hybrid build

XWrench3

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W. MICHIGAN
since i have been having so many problems with my old desktop, i have decided to rebuild it, rather than replace it all together. i know i can buy cheap towers, but i would then either have to buy several more accessories that i already have, or gut this case and rob parts. to me, it just makes sense to use the old (micro atx) case. anyway, i am trying to figure out exactly what i need. i will be using one of the newer (4th gen or newer) intel i5 processors , and a corresponding board that has usb 3.1 technology. i need help figuring out how much power the new power supply needs to have. i will go the next size up (unless it doubles the price), but i see no point in installing an 800 watt power supply if all i need is 400 watts. the power for the cpu is easy, but how do i know how much a motherboard will use, or a dvd drive while burning? and roughly how much for a hard drive (mechanical 1 tb)? the small stuff like fans and card readers should not add up to much. is there anything i am not thinking of? i have to buy this one or two pieces at a time over the next 3 months or so, because of budget constraints.
 
What case are you currently using, what PSU do you have, and you'll need 6th gen for USB 3.1. Bear in mind, there is nothing that currently uses 3.1 ATM at potential except maybe using many USB 3 devices in a 3.1 hub. There are also USB add in cards that you can use if you have a spare PCI-E slot. This is the route I'm going to make my 4 year old platform last longer.
 
my current desktop that i plan on rebuilding is a HP a1720n ( HP Pavilion a1720n Desktop PC Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support ). which is a micro atx case. i hope that the peripherals (card reader, dvd drive, and usb 2.0 ports) will plug into the new board. // as for the 6th gen cpu, i did not know that, but i was thinking about using one anyway. as the cost is nearly the same, and looking forward, i am hoping to get another 10 years out of it. this will likely be my last major upgrade, as this will push me to 70, and after that, i doubt i will be to concerned about longevity. my original thought was a 4th gen i5 4690k, and turbo it as far as it would reliably go. but i am upgrading from a core 2 duo @ 1.86ghz, so no matter what i pick over 3.0ghz will be a massive improvement. i am not a big gamer like my son is, so std intel graphics should work fine for me. i have to assume that the 6th gen graphics are better than 4th gen. no, i did not know they made a card that would give me usb 3.1. as long as they do not come out with something that drastically over speeds the 3.1, i am sure that there will be many things available that will use it shortly. i would have no way of knowing that the software would be there to support it. // its kind of funny looking back at what did, and did not survive. i remember zip drives that were supposed to be the next big thing. same with firewire cables and ports. the original floppy discs never stood a chance with their limited data capacity. even if they could have increase speed. i am actually pretty sure that dvd's will shortly be a thing of the past. but i have a bunch of blanks, so i will keep that. as far as speed goes, the biggest improvement for me would be REAL high speed internet, like other parts of the world have. the next "tech" item will be a fairly large (3-5tb) external hard drive to back up all of our computers onto. i bought a 350gb one when i bought this desktop, and i am down to 4gb left. the 1tb hard drive i am sure will last me the rest of my life. but having lost tons of data in the past, i do not want to take chances.
 
The biggest difference you'll notice is a huge architecture change. Even first gen i5/i7 chips are ridiculously fast compared to Core 2.

Next up, if you don't have an SSD already, get one. An SSD makes ANY machine fast. I even showed my roomie this when I tossed my Corsair 120GB on my 98 box.

Finally, yes the IGP in the newer chips are rather decent. If you don't game there shouldn't be any issue with what comes in the CPU for you.

Since the board they use in that HP is an Asus and uses standard FP connections you shouldn't have any issues installing a new mATX board in there. Any cheap H110 board will work. ASRock, Asus, or MSI. I'd also look at getting the cheapest Skylake i5 you can find.
Intel Core i5-6400 6 MB Skylake Quad-Core 2.7 GHz LGA 1151 65W BX80662I56400 Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 530 - Newegg.com

That will do you fine. Couple boards below.
ASUS H110M-A/DP LGA 1151 Intel H110 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 uATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com
MSI CSM-H110M Pro-VHL LGA 1151 Intel H110 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com
ASRock H110M COMBO-G LGA 1151 Intel H110 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com

Some RAM.
G.SKILL NT Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Intel Z170 Platform / Intel X99 Platform Desktop Memory Model F4-2400C15D-8GNT - Newegg.com

I know you said you're buying over the next couple of months, but if you plan to buy the current gen I suggest buying CPU and motherboard together or the RAM first then CPU and board. Reason for this is, DDR4 is here to stay for quite a while but the current gens will be outed by Kabylake later this year. When this happens current stock dwindles and pricing gets a bit ridiculous like we can see with Haswell already. You have about 8 months to put together a Skylake rig with good pricing and selection.
 
i was actually looking at the i5-6500, which will push me over the 3.0ghz that i wanted to stay above. i know its just a number, but for $15.00, it seems worthwhile to me. i did some pretty serious looking at motherboards. and it looks to me like (from what i have read) that usb 3.1 gen1 is really usb 3.0, only renamed. and to get the really newer 3.1 plugs (red & black rather than blue) i would have to spend nearly $200.00! and that is not in my budget! so i guess i will end up buying a board like you are doing. i do have a question on the ssd. there are 2 types, one that mounts in the case, and one that mounts in a pci slot on the mother board. is one type better than the other?
 
Yes, which is why I mentioned the add in card. I put 3 boards with 2 accessible slots for that reason alone. The form factor or color of the port doesn't depict the speed as form factor (A, B, or C) is just the connector and the color is different for most manufacturers. Generally 3.1 is a light blue.

The form factor doesn't depict the speed in SSD. The difference is whether the SSD is SATA based or PCI-E based. PCI-E SSDs are faster. M.2 connectors on boards are generally more convenient.

The i5 linked above boosts to 3.3. You won't notice the difference, but your money.
 
Turbo happens automatically. Overclocking is the manual procedure, which requires a K-series chip, and a Z-series board (or one with overclocking features).
 
ok, to try to understand this better, in stock form, the processor (i5-6500) will "turbo" when needed? does it go from 3.2 to 3.6ghz all on its own when needed? if so, what is the point of overclocking a processor manually? seems much like the supercharger / turbocharger thing in engines.
 
Yes, Speedstep kicks in when the processor is idle or loaded. It downclocks to conserve power when idle and turbos when it's loaded.

Manually overclocking is to go beyond turbo specs and leave your processor at a certain speed all the time.
 
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