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[Turrican3]

I am considering a replacement for my good old Core 2 Duo desktop.

I'm looking for significant improvent in the following areas: noise, heat, size.

No need for gaming, so I guess I should be fine with the integrated graphics.
This machine should just do the trick for surfing the web and a bit of 2D graphics / photo editing / audio encoding... maybe some light video editing too.

I'm planning to keep SSD, HD, DVD burner and monitor.

So I was thinking about an i3 6100 with 8GB DDR3L with a mini-ITX mobo:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($111.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus H170I-PLUS D3 Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($105.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston HyperX FURY 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($35.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $253.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-18 10:14 EDT-0400

Questions/doubts:
- first of all, I was wondering if I *really* need H170 (no need to go for the Z170 as no upgrade is being planned) or I can settle for an H110 instead, that would be quite cheaper;
- choosing the right case, as I said there should be room for 1 2.5" SSD, 1 3.5" HDD and 1 5 1/4" slot for the DVD burner;
- power supply... I believe this kind of configuration doesn't need a beast, but I wouldn't mind picking a decent quality part
- last but not least... is the i3 6100 actually a valid option, or am I overshooting a bit?

Any suggestion would be welcomed.

 

[ethomaz]

What do you guys think about ASROCK Z170 EXTREME4+?

It is only R$150 over the list I made with sub-R$900 MBs.

Is GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-Gaming 3 a good option too?

 

[Akoi]

Can you give me a bit of more info on how I would know for sure? Is it spelled out on the PSU box?

Yeah it should look something like this:

This is an example of a PSU having two 12v rails (most newer ones have one rail) but what you see below where it says +12v is how many amps you have on the 12v rail.(for example this one has 2x 19 amps on the 12v rail)

And while true if it ran the 570 it should run the 970, it's always good to be sure he's not under powering it.

 

[TronLight]

Is there any news in SSD space? Good time to buy or is something new coming out soon?

Because it's my birthday in like a month and I'm seeing the Samsung 850EVO 250GB for 90€ on amazon, the Crucial BX200 240GB for 60€. I see in the OP the BX100 is suggested, is it better? In general, which one would be better.

Edit: Apparently the BX200 sucks, there's the BX100 250GB for like 10€ less and the EVO though.

Anyone?

 

[Foffy]

Yeah it should look something like this:

This is an example of a PSU having two 12v rails (most newer ones have one rail) but what you see below where it says +12v is how many amps you have on the 12v rail.(for example this one has 2x 19 amps on the 12v rail)

And while true if it ran the 570 it should run the 970, it's always good to be sure he's not under powering it.

It's an Earthwatts 650W, if that's specific enough. Or do you need rail information?

 

[e90Mark]

Anyone?

NVMe M.2 is all the rage.

The 850 or BX100 is fine. In general, it won't really matter.. If saving the 10 matters to you, get the cheaper drive. The 850's are probably the cream of the crop for sata ssd's on paper.

 

[Muddimar]

Just built my new machine this weekend. Sooo much better! Here's what I ended up with after my shopping spree:

Case: NZXT S340
Mobo: z170a M5
PSU: EVGA 650 GS Gold
CPU: i5 6600k
GPU: Gefore 970 (4gb)
RAM: 16gb (3000mhz)
SSD: Samsung 850 evo
HDD: Western Digital internal 1TB
OS: Win10 Professional

It was fun putting everything together. Note: for the z170a board, you must have all of the frontal screws in place or the mobo will not get power! I put everything together only to realize that by default, the S340 case has one mobo post, which is not a screwable post, it has to be swapped out with one that IS screwable (located near the center of the mobo). Hopefully this will save someone a headache in their similar build lol.

I purchased a Hue led controller, but the S340 case doesn't have a spot to put it. So it looks like I'll be returning it to microcenter for the Hue+.

Boot time is seconds (opposed to minutes before), games run ultra at 60fps (opposed to 25-30fps on crap settings), this is an experience I haven't had in a LONG time. The best part is that my current rig is upgradable and expandable in the future.

