Z17

Skylake refresh refresh?

All Z97 boards are unlocked boards which allow for overclocking. i5 4460 is a locked processor and can't overclock. Getting Z97 with the i5 4460 is a waste of money since you wouldn't be able to use the motherboard to it's fullest potential. Get either a locked motherboard with that locked cpu, or an unlocked cpu (such as the 4670k that people mentioned) with that Z97 motherboard.

The motherboard he went for has 2 slots for ram so 2 sticks of ram would fill up all the slots limit his ability to add more ram. Dual channel has absolutely no benefit for gaming that it shouldn't be considered source: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/1zwgs2/ram_benchmark_dual_vs_singlechannel_how/ source TL;DR:

You wouldn't walk around holding your monitor either, wat? I don't get your logic.

Sorry I forgot to mention that this is purely for people making builds for gaming. Yes there are people who need more cores but I don't think the ratio of those people to gamers is 367 to 2. I just made this to help clear some misconceptions

STOP! READ. THE. POST. "NO YOU IDIOT, GET AN I5 AND A 760" AGAIN. READ. THE. POST. Ok now that I have you attention let me begin. That title was somewhat of a rhetorical question, I'll give you some numbers and let you decide. So, I made this post because there seems to be a slight misconception about bottlenecking. Reason I say this is because as of writing this on PCPartPicker there are 367 builds with a haswell i5 and a gtx 760: http://pcpartpicker.com/builds/?sort=recent#qq=1&c=98,134,193,96,131,195,194,69,5,133,171,207&page=1&g=93 and the amount of builds with a haswell i3 and gtx 770 is like... 2: http://pcpartpicker.com/builds/?sort=recent#qq=1&c=46,165,191,21,71,201,196&g=89 so this MUST mean that an i5 with a 760 is a better choice right? weeeeelll lets make the numbers talk: For CPU comparison we'll use Austin Evan's comparison of the 4130 and 4670k using a 780 to show a (near) worst case bottleneck scenario to see the performance increase of going from an i3 to an i5 http://youtu.be/aXPK9doyMLg?t=3m Battlefield 3 - Ultra 1080p: 82 to 88 fps (7.3% improvement) Crysis 3 - Very High 1080p: 50 to 53 fps (6% improvement) Bioshock Infinite - Ultra 1080p: 97 to 105 fps (8.2% improvement) Metro Last Light - Very High 1080p: 64 to 83 fps (29.7% improvement) For GPU comparison we'll use Anandtech's GPU14 to compare the performance improvement of going from a 760 to a 770: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1037?vs=1038 Battlefield 3 - 1920x1080 - Ultra Quality + 4x MSAA: 70.3 to 84.4 fps (20.1% improvement) Crysis 3 - 1920x1080 - High Quality + FXAA: (GPU14 has High settings while Austin uses Very High but gets it the point across) 58.9 to 71.2 fps (20.9% improvement) Bioshock Infinite - 1920x1080 - Ultra Quality: 82.3 to 102.7 fps (24.8% improvement) Metro: Last Light - 1920x1080 - Very High Quality: 42.6 to 52 fps (22.1% improvement) So as you can tell, with the exception of Metro Last Light, there was a MUCH bigger jump in performance of going from a 760 to a 770 than from an i3 to i5. Yes there ARE cpu intensive games out there and Metro: Last Light is proof of that but GENERALLY most intensive triple A titles are gpu intensive nowadays so for an all around average gamer this option might be better Yes the i5 in Austin's video was probably not overclocked but overclocking probably wont be the difference in outperforming this option, and overclocking would require a Z97 mobo and a cooler so It is much more expensive Yes games might start using more cores but the i3 has hyperthreading and we've been hearing that for quite some time now and is it really gunna happen soon enough within THIS build's generation that its worth it for "future proofing"? So, with most the common arguments out of the way what do you guys think? BONUS ROUND: Ok so now I'll really be stretching it here buuuut would an i3 bottleneck a 290? (I"ll probably go with yes but I'd be curious for actual benchmarks to confirm) the argument of a 780 in Austin's video being enough to "flex that bottleneck" wont really work here but I was curious to see the difference of going from a 770 to a 290 and here are the results: Battlefield 3 - 1920x1080 - Ultra Quality + 4x MSAA: 84.4 vs 87.9 (4.1% improvement) Crysis 3 - 1920x1080 - High Quality + FXAA: (GPU14 has High settings while Austin uses Very High but gets it the point across) 71.2 vs 77.4 (8.7% improvement) Bioshock Infinite - 1920x1080 - Ultra Quality: 102.7 vs 122.9 fps (19.7% improvement) Metro: Last Light - 1920x1080 - Very High Quality: 52 vs 68.8 fps (32.3% improvement) Very Interesting results we have here. So basically besides battlefield 3 which is an nvidia game, a 290 with an i3 is better than a 770 and an i5 EVEN IN METRO LAST LIGHT. I'm not sure how to feel right now. We need actual scientific benchmarks comparing these similarly priced. Actually an i5 is $100 more than an i3, and a 290 is around $60 more than an 770 so its even CHEAPER to get an i3 + 290 Edit: Just wanted to add in that this is purely for those making gaming PCs and not for those who might value having more cores or better cpu horsepower.

