Assistance with motherboard & monitor selection for an i5 spec

K

Dear Members - I would need your opinion of a suitable motherboard & display unit for an i5 6500 PC that I'm building for a relative.

1. What is the purpose of the computer? What all applications and games are you going to run?
Ans: Movies , Home Entertainment, Web Browsing. Very less graphic intensive games to be played on the system on the lines of Train Simulator but I would still like to stick to a core i5 6500 cpu.

2. What is your overall budget? If you can extend a bit for a more balanced configuration, then mention this too.
Ans: 60,000 Rs

3. Planning to overclock?
Ans: Strictly No.

4. Which Operating System are you planning to use?
Ans: Windows 8 64 bit

5. How much hard drive space is needed?
Ans: 1 TB

6. Do you want to buy a monitor? If yes, please mention which screen size and resolution do you want. If you already have a monitor and want to reuse it, again mention the size and resolution of monitor you have.
Ans: Yes, I need suggestions for a 22-24 inch panel (preferably an IPS if not VA. Strictly no TN) with a solid build + height & tilt adjustment + VGA & HDMI Connectivity at the least. (Comfortable Brands by order - Asus / BenQ / Dell / Samsung/LG)

7. Which components you DON'T want to buy or which components you already have and plan on reusing?
Ans: Speakers, UPS

8. When are you planning to buy the system?
Ans: As soon as I get a good suggestion on the forum

9. Have you ever built a desktop before or will this be done by an assembler?
Ans: Assembler

10. Where do you live? Are you buying locally? Are you open to buying stuff from online shops if you don't get locally?
Ans: TN. No, not open to online buying.

11. Anything else which you would like to say?

I have already shortlisted the other major components for the build (thanks to this forum again on making the job easier) as below:
i5 6500 / Corsair ValueSelect 4GB DDR4 / Seasonic 520w PSU / CM Silencio 452 / Seagate 1TB SSHD

I understand that the PSU might be an over-kill but sticking to it to be future proof in case they decide to add in graphic components later.

The major blockade is on suggesting a main-board for the PC. I have been asked for the following features as mandatory.

- DDR4 Support
- PCI slots (In addition to the PCIe & PCI x1 slots)
- USB 3.1 10 Gbps Connectivity
- USB Type C Connectivity
- 4 DIMM slots (Can manage to forego if all the above are available)

Believe me, I have spent hours & hours browsing for all the LGA 1151 chipsets on manufacturers such as Asus / MSI / Gigabyte / ASRock and have been able to narrow down only on 3 of these models. Though the Z170 chipset is not needed for this build, I'm forced to consider it as Asus is my 1st choice and this was the only motherboard satisfying the above criteria.

Asus Z170-K
Z170-K | Motherboards | ASUS India

Gigabyte GA-H170-D3HP
GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1151 - GA-H170-D3HP (rev. 1.0)

Gigabyte GA-B150-HD3P
GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1151 - GA-B150-HD3P (rev. 1.0)

Surprisingly, no other board fulfilled all the above criteria or did I miss any of those ? That's what brings me here.

Looking to save money by avoiding the Asus Z170-K board and investing the difference on a better monitor within the budget. The Gigabyte one's though at a lesser cost - something stops me from trusting the brand. If absolutely no other options are available, can someone vouch for the Gigabyte's quality on par with the reliability of Asus..?

Just concerned as the PC build might be subject to not so normal usage. (Rough handling / Power Fluctuation Issues / Novice users messing around - trying to learn) those sort of things..

Thank you for the time..

Intel Core i5 6500 -15000,
Gigabyte B150M-D3H -7500,
Corsair Vengeance 8GB 2133Mhz -2500,
Dell S2216H 22" LED IPS -9000,
Seasonic S12II 520w -5000,
WD Caviar Blue 1TB -3500,
Asus Strix GTX950 2GB -13000,
Corsair SPEC-01 -3500,
Logitech MK200 -800.
Total -59800.

For any game be it a Train Simulator or realistic war simulation games like ARMA are GPU dependent. So going with a GPU like GTX950 will be more future proof. Ok.

