two questions: (1) is 35W cpu worth it? (2) decent sub-$70 motherboard?

[hurtstotalktoyou]

I'm a non-gamer who is interested in upgrading my cpu/mobo/ram in the near future. I'm on an extremely tight budget, so I was thinking of the following:

$72 - Pentium G4500 Skylake 3.5GHz 51W dual core HD graphics 530
some cheap motherboard
some cheap ddr4 memory

However, my electric bill is pretty expensive, so I was thinking spending $53 extra to get the following low-power cpu:

$125 - Core i3 6100T Skylake 3.2GHz dual 35W dual core HD graphics 530

This leads me to two questions.

(1) Will my rig consume significantly less power with a 35W processor (compared to a 51W one) if all the other components are the same? Or is a low-power CPU not worth the extra expense in this case?

(EDIT: so I guess the consensus is that a low-power CPU is not worth the extra expense, especially when the G4500 is 51W vs the 6100T's 35W.)

(2) Are there any decent (i.e., reliable and good quality) sub-$70 LGA1151 motherboards in existence? I just need it to take ddr4 memory, to be mATX form factor, and to have an HDMI port.

I get the impression that ASRock and Gigabyte do not make very reliable or high-quality motherboards. What about MSI? Asus?

Here are a couple that look halfway decent:
$61 - MSI H110M ECO
$61 - ASUS H110M-A/M.2

What do y'all think?

Thanks if advance!

 

[UsandThem]

(1) Will my rig consume significantly less power with a 35W processor (compared to a 65W one) if all the other components are the same? Or is a low-power CPU not worth the extra expense in this case?

Not really because if you aren't stressing a CPU, it will not use much power at all. You're looking a tiny difference in power usage between a 35w and 65w CPU. My entire PC with a 6700k and LED monitor pulls around 55w at the desktop. Not really worth it to pay extra for a lower watt CPU.

Are there any decent (i.e., reliable and good quality) sub-$70 LGA1151 motherboards in existence? I just need it to take ddr4 memory, to be mATX form factor, and to have an HDMI port.

I get the impression that ASRock and Gigabyte do not make very reliable or high-quality motherboards. What about MSI? Asus?

All boards in the price range you are looking at (regardless of the the manufacturer) will be basic. Asus is the #1 motherboard manufacturer, and Gigabyte is #2 based on yearly sales. MSI and Asrock are fine as well. Asrock used to be part of Asus until it was spun off about 15 years ago. Honestly, just buy whichever board has the price/features/looks you want. Both those boards you linked to are fine entry-level boards.

 

[cbn]

I'll bet the G4500 and the i3-6100T use roughly the same amount of power (assuming the G4500 is at least an average bin).

P.S. The G4500 is actually a 51W processor, not a 65W processor.

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

P.S. The G4500 is actually a 51W processor, not a 65W processor.

Cool! Good catch.

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

All boards in the price range you are looking at (regardless of the the manufacturer) will be basic. Asus is the #1 motherboard manufacturer, and Gigabyte is #2 based on yearly sales. MSI and Asrock are fine as well. Asrock used to be part of Asus until it was spun off about 15 years ago. Honestly, just buy whichever board has the price/features/looks you want. Both those boards you linked to are fine entry-level boards.

Thank you! This is helpful information, especially about Gigabyte being the #2 manufacturer. I wonder where Foxconn fits in. But I have had bad luck with Foxconn and am wary of it.

Still, being a major manufacturer is only part of the story. For example, Nissan is one of the biggest car manufacturers, but it would be crazy to buy a Versa!

I was under the impression that ASRock was low-quality and didn't use reliable transistors.

 

[UsandThem]

This is helpful information, especially about Gigabyte being the #2 manufacturer. I wonder where Foxconn fits in. But I have had bad luck with Foxconn and am wary of it.

Still, being a major manufacturer is only part of the story. For example, Nissan is one of the biggest car manufacturers, but it would be crazy to buy a Versa!

I was under the impression that ASRock was low-quality and didn't use reliable transistors.

