I have a weird idea...

[JebKerman]

I'm considering a plan around Christmas these parts are the certain (note the 970 and HDD are going to be transferred from my current build)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VIII GENE Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($359.00 @ PCCaseGear) 

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Elite 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($99.00 @ PCCaseGear) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($249.00 @ PCCaseGear) 

Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 

Case: Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($159.00 @ PCCaseGear) 

Power Supply: XFX PRO Black Edition 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($179.00 @ PCCaseGear) 

Total: $1045.00

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-29 14:07 AEDT+1100

 

I'll address a couple of things:

PSU: Future proofing, should be plenty for any dual GPU setup, and 2cm shorter than the EVGA G2 (It's a Seasonic unit anyway)

Motherboard: Ticks every box I've thrown at it, particularly SLI support, (a rarity among M-ATX boards, only 2 available), and number of fan headers

 

The Weird Bit:

I really want to get into Water-cooling (spent over half a year researching and thinking about it), but my budget doesn't stretch far enough to accommodate a K series chip, so i was thinking of getting the 6100, an i3.

 

I have 2 reasons:

1. It's fast, yet cheap (like 100$ cheaper than an i5 with a lower turbo)

2. It's Skylake, meaning BCLK isn't as limited, so i might be able to get it to run extremely quick.

 

Reason 2 also has me curious, if I go ahead with it, I'll probably post the results on the forum (I haven't seen any results like it yet). Who knows, maybe BCLK OCing renders K series chips a bit pointless.

 

Even if I can't OC it (much) it should keep me going until I have the funds for something like a 6700K, and a more powerful Pascal/Arctic Islands GPU. So I'd consider it no harm done.

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

Wait you wanna get a $120 CPU with a $400 motherboard?

[Aytex]

Wait you wanna get a $120 CPU with a $400 motherboard?

hes gonna upgrade to a i7 or something

 

still see why he needs a 400$ mobo though. a 150$ asus-a works fine

[babadoctor]

that is stupid

sometimes aircooling isnt as bad bro

just aircool m8

[AresKrieger]

Wait you wanna get a $120 CPU with a $400 motherboard?

Australia moneyz 

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-maximusviiigene

 

$200 US

[Bit8xPr0]

Ouch that motherboard is expensive, I'm sure there's much cheaper LGA 1151 alternatives. "6100, an i3." These don't even have compatability with your motherboard as far as I know, so you'd need a new motherboard to upgrade. Unless I'm missing something here.

[AresKrieger]

 

 

snip

Maybe we should have Linus do this science as he has intel sponsors, so you don't have to waste $175 AU

[Bit8xPr0]

 

 

What happened to your i5-4690k?

[JebKerman]

Maybe we should have Linus do this science as he has intel sponsors, so you don't have to waste $175 AU

I am honestly surprised no-one's actually inspected it yet.

[Bit8xPr0]

I am honestly surprised no-one's actually inspected it yet.

I wasn't aware they had i3 Skylake CPUs, that's interesting, I wonder if it would be worth switching from my FX to that until I had more money to upgrade.

[JebKerman]

What happened to your i5-4690k?

nothing, i just wanted something expandable that's small enough to fit onto a a desk so an M-ATX board and case, I'll probably sell it.

 

additionally, Australia seems to cycle tech insanely fast, as soon as Skylake rolled in, Z97 motherboard availability took a nosedive.

[runit3]

-snip-

Not to rain on the parade or anything, but you want to downgrade from an i5 OC'd to 4.7 to a locked (relatively) i3, with the specific intent of upgrading back to an i5? :huh:

 

The reports I've read with actual hands-on haven't been exactly brimming with optimism about i3 OC ability, http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-intel-core-i3-6100-review

 

You already have a board that supports SLI, IMO that $1000 would be much better spent on another GPU and watercooling. Unless you have bigger plans that involve multiple PCIe devices and need the extra lanes, I can't possibly think of a reason to transition into that build.

