Ahh that's fine. I don't have to go Skylake. I really won't need any of the new feature sets for years.
This is my current setup, minus the mobo and cpu. I replaced those with the parts I intend to purchase. The parts I have are not on PC Part Picker.
After getting a Vive I will see how badly I need to upgrade my GPU and go from there.
Also, thanks for all the help! You do a great job with this thread and are very informative!
There are better motherboards and RAM to choose from for about the same amount of money.
The
Asus Z97-E ($92 after $20 rebate) is a bit better than the entry level Gigabyte GA-Z97M-D3H and since you have an ATX case, you shouldn't go for a smaller mATX motherboard when ATX will fit and generally offer more expansion options (even if you don't end up using it, having the options open is nice).
Also, higher speed RAM is available for a good price. This
2x8GB kit of PNY 1866MHz RAM is $85, while this
2x8GB kit of G.Skill 2133MHz RAM is $92. While it's arguable whether you'll actually notice the difference of higher speed RAM in regular day-to-day use, it is known that in a few certain situations or for some programs that higher speed RAM can result in a small improvement. Given that it costs just a few dollars difference, you might as well opt for the "slightly faster in some situations" RAM.
It's alright if you don't make the changes, functionally the Gigabyte motherboard and 1600MHz RAM will do just fine.
I want to spend in the $100 to $200 range. I just want to keep a 1920 X 1200 resolution with as many bells and whistle graphic options that make sense. I also want to make sure that it performs at least as well or better than my current
Radeon HD 6950 or the upgrade doesn't make much sense
After looking at some passmark scores, I'm thinking about this card
EVGA 02G-P4-2962-KR GeForce GTX 960 .Would anyone have any different recommendations for that price point ($190)
I recommend you look at a graphics card with 4GB of VRAM. At the very limit of your price range, the R9 380 or GTX 960 is your best bet to reach that level of performance, both are roughly on par and represent a sizable improvement over your old 6950. There's the
Gigabyte GTX 960 4GB for $203 after $20 rebate, it also comes with a free redeemable code for MGSV:TPP if that interests you. If not, you could resell the code and that would lower the overall cost of the card. The AMD option would be the R9 380. This
Powercolor R9 380 PCS+ is $224 and includes a $20 promotional gift card, so it is not as good a deal as the GTX 960, but I felt like including the AMD option for your knowledge anyway.
So with the new stuff out you're looking at something like this:
PCPartPicker part list /
Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£185.99 @ Ebuyer)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.95 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-P ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£94.99 @ Novatech)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£55.78 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial M500 M.2 120GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£39.98 @ Novatech)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.00 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 980 4GB STRIX Video Card (£359.59 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£49.19 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Fractal Design Tesla R2 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£49.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (£79.99)
Monitor: AOC Q2778VQE 60Hz 27.0" Monitor (£233.50 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1212.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-09 08:33 BST+0100
Some notes:
- I've included Windows with this build at its normal retail price of £80 - you can get this cheaper through Reddit, bringing the price under budget, if this is something you'd like to do.
- 1440p monitor is in there too but that might be a pick for yourself to make depending on what you want.
- If you do buy Windows from Reddit, I'd suggest upgrading the board to the Z170-A which has been getting really good reviews, or changing the case to something you'd prefer.
Not a bad build, but dropping down to the GTX 970 would free up more money for something like 16GB of DDR4 RAM and be better overall for price-to-performance. I wonder how well that M.2 drive performs, seems to be a very good price. Excellent advice at the end, by the way. Let me just add my usual disclaimer for reddit license keys:
Windows 7/8.1 licenses can be bought from
reddit's microsoftsoftwareswap for $20 USD or less. These are most likely legitimate keys that are resold from educational programs like Technet or MSDNAA/Dreamspark. However, you are dealing with a person instead of a retailer, and informal Windows keys sales are not approved by Microsoft and probably breaking some licensing agreement, but it's not illegal. The risks involved are that the person could be selling you a fake or used key, or that Microsoft may refuse to give you support and/or deactivate your license and refuse to reactivate it. That's not very likely, usually it only happens if the seller and their list of sold keys was caught. We've had people here using those keys without issues for a long time and others who say Microsoft deactivated their key after several months. These keys should be upgradeable to Windows 10, but confirm with the seller to be sure, of course.