Foxconn is a huge OEM manufacturer, and they actually make many of the CPU sockets for Intel boards (my Gigabyte board actually came with a CPU socket protector that was stamped 'Foxconn'). I was never impressed with their whole board retail products however.

Asrock will use the same components that Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI use. On entry-level boards, they all will just use basic good quality capacitors, basic audio implementation, thin PCB, etc. None of the remaining motherboard companies use true low-quality components on any of their boards. They all have 3-year warranties. They didn't survive while so many manufacturers went bankrupt by putting out bad products.

It's funny you used a Nissan Versa analogy, that's kind of what you are doing by buying a $60 motherboard. It'll do the job, but won't have any premium features like long-life solid Japanese capacitors, upgraded audio like the ACL1150 codec, thicker PCB, etc.

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Foxconn is a huge OEM manufacturer, and they actually make many of the CPU sockets for Intel boards (my Gigabyte board actually came with a CPU socket protector that was stamped 'Foxconn'). I was never impressed with their whole board retail products however.

Asrock will use the same components that Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI use. On entry-level boards, they all will just use basic good quality capacitors, basic audio implementation, thin PCB, etc. None of the remaining motherboard companies use true low-quality components on any of their boards. They all have 3-year warranties. They didn't survive while so many manufacturers went bankrupt by putting out bad products.

It's funny you used a Nissan Versa analogy, that's kind of what you are doing by buying a $60 motherboard. It'll do the job, but won't have any premium features like long-life solid Japanese capacitors, upgraded audio like the ACL1150 codec, thicker PCB, etc.

Thank you again for the information.

I don't need "features" per se, except for the hdmi port which is pretty much standard on everything. But long-life solid capacitors seem like they would be worth paying extra for. So, how do I know whether a motherboard has good capacitors?

What is "thicker PCB"?

I guess I am also interested in a good-quality mic input for recording acoustic guitar demos and stuff like that. But I was under the impression that no integrated audio is up to that task, so I figured I would just wait till I can afford a dedicated sound card.

Thanks!

 

[UsandThem]

I'm not sure of the quality for recording audio, so can't help there. As far as playback though, the ALC1150 (if implemented correctly with quality components) rivals any sound card. I finally retired my sound card because my onboard audio is really nice.

As far as how to tell if the motherboard has "long-life" capacitors, the manufacturer will boldly point out they are on the product page. For example, here is what is shown on my board's page:

Long Lifespan Durable Black™ Solid Caps

The PCB is the motherboard (printed circuit board). It is what all the components are installed on and all the traces are added to it. Cheaper boards use a thinner PCB to reduce cost. Mid-range and higher generally use thicker PCBs. It's heavier, has less flex, and just feels more substantial.

Now just to be clear, I'm not saying that inexpensive boards aren't any good. They are, but just are "bare bones". I just think if you increase your motherboard budget by $20 - $40, you should be able to find a board that isn't the 'bare minimum', or the 'Nissan Versa' of motherboards.

Here are some you could look at closer/read reviews on. All have good audio/solid caps, and are just a step up from $60 boards:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157641&ignorebbr=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130890&ignorebbr=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132948&ignorebbr=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130985&ignorebbr=1

 

[piasabird]

I would check out the deals at Micro Center if you have one fairly close to You. With a qualifying Intel 6100, some motherboards like the Gigabyte GA-H110N Mini-ITX motherboard is -$30 off the purchase price. That is like purchasing a motherbord for $35.00. They may offer this on some other motherboards they sell if you are stuck on an ATX motherboard.

I noticed that some of the H110 motherboards with a BIOS upgrade will support the newer Kaby Lake CPU'S that are coming out on Jan 16th. They have a slighty better IGP.

I dont see a lot of benefits of using the 35 watt CPU's. If you add a video card you will lose that benefit. Maybe some site has a comparison with a VOLT/WATT meter.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I guess I am also interested in a good-quality mic input for recording acoustic guitar demos and stuff like that. But I was under the impression that no integrated audio is up to that task, so I figured I would just wait till I can afford a dedicated sound card.

