Build Thread 2.0

[teknoman2]

a 31k vote survey showed that 72% of the people who plan to get a new card will be getting the 480

https://twitter.com/KMoamm/status/744701513621176324/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

[Lord of Lost Socks]

Hey, guys!

I'm planning on buying a new computer and would like assistance in optimizing it. With no further ado:

Intended use:

My main intention is to run any current game on ultra at 1080p and minimum 60 fps, with future proofing. My old PC lasted 5 years and has served me well, and I would hope this new one to do the same. 120 fps's aren't required, but would love to run everything on ultra with no huge issues for at least a year onwards.


Budget:

To be fair it's up to 2000 euros, but that's a bit silly so currently around 1500 euros would be fine.

Country:

Finland. Although not opposed to ordering from other countries if significantly cheaper.

Potential build:

 

• Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING 169.90€
• HDD: Seagate 2TB Barracuda, SATA III, 7200RPM, 64MB 89.90€
• Case: Fractal Design Define R5 BlackOut edition 114.90€
• RAM: Kingston 16GB(2x8GB) HyperX Fury DDR4 2666 MHz, CL15 91€
• CPU: Intel Skylake i5-6600K, LGA1151, 3,5GHz, 6MB 269.90€
• Power Supply: EVGA 650W SuperNOVA 650 G2 109.00€
• GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G -näytönohjain, 8GB GDDR5 559€

TOTAL: 1403.60€

Additional details:

My PC knowledge is 5 years outdated so any assistance I could get is greatly appreciated.
Mainly worried about motherboard compatibility, power supply (whether it's enough). Also wondering whether I need extra cooling. In general I expect this to be horribly optimized, so feel free to tweak the build. This is currently way under my max budget and a little under my comfortable budget, so feel free to also add stuff.
I already have an SSD in my old computer that I will use and a DVD station, so those I do not need to buy. The rest of the parts are quite abused so I do not expect them to be of any use in my new build.

Any ideas?

[Sarex]

I sent my monitor to service again, for the same issue. It seems these panels have issues with bright spots appearing, among other things... Anyways, I'm going to return it after they confirm the issue and swap it for a 34UC88 (curved), or if I can get a confirmation from the seller that they will getting it, the 34UM88 model (flat). Both have Free Sync which I won't be using unless I switch to AMD, but the flat model has a 75HZ refresh rate, on the other hand if the 34UM88 has the same panel as the 34UM95 (the one I currently own) I'll be running the risk of the bright spot appearing again. I had no luck finding out the ID of the panel of the new model.

 

edit: Seems both the 34um88 and the 34uc88 are 60Hz default and 75Hz with freesync enabled.

 

 

Well I'll update on this just as a warning to you guys, I returned the monitor back for my cash a while ago and have since done research on the net. What I found out was that most of LGs IPS panels have this issue (couldn't confirm for the curved panels), but it seems that either most people don't notice it, or it doesn't happen on every panel produced (in which case I got VERY unlucky). Even the top of the line 31MU97Z-B monitor has this issue reported.

 

What I planed to do was get the newest ultrawide panel in the form of LG 34UM88 in hopes that the issue has been rectified  but for some reason only that model of the monitor has not been imported (maybe because I returned so many ). What I'm considering now is either Asus PG348Q (curved ultrawide) which also has an LG panel, or the Asus PG279Q which has the AU Optronic panel, but I really came to like the ultra wide format and I kind of don't want the curved panel as I feel it's a gimmick, so I'm currently stuck.

 

Another option is to wait for the new panels from LG, but that is ways off from being sold in a form of a finished product (well not way off but end of 2017 probably).

 

Well there you have it, if you are in the market for a ultrawide monitor be warned, pretty much all of them have LG's panels with the exception of the Samsung models.

