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"I Need a New PC!" 2016 Plus Ultra! HBM2, VR, 144Hz, and 4K for all!

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LilJoka

Member
My build is to play games at ultra settings at 1080p@60fps

The i5 6500 should be enough for my needs but a 6600k is £30 more.

For what I need, is it worth paying more for the K model or will the 6500 be enough and I won't notice a difference?

I'd get the 6600k if you can also get a Z170 board. Overclocking could extend the lifetime by many years over a 6500 and especially since more games are taking advantage over 4+ cores and hyperthreading.
 

Ganondolf

Member
I'd get the 6600k if you can also get a Z170 board. Overclocking could extend the lifetime by many years over a 6500 and especially since more games are taking advantage over 4+ cores and hyperthreading.

This was what I was thinking. If it extends the time before I need to upgrade then £30 is not much. I do have a z170 board too
 

Nielm

Member
Going to upgrade my PC (GTX 960/i3 4160) instead of getting a PS4 Pro.

Is this a good build for playing games at max/close to max settings, at 1080p 60fps+?:

GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 ROG Strix OC Gaming 8192MB - £469.99
CPU: i7 6700k - £301.99
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z Series 16 GB DDR4 3200 MHz CL14 - £121.87
Motherboard: ASUS Z170 Pro - £133.98
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 - £92.37

Is the i7 6700k worth £90 more over the i5 6600k?

I have a Seasonic M12-II EVO 620W PSU.
 

LilJoka

Member
Going to upgrade my PC (GTX 960/i3 4160) instead of getting a PS4 Pro.

Is this a good build for playing games at max/close to max settings, at 1080p 60fps+?:

GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 ROG Strix OC Gaming 8192MB - £469.99
CPU: i7 6700k - £301.99
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z Series 16 GB DDR4 3200 MHz CL14 - £121.87
Motherboard: ASUS Z170 Pro - £133.98
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 - £92.37

Is the i7 6700k worth £90 more over the i5?

I have a Seasonic M12-II EVO 620W PSU.

Good choices, i would drop the ram to their 3000mhz CL15 and run it at cl14.
Go matx like a Define Mini C
Get a board around the 100£ mark preferably Asus
That shall make getting a 6700k much easier on the budget.
 

Nielm

Member
Good choices, i would drop the ram to their 3000mhz CL15 and run it at cl14.
Go matx like a Define Mini C
Get a board around the 100£ mark preferably Asus
That shall make getting a 6700k much easier on the budget.

Can I expect to get maximum settings on Hitman/Deus Ex: Mankind Divided/Dishonored 2 at 1080p/60fps with the 6700k?
 

chrislowe

Member
Can I expect to get maximum settings on Hitman/Deus Ex: Mankind Divided/Dishonored 2 at 1080p/60fps with the 6700k?

You get maximum settings in Hitman with far less hardware.
I get it with a i5 6500 + RX 480.

Have not tried the other games, but hitman is no worry.
 

Baleoce

Member
Fractal Define S came today. Good god it is so well designed. Not got around to transplanting my current PC innards into it yet. All the other stuff came too. It's a cable management wet dream. Love the vertical drive bays behind the motherboard too. And if I decide to do water cooling in my next build then there's a ton of space in the front.
 

ISee

Member
Can I expect to get maximum settings on Hitman/Deus Ex: Mankind Divided/Dishonored 2 at 1080p/60fps with the 6700k?

No.

If your mindset is to set everything to the maximum without some common sense then you'll have a very bad time. Some settings are extremely demanding e.g. running Deus Ex: MD with 4xMSAA and the highest contact hardening shadow settings will cripple every GPU/CPU combo. The same goes for Watch Dogs 2, native 1080p resolution, TXAA and HFTS shadows are stuff for the future, no single GPU is able to handle that right now.

BUT you can very easily set setting to a reasonable mix of ultra and v.high (a.k.a. mostly ultra) with descent AA and get very good results. I'm using my 1070/6700k for 1440p and I'm satisfied, even 3200x1800/60 and 4k/30 seems to be doable in many games, so no matter what you'll get the better experience then playing on PS4PRo, but it's also more expansive and you you'll have to play around with settings.

