I'm going to build a computer for my brother in less than a month and I cant decide whether to get Z97 or X99. He wants to max out every game at 1080p, and maybe 1440p. He also wants a small form factor pc as well. A lot of people are telling me to go with Z97 because the i7 4790k has better single core performance than the 5820k, 5930k, and 5960x but the problem is that Intel is going to release skylake processers that will take the place of Z97 and haswell. A lot of people are telling me to go with X99 because you get better performance with the 5th gen i7 and ddr4 and it came out less than a year ago but the parts are expensive. I came up with a Z97 build and an x99 build that are both micro atx. X99: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XzVFMp Z97: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/g7sppg
Go z97. It'll work with next gen processors and use less power in a small form factor. It'll also have slightly better single threaded performance.
It wont work with Z97 because skylake had an all new chipset Z170 and it will have an LGA 1151 socket.
If you are so worried about being up to date with the current computing, just wait for the Skylake processors to be released.
Z97 supports Haswell (current gen) and Broadwell (next gen), X99 only supports Haswell-E. You should go Z97. An i7-4790K has better single threaded performance than any of the Haswell-E CPUs at stock clocks, and it's cheaper. You can get a great Z97 board for $150 while X99 boards start at $200. And actually, unless you do video editing or rendering, don't get a 4790K. Go for a 4690K, it's exactly the same for gaming if you OC it to 4.4 GHz and it's $100 cheaper. - - - Updated - - - Skylake won't be released until early-mid 2016. Remember the next release is actually Broadwell.
Ok I will stick with Z97 but is the Z97 build I put together good for maxing out all games at 1080 and 1440p?
It'll do a hell of a lot better than my Miracle Machine. Not all games, but most will play full HD or better.
Besides not having a motherboard, yes. Here's a good build for $1500, add a larger SSD if you want: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/bluescreen1985/saved/BcghP6
I edited it a bit to my preference, but also not to include microcenter since some of their stuff is in-store only. It is also $100 more. :\ http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HYDwZL
I forgot to add the motherboard when I made the build on the website and I want it Micro Atx nothig bigger. Also should I get an m.2 ssd or 2 850 pros in raid 0?
That's what poor people say. Meanwhile they still are stuck on 4 cores... DDR3... ... Plebs xD In all seriousness, you should stop giving out pc advice.
Why? Also, X99 is more expensive than Z97, and Haswell-E CPUs are clocked too low. Yes, you can overclock a 5820K to 4.5 GHz, but with the same cooling a 4790K gets to 5 GHz easily. Anything over 4 cores will barely make a difference for gaming, single thread performance is more important. I'm not saying you should avoid X99, but you should only buy it if you really have a lot of money to spare, for a gaming rig at least. Video editing is a whole different story, X99 really is worth the money then (not the 5960X, no desktop CPU ever will be worth $1K).
This guy hasn't told us his budget. Once he can afford 2 970s and 16GB RAM on z97 then he can start upgrading to x99. Why ever upgrade to x99 and get 6 slower cores when you can stay on z97 and get another entire 970? Why get two tiny 120GB SSDs when you could get one 240 or 480? Bluescreen has the right idea for someone who has to ask a forum which to get. Most people that aren't sure if they need x99 or z97 don't need x99. Also, please tell me one time a mATX build for 1080p or maybe 1440p needs x99. DDR3 is also just as fast as DDR4 right now.
His budget is $2500 max if he needs to spend that much money. He is going to use this computer for gaming and various notation software. I agree with bluescreen about this because it is stupid to waste money on x99 when z97 will do better for me for cheaper. I'm officialy going with Z97 cause broadwell will come out and leaves me room for more upgrade. But should i go with mini itx or micro atx for a small portable PC? I can do 2 way sli for micro atx but is sacrifices space, mini itx is very small but sacrifices features. Also, should I SLI 2 980s if I want to play at 4k or just get the titan x?
This isn't the zero's anymore, games already support multithreading. Not to mention the edge more cores have over the conventional quadcore plebs when it comes to rendering. Saying that X99 requires more money than common sense shows how much of a thick minded person you are. Maybe try to give people some actual advice instead of telling them they are stupid if they buy product X over product Y.
Unless you have a single or dual core, single thread performance is more important for gaming than thread count. We're talking gaming here. As I said before, yes, if you do renders X99 is much better. It does. You can buy a 4790K with a good Z97 board for $480. A 5820K and an entry level X99 board (it's as good as a mid end Z97, but more expensive) go for at least $550. I would only go X99 once I've maxed out on the GPUs (sli 970's or 980's). I might have used the wrong expression there. My point is, if it's a gaming rig, X99 is mostly pointless since, with very few exceptions, you'll be GPU bottlenecked by anything but the most extreme setups. Again, if you do renders, X99 does offer a real and large advantage over Z97. - - - Updated - - - SLI 980s.
Ok so I will stick with a single ssd, and stick with the 980. But should I get a 980 with a blower or a normal cooler? If so, which brand and type of card?
