Building a new PC. What's the best value?

[NoyBoy98]

After running Mac for the past 10+ years, I'm ready to build my first PC since I was in high school. I've been reading up on all of the recent Intel tech but not seeing any real price difference between generations other than used items.

So what's the best value CPU right now? My initial thought was to put an i3 6100 into a Z170 board and upgrade to an i5-K processor later. Is there any value in going with a previous gen i5-K right now vs going with a new i3 6100?

Thanks guys!

 

[NoyBoy98]

BTW, I will be pairing the processor with a GTX 1060 6gb.

 

[Deleted member 126051]

f you're gonna ask us to build/list a PC for you or seek advice about a build, please answer all of the following questions:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

By answering these questions you help us help you build a PC that's of better quality, better performing, cheaper or all of the above.

 

[primetime]

you definitely dont want anything less than an I5 cpu....unless this is just an internet browser pc lol Thats an easy answer! Even grandma deserves a better cpu!

 

[NoyBoy98]

f you're gonna ask us to build/list a PC for you or seek advice about a build, please answer all of the following questions:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

By answering these questions you help us help you build a PC that's of better quality, better performing, cheaper or all of the above.

My apologies, I should have known before asking such a general question LOL. Here are my answers:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Pretty much everything, but mainly gaming. I'm coming from a 2011 27" iMac with an i5 and an older ATI graphics card. It was starting to show its age recently when working with photoshop and video editing. Gaming on it was pretty much non-existent. The main game I'd be playing is Overwatch, but will probably be playing more than that.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Around $600-$700

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
United States

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, Case, RAM, SSD, GPU, Mobo, PSU

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
None

6) Will you be overclocking?
Not right away, though I expect a Z170 board will future proof me for this.


7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
I have a 23" ASUS 1080p monitor.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Over the next few months. Would like to be done before Overwatch season 3.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Honestly, nothing fancy. Just need a machine that will give me 60+fps/1080p gaming at Ultra settings.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
No, but was planning to buy either a Windows 7 or Windows 10 license somewhere cheap online.


Here's what I have built so far on PC Part Picker, but it's definitely not set in stone:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston FURY 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($35.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($67.21 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GAMING Video Card ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($43.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $588.03
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-24 04:34 EDT-0400

 

[Skyblue]

I dont think Photoshop will run very well on 8gb ram and an i3. I would recommend getting an older i7 or i5 instead.

 

[primetime]

I dont think Photoshop will run very well on 8gb ram and an i3. I would recommend getting an older i7 or i5 instead.

yes i agree.....maybe even a used x79 motherboard and Intel Xeon E5-1660 Xeon E5-1660 | eBay . Using an i3 with photoshop is a TERRIBLE idea. This or raise the budget enough to build a modern I7 skylake setup

 

[Deleted member 126051]

Check to see if you live within hailing distance of a MicroCenter.
You may be able to make the leap to something like an i5-6400.

 

[TType85]

If you don't mind used, you can pick up a HP z420s cheap from ebay. HP Z420 Xeon E5-1620 3.6GHz Quad-Core 8Gb 500Gb 10K Quadro K600 Win7 Pro #1B

E5-1620 is equivalent to a i7 and they are prettu solid workstations. Throw in a gtx 1060 and a SSD and you would have a decent machine.

If you want new. The i5-6500 is a great chip and you can build a system for a decent price. I would not get the i3 as you are better off in the long run with the 4-core.

 

[NoyBoy98]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I think I will ditch the i3 idea and go with an i5 instead.

What's the best way to get a deal on an older i5-4XXXK? I think I'd be okay with OC'ing an older used model than going brand new.

 

[primetime]

The P9X79 is also a good x79 board. Most of the x79 boards are pretty good.
If you are gaming, I'd avoid the 26xx's as they are locked. 1650/1660/1680 are all unlocked.

