Final check please

bobbyspangles · 5 Jul 2016 at 18:31

Could some please check this over before I pull the trigger. I am upgrading the family PC from socket 775. I only need CPU/MB/RAM, a SSD and case and my budget is £350.

The PC will be used mostly for browsing, a little photo editing and some occasional WoW.

So far I've come up with,
Intel i5 6500 £170
Asus H170M-Plus £86
8GB (2x4GB DDR4) 2133MHz memory £34
Sandisk Plus 120GB SSD £35
Fractal Designs Core 1500 £40
Total: £365

I'm undecided between that motherboard and the MSI H170M A-Pro which seems to be more feature rich for a similar/lower price. I understand MSI get some stick, but the current system has an MSI board which is 9 years old now, and apart from a few bloated caps, is still running fine. Opinions?

Benjamham · 5 Jul 2016 at 19:05

seeming as you are coming from a platform of that age, it isn't completely unjustifiable to get a new power supply.

If you invest slightly extra you will be able to get a z170 motherboard and 6600k, which should last a fair amount longer if you overclock (or plan to in the future). Just something to consider, would only be around £30 more and would be a wiser option going forward

as for the ssd, I would recommend 240gb+ as the price difference isn't massive

bobbyspangles · 5 Jul 2016 at 19:45

I have a relatively new (about a year old) Corsair CX430W which I plan to use until I stick a better graphics card in somewhere down the line.

I was looking at a 6600K last night at £195 but the price has jumped to £225 over night! Anyway, even at the lower price, once I added an aftermarket cooler and a more expensive Z170 board I was £80 over budget

I will look at a 250GB SSD. Is there any particular brands to go for?

Borealis · 5 Jul 2016 at 19:58

With SSDs, Samsung are top notch and are also some of the most expensive (barring special offers).

The Crucial SSDs are pretty decent too as are the Kingston UV400 and Savage series.

Avoid the Kingston 300 series as the review samples apparently used a different memory controller! The production models turned out to be a fair bit slower. That being said, any SSD is miles faster than a traditional HDD.

The CX430 is not a great PSU, but it'll run what you've specced up and it's not as bad as some of the no-brand junk people use.

With the exchange rates as they are, buy whenever you're ready and have the money. The markets are volatile and will be for some time to come. I don't think prices aren't going to be stable for a while yet, so there's no point waiting for prices to drop.

bobbyspangles · 5 Jul 2016 at 20:02

Another possibility,

i5 6600K £200
Asus Z170M-Plus £99 - £17 cashback
8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 3000MHz memory £42
Sandisk Plus 120GB SSD £35
Fractal Core 1500 £40
Raijintek Themis cooler £20

£420

Quite a bit over budget - is it going to be worth it?

Borealis · 5 Jul 2016 at 20:25

A Z-series board will let you overclock the 6600K, so long-term it's probably worth it if you ever plan on overclocking. The Themis is a decent cooler, equivalent to the Collermaster Hyper 212 Evo.

If you don't plan on overclocking, then an i5-6500 and an H110 DDR4 board would be somewhat cheaper. You could put that money towards a bigger SSD.

bobbyspangles · 5 Jul 2016 at 21:09

Thank you Borealis. I think I will go for the 6600K for longevity. It's unlikely the system will be upgraded for another 5+ years so the ability to overclock it now or in the future has got to be worth it.

There's not much price difference after cashback between the Asus Z170M-Plus and the MSI Z170M Mortar. Is there much to choose between these two board?

Borealis · 5 Jul 2016 at 21:18

Personally I'd go with the Asus. What used to put me off was the poor ASUS tech support. With the enhanced warranty from OCUK it's worth it (basically if it goes wrong within 3 years, OCUK will deal with it straight away without waiting for ASUS to repair the board).

MSI aren't bad, but they had a history of having issues with their BIOS update tools. This would sometimes lead to "bricked" boards. I really like their graphics cards, but I'm still wary of their mainboards.

Before you buy anything, check that the Themis will fit in your case. Last thing you want is to get a CPU cooler that's too tall.

bobbyspangles · 5 Jul 2016 at 21:30

Thanks again Borealis. I think I'm going to go for the Alpenfohn Matterhorn instead. It's a little more but I prefer the styling and the all copper block

I assume it will fit 1151, it only says 1150 in the item description?

The case has 160mm clearance and the cooler is 158 so it'll be tight but doable, hopefully!

Benjamham · 5 Jul 2016 at 22:01

bobbyspangles said:
Thanks again Borealis. I think I'm going to go for the Alpenfohn Matterhorn instead. It's a little more but I prefer the styling and the all copper block I assume it will fit 1151, it only says 1150 in the item description?

The case has 160mm clearance and the cooler is 158 so it'll be tight but doable, hopefully!

1151 and 1150 mounting holes are the same, will mount fine. if you do chose to upgrade your psu as you mentioned, try to steer away from the corsair cx line for a build of this price

Borealis · 5 Jul 2016 at 22:03

Yeah, all the 115x sockets use the same hole spacing. The Matterhorn is a good cooler for the money. If you do upgrade your PSU I agree you should head for a higher-end unit. The CX series are OK, but you can get far better units for not that much more.