New PC Build (Budget 1k-1.5k)

ixoy

I'm speccing out a PC that will primarily be used for gaming. I'd like it to have a life span similar to my current one (near 6 years) so I've chosen some new components (Skylake) to allow for that.

Read reviews of them all and they're generally on the very positive end for each component.


Anything I should change?

kingtiger

go with a i7 6700K instead of the i5

your case also has a ridiculous lead time

Digital Solitude

No need in the i7, but the motherboard is fairly steep, could save a bit there

Redfox25

Way overkill on mobo. Drop a 100 off that and get a 980 or 980ti into the build.

Also fill in the questionare and we can see what your planning to do with it. Lads might suggest a better build

ixoy

Redfox25 wrote: »

Way overkill on mobo. Drop a 100 off that and get a 980 or 980ti into the build.

Grand - two people saying motherboard is overkill! Any particular reason people would pay that for a mobo?

And the case - yep, lead time is terrible so open to any suggestions there. Mid-tower seems about the right size for me - I've used small cases and found them very cramped but a full tower would be too big.

One question: Do you really need water coolers, extra fans, etc? Stock heatsinks and thermal paste should be sufficient right especially if I'm not overclocking. Cases will presumably have fans.

Also fill in the questionare and we can see what your planning to do with it. Lads might suggest a better build

1. What is your budget? Up to €1500 is fine.

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? : Gaming. Looking to play the current and upcoming crop of next-gen games such as Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Farcry: Primal, Dishonoured 2, Mass Effect: Andromeda, etc.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No. I'll port over the licence from my current PC.

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer?
I'll take out the old DVD drive. I'll leave the remaining parts for potential other uses for the PC.

5. Do you need a monitor?
No. Games will mostly be played on a large TV (1080P). I don't see an immediate upgrade to a 1440P monitor or 4K TV but a build should allow for the possibility. I believe there's a new range of graphics card in the next year or so so the current build doesn't need it. Happy to allow for a build that will allow the GFX card to be replaced.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals?
Nope.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking?
No immediate desire to if I get the right build.

8. How can you pay? [Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser]
Lots of different ways!

9. When are you purchasing?
Within the next week. Want to build it over Christmas.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based?
Will build it myself as I've built the last three.

kingtiger

Digital Solitude wrote: »

No need in the i7, but the motherboard is fairly steep, could save a bit there

why not go for an i7? if you are spending 1-1.5k on a PC

Just for hyperthreading alone it's worth it

ixoy

kingtiger wrote: »

Just for hyperthreading alone it's worth it

From my own reading, hyperthreading won't make much of a difference for gaming (the primary purpose here) or more than four cores. Would that not make an i7 somewhat irrelevant?

Would I need any extra cooling beyond the stock cooler and whatever fans come with the case?

Digital Solitude

kingtiger wrote: »

why not go for an i7? if you are spending 1-1.5k on a PC

Just for hyperthreading alone it's worth it

There are better places to invest the money

Stock cooling will be fine if you've a good case and aren't fussy about a little volume

Redfox25

Add a hyper evo 212 circa 30 euro or less. Cooler sorted for good.

Get a i5 4690 or k if your going overclocking. Stick in a reasonable motherboard for 100 ish and a 980ti. Good enough for 1440p later. Alternatively get a 390x which is solid too.
Should you want to go 4k in a year or two add another gpu down the line.
However if your staying with a tv either card is total overkill. Same with the cpu.
You could spend more but no mad need to unless your planning programming or the likes.

TerrorFirmer

What's your current machine?

I ask because I see a lot of people 'upgrading' from Ivy and Sandybridge i5's, and on paper of course it's an upgrade in in real world gaming, it's virtually no upgrade at all.

If you had, say, any of the 2nd gen i5's onwards - unless you were running a €1000 Titan X, there's actually zero difference between them and Skylake in the vast majority of games at the worst of times. When you eliminate the bottleneck at enormous cost, the difference is still small - Skylake might get 100fps, sandybridge might get 80fps, for example.

If you had a 2500K there's absolutely zero need to upgrade, but I do see a lot of people upgrading from these to Haswell and Skylake - even though a moderately overclocked 2500K is neck-and-neck with the newer i5's.

Just something to consider, with a budget like that, the difference could literally mean something really great - like a 1440p G-Sync monitor, or a really beastly graphics card, a whole new TV, or whatever!

Of course at the end of the day sometimes you just want something new, or want to change the appearance of your machine - or in your case an upgrade might be actually necessary, of course.

ixoy

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

What's your current machine?

It's old - an i5 750. A "Lynnfield" apparently and a 1st generation.

in your case an upgrade might be actually necessary, of course.

I think it's probably necessary.

Stick in a reasonable motherboard for 100 ish and a 980ti. Good enough for 1440p later. Alternatively get a 390x which is solid too.

The 980ti seem to start at mid-600s!

I see some people say that AMD are very bad at supporting drivers, which is why I've hesitated against the 390 series. Figured a high-end 970 can almost get to an entry 980 and then, if I want, upgrade to that Pascal range I see mutters about in a few years.

Digital Solitude

ixoy wrote: »

I see some people say that AMD are very bad at supporting drivers, which is why I've hesitated against the 390 series. Figured a high-end 970 can almost get to an entry 980 and then, if I want, upgrade to that Pascal range I see mutters about in a few years.

Definitely upgrade from that CPU yeah.

