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which board (Core i3-6100,Radeon R9 390, USB keybd&mouse, 3 SATA HDD/SDD)

S

sharksfin

Junior Member
First time builder. PC will be for gaming.

I already have:
  • a beautiful, spacious ATX case (pics here: http://imgur.com/a/v6s5r)
  • Intel Core i3-6100 CPU
  • a regular USB keyboard
  • a regular 2-button (plus middle-scoll button) mouse
  • two HDDs totalling 270 GB
  • basic in-ear earphones to plug into audio jack
  • 24-inch 1080 monitor

I'm planning on getting:
  • a Radeon R9 390 GPU,
  • an internal SSD for the OS (so, around 60 GB)
  • around 650 W PSU
  • 2 RAM DIMMs of 8 GB each
What motherboard do you suggest? Please also state your reasons for your suggestions. Something like, "I suggest the XYZ motherboard because you have/said/need _ and the mobo has _". I'm also open to you giving "do not get" suggestions.

I'd love to hear from experienced people.
 
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Are you overclocking or not? That can determine what chipset people will recommend because there are some notable differences to take note of. Since you have the i3-6100 (great chip) I'm assuming you do not immediately plan on overclocking. With that in mind I'll recommended the board I have: ASUS H170 PRO GAMING. It's an ATX board with all the ports and features any modern system needs. I believe Newegg had it on sale just recently too.
 
An i3 will fall flat in upcoming AAA games, you want a real quad core at the least. I'd pick up an i5 6500 and a half decent H170 board (Asrocks H170 Fatality has everything you need in H170), as the i5 6400 is too slow stock and H110 mobos are heavily gimped.

See the first few minutes of this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvJN3Pgu7ko

for the i3 folding under strain.
 
nerp, you recommended the board you have, the Asus h170 Pro Gaming, because it's "an ATX board with all the ports and features any modern system needs." I'm don't necessarily want a board with all the ports and features _any modern system_ needs.

I'm looking for a board with the ports and features that I need. This is why I listed the parts I currently have, as well as parts I'm considering buying.
 
escrow4, for the purpose of my post, please assume that I'll be using the CPU I listed. For the purpose of my post, please don't try to sway me from this CPU. The purpose of my post was clear, I thought, in the title: to help me decide on a board that matches the parts that I have/will have.
 
sharksfin said:
nerp, you recommended the board you have, the Asus h170 Pro Gaming, because it's "an ATX board with all the ports and features any modern system needs." I'm don't necessarily want a board with all the ports and features _any modern system_ needs.

I'm looking for a board with the ports and features that I need. This is why I listed the parts I currently have, as well as parts I'm considering buying.
Click to expand...

Look the board up. It has USB 3.1, displayport, USB type C, good audio, tons of SATA ports, plenty of PCI slots, dual GPU capable, M.2 NVMe. . . Anything missing?
 
Gigabyte Z170X-GAMING-Gaming 3 or 5.

- dual M.2 Ultras for 4GB/sec raided PCIe SDD option
- dual NICs (Killer and Intel on the 5 model)
- great onboard sound with headphone audio boost switches
- all digital power phases
- 2 USB ports with dedicated power for AMP/DACs
- USB-C Type A and C
- Dual BIOSes in case one goes bad
- Upgradeable OP-AMP for different signature sound
- Intel Alpine Ridge USB 3.1 with 16GB/sec Vs. 10 for every other manufacturer
- EasyTune in Windows allows easy Bios flashes and Fan control curves
- 10,000 hours black solid state capacitors
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5498#ov

I also like Asrock Z170 Professional. It's even better:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty Z170 Professional Gaming i7/

Asus = overpriced, less features. The only reason to buy an Asus board is for the UEFI Bios or their Maximum series. Otherwise, Asrock and Gigabyte destroy mainstream Asus boards based on more features and higher component quality.
 
LTC8K6, you don't know the speed of my HDDs, and yet you imply they're slow.
One's a 10,000 RPM Raptor. The other is 7,500 RPM.
 
ltc8k6, virtualLarry, the drives may be old in terms of its birthday, but it's been not been powered on for many years (around 8 years). So the drives don't have many spins to them. 🙂
 
sharksfin said:
ltc8k6, virtualLarry, the drives may be old in terms of its birthday, but it's been not been powered on for many years (around 8 years). So the drives don't have many spins to them. 🙂
Click to expand...

