1241Penguin's Potential Gaming PC Build... Advice Welcome

[Saidur_Ali]

And why exactly should he get a z97 board for a 4460? Please, don't say for overclocking.

4460 is a Haswell Refresh CPU, IMO it is better to get a motherboard that supports it out the box than pay extra for older chipset like Z87 which doesn't. Also it supports Broadwell and so you can also have upgrade path to 4790K or 5775C if extra CPU power is needed in future.

Guess I'll continue researching about the different GPUs and Motherboards then...

I think it would be best if you get a Z170 chipset motherboard and minimum i5-6400 which may be available tomorrow. Looking at rumoured price list, seems to be cheaper than Haswell but you may need to buy a CPU cooler separately which is a good thing. Should hopefully be able to get all that and GTX 970 under $1000 for full computer build. That way you get the most modern system available at the time while keeping closer to budget.

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

As much as I like what you're saying Saidur_ali, it's gonna be very hard to get a 970, a i5 and a monitor under 1k.

Might be possible but budget is really tight.

 

[dr_slump]

4460 is a Haswell Refresh CPU, IMO it is better to get a motherboard that supports it out the box than pay extra for older chipset like Z87 which doesn't. Also it supports Broadwell and so you can also have upgrade path to 4790K or 5775C if extra CPU power is needed in future.

Compared to a H97.

An upgrade at a later stage to a 4790k or 5775C is a waste of money. Look at how expensive even a 2600k is nowadays and that's not exactly a new CPU. If anything, then he should directly go with a 4690k or stick with the 4460.

 

[Techy]

Well in that case, taking into account the PSU and GPU suggestions, here's the updated list:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($225)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($104)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67)
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($439)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($60)
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($86)
Case: Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case ($105)
Power: Thermaltake SMART 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59)
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) ($110)

Sub-Total: $1266

Good God...

With that rig you're set for a good 3 or so years. Pretty expensive at first but it'll pay off.
As for a monitor just get a 24" 1080p IPS monitor. Down the road you can decide whether you want to go for a 1440p monitor.

I wouldn't mind dropping the SSD initially. If I really need it I can get it in the future. Alternatively, I can drop the HDD for the SSD as for the moment I've only got two games which totals 55 GB total. I'd think that is enough, no?

A 120GB drive will fill up pretty quickly with a couple of games and the OS on there. Having a HDD will help alleviate the headache of having little space.

 

[1241Penguin]

4460 is a Haswell Refresh CPU, IMO it is better to get a motherboard that supports it out the box than pay extra for older chipset like Z87 which doesn't. Also it supports Broadwell and so you can also have upgrade path to 4790K or 5775C if extra CPU power is needed in future.

I think it would be best if you get a Z170 chipset motherboard and minimum i5-6400 which may be available tomorrow. Looking at rumoured price list, seems to be cheaper than Haswell but you may need to buy a CPU cooler separately which is a good thing. Should hopefully be able to get all that and GTX 970 under $1000 for full computer build. That way you get the most modern system available at the time while keeping closer to budget.

Seems like the new parts are worth waiting for. Guess I'll find out when they release. Will they work with my current build list?

With that rig you're set for a good 3 or so years. Pretty expensive at first but it'll pay off.
As for a monitor just get a 24" 1080p IPS monitor. Down the road you can decide whether you want to go for a 1440p monitor.



A 120GB drive will fill up pretty quickly with a couple of games and the OS on there. Having a HDD will help alleviate the headache of having little space.

Understood. 👍

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Compared to a H97.

An upgrade at a later stage to a 4790k or 5775C is a waste of money. Look at how expensive even a 2600k is nowadays and that's not exactly a new CPU. If anything, then he should directly go with a 4690k or stick with the 4460.

So you would rather save $6.74 and have H97 and not have option to overclock in future potentially a CPU upgrade?

How is it a waste of money? 4460 won't be worthless so you can sell that after upgrading to a 4790K if one needed too in the future. One of them overclocked will be probably faster than most Intel CPUs at stock. Anyway a while back I bought a Z97 and 4790 to upgrade from B85 motherboard and 4430. Decided against it in the end and ended up getting more than my money back. I plan to upgrade to Skylake as the motherboard features what I want like USB3.1, faster M.2 slots, cheaper and faster than Broadwell 14nm CPUs and DDR4 support.

Seems like the new parts are worth waiting for. Guess I'll find out when they release. Will they work with my current build list?

Understood. 👍

Hopefully it will release tomorrow. If there are good deals I may also upgrade this month if it is available.