[JebKerman]

Not to rain on the parade or anything, but you want to downgrade from an i5 OC'd to 4.7 to a locked (relatively) i3, with the specific intent of upgrading back to an i5? :huh:

 

The reports I've read with actual hands-on haven't been exactly brimming with optimism about i3 OC ability, http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-intel-core-i3-6100-review

 

You already have a board that supports SLI, IMO that $1000 would be much better spent on another GPU and watercooling. Unless you have bigger plans that involve multiple PCIe devices and need the extra lanes, I can't possibly think of a reason to transition into that build.

darn, thats a bummer. ah well, may as well deal with the chip first. actually, thinking about that, it makes more sense to water-cool with a GPU upgrade, since you'd need to switch the block anyway.

[Bit8xPr0]

-snip- *does this make me cool?

I think the only logical reason for doing that is for an upgrade path to an i7 in the future, he wants a M-ATX build now and an upgrade path.

[runit3]

-snip- no, it blocks a wall of text from being repeated when it is the OP. Your comment makes you an ass though, so there's that. I think I just called myself an ass. Quotes are great.

Last time I checked Z97 boards were just as capable of slotting in an i7 upgrade as Z170's

 

 

darn, thats a bummer. ah well, may as well deal with the chip first. actually, thinking about that, it makes more sense to water-cool with a GPU upgrade, since you'd need to switch the block anyway.

Long term are you planning on SLI + watercooling? I love the Node 804, would be fun to build a parallel SLI loop in one. If you can't hunt down an MATX board new in AUS, used might be the route to go.

[JebKerman]

Long term are you planning on SLI + watercooling? I love the Node 804, would be fun to build a parallel SLI loop in one. If you can't hunt down an MATX board new in AUS, used might be the route to go.

Certainly at least with the potential for it. unfortunately this particular GPU lacks a full cover block, so I have to either up or side-grade it to get watercooling support for it in the first place.

 

and actually, turns out a store still stock the Armoured Edition of the Z97 Gryphon, might pick that up instead, so i could buy everything for a rather over-the top CPU loop, get some more funds, and see what Pascal/Arctic Islands brings.

[runit3]

Certainly at least with the potential for it. unfortunately this particular GPU lacks a full cover block, so I have to either up or side-grade it to get watercooling support for it in the first place.

 

and actually, turns out a store still stock the Armoured Edition of the Z97 Gryphon, might pick that up instead, so i could buy everything for a rather over-the top CPU loop, get some more funds, and see what Pascal/Arctic Islands brings.

The Gryphon I've built with is sitting inside the Node 804, opted out of armor though. At least with the custom loop you can easily upgrade/modify. Tubes and blocks will be the only thing you may have to add down the road, assuming a pump doesn't crap out. Is your OC on the 4690k temp or clock limited? That thing still has plenty left to give, and you could cut down on some of the cost by selling the Z97-A.

 

I'm also biased towards projects ATM, feel free to ignore my advice. I'm stuck requisitioning the 5820k I have for a 2012 R2 build for MCSA cert...a lot less glamorous than my original plans for it...although I did kill my 5960X with DICE, that was fun.

[JebKerman]

The Gryphon I've built with is sitting inside the Node 804, opted out of armor though. At least with the custom loop you can easily upgrade/modify. Tubes and blocks will be the only thing you may have to add down the road, assuming a pump doesn't crap out. Is your OC on the 4690k temp or clock limited? That thing still has plenty left to give, and you could cut down on some of the cost by selling the Z97-A.

 

I'm also biased towards projects ATM, feel free to ignore my advice. I'm stuck requisitioning the 5820k I have for a 2012 R2 build for MCSA cert...a lot less glamorous than my original plans for it...although I did kill my 5960X with DICE, that was fun.

no that's sound advise worth taking, I've got way to hung up on Skylake. only now when i see how much cheaper it would be to just get a different board, case, SSD and PSU do i see that's a far better idea.

 

Regarding the chip limit's i think it's a bit of both, it's actually 47 47 46 46, trying to push it further takes it a little closer to 1.35 than I'd like to linger at, and it's current voltage keeps it practically silent, more adequate cooling may encourage me to push the boundaries.

[Nena Trinity]

Sounds good you can upgrade to one of the next lakes later!

 

Also nice adding some 2666MHz RAM! :3