Skylake Build (Core Recommendations)

Laquer Head

Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
As the title says, my buddy has asked for help on a Skylake update for his PC and I would like some ideas/input from you folks. Hes a heavy gamer and already has suitable or up to date case, SSD, GPU, and Cooling solution.

Basically we want recommendations for:

MoBo: one with PCIE gen 3.0 x4 M.2 support..also Built in WiFi AC is awesome, but **(see below)
CPU: Must be Intel (Skylake)
RAM: DDR4 obviously but brand, speed etc we want recommendations on
PSU: capable for a single 980TI now, but ready for future considerations (possibly multiple GPUS)
WiFi: If mobo doesnt have built in AC **Best possible adapter for range and must be AC

Budget for the refresh is $1000.00 and must be in CAD$ (Newegg.ca etc)

Have at er folks... lets spend some $$
 
Okay, I'm seeing alot of poor reviews on various Z170 boards, can anyone recommend a board, at least? I hear a bunch of people rave about Gigabyte boards, but not sure why? Are they doing something better than Asus, MSI..etc?
 
All of the Gigabyte boards I've used have been really stable, so I tend to just recommended and use those now those in the past I used to use ASUS a lot and haven't had any problems with them. The Gigabyte boards tend to be well-priced and have a nice feature set too.

If he can go over a little bit, he can get this lot for $1,055 CAD. The Wireless AC adapters are quite expensive, but this D-Link one is cheaper and should be OK.

i7 6700K http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117559&_ga=1.110070917.1686756676.1451741607
Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128838&_ga=1.47628967.1686756676.1451741607
16GB RipJaws-V DDR4 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231888&_ga=1.47628967.1686756676.1451741607
Corsair CX750M http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139051&_ga=1.47628967.1686756676.1451741607
D-Link DWA-171 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127519&_ga=1.123055243.1686756676.1451741607

If he wants this to be under $1000 he'll need to either get an i5 6600K or get 8GB of RAM which will help save money, but for $55 over budget he should get the i7 and 16GB if he can afford it. ;)

What setup has he got now and what does he intend to do with his PC? Gaming? Editing?
 
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Hi

I have two PC's one 3.5 years old and 2nd is 15 days older. Both the PC's have Asus motherboard. I never experience any problem with them.
You can buy Asus motherboard.
 
spirit said:
If he wants this to be under $1000 he'll need to either get an i5 6600K or get 8GB of RAM which will help save money, but for $55 over budget he should get the i7 and 16GB if he can afford it. ;)

What setup has he got now and what does he intend to do with his PC? Gaming? Editing?
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Awesome starting point and advice..thanks man!!!

He was on an ASUS Z87 board..but hes either sold or otherwise got rid of most of those core pieces so going to skylake should be a decent refresh for him..yah?\

Yes, hes a big gamer, for sure. I know hes using a single 980TI currently.
 
Laquer Head said:
Awesome starting point and advice..thanks man!!!

He was on an ASUS Z87 board..but hes either sold or otherwise got rid of most of those core pieces so going to skylake should be a decent refresh for him..yah?\

Yes, hes a big gamer, for sure. I know hes using a single 980TI currently.
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If he's sold these essential parts (CPU, board, RAM etc) then yes he might as well buy Skylake components and get the latest. There's no point buying parts that are now 3 years old especially with DDR3 RAM being phased out and DDR4 being phased in. You know how it is with RAM: it gets more expensive and harder to find as it gets older.

Seems odd he got rid of that stuff and kept the 980 Ti and the other bits. Was he planning an upgrade?

If he had an i5 (4670K) before then I'd probably suggest he spends a bit more and gets the i7 6700K to notice a real difference. If he had an i7 (4770K) before then he won't notice too much difference at all between that and the 6700K but since he's sold his Z87 and Haswell stuff now his only option is to buy Skylake I think since there's nothing good on the AMD side at the moment and there hasn't been for a long time. If he had an i7 before I'd probably recommend he gets another so that there isn't chance of accidentally downgrading (I'm not sure if the i7 4770K is faster than the i5 6600K. It has 8 threads whereas the i5 only has 4 so it should be).
 
spirit said:
If he's sold these essential parts (CPU, board, RAM etc) then yes he might as well buy Skylake components and get the latest. There's no point buying parts that are now 3 years old especially with DDR3 RAM being phased out and DDR4 being phased in. You know how it is with RAM: it gets more expensive and harder to find as it gets older.

Seems odd he got rid of that stuff and kept the 980 Ti and the other bits. Was he planning an upgrade?

If he had an i5 (4670K) before then I'd probably suggest he spends a bit more and gets the i7 6700K to notice a real difference. If he had an i7 (4770K) before then he won't notice too much difference at all between that and the 6700K but since he's sold his Z87 and Haswell stuff now his only option is to buy Skylake I think since there's nothing good on the AMD side at the moment and there hasn't been for a long time. If he had an i7 before I'd probably recommend he gets another so that there isn't chance of accidentally downgrading (I'm not sure if the i7 4770K is faster than the i5 6600K. It has 8 threads whereas the i5 only has 4 so it should be).
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He sold his core stuff to another friend before he moved to China last year to teach English, hes back now and is using just his laptop, so thats the situation!

Thanks for your input, gives me a better idea on the new platform.
 
Laquer Head said:
He sold his core stuff to another friend before he moved to China last year to teach English, hes back now and is using just his laptop, so thats the situation!