Is the 6700k worth it? Well, as always that's a very hard question. Currently no. An overclocked 6600k will get the job done, no doubt about that. But old i7s (e.g. 2600, 3770) hold out exceptionally well, while their i5 counterparts begin to struggle so an i7 could hold out longer. Just think about it, when the 2500k/2600k came out most games didn't even utilize more than two cores, today some games refuse to start on CPUs with just two cores.
Games also start to utilize multiple cores/threads better and I believe that the ability to handle 8 threads at once will come in handy (in the future). But that's just speculation and maybe AMD is going to have the better CPU in that regard anyway... We'll see.
 
Hi guys. Would like to ask your opinion on which keyboard should I buy. I have come down to two choices given the budget I only need to spare, Logitec G610 Orion Brown and Steelseries Apex M500. Either of the two keyboard really fits my design choice. I only play Overwatch if that helps. Steelseries is $15 cheaper but difference in price is negligible. Appreciate your thoughts GAF! :D
 

Bloodember

Member
Hi guys. Would like to ask your opinion on which keyboard should I buy. I have come down to two choices given the budget I only need to spare, Logitec G610 Orion Brown and Steelseries Apex M500. Either of the two keyboard really fits my design choice. I only play Overwatch if that helps. Steelseries is $15 cheaper but difference in price is negligible. Appreciate your thoughts GAF! :D

The Logitech uses Brown switches and the Steelseries uses Red switches, Your best bet is to figure out which switch is best for you then go with that keyboard.
 

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
Fractal Define S came today. Good god it is so well designed. Not got around to transplanting my current PC innards into it yet. All the other stuff came too. It's a cable management wet dream. Love the vertical drive bays behind the motherboard too. And if I decide to do water cooling in my next build then there's a ton of space in the front.

i love my define s. my old case was a nightmare. it caused so much trouble trying to fit the rear panel on because there was so little room for the cables. the define s has so much room for cables. the included velcro straps are brilliant. i also agree about the drive bays. i have my SSD tucked away at the back instead of out infront of the fans air flow. i have 3x140mm fans pulling air in and 1x140mm doing exhaust. i would add more to the top 3 spaces but worried about dust falling inside when not in use. i'll be keeping it for my next build for sure. there are some minor annoyances about the case such as not being able to remove the bottom fan filter from the front and the top fan covers not being magnetic. other than that it's perfect imo.

No.

If your mindset is to set everything to the maximum without some common sense then you'll have a very bad time. Some settings are extremely demanding e.g. running Deus Ex: MD with 4xMSAA and the highest contact hardening shadow settings will cripple every GPU/CPU combo. The same goes for Watch Dogs 2, native 1080p resolution, TXAA and HFTS shadows are stuff for the future, no single GPU is able to handle that right now.

BUT you can very easily set setting to a reasonable mix of ultra and v.high (a.k.a. mostly ultra) with descent AA and get very good results. I'm using my 1070/6700k for 1440p and I'm satisfied, even 3200x1800/60 and 4k/30 seems to be doable in many games, so no matter what you'll get the better experience then playing on PS4PRo, but it's also more expansive and you you'll have to play around with settings.

Is the 6700k worth it? Well, as always that's a very hard question. Currently no. An overclocked 6600k will get the job done, no doubt about that. But old i7s (e.g. 2600, 3770) hold out exceptionally well, while their i5 counterparts begin to struggle so an i7 could hold out longer. Just think about it, when the 2500k/2600k came out most games didn't even utilize more than two cores, today some games refuse to start on CPUs with just two cores.
Games also start to utilize multiple cores/threads better and I believe that the ability to handle 8 threads at once will come in handy (in the future). But that's just speculation and maybe AMD is going to have the better CPU in that regard anyway... We'll see.

i5's aren't holding up as much anymore with their 4/4 cpu's. i'm so glad i went with a 6700K over a 6600K. everyone kept saying that games don't fully utilise the hyperthreading and it was a waste of money buying an i7 unless you were doing heavy non gaming work. more and more games are making use of all cores/threads. so a 4/8 cpu is essential going forward. an i5 might be fine for now but when the coffee lake 6/12 cpu's come out then that will be the best choice i think if you want to stay ahead of the ball.
 

Jezbollah

Member
You might want a 1070 if you are wanting to play at ultra settings for everything. A 1060 isn't going to cut it for 60fps on ultra.

