DebatED Nothing

You're all kind of missing the point, I'm not asking which is better or if I should stay with AMD, I'm saying that considering I am going to be making a mini itx build, is an i5 6600k a worthwhile upgrade, or should I spend more to get a better upgrade and a system that will be capable for longer.

I want my next build to be a Mini ITX though, and there are no Mini ITX AMD motherboards. ^^See above^^

Not even when you consider that I really want a node 202 for its size?

I'll use it then, seeing as I imagine their PSU comes with cables of appropriate length for the case etc. Thanks for the advice, but don't entirely dismiss shitty "included in case" psus, they can be good for tinkering and stuff (I use one I got on Amazon for £15 to test brushless RC motors because they draw a lot of current)

Is the power supply included in the Node 202 by Fractal design good? Will it suffice for an approximately 320 W build in that case?

I was already planning on doing this build in a short while: PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/hzYhM8 Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/hzYhM8/by_merchant/ CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£194.99 @ Ebuyer) CPU Cooler: CRYORIG C7 40.5 CFM CPU Cooler (£53.00) Motherboard: Asus Z170I PRO GAMING Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£125.44 @ More Computers) Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£63.99 @ Amazon UK) Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£109.99 @ Amazon UK) Storage: Samsung Spinpoint M9T 2TB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£73.98 @ Ebuyer) Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Founders Edition Video Card (£409.43 @ CCL Computers) Case: Fractal Design Node 202 HTPC Case w/450W Power Supply (£109.02 @ CCL Computers) Total: £1139.84 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-14 17:50 BST+0100 The 1070 is just a placeholder card, but I think I will be going for a 1070. Thoughts? (I know this isn't new builds and planning, but you know, while I've got someone's attention :P) By multitask do you mean intensive stuff or just "having chrome and itunes open at the same time as a game"? Will many games in 1080p be affected by having the i5 VS an i7 or is it unlikely to affect most games outside of physics sims like KSP? (I have built a PC before, but basically got a friend to do parts selection for me, so never learned myself. Turns out he didn't know either, hence the 8350, shitty motherboard and the original terrible GPU (HD 7850, cost less than the CPU...)) Given most games only tend to use a few cores and because I think I'm getting some noticeable frame drops from CPU usage being maxed out on a few cores whilst gaming do you think it'd help considerably? I'd most likely still be gaming in 1080p, maybe 1440p, and I'd probably have a 1070 at the time when I buy this CPU. Thanks for the vid link

Title basically says it all, is it worth it to upgrade from an FX 8350 to an i5 6600k, or should I save a bit longer and spend more to get a large performance increase and to make the intel CPU and motherboard be viable for longer? Furthermore, will the performance increase be noticeable? I think I'm having some issues with several games due to CPU bottle-necking, and am certainly having CPU problems in games like KSP and other physics based games.

Nope, SSD has got 40GB spare, HDD over 400 GB.

I realised that 500 GB SSDs are a lot cheaper than I thought they were now, so I think a 202 is back on the cards, made a few of your changes as well, thoughts now? PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Qy8bvV Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Qy8bvV/by_merchant/ CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£194.99 @ Ebuyer) CPU Cooler: CRYORIG C7 40.5 CFM CPU Cooler (£53.00) Motherboard: Asus Z170I PRO GAMING Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£123.68 @ More Computers) Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£64.03 @ Amazon UK) Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For £0.00) Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£106.65 @ Amazon UK) Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB ACX Video Card (Purchased For £0.00) Case: Fractal Design Node 202 HTPC Case w/450W Power Supply (£109.02 @ CCL Computers) Total: £651.37 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-12 15:50 BST+0100

I've just looked and actually 500GB SSDs are a lot cheaper than I thought now...If I get an external drive then 2*500 or a 250 and a 500 could probably be manageable...

Get a minimum of a 60 Hz monitor, higher if you can. Remember there's no point getting a 144 Hz monitor if your computer can't run at 144 Hz anyway.

