Time to replace current computer - Need Help

[Pilsner73]

Use: Gaming, Web Browsing, light productivity, mp3 ripping, and some other misc stuff.
Budget: What it takes for a good build but would like to stay under 1500 US
Country: USA
Brand: Usually use Intel processor/chipset on Asus motherboard but am open to suggestions.
Current parts: May re use monitor dell 2209waf, microsoft keyboard (digital media pro) and logitech mx518, boston acoustics 2.1 speaker system.
Overclocking: No
Resolution: Currently 1680x1050 is my max but want it to support HD and Ultra HD in the future and dual monitors.
When: March/April/May of 2016
OS: Windows 10 (will need to buy so home or pro and oem or retail)

Current computer – Asus p5k-e, intel q8400 processor, 4gb ram, 1 tb wd hard drive, cd/dvd writer, AMD Radeon hd6800 graphics card, antec p90 case, and corsair hx620 power supply, windows 7 ultimate oem, dell 22” monitor.

I think it’s time to replace my main computer that I have been running since 2008 though I have upgraded processor/graphic card since the initial build. This computer has worked well but I feel it’s time to replace it with either a new computer or build a new one. Things I look for is good performance, quiet running (doesn’t need to be silent just quiet), updates, latest connectivity ports, decent built in audio that is supported with driver updates. I don’t overclock so that’s not a concern and I have wired Ethernet so don’t require wifi. I usually get mid-tower cases since they are easier to work on but if it makes sense to go smaller for my needs I’m open to that suggestion. I am not looking to upgrade my current computer, in fact I will be keeping it for other uses.

Also I am OK with buying a built computer from a vendor if that works as well as building my own. So what would be a good vendor to check out for complete systems or a good motherboard/ram/storage/processor/case/power supply/video card/optical drive recommendation?

 

[monkeydelmagico]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=80121

Answering a few of the above linked questions will get you the best build your money can buy.

 

[Pilsner73]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=80121

Answering a few of the above linked questions will get you the best build your money can buy.

I redid my original post in the format requested, hope that helps!

 

[Burpo]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jHdywP

Base Total: $1365.72
Mail-in Rebates: -$100.00
Shipping: $5.98
Total: $1271.70

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Ken's awesome mid range build is a decent starting point. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2389797

You have a bit more money to play with and tend to keep your boxes for a long time. Here is what I would build if I was in your shoes:


i7 6700 for around $350.-
ASRock H170M Pro4s mATX mobo for under $100.-
16gb of ddr4 for around $70.-
R9 390x for around $400.-
1TB mSATA SSD for around $300.-
Win 10 $100.-
Decent 450-600w modular PSU for around $80.
Leaves about $200 for case

edit: Burpo's build above is really nice. Since you said you do not plan to OC I would spend the money on a big solid state drive. I would also assume you do not plan to SLI/crossfire GPU's so going mATX saves a bit of space.

 

[Pilsner73]

Thank you both, some questions if you don't mind:

1) Is the suggestion to go micro atx for motherboard only or motherboard and case?
2) How does define r5 compare to the corsair case?
3) That processor (skylake?) looks like a good performer though a bit pricey, is there one that would give good performance without the cost? I'm not adverse to replacing the processor down the road.
4) About 5 months ago it seemed like Nvidia was getting the raves in the press has that changed to where AMD is performing as good if not better?
5) I see you both recomended ASrock, how are they compared to Asus? I usually buy Asus and have had good luck with their products overall, ASrock is a company i'm not that familiar with.

I know AMD EOL my hd 6800 card for driver support which told me it was time to really think about replacing my computer.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

1) You can definitely fit a mATX mobo inside an ATX case but why? Save yourself the space and go mATX for both motherboard and case unless you plan to have two graphics cards.
2) Check out the Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 or SilverStone Temjin Series TJ08B-E. Both around $100.- and are really nice cases. I've not owned any corsair cases so can't really comment on them.
3) My pick was the non-K variant i7 which saves about $50.- compared to the version that overclocks. Your budget allowed for it so that's what I recommended. Otherwise use the i5 from Kens build.
4) IMHO AMD offers the best bang for the buck right now and Burpo's suggestion of the XFX Radeon R9 290X really is a good deal. If you look at comparison charts the Nvidia gear that is close/equivalent is a bit more expensive.
5) ASRock has been a solid choice for about the past 5 years. ASUS is still the brand to beat. Let's just say some people think ASUS has gotten too big for their britches and a young company like ASRock is giving them a run for their money. FWIW I have ASUS mobo and am very happy with it. The previous mobo was an ASRock. It was excellent too.

