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Getting my refund in several days hopefully, and would like to use it to buy a motherboard, cpu, DDR4 memory upgrade to my 9 year old PC. I'm thinking skylake i5-6600 (non-k) and Z170 motherboard.

Any reasons to go Z170? I do not plan to over clock. I just want m.2 pciex4, usb 3.1 and usual other things on motherboard. Getting even just a 128GB m.2 x4 stick would probably blow my mind. (still on sata2)
Motherboard I am thinking about

Last I heard the posting of System Builder Guides have slowed due to the slow pace of improvements in the hardware space. Last person that asked was referred to the most recent guide posted.
Edit: If your needs, and wants can be meet with the H170 in place of the Z170 I say got for it, no point in buying a Z170 mobo if your not going to take advantage of overclocking unless there is a feature only offered by going with the Z170.

You could go with an H170 based board instead.

This board has the H170, and fulfills the requirements you listed but if you only plan on using the integrated GPU on the CPU I see no Displayport in I/O area. With the current prices for the H170 similar to the Z170 might as well go with a Z170 mobo.
GIGABYTE GA-H170-D3HP $109.99

I used my moderator powers to move this thread to the System Builders Anonymous forum.

In another thread, I wrote:

For your motherboard, how about the $101½ ASRock Z170M Extreme4, $128 Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 or $210 Asus Maximus VIII Gene? These micro-ATX motherboards have all of the features that you would want, including M.2 for future fast SSDs and USB3.1 type C for future external devices. Most of us won't fill up all four of the PCIe slots offered by micro-ATX.

If you have a need for the six or seven slots offered by ATX, consider a $118 Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 3, $133 MSI Z170A SLI Plus, $135 ASRock Z170 Extreme4 or $155 Asus Z170 Pro Gaming. All of those Z170 motherboards support overclocking with a "K" processor. If you will never overclock and you still need to install six PCIe cards, then the $115 Asus H170 Pro Gaming offers a full set of features with the H170 chipset.

Thanks for all the help, I'm trying to go current gen but would like to stay as frugal as possible. After all I plan on having this PC another 9 years probably. Any gotcha's I am missing?

Motherboard: GIGABYTE G1 Gaming GA-H170-Gaming 3 (rev. 1.0) (rev 1.0??? that sounds scary)

Processor: Intel Core i5-6500 6M

Memory: G.SKILL Aegis 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200)

$348.97 after $10 instant savings on processor

PS> I do have a discrete graphics card: Radeon HD7850 2GB (yeah, a little long in the tooth but hopefully upgrading the underlying system will help a bit)

After 9 years of use I will advise that you should replace the PSU as well.

I'm inclined to agree. Nice 80-Plus Bronze PSUs aren't that expensive and I can attest to how quiet that Seasonic is in particular. It's great.

We have a new version of the System Guide in the works, but I'll state for the record that all of the recommendations from our last Guide are equally valid today.

As for the parts you just posted, you can't use DDR4-2400 RAM with an H170 motherboard. DDR4-2133 or bust.

OH, over the course of the 9 years I've already replaced the PSU a couple times, hehe.

Jeff Kampman wrote:

...

As for the parts you just posted, you can't use DDR4-2400 RAM with an H170 motherboard. DDR4-2133 or bust.

oooo thanks for that, that truly IS a gotcha.

Is there any TANGIBLE speed/experience diference between H170 and Z170 other than the ability to OC? The revelation that I can only use the slowest of DDR4 RAM makes me think yes? But would I notice that?

Shinare wrote:

Is there any TANGIBLE speed/experience diference between H170 and Z170 other than the ability to OC? The revelation that I can only use the slowest of DDR4 RAM makes me think yes? But would I notice that?

Doubtful you would notice any difference between DDR4 running at 2133 or 2400, although there is a nice bump in performance for some games with the higher clocked DDR4.

Given you're not going to OC, the primary consideration is how important Intel USB 3.1 + Thunderbolt 3 functionality are to you. If I were building with an expected lifespan of several years and wanted to future-proof as much as possible, Thunderbolt 3 would be something I'd seriously consider, though it more than doubles your board cost in this case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128835

(Full disclosure: I work for a manufacturer of Thunderbolt 3 peripherals, but the opinions here are my own and not any sort of platform evangelism.)

