Hi Guys,
So, an interesting development arises across the pond (Australia)... Tax time for us is June 30 onwards. Tax time for me this year will be good, as I finish my student (HECS) loans and have been paying voluntary tax to ensure a nice return.
This gives me a 'spare' ~AU$1,500 (based on my tax estimates) for a new 'guts' (CPU, Motherboard, RAM). Existing system in signature is current. Despite keeping my incidentals (SSDs, GPUs, Case, Watercooling etc.) up-to-date and switching back-and-forth between Z77 and X79 on several occasions, the actual platform hasn't had an update in at least four years.
I've had both a Ryzen 1600X / Board / 32GB and a 7700K / Board / 32GB combo on wishlists at local retailers for a bit now (since Jeff's Part II for Ryzen 5, actually) but canned the Ryzen setup just last night because I don't think the (gaming) gains are worth it. After today, that AU$1500 also now buys me a 7740X, a nice motherboard, and the same 32GB of RAM. I understand the Kaby-X has a lot of shortcomings, but the possible longevity of X299 intrigues me, based on how long both X79 and X99 remained actively supported.
I'm basically looking to buy into a more modern platform, and get a somewhat decent CPU gain along the way. Z77 and X79 have been very good to me, but I have M.2 SSDs and Type C USB and even Thunderbolt gear now, so the home rig needs to come up to speed a bit. Gaming is my primary goal here. I don't do anything other than browse and game on this machine now. Here are my shortlists:
Z270:
X299:
Supply is a bit limited in Australia of course, and X299 only showed up today so there's bound to be other boards eventually. I expected X299 to land higher, and the better CPU SKUs certainly do - but I'm not chasing cores here - or PCIe lanes for anything other than a single GPU and at most, a pair of M.2 SSDs, plus a couple of SATA ones for Steam.
In my shoes, which platform choice would you make (I'm more interested in this than in your actual part choices)?