I stand by my used Xeon suggestion for the Xeon E5-1660 (reported results of 4.7ghz 1.3v)..Although TType's suggestion for the Intel Xeon E5-1620 SR0LC, 3.6 GHz Quad-Core, LGA 2011 has a very low price of US $39.99 (quad core)..under 40 bucks is not a bad price. I know people are easily over clocking the Xeon E5-1660 but im a litle unsure about the E5-1620

 

[NoyBoy98]

I stand by my used Xeon suggestion for the Xeon E5-1660 (reported results of 4.7ghz 1.3v)..Although TType's suggestion for the Intel Xeon E5-1620 SR0LC, 3.6 GHz Quad-Core, LGA 2011 has a very low price of US $39.99 (quad core)..under 40 bucks is not a bad price. I know people are easily over clocking the Xeon E5-1660 but im a litle unsure about the E5-1620

This intrigues me. What version 1660 should I be looking for and what price point should I expect to pay for used?

 

[primetime]

This intrigues me. What version 1660 should I be looking for and what price point should I expect to pay for used?

ebay is floating around 158 currently....Its like the stock market some times probably does vary... Xeon E5-1660 | eBay Im sure most are server pulls. I imagine its a solid 30% performance jump over mine! If i were building today i would give it heavy consideration. A high clocked skylake would still beat it in single core performance but it would completely destroy a brand new skylake in multi core lol. Comparable performance to an overclocked i7-5820K Haswell-E 6-Core for the x99 platform in my mind. Dont forget this xeon was $1700 once upon a time!

 

[NoyBoy98]

ebay is floating around 158 currently....Its like the stock market some times probably does vary... Xeon E5-1660 | eBay Im sure most are server pulls. I imagine its a solid 30% performance jump over mine! If i were building today i would give it heavy consideration. A high clocked skylake would still beat it in single core performance but it would completely destroy a brand new skylake in multi core lol. Comparable performance to an overclocked i7-5820K Haswell-E 6-Core for the x99 platform in my mind. Dont forget this xeon was $1700 once upon a time!

Could you provide me with a few examples of common single threaded tasks? I think that'll give me a better idea of where the performance will be seen.

 

[primetime]

I would say the Majority of games benefit from a quad core with HT with highest single thread performance possible. Video encoding, doing special effects, certain photo shop tasks can use as many cores as your pc has! Both aspect can come in handy. The hole thing with x79 motherboards is cost.....you have to catch the good deals on ebay when you can cause they hold there value like no tomorrow BUT there are sellers that sell them off a decent prices. If you could land a high end Asus board for around a 100 bucks is the kind of thing that makes this route really worth going.....DDR3 Memory is cheap regardless

 

[NoyBoy98]

Is there a good Xeon processor to be had that doesn't require a $250-$350 motherboard? Boards for the E5-2670 and E5-1660 are a bit pricey for me.

 

[primetime]

we posted or i edited at the same time lol.......you have to watch ebay closely to catch the good deals!....i know a few people around here i can try an ask where they got theirs from exactly. Sooner or latter one should pop up for 100-150 bucks.......sometimes you have to keep a watch a a couple of weeks!

 

[primetime]

Bill1024
tbob22

try pm'ing your question to these guys cause i think they both own these setups

 

[NoyBoy98]

we posted or i edited at the same time lol.......you have to watch ebay closely to catch the good deals!....i know a few people around here i can try an ask where they got theirs from exactly. Sooner or latter one should pop up for 100-150 bucks.......sometimes you have to keep a watch a a couple of weeks!

Thanks primetime, I appreciate your help.

 

[caltech31]

I would say the Majority of games benefit from a quad core with HT with highest single thread performance possible. Video encoding, doing special effects, certain photo shop tasks can use as many cores as your pc has! Both aspect can come in handy. The hole thing with x79 motherboards is cost.....you have to catch the good deals on ebay when you can cause they hold there value like no tomorrow BUT there are sellers that sell them off a decent prices. If you could land a high end Asus board for around a 100 bucks is the kind of thing that makes this route really worth going.....DDR3 Memory is cheap regardless

The cost of LGA2011 boards (and even 1366 boards) kill the value in alot of instances.

When I was trying to score an LGA2011 board last year, everybody locally wanted $350+ (CAD) - even for lower end models!

I was fortunate enough to find a CPU and board combo from an excess stock place, but in general, scoring a deal comes down to constantly montioring ebay/craigslist.

