$800 Budget PC Build

[IxWolfie]

So earlier this week, I was here asking for a build where I streamed, rendered, and gamed. A very kind person told me to look into the E3 1231-V3, which is better than the i5-6500. However, I asked another site for suggestions for the same build (just to see what consensuses there were, if any), and I'm left with more questions than answered now. I don't play games in 1080p, and the monitor I play games on is 768p. I usually don't max out my games, and play on normal-high settings.

I could go with the i5-6500, which leaves the Skylake series open to me in full. I'd be dropping streaming/recording and rendering performance for better overall game performance. However, the E3 1231-V3 has a higher bench even in gaming (and especially for Workstation) according to this website. So, now here I stand. Do I go with the E3 1231 V3 and be limited to the Haswell-line, or go with the i5-6500, give up streaming/recording and rendering performance but gain the Skylake line?

I was thinking of going with the Skylake line, but at this point honestly I'm not too sure. They both have their ups and downs. By no means am I a big streamer, but I hope to be at some point. What keeps me from streaming more games is that I can't get over 30fps on them. Both of them will be an upgrade, but I want to future proof this PC as much as possible. I don't want to have to upgrade it for a year or so at least, if possible. I'll have both builds below, and you can inspect them and change them as you see fit.

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My Skylake Build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($215.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI MSI H110M Gaming Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($68.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($36.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 380X 4GB PCS+ Myst. Edition Video Card ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($85.95 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition (2-Pack) 62.7 CFM 120mm Fans ($21.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition (2-Pack) 62.7 CFM 120mm Fans ($21.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $715.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-27 23:49 EDT-0400

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My Haswell Build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($61.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($32.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 380X 4GB PCS+ Myst. Edition Video Card ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($85.95 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition (2-Pack) 62.7 CFM 120mm Fans ($21.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition (2-Pack) 62.7 CFM 120mm Fans ($21.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $728.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-27 23:50 EDT-0400

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My budget is $800, and I have a Case, but I will need fans. I don't need an Optical Drive because I can salvage that as well as the Hard Drive, but I do need a copy of Windows (which OEM is the cheapest)...

After this, I'll be set with the build. I was fairly set on the E3 until I got more mixed results. The other site said that the i5-6500 will perform just as well, but others say that the E3 is better in the long run. Is it worth not getting the Skylake series? I'm not a big streamer, and I don't do major rendering, either. I'm okay waiting a few minutes for a video to render. I don't want to get an E3 and see a 10-20 fps difference versus the i5-6500.

Thanks in advance, guys. As I said, after this it's not worth worrying about the components anymore.

 

[Guest]

Since you said you wanted to future proof this PC as much as possible, I'm surprised nobody mentioned Skylake Xeons. You could go with a C232 chipset motherboard (necessary for Skylake Xeons) and a E3-1230 V5 Xeon with 8 threads. Note: I had to enter the motherboard in manually under "other" since it's not listed yet on pcpartpicker.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V5 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($252.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($33.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 380X 4GB PCS+ Myst. Edition Video Card ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($85.95 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition (2-Pack) 62.7 CFM 120mm Fans ($21.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition (2-Pack) 62.7 CFM 120mm Fans ($21.99 @ Amazon)
Other: ASRock E3V5 WS LGA 1151 Intel C232 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard ($119.99)
Total: $800.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-28 00:58 EDT-0400

 

[IxWolfie]

Since you said you wanted to future proof this PC as much as possible, I'm surprised nobody mentioned Skylake Xeons. You could go with a C232 chipset motherboard (necessary for Skylake Xeons) and a E3-1230 V5 Xeon with 8 threads. Note: I had to enter the motherboard in manually under "other" since it's not listed yet on pcpartpicker.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V5 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($252.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($33.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 380X 4GB PCS+ Myst. Edition Video Card ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($85.95 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition (2-Pack) 62.7 CFM 120mm Fans ($21.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition (2-Pack) 62.7 CFM 120mm Fans ($21.99 @ Amazon)
Other: ASRock E3V5 WS LGA 1151 Intel C232 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard ($119.99)
Total: $800.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-28 00:58 EDT-0400

That benches worse than the e3-1231 v3 according to the two sites I compared... Anything for standard Core series that you could give me? I appreciate your help. By future proof I mean having the same mainboard, for example going from the i5-6500 to the i5-6600 at some point, and the i7-6700 at some point as well, you know what I mean? I don't want to be bound to this C232 board, and have to update the motherboard to go to the Intel Core series.