AMD don't get drivers for new AAA's out immediately, that's the only problem with them. I've never had any instability with them so can't complain.

If you're not fussed about maxing a AAA as soon as it's released, then the 390 is a better call imo.

SterlingArcher

If I was you. I'd drop the mobo.( think you got that already) you can upgrade to an i7 6700 -328 and still have a decent mobo.

Get a regular 1tb western digital blue 50 ish. Unless you really need the 2 tb

The psu is good but very pricey. Can get a decent one for 50- 60 that will run rig just fine.

Change case- a Nanoxia Deep Silence.

GPU, I have a GTX 970 g1. For 1080p its sweet. Even running 1440p its decent. I only went 1440p because I got a deal too good to pass up. Otherwise I'd have stayed 1080p and 970.

That said amd is killing it, 8 gigs of ram compared to nvidias 3.5/4....

SterlingArcher

Ment to add. I have been tempted to go 980ti but I'd rather wait till pascal. And see if it's that real next step.

Stick up your build new thoughts if you have any

Eoinmc97

Core i5 6600K
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
GTX 980/ AMD R9 Fury (if budget allows get the fury, it performs better)
8GB DDR4 2400Mhz
Z170 ATX motherboard for €100-€140
250GB SSD
2TB HDD
700w PSU

That should be €1,350 so you can use the rest for peripherals, Windows 10 Keys or monitors.

ixoy

Further tweaks - mostly in the upwards direction! Figure some parts like the CPU I may as well go high now as it's messier to upgrade than a graphics card.

Output for the foreseeable future is to a 1080P TV (capable of 200HZ). It's a good size (55") and only a few years old so I don't see a 4K happening for a while by which point something like Pascal should have solidly set in.

AlmightyCushion

That motherboard is expensive. You could save a good bit there.

Eoinmc97

Ahm....right.
That Core i7 cannot be overclocked, so why get the 212 Evo, or the Z170 board for that matter? A core i5 6600K woukd be better for gaming here, as Hyper-Threading does not double the core count.
Get that RAM down to 8GB, you can always add more later, because right now, the only game that wants a lot of RAM is the mess Arkham Knight.
That Motherboard is €200. The ASUS Z170 A is €135 or Z170 Gigabyte €110. Cut it back because you don't need any of it's features.
Drop that PSU to a 750W Modular one, that should shave off €15.
Put your savings into an SSD and get either a GTX 980 or an AMD R9 Fury (get this if you can, because it performs better, but costs more)

ixoy

Eoinmc97 wrote: »

That Core i7 cannot be overclocked, so why get the 212 Evo, or the Z170 board for that matter? A core i5 6600K woukd be better for gaming here, as Hyper-Threading does not double the core count.

Grand. The Core i5-6600K 4 core (Octo Core) CPU with 3.50 GHz is nearly €100 cheaper so I can go with that.

That Motherboard is €200. The ASUS Z170 A is €135 or Z170 Gigabyte €110. Cut it back because you don't need any of it's features.

Reviews said it was better for sound output, etc. Have a Gigabyte currently and found it worked well. With the Z170 range there seems to be a lot of variety in prices - I'm guessing you're referring to this one?

Drop that PSU to a 750W Modular one, that should shave off €15.

Makes sense - I've got a modular one currently. Didn't even notice the difference. Why would you not got a modular one? What's the disadvantage?

Put your savings into an SSD and get either a GTX 980 or an AMD R9 Fury (get this if you can, because it performs better, but costs more)

Is there a point in getting a 980 over a 970 if I'm only going to be doing 1080P for the next while? Seems there's about €200 in the price.

Digital Solitude

A 600w semi modular is a nice call, they're just cleaner, no real advantages over others.

I wouldn't bother with the 980, upgrade when you want to get the high refresh rate monitor.

ixoy

Grand - will send this order off tomorrow probably!

One small thing - do CPUs still need heatsink paste? Computeruniverse, who seem to have the best all round prices, won't ship it to Ireland. I imagine somewhere like Maplins might have it.

levitronix

all after market coolers come with paste
and all intel cpus come with paste applied

ixoy

levitronix wrote: »

all after market coolers come with paste
and all intel cpus come with paste applied

Cheers. Looking at:
i5 3.5Ghz I see that, while it's boxed, it says "without heatsink". I thought there was always a stock heatsink? I'm guessing I'd have to pick up one separately then?

The (slightly slower) 3.3 Ghz variant says it comes with a fan.

Terminology seems to be mixing up heatsink with a fan. I thought you'd get heatsink minimum and maybe a fan as well? From above, is a heatsink alone enough?

levitronix

yeah skylake k's dont come with heat sink/cup cooler or whatever you want to call it, a bad one sounds like a wasp in the rig on start up

ixoy

levitronix wrote: »

yeah skylake k's dont come with heat sink/cup cooler or whatever you want to call it, a bad one sounds like a wasp in the rig on start up

Ah okay. So would the Cooler Master Hyper 212 mentioned above be sufficient to cool this CPU (and no thermal paste required, as you mentioned)?

levitronix

no experience with it but that seems to be of the most popular coolers out there and highly recommenced

Redfox25

Hyper eve comes with paste and its a solid cooler. If your not overclock8ng it wont have too much to cool and will be pretty quiet too as fan will not have to run too fast. Check your case for clearance but it should be grand.
Good luck with build