[Humanoid]

• Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING 169.90€
• HDD: Seagate 2TB Barracuda, SATA III, 7200RPM, 64MB 89.90€
• Case: Fractal Design Define R5 BlackOut edition 114.90€
• RAM: Kingston 16GB(2x8GB) HyperX Fury DDR4 2666 MHz, CL15 91€
• CPU: Intel Skylake i5-6600K, LGA1151, 3,5GHz, 6MB 269.90€
• Power Supply: EVGA 650W SuperNOVA 650 G2 109.00€
• GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G -näytönohjain, 8GB GDDR5 559€

TOTAL: 1403.60€

 

Additional details:

 

My PC knowledge is 5 years outdated so any assistance I could get is greatly appreciated.

Mainly worried about motherboard compatibility, power supply (whether it's enough). Also wondering whether I need extra cooling. In general I expect this to be horribly optimized, so feel free to tweak the build. This is currently way under my max budget and a little under my comfortable budget, so feel free to also add stuff.

I already have an SSD in my old computer that I will use and a DVD station, so those I do not need to buy. The rest of the parts are quite abused so I do not expect them to be of any use in my new build.

 

Any ideas?

 

The shop you're linking to seems down at the moment so these are just more general recommendations:

 

1) I reckon we're finally at the point where the extra threads in an i7 are worthwhile in a gaming machine. For about another 100EUR I reckon go ahead and get the i7-6700.

 

2) Intel K-series CPUs no longer come with a cooler, so you'll need to buy one. The CoolerMaster 212 series is commonly considered the cheapest "good" option, though my personal pick would be a Scythe Kotetsu (or the larger Ninja 4, which might be inconveniently large).

 

3) A 650W PSU is fine. The only reason you'd need larger is if you plan to SLI *and* do heavy overclocking.

 

4) Some games love fast RAM these days and the price difference isn't much so you may as well go for DDR4-3000/3200.

[Humanoid]

Heard a lot of Finns just buy their PCs from Germany so here's a sample PCPartpicker build. Note I had to swap out the PSU but only because the EVGA G2 isn't available in Germany. As a general principle, I'd say throw any extra cash you want to spend at buying more SSD space, because you won't really get much out of it by spending any more on the other parts. You have an m.2 slot on the motherboard so you can get an m.2 SSD if you want.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€339.58 @ Mindfactory)
CPU Cooler: Scythe Kotetsu 79.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (€34.27 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€147.79 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  (€165.85 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€106.79 @ Mindfactory)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 8GB G1 Gaming Video Card  (€482.49 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Blackout Edition ATX Mid Tower Case  (€105.05 @ Mindfactory)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (€98.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1480.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-03 05:00 CEST+0200

Edited July 3, 2016 by Humanoid

[teknoman2]

i want to get me a 480 when the custom models are out. the best option for me is to order it from a german or french site. the price there + any shipping cost will still be cheaper than the price here.

[Lord of Lost Socks]

 

• Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING 169.90€
• HDD: Seagate 2TB Barracuda, SATA III, 7200RPM, 64MB 89.90€
• Case: Fractal Design Define R5 BlackOut edition 114.90€
• RAM: Kingston 16GB(2x8GB) HyperX Fury DDR4 2666 MHz, CL15 91€
• CPU: Intel Skylake i5-6600K, LGA1151, 3,5GHz, 6MB 269.90€
• Power Supply: EVGA 650W SuperNOVA 650 G2 109.00€
• GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G -näytönohjain, 8GB GDDR5 559€

TOTAL: 1403.60€

 

Additional details:

 

My PC knowledge is 5 years outdated so any assistance I could get is greatly appreciated.

Mainly worried about motherboard compatibility, power supply (whether it's enough). Also wondering whether I need extra cooling. In general I expect this to be horribly optimized, so feel free to tweak the build. This is currently way under my max budget and a little under my comfortable budget, so feel free to also add stuff.

I already have an SSD in my old computer that I will use and a DVD station, so those I do not need to buy. The rest of the parts are quite abused so I do not expect them to be of any use in my new build.

 

Any ideas?

 

The shop you're linking to seems down at the moment so these are just more general recommendations:

 

1) I reckon we're finally at the point where the extra threads in an i7 are worthwhile in a gaming machine. For about another 100EUR I reckon go ahead and get the i7-6700.

