Rebuilding a desktop for gaming

[Raduque]

It's going to be used for medium gaming. Games played will be mostly FPS, TPS/RPGs and Diablo 3. Resolution will be 1680*1050, and I'll be re-using my Season S12-II 500w PSU. The current hardware is a Core2Duo E8500, 4gb DDR2, Gigabyte P45 motherboard and a GTX460GC 768.

I'd ideally like to spend less than $500, including CPU, motherboard, RAM, GPU and SSD. I'm not including Windows in the budget, as I still have an unused Windows 7 retail that I'll upgrade to 10.

I'm so out of touch with modern hardware, I really have no idea what I'm looking at anymore, but I do know I can't get an Intel machine under budget, so I'll probably have to go with an AMD CPU. A 960 GPU or equivalent AMD card should probably be fine, and a 256gb SSD is fine, too along with 8gb of ram.

What I need are motherboard, CPU and GPU suggestions. Thanks!

 

[Burpo]

intel Skylake i5-6400 $179.99 w/ promo code EMCEFFJ28, ends 1/21
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117564&cm_re=i5_6400-_-19-117-564-_-Product

ASRock Z170 Pro4S $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157636&cm_re=z170-_-13-157-636-_-Product

GSkill 8Gb DDR4 2400 $35.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0232085&cm_re=8gb_ddr4-_-20-232-085-_-Product

MSI GeForce GTX 950 2Gb DDR5 $139.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127919&cm_re=gtx_950-_-14-127-919-_-Product

ADATA Premier SP550 2.5" 240GB SATA III $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...211984&cm_re=240gb_ssd-_-20-211-984-_-Product

Total $496

Add cooler..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTk-5Y1HRFc

 

[Raduque]

You don't think the GTX950 is a little underpowered for the CPU? I don't really want to spend almost $200 on a CPU and then skimp on the GPU.

And why do you say "Add cooler"? The included one isn't good enough?

 

[Burpo]

I should have said add cooler for better bclk over clocking. The GTX 950 is nothing to sneeze at and it fit the budget.
"It's going to be used for medium gaming" I think that's a pretty good system for medium gaming @ 1050P..

 

[Termie]

intel Skylake i5-6400 $179.99 w/ promo code EMCEFFJ28, ends 1/21
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117564&cm_re=i5_6400-_-19-117-564-_-Product

ASRock Z170 Pro4S $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157636&cm_re=z170-_-13-157-636-_-Product

GSkill 8Gb DDR4 2400 $35.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0232085&cm_re=8gb_ddr4-_-20-232-085-_-Product

MSI GeForce GTX 950 2Gb DDR5 $139.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127919&cm_re=gtx_950-_-14-127-919-_-Product

ADATA Premier SP550 2.5" 240GB SATA III $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...211984&cm_re=240gb_ssd-_-20-211-984-_-Product

Total $496

Add cooler..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTk-5Y1HRFc

The CPU choice is good, but spending extra money on a Z170 board and DDR4-2400 RAM and then using only a single stick defeats the purpose of the extra investment. You lose dual channel speed, which is much more significant than slightly faster RAM.

I'd say just save some money and go for a B150 board, 2x4GB of DDR4-2133, and the R9 380 4GB, or ideally the 380X 4GB if you can fit it in the budget.

 

[Raduque]

The CPU choice is good, but spending extra money on a Z170 board and DDR4-2400 RAM and then using only a single stick defeats the purpose of the extra investment. You lose double-data rate speed, which is much more significant than slightly faster RAM.

I'd say just save some money and go for a B150 board, 2x4GB of DDR4-2133, and the R9 380 4GB, or ideally the 380X 4GB if you can fit it in the budget.

Can we go cheaper on the board then? And maybe the CPU, too?

 

[Termie]

You can't go any lower on the CPU unless you go dual core, but that's probably fine given your goals. The Core i3-6100 is an incredible CPU for $130.

The Z170 MB Burpo found is on sale, and you really can't save much more without losing lots of features. Stick with it if you're buying right away.

Pairing it with this RAM will give you a nice speed boost:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ebbr=1&cm_re=ddr4-3000-_-20-231-876-_-Product

 

[Raduque]

I'm not buying right away, and I don't know what features that board has that sets it apart from a cheaper board.

