Buying a new motherboard and CPU - Need advice/insight

DREADN0UGHT·Aug 24, 2016·1 votes·969 views

Yeah so I'm going to be buying a new motherboard and therefor a new processor along with it. I already have a good idea of what I'm going for, I was just wondering if someone could give me a heads up on common mistakes made by neophyte pc builders.

I'm probably going to be buying an MSi X99ish board and get whatever CPU combo the websites suggest me.

For some reason, I have this anxiety about my graphics card, its a Zotac GTX 960, pretty basic, but I just can't help but to fear it might not be compatible with the new motherboard...

I've swapped and replaced every part of a computer in the past and understand the basics, but this is the first time I buy and install a new motherboard and CPU, so I'm having second thoughts about everything, as I don't want to throw 500+$ out the window..

Fill me in guys

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/430/607/c3c.png

23 Comments

AerothalAug 24, 20163 votes

z170 board with a i7 6700k will last you for a good while! (estimate 3-5 years) for $500 you can even get a decent amount of ram with it, starting with 16GB, upgrading to 32GB later

its one of the fastest processors with overclocking capability.

here: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/sirsanio/saved/#view=nwV3CJ

btw, i just threw this together but dont know what kind of existing stuff/case you have. check with pcpartpicker if the mobo fits into your case.

maybe you can recycle your cpu cooler this processor needs the ddr4 memory, so you wont be able to use your old ddr3 memory.

if you dont want to get the i7 6700k, get the i5 6600k. I highly recommend the 6700k though.

DREADN0UGHTAug 24, 20161 votes

Well shit, I already have 2x8G HyperX DDR4 chips waiting at home! Finding out my current motherboards only had DDR3 sockets was the main reason I decided to upgrade my build LUL

Thanks alot for the lead fam, I'll look into that for sure.

EDIT: and that website looks pretty neat!

AerothalAug 24, 20161 votes

if you already have ddr4 memory thats awesome! get the board and the processor and you are good to go!

ps, there are cheaper z170 boards. i just had really good experience with the asrock. had the z77 extreme 6 in my 2012 machine and have the z170 extreme 6 in my 2016 machine. this is my current computer: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/sirsanio/saved/

ThrëatAug 24, 20162 votes

Aerothal's link has pretty good parts if you are looking to spend $500. If you want cheaper you can get the i5-2500k and a water cooler and play pretty much anything for around $250. I have the i5-2500k, 8GB RAM and a 780 GTX and I get 200+ fps in league with everything maxed out and can play all the current FPS games with good FPS. I get about 50 in Squad, which is unoptimized, 70-100 in Rust, 60-80 in Ark, 200+ in CSGO, 70-120 in Battlefield, etc.

AerothalAug 25, 20161 votes

i agree with this if you're on a tight budget. You said though that you have $500 and already have the ddr4 memory. in that case i would still go for the 6700k.

Genuwhine36Aug 24, 20161 votes

This would be the shittiest place to look try the subreddit of computer stuff. These 14 years olds hardly know what the game is let alone what good computer ware would be.

AerothalAug 24, 20164 votes

dude please shut the fuck up! there is tons of people here with sound knowledge and advice.

Genuwhine36Aug 24, 20161 votes

LOL the only advice you guys ever give on here is advice you would want to stay low elo. Why the hell would you know about computers when you don't know how to even play the game you are playing. Doesn't make sense to go here for computer knowledge.

AerothalAug 24, 20162 votes

god you are an idiot. LOL so according to you elo=RL knowledge? grow the fuck up.

LuggAug 24, 20161 votes

Honestly, you should buy the best ones you can afford. Otherwise they will become obsolete too soon.

WoonStruckAug 25, 20161 votes

Not true at all. I'm using a pretty old 3.4 Ghz 4-core CPU and a GTX 460 GPU and I can run pretty much any game at max settings without any issues. Many games aren't even capable of running more than 2 cores.

Motherboard will pretty much not be obsolete as long as its DDR3-compatible since DDR4 will not be the standard for a while~~, and he most likely does not want to get DDR4 right now. ~~ Missed some things OP mentioned. X99 is pretty much the only option; no DDR4 MB he chooses would ever become obsolete in the next 10 years unless DDR5 magically skyrockets into market standards.

The rest you can grab from any broken PC in the last 15 years and it can be used for a good system, excepting very few HDDs with absurdly low R/W speeds. As long as you have 8Gb of RAM, you're pretty much good to go.

You won't find many bottle-necks outside of CPU, GPU, and RAM quantity. R/W speeds (both HDD and RAM) are rarely an issue.

Hell, the fact that what you say is untrue is exactly why I'm able to hold off on upgrading until there's better specs/prices for a DDR4 system.

