Do I go with Skylake or save money?

[pblive]

I'm really undecided. I've asked around a lot and get different opinions from everyone (but that's opinions for you).

My PC is really long in the tooth, it's an A8 5500 so you can see why I need to start from scratch. I've been toying with the idea of buying a new PC for about a year and since Skylake came out I've now got an extra issue to deal with.

I basically want a PC that will last but won't cost me the earth at the same time. I want something that will still play the most recent games in a couple of years time, though. So I'm caught between getting a 4th gen i5 or a Skylake i5, which would be almost £200 more based on the PC Specialist quotes. I have a budget of £850 max but really don't want to spend it all.

I'd saved up £250 in Amazon vouchers initially to get a PC from there, but I don't really trust the various sellers (no names mentioned). I 'could' get the graphics card separately and just get a basic PC setup here, but I like getting everything from one place.

Currently thinking of this as the cheapest option for a mostly 1080p/60fps (I have a spare Windows 7 I can use)
PC:Case
InWIN GT1 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4460 (3.2GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z97P-D3: ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 - DVI, HDMI, mDP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
60cm Red LED Strip - To Compliment The Colours of Your Case
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
DVD Recovery Media
NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days

So, thoughts, suggestions?

 

[ihavenoideawhatiamdoing]

Go with 4th gen as the benefits aren't worth it and as for the gpu that's up to you.

 

[Fear]

Best to get the WD Black HDD as it is a much better drive.

~Case
InWIN GT1 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4460 (3.2GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z97-PRO GAMER: ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6GB/S, SLi, XFIRE
Memory (RAM)
16GB Kingston DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 - DVI, HDMI, mDP - 3D Vision Ready
Free Item
FREE RAINBOW SIX OR ASSASSINS CREED with select GTX 9 Series GPUs!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
1TB WD BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1[SUP]st[/SUP] DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£69)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £845.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-haswell-pc/pUdE_dyK48/

 

[pblive]

Best to get the WD Black HDD as it is a much better drive.

~Case
InWIN GT1 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4460 (3.2GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z97-PRO GAMER: ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6GB/S, SLi, XFIRE
Memory (RAM)
16GB Kingston DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 - DVI, HDMI, mDP - 3D Vision Ready
Free Item
FREE RAINBOW SIX OR ASSASSINS CREED with select GTX 9 Series GPUs!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
1TB WD BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1[SUP]st[/SUP] DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£69)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £845.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-haswell-pc/pUdE_dyK48/

Thanks. Slightly worried about using a Corsair PSU, mind you. Other than the top end ones, I've heard bad things about the the CX and CS ones.

 

[pblive]

Gaming PC without the graphics card

So I'm going to pop in a GTX 970 to this PC (hopefully it's easy enough, I've never installed a card with more than one power connector before). Do you think this looks ok for a sub £750 build?

Case
InWIN GT1 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-6600K (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z170-HD3P: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st Hard Disk
120GB HyperX SAVAGE SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 560MB/sR | 360MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
1x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
LED Lighting
60cm Red LED Strip - To Compliment The Colours of Your Case
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.0 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
DVD Recovery Media
NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
FAST TRACK 5 WORKING DAY DISPATCH
Quantity
£741
1

 

[GeorgeHillier]

This would be more suited, it has a larger SSD and better HDD:

Case CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 200R COMPACT GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-6600 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® Z170-P: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM) 16GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
2nd Graphics Card NONE
3rd Graphics Card NONE
1st Hard Disk 250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 1TB WD BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
3rd Hard Disk NONE
4th Hard Disk NONE
M.2 SSD Drive NONE
1st PCI-E SSD Drive NONE
2nd PCI-E SSD Drive NONE
RAID NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader NONE
Power Supply CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling INTEL STANDARD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Fan Controller NONE
Extra Case Fans NONE
LED Lighting NONE
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Router/HomePlugs NONE
USB Options MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Firewire NONE
TV Card NONE
Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor NONE
2nd Monitor NONE
3rd Monitor NONE
4th Monitor NONE
Monitor Cables NONE
Eyefinity Adapter / GeForce 3D Vision NONE
Keyboard & Mouse NONE
Mouse NONE
Game Streaming NONE
Gaming Mouse Pad NONE
Games Controller NONE
Speakers NONE
Webcam NONE
Headsets NONE
Surge Protection NONE
Cable Tidy NONE
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Home Installation NONE
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Pricing Information
Price (excluding VAT) £625.00
Price £750.00

 

[pblive]

