Upgrade options

[CDN_Merlin]

So I'm looking to upgrade my CPU and MB and brought it down to the list below. Can anyone give me their opinions on why one if better than the other etc?

Thanks

MB:
ASUS Z97-E/USB 3.1 Socket 1151 $179
CPU:
I5 6600k $323 or I7 6700 $436

MB:
ASUS Z170 /USB 3.1 Socket 1150 $172
CPU:
I7 4790s $439 or I5 4590 $280

I know that performance/price that the I5 is a better choice but looking at about 4 years before my next upgrade, would the I7 on either the Socket 1150 or 1151 be better?

Is getting the 1150 socket better since it's 14nm instead of 22?

[Krom]

So I'm looking to upgrade my CPU and MB and brought it down to the list below. Can anyone give me their opinions on why one if better than the other etc?

Thanks

MB:
ASUS Z97-E/USB 3.1 Socket 1151 $179
CPU:
I5 6600k $323 or I7 6700 $436

MB:
ASUS Z170 /USB 3.1 Socket 1150 $172
CPU:
I7 4790s $439 or I5 4590 $280

I know that performance/price that the I5 is a better choice but looking at about 4 years before my next upgrade, would the I7 on either the Socket 1150 or 1151 be better?

Is getting the 1150 socket better since it's 14nm instead of 22?

You have your chipsets/sockets/cpus backwards: The Z170 is 1151 which is for the 6xxx series 14nm processors. The Z97-E is 1150 for older 4xxx series 22nm processors.

If you are planning on keeping the CPU for 4+ years, get an i7-6700k (Note the 'k', the i7-6700 and i7-6700k are 600 MHz different). Get a large heatpipe tower cooler to go with it, preferably one with a standard sized and easily replaceable fan just in case.

Depending on the Z170 board you pick, it will require either DDR3 or DDR4 memory, but either way to last 4+ years, 16 GB should be the minimum. Keep in mind if you go for more than 16 GB and still use Windows, you will need a professional sku since home editions max out at 16 GB of memory support.

Other things to look for, mild future proofing: get a motherboard with a M.2 socket that supports PCIe mode, means you will be able to use and boot from a PCIe SSD in NVMe mode if you decide to get one later.

[CDN_Merlin]

Yes I did mix them up. I'll see what my budget can handle but I would prefer going the route of the Socket 1151.

[Sirius]

Keep in mind if you go for more than 16 GB and still use Windows, you will need a professional sku since home editions max out at 16 GB of memory support.

For Windows 7, yes. They raised the limit in subsequent versions.

[CDN_Merlin]

Yes when I upgrade I'll be going to Win 10.

[Sirius]

The limit on the home version of that is... 128 GB, reportedly. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... 85%29.aspx
It should be quite some time before that isn't really enough. When Windows 7 was released it was already pretty plausible (if rare; I built my 12 GB rig shortly after and that was a lot of memory compared to most contemporary systems) for a custom-built home machine to exceed it, which was a mistake in my opinion.

[CDN_Merlin]

So this is what I am planning on buying come January or so. This will set me back about $1800 but I'm building from scratch cause I'm giving my current system to my daughter.

*RbR - Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5" SATA3 SSD
$123.75
Asus Z170-P Z170 S1151 ATX Mainboard
$164.50
Intel Core i7 6700K 4.0GHz 8MB 4-Core S1151 Processor
$510.00
*RbR - Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO Universal CPU Cooler
$36.72
*RbR - Asus DRW-24F1ST 24X DVD-RW Drive
$19.95
Crucial 16GB (2x8) 2133MHz DDR4 Memory Kit
$115.00
Gigabyte GF GTX970 OC 4GB GDDR5 PCI-E Video Card
$452.16
*RbR - Seagate Barracuda Desktop 6Gb/s 2TB HDD
$86.50
*RbR - Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit OEM
$181.00
Thermaltake ToughPower Gold 750 Watt Power Supply
$133.00

[Krom]

Looks pretty good, that CPU should hold you for the desired 4 years pretty easily.

The only suggestion I have is based off knowing how the gaming industry works, I would hold off on buying that 970 in favor of waiting for Summer and a Pascal variant with at least 8 GB of video memory. There are a few hold you over options until then depending on what your daughter plans on doing with the handed down machine. If the video card in the old machine is good enough to hold you over and she doesn't need it, you could buy the $70 nvidia Geforce that is usually meant for HTPC like builds and stick it in old machine. Or if you don't need any big demanding game titles, you could just limp along on the Intel iGPU. Or you could buy the bare minimum geforce to get you through the next 6-8 months and then sell it in favor of a GP104 pascal variant.

The reason is: the current generation game consoles all have 8 GB of memory, which means the video memory requirements of games are rapidly approaching 8 GB. My 980 with its 4 GB just barely squeezes by on some of the latest titles, a couple of games I have even require more than the 4 GB I have so I have to dial things down to prevent running into the significant performance penalty for swapping to main memory, so odds are I will be upgrading my GPU this summer because of this.

[CDN_Merlin]

My current video card is an ATI R9 270x with 4 Gigs.

[fliptw]

Well its 8 GB of ram for the ENTIRE CONSOLE, not 8 GB just for the video card itself, the CPU and GPU share the ram on the PS4/XBONE.

[CDN_Merlin]

So I just ordered my system last night. Here it is.

RbR - Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5" SATA3 SSD
$123.75
Asus Z170-P Z170 S1151 ATX Mainboard
$164.50
Intel Core i7 6700K 4.0GHz 8MB 4-Core S1151 Processor
$510.00
*RbR - Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO Universal CPU Cooler
$36.72
*RbR - Asus DRW-24F1ST 24X DVD-RW Drive
$19.95
Crucial 16GB (2x8) 2133MHz DDR4 Memory Kit
$115.00
Gigabyte GF GTX970 OC 4GB GDDR5 PCI-E Video Card
$452.16
*RbR - WD Black 1TB 7200RPM 64MB 3.5" SATA3 HDD
$116.00
*RbR - Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit OEM
$181.00
Thermaltake ToughPower Gold 750 Watt Power Supply
$133.00


Should have it all by Friday.