Moving from AMD to Intel

[DarkWater]

I've decided it's time to give my system an upgrade. I've been meaning to do it for a while but due to fund limitations, I've never been able to, until now. I currently have an AMD Athlon x4 860K CPU paired with a F2A68HM-HD2 (pretty bad). The focus of this new build is mainly the CPU and Motherboard for now. 

 

I have a £630 budget to work with for this build. To save costs, I plan to re-use my current MSI Nvidia GTX 750Ti 2GB GPU for now, as well as my standard Toshiba DT01ACA100 7200RPM hard drive that came with my system - this will be used as the secondary drive most likely. 

 

I've already added parts on PCPartPicker UK and just want to see if I can do better and/or save more costs. I want the upgrade to be good, but if there's something equally as good and is cheaper, I'm all ears (things like case, cooler, RAM). 

 

I want my system to not be bound on CPU-focused games. If a game calls for my CPU to do the work, I want my system to be able to cope with it. The Athlon 860K is good, but I need better. It's still weak for what I do and is mainly suited for those that strictly just game (and don't focus on cpu-focused games). Plus, the motherboard that came with this system has severely hindered my ability to overclock - the VRMs give up very fast and start throttling the CPU - not something I'm happy with.

 

My system needs to be a good multi-tasker. I usually play Runescape NXT whilst doing something else like watching high-quality movies/shows, or have YouTube playing in the background (music usage really - I also browse the web whilst YouTube is playing). I'll also occasionally watch Twitch streams at the same time as well.

 

I do everything on a 24" Acer S243HL 60Hz monitor which seems fine for me right now. 

 

Onto the build I've chosen so far:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£209.94 @ Aria PC) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (£57.98 @ Novatech) 
Motherboard: MSI Z170-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£87.60 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  (£42.98 @ Novatech) 
Storage: PNY CS1311 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£71.15 @ CCL Computers) 
Case: NZXT S340 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£64.17 @ CCL Computers) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£78.96 @ Aria PC) 
Total: £612.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-20 02:51 GMT+0000

 

I may wait until Black Friday before purchasing anything. Is anything here likely to drop in value? Or am I wasting my time waiting?

 

This is going to be my first time building a PC on my own. Is there any additional stuff I'll need apart from an anti-static wristband and some screw drivers? The only thing I'm worried about is messing up the thermal paste application.

 

 

 

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, DarkWater said:

I've decided it's time to give my system an upgrade. I've been meaning to do it for a while but due to fund limitations, I've never been able to, until now. I currently have an AMD Athlon x4 860K CPU paired with a F2A68HM-HD2 (pretty bad). The focus of this new build is mainly the CPU and Motherboard for now. 

 

I have a £630 budget to work with for this build. To save costs, I plan to re-use my current MSI Nvidia GTX 750Ti 2GB GPU for now, as well as my standard Toshiba DT01ACA100 7200RPM hard drive that came with my system - this will be used as the secondary drive most likely. 

 

I've already added parts on PCPartPicker UK and just want to see if I can do better and/or save more costs. I want the upgrade to be good, but if there's something equally as good and is cheaper, I'm all ears (things like case, cooler, RAM). 

 

I want my system to not be bound on CPU-focused games. If a game calls for my CPU to do the work, I want my system to be able to cope with it. The Athlon 860K is good, but I need better. It's still weak for what I do and is mainly suited for those that strictly just game (and don't focus on cpu-focused games). Plus, the motherboard that came with this system has severely hindered my ability to overclock - the VRMs give up very fast and start throttling the CPU - not something I'm happy with.

 

My system needs to be a good multi-tasker. I usually play Runescape NXT whilst doing something else like watching high-quality movies/shows, or have YouTube playing in the background (music usage really - I also browse the web whilst YouTube is playing). I'll also occasionally watch Twitch streams at the same time as well.

 

I do everything on a 24" Acer S243HL 60Hz monitor which seems fine for me right now. 

 

Onto the build I've chosen so far:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£209.94 @ Aria PC) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (£57.98 @ Novatech) 
Motherboard: MSI Z170-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£87.60 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  (£42.98 @ Novatech) 
Storage: PNY CS1311 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£71.15 @ CCL Computers) 
Case: NZXT S340 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£64.17 @ CCL Computers) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£78.96 @ Aria PC) 
Total: £612.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-20 02:51 GMT+0000

 

I may wait until Black Friday before purchasing anything. Is anything here likely to drop in value? Or am I wasting my time waiting?

