Advice Needed {i5 & 960GTX or i3 and 970GTX?}

morgan · 9 Dec 2015 at 22:37

Hi All

I'm in the process of researching hardware for a new mini itx build that I would use for a few games, Zwift (online bike training), maybe a bit of photoshop etc.

I already have a 450w corsair psu and a samsung ssd ready to go into it.

I've got a budget of ~£500 to buy the Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Graphics card and Case.

I'd like to use the coolermaster 130 elite mini itx case, Asus H81I-PLUS motherboard and I'd put in 8GB of RAM.

The two remaining pieces of the puzzle are CPU and graphics card.

the two configurations I was looking at are:

A) Intel Core i3-4170 3.70GHz + Nvidia 970 GTX 4GB Graphics

B) Intel Core i5 4460 3.20GHz + Nvidia 960 GTX 4GB Graphics.

Option B works out about £40 more expensive.

My questions are:

1) Which would be quicker (in most games) A or B?
2) Are there better combos of CPU & graphics out there, other than the two I have mentioned? I've heard good things about the Intel Pentium Dual Core G3258 3.2GHz anniversary edition, and I havent realy considered AMD CPUs and graphics...should I?

Sorry I've been out of the PC scene for a while, so any advice is really appreciated.

Many thanks

snips86x · 9 Dec 2015 at 22:50

Can you stretch at all and does it have to be ITX? Skylake i5 would be a better investment and is cheaper than the Haswell equivalent but there aren't any ITX boards.

Would you consider b-grade?

lsg1r · 10 Dec 2015 at 02:13

snips86x said:
Can you stretch at all and does it have to be ITX? Skylake i5 would be a better investment and is cheaper than the Haswell equivalent but there aren't any ITX boards.

Would you consider b-grade?

theres 2 itx 1151 boards.... one z170 by evga (£170) and 1 h110 by asus (£58)

David Bisset · 10 Dec 2015 at 08:17

of those two options I'd pick A as more games will be GPU-limited than CPU limited. If it were possible to stretch to a faster i5 and still get the level of graphics card in A then that'd be lovely of course but I don't think it'd be possible especially with that form factor :'(

I'll try and see if I can come up with anything.

In terms of AMD CPUs they're generally not in contention at higher budgets, though they can be a reasonable option on cheaper builds like yours especially if you're comfortable overclocking (as they're unlocked) but I'm not that familiar with their mobos etc so will leave any suggested options there to someone else.

On graphics cards - AMD are certainly worth considering, e.g. a 390 is similar to a 970 in performance at 1080p, then pulls ahead as resolution increases and has way more RAM making it generally be viewed as the more 'future-proof' option - personally I'm not a big fan of that phrase or what people use it to mean, though I'd pick the 390 over a 970 for it being better right now. It does however draw more power, which could be a concern with a 450W PSU especially without knowing specifically which corsair as their quality is quite variable. Perhaps sticking with the lower power-draw nVidia option is best here, simply due to you already having that PSU.

Edit: Tried to make a build with the i3-6320 but ran out of budget without quite being able to get the 970 in there - I have failed!

snips86x · 10 Dec 2015 at 08:21

lsg1r said:
theres 2 itx 1151 boards.... one z170 by evga (£170) and 1 h110 by asus (£58)

That's annoying as neither were showing in the filter :confused:

*Rich* · 10 Dec 2015 at 09:42

There's also a Gigabyte board that is ITX in the middle of those prices above, £110. Z170 too.

PooKer · 10 Dec 2015 at 09:50

Another option would be:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Case - Black= £39.95
1 x Asus H110I Plus D3 Intel H110 (Socket 1151) DDR3 ITX Motherboard= £57.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYED38G2133HC11ADC01)= £38.99
1 x *£20 CASHBACK* Asus GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU II OC Strix 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £259.99
1 x Arctic Freezer 11 Low Profile CPU Cooler= £11.99
1 x Intel Core i3-6100 3.70GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £95.99

Total: £504.86
(includes shipping: £0.00)

You can claim £20 cash back on the GPU so saving a little on that. So brings its under £500.

Bad parts: Its DDR3. That's the main reason I specced 2x4gb compared to 1x8gb with the idea to upgrade later. It'd cost around the same. OCUK don't have many coolers instock that are under 65mm for that case.

Personally I'd wait for the release of ASRock Intel H110M (DDR4) http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H110M-ITX/ .

It maybe worth looking at getting a pentium skylake then later on upgrading to i5 when the price is lower

morgan · 10 Dec 2015 at 12:29

Thanks all for taking the time to respond. I really appreciate the help and advice.
Pooker that ocuk setup looks great. I was planning on using the stock Intel cooler... Is this a bad idea?
Is the Skylake considered to be a real improvement over the Haswell?

Snips, yet I was hoping to stick with itx as it's for a small office. I just want something that can be small and kept out of the way.

PooKer · 10 Dec 2015 at 15:52

Stock coolers are okay if your not pushing it. But I tend to find they get louder quicker. The Artic will run cooler and quieter. It's something you can change later on if your not happy with the temps. I expect in an ITX build under a stress test you'll get 65-70c on the stock cooler.

If you decided to stick in an i5-6600k later on you'll want a better cpu cooler for overclocking

faceman123 · 10 Dec 2015 at 19:45

get i3, sell it and upgrade later