Basically. But "dedicated sound cards" are also usually gamer-quality crap. Dedicated external audio interfaces are where it's at.

Buy this: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ScarlettSoloG2

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I'm a non-gamer who is interested in upgrading my cpu/mobo/ram in the near future. I'm on an extremely tight budget, so I was thinking of the following:

$72 - Pentium G4500 Skylake 3.5GHz 51W dual core HD graphics 530
some cheap motherboard
some cheap ddr4 memory

However, my electric bill is pretty expensive, so I was thinking spending $53 extra to get the following low-power cpu:

$125 - Core i3 6100T Skylake 3.2GHz dual 35W dual core HD graphics 530

This leads me to two questions.

(1) Will my rig consume significantly less power with a 35W processor (compared to a 51W one) if all the other components are the same? Or is a low-power CPU not worth the extra expense in this case?

(EDIT: so I guess the consensus is that a low-power CPU is not worth the extra expense, especially when the G4500 is 51W vs the 6100T's 35W.)

(2) Are there any decent (i.e., reliable and good quality) sub-$70 LGA1151 motherboards in existence? I just need it to take ddr4 memory, to be mATX form factor, and to have an HDMI port.

I get the impression that ASRock and Gigabyte do not make very reliable or high-quality motherboards. What about MSI? Asus?

Here are a couple that look halfway decent:
$61 - MSI H110M ECO
$61 - ASUS H110M-A/M.2

What do y'all think?

Thanks if advance!

You won't realistically notice a power bill difference between any two current gen chips, the difference will be on the order of a few dollars/year at most.

The problem with lower-priced boards is that I've personally found that quality scales linearly with cost up until around $150-200 (depending on generation.. and this may not apply so much to itx builds as they inherently have less stuff on them. Cap may be closer to $125?). So there aren't many 'reduced feature but good quality' boards for sub-$100 for instance. They're just generally crap from both a quality AND feature standpoint. I've hollered from the mountaintops about this, but the two components you should focus on with a new system build is PSU and motherboard. If you get a quality PSU it'll last a decade (mine have), and if you get a quality mobo it'll last until the chips it supports are useless (which still hasn't happened in my GFs system, socket 1366, started as an i7-950, now an oc'd x5650). As an added bonus, quality mobos usually come with a couple 'next-gen' doodads which greatly expand the life of it, like aforementioned GF's system which has SATA6 (2/6 ports) and USB3, both of which were fairly new at the time.

I understand the budget constraints, but if it were me I'd find a way to scrounge up the extra scratch and get a nice mobo, cheap chip, and look at doing a chip refresh when say, the KBL processors start dropping from a new gen release or something (or skip this step if you really don't need hardcore processing power).

 

[dave_the_nerd]

...if you get a quality mobo it'll last until the chips it supports are useless (which still hasn't happened in my GFs system, socket 1366, started as an i7-950, now an oc'd x5650).

Maybe this is more an ATOT thing, but:

1) You have had a GF 2) since i7-950s were current 3) and she lets you OC her gear?

Dude. Get a ring. She'll only wait so long.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Maybe this is more an ATOT thing, but:

1) You have had a GF 2) since i7-950s were current 3) and she lets you OC her gear?

Dude. Get a ring. She'll only wait so long.

She also complains because the gaming performance is low, she's my primary motivator for upgrading MY rig (so hers gets the stuff from it).

 

[sm625]

The real world average hourly power consumption difference between those two CPUs is probably going to be in the range of 2-5 watts during the day and 0 at night. So you're looking at spending $53 to save perhaps 50 watt hours per day. That's like $3 a year. lol. Even if you run your computer really hard you're still looking at less than $10 a year. If you run the computer at full load 24/7, you're looking at about $25 per year electricity cost delta. This is the absolute max and it is a totally unrealistic number. Realistic is $3-$7. So let's go with $5 per year. So no, not worth it at all.