I'll be pulling the trigger on a Skylake build soon and I'm getting DDR4 not because of speed, but because the DIMMs will be resellable in the future.

Same way that if I don't sell my current DDR3 now, I won't get anything for it later.

I have a feeling that you will be happy as all hell with the components you want to get. If I were to build myself a new system right now I think I would use that same motherboard.

The motherboards that I suggested all have USB 3.1 type C.

Jeff Kampman wrote:

We have a new version of the System Guide in the works, but I'll state for the record that all of the recommendations from our last Guide are equally valid today.

As for the parts you just posted, you can't use DDR4-2400 RAM with an H170 motherboard. DDR4-2133 or bust.

Good catch. Not to crap on OP but I would have thought something like https://pcpartpicker.com/ would be more pervasive on a tech site like this. I get that the build guides have ties to NewEgg as a referrer for some TR revenue, and that likely PCPP is a competitor to the guides here, but it is a great tool for checking conflicts and quickly swapping choices in and out. It also can find ideal pricing for bundles, discounts, etc. It'll let you set a default storefront such as NewEgg.

I still look forward to every new System Builder's guide out there, but this tool trounces all. In an ideal world, you could change the referral links in the query strings from PCPP, but they have a site to run and this is likely their only source of revenue generation.

edit: After a click glance, PCPP are some good people. They use their revenue to run the site, but also to fund causes like potable water in Bangladesh. https://pcpartpicker.com/blog/ Cool stuff, I really like seeing things like this.

Jeff Kampman wrote:

As for the parts you just posted, you can't use DDR4-2400 RAM with an H170 motherboard. DDR4-2133 or bust.

I have some DDR4-2400 in a GA-H170N-WIFI. I assume you mean it won't be running at the rated speed not that it is totally unusable.

PixelArmy wrote:

Jeff Kampman wrote:

As for the parts you just posted, you can't use DDR4-2400 RAM with an H170 motherboard. DDR4-2133 or bust.

I have some DDR4-2400 in a GA-H170N-WIFI. I assume you mean it won't be running at the rated speed not that it is totally unusable.

Yes, instead of 2400 MHz it's running at 2133 MHz per Intel's Specifications for the Integrated Memory Controller, and if you check up on it you'll likely find it running at slight tighter timings. The SPD ROM on a stick of RAM is programmed with separate clock/timing profiles working from high to low clock speed steps.

Edit: I've in the past altered/re-programmed the SPD ROM myself for overclocking purposes (DDR/DDR2 haven't bothered since the move to DDR3.)

biffzinker wrote:

Yes, instead of 2400 MHz it's running at 2133 MHz per Intel's Specifications for the Integrated Memory Controller, and if you check up on it you'll likely find it running at slight tighter timings.

I was just questioning the phrasing ("can't use", "or bust") that makes it sound like DDR4-2400 will not run in an H170 at all.

steelcity_ballin wrote:

Jeff Kampman wrote:

We have a new version of the System Guide in the works, but I'll state for the record that all of the recommendations from our last Guide are equally valid today.

As for the parts you just posted, you can't use DDR4-2400 RAM with an H170 motherboard. DDR4-2133 or bust.

Good catch. Not to crap on OP but I would have thought something like https://pcpartpicker.com/ would be more pervasive on a tech site like this. I get that the build guides have ties to NewEgg as a referrer for some TR revenue, and that likely PCPP is a competitor to the guides here, but it is a great tool for checking conflicts and quickly swapping choices in and out. It also can find ideal pricing for bundles, discounts, etc. It'll let you set a default storefront such as NewEgg.

I still look forward to every new System Builder's guide out there, but this tool trounces all. In an ideal world, you could change the referral links in the query strings from PCPP, but they have a site to run and this is likely their only source of revenue generation.

edit: After a click glance, PCPP are some good people. They use their revenue to run the site, but also to fund causes like potable water in Bangladesh. https://pcpartpicker.com/blog/ Cool stuff, I really like seeing things like this.

