6850k - $300 worth it?

[Insomniator]

There is a possibility I could get a 6850k and motherboard for ~$300 even. Would still need to add memory, but that's still a pretty good deal even compared to Ryzen. I could wait for for Coffelake, but that's months off and assuredly a decent board + 6 core CL will be what, $600 minimum?

I guess my question is - has Ryzen completely eliminated this chip from contention? $300 sounds great but even if I could clock the 6850 to 4.4GHZ, would a 1700/1800 for similar money still be better?

For my use cases I don't think I'll ever notice a difference between Ryzen and this so lowest possible cost seems like the right option.

 

[Arachnotronic]

For gaming, the OC'd Broadwell-E should be better than Ryzen 1700X/1800X or even Skylake-X 7800X.

I'd say go for it.

 

[tamz_msc]

At that price for the CPU+motherboard, it's a steal. I would not hesitate one bit.

 

[crashtech]

One could conceivably come a bit under that price with a Ryzen 5 1600 and a cheap mobo, but the ultimate performance of the 6850K will be higher with OCing. I think it's close enough to be called by personal preference.

 

[IEC]

6850K + motherboard for $300?

That's a deal. Buy it and OC it. Enjoy top tier performance.

 

[rainy]

Personally, I'm AMD fan/supporter, however I think it's an excellent deal.

 

[formulav8]

There is a possibility I could get a 6850k and motherboard for ~$300 even

Very good deal . Jump on it.

 

[Ranulf]

Its a good deal.

 

[moonbogg]

Its used? If you know its in good condition, buy it without hesitation. I certainly would and I never buy used, but that's a damn good deal. You won't be too far behind coffee lake performance. Slower yeah, but nothing like a night and day difference, especially not for half the price. And 6850K oc'd is faster than Ryzen and most of the time Skylake-X as well in gaming.

 

[jihe]

Dude I would jump on that. If you tried and don't like x99 just flip it for a profit.

 

[crashtech]

True, the CPU alone goes for more, even used.

 

[VirtualLarry]

One could conceivably come a bit under that price with a Ryzen 5 1600 and a cheap mobo, but the ultimate performance of the 6850K will be higher with OCing. I think it's close enough to be called by personal preference.

Yeah. You can get Ryzen 5 1600 / 1600X for $220, and an ASRock AB350 Pro4 (ATX) or AB350M Pro4 (mATX) for roughly $80.

Edit: At this juncture, I choose to support AMD in their endeavors. But an Intel CPU could be cool too, I suppose.

Edit: My bad. You can get a brand new 1600X on ebay for around $200, and the AB350M Pro4 for $74.99 + $0.99 ship from Newegg on ebay. Even cheaper!

 

[scannall]

Flip it, and build a complete system.

 

[Shmee]

I would take. X99 is the best rounded platform for OC gaming IMO, especially at that price. Pitty its not a 5930k, as the Haswell E tends to OC better than the Broadwell E.

 

[Carfax83]

I would take. X99 is the best rounded platform for OC gaming IMO, especially at that price. Pitty its not a 5930k, as the Haswell E tends to OC better than the Broadwell E.

I came from a 5930K to a 6900K, and what Broadwell-E lacks in clocks compared to Haswell (my 5930K was clocked to 4.4ghz), it makes up in IPC, roughly a 5-10% gain on average and more in FP/vectorized code.

That said, X99 is a robust platform which will last a long time so I say to the OP, jump on it!

 

[Arachnotronic]

Yeah. You can get Ryzen 5 1600 / 1600X for $220, and an ASRock AB350 Pro4 (ATX) or AB350M Pro4 (mATX) for roughly $80.

Edit: At this juncture, I choose to support AMD in their endeavors. But an Intel CPU could be cool too, I suppose.

Yes, we know. You have made that very, very clear.

 

[krumme]

Yes, we know. You have made that very, very clear.

Well at least we know why.
We have 1 or 2 people in this forum who can actually use all the avx power of skl x yet we have a handfull buying this cpu. For reasons that is still unknown to me.
I guess they all ocasionally game on 144hz 1080 screens - in games that dont run slow on the l3 fabric - and yet have some sort of udefined need for mt perf excactly between 6 and 10 cores. No more no less.
Its all guessing because we dont know.

And btw. I take this 6850 plus mb for 300 any time of the week. Oc or non oc. Stellar deal. Robust in all situations unlike skl x and without the insane power draw and bad efficiency.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well at least we know why.

Yep. Keep it mostly fully loaded, doing Distributed Computing, which will utilize as many cores as you're willing to buy and configure to run it.

At the time, the Ryzen 5 1600 seemed to clearly be a price/performance leader.

But this Intel deal is pretty darn good, too, and if you swing team Blue, go for it OP!

 

[krumme]

Yep. Keep it mostly fully loaded, doing Distributed Computing, which will utilize as many cores as you're willing to buy and configure to run it.

At the time, the Ryzen 5 1600 seemed to clearly be a price/performance leader.

But this Intel deal is pretty darn good, too, and if you swing team Blue, go for it OP!

You cant compare used to new really. It all comes down to if you prefer to buy used.

At new price the 1600 is a fantastic cpu. At its price it can do everything. Insane amount of computing power for the price and you even get okey cooler for stock. Best deal the last 10 years if not since celeron 300a.

 

[Insomniator]

Yeah the 1600 looks shockingly good, but whatever... I like staying on the evil blue side, they earned it.

Picked it up for $360, and should be able to get a $50 rebate on the motherboard for $310 total. Microcenter actually honored the 100 bucks off pairing it with a clearance board... now I just need to find some DDR4 that doesn't cost its weight in gold.

 

[Insomniator]

Finally got off my ass and around to installing this! Was all prepared to have to wipe my hard drive and start over.... when I saw my freakin background come up like nothing even changed. Installed chipset and mobo drivers back up and running. My old 1TB data drive is clicking and dead however... kind of random... have a feeling its not necessarily the drive itself. Was working find on the old system when I shut it down to replace.

One thing that is crazy to me is that even with my crappy 4 year old Corsair H60 the 6850k idles at 20C on all cores and 50C on load. That's 10C cooler than my 2500k...

 

[Boris Morozov]

Finally got off my ass and around to installing this! Was all prepared to have to wipe my hard drive and start over.... when I saw my freakin background come up like nothing even changed. Installed chipset and mobo drivers back up and running. My old 1TB data drive is clicking and dead however... kind of random... have a feeling its not necessarily the drive itself. Was working find on the old system when I shut it down to replace.

One thing that is crazy to me is that even with my crappy 4 year old Corsair H60 the 6850k idles at 20C on all cores and 50C on load. That's 10C cooler than my 2500k...

wow that's awesome! Even stock my 5930k does not idle that cool.. i want your temps. lol