Thanks for your input, gives me a better idea on the new platform.
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OK that's cool. :D

For $1,000 he can get nice stuff. I'd probably push for the i7 6700K. Sounds like he likes performance having owned Z87 previously! ;)

He could always get a slightly cheaper board with the 6700K and 16GB RAM to bring it closer to $1,000. The UD5 series have always been good boards though - great features at an acceptable price. My Z77X-UD5H is still going strong, 4 years on. :)
 
Is it just me or does it seems like alot of 1151 mobos have mediocre reviews..ASUS, MSi,..etc all have lots of either mediorce or poor comments regarding quality, missing parts,...etc..

Most of these are on Newegg mind you, but making me wonder why so many issues out there..or perhaps just seems that way??
 
Laquer Head said:
Is it just me or does it seems like alot of 1151 mobos have mediocre reviews..ASUS, MSi,..etc all have lots of either mediorce or poor comments regarding quality, missing parts,...etc..

Most of these are on Newegg mind you, but making me wonder why so many issues out there..or perhaps just seems that way??
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I tend not to really read too much into customer reviews. People will have different experiences. Maybe I've been lucky but every time I've bought an ASUS or Gigabyte board they've all worked flawlessly. I've used ASUS and Gigabyte boards from all generations since LGA 775 now and all have been fine.

I've never bought an MSI motherboard before, only ASUS and Gigabyte. I think it's hard to go wrong with either.
 
i7-5820K is not much expensive than i7-6700K and much better, offering 2 cores and 4 threads more. LGA2011-3 motherboards are more expensive and that is about only real downside. IMO i7-6700K is impossible to recommend because i7-5820K is so competitively priced.
 
H4rdR3s37 said:
i7-5820K is not much expensive than i7-6700K and much better, offering 2 cores and 4 threads more. LGA2011-3 motherboards are more expensive and that is about only real downside. IMO i7-6700K is impossible to recommend because i7-5820K is so competitively priced.
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I appreciate the input but we need to stick to a $1000 max budget. If it were just the CPU and a few bucks, but your proposal will most likely exceed what he wants/can do.

Thanks for the input though!

EDIT: $839.98 + tax & shipping for just the 5820K and the cheapest Gigabyte board I could find on Newegg... that will definitely break the budget.
 
Laquer Head said:
I appreciate the input but we need to stick to a $1000 max budget. If it were just the CPU and a few bucks, but your proposal will most likely exceed what he wants/can do.

Thanks for the input though!

EDIT: $839.98 + tax & shipping for just the 5820K and the cheapest Gigabyte board I could find on Newegg... that will definitely break the budget.
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That is only 61 dollars more than 6700K+GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-UD5. Definitely worth price difference. Also sound strange that someone has strict budget with GTX980 Ti. Sometimes little savings mean much worse parts.
 
H4rdR3s37 said:
That is only 61 dollars more than 6700K+GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-UD5. Definitely worth price difference. Also sound strange that someone has strict budget with GTX980 Ti. Sometimes little savings mean much worse parts.
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It's called being married with kids and having a job that requires a fair amount of travel, he, and myself, don't just have endless disposable income like some on this forum seem to have. Those days are gone! When I said a $1000 budget, I mean a $1000 budget, but I do thank you for your input.
 
Just on a side note, weren't there alot of issues with the 5th gens? and x99? I feel like there were some discussions regarding problems with the platform?
 
Laquer Head said:
It's called being married with kids and having a job that requires a fair amount of travel, he, and myself, don't just have endless disposable income like some on this forum seem to have. Those days are gone! When I said a $1000 budget, I mean a $1000 budget, but I do thank you for your input.
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Yeah right.

- Have money for buy 980Ti.
- Plans to buy another 980Ti.
- Plans to invest on PSU that can handle multiple GPU's.
- Must have M.2 socket for expensive SSD.
- Does not have 61 dollars to buy much better and future proof CPU+motherboard combo.

Not sure if...
 
K, now your just being annoying, I dont feel like arguing. I asked for help within a budget, you failed to do so..please go away now. Thanks
 
H4rdR3s37 said:
That is only 61 dollars more than 6700K+GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-UD5. Definitely worth price difference. Also sound strange that someone has strict budget with GTX980 Ti. Sometimes little savings mean much worse parts.
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To be fair there are cheaper Z170 boards you could buy whereas Laquer Head said that even with the cheapest board the 5820K setup was over $800 CAD (put it this way: 80% of the budget and he wanted a PSU and a Wi-Fi AC dongle in there, those dongles aren't cheap like regular Wi-Fi dongles!), not including any RAM. I don't even know if two sticks of RAM will work with those quad-channel boards or if you need to have at least four. If you need at least four then you've got to get 32GB unless you can get four 4GB DDR4 sticks. The UD5 is a relatively expensive board as far as Z170 boards go at $240 CAD. You can get Z170 boards from as little as $145 CAD (most are around $160-200 CAD) and they will be decent boards too, so take that into account too. You can actually go even cheaper than $145 CAD if you look at the B and H chipsets, the choice of boards is far more varied so the opportunities for cost saving is greater. The two platforms are for different budgets.

Actually @Laquer Head if this must be $1000 or under then just get a board that's $50 cheaper than the UD5 and keep the rest. Something like this Gigabyte G1 Z170X Gaming 3 for $195 would be ideal: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...28837&cm_re=z170_board-_-13-128-837-_-Product latest generation i7, 16GB DDR4 RAM, a good board, a good PSU and a Wireless AC adapter for $1000 or so all in, perfect. Job done! :D
 
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