Anybody tried this out yet? Potential replacement for PC Part Picker?
PC Hound

biffzinker wrote:

Anybody tried this out yet? Potential replacement for PC Part Picker?
PC Hound

They have a plug in that compares prices from a few different vendors when you're browsing Newegg, I have been using that for a while. This is from HardForum, but I wasn't aware it had blossomed into a full site until you posted this link, thanks for sharing.

MDBT wrote:

biffzinker wrote:

Anybody tried this out yet? Potential replacement for PC Part Picker?
PC Hound

They have a plug in that compares prices from a few different vendors when you're browsing Newegg, I have been using that for a while. This is from HardForum, but I wasn't aware it had blossomed into a full site until you posted this link, thanks for sharing.

Ryan Shrout at PC Perspective left a comment to their VR System Build Guide Spring 2016: High End at $2500, that's were I heard about the site.

March 25, 2016 | 11:11 AM - Posted by Ryan Shrout
Yup, love those guys. PC Hound is a new on the scene too: https://pchound.com/

I'm going to go with the three components I linked above. The missing USB 3.1 from the motherboard I don't think is much of an issue. If I ever need it in the future I guess I could always buy an add-in board for it but of all my "requirements" (things I think might be nice to have), that is the least of my considerations.

Now I'm just down to waiting on Uncle Sam to make the deposit.

Edit: Although This gigabyte motherboard does have usb3.1 AND doesn't have the scary "rev 1.0" moniker attached to it.

Shinare wrote:

I'm going to go with the three components I linked above. The missing USB 3.1 from the motherboard I don't think is much of an issue. If I ever need it in the future I guess I could always buy an add-in board for it but of all my "requirements" (things I think might be nice to have), that is the least of my considerations.

Now I'm just down to waiting on Uncle Sam to make the deposit.

Edit: Although This gigabyte motherboard does have usb3.1 AND doesn't have the scary "rev 1.0" moniker attached to it.

I suggested that board earlier seemed like worthy option, and it netted you everything you wanted.

You shouldn't be scared by the Rev 1.0 stuff. It's just there in case they change something on the board that causes it to need a different BIOS down the line. Actually very nice that they state it so clearly. There may never even be a Rev 1.1 or anything. I've had various Gigabyte Rev 1.0 and 1.1 boards and they've all worked fine.

Posting this more for my own future benefit but it looks like newegg is adding/changing inventory all the time. I've missed out on the instant rebate offer on the processor, but they now have cheaper RAM. I've decided to go with:

Motherboard: The excellent suggestion by biffzinker
----------(However, this gigabyte board is Z170 and only $109 after rebate)
Processor: The Skylake i5-6500
Memory: Cheapest available DDR4 16gig kit.

Was hopeing to stay around the $300 mark but it really wasn't possible. Still. $360-ish aint bad I guess.
Sometime in the future I will be getting an M.2 pciex4 (socket 3) SSD to plop onto the motherboard when I can find one on the cheap. Still waiting on the deposit from Uncle Sam... ... ...

Shinare wrote:

Posting this more for my own future benefit but it looks like newegg is adding/changing inventory all the time. I've missed out on the instant rebate offer on the processor, but they now have cheaper RAM. I've decided to go with:

Motherboard: The excellent suggestion by biffzinker
----------(However, this gigabyte board is Z170 and only $109 after rebate)
Processor: The Skylake i5-6500
Memory: Cheapest available DDR4 16gig kit.

Was hopeing to stay around the $300 mark but it really wasn't possible. Still. $360-ish aint bad I guess.
Sometime in the future I will be getting an M.2 pciex4 (socket 3) SSD to plop onto the motherboard when I can find one on the cheap. Still waiting on the deposit from Uncle Sam... ... ...

Get the Z170 board instead of the H170 with pricing the same or similar who knows even with the 6500 multiplier locked maybe you could get a small clock speed bump on the 6500 assuming no PCIe controllers mind the bus running a smudge over spec. I was running in the past a Xeon E3 V2 1240 on a Z77 MSI board with the base clock at 107 MHz without any instability issues. Xeon went from running 3.4 GHz to 3.638 GHz for Base clock with Turbo running from 3.6 GHz to 3.852 GHz I'll take something over nothing.

$102 ASRock Z170M Extreme4


TR's System Guide does not appear to have fully recovered from Cyril's departure a year ago.