[SOLVED] Need CPU/Motherboard suggestions for under $300

chemp43 · Oct 20, 2015

Building a gaming rig hoping to hit 60fps at 1080p with Med/High settings on Battlefront and hopefully Fallout 4. I need a CPU and motherboard that preferably is under $300 total.

The parts aren't going to make a lot of sense; I'm building the rig for a loved one based off spare parts that I have/had;

Currently have;
H80i Watercooler
8GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM
Kingston 240GB SSD
EVGA SCC 970
850w PSU

Any suggestions would be awesome, thank you.

JackNaylorPE · Oct 20, 2015

Hate to see you you handcuffed regarding future upgrades. Z97 and a k series processor open a lot of doors for future performance improvements You could hit it outta the park with $365 ... would give you opportunity to go SLI and OC in the future.

Pcpartpicker is down for maintenance but these were prices I got on Friday.

$220 - 4690k
$125 - MSI gaming 5

I would also wait a month and take advantage of the huge sales Black Friday.

1) Everything is cheap that day, coupons, rebates, specials
2) Lotta peeps are holding off on Z170 builds until all the hugs get discovered / addressed. That's going to last until about that same time when Z170 will, I expect, get a lot more popular pushing prces for Z97 based builds down.

MoBo Performance Rankings

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/msi_z97_gaming_6_review/10

The ranking is based on setting the board which recorded the highest combined fps in the gaming tests at 100% and ranking the others by fps as a % of the fastest one.

MoBo % of Leader

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 - 100.00%
MSI Z97 Gaming 5 - 99.86%
MSI Z97A Gaming 6 - 98.96%
Asus Z97 TUF Sabranco - 96.13%
Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 5 - 95.00%
Gigabyte Z97X SOC Force - 94.95%
Asus Z97 Maximus VII Hero - 93.67%
Asus Z97 Maximus VII Formula - 93.58%
Asus Z97 Maximus VII Gene - 91.69%
Asus Z97-A - 89.57%
MSI Z97 Mpower MAX AC - 88.20%
MSI Z97S Krait SLI - 71.01%

Another ranking appears below .... based upon which boards might be best avoided. The % listed are the percent of board owners who posted highly negative (1 egg) user reviews on newegg.

Asus Z97 TUF Sabranco - 3% http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132414
MSI Z97 Mpower MAX AC - 4% http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130765
MSI Z97 Gaming 5 - 10% http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130770
Asus Z97 Maximus VII Gene - 11% http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132136
MSI Z97A Gaming 6 - 12% http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128709
Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 5 - 14% http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128709
MSI Z97S Krait SLI 19% http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130801
Asus Z97 Maximus VII Hero - 19% http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132125
Asus Z97 Maximus VII Formula - 26% http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132247
Asus Z97-A - 27% http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132118
MSI Z97 Gaming 9 - 28% http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130808
Gigabyte Z97X SOC Force - 29% http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128704

chemp43 · Oct 20, 2015

Thanks for your reply. Would there be any cheaper options or would this be the lowest you'd go in terms of benchmarks? The person I'm building this for would probably upgrade these components first when she gets back on her feet, I'm building this as more of a pick me up and to get her started.

As for OCing, I've OC'd before so I'm not too concerned about needing to squeeze more out of a lower-end processor but I'm more worried about the motherboard being low end and not being able to handle a higher-end processor like 4790k IF she decides to upgrade it.

As for SLI, I'm not sure that'll be a possibility or even a thought for a while, and when it will be, something MUCH better will be out.

JackNaylorPE · Oct 20, 2015

Well not so much performance wise as what you can do down the road....

Say you get an H series MoBo and save $25 ... that means no overclocking in your future and no SLI.... those upgrades can extend your system life by 18-24 months. You already have the PSU to support it.

Getting a cheaper processor, say $160 means that when you want to upgrade, you throw $160 away to buy the $220 processor .... best you'll get is half if you can sell it. But still $16o - $80 + $220 = $300 plus two installs and buying thermal paste ($20) = $320 versus $230 today.

SLI / CF is, no question, provides the best bang for the buck as an upgrade up until the PC is 24 months old or more. Scaling is as high as 96%. When my son built his machine, some months back (b4 980 Ti came out), two 970s were cheaper than a 980 AND 50% faster. Yes in the future there will be choices with more performance but two 780s in SLI still beat a 980 Ti. A 2nd 780 will cost ya $225 - $250 ... versus $680 for the 980 Ti. So if ya have a 780, do you buy a 2nd for $250 .... or sell the 780 for $250 and spend $680 ? The option with higher performance costs $250; the one with lower performance $430.

chemp43 · Oct 22, 2015

As I said, the CPU and motherboard are going to be temporary, hopefully for 6-8 months MAX. And the person I am buying this for will have no use/need to run SLI for about another year or two, and by then the point of SLI a 970 will (hopefully) be obsolete than a single card solution. Not looking for anything too powerful but enough to support one 16x PCIe without bottlenecking the 970 too harshly.

I will look into the H series. Thank you!

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[SOLVED] Need CPU/Motherboard suggestions for under $300

chemp43

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JackNaylorPE

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chemp43

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JackNaylorPE

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chemp43

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