The 6 core Sandy Bridge CPUs are awesome overclockers, and can make up alot of the single threaded difference because of the higher OC headroom. There are alot of guys on overclocker.com that have their SP 6 cores at 4.6Ghz+

 

[primetime]

The cost of LGA2011 boards (and even 1366 boards) kill the value in alot of instances.
When I was trying to score an LGA2011 board last year, everybody locally wanted $350+ (CAD) - even for lower end models!
I was fortunate enough to find a CPU and board combo from an excess stock place, but in general, scoring a deal comes down to constantly montioring ebay/craigslist.
The 6 core Sandy Bridge CPUs are awesome overclockers, and can make up alot of the single threaded difference because of the higher OC headroom. There are alot of guys on overclocker.com that have their SP 6 cores at 4.6Ghz+

Yea thats the catch.....Makes my jealous when people brag about getting these high end Asus boards for chump change. I wonder how many are sold as parts only that only need a new bios chip? For fucks sake there asking 200 for the NON working ones!

 

[NoyBoy98]

Yea, so the Xeon idea might be put to rest now. Jet has the current Skylake i5's out on discount right now.

Why is it that the older gen i5 *used* Intel processors are pretty much sold at the same price of a brand new current gen CPU?

 

[primetime]

Yea, so the Xeon idea might be put to rest now. Jet has the current Skylake i5's out on discount right now.

Why is it that the older gen i5 *used* Intel processors are pretty much sold at the same price of a brand new current gen CPU?

idk but its just the way its always been........the only way to get huge discounts on cpus is xeon server pulls.......and that doesn't happen right away if at all!

 

[NoyBoy98]

Is there any value in getting a used i7 3xxxK series over a current i5 6600k?

 

[primetime]

Is there any value in getting a used i7 3xxxK series over a current i5 6600k?

https://hardforum.com/members/araxie.261673/ knows the pros and cons as good as anyone here....send him a pm is needed cause he knows the answer to that specific question slightly better than myself. I can say this, If i were buying brand new parts, i would just assume get the newest motherboard chip set thats out if the price was even close. Its easier to pop in a new cpu down the road, than change the board. With that being said i would not be happy with out at least a quad with HT......So i would spend the extra for the I7. I like my cpus to have plenty of power! Once you have owned a 6 core it hard to even go back to quad IMO. I cant even imagine having only 4 threads now a days!

 

[wildpig1234]

for a longest time, I never even know about the xeon but after I received a dell t5500 courtesy of a gift from my friend who's discarding some old equipment, I was hooked. If you go the xeon way, instead of buying a MB to assemble a system, should also look into buying used workstation as they already have MB, case, and PSU included.

I built a 2x x5650, 48GB ram system based on an HP z800 for $580, excluding the price of a 1060 card.

I see a few good ebay z800 here:

HP Z800 Workstaion VA782UT#ABA, 2x 6-Core E5645 2.4GHz, 12GB, 3x 500GB #2
HP Z800 Workstaion VA782UT#ABA, 2x 6-Core E5645 2.4GHz, 12GB, 3x 500GB
HP Z800 Workstaion VA782UT#ABA, 2x 6-Core E5645 2.4GHz, 12GB, 3x 500GB #3
HP Z800 Workstaion VA782UT#ABA, 2x 6-Core E5645 2.4GHz, 24GB, 3x 500GB #4

These will probably be around $350 or less at the end of the bid. And they all come with 2x e5645 cpu which is slightly slower than x5650 but cheaper but still significantly faster than i5-6600k when it comes to multithread. That is a total of 12 cores and 24 threads!! these z800 WS also have capacity of up to 96GB ram when using the cheap 8gb modules. But if you ever want to go crazy with ram and have the cash, you can use up to 32GB modules for a total of 384GB ! but even with 12GB ram or 24GB included that should be enough for most light work. They also come with a huge number of built in SATA connectors!

Cheap 8GB DDR3 ram for $11 each:

Kingston 8Gb. 2Rx4 PC3L-10600R AM472D3LD4P13C9EC ECC Memory, Natex.us

Note that the above are LGA1366 socket. If you like to step up to 2011 socket for slightly more price, here's a cheap baseline:

HP Z820 Workstation NO O.S. OR Hard Drive

This comes with case, MB and PSU. You should pull the manual and spec on the z820 workstation. very solid quality. huge number of expansion slots and SATA connectors built in. also has usb3.0 and sound built in.

