I was considering upgrading my son's PC figuring a push it to 4th gen since there is still some life left in it and it would be cheap. It currently has a I7 920 and a AMD 7990. The 920 is still thumping away and he can still play even the latest games with a few things turned down. I figured I could score a I7 4790k and a Z97 motherboard for cheap. Man was I wrong. What the hell happened that's caused the prices to skyrocket? I'm seeing I7 4790k selling for used prices higher than the original retail price brand new on release. Memory prices on the rise as well. Off topic, I was going to replace the 7990 with a 1070. Even those are selling for an extreme mark up. from 419 on release to 800 dollars now. What is going on? I'm almost better off to give him my system which currently rocks a I5 4690k @ 4.4 and a 1070, and just go with new tech for myself, but the god awful pricing of current GPUs is insane. Makes any upgrade path for me ridiculous with no price to performance gain. I've been out of the loop for 4 years now gurus what am I missing?
the whole "Pc Master Race" building a new computer is a sordid affair nowadays. insane GPU prices caused by mining craze, RAM price is double as a 2 years before... If it about gaming in the 1080p area, you could OC your gear and hold on what you have, maybe we will see a decrease in new components.
Because the 4790k is still a fast chip, in my experience on Parr with the 6600k and the 6700k which is not much slower than the 7700k, thats why it holds its price, given that the 7700k is 4c/8t and so is the 4790k, the 4790k runs so much cooler than the 7700k and will oc better than a 7700k that has not been delided, main draw back is the 4790k uses ddr3, i just had a look through my old future mark scores and my current rig i7 7700k @4.2ghz + Evga 1070 scored only 500 points more than a 4790k@4ghz (mine ran @4.5 will very little effort)+ Evga 980ti rig i had last year....15 639pts vs 15 219pts in firestrike. If its just for gaming its worth trying to get the price down on ebay , occasionally you`ll get a seller willing to haggle the price.
Thanks for the replies gurus, Did some reading the past few hours and its like both of you said. I knew bitcoin mining was on the craze but I didn't realize how much of an impact its had on component sales. I've got my I5 4690k @ 4.5 1.275v and I'm happy with that.The 920 degraded however and is the reason for my inquiry. Basically running at stock 2.6 now, down from the 3.8 I had it at for 10 years just this month. Impressive chip when it came out, got my money worth for sure. I think what I'll do is try some haggling on a 4790k as you suggested, drop it in my rig. I have 16 GB of corsair DDR 3 lying around actually, and the Nehalem rig has a 750 watt Corsair PSU. The 7990 is still plugging away and is fine for 1080p so I can milk it for awhile. So basically its a matter of finding a Z97 board, chip and a cooler. I do have the bones to build a complete new platform as I've done every 4 to 6 years in the past, but I just can't justify paying more than whats it worth. Scary times indeed. Thanks again guys.
You could get him a second hand x5650 6 core, over clocks easily to 4.2Ghz-4.4 without insane volts, very cheap upgrade for an x58 but huge performance boost.
seen a few 4790k + mobo bundles on ebay recently for £200ish uk, depends where you are. was the path i was looking to take when my 3770k @ 4.6 struggles eventually so i can retain my 32gb vengeance ram @ 2333, managed to grab a 1070oc for £270 and a week later prices shot up to 470. its all hit and miss lately. What i tend to do is frequent checks of buy it now newly listed and auctions ending the soonest on bids. usually works for me. Local collection is also a winner at times too.
I completely forgot about that diamond in the rough. If I can pull 4ghz, it would be plenty for gaming. insp1re2600, I'll be looking for bundles as well, might be able to find it cheap as a combo. Great ideas from all of you.
Don't forget the work horse 4820K, ran it at 4.6Ghz for a lllooonnngggg time (24/7 with NH-D14) b4 going to i9 7900x.
This what I would do too Get X5670 or X5675 or X5690, these chips are available over here in UK for reasonable money and most of these chips would do 4.2-4.4GHz, my old X5670 has been able do 4.2Ghz-4.4GHz Hope this helps Thanks, Jura
