Best CPU/Motherboard/RAM combos for $450–$600?

Hey there.

I need some advice on the best way to spend my money here. My old PH2 955 finally kicked the bucket—motherboard gave up on it, forced retirement style. Now what?

I'm cannibalizing parts from my old PC out of pure necessity: an R6850 GPU, an EVGA 450W PSU, a WD Black HDD, a Themis CPU cooler, the case, and all the peripherals.

Look, I need to make sure my CPU and motherboard are solid enough to serve as a real foundation for this new build. That’s the plan. Phase one is just getting the core stuff right so that in phase two, I can swap out all the outdated junk. I'm picking up a new GPU, an SSD, and 32GB of RAM now, and if things get hairy, I'll probably grab a beefier PSU down the road too.

Honestly, I don't care if it's AMD, Nvidia, or Intel. It makes zero difference to me.

Honestly, 8GB of DDR4 RAM would be just fine. It's plenty.

What am I using it for? Gaming, some virtualization, and a bit of coding. That's it.
How do I pay? Amex or Diners. Budget is flexible—I can push past $400 if I have to.$167...if it’s actually worth the money.

Thanks.

lp.

I guess you might as well go for the Core i7 since you actually have the budget to make it worth it. Something like this:

1 x Intel Core i7-6700 (3.4GHz, 8MB,LGA1151) box
1 x PNY DDR4 8GB, 2133MHz
1 x MSI Main Board Desktop B150 (S1151,DualDDR4,PCI-Ex16,2xPCI-Ex1 USB3.0,USB2.0,SATA III,HDMI,DVI,GLAN) mATX Retail
Total: $1184

Just make sure the motherboard has enough slots for what you need (like how this one has 4 RAM slots) and you're good.

There’s also another way if you're really trying to save a buck: a Xeon on an older socket with a 1150 board and some "older" DDR3 RAM. You'd save a few hundred bucks that way. But honestly, if you've got the cash and aren't sweating it, I'd just go this route.

fadedorca66 said:If you have the cash to actually use it, just go with the Core i7. It makes sense for you. Something like this:

1 x Intel Core i7-6700 (3.4GHz, 8MB, LGA1151) box
1 x PNY DDR4 8GB, 2133MHz
1 x MSI B150 mATX Motherboard (LGA1151, Dual DDR4, PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, USB 3.0, USB 2.0, SATA III, HDMI, DVI, GLAN) Retail
Total: $1184

Just make sure the board has enough slots for what you need—this one has 4 RAM slots, so that works.

There's a cheaper way if you're pinching pennies: grab a Xeon for an older socket, pair it with a 1150 board and some "old school" DDR3. You'd save a few bucks. But if money isn't tight, stick to the first option.

Timothy Kim60😠
Ruined my keyboard idea. Now tell me which store has it.🥱

fadedorca66 said:If you've got the cash, just go for the i7. You have the budget, so you might as well actually use it. Something like this:

1 x Intel Core i7-6700 (3.4GHz, 8MB,LGA1151) box
1 x PNY DDR4 8GB, 2133MHz
1 x MSI B150 mATX Motherboard (S1151, Dual DDR4, PCI-Ex16, 2xPCI-Ex1 USB3.0, USB2.0, SATA III, HDMI, DVI, GLAN)
Total: $1184

Just make sure the board has enough slots for what you need (this one has 4 RAM slots) and call it a day.

There’s another way if you're trying to be cheap: grab a Xeon for an older socket, a 1150 board, and some "old school" DDR3 RAM. You'd save a few bucks, but if you've got the money and aren't sweating it, just go this route.

Where on earth did you find that?

Even though I have two working 4GB 1333 Corsair modules, I'm selling them or giving them away. There's zero point in bottlenecking a new CPU with legacy memory just to save a measly 30 bucks.$133.

If anyone needs RAM for an old junker, shoot me a PM and we'll work something out.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:Timothy Kim60 😠
you're totally killing my keyboard idea. Seriously, tell me which store you found that at.🥱

Robert Rodriguez2, you got any other motherboard suggestions?

Oh, almost forgot—I don't want to overclock. I really don't feel like dealing with the extra noise and more coolers.

Jose Martin13 said:Where did you even find that?

Even though I've got two decent 4GB 1333 Corsair modules, I’m just gonna sell them or give them away. No point bottlenecking a new CPU with legacy memory just to save $133 bucks.

If anyone needs some RAM for an old junker PC, shoot me a DM and we'll work something out.

Robert Rodriguez2, you got any other motherboard suggestions?

Oh yeah, forgot to mention—I'm not looking to overclock. Not worth the extra noise and the headache of more coolers.

If you're giving away RAM, count me in. 😬

For $1167, you could put together a solid build, like the one fadedorca66 put together, if only we knew which Best Buy😁

to use. But honestly, that looks like a "finished product" price. For individual parts, it'd probably run about 10% higher, so maybe $3800 total.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:If you're giving away RAM, I'm in. 😬

For $1167, you could definitely build something decent—like that setup fadedorca66 put together—it’s just a matter of knowing which Best Buy to hit 😁

But honestly? That looks like a "cash price." If you're buying individual cards, expect to pay about 10% more. We're looking at closer to $3,800 total.

I figured that out once I saw the wholesale prices.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:Timothy Kim60 😠

Jose Martin13 said:Where on earth did you find that?

🙂 One user is missing, the other is missing the outside 😁

Maybe it's all just lying in the future, but I guess you already found it...

fadedorca66 said:🙂 One guy missed the user, the other guy missed the mark entirely 😁

It’s all lies in the future, but looks like you already figured that out...

swapped you out for some other forum regular... similar handle, whatever 😵

fadedorca66 said:🙂 One guy missed the user, the other missed the mark entirely. 😁

It's all lying in the future, but looks like you already figured it out...

You sound like a girl, so there's no mistake there. ☕

😬

Anyone know of a decent, budget-friendly classic ATX motherboard? I just realized the one fadedorca66 was looking at is a micro version, and man, those things are such a massive pain when you're trying to cable manage or cram a CPU cooler in there.

I don't see why that would be any more of a hassle; you basically just have this

Timothy Kim60 said:I don't see why it'd be any bigger of a headache. For the most part, you've got this

That was all because of the 8-pin connector on my old motherboard. It was shoved right up against the CPU socket, so I had to tear the whole PSU out just to plug it in or pull it out. Total pain.

Anyway, I'm looking at some CPU benchmarks comparing the Intel Core i7-6700 to the 6700K. The K version is pulling over 1,000 points more, and it's only about 300-$133 bucks more expensive. Now I'm thinking maybe I should just grab the K instead of the standard Intel Core i7-6700, especially if I pair it with this ASRock board.

The synthetic benchmark gap comes down to the higher clock speeds. For what you’re actually trying to do, there won't be any noticeable difference.

If you want to make a move that actually makes sense, grab the 6700 and put that extra cash toward an Intel Z170 motherboard. That way, you can actually perform a BCLK overclock, rather than being stuck with a K-series CPU on a chipset that doesn't allow for any overclocking at all.