 

2) Intel K-series CPUs no longer come with a cooler, so you'll need to buy one. The CoolerMaster 212 series is commonly considered the cheapest "good" option, though my personal pick would be a Scythe Kotetsu (or the larger Ninja 4, which might be inconveniently large).

 

3) A 650W PSU is fine. The only reason you'd need larger is if you plan to SLI *and* do heavy overclocking.

 

4) Some games love fast RAM these days and the price difference isn't much so you may as well go for DDR4-3000/3200.

 

 

 

Heard a lot of Finns just buy their PCs from Germany so here's a sample PCPartpicker build. Note I had to swap out the PSU but only because the EVGA G2 isn't available in Germany. As a general principle, I'd say throw any extra cash you want to spend at buying more SSD space, because you won't really get much out of it by spending any more on the other parts. You have an m.2 slot on the motherboard so you can get an m.2 SSD if you want.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€339.58 @ Mindfactory)

CPU Cooler: Scythe Kotetsu 79.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (€34.27 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€147.79 @ Mindfactory)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  (€165.85 @ Mindfactory)

Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€106.79 @ Mindfactory)

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 8GB G1 Gaming Video Card  (€482.49 @ Mindfactory)

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Blackout Edition ATX Mid Tower Case  (€105.05 @ Mindfactory)

Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (€98.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Total: €1480.71

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-03 05:00 CEST+0200

 

 

Hey! Thanks a lot for the suggestions. Will take it into consideration. A bit on the run right now, so will check back later.

 

However, quickly for now, I noticed that the 3 TB HDD is only 5400 rpm, wouldn't 7200 rpm be better considering only some select games would be installed on my SSD and the rest on the HDD.

 

Regards,

[Humanoid]

True, the 7200rpm drive is faster, but a couple of factors tend to sway me:

 

1) The speed difference is not proportional to the difference in rotational speed, in practice the difference will be significantly smaller. Personally I believe a quieter, more reliable drive (Seagate have had issues lately) with a better warranty tips the balance in favour of the slightly slower drive.

 

2) SSD storage is becoming quite cheap, with a 1TB SSD occasionally even falling under 200EUR. Personally I've been able to fit all my games onto less than my 1TB of SSD space, and indeed ended up taking out all my spindle drives altogether. Even if you don't go as far as that, I believe it's more forward-looking to think of the traditional HDD as a media drive mostly. It's also for this reason that "premium" spindle drives like the WD Black series are no longer worth the money (and noise).

 

In the end though, not a big deal really - it's mostly because I note you have a pretty generous budget so it's an ideal case to go heavy on the SSD route.

[Lord of Lost Socks]

Fair enough. Using those points I came to the conclusion that I should wait for SSD's to drop in price a bit more, and use my old SSD for all the heavier games and a smaller cheaper HDD for smaller games and media. Then later when I want more storage go for a larger SSD.

 

That in mind, my build currently looks like this: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/7ZRm8K

 

The 32 GB RAM seemed a tad excessive as I don't know any game currently that reachers 8 GB. As a pure gaming computer, I feel like 16 GB should be enough.

 

I sticked a Seagate 2 TB drive there, but you say they've been having issues? Just checked my old HDD that's having issues, it's actually a Seagate too, but it's over 5 years old now, so not too surprised. Any idea for replacement?

[Humanoid]

It was their previous gen that had known major issues, haven't heard of it recurring so chances are their current ones are probably fine. That said, historically statistics show Hitachi drives being the most reliable, ahead of WD and then Seagate.

 

That said, you'll quickly notice that the other manufacturers don't actually have drives competing on price with the Seagate 7200. This is because they've opted for different strategies, there's only room for one entry level drive in each product range. Seagate's entry-level drives are 7200rpm, WD's are 5400rpm, and Hitachi (owned by WD these days) normally don't sell entry-level drives at all.

 

(Fake edit: I tell a lie, in that WD do make the Blue range of entry level HDDs, and I do recommend these to absolute budget builders ....but they only come in 500GB and 1TB versions)

 

Under normal circumstances then, the only option for 7200rpm at an entry-level price is Seagate. As mentioned before, I don't feel WD Blacks are worth the money, and Hitachi is even more of a premium product (5-year warranty, vs 2 years for the Seagate Barracuda and 3 years for WD Red). At that point you're almost at 1TB SSD prices, so it's not something I'd do.

