From all the benchmarks I've looked at, it should be an awesome improvement. And with a very nice upgrade path too Also, great idea with the SSDs. Originally when I was looking through NewEgg combos, I considered adding an SSD to the mix, but budget restraints kept it at bay. I have a 120gb one in my PC, though I mainly just put my Steam Games and recordings on there... for now @Fractalite - I did look at a few other Mobos, and I think there is a chance I didn't make the right choice... the average reviews were at 3/5 Eggs or so... regardless I can RMA them if anything is wrong Plus the Mobo I ordered has the cool plastic cover thing over the ports that face out the back of the PC, which may have blinded me to any downsides Regardless they should be arriving today (NewEgg has a warehouse literally an hour from where I live) and hopefully all goes well Oh, and true about the RAM. Until I upgrade my GPU, the RAM should be just fine I think.
I've not got any direct experience with the Asrock motherboard you've picked, but I thought they were generally considered a fairly solid budget choice. Pay heed to user reviews though of course. Personally, I always buy mid-range ASUS boards due to their solid reliability. The only one I ever RMA'd was due to a BIOS Flash fail. Not my fault, I used all the correct tools along with the correct BIOS directly from ASUS, however it still bricked the board. Return was quibble-free though and I got a newer edition mobo to boot, as mine had been discontinued in the mean time I did buy an MSI board once, but that thing was unstable when I got it, was terrible at overclocking, and different parts failed over the four weeks I had it. Network died, sound died, one of the SATA controller died, BIOS stopped showing certain key options etc. Returned that, buying an ASUS to replace it. My current gaming PC actually has a Gigabyte Motherboard in it, but that was a second-hand purchase from a mate. Well, actually he gave it to me, along with a 2600k and GTX 680, but after I built such a good together around it, I felt obliged to give him some money...we both thought the hardware was toast initially (major Water Cooling leak over ALL of it lol) but I got it all running well again. Couple of years later, still going strong, but with a GTX 1070 replacing the 680 Best of luck with the build Slam, I expect the mobo will be just fine, though you're right in that if not it's a simple RMA Scoob.
I love that new computer component box in the mail feel... I know the box designs can be a little ostentatious, but, every once in a while in my liberal, tree hugging, socialist loving, and progressive life; I kinda like that kind of thing. On a side note, I am very curious about how it runs.... well, everything. My bet is that it will startle you, but do post here with updates as you discover things.
Interestingly, after I read this I went through my Order History to see what sort of Mobos are currently installed on mine and my roommates PC. His is an ASUS and (oddly) the LAN port never worked from that start (had it going on wireless before I realized the port was wonky). My own is an MSI and has worked flawlessly to this point. Seems to be a mixed bag no matter which brand you go with by that indication Hopefully this should be one of the smoother "operations" I've done. The worst part for me is usually getting the CPU fan properly secured, but then again maybe that's just AMDs coolers that are difficult in that way. Hehe, indeed, I end up saving a lot of the boxes not only to store spare (or old) parts in, but because a lot of them are actually very nice looking. I've got at least 1 Mobo box, a PSU box, and I think maybe another random Mobo box. I really like that flat (matte) black ones, like the Rosewill PSU box I have. Just looks very cool imo (well... for a box at least ). I am expecting to be at least a little startled... I've been team AMD so long that I may even still be underestimating Intel.
I remember, years ago, myself and a mate thought our AMD Athlon X2's (mine a 4200 his a 4800) were the absolute best thing. This was at a time AMD had dominated the CPU market for enthusiast gamers like myself for some time. Of course, little did we realise that the beast (Intel) had been woken from its slumber, bringing us the core Core2 CPU's. On a whim one day, while still perfectly happy with my Athlon X2, I ordered a complete new system based around the then brand new Q6600 CPU, to see what these new-fangled Core 2's were all about. Building it myself (so lots of boxes) I also got the 8800GT GPU and a few other bits. Assembling this system and getting windows on it I remember being UTTERLY blown-away by it over my Athlon X2. Considering most stuff didn't take advantage of multiple CPU Cores then, and Windows XP's scheduler was dire when it came to threading, the fact it still owned everything was pretty impressive. I recall, day two of owning it, I took my steps into Intel overclocking. Remember, back then my Athlon X2 was a "good" overclocker, so getting it from the base 2.2ghz to a staggering 2.5-2.6ghz was considered pretty good. My first attempt at overclocking the Q6600? 2.4ghz base up to 3.6ghz OC'd perfectly stable - a FIFTY Percent overclock. Sure the Core2Duos could do a little better if you had a good one ,but this was a quad core! I told my mate how good it was, and how our "epic" overclock Athlon X2's were basically junk, and he didn't quite believe me. Months later, I took my PC down to actually show him... and ended up helping him spec up an all-new PC that day, based around the just-released Q6700 That little Q6600 sat at 3.6 ghz for five years, never missing a beat. Years later, that same system, though put back to stock speeds, is the very machine I'm typing this message on now Scoob.
