What is the most current socket? How long could it last?

[sheehan469]

My current z97 motherboard (just a hair over 3 years old) has a bunch of failed usb ports. I went to look for a replacement assuming it will die soon (I don't know if that's a good assumption or not?) and found that no one is making boards that support LGA 1150 processors anymore. I'm also finding that I have a few needs that require newer processors (Kaby lake for proper use of HEVC encoding, etc.) so I'm looking into doing a Big Upgrade. I don't want to go bog standard and be stuck with another overhaul in 3 years, knowing I'll have less money to do it then.

Currently, I have an Intel i7 4790k on an Asus Z97-Pro (wifi/ac). I'm doing a lot of video rendering, photo editing, and graphic rendering these days.
(My pcpartpicker link)

The questions:
What is the most current socket? Is there a particular type that we can predict will be around for a little while? Is there anything on the horizon that might cause big change?
I've always done Intel, I have a GTX 980 that still works wonders and I want to keep it for a while if I can. I know AMD has the new Threadripper craziness, and I know Intel tried to keep up with i9, which I heard was incredibly /not/ worth it. Is that still true? Should I just stick with a new i7 model?

Any recommendations or advice are much appreciated. As are links to other posts with the same question, but I didn't see any in my quick scan of the forum.

 

[Unolocogringo]

. I'm doing a lot of video rendering, photo editing, and graphic rendering these days

In that case you best choice in the new AMD Ryzen line. At least 1600(6 core 12 thread) up to your budget allows.
AMD is faster in well threaded apps for the price paid.

 

[10tacle]

As a Z97 Haswell chipset owner of four years here, I agree with the above. If you are not a gamer and are more productive oriented, go with AMD's Ryzen. Intel just can't match them dollar for dollar in the 6+ core business when it comes to productivity. And at the rate Intel keeps jacking us over on new chipsets coming out (Z170, Z270, Z370 all in just three years) I would not buy a new Intel chipset for long term thinking needs.

 

[dontlistentome]

The most current for Intel is the 1151 Coffee Lake socket, of which there are just the high end 370 motherboards available right now. The Coffee Lake budget boards aren't out yet. AMD has the AM4 boards out, and more on the way. AMD promises to support the AM4 boards until 2020.

You should know that you'll need DDR4 ram for the new stuff. DDR4 is very pricey right now.

As to which specific CPU, unless you are doing professional work I think a Threadripper is probably overkill, an i9 too. I'd bet a 6 core/12 thread CPU would be where to look. More than that and you probably run into a point of diminishing returns.

 

[Karadjgne]

How long any socket will last is impossible to determine. I'm still gaming on lga1155, i7-3770K and a gtx970 with 2x 1080p monitors. There's nothing I play that my pc can't handle satisfactory, that includes any kind of production software my wife tinkers with. 6 yrs old and still good.

Would it be good for amateur/semi-pro YouTubers who want great looking videos and perfect studio sound reproduction? Probably not, and still render/encode in a short amount of time.

So how long really is determined by you, the user, what you do with it, what demands you have of it, is it satisfactory for the job needed.

Figure on any mid-grade or higher pc lasting 5+ years, depending on usage demands. Which setup, Amd or Intel, to be determined by budget and usage. Some software like Autocad much prefers Intel, others such as Sony Vegas prefer Amd gpus etc. Gaming is fine on either, win some-loose some, both with no real run-away wins, production generally likes fast ram, more ram, more cores/threads.

 

[mdd1963]

Realistically, would someone who had purchased a Z170 and 6700K feel like they truly needed a gaming upgrade yet anyway?

(For instance, will there be a battalion of folks who 'upgrade' from a 1700X to a 2700X? Doubtful...200 more MHz can only accomplish so much....

 

[10tacle]

Realistically, would someone who had purchased a Z170 and 6700K feel like they truly needed a gaming upgrade yet anyway?

Nope. Even at 1080p gaming where the CPU means as much as the GPU vs. higher resolutions where it's the other way around, several generations back CPUs are still good. There's a reason I'm still happy gaming with my four year old i5 4690k chipset (albeit overclocked and an upgraded GPU to 1080 Ti).

Intel has shot themselves in the foot with the lack of big advancements in CPU performance. One only needs to skip three or four generations before an upgrade now on an Intel platform. There's a significant performance gap between Sandy Bridge and Coffee Lake, but it's been a slow tick up between generations in performance.

 

[Unolocogringo]

A Ryzen 1600 6core/12 threads would give him 50% more cores.
A Ryzen 1700 8core/16 thread would give him 100% more cores.
And still be very good at gaming and better at gaming while streaming.

 

[sheehan469]

So It's looking like changing or upgrading any parts will require an overhaul of most of the rest of the computer, a new mobo means new cpu and ram. 125-150 for the mobo, 200-300 for a capable cpu, and 400-500 for the amount of ram that I'll need means this all is looking like one hell of a pipedream at the moment. If I need to I'll just buy a secondhand 1150 mobo if/when my current burns out, a pcie usb expansion until then, and figure out some workarounds in my cameras to get around some encoding standards.

Guess I'm slating the 2019 budget for a new rig..

 

[Karadjgne]

No reason to assume anything, especially that the mobo will die anytime soon, if at all. I still have a working asus p2b (genuine pentium II 350) that's pushing 20 years old now. As long as you regularly maintain a clean pc, the psu is really good quality and you aren't going to extremes with OC and/or heat issues, then there's no reason your current setup won't last another 5 years easily. The only reason given so far to upgrade is the native HEVC /4k abilities of kabylake and there are work arounds for that.

Honestly, I'd be happy to inherit what you want to toss.

 

[sheehan469]

As long as you regularly maintain a clean pc, the psu is really good quality and you aren't going to extremes with OC and/or heat issues, then there's no reason your current setup won't last another 5 years easily.

That's the thing. Having to do a lot of video transcoding and using things like warp stabilizer or whatever in Premier have my cpu at 100% for hours, and there it sits just at or below 100 celsius. My ram and gpu are constantly working hard as well, and I'll be damned if in my downtime I wasn't maxing out settings in games. This rig definitely spends a lot of time going through the wringer.

But then, maybe that just means I should invest in better cooling.

 

[Karadjgne]

If you are seeing 100°C, then definitely get better cooling, you are under throttling conditions which are killing your encode times.
My i7-3770K at 4.6GHz under p95 26.6 small fft only sees 70°C after an hour of abuse on all 8 threads. Gaming doesn't go past 55°C. Kraken x61 on silent mode, case fans capped at 900rpm but don't go past 700rpm unless stressed. And I'm using the aio as the case inputs, 2x 140mm as exhaust. With that H110i you should be seeing similar results, 100°C is high for a cpu that shouldn't climb over 1.3v

Are you running any OC?