Even VLC requires hardware acceleration which is dependent on the GPU. I mean for movies and stuff.

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If you know the pricing for the components you already narrowed down, please list them too.

1. Price difference between value select and vengeance is not gonna be huge (probably 100 rupees or less), you can very well go for vengeance. 4gigs costs 1750/- 8gigs cost 2700/-, you have budget for 8gigs, so go for it.
2. That cabby seems like a super expensive for 60 grand rig. Go for sub 5k cabby.
3. You're building a desktop, you will have plenty of space in the cabinet to put your hard disks and you have budget to buy SSD and HDD separately, don't have to buy an hybrid.
4. When I looked up few months back, I couldn't find both the Gigabyte motherboard you mentioned with any online sellers. So I am not sure about the availability of those motherboards with local offline sellers.
5. There is this confusion with USB3.1 and USB3.0. (Probably you already know this, but still. All type C are not 3.1, and all 3.1 are not gen 2 (gen 1 is 5gps, gen2 is 10gps). So check the specification before you buy)
Up to my knowledge these 3 mb ticks most your criteria (not sure about 10gps) and available in India.
Z170 K's overview says it's 10gps but in spec it says 5gps
[STRIKE]H170 Pro's overview doesn't say anything wrt speed but in spec it says 5gps[/STRIKE] It's H170Pro/USB 3.1 which is not available in India.
B150 Pro Gaming Aura's overview have a comparison of USB speeds (should we assume it's 10gps?, I don't know), and no mentioning of speeds in spec.
This Type C, 3.1 gen2 thing will take years to takeover. Probably your relative will have upgraded their system by then. So don't give too much weightage to this 10gps thing.
6. Dell S2216H costs about 9k

First of all simulation games especially ARMA is more cpu intensive not gpu.
Secondly do not buy Dell s2216h.

My suggestion

Lg 22mp67vq IPS led backlight HDMI ( I personally use this)
LG 21.5 inch LED Backlit LCD - 22MP67VQ Monitor Price in India - Buy LG 21.5 inch LED Backlit LCD - 22MP67VQ Monitor online at Flipkart.com

Amazon.in: Buy LG 22MP67VQ 22 Inch LED IPS LED Monitor Online at Low Prices in India | LG Reviews & Rating

Hp 22vx HP 21.5 inch LED Backlit LCD - 22vx Monitor Price in India - Buy HP 21.5 inch LED Backlit LCD - 22vx Monitor online at Flipkart.com

check all three and buy from where its cheapest. Before making online purchase i highly recommend going to a well known computer store in you are location and buy locally if its cheaper.

Dont go with LG ever because they are using 3rd party display's.

Its Dell S2216H or HP 22vx which ever is better.

Dell monitor has glossy panel where as HP RMA is somewhat late compared to others.

Ok.

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About that USB 3.1 thingy as it may take years to become a norm for devices to use 3.1 So USB 3.1 is not of much use.

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HE-MAN said:
First of all simulation games especially ARMA is more cpu intensive not gpu.
Secondly do not buy Dell s2216h.

My suggestion

Lg 22mp67vq IPS led backlight HDMI ( I personally use this)
LG 21.5 inch LED Backlit LCD - 22MP67VQ Monitor Price in India - Buy LG 21.5 inch LED Backlit LCD - 22MP67VQ Monitor online at Flipkart.com

Amazon.in: Buy LG 22MP67VQ 22 Inch LED IPS LED Monitor Online at Low Prices in India | LG Reviews & Rating

Hp 22vx HP 21.5 inch LED Backlit LCD - 22vx Monitor Price in India - Buy HP 21.5 inch LED Backlit LCD - 22vx Monitor online at Flipkart.com

check all three and buy from where its cheapest. Before making online purchase i highly recommend going to a well known computer store in you are location and buy locally if its cheaper.

Though ARMA is cpu intensive it needs good cpu + high bandwidth ram + gpu to give the best fps needed.