Any PC that's built for DDR3 right now at this very second, unless you're using literally bottom-of-the-line parts, will last you at least 5 more years with very few drawbacks.

DDR4 systems will last 10+ years without becoming obsolete. Gaming technology (as far as PC requirements) isn't advancing all that fast anymore...and DX12 becoming more and more common makes it much easier to run extremely high-graphics games with lower spec computers.

LuggAug 26, 20161 votes

I can't remember any computer being viable for more than 5 years going back about 20 years. The tech and games are moving forward still very fast. If you don't go top of the line, it may only be viable 3 years in a lot of cases.

I do agree that the DDR4 stuff should be good for a long time though. I'm just assuming the OP doesn't want to wait that long.

WoonStruckAug 26, 20161 votes

The middle-market+ parts (as far as custom builds go, not manufactured; $200 6 months after release is a good benchmark) from 2004 and later are all able to hold you off with gaming up until now. Even then, its mostly RAM and CPUs that are having issues if you only have duo core or 1.4 GHz as one of the specs...which means you didn't buy a middle-market part.

You might only have 20 FPS in some of the most demanding games, but that's plenty for the large majority of games, especially if you aren't at a high MMR when it comes to competitive ones. Worth the wait with that since DDR4 is going to boom soon.

Tech is moving forward very fast, yes, but gaming requirements are not. They're crawling forward with the exception of a limited few games because everyone's using the same archaic systems to develop them.

Going top-of-the-line is practically a waste considering you can spend $200-$400 less on each component, barely lose out on any system power, and still last 5-10 years. This is especially true now that DirectX-12 is out.

Phone tech and app requirements are skyrocketing like computer requirements used to. Seriously, take a look at both over the last 10 years and tell me computer requirements haven't slowed to a crawl.

LuggAug 27, 20161 votes

Here is a good link showing you how much game requirements have changed. You obviously can't play any popular game today with 2004 tech.

http://kotaku.com/world-of-warcraft-system-requirements-have-changed-a-lo-1638506551

WoonStruckAug 27, 20161 votes

Lol, meanwhile I can run it fine with my ancient tech.

If you think WoW has heavy requirements...just lol.

You would have had a better argument with almost any other game.

You can play almost every popular game with a dumpster computer. Its the AAA titles released this year you might have issues with.

LuggAug 28, 20161 votes

WoW doesn't have heavy requirements, that's why I used it as an example.

I guess you could use outdated stuff, but the question is why would you when you can get good tech and a MUCH better gaming experience.

WoonStruckAug 28, 20161 votes

Because we're at the cusp of another spike in performance due to new DDR4 compatible parts, better DDR4-based RAM, etc.

Even if it doesn't spike, I could buy the same computer right now for about $500 or more cheaper, which is definitely worth it if I'm not suffering now.

The moment I have issues, I upgrade.

LuggAug 28, 20161 votes

I can't EVER remember not having issues after 5 years with any equipment. If it doesn't become obsolete by then, it just breaks.

WoonStruckAug 29, 20161 votes

True; I did replace my GPU after it fried with another I had laying around. Same card, though.

Just saying. The specs of 10 years ago can keep up if you spent $200 (midline standard) on all of the core components.

You might not get 120 FPS, but you'll get more than enough to be both playable and not have the experience suffer.

TreeofwarAug 24, 20161 votes

whats your price range

DREADN0UGHTAug 24, 20161 votes

About 500$, to be honest I am unsure how much it would cost me but from what I've been seeing on amazon and newegg, shit looks good to me.

WoonStruckAug 25, 20161 votes

https://pcpartpicker.com

The greatest advice anyone can give.

This site will not only list pretty much every potential component for your PC, it will allow you to see how they interact; if there are any incompatible parts.

Among the listed parts (sorted by type while you select), rating, price, specs, etc are all displayed.

On individual parts' pages, price trends are also listed from various retailers, including amazon, new egg, and many other sources.

Even if you don't shop via this site, its an amazing tool to guarantee your assembly and system experience all go smoothly by testing for compatibility and making sure you have all the relevant parts you need.

Btw, if you 'build' a system in it, it displays total price. You can make an extremely good computer for under $500 if you choose your parts wisely, especially since most PSUs (sometimes you need more Wattage) and HDDs (sometimes you need better R/W speeds) can be transferred without any loss of system power.

I would suggest a Crucial SSD for your system drive. Its a very cheap (~$35) but extremely reliable SSD, without a loss of performance. If you want one to speed up gaming, use it as a secondary drive and store all of your programs on it.

Be sure to go through the SSD optimization checklist to be sure you're getting the most out of your R/W speeds on it.