 

[Pilsner73]

Thanks for the recommendations so far I been able to figure a few things out, first is how out of date I am on some of the new technologies.

Case: I am leaning towards a regular mid-tower case in case I decide to go with 2 video cards in the future. Some case contenders I have are the Define R5 and Corsair 330r.

Motherboard/Processor: Researching this as I write but for motheboards there are a ton of choices. I don't need OC or Wifi but thunderbolt 3 and usb 3.1 seem desirable, what do you think? Also m2/u2 support with nvme seems another good future proofing feature. Also do the intel processors still come with their own heatsink/fan or are those noisy compared to 3rd party?

Memory: Leaning towards 16gb.

Storage: Reading about so many choices, of course I want good performance with reliability but need to pick a motherboard to decide which drives to get.

Hopefully with some more research and of course checking this thread to see what the users here have to say I'll start narrowing down things.

 

[nerp]

16 GB ram minimum. Go with a Skylake motherboard and processor. This is the newest platform and if you're going to future proof, you have no reason to pick otherwise.

A newer Skylake board, perhaps Z170 based, would give you m2/u2 and nvme support.

Intel boxed processors come with their own coolers and fans and they are quiet and adequate for all use unless you plan on overclocking.

If you're not overclocking, you don't need to stress about cooling so much since the Skylake chips run pretty darned cool under stock settings.

 

[Pilsner73]

Again want to thank everyone who has commented, it's helping me determine what to look for. I have some ideas in mind but have a question I'm hoping you could all answer -
Why get a SSD and a HDD instead one just large enough SSD, is it just for cost savings to have more storage or is there a benefit to having a HDD? Also I do have an 1 tb wd mybook with usb/esata I plan on using with the new computer.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Why get a SSD and a HDD instead one just large enough SSD, is it just for cost savings to have more storage or is there a benefit to having a HDD?

Both. Big SSDs are still somewhat expensive, much more expensive than the equivalent HDD.

Unlike a laptop, with limited space and ports for storage devices, desktops usually have room for more drives and more SATA ports. It's more economical to get only as big an SSD as you can afford, for the OS drive, and maybe a few heavily-played games, and get a big HDD for the rest.

Plus, your data is probably safer on the HDD. SSDs tend to fail quite suddenly, whereas HDDs tend to fail slightly more slowly. Backups are important in either case.

 

[UsandThem]

Thanks for the recommendations so far I been able to figure a few things out, first is how out of date I am on some of the new technologies.

Case: I am leaning towards a regular mid-tower case in case I decide to go with 2 video cards in the future. Some case contenders I have are the Define R5 and Corsair 330r.

Motherboard/Processor: Researching this as I write but for motheboards there are a ton of choices. I don't need OC or Wifi but thunderbolt 3 and usb 3.1 seem desirable, what do you think? Also m2/u2 support with nvme seems another good future proofing feature. Also do the intel processors still come with their own heatsink/fan or are those noisy compared to 3rd party?

Memory: Leaning towards 16gb.

Storage: Reading about so many choices, of course I want good performance with reliability but need to pick a motherboard to decide which drives to get.

Hopefully with some more research and of course checking this thread to see what the users here have to say I'll start narrowing down things.

Since you aren't going to overclock, I'd go this route:

--z170 motherboard (look for what features/color you want. Asus, Gigabyte, Asrock, MSI all have good boards. You can always add a USB 3.1 add-in card in the future when needed, but it's so new and there is not a ton of devices out there yet that work with it. Most of the time you will be transferring at USB 3.0 rates.