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HE-MAN said:
First of all simulation games especially ARMA is more cpu intensive not gpu.
Secondly do not buy Dell s2216h.

May we know why?:thinking_NF:

nac said:
May we know why?:thinking_NF:

glossy screen, reflecting too much maybe this model or the H Model. I don't remember they both had same number with different alphabet

Just have a look at this benchmark
Skylake 6700K Vs 4790K - GTX 980 TI - ARMA 3 Frame Rate Comparison - YouTube

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nac said:
[STRIKE]H170 Pro's overview doesn't say anything wrt speed but in spec it says 5gps[/STRIKE]

Sorry, there is another model H170 Pro/USB 3.1 which ticks your criterias not the one I mentioned before.

bssunilreddy said:
Just have a look at this benchmark
Skylake 6700K Vs 4790K - GTX 980 TI - ARMA 3 Frame Rate Comparison - YouTube

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Actually ARMA is a bad example here its still far from optimized. But I do get you are point. Since @op has decide on i5-6500 a decent graphics down the line something like gtx 1060 if they do make, which I am pretty sure they Will be good enough.

K

Thank you for the replies, all. I do not have the market prices of the selected components as of now and estimation was done based on web prices.

To better explain my preferences above, the budget initially was 50,000 only and the sole reason I posted a stretched budget was in order to get a "good monitor with the requirements mentioned above." Plus, there is always a price variation upwards of around 1000 Rs. per component to the market prices mentioned here when it comes through a distributor -> dealer -> the assembly.

1. We would not "at this point" be interested to spend/stretch the budget for a GPU unless absolutely required. I'm sure the simulator games / 1080p videos on VLC require hardware acceleration -> but do you mean to say the i5 would not be able to handle them ? Then, it is a shocker.

2. The dell/HP/LG monitors suggested do not unfortunately have the height adjustment feature which I've used and found to be very useful. Like I said, could you suggest better alternatives ? I own the Asus PA238Q and they would expect more or less similar performance/features in this new PC too. (Although buying the same monitor is not considered)

3. I Choose the value select over the vengeance RAM due to the fact that vengeance series did not sell a DDR4 module / DDR3L module over 2 GB. Am I wrong in believing that DDR3 should not be installed on PC's with Skylake CPU's.. as they result in long term damage due to voltage variations? Source below.
Intel Reminds: Skylake Processors Do Not Officially Support DDR3 RAM, Use Could Damage the IMC - Only DDR3L and DDR4 Supporte

DDR3 support isn't 'officially' mentioned on Intel's website too
Intel Core™ i5-6500 Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.60 GHz) Specification

4. With regards to USB 3.1, I built a PC years ago ignoring usb 3.0 support when options were available (of course usb 3.0 wasn't popular that time). But later the same was regretted when I realised the speed difference of 3.0 flash drives. Agreed, 5 yrs is about the life of a PC before it is upgraded. But this particular build - let's say is built to last longer given its generic purpose and the above average basic PC budget. With regards to the specs, I will double confirm with the dealer before ordering. Hence, I'm holding the stand with usb 3.1 & willing to pay for it. Only looking for help choosing the most suitable board.

5. The cabinet selection is a story by itself. I have a bad experience of liquid spillage over the case's top fan mount holes on my corsair case. Hence I had to browse through several manufacturers (Corsair, Antec, CM) to find a case that has its top covered. Bottom PSU mount & Front suction fan is preferred and was looking for a case with tool less movements inside. The best I could find was this one. (Leaving apart the traditional steel ones with screws inside).

Unfortunately, even the basic cases like Spec 01 did have a top opening. Agreed, this is an overkill and undue expense, but if you can offer cost effective suggestions with above requirement - will be great.

6. Reason I choose SSHD was for the marginally faster boot times and longer warranty. (5 yrs for SSHD vs 3 yrs for HDD from Seagate) The PC will be taking in the existing 250 GB HDD as the secondary drive. Hence new set of SSD + HDD for total of 3 drives is too much & I'm not looking at an SSD anyway.