 

This is going to be my first time building a PC on my own. Is there any additional stuff I'll need apart from an anti-static wristband and some screw drivers? The only thing I'm worried about is messing up the thermal paste application.

 

 

 

Looks good. Love the sexy red. Do you overlock a lot, try dark rock pro 3 for more black as noctua are ugly, cheaper and is good enough too.

[antisleep]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£209.94 @ Aria PC) 

CPU Cooler: Cryorig H5 Ultimate  (£55.54 @ Amazon UK) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170-Gaming K3-EU ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£99.00 @ Aria PC) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  (£76.99 @ Novatech) 
Storage: Crucial MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£67.08 @ Amazon UK) 
Case: NZXT S340 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£64.17 @ CCL Computers) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX Series CX550M Bronze Power Supply  (£60.14 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £632.86

 

Going with 2x4GB ram brings it down to £600.

[DarkWater]

Looks good. However, the cooler seems to be £76 (that's the price it says when you actually visit the site) rather than £55. 

[Morgan MLGman]

If you're mainly gaming, sell the 750Ti and get this:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£188.49 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper B7 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£74.95 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  (£72.20 @ Novatech)
Storage: ADATA Premier Pro SP600 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£40.54 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 470 4GB HS Black Edition Video Card  (£173.94 @ Aria PC)
Case: Phanteks ECLIPSE P400 ATX Mid Tower Case  (£54.30 @ Eclipse Computers)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£67.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £672.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-20 16:31 GMT+0000

 

If you're doing just light gaming and more workstation-oriented work on your PC, stick to your 750Ti and get this:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£279.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 51.7 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (£23.19 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper B7 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£74.95 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  (£72.20 @ Novatech)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow UV400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£59.99 @ Novatech)
Case: Phanteks ECLIPSE P400 ATX Mid Tower Case  (£54.30 @ Eclipse Computers)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£67.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £631.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-20 16:33 GMT+0000

[DarkWater]

I'd prefer a system that can be overclocked since my current pre-built uses a very low-end Gigabyte board that has VRM issues if the CPU is pushed to even 4Ghz. I've never been able to OC properly due to this issue. That, and the fact that FM2+ is pretty much dead-end and allows no upgrade paths for the CPU.

 

The focus for now is ensuring my Motherboard and CPU are good enough to last me a couple of years. I will be upgrading the GPU soon, but for now, I'll be content with using my 750Ti. 

 

The i5 6600K combo seemed like the best bet for me now since i7's K versions are expensive (even the Haswell ones). 

[Quaker]

13 hours ago, DarkWater said:

 

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (£57.98 @ Novatech) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£78.96 @ Aria PC) 

Is there any additional stuff I'll need apart from an anti-static wristband and some screw drivers? The only thing I'm worried about is messing up the thermal paste application.
 

You can save some money by going with a basic CM Hyper 212 cooler. It may run a few degrees warmer than the Noctua, but it is quiet and less expensive and a few degrees warmer doesn't matter.

 

You could consider a less expensive 80+ 550watt "bronze" supply such as the CX550M

 

Don't worry about thermal paste. The cooler may come with pre-applied paste, or there are many Youtube videos explaining the process. You'd have to screw it up really badly for it to matter.

 

[DarkWater]

Oh I was considering that cooler but a lot of people said it was quite a hassle to install. 

 

And yeah, I've been watching tons of thermal paste how-to videos and I have a good idea of what to do. It's just when in practice, things might turn out differently and I'm just worried if I underapply or overapply. I'll likely be using the "pea" method since that seems the easiest to get right. 

[FRN]

16 minutes ago, DarkWater said:

Oh I was considering that cooler but a lot of people said it was quite a hassle to install. 

 

And yeah, I've been watching tons of thermal paste how-to videos and I have a good idea of what to do. It's just when in practice, things might turn out differently and I'm just worried if I underapply or overapply. I'll likely be using the "pea" method since that seems the easiest to get right. 

Cryorig H7 to the rescue. Dubbed the "212 evo killer".

[DarkWater]

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/black-friday-650w-evga-bq-80-plus-bronze-hybrid-modular-sli-crossfire-single-rail-54a-plus12v-1x140m

 

This worth it? It'll save £40 or so.