Upgraded my Linux box ....

Nothing groundbreaking on the PC hardware horizon, but I wanted a little better performance from my Linux box running lots of virtualization and compiling. I was tempted by socket 2011-3 or socket 1151 with Skylake. But in both cases I would need a new motherboard and new RAM, and in the 2011-3 case I would need better cooling as well. Expensive for not much better performance, so if I cant get much better performance even if I pay up, why not settle for only slightly better performance but way cheaper?

My Linux box was running a Core i5 4570S which has been great, but struggling in some cases, particlarly virtualization performance. I use an old Z87 board from Asus, which CAN run the newer and unlocked  Devils Canyon CPU:s(i7 4790K/i5 4690K). But only if updating bios through Windows using a special Asus utility, just updating bios the normal way wont work as Intel Management Engine has to be updated as well,and that part can only be done through Windows. If not, the new bios will work, but not with the Devils Canyon CPU:s.

So, I had to install Windows and update bios using Asus special 4th gen Intel Core CPU update utility in Windows. Bad luck I used Windows 10, since the Intel MEI in Windows 10 is too new for the update utility, but I managed to downgrade MEI through some hoops and in the end use the utility. Everything went well.

Now, in with the i7 4790K I had bought, and by a miracle it booted! Nice, using  a motherboard as old as the Asus Z87-A to gain contemporary performance. This means my Linux hacking box will be slightly faster than my even older gaming PC(i7 2600K @ 4.8GHz). A thought would be to use it as gaming PC instead, but no big idea as they are practically equal in performance with their respective generation i7:s, The 2600K box has much better cooling, closed loop water cooling. It will continue its duty. Anyway, nice to max out the old box for 300€ instead of the 600-1000€ the 2011-3 or 1151 alternatives would have costed. Performance is certainly equal with at least the 1151 alternative, since the 4790K easily can be overclocked to at 4.6GHz which I did at first run. To get higher I definetely need better cooling, but 4.6GHZ looks stable enough using the cheap Hyper 212 cooler from Cooler Master.

Some benchmarks, YES its besting the brand new 6700K in CPU-Z bench: