Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Skylake Motherboard $40

Could be a good start for a nice htpc

For some reason I can't choose inpost shipping when checking out.

Personal opinion: If you're investing in skylake, you shouldn't be cheaping out this much on a motherboard.

Too bad its mATX rather than ITX... Still can build a small cheap HTPC with a G3900 / G4400 likely < 250.

Not planning to get this, but looked into it, it's $45.19 total for Toronto with inPost pickup + $10 MIR which will cost u a couple of bucks to mail? Around $37-$38 in total, not bad for a motherboard even if it's not that great.

Also has some digital stuff for the free to play game World of Warships, but I'm sure most don't care about that. You could try to trade the code on reddit for another game perhaps? Probably not worth much?

Zyphur wrote: ↑Personal opinion: If you're investing in skylake, you shouldn't be cheaping out this much on a motherboard.

For a cheap build it would be okay I think. Instead of spending the proper $100+.

Zyphur wrote: ↑Personal opinion: If you're investing in skylake, you shouldn't be cheaping out this much on a motherboard.

What if you're buying a G4400? There's still low-end Skylake processors. Skylake doesn't mean all i5s and i7s.

H110 is indeed a really cut-down chipset, but for people that will never use the extra features the higher chipsets provide this is, if anything, really cheap. There's lots of features lacking on this board--only HDMI output and no other video, no digital audio (other than through HDMI), only two USB 3.0 ports (and no front panel connector meaning you're either settling for USB 2.0 case ports or doing what we do with the ol' LGA1156 boards and using the external-to-internal cable), only three PCIe slots, only two DIMM slots, low-rent ALC 887 analog audio, etc. But there's actually boards that cost twice as much that have a few of those same drawbacks.

Only bad reviews seem to be getting DOA boards (which is bad yes, but looks like the working ones are fairly "thumbs up" reviews). All solid caps and standard 3yr Can/US Gigabyte warranty applies even though this is clearly a bargain-basement board. CPU support is still good for even a 6700K, though as you indicate it's not likely someone is going to put a CPU that's worth over 10x the board cost on there

If someone is just going to use it for plugging into HDMI (or using a dGPU) and putting a G4400 or even a 6100 on there, doesn't care about having PCIe expandability or m.2 support, and can live with two USB 3.0 ports? It's really not bad at all.

I'm looking at building the absolute cheapest PC I can that. My only prerequisite is that I need to be able to run Overwatch at decent settings. Would this be a decent choice? I literally do not care about anything else besides Overwatch (for this build).

Kherani wrote: ↑I'm looking at building the absolute cheapest PC I can that. My only prerequisite is that I need to be able to run Overwatch at decent settings. Would this be a decent choice? I literally do not care about anything else besides Overwatch (for this build).

Yeah you should be able to if you use a dGPU, anyway. What res are you planning to run Overwatch at and are you looking for 30FPS or 60?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 1461722998

can i put it in this Computer Case?

and any PSU and CPU suggestion?

ES_Revenge wrote: ↑What if you're buying a G4400? There's still low-end Skylake processors. Skylake doesn't mean all i5s and i7s.

H110 is indeed a really cut-down chipset, but for people that will never use the extra features the higher chipsets provide this is, if anything, really cheap. There's lots of features lacking on this board--only HDMI output and no other video, no digital audio (other than through HDMI), only two USB 3.0 ports (and no front panel connector meaning you're either settling for USB 2.0 case ports or doing what we do with the ol' LGA1156 boards and using the external-to-internal cable), only three PCIe slots, only two DIMM slots, low-rent ALC 887 analog audio, etc. But there's actually boards that cost twice as much that have a few of those same drawbacks.

Only bad reviews seem to be getting DOA boards (which is bad yes, but looks like the working ones are fairly "thumbs up" reviews). All solid caps and standard 3yr Can/US Gigabyte warranty applies even though this is clearly a bargain-basement board. CPU support is still good for even a 6700K, though as you indicate it's not likely someone is going to put a CPU that's worth over 10x the board cost on there

If someone is just going to use it for plugging into HDMI (or using a dGPU) and putting a G4400 or even a 6100 on there, doesn't care about having PCIe expandability or m.2 support, and can live with two USB 3.0 ports? It's really not bad at all.

Gigabyte now has a Canadian RMA centre? I thought we still have to send it down to the US.

Millenniunn wrote: ↑http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 1461722998

can i put it in this Computer Case?

No, you cannot. That's [mini] ITX, this is microATX.

Millenniunn wrote: ↑and any PSU and CPU suggestion?

Personally I don't like to cheap out on PSUs and am really a fan of the eVGA P2s that go for a little over $100 AR. However that may be too expensive for a super budget build so instead I'd suggest something like...

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6817438082
or
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6817438012
or
http://www.ncix.com/detail/corsair-cx-s ... 125718.htm

CPU? As said, G4400 and i3-6100 would be prime candidates. You can put even an i7 on here but given this is a $40 board, I don't think you'll want to be spending over $400 for the processor

ToniCipriani wrote: ↑Gigabyte now has a Canadian RMA centre? I thought we still have to send it down to the US.

No they don't (AFAIK). I meant that their board warranty is 3 years on purchases in Canada and the US (other countries have different warranty periods).

Millenniunn wrote: ↑http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 1461722998

can i put it in this Computer Case?

No, your case only supports mini-itx, this motherboard is micro-atx. Size difference shown here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_ ... arison.jpg

ES_Revenge wrote: ↑Yeah you should be able to if you use a dGPU, anyway. What res are you planning to run Overwatch at and are you looking for 30FPS or 60?

Lowest resolution is fine for me, 60fps is preferable. This guy seems to get decent performance out of a G4400.

http://youtu.be/2OxyEc895Vc

ES_Revenge wrote: ↑No, you cannot. That's [mini] ITX, this is microATX.


Personally I don't like to cheap out on PSUs and am really a fan of the eVGA P2s that go for a little over $100 AR. However that may be too expensive for a super budget build so instead I'd suggest something like...

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6817438082
or
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6817438012
or
http://www.ncix.com/detail/corsair-cx-s ... 125718.htm

CPU? As said, G4400 and i3-6100 would be prime candidates. You can put even an i7 on here but given this is a $40 board, I don't think you'll want to be spending over $400 for the processor


No they don't (AFAIK). I meant that their board warranty is 3 years on purchases in Canada and the US (other countries have different warranty periods).

I see, thank you very much!

momentie wrote: ↑No, your case only supports mini-itx, this motherboard is micro-atx. Size difference shown here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_ ... arison.jpg

Thank you! I thought it's a small motherboard.

Kherani wrote: ↑Lowest resolution is fine for me, 60fps is preferable. This guy seems to get decent performance out of a G4400.

http://youtu.be/2OxyEc895Vc

By "lowest resolution" what does that mean? What resolution is your monitor (or the monitor that is going to be used)?

If we're talking about 1080p (which is basically the low-end of monitors today), then yeah looks like a 950 would fit the bill:
http://www.techspot.com/review/1180-ove ... page2.html

However the game is also quite CPU intensive--watch how it scales with CPU speed:
http://www.techspot.com/review/1180-ove ... page5.html

It seems an G3258 struggles to get 60FPS minimum even with a 1080 (!) and at 4.5Ghz it gets to 54FPS min (granted the max is over 80 at that point). You may want to go with an i3-6100 to avoid any blips and stutters. Techspot claims above 4Ghz the G3258 is quite smooth at 1080p, so I think you're into an i3 for assured performance in Overwatch. Up to you if you want to see how it goes with a G4400 though--it is basically half the price of the i3.

That YT video is confusing. In the text he says the G4400 + 950 can play 1080p/60FPS "all day" with Overwatch, but the video description says he's playing at [1366x] 768p

Also before going out and getting a GTX 950, you may want to wait and see when Polaris 11 releases because it'll be as fast as the 950 and probably cost less (and use less power). Polaris 10 (RX480) is out in a matter of days, it may not be more than a month before the lower-end cards arrive.

ES_Revenge wrote: ↑By "lowest resolution" what does that mean? What resolution is your monitor (or the monitor that is going to be used)?

If we're talking about 1080p (which is basically the low-end of monitors today), then yeah looks like a 950 would fit the bill:
http://www.techspot.com/review/1180-ove ... page2.html

However the game is also quite CPU intensive--watch how it scales with CPU speed:
http://www.techspot.com/review/1180-ove ... page5.html

It seems an G3258 struggles to get 60FPS minimum even with a 1080 (!) and at 4.5Ghz it gets to 54FPS min (granted the max is over 80 at that point). You may want to go with an i3-6100 to avoid any blips and stutters. Techspot claims above 4Ghz the G3258 is quite smooth at 1080p, so I think you're into an i3 for assured performance in Overwatch. Up to you if you want to see how it goes with a G4400 though--it is basically half the price of the i3.

That YT video is confusing. In the text he says the G4400 + 950 can play 1080p/60FPS "all day" with Overwatch, but the video description says he's playing at [1366x] 768p

Also before going out and getting a GTX 950, you may want to wait and see when Polaris 11 releases because it'll be as fast as the 950 and probably cost less (and use less power). Polaris 10 (RX480) is out in a matter of days, it may not be more than a month before the lower-end cards arrive.

Thanks for all the advice. I don't have monitor yet but I'll probably pick up the cheapest I can find. When I said lowest resolution, I meant 1366x768. 1080p would be nice but to keep the price down, it's not a necessity.

The G3258 is not an adequate gaming CPU. I owned one. In more and more games now it just doesn't cut it. If you're any type of serious gamer, you will need at least an Intel quad core.

Also, the GTX 950 is an absolutely terrible purchase right now. The RX480 comes out on Wednesday and soon after that we will see the cheaper Polaris 11 based cards. Not only that but the GTX 950 is a weak card even for 1080p gaming. You will have to turn down the settings in a lot of games.

Kherani wrote: ↑Thanks for all the advice. I don't have monitor yet but I'll probably pick up the cheapest I can find. When I said lowest resolution, I meant 1366x768. 1080p would be nice but to keep the price down, it's not a necessity.

if you care about price so much that you're willing to care so little about graphics quality, than why not just buy a console? It'll likely be cheaper than any PC you're going to build to run this, even if it's just a little bit. But also, you'll likely get much better quality.

Buy a used xbox one for around $200-250 is your cheapest route to playing overwatch

$40 motherboard
$70-100 CPU
$100 graphics card and you're already above the price of a used console