They are probably going to fail quickly. ()🙂
 
sharksfin said:
LTC8K6, you don't know the speed of my HDDs, and yet you imply they're slow.
One's a 10,000 RPM Raptor. The other is 7,500 RPM.
Click to expand...

Both are slower than a new 5,400 RPM drive. Better yet, why are you using HDs? Get an SSD.

That old raptor is fast and exciting. . . 12 years ago.
 
nerp said:
Both are slower than a new 5,400 RPM drive. Better yet, why are you using HDs? Get an SSD.

That old raptor is fast and exciting. . . 12 years ago.
Click to expand...

Good point. This makes me wonder if I should finally retire my Iomega Zip-100 drive.

Maybe a USB thumb drive will be slightly faster.

😉
 
sharksfin said:
LTC8K6, you don't know the speed of my HDDs, and yet you imply they're slow.
One's a 10,000 RPM Raptor. The other is 7,500 RPM.
Click to expand...

Because for many every day tasks from opening documents to having 50-100 tabs open across various browsers, the HDD is the limiting component. I've tested many systems over the years and I can say from experience that a 2006 C2D system + any modern SSD wipes the floor with a Haswell/Skylake rig + mechanical drive for 90% of what most people use their PCs. SSD is what makes the PC feel 'fast' and snappy. If you are going to run Skylake with a mechanical drive, you are literally wasting $. Even a $50-70 SSD for the OS is a world of difference. Use the mechanical drives for storage of media.

The other area where mechanical drives fail completely is if you work on the PC for 5-7 days at a time and never shut down. The system slows down the more you use it to the point where a restart is needed to get the speed back. SSDs do not suffer from this. Also, the more full a mechanical drive gets and starts to suffer from fragmentation, the slower it gets. Once again, SSDs continue to feel snappy even with 90% full status.

It is only once you get used to an SSD and go back to a mechanical drive OS PC that you truly realized how all those stalls, and slow downs become unbearable and frustrating. Try running an anti-virus while extracting files with WinRar and having 100+ tabs open across various browsers. The mechanical drive PC will crawl.

To each his own but I'd even go way down to a $90-100 motherboard just to get an SSD for the OS.
 
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RussianSensation said:
Because for many every day tasks from opening documents to having 50-100 tabs open across various browsers, the HDD is the limiting component. I've tested many systems over the years and I can say from experience that a 2006 C2D system + any modern SSD wipes the floor with a Haswell/Skylake rig + mechanical drive for 90% of what most people use their PCs. SSD is what makes the PC feel 'fast' and snappy. If you are going to run Skylake with a mechanical drive, you are literally wasting $. Even a $50-70 SSD for the OS is a world of difference. Use the mechanical drives for storage of media.

The other area where mechanical drives fail completely is if you work on the PC for 5-7 days at a time and never shut down. The system slows down the more you use it to the point where a restart is needed to get the speed back. SSDs do not suffer from this. Also, the more full a mechanical drive gets and starts to suffer from fragmentation, the slower it gets. Once again, SSDs continue to feel snappy even with 90% full status.

It is only once you get used to an SSD and go back to a mechanical drive OS PC that you truly realized how all those stalls, and slow downs become unbearable and frustrating. Try running an anti-virus while extracting files with WinRar and having 100+ tabs open across various browsers. The mechanical drive PC will crawl.

To each his own but I'd even go way down to a $90-100 motherboard just to get an SSD for the OS.
Click to expand...

Not if you load up Youtube 60FPS or any heavier flash site, that 2006 Core 2 will choke up. The Internet is bloated now and even with ad blockers you still need a CPU with enough grunt to cut through it.

And I still stand that the i3 and 390 is unbalanced.
 
escrow4 said:
Not if you load up Youtube 60FPS or any heavier flash site, that 2006 Core 2 will choke up. The Internet is bloated now and even with ad blockers you still need a CPU with enough grunt to cut through it.

And I still stand that the i3 and 390 is unbalanced.
Click to expand...

True. I have a mid-2010 Macbook Pro with an i3 in it and 8GB ram and SSD. It is snappy as heck and so much faster than when new, when it had 2GB ram and an old and slow HD. Still, the machine will bog down and get hot when I have multiple tabs open or start dealing with HD content.
 
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