I'm trying to remember the frequency-history of upgrades I've made over the years. I jumped from 2003 Northwood Pentium to LGA-775 and C2D/C2Q in 2007. In 2011, I built my first Sandy Bridge, climbing aboard the Z68 bandwagon almost as soon as the chipset was released with motherboards.
I'm just 15 days short of a full four years with these configurations. I keep saying I "have an upgrade plan and budget," but I can't make up my mind whether to pull the string for a 4790K/skt-1150, a 5820K/skt-2011v3, or simply continue waiting and enjoying these old Sandy cores.
Your own OC seems to support those assumptions I had made about the SB-K processors.
I have occasional PC-tech discussions with my doctor, who had chosen a DIY approach to networking his office and clinic. He'd been more enthusiastic about picking parts and building PCs. I can't discount his current posture: "It can be like pouring money down the toilet." With that, he's addressing the "high-end" enthusiast obsession. He's taken to buying Dell refurb-retreads -- some with Xeon processors.
This type of thread pertaining to the Sandy K processors is among many which have appeared over the last year or so.
I'm just 15 days short of a full four years with these configurations. I keep saying I "have an upgrade plan and budget," but I can't make up my mind whether to pull the string for a 4790K/skt-1150, a 5820K/skt-2011v3, or simply continue waiting and enjoying these old Sandy cores.
If you have a MC around you, imho the more reasonable considerations are waiting for Skylake, or grabbing 5820K or waiting for BW-E. Even if the 5820K hits 4.3Ghz, it's way better to have 50% more cores and larger cache than another 400mhz clock speed the i7 4790K might get you if the intention is to keep the system for 5 years. Not to mention there are actually feature packed X99 boards that don't cost a lot like Asrock X99 Extreme 4. If X99 follows the foot-steps of X58, there could be some cool Xeon chip drop-ins for $100-125 in 5 years time.
Otoh, it feels like Intel is low-balling i7 6700K with 4.2Ghz clocks. It feels like they are doing this on purpose so that a 12 months refresh will follow Devil's Canyon 4790K with a much higher clock. However, if i7 6700K can reach 5Ghz overclocks, it's well worth waiting for until August, since it's only 3 months away (3 months compared to having a SB system for 4-4.5 years is prob worth waiting for in this case).
Not to mention we also upgrade for features. When it comes to features, Z97 is worse than Z170 boards.
Native Intel USB 3.1 Type-C chipset (although USB 3.1 Type-C connectivity is now available on some X99/Z97 boards), dual and triple M.2 32GB/sec slots, dual and triple SATA Express slots (although I realize SATAe has been DOA for now), HDMI 2.0 4K @ 60Hz.
Even the option option of having Creative's ZxRi onboard!
We could also see Thunderbolt 3 on some Z170 boards. At least Gigabyte is already promising that.
The only way I'd go i7 4790K right now is if I wasn't overclocking at all, needed to build a system ASAP or got some crazy perk (for example Samsung 850 EVO SSDs or some Z97 mobos come with free 8GB DDR3 memory which means if you buy one of each, you are saving $175-200 vs. paying for 16GB DDR4 kits). In this case, the $175-200 saved on not getting DDR4 could be reinvested towards a faster GPU or a better monitor, etc. Otherwise, I think most SB users who are intending to keep another platform for 4-5 years are better off grabbing a 5820K or waiting for i7 6700K this August.
If you have a MC around you, imho the more reasonable considerations are waiting for Skylake, or grabbing 5820K or waiting for BW-E. Even if the 5820K hits 4.3Ghz, it's way better to have 50% more cores and larger cache than another 400mhz clock speed the i7 4790K might get you if the intention is to keep the system for 5 years. Not to mention there are actually feature packed X99 boards that don't cost a lot like Asrock X99 Extreme 4. If X99 follows the foot-steps of X58, there could be some cool Xeon chip drop-ins for $100-125 in 5 years time.
Otoh, it feels like Intel is low-balling i7 6700K with 4.2Ghz clocks. It feels like they are doing this on purpose so that a 12 months refresh will follow Devil's Canyon 4790K with a much higher clock. However, if i7 6700K can reach 5Ghz overclocks, it's well worth waiting for until August, since it's only 3 months away (3 months compared to having a SB system for 4-4.5 years is prob worth waiting for in this case).
Not to mention we also upgrade for features. When it comes to features, Z97 is worse than Z170 boards.
Native Intel USB 3.1 Type-C chipset (although USB 3.1 Type-C connectivity is now available on some X99/Z97 boards), dual and triple M.2 32GB/sec slots, dual and triple SATA Express slots (although I realize SATAe has been DOA for now), HDMI 2.0 4K @ 60Hz.
Even the option option of having Creative's ZxRi onboard!
We could also see Thunderbolt 3 on some Z170 boards. At least Gigabyte is already promising that.
The only way I'd go i7 4790K right now is if I wasn't overclocking at all, needed to build a system ASAP or got some crazy perk (for example Samsung 850 EVO SSDs or some Z97 mobos come with free 8GB DDR3 memory which means if you buy one of each, you are saving $175-200 vs. paying for 16GB DDR4 kits). In this case, the $175-200 saved on not getting DDR4 could be reinvested towards a faster GPU or a better monitor, etc. Otherwise, I think most SB users who are intending to keep another platform for 4-5 years are better off grabbing a 5820K or waiting for i7 6700K this August.