It'd be nice if you could give me an i5 build, but if this is the best system for what I want it to do, I'll take it. However, like I said, the e3 1231 v3 seems to have higher benches than the prior. I'd rather not have to have a separate Motherboard for this as I said... If I have to give up some rendering speed for better performance while recording/streaming, but if the E3-1230/1231 is better I can roll with that. I just want to make sure that since this is both my gaming, streaming/recording/rendering, and general use PC I don't want to have something that I'll need to replace in a year or so...

Thanks again. I don't know how long that sale will be going on for, because I probably won't get to buying this in the next few days/weeks. Hopefully within a month, but you know how it is when you're tight on money. I'm just getting the build ready, hence why I had the original pricing a good $20 below $800 because of the R9 380x going off sale perhaps.

EDIT: "Good $20 below". More like a good $80. lol

EDIT2: How about making a build with the e3-1231 V3? At least it has the Haswell line to upgrade to, I guess.

 

[Guest]

I understand. Your Haswell build already looks good, actually. That's what I would go with. I wouldn't change anything. You could upgrade to the i7-4790K later, which is still a very powerful CPU.

 

[IxWolfie]

I understand. Your Haswell build already looks good, actually. That's what I would go with. I wouldn't change anything. You could upgrade to the i7-4790K later, which is still a very powerful CPU.

Any other motherboard recommendations..?

Also, unless I'm not understanding this correctly. It has 5 fan connectors* in total, one being used by the CPU, so there's 4, correct?
2 x CPU Fan Connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin)
2 x Chassis Fan Connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin)
1 x Power Fan Connector (3-pin)

EDIT:
Just making sure, I will get good game performance with this, correct? I don't have a separate PC for gaming, this will be my general use PC for quite some time... Basically until I can't run a game good enough, and justify upgrading it again.

 

[BadActor]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($297.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock ASRock B150 GAMING K4/HYPER ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($113.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($31.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 960 4GB AMP! Edition Video Card ($193.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($53.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($85.95 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 39.9 CFM 120mm Fans ($25.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $803.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-28 02:55 EDT-0400

 

[Guest]

I understand. Your Haswell build already looks good, actually. That's what I would go with. I wouldn't change anything. You could upgrade to the i7-4790K later, which is still a very powerful CPU.

Any other motherboard recommendations..?

Also, unless I'm not understanding this correctly. It has 5 fan connectors* in total, one being used by the CPU, so there's 4, correct?
2 x CPU Fan Connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin)
2 x Chassis Fan Connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin)
1 x Power Fan Connector (3-pin)

EDIT:
Just making sure, I will get good game performance with this, correct? I don't have a separate PC for gaming, this will be my general use PC for quite some time... Basically until I can't run a game good enough, and justify upgrading it again.

I have a H97M Pro4 in my Micro-ATX Build and it's great for gaming. And that's with my low end i5.

The H97 Pro4 is slightly better than the H97 Anniversary. It has better heatsinks and better sound. Same total of 5 fan connectors.

With my board, I can't control the Power fan speed. I think it always runs at full speed. The Chassis fans 1 and 2 can be controlled. The CPU1 and CPU2 fan speed can be controlled but will use the same fan "setting" for both headers simultaneously. That can get a little annoying. I assume it would be the same for the ATX version of the board too. You may want to get a fan controller, it's what I did.

 

[IxWolfie]

I understand. Your Haswell build already looks good, actually. That's what I would go with. I wouldn't change anything. You could upgrade to the i7-4790K later, which is still a very powerful CPU.

Any other motherboard recommendations..?

Also, unless I'm not understanding this correctly. It has 5 fan connectors* in total, one being used by the CPU, so there's 4, correct?
2 x CPU Fan Connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin)
2 x Chassis Fan Connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin)
1 x Power Fan Connector (3-pin)

EDIT:
Just making sure, I will get good game performance with this, correct? I don't have a separate PC for gaming, this will be my general use PC for quite some time... Basically until I can't run a game good enough, and justify upgrading it again.

