So I would like to build a new PC, but I have a limited budget. I saw that there are some pretty good deals on used i5s and i7s, for example 2500k for 90€ and i7 2600k for around 140€. The only hassle going with the 1155 socket I see is getting a nice mobo, but there are some options.
The second route would be going Haswell, with like a i5 4570 (those are selling for around 150€) or similar and get a cheap h97 board (or H87).
I mainly would use the PC for gaming (CSGO, BF4 and others), I would get a new PSU, RAM and a case. I still have a HDD (would buy SSD later on) and an old HD 6870 which would be ok for the start.
What do you guys think? Should I go Haswell or should I go full OC-mode with Sandy- or Ivybridge?
For comparison: A i5 6400 cost around 180€
I really would like to get the cheapest stuff which will suit my needs
Edit: BTW I'm from Germany
Edit 2: I have gotten a used EVGA Z87 Stinger Mini-ITX board now, so Haswell it is :)
I would say that if you want an upgrade path later on, you should go for the h97 route with an i5. Then upgrade to a i7 4790, if you feel that you need/want it later on. If the build is only a temporary solution to save money for a couple of months, then go the 2500k route.
How are prices on a similar Skylake setup there in Germany? If they aren't too bad, you could probably build a pretty decent i3 Skylake build for around the same price as a h97 build. That way, you have a good upgrade path for the most recent Intel CPU release.
I dont want to go with an i3 as I want 4 cores, especially for being "future proof" as I would like to not upgrade the CPU for 3-4 years, I dont plan on playing the most CPU intense games anyway. Of course I could sell the i3 later, but I would like to go with an i5 from the start... I also think that Skylake prices are still a little high right now (6500 costs 220€, 6600k cost 240€) and I won't need that extra 10% over Haswell.
The i7 2600k for 140 would be a decent choice if I could get a decent mobo, I guess. Maybe both for 200€.
Can you find any deals on the i5-3570k and related? If its not too much of a bump in price you could get something a little bit more recent.
Perhaps even look into the amd offerings like fx8350.
When you do end up upgrading again, it will be most likely that the new stuff will need new motherboards etc. So may aswell find the best deals you can find in your current budget, with the most recent of components.
With that said I'd personally gladly go with an i5-2500k if it got me a better GPU. (although i'm personally conflicted with the fx8350 since i do like doing the occasional rendering and multithreaded related loads as a hobby.)
I actually had a rig with a FX 6300 OCed which was fine for most games, but as I am a huge CSGO fan, I need more performance per core to get a higher framerate. With the FX it could drop below 80 at some points (avg around 170).
Z77 should still be a decent platform, but of course socket 1150 would be much better I guess.
I've just recently been through the sheer pain of buying an old 1155 z77 motherboard for a 3770k I had around. Let me tell you, it's just not worthed. What you MIGHT save on the CPU, you'll have to waste on a used mobo. I scoured ebay for it and the prices were insane, even those for not fully functioning boards! I ended up finding one in Spain for 115€, but man... I'm not saying that sandy bridge is not worthed, but shopping for it definitely isn't.
The only deal I managed to score was a pentium part for 1155 for a HTPC, around 30€, from Austria.
I guess you're luckier being in Germany, you have a bigger enthusiast market at your disposal, you might find someone with an honest deal.
I can tell you something though, I did find a few semicomplete systems built around z77 for 300€. If you're not too picky that's the price a former gaming system should go for (without GPU) from an enthusiast. Unfortunately the one I saw is sold now (check subito.it if you want to get an idea), but it was a solid i5 with asrock mobo, 8gb ram and a liquid AIO cooler. You might want to keep an eye out for that.
Amongst my (far too many) machines I have an i7 2600 (non K) and an i5 4570. The Haswell chip edges it in single threaded performance - but you don't really notice.
One thing I did find was that to be able to fully use all the features of later edition Socket 1155 motherboards you really needed Ivybridge - PCI 3.0 and faster memory speeds for example. My i7 2600 is now in a cheap m-itx H61 motherboard, no USB 3.0 or SATA 3 but it's fine for gaming (tested with a 960, 970 and 980 ti) and is noticeably more powerful than the X4 860K that was in there before e.g. no GPU bottlenecking @ 1440p.
Amamzon.co.uk still have some H81 M-ITX boards, which would be fine for a cheap gaming build with a second hand Sandy or Ivy-bridge chip (over clocking ability might be limited)
I had exactly the same experience! It really seems as if so many boards just break (broken pins etc.), so there aren't many to meet the demand it seems.
I have got a used z87 board now, I found it in a german hardware forum (PCGHX). Its the Z87 Stinger from EVGA (95€, half a year old) as I want a small build eventually.
Thanks for the info. So for being more "future proof" and still get some decent-priced used parts, I picked the 1150 socket and got an used EVGA Z87 Stinger.
I think I will get a cheap i5 (4570 or similar) as that would suit my needs perfectly and still have the chance to later get a 4790k, if I really want/need to.
Cool, if you want a decent second hand chip with a warranty CEX in the UK sell the i7-4790T for 135 GBP. If you can run that with all cores on turbo @ 3.9GHz you'll have a pretty kick-ass machine.
I might buy one of these myself to replace my i5-4570.
Probably not much, a 400Mhz bump would help X-Plane X and ARMA 3 a little (both are CPU dependent), the hyper-threading would also be handy when I've got 3 or 4 VM's up at once, and would also speed up video file conversion a bit too (My i7-2600 is still quicker than the 4570 for this).
CEX is a high street chain in the UK where people trade in games and hardware. They buy and sell at set prices and everything they sell has a limited warranty. My i7-2600 came from there about 2 years ago for around 100 GBP when on ebay they were still going for around 140 GBP.
I purchased a dud 2nd hand i5-3570k from CEX a while back and they refunded my money no problems - much safer than ebay. Which reminds me - when buying 2nd hand CPU's parts that are unlikely to have been overclocked are probably a safer bet.