1. Even I don't think you will need a dedicated GPU for light gaming. If you needed one along with the components you mentioned, it will shoot up an already increased budget.
2. I never bothered to look for monitors with those features, I assume it's gonna cost a lot for you. Dell U2414H costs about 20k and it seems like Asus India only have 27" monitors with the features you ask for. I assume they would cost at least 30k.
3. No. There are 4/8/16gigs DDR4 available widely.
4. Okay, if you want get it. The B150 I mentioned costs about 11k and Z170 costs about 12.5k
5. You want front intake, but not top exhaust

No, I don't know any particular model. Guess there could be one under 5k.
6. For 8GB SSD and 2yrs more warranty, the asking price of 2k more is too much. See if you can get an extended warranty (I don't know they are providing one) for the normal HDD and SSD.

K

- Alright. Guess I need to do more research on the monitors then. If I'm to forego the height adjustment + VGA input features to retain color accuracy + excellent contrast ratios + good viewing angles + robust build + reliability - what are the models I should possibly look at ? Price not upwards of 14 - 15,000 please.

- Oh, I meant the vengeance series particularly is not offering DDR4 modules at budget basic PC level. What is your take on the article about Skylake CPU's with DDR3 usage ?

- I have caught few other Asus models with 3.1 (minus certain features) as below. Are you able to tell their India availability / prices ?
Asus MAXIMUS VIII GENE / H170 PRO GAMING / B150 PRO GAMING AURA

- Okay, let's say I'm okay to forego front intake. Does this leave me with any good options. If not, minus bottom PSU mount too. But at least good quality & screw less assembly ?

-

For 8GB SSD and 2yrs more warranty

I did not get this ? 8 GB SSD on a 1 TB SSHD ?

1) USB 3.1 is in its nascent stage right now so its available as a single option rather than USB 3.0 which became mainstream right now

2)GPU acceleration is needed when encoding videos and some software development where GPU processing power is used, other than that there is no need for discrete GPUV if using only simulation like games

3) Dell S2216H is what I prefer rather HP22vx.

4)Dont ever go with DDR3 ram when DDR4 has become mainstream in terms of price & availability

5) A normall HDD is always preferred over SSHD though the later has 5 years of warranty than the former.

You can go with WD Blue 1TB + Samsung 850 Evo 120GB for best price to performance ratio.

6) In case of cabinet that contains no top exhaust its really a good option to have at least 1 top exhaust for the processor to remain cooler and for hotter air to exhaust from top or rear exhausts.

So I suggested Corsair SPEC-01 where only 2xfront intakes and 1xrear exhsust can only be used and 2xtop exhausts are just for blowing hot air out. OK.

I hope you get my point.

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Dell P2414H costs about 15k, it ticks all the boxes except HDMI. But you get display port in that place. But again, if you want a motherboard with DP, PCI slot and 3.1 gen 2, finding one would be super hard. Yeah, you can use an adapter.

I don't see the point of using DDR3 with Skylake unless one already have a lot of DDR3 memory sticks and tight on budget.

Maximus - I don't know the price of this model or its availability in India. Rough guess is about 20k or more. There are other boards from Maximus series are available ranging from 17k to 38k

Basic ones don't have tool less assembly, if we look up little higher pretty much every model have top exhaust

Yeah, in 1tb SSHD only 8 GB is SSD and rest are HDD (at least the ones I know are like this). See if you can find that in the specification.

karthik316_1999 said:
- Alright. Guess I need to do more research on the monitors then. If I'm to forego the height adjustment + VGA input features to retain color accuracy + excellent contrast ratios + good viewing angles + robust build + reliability - what are the models I should possibly look at ? Price not upwards of 14 - 15,000 please.

- Oh, I meant the vengeance series particularly is not offering DDR4 modules at budget basic PC level. What is your take on the article about Skylake CPU's with DDR3 usage ?

