New system build advice - PSUs, RAM etc

[Feanor_]

With Sterling having dropped through the floor and a likely resulting surge in component prices, and with the free Windows 10 upgrade coming to an end, I want to build a new PC to replace my ancient Core2 Duo before things get more expensive. I want to keep the budget tight, but I don't want to go for false economy components that I'll want to replace in the near future. Current components are:

Skylake i5 6500 3.2Ghz
ASRock Z170 Extreme4 mobo
Corsair CMK16GX4M1B3000C15 Vengeance LPX 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4 3000 Mhz C15
EVGA SuperNova P2 650 W Platinum PSU

This system is initially for work and basic gaming; I'm unlikely to have time for gaming for the next 6 months at least (baby, moving house, busy job, lots of hobbies) so I'm thinking of either using the on-chip graphics initially and buying a decent graphics card next year, or buying a budget graphics card now to replace later. Also I'm excited about VR but want to wait until it matures; first gen hardware is always expensive and short lived.

Component suggestions appreciated but grateful if you could keep value for money in mind. Also all components need to be available from Amazon UK (not Marketplace).

Questions:

1, RAM - Is this overkill? At the moment I've gone for decent RAM that I can just add sticks to later, but I'm wondering whether I should just buy two 8GB sticks of the cheapest DDR4 RAM and replace them later when prices drop / performance changes. I don't plan on overclocking; I've built systems in the past with that intention and never ended up bothering.

2. PSU - Is this Skylake ready? What might render 650w insufficient? I believe some higher end graphics cards have their own power supplies these days, so surely 650w would be plenty? (I had hoped to use my old Enermax PSU on my Core2 Duo system but understand that's a bad idea.)

3. GPU - Any suggestions for a budget one that will handle some decent games? For the next year I'd probably mostly end up playing Total War games, if I get time to play at all. I'm not fussed about max graphics. My only gaming for the last couple of years has been done on my Macbook Pro 13"! But I've mostly given up with that.

4. Am I missing anything?

Any thoughts very welcome. Thanks in advance!

 

[Trafalgar747]

Your power supply is awesome, you might even want to consider getting something a little cheaper to have more cash for the graphics card. A Z170 board is not needed since you dont have a K unlockied processor such as the i5 6600k, so you can same some cash and get a H110M cheap motherboard for your i5 6500. The 3000Mhz ram is not really overkill, it very useful, however is would suggest to run it in dual channel, meaning 2x8 sticks instead of 1x16 you can also just get 2x4 GB 3000Mhz sticks, 16Gb isnt really needed. Also i recommend getting the graphics card now (you can save about $90 by getting 2x4 ram, cheaper mobo, and cheaper psu) if the graphics card is still out of your budget, i recommend getting an i3 6100, it gives alot of performance when paired with 3000Mhz memory and that will help you close the gap with the i5 6500. An i3 6100 is about $80 cheaper than the i5 6500 (price per performance is alot better with the i3) So you can save $170. An R9 380 would cost about $140 and withe the extra $30 you can still go for the Z170 motherboard which you can use the overclock the i3 6100(yes you can).

Sorry about the long and probably confusing post, if you have any questions just ask.

 

[Feanor_]

Thanks Trafalgar! Thanks to you I've ordered a far better system for the money than I otherwise would have. I checked the gaming benchmarks and you're right, the Skylake i3 is much better value than the i5 - it hadn't occurred to me that a dual core processor would come close to competing with a quad core one.

I've also gone for 8GB of RAM instead. Unfortunately Amazon UK only stock 2400Mhz 8Gb sticks; I read somewhere that 3000Mhz can make quite a difference with performance without even overclocking but I'm a bit confused about that to be honest, as I thought you had to overlock the FSB to benefit from faster memory. Maybe things have changed in the nine years since I last looked into this!

I've stuck with the same motherboard in the end as I believe you need the Z170 to benefit from faster RAM (without FSB overclocking?!) and it seems to provide more connectivity. I imagine it might also be faster but I'm not sure about that point.

I went for the R9 380; I wondered about saving £25 and going for the 370 but it seems like it might be a false economy as it seems quite a lot slower.

I also stayed with the same PSU. I wasn't sure about what cheaper alternatives might provide the same reliability so I thought I'd stick with this that, by all accounts, is rock solid. I'll be running several internal hard drives so some extra power is probably no bad thing.

 

[Trafalgar747]

Your welcome!