My first PC build. Decisions?

Raekwondo

Hi guys, building my first PC. Have around 600 quid atm but in the next few weeks can stretch that about 1k. I'm not sure what to go with though, an i5 6600k, or an i5 4690k? I have already decided that my card will be an MSI GTX 970. Going for 8GB RAM too but I'm not sure on the CPU and Mobo. Any benefits or insights into Skylake setup or would the older setup be fine?

grindle

Skylake if you don't mind sourcing your BIOS from non-vendor sites, get a nice 6400 or 6500 and refrain from upgrading your BIOS, otherwise 1150 builds are the best bang-for-buck at the moment. The upgradability of Skylake doesn't mean too much considering Kaby Lake will likely be another paltry 3-5% gain - not really worth buying a new CPU for unless it's your business.

Eoinmc97

Both are fine, but the Skylake Z170 and H170 chipset offers more "nice to haves" such as better storage options, more PCIE lanes and usually better Audio Codecs on-board.
IMO, the 4690K is only what, €10-€15 cheaper than the 6600K? The Skylake version runs cooler amd uses less power, and generally performs ~10% faster than it's predecessor, so why not?

Eoinmc97

grindle wrote: »

Skylake if you don't mind sourcing your BIOS from non-vendor sites, get a nice 6400 or 6500 and refrain from upgrading your BIOS, otherwise 1150 builds are the best bang-for-buck at the moment. The upgradability of Skylake doesn't mean too much considering Kaby Lake will likely be another paltry 3-5% gain - not really worth buying a new CPU for unless it's your business.

Very true. Non K Skylake cores have been able to BCLK to offer very high speeds, on older BIOSes. You can find them on many forums such as Overclockers.uk or LTT.

MarkAnthony

Go with the older gen CPUs. Don't bother with overclocking. It's a hobby rather than something worth doing. Once you factor in the additional cost of the components and cooling it simply isn't worth it IMHO.

Raekwondo

grindle wrote: »

Skylake if you don't mind sourcing your BIOS from non-vendor sites, get a nice 6400 or 6500 and refrain from upgrading your BIOS, otherwise 1150 builds are the best bang-for-buck at the moment. The upgradability of Skylake doesn't mean too much considering Kaby Lake will likely be another paltry 3-5% gain - not really worth buying a new CPU for unless it's your business.

Okay, not too familiar with PC lingo yet, what do you mean source a BIOS from non-vendor sites? Doesn't the BIOS come with the Mobo?

Eoinmc97 wrote: »

Very true. Non K Skylake cores have been able to BCLK to offer very high speeds, on older BIOSes. You can find them on many forums such as Overclockers.uk or LTT.

Yeah price wise I could save about 30-40 going non K. Overclocking seems a nice benefit if needed though. I do plan on replacing my GTX 970 with a Pascal card of the same price range once they launch. Also, say I get 8GB RAM to start, can I easily add in another 8GB by just slotting them into the Mobo? Sorry for all the questions, I know basic things about PC parts and how to put them all together, but after that it's all learning for me :P

Digital Solitude

I wouldn't bother my arse with over clocking tbh, not worth the money

For adding RAM, yeah just slot more in and bam, away.

I'd go Skylake, apparently DDR4 shows improvements over DDR3 in some games

Raekwondo

Digital Solitude wrote: »

I wouldn't bother my arse with over clocking tbh, not worth the money

For adding RAM, yeah just slot more in and bam, away.

I'd go Skylake, apparently DDR4 shows improvements over DDR3 in some games

Yeah I'm not getting the benefit for it atm, on something like a 2500k it seems worth it due to the mileage you can get out of it. Anyways this is what I was looking at.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (€223.98 @ Mindfactory)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (€36.48 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI Z170-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory (€57.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€44.88 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€46.25 @ Mindfactory)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (€341.72 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Fractal Design Core 2300 ATX Mid Tower Case (€51.49 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (€73.47 @ Mindfactory)
Total: €876.26
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-22 00:11 CET+0100

Can get the Mobo on dabs for about 105. Anything I could change/make more efficient? Not looking at 4k gaming or anything, just want to play 1080p/60fps with most settings maxed out.

schaffer1969

As the rest have said don't bother with the overclocking.
Buy as much RAM and as many cores as you can afford.
Look for motherboard where you can add extra ram and drives when you can afford them.