 

[RealityCheque]

Any recommendations on mass storage? I'm looking for 4tb and 7200rpm, I filled up my initial 2tb drive surprisingly fast! I've read that Seagate have narrowed the gap with WD over the last couple of years and that there's not much between them in terms of reliability any more. If anyone has any advice it'd be appreciated.

 

[buenoblue]

I just upgraded from a 2500k to 6700k. I have sli 780ti. After reading over and over how it wouldn't be worth it for games I have to disagree. Various games from fallout 4 to crysis 3 would suffer frame drops. Now everything is butter smooth 60fps @1080p on max or nearly max settings. Watchdogs for example was a stuttery mess on 2500k on medium/high settings. Now on 6700k it's 60fps on ultra with no drops.

Nearly bought 2 980ti's instead because the common consensus was 2500k was enough. Now I'm glad I got the 6700k, everything is so smoother now.

Also got 3200mhz ddr4 ram. Digital foundry has an interesting article on how faster ram improves fps quite substantially.

 

[Rufus]

I just upgraded from a 2500k to 6700k. I have sli 780ti. After reading over and over how it wouldn't be worth it for games I have to disagree. Various games from fallout 4 to crysis 3 would suffer frame drops. Now everything is butter smooth 60fps @1080p on max or nearly max settings. Watchdogs for example was a stuttery mess on 2500k on medium/high settings. Now on 6700k it's 60fps on ultra with no drops.

Nearly bought 2 980ti's instead because the common consensus was 2500k was enough. Now I'm glad I got the 6700k, everything is so smoother now.

Also got 3200mhz ddr4 ram. Digital foundry has an interesting article on how faster ram improves fps quite substantially.

So was it the RAM or the CPU?

 

[Canklestank]

So does anyone have any advice to troubleshoot a stick of RAM not working? I have 2x8GB and only one gets picked up. I've reseated them, changed slots, etc.

I'm going to go to Canada Computers as soon as I can to get replacements/have them test it, but was just wondering if there was anything I can do before then.

I think you said you tried this, but just to make sure, have you tried booting from just 1 stick in each of the 4 RAM slots, with both sticks of RAM? Sometimes it won't boot in the slot stated in the manual, but will in a different slot. Also, you may have missed it, but I encouraged you to download memtest86 and use it to test your RAM.

It suddenly occurred to me to ask, have you updated your BIOS? If not, try updating that to the latest version to see if that fixes your RAM woes. From what you said, it seems to be motherboard related.

 

[RayStorm]

So I was thinking about an i3 6100 with 8GB DDR3L with a mini-ITX mobo:

Questions/doubts:
- first of all, I was wondering if I *really* need H170 (no need to go for the Z170 as no upgrade is being planned) or I can settle for an H110 instead, that would be quite cheaper;
- choosing the right case, as I said there should be room for 1 2.5" SSD, 1 3.5" HDD and 1 5 1/4" slot for the DVD burner;
- power supply... I believe this kind of configuration doesn't need a beast, but I wouldn't mind picking a decent quality part
- last but not least... is the i3 6100 actually a valid option, or am I overshooting a bit?

Any suggestion would be welcomed.

1) Why would you choose DDR3 and not DDR4?
2) I assume you would be fine with an H110 mainboard as well, but that's not necessarily a question of planned upgrades but rather of planned overclocking (in case of Z170) or more expansion cards/native USB slots/number of screens connected to the IGP (H170).
3) In what way do you fear you might be overshooting anything with an i3?

 

[Akoi]

It's an Earthwatts 650W, if that's specific enough. Or do you need rail information?

Nah, you should be good.

Which 970 are you looking at?

 

[Faiz]

Most likely. If it can handle the 580 it will handle the 970 easily.



It's an error correcting feature, mostly used in highly accurate operations. For normal use, it's not necessary.



If you are set on no overclocking you can go with an even cheaper MOBO if you like. Other than that, that PSU is not very good. Not bad but not good enough for its price. Also you can get a windows key for cheap from some key sellers. However, it may get revoked. Do it on your own risk.

The rest is fine.

