New CPU/Motherboard Combo Sales this weekend??

Westpalmdan

Honorable
Oct 28, 2013
181
0
10,680
I am in the hunt for a new CPU/Motherboard Combo. I will also need memory and windows 10.

I am not a gamer. Do some work with photography. Large FLAC music collection that sometimes needs to be trans coded. Love to be able to multi task and always have a lot of windows open with Chrome and edge on multiple monitors.

Do not need Box/PSU/HD's/Audio Card. Will not use current video card in new set up. Would only need the on board Video of newer gear.

Budget in the $500 ball park, give or take.

Thanks,

Dan
 

Geekwad

Admirable
You still might consider a system with a dedicated GPU, as more and more programs are starting to use hardware acceleration (offloading work to a GPU) to speed up work:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V5 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($252.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock E3V5 Performance ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($130.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($94.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $531.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

 

Westpalmdan

Honorable
Oct 28, 2013
181
0
10,680


The more I learn the more I believe that a Xeon may be for me. 1225 vs 1230 is what I am not sure of. And I notice that you seem to add lots of ram. I thought 8gb was suffecient, but what do I know....that's why I am here.

 

Westpalmdan

Honorable
Oct 28, 2013
181
0
10,680


When I click on the motherboard I get Nothing?
 

Geekwad

Admirable


This is the one I was trying to link:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty%20E3V5%20Performance%20GamingOC/

I really like this one too for the 1151 Xeon's:

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/E3-PRO-GAMING-V5/



32 is certainly more than most need, but there are certain use-cases for general consumers where it's still beneficial. What is critical with RAM though is that it is VERY ill-advised to try to add to it later. Matched kits are guaranteed by the manufacturer to work together well, whereas adding more RAM later is a crap-shoot and may not work properly.

The theory then is to just get what you think you might need over the course of the platform, so you don't start with 8 and then discover you need 16....and have to buy 16 to get it to work right.

Again, 32 is a lot for the general to light professional user, but I would recommend 16 as this system could really be operating for you for 6-10 years.
 

Westpalmdan

Honorable
Oct 28, 2013
181
0
10,680


For the Ram you suggest. Is it cheaper/better if you go 4x8gb to fill all slots since later at this point won't matter for me.
 

Geekwad

Admirable


That is a drawback with this particular Xeon; It does not have a iGPU, so you need to have a dedicated GPU of some sort or kind. It doesn't necessarily need to be the one I picked though if you believe you'll upgrade:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-n610gtmd2gd3lp

but this may throw you back considering the i7's again (unless switching to Ubuntu is an option).

Could always go back a generation though, and still get a fantastic experience with 8-threaded performance like the i7's, and keep Windows with a compromise GPU that still uses GDDR5 and is quite better than even a Skylake integrated for hardware acceleration functions:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-E/USB3.1 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($87.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GT 730 2GB Video Card ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $536.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
 

Geekwad

Admirable
^^^Eh, that last one wasn't necessarily good advice. If you needed CUDA cores now, perhaps, but this is probably more in line of where to start:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($297.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($76.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($53.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $512.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Can always just add a dedicated card later that way if you find you're using software that will take advantage of of it for trans-coding or other tasks.
 


Well... The Xeon lets you have better server capabilities. It doesn't really matter to be honest, choose whatever you like.