- I have caught few other Asus models with 3.1 (minus certain features) as below. Are you able to tell their India availability / prices ?
Asus MAXIMUS VIII GENE / H170 PRO GAMING / B150 PRO GAMING AURA

- Okay, let's say I'm okay to forego front intake. Does this leave me with any good options. If not, minus bottom PSU mount too. But at least good quality & screw less assembly ?

- I did not get this ? 8 GB SSD on a 1 TB SSHD ?

this is the best 24 inch monitor right now in terms of PQ and price 12,500
BenQ 24 inch EW2440L LED Backlit LCD Monitor Price in India - Buy BenQ 24 inch EW2440L LED Backlit LCD Monitor online at Flipkart.com

you can read all the reviews in amazon.in
Amazon.in: Buy BenQ EW2440L 24-inch LED Monitor Online at Low Prices in India | BenQ Reviews & Rating

Go with the above mentioned config which absolutely suits your budget.

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K

Sorry for the late reply people. That indeed was a good suggestion, he-man.... but unfortunately not an IPS though which is what I need. Planning to stick to the spec 02 cabinet, Asus B150 motherboard and hoping to find the Asus VX239H panel which looks good to me. I would not mind stretching the budget even. Hopefully, it is available. Will keep the inputs coming.

karthik316_1999 said:
Asus VX239H panel which looks good to me. I would not mind stretching the budget even. Hopefully, it is available. Will keep the inputs coming.

I don't even see this model in official site - India. And I don't see it available anywhere online.

Going by Amazon US price, it would cost over 25k.

No offense, I think you're spending tooooo much for a simple use.

K

Okay let me elaborate. The panel might serve as a TV connected to a set top box sometime later and might be used to view detailed engineering drawings with miniature numbers in addition to being used to watch movies with an audience of atleast 3+ spread across the room. Hence the insist of top quality IPS.

Really bad news that it is not India specific. Could you suggest an Asus itself probably with a stretched budget of 18,000? And/or other brands for consideration?

Too bad that official websites of all manufacturers do not elaborately list all available models. That's highlighting only the recently launched models. Like for example, the pa238q was among the professional series of Asus but nowhere to be listed when searched series wise on their website now.

karthik316_1999 said:
Okay let me elaborate. The panel might serve as a TV connected to a set top box sometime later and might be used to view detailed engineering drawings with miniature numbers in addition to being used to watch movies with an audience of atleast 3+ spread across the room. Hence the insist of top quality IPS. Really bad news that it is not India specific. Could you suggest an Asus itself probably with a stretched budget of 18,000? And/or other brands for consideration? Too bad that official websites of all manufacturers do not elaborately list all available models. That's highlighting only the recently launched models. Like for example, the pa238q was among the professional series of Asus but nowhere to be listed when searched series wise on their website now.

Dell U2414H costs 20k, ticks all boxes but VGA port.
Dell P2414H costs 15k, ticks all the boxes but HDMI port. You can use adapter or converter.
PA238Q is not listed in their site, but available with online sellers for about 23k
If I come across any other model, I will let you know.

K

Thanks a bunch for your time, nac. I've seen people say Dell monitor always have a glossy finish which I would like to avoid. Is this specific to certain series of dell monitors that I should avoid ? Glossy & matte.. are these the only two 'types' ?

Also, looks like even Asus is using ah-ips panels from LG. So, LG also might be a good brand to research.

Yeah, there is only two I guess. Glossy have some kinda anti-glare coating. I mostly see glossy screens than matte.

BenQ BL2420PT costs 23.5-28k
LG 24GM77 costs 19-21.5k

My pick would be Dell for price, popularity, they aren't pathetic with their after sales and user reviews are also good.

K

Hopefully, the dell will come within the total budget as it seems to be fine configuration wise apart from some settings tweak required with nvidia and intel gpu's.

Final and I would say 'the biggest concern' is now the UPS. Only when trying to search an appropriate UPS for this build, did I come across an answer (not solution) as to why one of my previous builds with a corsair GS series PSU (/w active pfc technology as do most 80 plus certified psu's today) did not work with my APC back UPS 1100 VA. Does this ring a bell to anyone here ?

