It's that horrible question...Z or X based chipsets

[dz0rpw]

Hi All,

The time has come to finally update my aging ASUS P6T Del.V2 which has been 100% stable as a hackintosh. Things are just starting to lag and the time has come to do the upgrade. Moving from the i7-920 (@3.6Ghz) to either a 4790K or 5820K will deliver the much needed increase in performance but of course we have the issue with Haswell-E not being fully supported yet.

I bought the P6T about 6yrs ago and I'm a bit concerned that the z97+4790K sounds like it's the last of its generation and everything is about to change and I stuck with the age-old question of when and what to buy.

So the question is "Do you know if the z97 has a few more years or has anyone caught a sniff of the Haswell-E support date?"

Regards,

Dz

 

[trs96]

Looks like you really got your money's worth from the Asus system.

I just completed a Z97 system and installed Yosemite with 0 problems using
the Unibeast / Multibeast method. The mobo is a Z97X-UD3H with an i5-4690K

Everything works except the two things common to everyone, iMessage and
audio after sleep from the rear panel "green" port. The front audio jack doesn't
have that issue. Since I don't use iMessage or the rear panel audio those are
non-issues. From my perspective, Intel and Gigabyte learned some lessons
with the Z87 chipset and fixed them quite well in Z97. It's a good time to upgrade
now as this Summer, the Broadwell rollout for desktops occurs, all the Z97 hardware
will only go up in price. Choose your hardware from the Buyer's Guide and you'll be
good to go with a new Z97/Haswell refresh system. With the prices I've seen on the
new Broadwell laptops out now, the desktop chips will likely be more expensive than
the Haswell refresh cpus.

 

[dz0rpw]

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Now that you mention Broadwell CPU's...a bit of research suggests the Broadwell CPU's will work on the Z97 boards so I guess that gives the Z97 platform some sense of future proofing (at least for now). Thanks for that.

Yes the ASUS did be well (it must be the Scottish blood that gives me deep pockets and shorts arms)...I've had my issues with it being a Hackintosh but using a Focusrite USB device (for my Hendrix moments) resolved the ever present Audio issues but the onboard networking needs modding every time there's a upgrade.

I intend to stick with the Buyers guide and move to Gigabyte this time (wasn't even aware of Hackintosh's when I bought the ASUS) but as I said...just trying to figure out Z or X. X99 seems like it's always going to be an expensive platform, the current DDR4 memory prices are sooo expensive. One of my biggest lessons from OSX is memory...give me more memory...currently I have 12GB and it's always running out and paging. So 32GB of DDR4 is a killer and that's Scottish blood is asking if it's worth it and all the hassle of trying to get it working...just not adding up.

Anyway..thanks for the input.

Dz

 

[trs96]

In my personal opinion, it's only worth spending extra for an X99 system with
DDR4 and 6 or 8 cores if what you're using it for (mainly audio or video work)
earns you an income. When time = money then yes go with an X99 system
and speed up your workflow. A Quad Core I7 Haswell refresh build will get the job
done it just takes a little longer. The one exception might be for those working
with large 4 or 5K video files where the I7 Haswell may be a bottle neck in the
system's performance.