Is My Build Compatable? Please help me!

Solution
The build is compatible - PCPP includes a compatibility check. You shouldn't have any issues there.
Any motherboard shipped today should have the BIOS revision to allow use of the CPU.

As far as whether it's the best use of the money, that's a different question altogether.

What are you planning to use the build for?

A few points:

1. Your CPU is on a 'dead' socket, so upgrading will be somewhere between pointless and marginal improvement.
2. 16GB is generally overkill for most people. Unless your rendering/editing or a couple of other tasks (at which point you shouldn't be looking at an AMD chip) you'll never use it.
3. The PSU is Tier 3 http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html and really not the best...

danonymoosecat

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Hi. Your build looks compatible. As the PCPartPicker notes say though, you might need to do a bios update on the Motherboard in order to use that CPU. A couple of things could actually be changed too. The PSU for starters: Whilst 500w will be enough for that system, it doesn't leave much room for expansion. I'd recommend at least 600w. And is a DVD drive an absolute necessity? I saw that you added a copy of Windows 7 to your basket. If that's what the DVD drive is for, remove it. You can download an ISO image of Win 7 and boot from a USB drive instead. Also, Windows can be bought a lot cheaper than that if you know where to look. You could put any money you saved from those two items towards a better PSU or even an SSD :)
 

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
The build is compatible - PCPP includes a compatibility check. You shouldn't have any issues there.
Any motherboard shipped today should have the BIOS revision to allow use of the CPU.

As far as whether it's the best use of the money, that's a different question altogether.

What are you planning to use the build for?

A few points:

1. Your CPU is on a 'dead' socket, so upgrading will be somewhere between pointless and marginal improvement.
2. 16GB is generally overkill for most people. Unless your rendering/editing or a couple of other tasks (at which point you shouldn't be looking at an AMD chip) you'll never use it.
3. The PSU is Tier 3 http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html and really not the best.
Tier 1 or 2 would be ideal
 
Solution

Lazy Ga

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How would I update it and what site for windows? Thanks for the help :)

 

Barty1884

Retired Moderator


The BIOS revision should be included already, if it's not you do need a compatible chip in order to update (or a store may do it for you).

As far as any questionable site for Windows, I would tread carefully there. 75quid or so is the going rate for authentic Windows. Anything cheaper may work, but you'd have to question it's legality.....and you may find you have issues when you try to activate it. Not saying don't (as that's 100% your call, but just tread carefully).

Also, I don't recommend danonymoosecat actually links anywhere "of questionable means" directly here on the forum.

As an FYI, I feel this would be a much better use of your around 650quid budget.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£139.98 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: MSI Z170A PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£71.39 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£40.65 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£32.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£234.98 @ Aria PC)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 Window ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.59 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.99 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (£72.30 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £683.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-06 17:29 GMT+0000

An SSD would be nice, but you can always add it later.
 

Lazy Ga

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Gaming and haven't got too good of a budget
 

Lazy Ga

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Thanks for the info, I see where your coming from however I was going for that CPU as it is great value for money?
 

Barty1884

Retired Moderator


The i5 / 8GB / GTX 970 build I posted above at 680 or so would be much better than the FX build.

You could even go with an i3 to save some money there too. An i3 with HT will perform pretty well for most games (few games can actually utilize multiple cores).

The i5 is great value for money. It's the perfect 'tier' to be in for gaming. An i3 would suffice in 99% of games, but you may find the odd game that it won't perform as well. Depending how long you want to keep this setup, If you want to keep for a few years then the i3 might start to fall behind. An i7 would be a waste of money for your needs, so the i5 range is perfect. Although an i3 would be fine, the price difference isn't huge.

Here's the same build, with an i3 in place of the i5
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£95.99 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: MSI Z170A PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£71.39 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£40.65 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£32.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£234.98 @ Aria PC)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 Window ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.59 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.99 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (£72.30 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £639.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-06 17:42 GMT+0000
 

Lazy Ga

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How would ARK CSGO Battlefield or Tom Clancy R6
 

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Comparing minimum requirements gives you a good idea:
ARK: Survival - Core 2 Duo / GT 730 / 4GB
CS:GO - Pentium dual core / GT 630 / 2GB
Battlefield 4 - Core 2 Duo / 8800 GT / 4GB

Really, you should be able to expect to max (or d*mn close to maxing) settings on those games comfortably with the i3.
The i5 would be the better option, as you could 100% max out settings, the i3 you may have to make a couple of concessions along the way (not huge concessions, but none the less).
 

Lazy Ga

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At 60 fps????

 

Barty1884

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So, your question from the other thread: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2927978/build-compatable.html#17270594



You want a 'Z' board to OC your Skylake chip. If you're not interested in OCing, I'd go with the i5-6400 I posted further up this thread.

'K' CPUs also need an aftermarket cooler (they stopped coming with stock with Skylake).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£139.98 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: MSI Z170A PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£86.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£40.64 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£32.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£234.98 @ Aria PC)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 Window ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.59 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.99 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (£72.30 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £699.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-06 19:33 GMT+0000

The PSU I listed is also fully-modular, which will help with cable management.
 

Lazy Ga

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what do you think of my new build????
 

Barty1884

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It's ok....I've already commented on it? The 'k' CPU is more money, required a Z board (really, you should have a Z board for Skylake regardless), needs an aftermarket cooler (as it doesn't come with a stock cooler).

You've also picked up a board that supports a Skylake CPU, but also DDR3. One of the benefits of Skylake is DDR4 and the faster speeds. You'd also need <1.5V RAM, which gets somewhat expensive by comparison.

You've gone with a non-Modular PSU in your latest build, which you'll regret when you have to find a home for all those extra cables when putting it together.

Considering you already said you didn't have much of a budget, I think a decent cooler and the added cost of the K CPU would increase the price too much. You'd be better off investing in an SSD to compliment your build.
 

Lazy Ga

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