The issue I faced and still do even today - When at peak load and power is interrupted, the UPS would trip with a load drop and the system would go off. This did not happen when at idle or less load. I had been blaming the UPS all these months and even planned to get a new UPS for the older system along with this new build. Thankfully, I haven't yet and would be great if someone could throw in light on this.

Seems modern PSU's with the Active PFC technology are not compatible with non pure sine-wave UPS models which is what most of the manufacturers offer at domestic level models. Please note : As you would know, the issue is not prevalent in all cases and might/might not occur with specific UPS+PSU combinations and/or at varied load levels.

I'm not sure how many at this forum have come across this problem and if so, could you let me know what would be a viable solution ? I'm not able to find proper pure sine wave model UPS at an affordable price, let's say.

Your APC 1100VA UPS works well with the suggested PSU ie Seasonic S12II 520w.

I am using the same PSU but a modular one with APC UPS.

No probs. Go ahead mate. OK.

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K

Re: Assistance with motherboard & monitor selection for an i5 spec

Maybe you could try putting the PC on full load (I mean really peak load on the GPU & CPU) and cutting off the mains to see if the switch over to the UPS battery is smooth ?

- - - Updated - - -

What I fail to understand is why would the APC 1100 Back-UPS fail to switch onto battery when the PC (corsair gs 600) is on full load ? The batteries are new and apc service center wasn't able to replicate the problem at their center. Same as me when the PC is not on load.

It is only after a couple of days once the UPS has 'tripped', will it start working again normally. Otherwise, it would simply shut off during the initial self test. Really strange behavior..

I don't know the reason, just a rough guess. They say starting load is double the normal. May be 600w needs 1200w when switch over? I don't know just guessing.

There were some discussion few months back that PC shutting down despite having UPS during switch from (or to?) generator to main power. Don't know if he fixed that issue, search this forum and see if that is any helpful for you.

K

Tried searching but could not unfortunately locate the said thread. Might this be due to the fact that my pc is not that energy efficient?

Meaning, both the cpu and gpu are power masters with the phenom II x4 955 @ peak power of 230w and 6850r cyclone edition @ peak power of 240w. Sunil'c PC config does not seem to be that power hungry (i5 4670S @ peak power of 70w and asus gtx960 @ peak power of 70w) and hence his 1100va ups is holding good ?

This is the one I was talking about
*forum.digit.in/hardware-q/196809-desktop-restart-generator-supply.html?highlight=generator

K

Thanks nac, that was an interesting thread but in my case there is no inverter / generator involved. The UPS is plainly connected to the AC mains..

K

Just to update, we've purchased the said PC yesterday and happy with it. Thanks to all who have assisted throughout..

A small question though.. not related to pc components but to the OS. pardon me for adding this to the thread.

I had installed windows 7 32-bit at first (during which it did not allow to create more than 2 partitions for some reason and hence I left the remaining 500 GB of the 1 TB HDD as unallocated space).

Later when installing windows 8 64 bit the unallocated space was partitioned (total 4 partitions approxing of 250 GB each). Problem is when I login to windows 8, the partition of windows 7 has been assigned the last drive letter (G: ). (Just this HDD and a CD drive were connected at the time of installation). I would like to change the windows 7 partition drive to drive (D: ) and the other 2 as E and F respectively. So that the CD drive can take G probably.

Now, is it safe to change the drive assigned letter by right clicking Computer > Manage > Disk Management ? It gives an unstability warning when I try to do so and the PC assembler warns me that doing so will corrupt the Master Boot Record and I wont be able to choose to boot to windows 7 any longer. I remember having done something like this in my other PC although not sure if it was on the drive where the OS was installed. Any advice ?

I have used a dual boot system before, and never bothered about this drive letter assigning esp. when it's giving warning why changing that. I usually label the drives like Windows/Linux, Guest, Documents...

K

Thanks, nac. just so if at all this helps someone, I did try changing the windows 7 drive letter to D and windows startup repair came to the rescue fixing some boot issues that I did have the next time the system started.

Now, all is fine as expected.