I don't think there's a limit to what frame rate we can look at. Actual physical objects move an infinite number of times per second (across an infinitesimal distance obviously) meaning the (effectively) infinite stream of photons entering our eyes from them is changing constantly, so why would a faster monitor affect us? Unless you were talking about the limit in monitor hardware, in which case I have no idea haha.

I'm thinking about making a Mini ITX build and need some case recommendations. I was thinking of using the Node 202 but I'm not sure I can get by with only 2.5 inch drives just yet... Any recommendations for Mini ITX and very small cases that have at least 1 3.5 inch drive bay?

@HPWebcamAble So I tried this morning with all unnecesariy background tasks ended and it was definitely longer before I got one, but I still got one all the same. Here's a picture of the task manager window, the frame drops happened a few seconds before the massive CPU usage drop, that corresponds to me tabbing out of the game. Not sure how useful that is, doesn't look liker there's much out of the ordinary there

So in the last few years I've grown very tired of having a large and "gamery" computer, and also have grown weary of my CPUs thermals, heat output and power usage, as well as the fact that my CPU socket is a complete dead end. So, I'm now entertaining the idea of a new build in a smaller case, but I have a few issues in that department which make it a bit harder to choose (because were it not for these issues I'd 100% just go for a Node 202. Requirements: -Unless SSDs become much cheaper and quickly, I need at least 1, preferably 2 3.5 inch HDD bays for mass storage. -I'd honestly rather not have a case window, because that way I don't have to worry about how it looks inside as much. -Budget of at most £1000, after factoring in the fact that I already have the storage, the NH-D14 cooler, and an HX750 if it will fit in the case. This is a build I just very quickly threw together on PC partpicker by mostly sorting by rating and selecting something that seemed good, so I imagine it's not very well done (also the 1070 is just a placeholder GPU, I have no idea which one I'd go for yet, and might keep my 770 for the time being anyway) PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/bGWf7h Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/bGWf7h/by_merchant/ CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£164.28 @ Aria PC) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (Purchased For £0.00) Motherboard: Asus Z170I PRO GAMING Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£123.68 @ More Computers) Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£56.93 @ More Computers) Storage: Corsair Force Series GT 60GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For £0.00) Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For £0.00) Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For £0.00) Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For £0.00) Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Founders Edition Video Card (£419.95 @ CCL Computers) Case: Fractal Design Define Nano S Mini ITX Desktop Case (£58.60 @ Amazon UK) Power Supply: Corsair CSM 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£42.66 @ Amazon UK) Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM 64-bit (Purchased For £0.00) Total: £866.10 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-12 02:11 BST+0100 Any help would be greatly appreciated.

There were quite a few drops between the start and end of this period, is this helpful?

One sec, need to reopen game and stuff to get screen shots

@LabRat @HPWebcamAble I tried with a few background processes disabled to free up some more RAM, same issue:

Mirror's Edge: Catalyst

Just tried ME:C at complete max min (how do you confuse max and min brain, like really?) settings, still happens.

What can I do about that (aside from the obvious move to intel remark)

Does this help? You can see the drops quite clearly, dropping from a VSynced 60 to about 8 or so.

Not the storage, happens on games on my SSD and games on the HDD

I have an issue in a lot of game (DOTA, Planetside 2, Mirrors Edge: Catalyst to name a few) where my frame rate will occasionally just tank to 2-3 frames per second. When I monitor using MSI Afterburner on screen display the frame drops coincide with and seem to be caused by my GPU usage dropping from the 50-90% it is at when running the game to 10-20%. Assuming the GPU usage dropping is causing the frame drops and not vice versa, what could be causing my GPU to be occasionally just "giving up" for a few seconds and not trying? I could really use some help with this because it's really ruining my experience in a lot of games recently. (I've had the problem for a while, didn't begin after any change in system hardware, but it's particularly bad in Mirror's Edge Catalyst If you need any info beyond what's in my signature then please respond and I'll get it. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

ikr?