$1500-2000 new PC

[zaft1g337]

Hi

My brother wants a new gaming pc (sometimes for making music). I would like to have some ideas what to go for. He has a laptop now and will need everything new except for monitor, keyboard,mouse and headset.

1) is it wise to base it on skylake or should i focus on putting the money on a good gpu and buy z97 instead?
2) should it be a K cpu?
3) which mobo will allow to overclock and what is the differences between the z170, b150, h110, h170 mobos?

Edit:
case, mobo and memory looks do not matter. he does not care for the look of his pc as long as it is awesome.

He will be using a normal 1080P monitor 24" with plan to buy a new one similar in the future

Thanks guys

 

[AlienALX]

1. Depends on the price.
2. Depends on whether you are overclocking and the price.
3. You usually need a Z board for overclocking, though some cheaper models allow it (but have crap phases)
4. Wasn't a question but a statement of fact.

 

[Tolemac]

Hi fella can you tell us which monitor you are going to be using so we can give you the right advice about which GFX card to recommend

 

[AlienALX]

Also. What sort of dollars are we talking about here? I see you are in Norway, does that mean USD?

 

[zaft1g337]

Also. What sort of dollars are we talking about here? I see you are in Norway, does that mean USD?

Approximately 12000 NOK give and take some. So i assume its about 1500-2000usd.

Hi fella can you tell us which monitor you are going to be using so we can give you the right advice about which GFX card to recommend

1080P/24" with plan to buy a new one similar

 

[AlienALX]

do you have a link to a store in your country? so that we can look at prices?

 

[zaft1g337]

do you have a link to a store in your country? so that we can look at prices?

sure, here: http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=1243

 

[Wraith]

Just thrown together a basic 1080p system for quality gaming and production roughly $1000 (USD) so there is still much room for improvement should your friend decide he wants more.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($224.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus H97-PLUS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($99.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($38.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($84.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($73.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($319.39 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design Define S w/Window ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1011.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-13 09:38 EST-0500

 

[AlienALX]

I just had a look and the price difference between the 4690k and 6600k was tiny. I would go Skylake then tbh. GPU wise the Nano is very well priced in your country so I would get one of those.

I had a quick poke around on one of those sites and put this together. Obviously you would need a case too, but it's just a rough idea.



Edit. If you wanted a smaller form factor the EVGA Stinger Z170 is available in your country for about the same as the board in the list there. There are cheaper options though, such as the ASRock Z170M-ITX/ac which is also good for ITX, if you wanted something small

 

[zaft1g337]

Thanks guys.

I would still like to know what the differences between the z170, b150, h110, h170 mobos are. Which one of these doesn't not allow for overclocking?

 

[AlienALX]

It all depends on the specific board as to whether you can overclock with them. I highly, highly doubt you will be able to overclock with a H110 board though as they cost virtually nothing.

Once you decide on a form factor (ITX, ATX, MATX) then it will be easier for us to find you an appropriate motherboard dude.

So basically pick a board, then look for a review and see if the review includes any overclocking. As I said though, cheaper boards mean cheaper power phases so you will hinder your overclocks by going cheap.

 

[Feronix]

You'll need a Z series board for proper overclocking really. Some H and even B series have supported it after a few bios updates, but now Intel is cracking down on them and new bios updates have come out making overclocking on these boards impossible again.

If you are serious about overclocking, get a K chip and Z series motherboard. If you're not, get a Xeon 1230 v3 or i7 4770/4790 (non-K) and a nice and cheap H97 series board and enjoy your horsepower. Imho, Skylake is massively overpriced, and the performance increase over Haswell/Haswell Refresh are minimal, so definitely go for the cheapest option.

 

[Kilbane]

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/cPXnZL

Quick throw together, price equals around 12300 NOK.
Obviously if your not looking at over clocking from the start you can leave the 3rd party cooler till you do.

This includes EVERYTHING you said you needed.

---------------------------------

Thanks guys.

I would still like to know what the differences between the z170, b150, h110, h170 mobos are. Which one of these doesn't not allow for overclocking?

Simple explination can be found here :

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/intel-100-series-chipsets,news-51149.html

 

[AlienALX]

Oops ! forgot the cooler. I didn't pick a case because they're very personal things.

 

[Feronix]

Oops ! forgot the cooler. I didn't pick a case because they're very personal things.

He literally said he didn't care.

 

[Wraith]

Oops ! forgot the cooler. I didn't pick a case because they're very personal things.

Just go for a neutral case that's averagely priced, should they want to change then the option is there.

So far you have recommended Skylake which is overpriced for what is only a 2% gain in performance over Haswell, his budget is 12,000 NOK, you managed to build a system that is incomplete for 14,745 NOK...

 

[AlienALX]

Just go for a neutral case that's averagely priced, should they want to change then the option is there.

So far you have recommended Skylake which is overpriced for what is only a 2% gain in performance over Haswell, his budget is 12,000 NOK, you managed to build a system that is incomplete for 14,745 NOK...

Yeah I had a feeling some one would say something like that. Do note -

Approximately 12000 NOK give and take some.

And.

Obviously you would need a case too, but it's just a rough idea.

This is basically why I usually completely avoid threads like this nor bother recommending anything. Because it becomes all about opinions and who is right or wrong.

As for Skylake being overpriced? I checked both the 4690k and the 6600k and there was about a £10 difference. I didn't see any point in limiting the rig to DDR3 for such a small difference.

Lesson learned though, I won't bother again.

 

[WYP]

As Alien has said in the high end Skylake doesn't make much sense, but with the i5 it does.

I would advise something like this or similar.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7trmnQ

Price: $1215 Approx based on PCpartpicker

Specs
CPU: Intel Skylake i5 6600K
Motherboard: MSI Z170A SLI Plus
Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX
RAM: Corsair LPX 2400MHz 2x8GB
SSD: Crucial BX200 240GB
HDD: Western Digital Red 2TB
GPU: ASUS R9 390 (Though a GTX 970 is also good)
PSU: Corsair RM650W
Case: Personal Preference really Can't go wrong with something like the fractal R5

If you want to spend more you can bump up the GPU to a higher model or get more storage. 16GB of RAM is plenty ATM, though you can up the speeds to 3200MHz if you want.

 

[AlienALX]

I never, ever include cases because they are such personal things. They're what you look at after all and every one is different. Plus they're not exactly expensive.

When looking at GPUs I found that the Nano was almost half of the price of the 980ti, the same sort of bargain it is here when OCUK do it for £349.

I could easily redo that rig and get it bang on the target price whilst keeping the Nano. The board I picked is twice as expensive as some others but I wanted to stick to one vendor. Hence the rough part. I also picked a very expensive PSU for the same reason.

In a gaming rig the GPU is obviously the most important part, so I would get the absolute best you can afford as GPUs are the most expensive part of a rig also. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the 970 or 390 but when the next tier arrives they will immediately become bottom end cards unlike the Nano which will become a mid range card.

Food for thought I guess

 

[Wraith]

I could easily redo that rig and get it bang on the target price whilst keeping the Nano.

Well why didn't you do that to begin with, would have avoided all this.. Take the OPs purpose in mind, audio creation and 24" 1080p gaming and his budget.