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[Entwood]

As its many years since I last built a system (this one is over 10 years old now but runs win 10 - just !!), and things/reputations/reliability changes like the wind, any views on the following components for an upgrade ..

Processor : 6th gen i5 6500 3.2 Ghz skt 1151 skylake

Cooler : Arctic UCACO-FI30001-GB I30 with 120mm Fan

Motherboard : Gigabyte GA-Z170-HDP3

Memory : 8 Mb Kingston HyperX-Fury DDR4 21300 2666Mhz Dual channel

I'll also be upgrading the hard drive to SSD

Kingston V300 Series 2.5" 240GB SATA 6Gb/s

Any opinions/observations gratefully accepted... I used to be able to component match almost in my sleep .. but those days are long gone now !!

[Gaffers]

I'll leave the HW advice to those better in the know but I would maybe choose a different motherboard make and add more RAM (but then I like crunching lots of hashes and algorithms  )

[Entwood]

Thanks for that .. take it you don't rate Gigabyte ?? Any views on Asus ?? They do a Z170 board with the right number of sockets for about the same price. 

RAM would be upgraded if needed ..

[Kevin Wood]

I'll leave the HW advice to those better in the know but I would maybe choose a different motherboard make and add more RAM (but then I like crunching lots of hashes and algorithms  )

Yeah, 8MB's a bit weeny for a cache these days, let alone anything else.

8GB would be more like it.

Looks reasonable to me, but then unless I've actually just built a machine, I don't keep up to date with the latest hardware. Life's too short.

[Kevin Wood]

Might be worth bearing in kind that RAM is a bit funny in that, unless any RAM you upgrade with is identical, it often won't play with what you have installed, so best to spec. it for what you'll need in the foreseeable. 8GB should be plenty for a home machine.

[Entwood]

Ta to both .. yup .. my stupidity .. its 8Gb ..

Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-21300 2666MHz Dual Channel (Skylake)

The only really heavy memory intensive stuff I do is the occasional bit of video rendering, and this one manages with 4 Gb - eventually - it was built with 2 Gb which was ok for most things but upgraded some while back.

My thought was 8 Gb plus the much faster processing and dual channel of the skylake, combined with the SSD and 64 bit OS would make quite a difference.......

Just need to decide which mobo really ... I've used Gigabyte a lot in the past .. this one is an Asus and has been very reliable .. so sort of undecided ...

[Broomies Mate]

Nothing wrong with the choices you have made, except maybe;

2x4GB Modules will upset you when you come to upgrade in the future - Opt for 2x 8GB sticks instead.  Your video rendering software will thank you for it.  It won't cost much more either.

Call me old fashioned, but unless going for a complete water cooled system, use the Intel cooler which comes with a retail boxed processor.

With respect of which M/B to choose, what chassis are you using, and what PSU do you have?

[Entwood]

Nothing wrong with the choices you have made, except maybe;

2x4GB Modules will upset you when you come to upgrade in the future - Opt for 2x 8GB sticks instead.  Your video rendering software will thank you for it.  It won't cost much more either.

Call me old fashioned, but unless going for a complete water cooled system, use the Intel cooler which comes with a retail boxed processor.

With respect of which M/B to choose, what chassis are you using, and what PSU do you have?

Thanks for the thoughts ..

Case is a corsair carbide 200r midi-tower, PSU is a 600w 80+ bronze modular ATX

Reason for the change of cooler is it appears the stock coolers from intel are noisy and don't seem that efficient .. according to t'internet research ... 

[Kevin Wood]

I've always just used the Intel bog standard coolers and not had any issues with them, TBH.

Unless they've taken a turn for the worse since I last built a PC (couple of years back) I'd say they are fine, but a cooler is not that expensive a component in the scheme of things.

[Broomies Mate]

I've always just used the Intel bog standard coolers and not had any issues with them, TBH.

Unless they've taken a turn for the worse since I last built a PC (couple of years back) I'd say they are fine, but a cooler is not that expensive a component in the scheme of things.

I also have never had issues with the Intel coolers, but I'm also in the same boat.... not played for a couple of years.

I agree that the cooler is an inexpensive component, unless it fails (or is rubbish) then it can be quite expensive! 

Again, times may have changed, but with the Retail Boxed CPU (complete with cooler), warranty claims (should anything go wrong) tended to be much easier.

[Mr Gav]

I would go with two sticks of 8Gb ram and have a look on the motherboard website to make sure its on the recommended list, you might have to enable XMP to get it running at 2666 Mhz.

I recently got a Asus motherboard and it`s fine, no issues so far unlike my MSI gpu  My last motherboard was a Gigabyte and that was fine also and I also thought there was better support forums for Gigabyte but I don't think you can go wrong either way.

Aftermarket coolers are more efficient than the intel ones so run at slower speeds and if you`re doing anything intensive your ears will thank you for it  I used a Noctua NF-S12 and is fairly quiet 

[Entwood]

Thanks for all the thoughts ...

Novatech have also chipped in .. in their view that cooler won't fit ... stands too high .. so we've gone for

Arctic DCACO-FP701-CSA01 Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 CPU Cooler with 92mm Fan,

chosen the Asus board,

ASUS Z170-P Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) ATX Motherboard ,

and taken the advice on the RAM,

Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-17000 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (Skylake)

All should arrive Monday ... then the fun begins !! 

[Mr Gav]

The advantage the Asus board has over the Gigabyte is the connections for the front panel, Asus provide nice little block connectors for all those fiddly little wires 

I used a modular psu so I didn`t have to tuck away the unused wires, you only need to plug in what you need.

Good luck, should be straight forward though