[Random Murderer]

Originally Posted by Aquinus

Why would he need to invest in a 6-core chip? Half of the price he could get the 3820 instead and it is perfectly adequate and performance somewhere between the 2700k and 3770k. The features SB-E brings to the table alone makes X79 worth it IMHO. IVB is still a mainstream platform and should be treated as such since it has practically no upgrade paths past the 3770k.

Also the 6-core makes a lot more heat and does not clock as high. The 3820 however does fly, regardless that it is a "locked" CPU. Just keep in mind that going from 100mhz bclk to 125bclk is an instant 4.5ghz overclock and you haven't even touched the turbo bins yet and honestly, unless you're using LN2 or phase change I doubt you're going to run into limitations overclocking this chip because of the multiplier. Just get some good memory that lets you play around with the BCLK. I've done 135mhz bclk without an issue and I've seen Dumo push it up to 166mhz.

Also a great point and the main reason I went with a 3820. I've never been a fan of the k-branded chips, to me they make overclocking too easy and a lot less fun.
As far as the straps go, almost all of the 3820s can run 125 fine, a smaller percentage 166. Even if you're limited to 125, you can push the BCLK to about 136, combine that with the max turbo bin of 43 and you're looking at 5.8GHz.
Back on topic, we still don't know what graphics card(s) he's running. He may not even need an upgrade.