These still use cheap DDR3 rams. you can select your own Xeon CPU. Want even more cores than e5-1660? try a 8 core, 16 thread e5-2670 cpu for around $70 each! so much cheaper than any i5 or i7. and you can buy 2x cpu for still much cheaper than any single i5 or i7 cpu for a total of 16 core, 32 threads!!

 

[primetime]

for a longest time, I never even know about the xeon but after I received a dell t5500 courtesy of a gift from my friend who's discarding some old equipment, I was hooked. If you go the xeon way, instead of buying a MB to assemble a system, should also look into buying used workstation as they already have MB, case, and PSU included.

I built a 2x x5650, 48GB ram system based on an HP z800 for $580, excluding the price of a 1060 card.

I see a few good ebay z800 here:

HP Z800 Workstaion VA782UT#ABA, 2x 6-Core E5645 2.4GHz, 12GB, 3x 500GB #2
HP Z800 Workstaion VA782UT#ABA, 2x 6-Core E5645 2.4GHz, 12GB, 3x 500GB
HP Z800 Workstaion VA782UT#ABA, 2x 6-Core E5645 2.4GHz, 12GB, 3x 500GB #3
HP Z800 Workstaion VA782UT#ABA, 2x 6-Core E5645 2.4GHz, 24GB, 3x 500GB #4

These will probably be around $350 or less at the end of the bid. And they all come with 2x e5645 cpu which is slightly slower than x5650 but cheaper but still significantly faster than i5-6600k when it comes to multithread. That is a total of 12 cores and 24 threads!! these z800 WS also have capacity of up to 96GB ram when using the cheap 8gb modules. But if you ever want to go crazy with ram and have the cash, you can use up to 32GB modules for a total of 384GB ! but even with 12GB ram or 24GB included that should be enough for most light work. They also come with a huge number of built in SATA connectors!

Cheap 8GB DDR3 ram for $11 each:

Kingston 8Gb. 2Rx4 PC3L-10600R AM472D3LD4P13C9EC ECC Memory, Natex.us

Note that the above are LGA1366 socket. If you like to step up to 2011 socket for slightly more price, here's a cheap baseline:

HP Z820 Workstation NO O.S. OR Hard Drive

This comes with case, MB and PSU. You should pull the manual and spec on the z820 workstation. very solid quality. huge number of expansion slots and SATA connectors built in. also has usb3.0 and sound built in.

These still use cheap DDR3 rams. you can select your own Xeon CPU. Want even more cores than e5-1660? try a 8 core, 16 thread e5-2670 cpu for around $70 each! so much cheaper than any i5 or i7. and you can buy 2x cpu for still much cheaper than any single i5 or i7 cpu for a total of 16 core, 32 threads!!

I have never seen coolers exactly like these before, and they look like tiny radiators!

 

[wildpig1234]

I have never seen coolers exactly like these before, and they look like tiny radiators!

Yeah they are. There's a CPU/memory fan which goes on top of it all that you obviously have to use since the radiators won't be able to cool the cpu by themselves . The one disadvantage I want to say is that if you go with HP or Dell, there is a lot of proprietary parts. However, it's not completely unhackable to get generic standard parts to fit.

in my Z800, the OEM cpu heatsink/fan unit uses standard LGA1366 mounting arrangement of screw. Except that one of the screw holes for each of the heatsink is deliberately made a very tiny amount larger than usual. So if you get a standard heatsink/fan kit for LGA 1366, three regular screws will go in fine, but the standard screw will just be a very tiny amount too small for the last screw hole. Not a problem. I went to lowe and bought some 6/32" 3/4" length screws which is slightly larger than the standard 3mm screws that came with the generic heatsink and they fit right on.

So I bet you can do the same if you decide to not get the overpriced oem radiator ones like above which costs almost $60 each. if you get the standard lga2011 heatsink/fan then you obviously won't need to use the oem cpu/memory fan unit that comes with the WS. B/c that thing won't fit on top anyway.

The other thing is the very proprietary power connectors on the MB.

