Cool stuff—though just a heads up, Intel chips from the 1155 socket era didn't have a dedicated Northbridge.
So if that's the case, why do chipsets still list specific DMI versions? Like how the H110 is v2 while the B150 is v3. DMI is the link between the North and South bridges... or maybe I've got that wrong—a quick Wiki dive suggests I'm on the right track. If it isn't that, what's the point of DMI then? Is it strictly for communication between the CPU and the bridge?
Expanded the budget after some serious soul-searching 🙂 I eventually realized crimsonstag84 really nailed that build. I went with almost everything from that list—the only change was swapping out the drive for a WD 1TB.
I decided against the H110—didn't want to deal with the slower communication between the North and South bridges... back when I used to obsess over specs, that was a huge deal.😁 The difference sits at about $20
Skipped the Intel Core i5-4460 too. Prices are basically identical at places like Micro Center or Newegg, but the 4460 often ends up being more expensive—plus, it uses slower memory that costs a fortune if you actually want performance comparable to DDR4.
Saving money on an older motherboard wouldn't have been worth it; RAM is pricier now, and I’ll definitely need more capacity down the road. ______________________________________________- Intel Core i5-6402 Kingston 1x8GB DDR4 2133 C15, KNG-KVR21N15S8-8 WD 1TB, 64MB, 7200rpm ASRock B150M-HDS
Total: $875 konfa Centro
For the monitor, I somehow managed to find the cheapest one available on Newegg.😁 AOC, 21.5", IPS, that's about it.$297 🙂
Thanks to everyone for the help—especially for pointing me toward researching the actual differences between the i3 and i5. After digging through some specific benchmarks and explanations, I pulled the trigger on the i5. It's just a shame AMD doesn't have a direct competitor to the i5 that keeps the price lower.😢
Is paying extra for an ATX board actually worth it? The motherboard Gigabyte GA-B150-HD3, 1151, iB150, DDR4, S3, USB 3.0, DVI, A—it has DDR4 and it’s the only version I’ve tracked down in ATX with 4 DIMM slots. You can find them for $237. These mATX boards usually run about $17 less . I can't cut enough off the board price to actually afford any kind of i5. From what I can tell, prices aren't really dropping, so maybe it makes more sense to just wait until spring and see if the next generation is worth it. And does it even matter if a board has faster connectors for an SSD when those drives are still priced like luxury goods? Though, I have to say, having a serial port on this specific board is a nice little touch 😁
Bryan Taylor6, since the Intel Core i3-6100 is a significant step up from the older i3 generations—and honestly cheaper too—it just makes sense. You really want DDR4 here, given that this processor was practically engineered to pair with it; trying to force it onto DDR3 would be a bit of a mismatch. Plus, we can probably expect DDR4 prices to keep sliding down.
Hey So, as I mentioned in the title, I'm having a bit of a headache picking out a chipset for this processor. I'm building a PC now, with plans to add a GPU, more RAM, and an SSD in about four months. This isn't a gaming rig—it's for work, specifically embedded systems programming (C, Python), MATLAB simulations... basically the kind of heavy lifting you see in engineering school. 😁 For that reason, AMD is pretty much off the table; the lack of certain instruction sets ends up costing too much time. Plus, I run various virtual machines quite often, and in my experience, AMD hasn't always played nice with those—unless the newer chips have fixed that. All things considered, I've settled on the Intel Core i3-6100, which seems like a solid choice for my needs.
Here is the build I've put together so far: All prices are based on Micro Center (though Best Buy or Newegg might have better deals, but whatever 😁 ) __________________________________________________ Intel Core i3-6100 (3MB Cache, 3.80 GHz), s1151, (50w) box $314
MSI H170M Pro-VDH motherboard (7952-011R), s1151, DDR4 — $686 at Micro Center
DDR4 4GB 1x4GB Crucial, 2133MHz, $14
1TB WD Blue HDD, 3.5", 7200RPM, 64MB Cache, SATA III, WD10EZEX $170 _________________________________________
I ALREADY HAVE: a case (ATX), power supply (600W, 80 Plus Bronze), and peripherals (except for a monitor).
The main roadblock is either the unavailability or the insane prices of H170 boards. They're priced almost identically to—or even $17 more than—the cheapest Z170 boards. Honestly, the bigger issue is just finding them, especially in an ATX format.
What matters to me in a motherboard: - DDR4 support (having 4 slots would be nice... but let's be real) - Since I'll be adding an SSD later, I'm wondering if it's worth paying extra for specialized connectors that an SSD might utilize down the road, or if I should just focus on SATA speeds. U.2? eSATA? Stuff like that. - Having USB 3.1 is a plus, though not deal-breaking; I could live with pure USB 2.0 (even though 3.0 usually works fine, I'm thinking about compatibility with various systems). - PCI 3.0! - Build quality. One reason I'm avoiding Z170 is that high-quality boards are pricey. I don't want to buy something cheap and flimsy for $267; I'd rather pay $65 or $233 for a higher-quality H170 or B150.
As for H110—the entire internet seems divided on whether it's actually worth it.
