To build now or wait - the eternal question

[Giraffe]

My current system is just over 8 years old and wasn't exactly cutting-edge when built.
With things like firewalls and AVs getting 'heavier' it's taking longer to start (it's not too bad cf 8 years ago as I do keep it clean). Also I need a wider monitor for websites - most aren't made for 5:4.
The other thing is the content in sites - even opening 4 or 5 tabs at once is throttled by the CPU maxing out, not by the connection.

Now, I don't play games so an APU will be more than adequate (the current one won't quite handle a 24", 16:10 monitor), so there are 2 questions:
AMD (which I've always used) or Intel?
I'm aware of Zen and Skylake coming along, but are they worth waiting for?

I've been holding off until USB3 'matured'. I know that there are always technologies coming along - I just look at the ones that could be useful to me.

Cheers.

[Chugz]

Skylake will have a much better iGPU, so it's definitely worth waiting for Skylake. You'll only need 8GB of DDR4, USB3 is most certainly in its prime now. Alternatively if you're not bothered about iGPU performance, you could try your hand at building a Z97 rig; DDR3 is the cheapest its been in years.

[abaxas]

Random musing......

If you machine is a core2duo, upgrading to a faster chip will be almost free

[DanceswithUnix]

You have the 3800 Athlon X2 in the "my system" tab?

If so, anything modern will feel screaming fast.

It sounds like either an AMD APU or an Intel i3 would be fine for your needs.

Zen and Skylake? They matter a bit if you are gaming, but in your case I wouldn't think it was worth the wait.

If you want to stick with AMD, then I would suggest an A10-7870K.

If you give us an ideal of your ideal budget we can help with example builds.

[DanceswithUnix]

Random musing......

If you machine is a core2duo, upgrading to a faster chip will be almost free

The motherboard listed can take a Phenom II, but only up to 95W so probably worth upgrading motherboard.

[Giraffe]

Thanks for the replies.
Not worried about GPU - any modern integrated chip will handle what I do.
I won't upgrade the current stuff, it's too old now - although the 300W Seasonic PSU has never been pushed past about 130W!
If I stick with AMD, I'd go for A8... and A88X combi - I like cool and quiet, low power/energy.
I realise that I'm not the typical builder - rather under- than overclock and I go for high quality components, especially the PSU, that will be used well within their specs.

[EndlessWaves]

Intel generally don't make the best integrated chips available to desktops, annoyingly, so I'd only expect skylake desktop to get the GT2 equivalent like the current ones have. It'll be faster, but a long way from the range topping GT4e graphics.

I wouldn't bother with AMD for desktop processors. Their latest Carrizzo APU aren't available outside desktops and their high end FX models are now two generations out of date. Zen is also quite a while away, It wouldn't surprise me if it was a year or more.

Skylake is a harder decision to make. Assuming you're going for a Pentium/Celeron/i3 branded chip then they typically launch later so while the i5s and i7s may well be imminent (next month) it could easily be several months until the mainstream chips launch. For example the current Haswell i5/i7 chips launched on June 2nd 2013 but the Haswell i3s didn't come out until September 1st and the Haswell Celeron/Pentium chips remained behind closed doors until December 1st.

I would be tempted to wait until the initial Skylake chips come out and see how their feature sets compare. There are some possibilities like HDMI 2.0 that may be worth having.

p.s. Most websites aren't made for large widescreens either, if they're too wide for 1280 it's likely website designers are defaulting to 1366 wide.

[Giraffe]

Well, 15 is my aim - good but not unnecessarily so. Means that Skylake could be worth waiting for.
As I've said, for what I do the graphics aren't important. As for aspect ratio, I'm fed up of having a scroll bar at the bottom. With 1600 wide I can have the sidebar open as well.

[Bluecube]

15? You mean i5?

A decent 24" HD monitor can be picked up for around £120 which will give you enough screen space to do whatever you wish.

[Giraffe]

Yup, i5! I'll definitely get a 16:10 monitor, probably a Dell 2415.

[Bluecube]

I don't see any issues in buying one of the current crop. Whilst Skylake and the rest will have more graphics power, it'll be 3D orientated which doesn't appear to be an issue for you.

[DanceswithUnix]

I realise that I'm not the typical builder - rather under- than overclock and I go for high quality components, especially the PSU, that will be used well within their specs.

Not as uncommon as you seem to think. I have a 650W psu, because that way it doesn't strain to supply the 300W that it probably peaks at and is whisper quiet.

As a baseline:

£106 APU http://www.ebuyer.com/712906-amd-a10...-ad787kxdjcbox
£62 motherboard http://www.ebuyer.com/609504-asus-a8...ard-a88xm-plus
£39 8GB of ram http://www.ebuyer.com/633841-8gb-186...hx318c10fbk2-8

So £207 gets you a very big upgrade.
I wouldn't worry about waiting for the latest cpus to come out, you get typically 5% performance improvement every generation these days and buying what is on the market now will be a big improvement.

[DJX366]

Yep, a 24" 1920x1200 monitor is definitely worth it; I wound up with 2 and they come in handy for pretty much anything I do either graphics or gaming wise.. even the odd bit of work

[shaithis]

£106 APU http://www.ebuyer.com/712906-amd-a10...-ad787kxdjcbox
£62 motherboard http://www.ebuyer.com/609504-asus-a8...ard-a88xm-plus
£39 8GB of ram http://www.ebuyer.com/633841-8gb-186...hx318c10fbk2-8

or take the opportunity to go Mini-ITX at the same time. If your not gaming on the setup, might as well make it as small and quiet as possible...It's only a few quid more for an ITX mobo, cases are quite cheap and the silverstone 300w PSUs are very quiet and quite cheap.

[DJX366]

I keep toying with ITX for the next build but I always start to think about having a sound card and my liking for having multiple fail over drives that do not necessarily fit in with the form factor. I'm now considering MATX as a real possibility for the next one.

[EndlessWaves]

I'd wait and see, it'll be years before you need to touch your current Ivy Bridge i5 & GTX 970 and hopefully by then someone will have come up with a modern small form factor standard based off laptop components that's better than Via's old Mini-ITX with it's compromises.

Right now I'd agree that a small MicroATX case seems like a better choice over the typical popular Mini-ITX ones that are the same size.