Will just need to change motherboard to Z170 chipset one and get an Intel Skylake CPU like i5-6400 and maybe a CPU cooler depending on if Intel provide it with CPU or not.

If you want to get the ball rolling, probably worth buying this power supply now $59.99 after rebates: 500W or 600W for $67.99. Probably best to get 600W so you have more headroom.

 

[1241Penguin]

Hopefully it will release tomorrow. If there are good deals I may also upgrade this month if it is available.

Will just need to change motherboard to Z170 chipset one and get an Intel Skylake CPU like i5-6400 and maybe a CPU cooler depending on if Intel provide it with CPU or not.

If you want to get the ball rolling, probably worth buying this power supply now $59.99 after rebates: 500W or 600W for $67.99. Probably best to get 600W so you have more headroom.

With the CPU and M/O in mind:

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 ($???)
Motherboard: Some Z170 ($???)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67)
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($439)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($60)
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($86)
Case: Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case ($105)
Power: Thermaltake SMART 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59)
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) ($110)

Sub-Total: $???


If no one objects to this, then this is what I'll go with. Just need to figure when they're releasing the new hardware and on which websites I can find them...

 

[Saidur_Ali]

With the CPU and M/O in mind:

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 ($???)
Motherboard: Some Z170 ($???)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67)
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($439)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($60)
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($86)
Case: Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case ($105)
Power: Thermaltake SMART 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59)
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) ($110)

Sub-Total: $???


If no one objects to this, then this is what I'll go with. Just need to figure when they're releasing the new hardware and on which websites I can find them...

Here is i5-6500 for $258.49: Link

Showing as not available at the moment, hopefully more places start showing up with the new processors and motherboards.

Also will need to change RAM to either DDR4 or 1.35V DDR3 RAM depending on which motherboard you get.

Edit: Seems like only 6600K and 6700K will be available initially.

 

[1241Penguin]

Edit: Seems like only 6600K and 6700K will be available initially.

Ah darn it, and I was hoping to get it built before school started.

Maybe I'll stick with the older CPU and M/O then...

 

[Grayfox]

You can also save money for a little while more to get the funds for the GPU and CPU/Motherboard combo.

 

[1241Penguin]

Guess it's worth waiting a bit more then.



The indecisiveness is real. Would it be hugely dumb of me to not wait for the new hardware and instead go for the old stuff which I can expect to last me about 3 years or so?

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Guess it's worth waiting a bit more then.



The indecisiveness is real. Would it be hugely dumb of me to not wait for the new hardware and instead go for the old stuff which I can expect to last me about 3 years or so?

Probably will last you longer than that even with older stuff. The thing is though you could essentially buy more or less the same stuff two years ago for a similar price. I'm looking to sell my current nearly two year old Haswell computer components to upgrade to Skylake. Not sure if I should buy 6600K now or wait for some offers so I'm also indecisive at the moment. If you wanted to spend more to get stuff now, you could always buy the 6600K instead of waiting for the 6500.

 

[1241Penguin]

Probably will last you longer than that even with older stuff. The thing is though you could essentially buy more or less the same stuff two years ago for a similar price. I'm looking to sell my current nearly two year old Haswell computer components to upgrade to Skylake. Not sure if I should buy 6600K now or wait for some offers so I'm also indecisive at the moment. If you wanted to spend more to get stuff now, you could always buy the 6600K instead of waiting for the 6500.

With the i5-6600K and a compatible motherboard the subtotal amounts to just over $1500, and that's still without a monitor.

Edit: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/DjLkt6

$1736 for everything. Except speakers.

Edit again: Newegg says the CPU doesn't launch until September 18?

 

[Korza]

Just get a i5-4690 and a good Z97 motherboard. Cheaper and the performance benefit going for Skylake is gonna be pretty minimal for what you plan on using it for.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

With the i5-6600K and a compatible motherboard the subtotal amounts to just over $1500, and that's still without a monitor.

Edit: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/DjLkt6

$1736 for everything. Except speakers.

Edit again: Newegg says the CPU doesn't launch until September 18?

Seems Canada isn't getting stock as quick as US and Europe as it is already out to buy now here. Showing as August 21st on Newegg now. Hopefully by end of this month the i5-6500 releases and comes with cooler at a similar price to Haswell Parts. Probably be able to get price for everything to around $1400 apart from speakers.

 

[1241Penguin]

I'll wait a while before making a decision then.


In the meantime, I'd like to thank everybody who gave me advice in this thread. Thank you all for your time.