I have a H97M Pro4 in my Micro-ATX Build and it's great for gaming. And that's with my low end i5.

The H97 Pro4 is slightly better than the H97 Anniversary. It has better heatsinks and better sound. Same total of 5 fan connectors.

With my board, I can't control the Power fan speed. I think it always runs at full speed. The Chassis fans 1 and 2 can be controlled. The CPU1 and CPU2 fan speed can be controlled but will use the same fan "setting" for both headers simultaneously. That can get a little annoying. I assume it would be the same for the ATX version of the board too. You may want to get a fan controller, it's what I did.

Unless there's a reason to not have the fans always running, I'll probably just let them run at full speed. Easier for me in the long run lol, unless there's major impacts I don't see a reason to mess with it that much

So I can keep the CPU Cooler, then, since I'm not doing any overclocking, correct? I can still also connect 4 fans (without using splitters), as well, right?

 

[Guest]

I understand. Your Haswell build already looks good, actually. That's what I would go with. I wouldn't change anything. You could upgrade to the i7-4790K later, which is still a very powerful CPU.

Any other motherboard recommendations..?

Also, unless I'm not understanding this correctly. It has 5 fan connectors* in total, one being used by the CPU, so there's 4, correct?
2 x CPU Fan Connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin)
2 x Chassis Fan Connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin)
1 x Power Fan Connector (3-pin)

EDIT:
Just making sure, I will get good game performance with this, correct? I don't have a separate PC for gaming, this will be my general use PC for quite some time... Basically until I can't run a game good enough, and justify upgrading it again.

I have a H97M Pro4 in my Micro-ATX Build and it's great for gaming. And that's with my low end i5.

The H97 Pro4 is slightly better than the H97 Anniversary. It has better heatsinks and better sound. Same total of 5 fan connectors.

With my board, I can't control the Power fan speed. I think it always runs at full speed. The Chassis fans 1 and 2 can be controlled. The CPU1 and CPU2 fan speed can be controlled but will use the same fan "setting" for both headers simultaneously. That can get a little annoying. I assume it would be the same for the ATX version of the board too. You may want to get a fan controller, it's what I did.

Unless there's a reason to not have the fans always running, I'll probably just let them run at full speed. Easier for me in the long run lol, unless there's major impacts I don't see a reason to mess with it that much

So I can keep the CPU Cooler, then, since I'm not doing any overclocking, correct? I can still also connect 4 fans (without using splitters), as well, right?

You should be good to go with the stock cooler and the four fans.

 

[IxWolfie]

I understand. Your Haswell build already looks good, actually. That's what I would go with. I wouldn't change anything. You could upgrade to the i7-4790K later, which is still a very powerful CPU.

Any other motherboard recommendations..?

Also, unless I'm not understanding this correctly. It has 5 fan connectors* in total, one being used by the CPU, so there's 4, correct?
2 x CPU Fan Connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin)
2 x Chassis Fan Connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin)
1 x Power Fan Connector (3-pin)

EDIT:
Just making sure, I will get good game performance with this, correct? I don't have a separate PC for gaming, this will be my general use PC for quite some time... Basically until I can't run a game good enough, and justify upgrading it again.

I have a H97M Pro4 in my Micro-ATX Build and it's great for gaming. And that's with my low end i5.

The H97 Pro4 is slightly better than the H97 Anniversary. It has better heatsinks and better sound. Same total of 5 fan connectors.

With my board, I can't control the Power fan speed. I think it always runs at full speed. The Chassis fans 1 and 2 can be controlled. The CPU1 and CPU2 fan speed can be controlled but will use the same fan "setting" for both headers simultaneously. That can get a little annoying. I assume it would be the same for the ATX version of the board too. You may want to get a fan controller, it's what I did.

Unless there's a reason to not have the fans always running, I'll probably just let them run at full speed. Easier for me in the long run lol, unless there's major impacts I don't see a reason to mess with it that much

So I can keep the CPU Cooler, then, since I'm not doing any overclocking, correct? I can still also connect 4 fans (without using splitters), as well, right?

You should be good to go with the stock cooler and the four fans.

Cool.