We don't have import taxes.

The CX500 doesn't have international shipping and I don't see the point of the 212 on a locked cpu. Maybe later if he wants a quieter PC but its not a priority to him at this point. I'm curious about that wireless adapter though, is it better than the one i chose in terms of range?

I just looked into it and am unsure which AMD motherboard to go with that would keep it within the same budget. As for the psu, the 650w version is $14 more so It might be worth it although I might be going overbudget for no reason and just being pointlessly extra safe.

Ok so I'm making this build for a friend who was about to buy a ps4 several months ago. At first he had a low budget so I made him a console killer list but he never got around to buying it and slowly over time his budget increased... a lot. Another thing is that we live in Kuwait and everything around here costs around 50% more than what it should, the best option is buying everything through amazon and have it shipped internationally. I have already factored in the cost of windows, since windows is locked to the region it is bought from if i recall correctly and its around the same price anyways. Also he'll be reusing a case so that won't be needed. Another thing is that not a single motherboard on amazon seems to have international shipping so he'll be using a carrier for that which I've also factored into the cost. His budget after I factored in windows and shipping the motherboard is around $900 but amazon's shipping is around $50 so lets assume $850. Also, he said he wont be overclocking so I went with a locked cpu, and now the list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LW3yqs Now before you pull out your pitchforks lemme explain why: CPU: at first I had the 4670k on there but due to budget constraints and him not wanting to overclock I went with the 4430. I then later noticed that the 4440S and the 4440 are the only non-haswell refresh i5's that have international shipping on amazon. Now I was considering going with the 8350 so I googled around and found this benchmark: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-4670k-4670-4570-4430_5.html I'm unsure how reliable this benchmark is but the 4430 managed to beat the 8350 at 1080p in all gaming benchmarks, but all were within a few fps. I understand how when making a build list it seems to be taboo not to go with the 8350 if the budget didn't allow for the 4670k but the 4430 (or 4440 even) seems like a better deal. correct me if I'm wrong though. mobo: I'm unsure about which motherboard to go with in terms of the low end ones because many brands seem to cheap out a lot on them but Asus is pretty reputable so I went with that. ram: I went with 1 stick to allow for an upgrade later on. I've never seen even the slightest hint of dual channel being beneficial in gaming so I couldn't care less about that. gpu: now here is where i dumped most of the budget into. At first I went with a 770 but I realized that I could manage to squeeze in a 290 into the budget. psu: the CX500 and CX600 don't have international shipping. The CX500M and CX600M do however but I've heard that the CX series doesn't last very long under heavy load so I went with the XFX for seasonic's quality since it'll be running a 290. I know this build seems somewhat odd and the budget isn't allocated the way you're used to seeing on most builds but remember that this is basically a higher budget console killer. So now that I've laid down my points I'd like to know if there should be any changes.

Driver San Francisco anyone? :rolleyes:

I'd need to replace almost all my fans then which should cost minimum another 30$. I'll go with other options, probably the T-Balancer or aquaero if those do what theyre suppose to, then they're perfect

Sorry for the late reply but I checked out the aquaero and it seems great, but I had another problem that I completely forgot about which is the pwm(ness?) of the fans. All my fans (except for my evo's fan) are 3 pin which i'm guessing doesn't work on the corsair link (or does it?) and same question for the aquaero and the T-balancer although those seem like they use 3 pin headers from what I'm understanding.

I googled it to check what it was and how it worked and i couldn't find any stores selling it. Is it discontinued and also how much does it cost? I only found this http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=30189 which is more expensive than the corsair link (and for only 4 fans? not sure if i got that part correct)

I recently got my desktop and its been very loud so far and I can't really figure ways out to make it quieter. I wanna have the fans change automatically depending on the temperatures (I really liked the idea of ASUS's fan Xpert 2 that they have on some of their motherboards although sadly I only heard of it after getting my pc). I went with an asrock extreme6 that has very limited fan controlling options and even with everything on the lowest setting, my desktop is still too loud for me. I'm using the fan controller on my 600T which slightly helped but still too much outside my liking. I've stumbled across the corsair link and I really like the ability to have a fan curve for the fans (and also the adjusting lighting depending on temps seems like a cool thing that i'll be using). I'll admit I'm quite biased and I kinda want it for the corsair branding because corsair makes awesome products. :rolleyes: Sooo my question is, is the corsair link worth its $75? i heard that the software is very glitchy but that was a while ago and i dunno if they're fixed now. If there are better options for the price i'd like to hear. Specs: cpu and cooler: 2500k with a 212 cooler master evo mobo: Asrock Z77 Extreme6 gpu: Gigabyte 7970 OC windforce ram: Gskill ripjawsX 2x8 1600mhz psu: Corsair TX850 V2 case: Corsair 600T hdd: WD 1tb caviar blue