New PC build.

Cisco001

Just checked price spy

CEX used i5 6400 for £110
used i5 6500 for £140

In this case i5 6400 good value.

Just stick a cheap £8 CPU heatsink if they don't supply cpu cooler

spud17

Good news is that I don't immediately need a new psu.
Months ago, I was given an Antec Sonata case with a "broken" power button, it is oldish but had very little use.
For some reason I thought it had a 350W psu, but on checking, it is actually 550w with the bonus of being semi modular, and I have all the leads.
I know what you will all say, , but I know where it came from and am confident that is in very good condition.
Reviews from the time of it's launch suggested it was very good quality.

I've been checking the Asus B150M-A and noticed that is is lacking any pci slots, which is something I do need for a tv card I use.
I'm thinking of moving up to a H170 chipset board for the extra connectivity, i.e even more usb and pci.
With not having to get a new psu for the time being, I could easily afford something like the Gigabyte GA-H170-HD3

I've also been comparing the 3 processors, i3-6100, i5-6400 and i5-6500.
The i5-6400 seem to be not a lot more performance over the i3, for several pounds extra, so I'm going to try for an i5-6500.
I'm going to think it over for a few more days, and if nobody has more thoughts, I'll then put some requests in to Flubit.

Fightsback

spud17 wrote: »

I'm thinking of moving up to a H170 chipset board for the extra connectivity, i.e even more usb and pci.
With not having to get a new psu for the time being, I could easily afford something like the Gigabyte GA-H170-HD3

I'd certainly spend the extra on that board as it supports:

PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 Connector with up to 32Gb/s Data Transfer (PCIe NVMe & SATA SSD support)

Especially note the highlighted NVme support:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2899351/everything-you-need-to-know-about-nvme.html

Something for the future.

Cisco001

Personally won't spend £82 on H170 chipset...
Probably worth getting something with Z170 instead.

e.g. MSI Z170A PC Mate

spud17

I'm still looking through specs sheets.
Must say I'm tempted by the MSI, but have a soft spot for Gigabyte and Asus.

edit:
The MSI Z170A PC Mate looks good and it can make use of faster ram.
It can easily run 2400 MHz ram at CAS 15, but is this going to be faster than 2133 Mhz at CAS 14? There's no difference in price for 16GB. 2400 vs 2133

Cisco001

Get DDR4 2400

gr1340

spud17 wrote: »

Which power supply are you using?
The i3 6100 is one I'm considering, also which ram is that?
I paid £40+ years ago for 2x 2GB DDR2 at 1066Mhz.:)
I don't need a case, drives, operating system or any other peripherals..

Sorry for the late reply:
i3-6100 and Asus H110M-A - £145
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01ALSFSX4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Asus GTX 950 OC - £125
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0173IBW26/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

HyperX Fury 16GB DDR4 2133Mhz - £40 (now up to £50)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00TY6A1LY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

EVGA 500w - £35
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00H33SFJU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also wanted a 1080p monitor and found this Asus VS248HR, 24 inch, 1 m/s for £110 and it is very nice.

As far as benchmarks go:
F1 2015 - 1080p on maxed out settings runs at 60 fps
Doom 4 - Just played last night and again at 1080p with everything on ultra runs at 50-60 fps

I wanted the i5 but its £50 more (I had a strict budget that I didn't want to increase) and the i3 seems more than capable for my needs. I only really wanted it for 1080p editing which my old PC was struggling with.

spud17

gr1340 wrote: »

Sorry for the late reply:
i3-6100 and Asus H110M-A - £145
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01ALSFSX4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Asus GTX 950 OC - £125
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0173IBW26/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

HyperX Fury 16GB DDR4 2133Mhz - £40 (now up to £50)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00TY6A1LY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

EVGA 500w - £35
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00H33SFJU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also wanted a 1080p monitor and found this Asus VS248HR, 24 inch, 1 m/s for £110 and it is very nice.

As far as benchmarks go:
F1 2015 - 1080p on maxed out settings runs at 60 fps
Doom 4 - Just played last night and again at 1080p with everything on ultra runs at 50-60 fps

I wanted the i5 but its £50 more (I had a strict budget that I didn't want to increase) and the i3 seems more than capable for my needs. I only really wanted it for 1080p editing which my old PC was struggling with.

No worries about late reply.
I no longer need a new psu.
I don't game so don't need a graphics card, especially as the motherboards I'm looking at suggest that multiple monitors (required) are supported.
I need pci slots and a lot of usbs, this points towards the better H170/Z170 chipset.
The i3-6100 would be ok for my use, but this time I can afford to 'splash the cash' and thought go for it, it being the i5-6500, the i5-6400, to my mind is too close to the i3-6100.

I'm just trying to see how the graphics compare between the MSI Z170A PC MATE and the Gigabyte GA-H170-HD3
MSI boards at this level *seem* to be geared more to using graphics cards, I'm probably going to be proved wrong.

Fightsback

One thing to be wary of spud, I did read somewhere that skylakes have thinner dies and some after market CPU coolers cracking them so just be careful, however I doubt you're the heavy modding type

http://www.pcper.com/news/Processors/Intel-Skylake-Processors-Can-Bend-Under-Pressure-Damage-CPU-and-LGA-Socket

spud17

Fightsback wrote: »

One thing to be wary of spud, I did read somewhere that skylakes have thinner dies and some after market CPU coolers cracking them so just be careful, however I doubt you're the heavy modding type

http://www.pcper.com/news/Processors/Intel-Skylake-Processors-Can-Bend-Under-Pressure-Damage-CPU-and-LGA-Socket

You're correct, re the modding.
I've always found the stock cooler to be adequate.

Originally Posted by Fightsback
Spud, if you're not gaming I wouldn't bother about a discrete graphics card for now as Intel IGPs have come a long way. Get a mobo that supports DDR4 as not all skylake boards do (eg some H110 boards) and get 16Gb of DDR4 if you are VMing. It's also worth investing in a second drive for the VMs.

Happy building.

You're spot on about the Intel IGPs, I'm favouring the Gigabyte GA-H170-HD3 board, which I has Intel HD530 graphics, this benchmarks at 961 against my current HD5450 giving 212.

I know Cisco001 thinks, if not B150 chipset, then go for Z170 over H170, I'm interested if anyone else has any thoughts.