Hi, I haven't visited for years, but since the kind people here set me up with a nice P35/Q6600 build that's lasted for the better part of 10 years, I figured I'd post ideas for essentially a new build; what I'm playing now is just too CPU limited to play.
Usage: gaming mainly. I plan to have overclock room for the future, but only bother if I find the game needs it; even so I doubt I'll touch the RAM. But cooling is good on the basis that I hope I won't have to touch it for a long as possible; another 10 years maybe? So room for the future is probably a little more important than cheaper builds. I'm really not a fan of Xfire and SLI, and I don't see myself upgrading from my single 1080p screen.
Intel Skylake i5-6600k £198
Only a tenner more than the locked multiplyer; why not...
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming K3 £81 with discount
Z170 since I want overclock room for the future; I'd love an ASUS, but the cheapest with the various bits I need (mostly USB and SATA connectivity) is probably the Z170 Pro Gaming, which with the package I can find, would be £45 more expensive. youch. I prefer it in many small ways (USB, BIOS, M.2 placement, SATA, power phases, POST lights), but that's a huge saving. There's a £15 discount on this one with the CPU, and I can't find a cheaper Z170 with the I/O I want.
Ballistix Sport LP 8GB (2x4GB) 2400Mhz DDR4 £39
Not likely to overclock the RAM; in the long term it always seems to fall out with the MOBO first. But £5 for some nice heat spreaders; why not.
The big question is in the HD: I've yet to make the SSD switch. If I were to splurge, I could go:
Samsung 950 Pro 256GB M.2 PCI-E 3.0 NVMe £140
The Mobo puts it in a bad position (under the GPU HSF and next to the CPU) but hopefully it won't be bad. The ASUS has it nicely out of the way by the chipset.
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SATA £80
So the M.2 has the OS; the 850 some larger, more demanding games, and the rest of gunk I keep using my old Seagate barracudas. I suspect though, that a pair or even a single SATA 850 wouldn't be noticeably any different; I just figure unless I buy the M.2 for the OS now, I'll never bother to do it later.. Suggestions?
So total, that comes to...£540; a lot but I can bear that. Again, since I'm such an irregular upgrader, I'm happier spending more now for reliability and future proofing.
I've found a bracket kit for my old LGA775 CPU cooler (TRUE 120), which is good. As I say, modest overclocking and only if what I'm playing seems to need it; all the fancy coolers and RAM packages are just with the view that cooler = last longer. Probably could do with some bonding compound; MX-2 was the stuff back in the day, any other ideas?
Added to that I have from my old rig; an EVGA Nvidia GTX 660 Ti ; Corsair HX 520 PSU; A few Seagate Barracuda 7200.* HDs; lots of fans and a nice case. I'll see how I get on and look to upgrade the GPU sometime in the not-too-distant future, but hopefully it'll do until the next gen Nvidia come out and bump the prices down; which is when by the way?
Anyway, thanks very much for any help!
Usage: gaming mainly. I plan to have overclock room for the future, but only bother if I find the game needs it; even so I doubt I'll touch the RAM. But cooling is good on the basis that I hope I won't have to touch it for a long as possible; another 10 years maybe? So room for the future is probably a little more important than cheaper builds. I'm really not a fan of Xfire and SLI, and I don't see myself upgrading from my single 1080p screen.
Intel Skylake i5-6600k £198
Only a tenner more than the locked multiplyer; why not...
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming K3 £81 with discount
Z170 since I want overclock room for the future; I'd love an ASUS, but the cheapest with the various bits I need (mostly USB and SATA connectivity) is probably the Z170 Pro Gaming, which with the package I can find, would be £45 more expensive. youch. I prefer it in many small ways (USB, BIOS, M.2 placement, SATA, power phases, POST lights), but that's a huge saving. There's a £15 discount on this one with the CPU, and I can't find a cheaper Z170 with the I/O I want.
Ballistix Sport LP 8GB (2x4GB) 2400Mhz DDR4 £39
Not likely to overclock the RAM; in the long term it always seems to fall out with the MOBO first. But £5 for some nice heat spreaders; why not.
The big question is in the HD: I've yet to make the SSD switch. If I were to splurge, I could go:
Samsung 950 Pro 256GB M.2 PCI-E 3.0 NVMe £140
The Mobo puts it in a bad position (under the GPU HSF and next to the CPU) but hopefully it won't be bad. The ASUS has it nicely out of the way by the chipset.
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SATA £80
So the M.2 has the OS; the 850 some larger, more demanding games, and the rest of gunk I keep using my old Seagate barracudas. I suspect though, that a pair or even a single SATA 850 wouldn't be noticeably any different; I just figure unless I buy the M.2 for the OS now, I'll never bother to do it later.. Suggestions?
So total, that comes to...£540; a lot but I can bear that. Again, since I'm such an irregular upgrader, I'm happier spending more now for reliability and future proofing.
I've found a bracket kit for my old LGA775 CPU cooler (TRUE 120), which is good. As I say, modest overclocking and only if what I'm playing seems to need it; all the fancy coolers and RAM packages are just with the view that cooler = last longer. Probably could do with some bonding compound; MX-2 was the stuff back in the day, any other ideas?
Added to that I have from my old rig; an EVGA Nvidia GTX 660 Ti ; Corsair HX 520 PSU; A few Seagate Barracuda 7200.* HDs; lots of fans and a nice case. I'll see how I get on and look to upgrade the GPU sometime in the not-too-distant future, but hopefully it'll do until the next gen Nvidia come out and bump the prices down; which is when by the way?
Anyway, thanks very much for any help!
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