Would you care to elaborate on your point about the PSU? It's 80+ Gold and fully modular, and EVGA PSUs seem well rated. $70 seems entirely reasonable.

And no, I'm not into supporting probable illegally obtained keys from fraudsters.

 

[QuantumSquid]

May I present to you...

The Budgetron 9000.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A6-7400K 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($51.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($27.80 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($23.26 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 400W ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $189.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-18 12:27 EDT-0400

It's a computer! It can play games, though mostly just older ones! And it's less than $200!

 

[Akoi]

Would you care to elaborate on your point about the PSU? It's 80+ Gold and fully modular, and EVGA PSUs seem well rated. $70 seems entirely reasonable.

And no, I'm not into supporting probable illegally obtained keys from fraudsters.

I'd get the G2 series, the NEX series isn't known for quality compared to the G2 series.(Google will back this up, especially looking at reviews)

That and you get a single rail (by far best option) of 12v on the G2, vs 4 rails on the NEX.

That and NEX is their older line of PSUs and the G2 is newer.

Anyways get the G2 not the NEX.

Get this one:
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-

 

[Faiz]

I'd get the G2 series, the NEX series isn't known for quality compared to the G2 series.(Google will back this up, especially looking at reviews)

That and you get a single rail (by far best option) of 12v on the G2, vs 4 rails on the NEX.

That and NEX is their older line of PSUs and the G2 is newer.

Anyways get the G2 not the NEX.

Get this one:
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-

Got it, thanks, that's helpful feedback

 

[Akoi]

Got it, thanks, that's helpful feedback

Sorry for the broken link, but I have a feeling you figured it out.

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-220g20650y1

Glad to help!

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Would you care to elaborate on your point about the PSU? It's 80+ Gold and fully modular, and EVGA PSUs seem well rated. $70 seems entirely reasonable.

And no, I'm not into supporting probable illegally obtained keys from fraudsters.

Yes, I should have elaborated a bit more about my point. But unfortunately, I chose to comment on this during my short smoke break which left me not enough time to do so.

Normally, I will clarify my points upon further requests in case my original was not clear enough or other posters will pick up the slacks and fill in more information, like what the above poster did, in case I cannot come back to the thread before that.

Anyway, in short, that PSU has group voltage regulations, which is not ideal and it shows with suboptimal regulations across its rails. Its 12v rail drops up to 0.49v during various tests. And that rail is what powers your GPU and MOBO.

Lastly, about the Windows key, it's just an cheap alternative commonly presented to people, just to save some money. It's not recommended or anything. Just that, presented.

I had no intention to trash your choice of parts or insult your morality regarding gray area product.

If I have somehow unknowingly made you think so, then I apologize for that and also for my unhelpful feedback.

 

[demented waffle]

Finally decided to replace my SSHD with an actual SSD. An 850 EVO 1 TB

Paid $269 for it from one of the other vendors on amazon

 

[Turrican3]

1) Why would you choose DDR3 and not DDR4?

It's actually not a requirement, but as far as I understand DDR3L is ok for a system looking to produce less heat and not the fastest possible performance. Again, I may well be wrong so feel free to correct me.

(also, I can't seem to find any other Asus mini-ATX board other than that one, which only supports DDR3L apparently so I had really no choice left... of course I might choose a different manufacturer as long as costs are comparable - this one by ASRock maybe would be fine?)

rather of planned overclocking (in case of Z170) or more expansion cards/native USB slots/number of screens connected to the IGP (H170)

Ok so I guess I'll be fine then, I'm not interested in overclocking (PC must be as cool/silent as possible) nor in lots of expansions.

3) In what way do you fear you might be overshooting anything with an i3?

What I meant was like... maybe with the stuff I'm planning to do with that PC there's actually no need for an i3 6100 and a "lesser" and/or cheaper CPU might be more suited.

 

[zeelman]

Last night I put my computer into sleep mode and the fans suddenly went up to max speed for a few seconds before sleeping. Should I be concerned about this? My computer is 3 years old. Google searching said it may be related to my Power Supply.