So the big question is: which chipset should I go with? Is it worth grabbing an H170 board, given that the price is nearly the same as a smaller form factor? (I'd definitely prefer ATX). What are your experiences with the B150 chipset? Is there any real-world performance difference?
THE PROBLEM WITH COMPARING BOARDS I haven't been able to find any specific benchmarks using identical components across different chipsets. I'll take whatever data you can throw my way. The PC will likely get one upgrade in four months and then get used heavily for 3 or 4 years.
GPU I'll eventually drop a GPU in there worth roughly $400. I'm curious how much a B150 architecture can actually squeeze out of a card like that. I haven't dug too deep into GPUs yet, just trying to figure out what's decent for my budget (though some older Radeon cards are okay for $300 and perform reasonably well).
RAM I'll probably add another 4GB stick later, or maybe just swap in a new 8GB stick depending on how the budget looks.
Overclocking I'm not interested in overclocking—not for the ridiculous premium you have to pay right now for a Z170 board and overclockable RAM at 3GHz just to get a 20% boost. It's just not worth the extra $333.
My total budget for these parts is around $767 (I still need to factor in a monitor, but that's a conversation for another day 😁).
Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read this.😁
I’m putting my vote behind Click. They're solidly built—honestly, they probably have the best sound quality in this tier—plus you get a detachable mic if that matters to you. In that same price bracket, you could also look at the Logitech G430 or the SteelSeries Siberia V2, which are both decent, well-made options
Hey everyone—looking for some advice on swapping out the battery for my Dell Inspiron 15 Z. The machine is about six years old now, but it still gets the job done for basic web browsing, and honestly, the battery has lasted surprisingly well up to this point. Right now, I’m getting maybe 30 minutes 👍 before it dies, so it’s definitely time for a change. Also, I was wondering if I really need to hunt down an OEM part, or if a generic third-party battery will do the trick?
Jamie Ramos3 said:I’m splitting this post into two parts because the forum won't let me upload more than nine images at once! :P... Anyway, I have been googling everything under the sun—honestly, I am still googling right now—trying desperately to salvage whatever I can from this mess. So far, I’ve tried using Acronis True Image and Disk Management, but neither of them helped at all. I even gave EaseUS Partition Master a shot, but that's just as useless; it only detects a single drive, which is just my internal one where Windows is installed...
But why on earth won't it show up right here, inside the Partition Recovery Wizard...
And once I select that offered WD drive and click Next, this pops up:
Now I’ve reached the stage where I should be selecting files to move forward, but unfortunately, there simply aren't any files to choose from... It’s just a total dead end. EaseUS Partition Master isn't making any headway at all. Even EasyBCD won't recognize anything! On the other hand, HDD Regenerator actually did detect it, but the moment I clicked to start the repair process, it immediately flagged that the Master Boot Record is missing. Then, it just displayed "Wait please" and my entire computer completely froze up on me... I had no choice but to perform a hard restart because nothing was responding. At this point, I am honestly at a loss as to what else to try or which direction to take. I did happen to google some solutions, and it suggested that performing a BIOS update might be a good idea since my current BIOS is quite outdated. There are three new updates listed on the Asus website, but all three are still in beta... Since I'm currently running the last stable version for my motherboard, I'm really hesitant to touch them; I'm terrified those beta versions might cause more harm than good. Plus, truth be told, I have never attempted a BIOS update before, so the thought of something going wrong during the process is quite daunting...
I’m starting to suspect that the Master Boot might have gone missing, or—heaven forbid—the entire drive itself has finally given up the ghost... though I’m still holding onto a tiny shred of hope that there might be some way to save it! 🙂 Does anyone here have experience with this kind of issue, or maybe someone has run into something similar recently? I would truly appreciate any insight or guidance you could offer. Any suggestion at all is more than welcome... Thanks so much!
Oh, I almost forgot to mention one more thing! I actually have another external WD drive at home—it's a 2 TB model—and it works perfectly fine whenever I plug it into my computer. I’ve tried using the cable from that first drive, and then I tried its own original cable too... but it works just fine either way. On the other hand, this 500 GB one won't respond to any of them. It's exactly like what I described before; no matter which cable I plug into it, nothing happens. So, I'm pretty convinced it isn't a cable issue...
Sounds like an MBR issue. You should probably google how to fix the MBR without nuking your data—there are likely plenty of tutorials out there, maybe even some on YouTube. Or, you could follow darkowl72's lead and just take the drive to a pro for diagnostics if those files are mission-critical.
Gregory Hayes87 said:Honestly, I’m about five seconds away from tossing this thing right out the window. My CPU stays around 55°C and the GPU sits at 64-66°C while gaming—everything looks fine at 60 FPS—but then it just tanks to 10 FPS for a few seconds before bouncing back. It’s like a glitchy heartbeat—honestly, it's driving me nuts. We're talking specifically about gaming. Madden NFL 16 I'm playing Call of Duty. I cranked my afterburner fan up to max, but honestly—there’s zero performance gain, just more noise. Give me some ideas—I'm losing my mind here. My vacation is slipping away, and I haven't even picked up a controller yet.
