No budget base build - CPU/Motherboard/RAM

[Gareth]

So this should be an easy one, but I'm not sure whether I am better off going with Skylake or 2011-3 Haswell. Presumably with Skylake being so new the better stuff won't be out until later on? Whilst I do still play games it is really only occasionally now and my main goal is to have as fast a PC as I can for productivity more than anything, I can't help but think 2011-3 Haswell will be a better proposition with more cores and RAM?

The plan is to upgrade my main PC in stages:
1. Base (CPU/Motherboard/RAM)
2. GPUs
3. 2 x new monitors

So at this stage I'm purely looking for the best bang for buck with no budget constraint in terms of purely buying CPU, Motherboard & RAM. I'll be keeping my existing case, cooling, HDDs etc (GPUs to be replaced at a later date).

Motherboard wise I'm thinking of sticking with ASUS or maybe switching back to EVGA.

Views?

 

[Steven103]

Here comes the classic response...

1) Get an SSD for the OS & programs, stick media on the HDD. For day to day responsiveness, an SSD is probably now the best bang for buck. Removing a ~15ms "seek time" for every single individual system file that your OS ever requests.

2) What CPU/MB/RAM combo do you have currently?

 

[Gareth]

I should probably point out the OS currently sits on 2 x 256 GB Samsung 840 PRO SSDs, I have a dedicated Samsung 850 500GB SSD for iTunes & games. I also have a 10TB share on a windows file share server for storage.

Current configuration is an ASUS Rampage III motherboard (socket 1366) with an i7 950 (3.07GHz) with 12GB 1866MHz ram.

 

[Darren S]

Current configuration is an ASUS Rampage III motherboard (socket 1366) with an i7 950 (3.07GHz) with 12GB 1866MHz ram.

That's very similar to me in terms of spec. Asus Rampage III with an i7 965 and 12GB of Dominator memory. I did in the past think about chucking a 990X in for the lolz - but they command a hefty premium still - certainly far more than any of the benefits that the extra 2 cores and stock clock speed would bring anyway.

I've considered upgrading for a while - but I'm going to hang fire until Skylake-E makes its appearance - Q3 next year, from what I've read. Both Windows 10 and the twin GTX690s run fine on my system for now - and as DX12 titles start to trickle out (hopefully) - their combined hardware should be used even more effectively. Just a shame that GTAV runs like dogshit.... :wink:

edit - well either GTAV works better on Windows 10, or they have patched it. It's not super-smooth by any stretch, but its certainly playable now - which it never was before.

Just wondering if the random Windows 10 starting issue is a motherboard specific one? I've only heard of you and myself having the random non-starting - and it seems too coincidental that with both have Rampage III Extremes.