pro is released to see if native support does come to the X299 platform.

Hi Jamesbond007,

Thanks for getting back to me. Yes, you were right that I was referring to the Core i7 7820X and thanks also for pointing out the 44 lanes on the Core i9 7900X.

Is the Silverstone ECM20 supported natively? Is there a limited to how many of the cards can be added? Also, am I right I thinking that they can be used in the PCIe x16 slots?

Thanks again,

Nick

 

[Jamesbond007]

Hi Jamesbond007,

Thanks for getting back to me. Yes, you were right that I was referring to the Core i7 7820X and thanks also for pointing out the 44 lanes on the Core i9 7900X.

Is the Silverstone ECM20 supported natively? Is there a limited to how many of the cards can be added? Also, am I right I thinking that they can be used in the PCIe x16 slots?

Thanks again,

Nick

When you install a card such as the Silverstone ECM20 into a PCIe slot (Yes, it can be used in a PCIe x16 slot, and it accepts both SATA and NVMe M.2 SSDs.) with a M.2 SSD installed on it, then power on the computer, you should be able to see the SSD in the computer BIOS. Then you should be able to format the drive in the MacOS installation program and use it.

I have no idea about a "limit", however I would guess that the number of such cards you can install is only limited by the number of PCIe slots available on the motherboard. Remember that one NVMe M.2 SSD installed on such a card will take 4 (or more) PCIe 3.0 lanes away from the total number of PCIe lanes available (from the CPU or chipset, depending on the motherboard design).