--i5-6500 CPU (if you do normal computer stuff and game, there is hardly any reason to go with an i7-6700. Just remember the i7-6700k and i5-6600k do NOT come with a cpu cooler.

--16 GB of ram is plenty. I have 16 GB in mine, and right now I am using a whole 3 GB on my desktop. Even with gaming and other stuff, I hardly ever hit 8 GB in use.

--The Fractal Design R5 is a great case. It will last for many builds and is quiet. Just pick up another two 140mm fans (additional one for the front, and one for the bottom). You can run them at low RPM's through your motherboard's software, and you won't hear them and they will keep your PC nice and cool.

--Get a SSD drive at a minimum for your operating system. I only use SSDs now, and I have a Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB for main drive and I also have PNY CS2211 that I put in a USB 3.0 enclosure and use it to back-up my data (on USB 3.0 it transfers at 285 MB/s, so I can back-up my pictures, music, and documents in under 2 minutes). I don't rip movies and such, so I have no need for some of these huge hard drives.

--Video card - Your call. Depends on how hard core you are on gaming and at what resolutions.

--Power supply - Get a gold+ PSU. You can usually get a good one at a decent price after a mail-in-rebate. Seasonic, EVGA, etc. I go by what JonnyGuru recommends, and I have 650w Supernova G2 and the power it feeds my PC hardly fluctuates. It is a great unit.

--Windows 10 - Unless you need the extra features of the pro version, just stick with the home version, and I recommend getting the retail USB version so that way if you needed to install to a new PC, it is not tied to your motherboard like OEM version are. The retail home version is not much more than the OEM version.

--UPS system - I highly recommend a good UPS to protect your PC:

1. Provide power if you lose it at your house.
2. Make sure the power coming to your PC is free of power fluctuations (over and under)

Since most good quality power supplies feature 'Active PFC', make sure the UPS you get has some type of a 'Sine Wave' feature on it like this one or you risk your PC shutting down immediately when it switches over to battery power:

[L]http://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP1500PFCLCD-Sinewave-Compatible-Mini-Tower/dp/B00429N19W[/L]

 

[Yuriman]

Lots of good advice going on here. Many people are going to try to see how much they can get into your $1,500 budget, but you can shave it down and save money, or budget in a nice monitor upgrade right now.

CPU - i5 6500 is great for casual use. i7 6700 will have advantages in productivity, but it doesn't sound like you really need it.

Motherboard - Skylake shows advantages when using faster RAM, but only the Z170 chipset supports RAM faster than 2133. I don't think there's a wrong choice between going with a nicely featured H170 board (since you don't need Z170's overclocking features), or with a Z170 board which will have more bells and whistles.

ASRock vs Asus - If I'm not mistaken, I believe ASRock used to be part of Asus, and designed and built their less expensive motherboards until they were spun off into their own brand. Recently, they've developed a reputation for building really solid offerings at all price points, and giving more and better features at less cost than Gigabyte ans Asus.

Hard drives - I keep a large library of local files, so I like having a large mechanical hard drive to keep those files on. SSDs are hundreds of times faster, silent (mechanical drives can be whiny) and can be more reliable (if you go with a good brand - I still have a pair of Intel SSDs from 2009 which report 90% life left), but they're expensive. You're looking at something like 10x the cost per gigabyte. Depending on your storage needs, you might consider a 250GB SSD + reusing your 1TB HDD, 500GB / 2TB, or maybe 1GB / 4TB. All of these will fit in your budget, just a matter of buying however much you need. I don't think it's a bad choice, either, to go with a single monolithic SSD and put everything on it, but you're paying a huge premium for that space. I despise the noise mechanical hard drives put out.

Right now M.2 SSDs have a premium over their SATA counterparts. M.2 is faster, and I really like that they cut down in the wires floating around in a case, but realistically you probably won't be able to tell a SATA SSD from an M.2 once the case is closed, so make of it what you will.

Video card - You can afford a 290x, which is offers great performance per dollar. NV's offerings give you less performance at a given price point (970 would be the 290x competitor), but do so while drawing a fair bit less power and making less noise - most 290x's are a bit noisy under load. Neither is a wrong choice.