 

[garath]

I just upgraded from a 2500k to 6700k. I have sli 780ti. After reading over and over how it wouldn't be worth it for games I have to disagree. Various games from fallout 4 to crysis 3 would suffer frame drops. Now everything is butter smooth 60fps @1080p on max or nearly max settings. Watchdogs for example was a stuttery mess on 2500k on medium/high settings. Now on 6700k it's 60fps on ultra with no drops.

Nearly bought 2 980ti's instead because the common consensus was 2500k was enough. Now I'm glad I got the 6700k, everything is so smoother now.

Also got 3200mhz ddr4 ram. Digital foundry has an interesting article on how faster ram improves fps quite substantially.

I am interested in this. Was your 2500k overclocked prior to upgrade? If so how much?

 

[joecanada]

May I present to you...

The Budgetron 9000.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A6-7400K 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($51.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($27.80 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($23.26 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 400W ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $189.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-18 12:27 EDT-0400

It's a computer! It can play games, though mostly just older ones! And it's less than $200!

wow that's cheap!!... just a question I'm not expert but would it be worth it to double the RAM to say 8 for like 10 bucks more?


Question re: fans - So my case has two fans front and back, and they appear to be controlled by a fan controller (you can turn a dial on the front and adjust speed, lights, etc or even turn them off which I don't know why you would ever do this). My case is pretty huge. Would I ever need to add more fans funny thing is my case has a dial (controller) for "top" but I don't see any top fan in there. Is it worth it to just throw one in there? also if I throw one in should I just throw two in ? (top and bottom?). I am running a i5 6500 and at most I would maybe get a used R9 390.... fans are so cheap it seems easy enough to throw them in there..... Also if you have a fan controller does that mean that the motherboard doesn't adjust fan speed at all (like a software program is pointless?)

Thanks to the people in this thread I changed out my PSU on Sunday, only took an hour tops on first try.... relief when the damn thing turned on....... lol

 

[Hey Im Patrick]

Questions/doubts:
- first of all, I was wondering if I *really* need H170 (no need to go for the Z170 as no upgrade is being planned) or I can settle for an H110 instead, that would be quite cheaper;
- choosing the right case, as I said there should be room for 1 2.5" SSD, 1 3.5" HDD and 1 5 1/4" slot for the DVD burner;
- power supply... I believe this kind of configuration doesn't need a beast, but I wouldn't mind picking a decent quality part
- last but not least... is the i3 6100 actually a valid option, or am I overshooting a bit?

Any suggestion would be welcomed.

1.) You have to check the specs and features of the board, that's how you determine which one to get. If you're not going to overclock or don't need some features like several PCIE or M.2 slot, you can go for the cheapest 1151 socket mobo.

2.) You shouldn't worry about fitting those drives. Most cases support all those 3 and still have some expansion. Only few out there that doesn't support optical drives anymore.

3.) You shouldn't cheap out on power supply since it's the one powering the whole system. Having a bad one might kill all the components. You google PSU tier list to know which one to get. (not sure if I can post the link here from other sites)

4.) 6100 should be good for you. If you want to go cheaper, you can check out haswell (1150 socket).

Would you care to elaborate on your point about the PSU? It's 80+ Gold and fully modular, and EVGA PSUs seem well rated. $70 seems entirely reasonable.

You can google PSU tier list so you can check out the quality of the PSU.

 

[Foffy]

Nah, you should be good.

Which 970 are you looking at?

Ended up getting this one.

I just want something that works and has some state for current games, haha.

 

[Faiz]

You can google PSU tier list so you can check out the quality of the PSU.

Thanks, for some reason I hadn't seen these mentioned before. NEX series is apparently shit-tier. G2 series it is.

Yes, I should have elaborated a bit more about my point. But unfortunately, I chose to comment on this during my short smoke break which left me not enough time to do so.

No worries, at least you said something; had you not it may have gone unquestioned so I do appreciate it. After reading the tier lists mentioned above I feel like I dodged a bullet.

 

[Turrican3]

2.) You shouldn't worry about fitting those drives.