Edit: How about this:

i3-6100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0002&cm_re=i3_6100-_-2MN-0004-00002-_-Product

MSI H110M
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130897

G.Skill 2x4gb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231958

previously-mentioned GTX 950
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127919

and previously-mentioned Adata SSD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211984

for well under budget at $424.

 

[Burpo]

You said "but I do know I can't get an Intel machine under budget"... I jumped on NewEgg and proved that's not true. You CAN get an intel system, that's current & offers great expand ability & longevity. Keep that in mind when ready to buy..

 

[Raduque]

You said "but I do know I can't get an Intel machine under budget"... I jumped on NewEgg and proved that's not true. You CAN get an intel system, that's current & offers great expand ability & longevity. Keep that in mind when ready to buy..

Honestly, I hadn't priced parts in a long time - I've been laptop gaming for the past three years. I had, incorrectly, assumed parts are expensive enough that an Intel CPU with acceptable performance would push the entire thing over budget.

Edit: The last time I looked at prices for parts, I was looking for an 1155 CPU for an Intel DP67G board, and I think it was almost $300 for it.

 

[LTC8K6]

The CPU choice is good, but spending extra money on a Z170 board and DDR4-2400 RAM and then using only a single stick defeats the purpose of the extra investment. You lose double-data rate speed, which is much more significant than slightly faster RAM.

I'd say just save some money and go for a B150 board, 2x4GB of DDR4-2133, and the R9 380 4GB, or ideally the 380X 4GB if you can fit it in the budget.

DDR is still DDR with a single stick.

You are thinking of dual channel mode.

There is no significant real world difference in speed between dual channel and single channel mode.

You need to do benchmarks to spot the difference.

 

[Burpo]

I'm not buying right away, and I don't know what features that board has that sets it apart from a cheaper board.

Edit: How about this:

i3-6100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0002&cm_re=i3_6100-_-2MN-0004-00002-_-Product

MSI H110M
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130897

G.Skill 2x4gb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231958

previously-mentioned GTX 950
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127919

and previously-mentioned Adata SSD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211984

for well under budget at $424.

For $25 more, the Z170 board gets you more ram slots, pci-e slots and over clock, + features that will last you for years.

And another $50 more for a cpu with 2 more real cores, that will also last you for years. Plus it'll be better at everything else, aside from gaming..

Just sayin.. somethings I wouldn't skimp on, for a better all around pc..

 

[Raduque]

I get what you're saying. But I don't plan on overclocking this machine, ever. If it needs more speed, I can throw in a better CPU or new GPU down the line, regardless if the motherboard is 2 or 4 DDR slots, or 5 PCIe slots. It's wasted potential that's not going to be used, and wasted money.

I don't want to spend the extra $75 if I can avoid it.

 

[IntoxicatedPuma]

I get what you're saying. But I don't plan on overclocking this machine, ever. If it needs more speed, I can throw in a better CPU or new GPU down the line, regardless if the motherboard is 2 or 4 DDR slots, or 5 PCIe slots. It's wasted potential that's not going to be used, and wasted money.

I don't want to spend the extra $75 if I can avoid it.

He's obviously not going to SLI, and for gaming 4 slots of RAM isn't going to do benefit. An H110 or B150 works fine. An i3 even not overclocked will be plenty powerful and match an i5 in a lot of games. In 3 years if you want or need to upgrade again you could always get an i7 then and not swap everything else.

I think the parts he listed look great, but not sure if AMD cards are better than Nvidia at his budget....maybe someone else has a comment on that?

 

[VirtualLarry]

For $25 more, the Z170 board gets you more ram slots, pci-e slots and over clock, + features that will last you for years.

And another $50 more for a cpu with 2 more real cores, that will also last you for years. Plus it'll be better at everything else, aside from gaming..

Just sayin.. somethings I wouldn't skimp on, for a better all around pc..

As someone that has experience with that mobo, and doing a BLCK OC, I liked Burpo's build. It lays a solid foundation, with an OCing Z170 mobo, and a quad-core SKL CPU, and 8GB of RAM. There's not all that much benefit to dual-channel, as I found out after accidentally putting my 2x4GB DDR4-2400 sticks in the wrong slots, so it was running single-channel.

The lower-end video card is to fit the budget, with the option of upgrading it once 14nm GPUs hit the market this year.