You aren't the only one struggling with Madden NFL 16—I’m seeing the same thing where the frame rate tanks from 60 down to about 20 or 25 and just stays stuck there. Everything else I play runs smoothly without those kinds of massive performance dips, even on my GTX 950.
Checking back in regarding the specs I laid out in my first post—now that the GTX 950 is actually out, I'm wondering if it'll actually cut it for what I need.
That’s all fair, but if anyone’s working with a specific budget—say, somewhere between $3,000 and $1333 or whatever—we could always just start a sticky thread. People could post their offers there with clearly defined terms and payment methods (like, "gaming rig for $1167 cash," for instance). Just a thought, though.
I’m sticking with uTorrent 2.2.1—it works perfectly fine for me, provided you go into the settings and kill off all those automatic update prompts. Hopefully, that helps.
Drew Sanchez82 said:I just need to double-check which version of uTorrent was the last reliable one.
Brian Campbell36 said:I’m dropping a ton of cash on this thing—I'm not looking to mess anything up. Better to just hand it over to a pro and have them snap it together 🍿
It’s honestly not that deep—I built my first rig solo just by scrolling through a few YouTube tutorials. If you’re planning on paying someone to do the labor (which makes sense if you're nervous), then go for it 😵
Timothy Kim60 said:I mean—it’s probably for good reason that this thread hit 25 pages. The OP started the topic back in September, yet didn't actually pull the trigger on the PC until June...
Just take a look at what an AMD Radeon R9 280 is going for—both new and used—and check on the warranty situation. Those guys mentioned you could probably offload the 7770 for about $133 per unit. Once you crunch all those numbers, you'll see if there's actually any profit left in this.
Thanks for all the input, everyone. It looks like I’ll be leaning toward Nvidia—those CUDA cores make things easier to navigate when I'm looking at future upgrades 👍. My plan has shifted slightly, though; I’ve decided to hold off until I’ve saved up enough. Since everyone seems obsessed with aesthetics these days—and since this software has its own built-in rendering, which isn't quite as slick as dedicated suites but gets the job done—I'm going to grab an extra 8GB of RAM first. I'll probably ditch my current CPU for something from the FX 8xxx series. Once that's set, I'll pick up a GTX 760 just to run some games here and there—honestly, I don't think I need anything more powerful than that right now. Anyway, I appreciate the advice; you guys helped me figure out exactly what kind of card I actually need for my workflow. I'm currently out in Chicago, so I can't swing by to check out that specific card . P.S. My cousin just swapped his GTX 560 Ti for an R9 270 x or something similar, so I'm wondering if this card would give me a decent boost while I work on the rest of the build? Thanks again. 👍
I need to pick up a new graphics card. I spend most of my time modeling in AutoCAD and running a few other construction-related suites—think Robot and SAP2000—and my current GPU (if you can even call it that) just isn't cutting it anymore. Here’s what I’m running right now: AMD FX 6300 with a CM Hyper TX3 Evo ASUS M5A97 R2 XFX TS 550W (80+ gold) AMD Radeon HD 7770 8 GB of RAM, Intel 520 SSD and a 500 GB hard drive, running at FHD resolution on Windows 7 Ultimate.
The main headache happens while I'm working in AutoCAD—specifically when I'm wrapping up a project. Zooming and rotating becomes a nightmare; the transitions aren't smooth, they just stutter and jump to views I didn't intend to go to, which makes things pretty frustrating to deal with. I hope you get what I mean. My budget is capped at $400, so I'm totally fine with looking at used gear on eBay or Craigslist rather than buying something brand new. Thanks! 👍
Forgot to mention a few specs: 8 GB of RAM, an Intel 520 SSD and a 500 GB hard drive, plus FHD resolution—running Windows 7 Ultimate. The main headache happens when I'm working in Revit—specifically when finishing up a project. Zooming and rotating gets really choppy; instead of smooth transitions, the view just jumps around erratically, landing on angles I didn't intend. It’s a total pain to deal with, if you catch my drift.
I'm looking to pick up a new graphics card. I spend most of my time modeling in Autodesk Revit and running a few other construction suites—think Robot, SAP2000, and so on—so my current GPU (if you can even call it that) just isn't cutting it anymore. Here’s what I’m working with: FX 6300 paired with a CM Hyper TX3 Evo Asus M5A97 R2.0 XFX TS 550W (80+ gold) Sapphire Radeon HD7770
My budget tops out at about $400. I'm totally fine with grabbing something used on eBay rather than buying brand new from a big box store. Thanks 👍
Go with Spira Kepler or the LC-95 if you aren't planning on overclocking—mostly just to quiet things down since those stock coolers tend to be pretty loud. However, if you *are* looking to push some clocks, I'd suggest picking up a cm 212 evo, a Corator DS, or something similar in that price bracket. It really comes down to your plans, but my advice is simple: if you might overclock later, just buy the better cooler now and save yourself the headache. Other folks here will probably throw more options your way, but that's the general roadmap. Oh, and definitely set a budget first.
Regarding that R9 280 x you're eyeing—you'll likely need to overclock the CPU to actually get your money's worth out of a card like that. As for compatibility, you should be fine; most of those headaches have been ironed out lately.