Actually, I think I should.
Because one of the requirements is size, and as far as I understand with small cases there's usually less room for that.

3.) You shouldn't cheap out on power supply since it's the one powering the whole system.

Absolutely!
But again, I need a decent one that must also be a good fit for the above mentioned case.

If you want to go cheaper, you can check out haswell (1150 socket).

Hmm, I might check this out as well, totally didn't think about that.

 

[Aruarian Reflection]

Looking for a little advice on transitioning from my current i5 2500k Win7 machine to i7 6700k with new SSD (and different mobo obviously). My parts will all arrive in a couple days but I'm making sure I have the process down so it goes smoothly

1) On my current machine, use media creation tool to make USB boot stick
2) On my current machine, upgrade to Windows 10 so that my key is registered with Microsoft
3) Build new PC
4) Boot up new SSD on new mobo using the USB stick to clean install Windows 10
--my Win7 key is retail so I should not have much issues using it on new mobo right?
--my new SSD Samsung Evo comes with an installation disc. Do I need to install the SSD somehow first before installing windows?

 

[Hey Im Patrick]

Actually, I think I should.
Because one of the requirements is size, and as far as I understand with small cases there's usually less room for that.

The cases out there usually supports more than 1 ssd/hhd. Some of them are hybrid caddies which can support both ssd and hdd. Only few cases support SSD only.

You can check out Fractal design core 500 or node 304. I think these are the best small form factor cases out there.

Absolutely!
But again, I need a decent one that must also be a good fit for the above mentioned case.

Both cases I've mentioned support ATX power supplies. You have to set a price point instead so we can make some suggestion.

Hmm, I might check this out as well, totally didn't think about that.

Mind as well that you will use DD3 for haswell. My recommendation is to go with skylake so you'll go for DDR4 too. But of course it's up to you.

 

[Akoi]

Looking for a little advice on transitioning from my current i5 2500k Win7 machine to i7 6700k with new SSD (and different mobo obviously). My parts will all arrive in a couple days but I'm making sure I have the process down so it goes smoothly

1) On my current machine, use media creation tool to make USB boot stick
2) On my current machine, upgrade to Windows 10 so that my key is registered with Microsoft
3) Build new PC
4) Boot up new SSD on new mobo using the USB stick to clean install Windows 10
--my Win7 key is retail so I should not have much issues using it on new mobo right?

Windows ten follows your motherboard around, so wait till you use your new one until you do the upgrade thing and after doing that I'd recommend a fresh install (though you might be able to skip the upgrade install and try installing windows 10 with your win7 key.(pretty sure this works)

 

[Aruarian Reflection]

Windows ten follows your motherboard around, so wait till you use your new one until you do the upgrade thing and after doing that I'd recommend a fresh install (though you might be able to skip the upgrade install and try installing windows 10 with your win7 key.(pretty sure this works)

So install Win7 on my new machine first, then upgrade to Win 10, and then clean install Win 10?

 

[Akoi]

So install Win7 on my new machine first, then upgrade to Win 10, and then clean install Win 10?

You got it!

When you do the clean install after that you won't need a product key.

 

[Turrican3]

You have to set a price point instead so we can make some suggestion.

You are right, and btw the FD Node 304 seems a very interesting case.

Ok, let's say for CPU + mobo + RAM + case + power supply I'd hope to spend 400 euro or less (I'd keep everything else, ie monitor/SSD/HD/burner/etc.)

 

[Finaika]

May I present to you...

The Budgetron 9000.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A6-7400K 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($51.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($27.80 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($23.26 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 400W ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $189.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-18 12:27 EDT-0400

It's a computer! It can play games, though mostly just older ones! And it's less than $200!

That's a beast.

 

[Elitist1945]

I think you said you tried this, but just to make sure, have you tried booting from just 1 stick in each of the 4 RAM slots, with both sticks of RAM? Sometimes it won't boot in the slot stated in the manual, but will in a different slot. Also, you may have missed it, but I encouraged you to download memtest86 and use it to test your RAM.

