Where they at? Release is next Friday. Typically we would have reviews at least a few weeks before release.

From rumors, Haswell-e, and X99/DDR4 being new, way too much cash and beta-tester for me......

Reviews posted this late could mean this cpu is overhyped like DC? Intel's carrot on a stick.

That Z97 debacle is the reason...

DDR4 showed up today.  Woot.

chris-nyc
I imagine Intel is watching this one very closely, they've kinda put all their eggs in the Haswell-e basket.  I doubt we'll see any significant leaks before Friday.

It isn't so much a gamble as a long-term strategic plan, Intel has 100% control of the high-end market, but they don't want us to stay with mainstream and want us to move to their high-end platform; that is the final chapter.  The easiest way to make it happen is to stop offering unlocked models in the mainstream socket, then we won't look there anymore.  Look what happened with Sandy Bridge, unlike Westmere and Nehalem where the entire lineup was overclockable down to the Celeron dual-cores, they reduced choices to just two models (2500K and 2600K) and everyone went along with it.  Very few complained as if they couldn't afford it, otherwise AMD was waiting for those folks, but most went on to get the cheaper i5-2500K.
 
 
Broadwell-K is the last hurrah, since Skylake is locked down; the idea is that from now on we look to X99 and its successors.  Those that can't afford the $389 MSRP of the Haswell-E entry-level could go to AMD for their overclocking fetish, except stock speed Skylake is miles ahead of anything AMD can overclock.
 
Ultimately, X99 is only aimed at X79 users that want to get on Haswell's architecture along with Broadwell-E.  Granted, anyone on i7-3820/4820K may not find the $400 i7-5820K appealing, but anyone that didn't do more than 2-way SLI/CFX with X79 and the $580 i7-3930K/4930K will find it appealing.  And of course the 8-core for those that just want more cores.
 
I figure in my mind, majority of those that choose Z-chipsets overclocked their CPUs and only had 1-2 graphics card, and so the purpose of the 28-lane 6-core in X99 is to eventually garner those customers.  They put up with a pair of x8's anyway.  But I also figure Intel is only interested in gaining those that bought i7's in the Z-chispets, they were willing to pay the premiums above $325-350.  So another $40 for an extra two cores may not be asking much.  Granted this move does spit on i5K users, but are they choosing i5K because they are poor or just want the better deal?  I figure Intel thinks they can afford more if they were restricted to do so.

Nor a review, but a Cinebench run using engineering samples from coolaler.com (not in English, use your own internet-based translator, I use Chrome).  It is featuring both Haswell-E Core i7-5960X and the infamous Haswell-EP Xeon E5-2699 v3.  
 
If you're unfamiliar with the latter, it is an 18-core processor running at 2.3GHz (Turbo to 2.8GHz) fitting into 145W TDP; but because it is a Xeon, the multiplier is locked.  But who really cares, it's a single processor w/36-threads and 45MB of shared cache memory, and possibly costs north of $3000 anyway.  An i7-5960X at 5GHz would probably match up to it, but then overclocking isn't guaranteed.   The current flagship Ivy Bridge-EP 12-core is $2700, and only a few X79 support it.  I imagine only a few X99's will support the 18-core monster.

Why not look for 16gb of 2133 ddr4, as a higher overclocked ram is obviously going to cost more. Compare the same speeds for comparable prices, rather than a higher speed to older tech.

$220 for 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (PC4-17000) http://m.newegg.com/Produ...?itemnumber=20-148-859 so that alone lowers price $30. Don't go for the top end motherboards, and it is super easy to get to a reasonable price. Then factor in the possible RMA time of the new tech, as well as shipping... LoL, let the ones with tons of money make the leap so those that are trying to get the best can swoop in once things are better.

martinch
In an attempt to be fair/accurate, I was trying to do as close to a like-for-like comparison as I could, by limiting myself to DDR3 and DDR4 from the same manufacturer (Corsair) and stockist (OCUK).  Ultimately, DDR3 2133 was the fastest/most expensive by Corsair I could find (Vengeance range only ), and DD4 2666 the slowest/cheapest I could find.  Of course, it may just be the case that said stockist is being selective in what they stock, thus skewing any comparison I made ...

That is why it makes sense to include information like that in the first post. You didn't mention anything about a specific manufacturer or anything other than speed and generation... Helps to be specific when comparing specifics.

I didn't think to look for Corsair only. I just looked for ddr4 vs ddr3. New tech is always going to be expensive. I am starting to enjoy proven tech more than new tech. Too many hassles for new tech.

Frys had listed the 5920K for $395 on it's website for days, it was only just pulled yesterday. So that pretty much confirms the pricing. 
 
SLI/Crossfire is still a process of diminishing returns, so I prefer to buy a single large GPU that'll last rather than two smaller ones. Tech Report still makes the exact same recommendation for the same reasons. Lastly, the friends I have that are interested in cores don't tend to actually game on their systems at all, so the PCIe lanes is a non-issue to them. 

Nice.

Nouskers
Is an X99 board and a 5820k going to work well with two 780's or two 880's in SLi?
 
Or will the lower PCI lanes of the 5820k ruin the dual SLi performance?

I just did a zearch about this a few hours ago. the difference between x16 and x8 os only about 2% at most 5%.

After reading the reviews...I can wait awhile to upgrade my cpu/mobo/RAM. :) So this means I can focus on GPU's and more watercooling. Until the GPU's are bottlenecked by my CPU, I am happy.

SirJamesDTech
It seems to me that 5960X almost mandates a dedicated loop...don't bother screwing around with some AIO.
I'm very much eyeing that 5930K, personally. Though I'll wait for the next iteration of DDR4.

 
where did you find this information about the 5960X?