I've built many machines and I've found the best and cheapest site to be hardwareversand.de.

There's nothing like building your first computer... and then taking it apart again when it does not work as expected!
Best of luck. :-)

schaffer1969

As the rest have said don't bother with the overclocking.
Buy as much RAM and as many cores as you can afford.
Look for motherboard where you can add extra ram and drives when you can afford them.
Depending on the games you plan on playing, a good graphics card with lots of RAM makes a big difference.

I've built many machines and I've found the best and cheapest site to be hardwareversand.de.

There's nothing like building your first computer... and then taking it apart again when it does not work as expected!
Best of luck. :-)

funkey_monkey

I'm no expert, but if you bought 1x8Gb RAM module would it not make your future upgrade easier? You could jump easily to 16Gb. Increasing your RAM by 100%.
2x4Gb means that if you upgrade you'll have to throw away one module. Adding an 8Gb module in the future means you Throw away a 4Gb module and increase RAM by only 50% to 12Gb.

Raekwondo

funkey_monkey wrote: »

I'm no expert, but if you bought 1x8Gb RAM module would it not make your future upgrade easier? You could jump easily to 16Gb. Increasing your RAM by 100%.
2x4Gb means that if you upgrade you'll have to throw away one module. Adding an 8Gb module in the future means you Throw away a 4Gb module and increase RAM by only 50% to 12Gb.

Well from what I have been reading, 2x4GB is faster than 1x8GB. 8GB is fine for gaming atm but 16GB would future proof it for many, many years.

funkey_monkey

Is that to do with dual channel capability?

Told you I was no expert!

Raekwondo

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Is that to do with dual channel capability?

Told you I was no expert!

Yeah that's the one I believe :P

schaffer1969 wrote: »

As the rest have said don't bother with the overclocking.
Buy as much RAM and as many cores as you can afford.
Look for motherboard where you can add extra ram and drives when you can afford them.
Depending on the games you plan on playing, a good graphics card with lots of RAM makes a big difference.

I've built many machines and I've found the best and cheapest site to be hardwareversand.de.

There's nothing like building your first computer... and then taking it apart again when it does not work as expected!
Best of luck. :-)

Was having a look at that site, they actually allow you to complete a build and will ship it to you built for an extra €30. Seems a pretty good deal!

Digital Solitude

Hardwareversand are a bunch of dicks so the regulars around here don't recommend them anymore. They removed PayPal to force people to pay using Bank Transfer, and then went into liquidation so people had no comeback to got their money back.

Though I believe they're selling fine now anyways.

Get 2x4gb, the motherboard should have 4 DIMM slots to add another 2 sticks

Raekwondo

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Hardwareversand are a bunch of dicks so the regulars around here don't recommend them anymore. They removed PayPal to force people to pay using Bank Transfer, and then went into liquidation so people had no comeback to got their money back.

Though I believe they're selling fine now anyways.

Get 2x4gb, the motherboard should have 4 DIMM slots to add another 2 sticks

Oh that would make me weary of them. Yeah I will be getting 2x4GB. Btw, I have W10 on my laptop I just updated to. Anyway I can transfer that to my new PC?

Digital Solitude

That's likely an OEM licence so probably not

schaffer1969

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Hardwareversand are a bunch of dicks so the regulars around here don't recommend them anymore. They removed PayPal to force people to pay using Bank Transfer, and then went into liquidation so people had no comeback to got their money back.

Good to know this. Just found something on Reddit talking about it (reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/3esor9/discussion_psa_do_not_order_parts_off_of/?limit=500)
so won't deal with these guys again.