It suddenly occurred to me to ask, have you updated your BIOS? If not, try updating that to the latest version to see if that fixes your RAM woes. From what you said, it seems to be motherboard related.

How do you go about updating the BIOS?

 

[SilverVenom]

Thinking of buying a new monitor for my setup.
Current Setup:

PSU Seasonic 620 Bronze
8x2 Corsair Vengeance Series 16gb
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77x-UD5H,
Samsung 850 Pro Series MZ-7KE512BW 512GB 2.5 inch SATA III SSD
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB HD,
CPU Cooler Hyper Cooler 212
VGA EVGA GTX 670
Intel Processor i7-3770k
Asus VE247 Monitor x 2

Will probably buy a new Video Card soon Any recommendations would be appreciated as well[/B] (Price Range Anything less than the Titan.. that is too expensive..)

For the monitor
Budget for Monitor : <$400 (preferably) Can + $100
Purpose: Gaming
Country: United States West Coast
IPS/TN/VA: Honestly not sure which to choose..
144hz,120hz,60hz: 144hz or 120hz
GSync or FreeSync: I do have a nvidia card right now and may upgrade to a new n-vidia card.

 

[Snacks the sober sea lion]

Not exactly a hardware question, but I'm not sure if there's a video card thread.

I got a 970, what driver should I use? Since I've heard the latest ones have issues.

 

[CertifiedFP]

Having come to the conclusion that all my CPU-bottleneck issues in recent history have been a result of my stock cooler slowly dying and causing heat-throttling, I'm looking for a decent aftermarket cooler to replace my stock one with.

Is the Hyper 212 EVO good? Or any other active cooling systems that would be better in the same price range? Not interested in any liquid cooling systems - My case isn't big enough and I'd rather limit the amount of re-arranging of my PC's case I'd have to do.

 

[Akoi]

Not exactly a hardware question, but I'm not sure if there's a video card thread.

I got a 970, what driver should I use? Since I've heard the latest ones have issues.

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...ers/announcing-geforce-hot-fix-driver-364-96/

I am using that driver and it seems to work great.

For the question above, yes the EVO is a great cooler, I have purchased many of them for my computers and for friends and for the money nothing else comes close.

 

[Snacks the sober sea lion]

Having come to the conclusion that all my CPU-bottleneck issues in recent history have been a result of my stock cooler slowly dying and causing heat-throttling, I'm looking for a decent aftermarket cooler to replace my stock one with.

Is the Hyper 212 EVO good? Or any other active cooling systems that would be better in the same price range? Not interested in any liquid cooling systems - My case isn't big enough and I'd rather limit the amount of re-arranging of my PC's case I'd have to do.

It's pretty good, especially with how cheap it can be, and it will definitely be a big improvement over the stock cooler. Look up the best ways to apply thermal paste on it, though. I put it in lines on the coils and it made a 20C reduction compared to just the basic blob.

I don't entirely remember how it mounts on the motherboard, though.

 

[adamantypants]

May I present to you...

The Budgetron 9000.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A6-7400K 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($51.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($27.80 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($23.26 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 400W ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $189.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-18 12:27 EDT-0400

It's a computer! It can play games, though mostly just older ones! And it's less than $200!

That is excellent. I bought a blender this morning that cost more than that.

 

[Canklestank]

How do you go about updating the BIOS?

Before doing anything, I suggest reading Section 3.11 in your manual. It talks about updating your BIOS and recovering if something goes wrong. It sounds scary, but your motherboard has an "easy" update feature. Here's the steps from the manual:

USB BIOS Flashback
USB BIOS Flashback allows you to easily update the BIOS without entering the existing BIOS or operating system. Simply insert a USB storage device to the USB port, press the USB BIOS Flashback button for three seconds, and the BIOS is updated automatically.

Use a USB 2.0 drive with a single partition and formatted to FAT32. Not sure if it's necessary for BIOS Flashback, but it's still good practice to Load Optimized Defaults and Clear CMOS before flashing. After it's done, go back into the BIOS and load optimized defaults again. Obviously, this will change all settings back to default. So make note of any changes you've made first.