I'd disagree with that. A 1060 should do Ultra at 1080P @ 60fps for most games on the market, just as I would expect my 1070 to do Ultra at 60+fps at 1440P.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Not really a PC building question, but is it possible for a laptop to overheat, even if the fan is not being loud?

I ask cause my fan was making a lot of noise and so I cleaned out the dust using an air can. So the noise is gone, but my laptop "feels" hotter than before. I say "feels" cause I'm not precisely sure if it was always that hot and I never noticed, but it feels pretty damn hot.
 

iamblades

Member
i love my define s. my old case was a nightmare. it caused so much trouble trying to fit the rear panel on because there was so little room for the cables. the define s has so much room for cables. the included velcro straps are brilliant. i also agree about the drive bays. i have my SSD tucked away at the back instead of out infront of the fans air flow. i have 3x140mm fans pulling air in and 1x140mm doing exhaust. i would add more to the top 3 spaces but worried about dust falling inside when not in use. i'll be keeping it for my next build for sure. there are some minor annoyances about the case such as not being able to remove the bottom fan filter from the front and the top fan covers not being magnetic. other than that it's perfect imo.



i5's aren't holding up as much anymore with their 4/4 cpu's. i'm so glad i went with a 6700K over a 6600K. everyone kept saying that games don't fully utilise the hyperthreading and it was a waste of money buying an i7 unless you were doing heavy non gaming work. more and more games are making use of all cores/threads. so a 4/8 cpu is essential going forward. an i5 might be fine for now but when the coffee lake 6/12 cpu's come out then that will be the best choice i think if you want to stay ahead of the ball.

The main thing is that we need Ryzen to succeed so that Intel will actually start selling 6 and 8 core cpus for reasonable prices. It is kind of absurd to be stuck in a situation where you have to pay 2 or 3 times the price for a cpu that only increases performance in a small number of tasks. It is even more absurd that you can get older haswell or sandy bridge xeons with more cores for less money than the current i7 lineup, so there is a really limited use case for the current enthusiast i7s.
 

Horseticuffs

Full werewolf off the buckle
Guys I am so damned happy I invested in a 4k setup. Yeah, it's taken about $1000 for the TV and 1080 in the past month but it's fantastic to have that razor sharp experience.

It runs better than I'd expected. The jump from high/ultra at 1440p 40+ fps to high/ultra at 4k 40+ fps is just staggering.

It really helped that I moved my display from 8 or 9 feet away to around 4.5 feet away due to some calculations I found online. It's only a 40" TV so having it that far away was just silly, evidently.

Still though, some big changes this weekend for my setup but I'm happy with the results. Nothing like benchmarking to sooth the soul!
 
IMO

Required: 120/144Hz+

Really nice to have: G-Sync/Freesync, 2560x1440

Above and beyond: VA Panel, Ultrawide

Thought about doing a wireless bridge? Have that at home right now, and I get a 1ms ping to the router with AC bandwidth. It was recommended to me by a few IT friends that specialize in networking.

is a wireless bridge the same as a range extender? have any model recommendations?
 

Baleoce

Member
It gets to 3:30am,im basically done building the PC, and I realise the sata connectors from my old case are L shaped, and won't fit into my vertical mount on the new case xD gonna have to order more, or magically find another couple of leads around the house.
 

LilJoka

Member
I'd disagree with that. A 1060 should do Ultra at 1080P @ 60fps for most games on the market, just as I would expect my 1070 to do Ultra at 60+fps at 1440P.

Don't think the 1060 will since it's weaker than a 970 on average, and I run a heavily OCd 970 which hits 980 performance to get 1080p60 everywhere close to ultra or at ultra settings.
1070 might be overkill though, but in a year I expect it to be perfect.
 

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
Here is my final parts list, about to go pick it up. Any last minute changes?

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/Rbk_3/saved/cxfycf

i think it looks fine although i'm not sure about that PSU. i see a lot of people have issues with CORSAIR CX although it might be the CX***M ones...i know corsair updated the PSU's recently but not sure about the quality. i'd highly recommend an EVGA G2 or the newer G3. i have the 750W G2 and it is great.

a lot of people will probably say replace the 212 CPU fan. i have one and i'm really happy with it. i have an i7-6700K at 4.5GHz. at normal usage it can sit at about 20C and by that i mean streaming music and using chrome to browse the internet. highest i've ever seen it go was 76C after about an hour of Prime95 stress test although in games it rarely goes over 60C. i see a lot of people recommend the Cryorig H7 so might be worth checking that out :)
 

LilJoka

Member
Here is my final parts list, about to go pick it up. Any last minute changes?