 

[Bill1024]

If going for a 2011 xeon I would get the e5-1650 for 117$ shipped. It is an unlocked hexcore.
Intel Xeon e5-1650 3.2Ghz3.8Ghz 12MB L3 Sandy Bridge-EP LGA2011 sr0kz i7-3930k

The 2011 boards run high, but they were not cheap new. It was an enthusiast socket more so than an entry level socket. As was 1366 boards, they were not cheap either.

I picked up an EVGA x79 classified for 115$ shipped 2 weeks ago right here in the [H] for sale section. It was listed for 12 minutes before I bought it.
Also got anAsus x79 Sabertooth for 150 on ebay a couple months ago.
Got an EVGA Classified3 1366 for 125 shipped EVGA forum. And a new FTW3 for 110$ was new RMA board in a white box at EVGA forum
The deals are out there, you have to keep an eye out and be patient. Check all the computer forums for sale sections.

Also look late at night like 2-3AM when people still up on the West coast list after the people on the East coast go to bed.

Search for specific boards and not general terms like x79 or x58 or socket 1366 or 2011.
Search for EVGA FTW3, Classified3 for a 1366 xeon ready or EVGA Classified, or just Asus Sabertooth,
If you search just x79, a board listed as Asus ROG IV, FTW3 or Classified3 may not show up.

Check Craigslist for local deals, got a FTW3 for 60$ a year ago local.
Hell there was a 2600K cpu, board and 8gb ram sold for 120$, I missed that one.

Now you know how I find cheap boards!!

EDIT:
On ebay, you can search for the CPU you may want and add combo.
i7-3939K combo or i7-980x i7-920 combo. You may find a board, CPU and ram cheap.
It is all in the wording you search for and the way they list it. To see everything that maybe there for sale

If you are selling make sure you list socket, chipset, make and model to get the most views.
IE: Asus X79 socket LGA 2011 Sabertooth

 

[wildpig1234]

If going for a 2011 xeon I would get the e5-1650 for 117$ shipped. It is an unlocked hexcore.
Intel Xeon e5-1650 3.2Ghz3.8Ghz 12MB L3 Sandy Bridge-EP LGA2011 sr0kz i7-3930k

The 2011 boards run high, but they were not cheap new. It was an enthusiast socket more so than an entry level socket. As was 1366 boards, they were not cheap either.

e5-1650 is not bad but I guess it's a single socket CPU? it wont run in a dual socket I guess? I still think e5-2670 is better since you have dual socket even if the single thread is slower.

yeah, the MB are still expensive. could either do S2600CP2 MB or do OEM bare system....

 

[Bill1024]

Yeah the first number is how many sockets it supports.
e5-1650 is one socket CPU
e5-2660 is two sockets CPU
e5-4650 is four sockets CPU

A dual socket CPU will work in a single socket board, as will a single socket cpu work in a multi-socket board. Just can't use two or more e5-16xx in a multi-socket board.
That is true for all Asus 1366 boards, and some EVGA boards with a 3 at the end suppoet xeons FTW3 classified3
I am not sure if a quad socket CPU will work in a single socket board or not.

 

[Deleted member 126051]

Honestly I don't think that, with a $600 budget, an x79 setup is the way to go.
Sure, the CPU is cheap, but the board completely destroys the value proposition. Not to mention the risks of buying a (possibly severely) (ab)used board and chip off EBay (see "scam central").
And I still don't get why people keep pushing "MOAR SLOWER CORES!"
From the looks of this, it's going to be a gaming box with some Photoshop and video editing (provided he can find a package PC-side that he likes). If he sticks with Adobe, he's better off with fewer, faster cores.
And, even then, he's stuck in a dead-end system.
Sure, a budget Z170 system won't be some bitchin' rig, but it can be UPGRADED later on.

 

[Bill1024]

If you get a bad board, paypal almost always sides with the buyer, file a claim and get your money back. No reason a used boards wont last years, they have for me.
I have boards that have been running 24/7 for a few years and still running strong. Asus P6T V2 Deluxe w/X5660 at 4ghz going on 3 years 24/7/365 100% load 47c-52c running BOINC was used when I got it.
AMD quad socket f and G34 boards used, I run 24/7 in the Fall Winter Spring for a few years. I heat my house with computers, I have a few dual and few quad socket boardsand several single 1366 and 2011. They run and run and run. All used. Paid Pennies on the dollar. sone as low as 6 cents on the dollar. Those xeons were over 1200$ just a few years ago
Most of these xeon CPUs are server pulls that have been running at stock speed all their life. They have years of service left in them.
Socket 2011 can be upgraded from the CPUs we are buying now. They are Sandybridge, the Ivybridge xeons are starting to hit the used market and falling in price. Then there will be 8 core xeons that are overclockable to upgrade to.