If you have problems, or you don't want to use the BIOS Flashback feature, follow the steps in the "ASUS EZ Flash 3 Utility" section. That's the traditional method.


Download BIOS from here:
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/MAXIMUS-VIII-HERO/HelpDesk_Download/

User Manual

Hope that helps. Remember, read the manual! ;-)

 

[QuantumSquid]

wow that's cheap!!... just a question I'm not expert but would it be worth it to double the RAM to say 8 for like 10 bucks more?

Yes, it would be. If I choose to upgrade this build into something capable of playing more graphically intense games, I would probably add another stick of 4GB RAM and throw in an R7 360 or GTX 750Ti. For the initial build though, my goal was to keep it under $200.

I would also probably upgrade the power supply... the EVGA 400W isn't exactly the best, haha.

I can't wait for the parts to arrive so I can put it together and see if it runs Dark Souls 1 and 2.

 

[joecanada]

Yes, it would be. If I choose to upgrade this build into something capable of playing more graphically intense games, I would probably add another stick of 4GB RAM and throw in an R7 360 or GTX 750Ti. For the initial build though, my goal was to keep it under $200.

I would also probably upgrade the power supply... the EVGA 400W isn't exactly the best, haha.

I can't wait for the parts to arrive so I can put it together and see if it runs Dark Souls 1 and 2.

ah thanks for the response, I am still learning. interested to see what results you get... Battlefield 4 at 480p and 30 fps!!!

 

[OraleeWey]

May I present to you...

The Budgetron 9000.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A6-7400K 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($51.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($27.80 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($23.26 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 400W ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $189.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-18 12:27 EDT-0400

It's a computer! It can play games, though mostly just older ones! And it's less than $200!

Nice. I'll probably use this in the future.

 

[Madn]

My pc can't run properly Dark Souls 3. Here are the parts:

Is there any way to upgrade it in order to run it properly? Or am I doomed?
Thanks in advance

Edit: RAM is 2x4GB, the quantity got cut off in the photo

 

[QuantumSquid]

My pc can't run properly Dark Souls 3. Here are the parts:



Is there any way to upgrade it in order to run it properly? Or am I doomed?
Thanks in advance

Edit: RAM is 2x4GB, the quantity got cut off in the photo

RAM is fine, CPU isn't ideal but it should suffice...

What you need is a new graphics card.

What's your budget for this upgrade?

$100? Get a GTX 750 Ti. $200? Get an R9 380, the version with 2GB of VRAM.

 

[Madn]

RAM is fine, CPU isn't ideal but it should suffice...

What you need is a new graphics card.

What's your budget for this upgrade?

$100? Get a GTX 750 Ti. $200? Get an R9 380, the version with 2GB of VRAM.

Two friends of mine were arguing about whether the bottleneck was in the CPU or GPU and I'm not too tech savvy so I decided to consult GAF.
About the budget I'm willing to spend a bit more if it means I'll get a card that can last me a bit, while swapping out other parts over the years. This build has lasted me 5 years without changing anything, so I guess it's time to invest something.

 

[QuantumSquid]

Two friends of mine were arguing about whether the bottleneck was in the CPU or GPU and I'm not too tech savvy so I decided to consult GAF.
About the budget I'm willing to spend a bit more if it means I'll get a card that can last me a bit, while swapping out other parts over the years. This build has lasted me 5 years without changing anything, so I guess it's time to invest something.

The GPU is definitely the bigger problem in your system. The CPU, as I said, isn't doing your performance too many favors, but it should be getting the job done. If you can't run Dark Souls 3 at a smooth framerate (between 30 and 60), it's the fault of your dusty old GPU, not your processor.

ah thanks for the response, I am still learning. interested to see what results you get... Battlefield 4 at 480p and 30 fps!!!

According to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPZeh5Tkfq8&ab_channel=STRIKESHARK ...

The A6-7400K can play Battlefield 4 at 1366x768 at about 25-40 FPS. I plan to test it at 720p, so the results should be even better. Pretty impressive results for a $50 APU.