 

You will notice however on PC Part Picker there that the cheapest 2TB drive is a Hitachi. This is their old series, the 7k3000 (as opposed to the current 7k4000 series). These were excellent drives at the time, so if you don't mind that the stock may be at least three years old (The 7k4000 series launched in 2013 so Amazon probably found these old ones in the back of a warehouse somewhere), it's probably the technically better product. The Seagate will likely be very recently manufactured, but they're built to a price point.

 

 

(I neglect to mention Toshiba because their market share is small, only about a third of the big two, so it's hard to get a read on their overall reputation. Samsung are also still around but their market share is absolutely tiny.)

Edited July 3, 2016 by Humanoid

[Bartimaeus]

I recently just saw a sale for new Hitachi Ultrastar 2TBs for $45 per. It was an intriguing deal, one that I nearly jumped on, but the seller was not an authorized reseller and therefore the drives didn't get the full warranty, or I definitely would have. I'm not really in the market for an HDD, even one that cheap, and I didn't want it to just sit around collecting dust, try to use it a few years from now and then have it die on me real quick like HDDs have a tendency to do these days with zero warranty to help...

 

Amazingly, my Seagate 1TB has shown remarkable endurance over the past six years since I got it. 5.2 years of up-time (thanks SMART data), still working like a champ. Guess I got lucky - still make backups semi-frequently, though.

Edited July 3, 2016 by Bartimaeus

[teknoman2]

i have a 10 year old IDE disk and it still works. i use it as an external disk though since motherboards these days only have SATA

[Bokishi]

My Hitachi 1TB from 9 years ago recently kicked the bucket, did not make backups, so had to send to data extraction :/

[Gorgon]

Last IDE started making the death rattle noise a few months ago. Didn't have anywhere to stick all the movies that were on it so I just yanked the cables. I keep telling myself I'm going to clean up my remaining HDDs, it's not like there's anything important on there, just the time it takes to decide what to delete and what to keep.

[Humanoid]

Sandisk Ultra II for 180EUR on Amazon France. Pricing like this is why I feel building an all-SSD machine is fully viable these days even for mid-range machines.

[mkreku]

I splashed out for a 4TB Hitachi Deskstar last year. It's just been sitting there.. silent.. swiftly delivering data..

 

My WD Caviar Black 2TB before that lasted just under 5 years. I'm hoping the Hitachi will last even longer (haven't even used 30% of its capacity yet).

[Humanoid]

US-based owners of the GTX 970 will shortly be able to claim $30 back from nVidia who have lost the class-action lawsuit regarding the whole 3.5GB VRAM kerfuffle.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

The 1000 line launched on laptops without the 'M' nomenclature and are supposed to get within 10% of desktop performance.

I guess I'll consider upgrading once there's a thin and light option and the performance checks out.

[mkreku]

Yeah.. they launched in Sweden. The cheapest model, the GTX1060, starts at.. $2300. I kid you not.

 

The previous generation, the GTX960M, retails for around $1200-1300.

 

**** that, Nvidia. ****. That.

[Bokishi]

Yeah.. they launched in Sweden. The cheapest model, the GTX1060, starts at.. $2300. I kid you not.

 

The previous generation, the GTX960M, retails for around $1200-1300.

 

**** that, Nvidia. ****. That.

Holy crap!

[Gorgon]

GTX 1060 is down to to 2200 kr. 350 bucks, give or take. Must have been low availability. So, yeah take a drive to Copenhagen.

[Gorgon]

Unless you mean cards produced by Nvida, which you probably do. 

[Humanoid]

Talking about laptops with GTX 960M/1060M graphics, not standalone cards.

[Gorgon]

ohh

 

Well get an external GPU and a middle of the road laptop and free yourself from laptop pricing. It's all the rage.

 

Has anyone seen benchmarks for those. Kinda curious about doing that myself. 

[teknoman2]

this is absurd

the cheapest price for the red devil 480 8GB in greece is 371 euro when in italy it costs 255.