I have a quad Haswel and quad Ivybridge, I am not all that impressed with them really. My 1650 sandy 6/12 hits 4.3ghz at 1.27v 100% load primegrid 50c or so. 4.3ghz id not slow by any means.
Still have lots of headroom to go higher.
Here are some good benchmarks for 1366 xeons vs more modern CPUs
[Official] - Xeon X5660-X58 Review & Discussion [and Xeon L5639 benchmarks inside]
If you need the new instruction sets AVX2 and so on they yeah get the newest CPUs you can. I use AVX so sandy and better is what I like best. But my Westmere X5660 holds its own on everything else.

Also with DX12 coming, the more cores the better. also for rendering and other multi tasking.
Just have to get a lower price motherboard, they are out there.

I am just throwing this out there as options to consider. Some people like to buy new cars, some like to buy used. Either way you could get a bum deal. Or you can get a good deal and save some$$

 

[Bill1024]

Right now I am building my game play and cruncher.
EVGA x79 Classified 115$ [H] forum
gSKILL 16GB Sniper 1866 4 X 4GB 50$ ebay
One EVGA gtx970 ssc 2.0+ 175$ [H] forum.
One GTX970, ssc 2.0+ with 850watt PSU for 245$ EVGA B-Stock
iNTEL 3930k and Corseair H110 170$ EVGA forum
Andies A18 Full tower XL-E-ATX case 100$ new newegg
Asus CD/DVD 15$ newegg

Thats 870$
if I were to go with only one GTX970, that would be 700$ Just a hundred more than OP wanted to spend. But for everything needed for the box. Mostly used and B-stock
I think I did good. Many of mine I do not use a case and use onboard video to save $$
It is running real well at the moment. 4.3ghz 1.29v 55c 100% load primegrid Ram at 1866 9-10-9-25-1T
The 2nd GPU will be here in a few days.

 

[NoyBoy98]

Wow, there's some serious info here! Thanks again guys for the insight.

At this point I've extended my budget a little and am almost 100% decided on an OC'd 6600k setup. That was until I saw all the updates in this thread lol.

If I were to get one of those HP workstations, would I be able to put the parts into a mid atx case? The HP cases just look so ugly lol.

 

[primetime]

LGA2011 Ivy Bridge Xeons aren't really falling in price. Even if you look at the price of what a E5-1650 V2 (4930K equivalent) sells for it hasn't dropped much in price. Then you can look at the price of what a E5-1680 or E5-1660 V2 go for in price it. It will be a long while before they come close to the price of what an equivalent E5-1620/1650/1660 are selling for. If we follow the E5-2670 trend and market prices in 2015/2016 we see that it was released in 2012 and nearly 3-4 years came down in price. Those same processors are coming from data centers which are likely upgrading to Haswell-EP or Broadwell-EP Xeon processors. Not many migrated from Sandy Bridge-EP to Ivy Bridge-EP hence their rarity and their price in the market right now.

If he really wants to look into the Xeons then he should get a cheap X99 motherboard and pair it with a V3/V4 Xeon which is much more affordable especially considering X79 motherboard cost. Even DDR4 is relatively cheap due to it being in mass production for HEDT and mainstream platforms. X79 is limited with upgrade possibilities and lacks the features offered by X99 while commanding a larger X79 motherboard price.

Only big problem with your suggestion is xeons for x99 DONT overclock as i understand it.....This little fact is one reason the x79 grabs my interest! Otherwise i would hole hardheadedly agree with your point!

 

[wildpig1234]

Wow, there's some serious info here! Thanks again guys for the insight.

At this point I've extended my budget a little and am almost 100% decided on an OC'd 6600k setup. That was until I saw all the updates in this thread lol.

If I were to get one of those HP workstations, would I be able to put the parts into a mid atx case? The HP cases just look so ugly lol.

