I'm running a x5660 @ 4.5Ghz with a GTX 1080. I'm pretty much maxed out as far as x58 goes, the cpu will actually go faster (4.6Ghz is no effort at all and I havent tried any higher) but would need better water cooling to cope under heavy load (Kraken x61 atm) if i was going to explore more than that. I love xeons and was toying with going x79 x99 s2011 and some e5 goodness but now Ryzen has appeared and is tempting me. I game so that is pretty much the heavy usage area. Would you plumb straight for Ryzen or snap up others old s2011 stuff as they go Ryzen? I usually try and run several years behind the curve tbh as it is cheaper and gave up buying new stuff years ago, but now i am tempted.
There is no viable upgrade path for you. Don't waste your time with E5 Xeons. I've got the top dog 8 core (2680V2) and it gets its head smashed in by the Ryzen 1600, let alone the 1700 (which just demolishes it). You still won't get a cheap X79 board because the Xeons are getting cheaper. I would fleabay what you have and go Ryzen. Amazon have the 1700 at £280. Insane value. I will be joining the club on Thursday night
I had a **** show last time i ebayed some pc stuff with spurious returns and refunds leaving me well out of pocket so wont be taking paypal from now on (with its fully enforced against your will returns policy that you the seller have to pay for for any made up reason) and collection only.
I was in the exact same situation as you and, at the time, the only real option I had was to go X99 and get either a 5820K or 6800K as I wanted to stay with hexcore. Ryzen wasn't out then (early Feb) so I took the plunge on new stuff and have never looked back. I'm not running the latest hardware but it's recent enough still to be relevant, and it also gives me the option of a nice CPU upgrade if I so choose somewhere down the line (which I inevitably will). Now, however, there's little point getting Intel because Ryzen is so cheap and it's perfect for gaming. An R5 1600 system would set you up perfectly with a nice bump in performance from X58 and much improved technology, like NVMe, USB 3.1 and DDR4.
