Need help with Skylake PC build!

[CryCeti]

Hey guys, so I'm planning on buying a new PC for gaming, schoolwork, internet, basically everything.

My budget is $1100, but keep in mind that prices here are way higher than normal. Just think of it like I'm living in australia, lol.

Also, I was not able to find any haswell CPUs here. So keep that in mind aswell.

This is my build:

CPU: i5 6400
Motherboard: H170 Pro Gaming
Memory: G.Skill DDR4 1x8 2400Mhz Memory
Storage: WD Blue 1tb
GPU: MSI GTX 950
Case: NZXT S210
PSU: Corsair CX 600W
Monitor: BenQ 22" LED 1080 : $147.50
Keyboard: Random $25 keyboard

All in all it costs about 1025$


if you want to know any of the prices of the parts ($) just divide it by 4.

GPU: If I go for an R9 380, it will put the cost at SR4,500 ($1,125) and that is with the 2gb VRAM
CPU: does the 2.7ghz on it really matter? Is it like a 4460 at gaming?
MOtherboard: Whats a cheap h170 chipset motherboard? I'm not planning on overclocking.

That's it, thanks alot!

 

[bignastyid]

PSu is not good and should be avoided. go for a tier 1 or 2 unit(tier 3 only if absolutely necessary) and avoid tier 4 and especially avoid tier 5.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html
If you need to save money you could go for a B150 board. Also get 2x4gb sticks for dual channel operation.

 

[blazorthon]

Get dual-channel memory. Either 2x4GB or 2x8GB if you want more, but get two modules. It's not a huge deal, but it's so easy to do that it's not worth any hassle to not do it.

It would be best to get a better PSU, if any are available to you. Something from Seasonic, Antec, XFX, or some others would be preferable. Corsair has very good high end models, but their CX series is less reliable.

The CPU speed does matter and higher is better, but 2.7GHz for the i5 isn't too bad. There should be slightly better options that aren't too much more expensive, but I can't be sure of that for where you live. An i5 at least a little over 3GHz would be better. If need be, you could step down to Haswell for this with the i5-4130 or similar models. Skylake doesn't really have any advantage over Haswell in performance, especially when its at a significant clock frequency disadvantage where it's actually inferior.

 

[capt_taco]

You're better with 2x4 GB memory than a single stick of 8 GB; it will let you use dual-channel, which is much more effective.

The r9 380 will definitely be a significant step up from the 950; I would go for it if you can afford it.

I would not use a Corsair CX series; they are cheaply made and Corsair's bottom-of-the-barrel model. Maybe not as much of an issue if not overclocking, but I'd still steer clear.

i5-6400 vs 4600 is a sidestep - they are nearly identical in benchmarks. 4600 has a faster clock speed; Skylake's architecture makes up for most of the difference but not quite all.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

If you built a 4600-based system with good DDR3 RAM, it would probably be a few percent more powerful than the build above, but if availability is an issue, the one you have will be fine.

 

[CryCeti]

@bignastyid Mind suggesting some good B150 boards? I've seen some but they dont support DDR4 🙁
Is dual channel really that worth it??
Also, I'm planning on 1080p gaming, high settings maybe. Is the GTX 950 enough? How long?

 

[blazorthon]

Dual channel is completely worth it. It increases performance much more than going up in RAM speed tends to, even if it's still not a huge difference most of the time. Basically, take dual channel DDR3-1600 over single channel DDR4-2400 if need be.

The GTX 950 is very good for 1080p gaming. How long is arbitrary and highly dependent on individual games. A rough estimate, I'd give it at least a couple years. Stepping up a little bit wouldn't be a bad idea if you want to be sure, but the GTX 960 is almost not any better at all and the GTX 970 is much more expensive, so that would require switching to AMD for a Radeon 380 or similar card if you don't want to pay for a 970.

 

[bignastyid]

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gab150md3hgsm
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gab150md3h
The 950 will run 1080p but newer games wont be at high settings.