I've found the Intel coolers to be fairly straight-forward. I currently use, on this largely second-hand build, an only Antec Kuhler 620 closed loop water cooler for the CPU. It's one of the more tricky to fit, requiring a "loose" fitment of the bracket, before popping the block in, rotating it in place with one hand, while holding the securing mechanism with another, and tightening the screws with the third...but that's still easier than some of my AMD coolers! I've also fitted proper water blocks without issue. As long as the motherboard tray in the Case has a nice large cut-out, you'll not have issues. Scoob.
@Slam Jones you have me thinking about the i3 again... I think I might check out some cyber Monday deals to see if anything jumps out at me. Then, just for the fun of it, I might try something along some crossfired 480's or 470's. I know that the combined price is about a Nvidia 1070, so we shall see if I do it... but the SLI experiment went wonderfully well for me, and I have wanted to try crossfire.
From all the benchmarks I've seen (and the various folks I've asked), the i3 is a very solid little CPU. I was hoping it was going to arrive on Wednesday, but as we speak I'm sitting in my office waiting for the NewEgg truck to roll up Very stoked that I'll be able to have another graph point on my personal benchmarks A 480 looks like a pretty solid GPU, definitely. I've heard more discussion of the GTX 10X0 series, but that seems typical anyway. I'll be looking into getting a new GPU next year, so I'm quite curious what you'll end up with, as it'll almost certainly affect my choice I've never done crossfire myself, so I can't really comment on that too much.
Hmmmmmm.... well, Newegg has posted their cyber Monday deals and like they always do, they mix it with all their other popular items so it is tricky to discern the best prices/items. From what I can tell, to revive my desktop, I would need something like this: Asus Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132575 - $114.99 Hyper 212 EVo cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099 - 29.99 120 GB SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820173150 - 39.99 6 x Cooler master jetflo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6J32ZR8066 110.94 XFX 480: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150774 - 229.99 Windows 10 Home 64: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416892 - 99.99 Noctua Thermal compound: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9PV3Y62007 - 6.13 I-3 6300: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117622 - 149.99 Comes to $782.01 and that is before shipping. Granted this is not as "budget" as I could push it, but this is pretty close while still being able to deliver epic performance. Not sure if that is worth it.... I was hoping for some impossible deals. I will keep looking.
While the sales can make many things more attractive, especially if you need something now, personally I'd be waiting a little while yet. With the new 7*** i3's (well, certain models at least) it looks like Intel are embracing overclocking once more, effectively giving us an i3 k-series multiplier unlocked. With just two physical cores (four threads of course) it's expected that these will overclock very well indeed, needing far less power than their quad core counterparts. Depends on binning of course as always, but one would hope a CPU sold as an unlocked overclocking CPU would be one of the better binned parts. Obviously you'd need to pair it with a higher-end motherboard (z270) and maybe a nice AIO CPU cooler, but it's all part of the fun When I built my friends i3 2120 system, the new parts were all "budget" items, so the Case (Fractal Core 2300), SSD's (Kingston SSD-now V300 120gb) the GPU (GTX950) and the Ram (2x 4gb DDR3 1600 Vengeance) So, cheaper end of the scale parts, but still al very good. Second hand was the Motherboard, CPU and cooler, saving a chunk off the cost. Of course I built it all for free, cos I'm nice like that lol. Myself, while my old 2600k + 1070 combo is still working very well, I still plan to spec up a 7700k based system - though whether I click "buy" at the end of it is subject to anything challenging my current build lol. Scoob.
