My desktop PC died a few days ago. Lots of smoke and an interesting acidic burning smell, it was all very exciting. Having had it apart it looks like the VRMs on the motherboard gave out. No idea if the CPU survived as I have no spare MB to test it with.
So now I’m going to need some new bits but I’m getting a bit bogged down over which platform to go for so I thought I’d ask you lot, I know you’re never short of an opinion
My old system specs: -
i5 760 Lynnfield cpu – happily clocked at 4.0Ghz for many years
Alpenföhn Brocken cooler
Asrock P55 Pro motherboard
8Gb Team Elite 1600 DDR3 memory
EVGA 650 G2 psu
HIS R9 285 gpu
plus a couple of HDDs, an SSD, Optical drives etc, all housed in a Lian Li PC-7 Plus and still driving a 1920x1024 display.
I’m looking to replace only the CPU, MB and RAM and so the big question I’m struggling with is X99 or Z170? There’s almost too much choice within each camp but for sake of argument lets look at the following two systems: -
i7 5820K OEM
Asus X99-A/USB3.1
16Gb GSkill Ripjaw 3000
i7 6700K OEM
Asus Z170 Maximus VIII Hero
16Gb Kingston Savage Black
There’s about £50-60 difference in cost between the cheapest I can find these bits (I know about the intel cashback) with the cheaper Z170 kit about on my budget, and the X99 stretching it about as far as I can get away with. Also, obviously I’m able to push for a bit better spec on the MB with the Z170 option.
I want this kit to last me a good 5 years or more and I don’t need to spend the max I can get away with, I’ll score points for every pound I manage to not spend so unless there’s a good reason...
I’m not looking to update GPU right now, possibly later in year or early next when the new tech has stabilized, so no need to consider cheaper spec in order to put more into GPU.
The use case is photoshop and gaming. Possibly might want to have a dabble with VR within the lifetime of my next rig but not right now.
I think either system will be adequate for my needs, but what are the real deciding factors I should focus on and is there a better combination of kit I should consider?
Cheers
So now I’m going to need some new bits but I’m getting a bit bogged down over which platform to go for so I thought I’d ask you lot, I know you’re never short of an opinion
My old system specs: -
i5 760 Lynnfield cpu – happily clocked at 4.0Ghz for many years
Alpenföhn Brocken cooler
Asrock P55 Pro motherboard
8Gb Team Elite 1600 DDR3 memory
EVGA 650 G2 psu
HIS R9 285 gpu
plus a couple of HDDs, an SSD, Optical drives etc, all housed in a Lian Li PC-7 Plus and still driving a 1920x1024 display.
I’m looking to replace only the CPU, MB and RAM and so the big question I’m struggling with is X99 or Z170? There’s almost too much choice within each camp but for sake of argument lets look at the following two systems: -
i7 5820K OEM
Asus X99-A/USB3.1
16Gb GSkill Ripjaw 3000
i7 6700K OEM
Asus Z170 Maximus VIII Hero
16Gb Kingston Savage Black
There’s about £50-60 difference in cost between the cheapest I can find these bits (I know about the intel cashback) with the cheaper Z170 kit about on my budget, and the X99 stretching it about as far as I can get away with. Also, obviously I’m able to push for a bit better spec on the MB with the Z170 option.
I want this kit to last me a good 5 years or more and I don’t need to spend the max I can get away with, I’ll score points for every pound I manage to not spend so unless there’s a good reason...
I’m not looking to update GPU right now, possibly later in year or early next when the new tech has stabilized, so no need to consider cheaper spec in order to put more into GPU.
The use case is photoshop and gaming. Possibly might want to have a dabble with VR within the lifetime of my next rig but not right now.
I think either system will be adequate for my needs, but what are the real deciding factors I should focus on and is there a better combination of kit I should consider?
Cheers
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