If you're not that much of a gamer, you could also get buy on less GPU. I'm still quite happy with my 2012 HD7850, which is approximately 1/3 of a 290x. Newer AAA titles I'm starting to need to run on medium/high settings, but it's capable of maxing out nearly all indie games and older titles. I'm not advocating for the 7850 specifically, just suggesting that, depending on your priorities, you might be content with something less expensive.

Right now, some good choices intermediate between the two would be the GTX950 and R9 380. The GTX960 is often too expensive for its performance, but if you catch a good sale it can be a fine choice too.

One last bit to consider - we've been on the same process node for something like 5 years now, but the next generation of video cards are literally only a few months away. It might be wise to either go without a GPU, or not spend a ton on one, since a new generation of faster, quieter and less expensive cards will be here very soon.

Case - I'm a big proponent of small builds. An ITX PC can occupy around 1/5 the space of a traditional midtower, and the only sacrifice that most users will find with that form factor is that they'll only have 2 RAM slots and can't add a second video card. Often ITX motherboards come with integrated WiFi solutions, too, which are not typically found on larger boards. I usually go with ITX in my builds unless I have a specific need.

mATX is intermediate and generally lacks nothing a larger ATX board has, can be slightly less expensive than ITX, and allows for a second video card. I would consider mATX, but not a full ATX case these days.

 

[Pilsner73]

Thanks again for the responses. I do have a cyberpower "sine wave" ups already so that's covered. I usually go for a gpu that will give me good performance for most games but not break the bank in case something much better comes out in the next few years. As for motherboard still weighing the h170 vs z170 and am looking at Gigabye and Asus currently. ASrock I have also looked over along with MSI.

The 6500 sounds like the cpu though if the 6600 is close in price the day I may step up. Question that may show my age and how long ago I worked on a new build - Are the Sata channels independent, i remember in the days sometimes the slowest device on a channel could slow down every device.

 

[Yuriman]

SATA channels are all independent. High-end SSDs are limited in their maximum transfer speed by the SATA interface these days, but something like a Samsung 850 EVO will not show much difference either way.

 

[Pilsner73]

Ok finally an update I started down the road of my new build because I found great prices on the case/cpu/motherboard I wanted. I still have to buy ram/psu/gpu/storage and an optical drive.

Case: Fractal Design R5 black non-window
Motherboard: Asus PRO Z170 (like that is had intel 3.1usb)
Processor: Intel 6500
SSD- samsung 850 evo 500gb
HD- WD blue 1tb
optical - asus 24x dvd-rw
os - Windows 10 home
Memory -16gb g.skill ripjaw v
psu - corsair rm850x
video - right now may try my hd6850 and wait awhile to see what the new cards later this year do.

So any new recommendations for good stable ram, psu, and gpu?

 

[Pilsner73]

Here is my latest update on the new build - Finished!

Case: Fractal Design R5 black non-window
Motherboard: Asus PRO Z170 (like that is had intel 3.1usb)
Processor: Intel i5-6500
Storage: SSD- Samsung 850 evo 500gb, HD- WD blue 1tb, optical - asus 24x dvd-rw
OS - Windows 10 home
Memory -16gb g.skill ripjaw v
PSU - Corsair rm850x
Video - right now using my hd6850 and will wait for the new cards this summer from AMD and Nvidia.

Thanks again to everyone for their help.

 

[daveybrat]

Here is my latest update on the new build - Finished!

Case: Fractal Design R5 black non-window
Motherboard: Asus PRO Z170 (like that is had intel 3.1usb)
Processor: Intel i5-6500
Storage: SSD- Samsung 850 evo 500gb, HD- WD blue 1tb, optical - asus 24x dvd-rw
OS - Windows 10 home
Memory -16gb g.skill ripjaw v
PSU - Corsair rm850x
Video - right now using my hd6850 and will wait for the new cards this summer from AMD and Nvidia.

Thanks again to everyone for their help.

Nice build! And kudos for waiting for the new Pascal and Polaris video cards coming out soon. You have a nice base for a gaming pc and paired up with a GTX 1070 would be a monster