This would be more suited, it has a larger SSD and better HDD:

Case CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 200R COMPACT GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-6600 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® Z170-P: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM) 16GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
2nd Graphics Card NONE
3rd Graphics Card NONE
1st Hard Disk 250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 1TB WD BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
3rd Hard Disk NONE
4th Hard Disk NONE
M.2 SSD Drive NONE
1st PCI-E SSD Drive NONE
2nd PCI-E SSD Drive NONE
RAID NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader NONE
Power Supply CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling INTEL STANDARD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Fan Controller NONE
Extra Case Fans NONE
LED Lighting NONE
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Router/HomePlugs NONE
USB Options MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Firewire NONE
TV Card NONE
Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor NONE
2nd Monitor NONE
3rd Monitor NONE
4th Monitor NONE
Monitor Cables NONE
Eyefinity Adapter / GeForce 3D Vision NONE
Keyboard & Mouse NONE
Mouse NONE
Game Streaming NONE
Gaming Mouse Pad NONE
Games Controller NONE
Speakers NONE
Webcam NONE
Headsets NONE
Surge Protection NONE
Cable Tidy NONE
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Home Installation NONE
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Pricing Information
Price (excluding VAT) £625.00
Price £750.00

Only problem with that one is that I'm not a fan of the super-cheap VS PSU.

 

[pblive]

Any downside to adding Windows myself?

I have a (legit) full copy of Windows 7 at home and just wondered if there are any downsides to ordering a PCS PC without an OS then adding it myself?

PCS comes up with a big warning, saying that it would be easier to buy Windows with a new system, but how hard can it be to add later?

 

[Rakk]

I have a (legit) full copy of Windows 7 at home and just wondered if there are any downsides to ordering a PCS PC without an OS then adding it myself?

PCS comes up with a big warning, saying that it would be easier to buy Windows with a new system, but how hard can it be to add later?

There should be no problem installing your own OS, all it will mean is that you have to install the OS and any related drivers yourself.

PS. I've merged all your threads together, its better if you can stick to one thread, it means people can see whats going on and how things have changed (also means less repetition on people asking for details)

 

[pblive]

There should be no problem installing your own OS, all it will mean is that you have to install the OS and any related drivers yourself.

PS. I've merged all your threads together, its better if you can stick to one thread, it means people can see whats going on and how things have changed (also means less repetition on people asking for details)

Thanks. I wondered why they were merged!

Update: I decided on Skylake in the end purely because the cost between the 2 systems changed and it worked out about £40 different between the 2.

I've now purchased the PC and I'm pretty excited about it all, hopefully the fast track option will push it through the system but I'm well aware that there could be delays. I've also cut a few corners with the build for stuff that I could add later (no DVD drive and 8GB rather than 16GB memory, cheaper 1TB drive that I can always change later) to save money.

I have an MSI 970 Twin Frozr waiting to go in it, too.
Spec is:

Case
InWIN GT1 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-6600K (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z170-P: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
8GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
60cm Red LED Strip - To Compliment The Colours of Your Case
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
DVD Recovery Media
NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

 

[Rakk]

1st Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)

You have also chosen a much slower SSD, the V300s are reportedly much slower than advertised, it would be better to pick a different one - the other Kingston ones are fine, its just the V300s that are a bit slow.

 

[pblive]

ah, thanks. Changed to 250Gb Samsung Evo (after changing my mind...again)

 

[Fear]

I hope your copy of windows 7 is on a flash drive because if you have not ordered a DVD drive you will not be able to install your OS.

 

[pblive]

I hope your copy of windows 7 is on a flash drive because if you have not ordered a DVD drive you will not be able to install your OS.

I've got an external Bluray drive and I've also made a bootable Windows 7 flash drive just in case.

 

[Fear]

I've got an external Bluray drive and I've also made a bootable Windows 7 flash drive just in case.

Good just wanted to make sure, enjoy your PC when you get it.

 

[pblive]

Good just wanted to make sure, enjoy your PC when you get it.

Thanks, and thanks for your help and everyone else who has made suggestions. It's really helped in working out how to put my order together. Now it's just the painful wait!

 

[pblive]

Thanks, and thanks for your help and everyone else who has made suggestions. It's really helped in working out how to put my order together. Now it's just the painful wait!

Just a quick update to say that my PC arrived today. It looks great and is well built. I just wish I'd chosen to pay the extra to add Windows 10 as my external drive is not being recognised. Worst case is to buy a download online (from a proper source, not ebay), but will ask PCS if I can buy it as an extra from them first, just in case.