As I said the one unfortunate thing about going with HP or dell is that there are a lot of proprietary hardware that won't fit or work inside a standard generic case. If you decide to go with dell or HP, it's best to buy a barebone system complete with case, MB, PSU. the HP uses a customized PSU and power connector for MB. If you really really want to retrofit into a standard case (and btw, standard EEB case, not a mid atx case, lol it's not impossible but prepare for major work:

Hacking the HP Z800 Xeon motherboard into a standard case

would also need to have these to connect a standard PSU to the MB

10/18 to 24 Pins HP Z800 Workstation PC Power Supply PSU Connector Adapter Cable


Having said that, the dell and hp ws are fairly high quality stuffs so they probably wont break down much. even the proprietary psu aren't much at all considering that they are all gold rated and are usually at least 850w.

As I predicted. those dual e5645 hp z800 went for around $350. The z820 one is still available for bidding. If you can get it for $500 or less that would be pretty deal too. I actually recommend going with the lga 2011 socket so you won't have to upgrade again soon.

Here's the dell equivalence, t7600:

Dell Precision T7600 Barebones No Heatsinks No CPU No RAM No RAID No HDD

If you prefer to roll your own, the cheapest solution probably starts with this:

Intel S2600CP2J: Dual E5-2670 - 128Gb. Kit - Server Motherboards - Natex.us

note that this combo MB doesn't have the usual things like built in sound card or usb 3.0 that you get with the OEM workstation. it also is a lower tier S2600 so it only has like 6 SATA ports compared to 14 in the HP z820. but you can put in a cheap sata/sas card like this as well as cheap pci-e usb 3.0 and sound card.

Adaptec 16-Port ASR-51245 3Gb/s SATA/SAS RAID Card

 

[primetime]

Yes they do. The E5-1620/1650/1660/1680 V3 are all unlocked. The E5-26 V3 series are locked. This also applies to V1/V2 Xeons that support dual processors. All the V4 Xeons according to Lutjens are all locked both single and dual processor.

your the first person here to confirm any were unlocked....And i made threads SPECIFICALLY asking which if any were unlocked or overclock able...
Intel Xeon E5-1650 SR0KZ 6 Core 3.20GHz 12 MB Smart Cache CPU Processor Intel Xeon E5-1650 SR0KZ 6 Core 3.20GHz So this can be over clocked to 4.4ghz with out to much fuss for only
Price:
US $104.99? Well then x99 would be the way to go.....Cause that saves couple a hundred bucks right there.....Im saving the information in your post for another time! I had no idea we had affordable and over clock able xeons for that platform already! IDK if the op will make good use of this info but i will! lol

 

[Bill1024]

your the first person here to confirm any were unlocked....And i made threads SPECIFICALLY asking which if any were unlocked or overclock able...
Intel Xeon E5-1650 SR0KZ 6 Core 3.20GHz 12 MB Smart Cache CPU Processor Intel Xeon E5-1650 SR0KZ 6 Core 3.20GHz So this can be over clocked to 4.4ghz with out to much fuss for only
Price:
US $104.99? Well then x99 would be the way to go.....Cause that saves couple a hundred bucks right there.....Im saving the information in your post for another time! I had no idea we had affordable and over clock able xeons for that platform already!

That CPU you listed is a socket 2011 not a socket 2011v3 That CPU will not work.
X99 is a socket 2011v3.
As he said, 2011v3 1xxx are unlocked 2xxx are locked and V4 are all locked

 

[wildpig1234]

your the first person here to confirm any were unlocked....And i made threads SPECIFICALLY asking which if any were unlocked or overclock able...
Intel Xeon E5-1650 SR0KZ 6 Core 3.20GHz 12 MB Smart Cache CPU Processor Intel Xeon E5-1650 SR0KZ 6 Core 3.20GHz So this can be over clocked to 4.4ghz with out to much fuss for only
Price:
US $104.99? Well then x99 would be the way to go.....Cause that saves couple a hundred bucks right there.....Im saving the information in your post for another time! I had no idea we had affordable and over clock able xeons for that platform already! IDK if the op will make good use of this info but i will! lol

So would you consider going this route over e5-2670?