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/Rbk_3/saved/cxfycf

My suggestion
Matx rather than ATX
Quality PSU that is modular
Cleaner looking ram

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($447.74 @ Vuugo)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($34.98 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: Asus Z170M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($164.98 @ DirectCanada)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($119.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Storage: Crucial MX300 525GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($147.98 @ Amazon Canada)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1080 8GB ROG STRIX Video Card ($859.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini C MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($98.99 @ PC Canada)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($114.98 @ NCIX)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home Full - USB 32/64-bit ($126.90 @ shopRBC)
Total: $2116.53
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-12-18 10:07 EST-0500
 

BadWolf

Member
My string of bad luck with the new build continues.

Yesterday got a blue screen saying an error was encountered and it needs to restart. Then it would boot to the black screen with the boot error. In the BIOS I noticed that it was trying to boot from the HDD instead of SSD so I changed the boot order and selected the windows boot manager drive and saved the settings. It now no longer boots at all. The power comes on for a second and then it shuts down and turns on again over and over.

At this point I'm starting to regret not going with prebuilt :(

I'm guessing getting a refund from ncix is not an option.
 

LilJoka

Member
My string of bad luck with the new build continues.

Yesterday got a blue screen saying an error was encountered and it needs to restart. Then it would boot to the black screen with the boot error. In the BIOS I noticed that it was trying to boot from the HDD instead of SSD so I changed the boot order and selected the windows boot manager drive and saved the settings. It now no longer boots at all. The power comes on for a second and then it shuts down and turns on again over and over.

At this point I'm starting to regret not going with prebuilt :(

I'm guessing getting a refund from ncix is not an option.

Try to boot with 1 stick of ram. Try different slots and ram modules, one maybe problematic.

An instant shutdown after power on can be an attempt to reset the CMOS, so let this continue if it loops.
 

BadWolf

Member
Try to boot with 1 stick of ram. Try different slots and ram modules, one maybe problematic.

An instant shutdown after power on can be an attempt to reset the CMOS, so let this continue if it loops.

Let it loop for a few min but no progress so far.

You don't think it's a problem with the HDD/SSD since it started looping after I changed the boot order?
 
Can anybody tell me if the below score and FPS seem right for the hardware, specifically the GPU? The FPS average was bang on 130.0 but I've been told that I should be exceeding 150 FPS. For some reason the GPU is not hitting 100% usage, even when set to 'Maximum Performance' in the Nvidia Control Panel.

lAg0rNJ.png
 

rrs

Member
Maximum performance is only useful with more extreme OCS, you'll want optimised. As for fps, could be hitting voltage limits or power ones
 

iamblades

Member
Can anybody tell me if the below score and FPS seem right for the hardware, specifically the GPU? The FPS average was bang on 130.0 but I've been told that I should be exceeding 150 FPS. For some reason the GPU is not hitting 100% usage, even when set to 'Maximum Performance' in the Nvidia Control Panel.

lAg0rNJ.png

You have AA off and no override in the driver settings right? Your fps looks like what mine were like with AA on at stock clocks.

What are your clocks at, and how much temp and power limit do you have?

Here is my result on Valley, granted I have a completely unrealistic OC for 99.9% of cards, so keep that in mind:

PFtnew0.png


GPU usage not being at 100% is normal in valley though, it doesn't slam the gpu utilization like 3dmark or heaven.
 
You have AA off and no override in the driver settings right? Your fps looks like what mine were like with AA on at stock clocks.

What are your clocks at, and how much temp and power limit do you have?

Here is my result on Valley, granted I have a completely unrealistic OC for 99.9% of cards, so keep that in mind:

PFtnew0.png


GPU usage not being at 100% is normal in valley though, it doesn't slam the gpu utilization like 3dmark or heaven.

Yup, no AA or driver overrides. I noticed even my 6800k overclock is showing on the results page, it's running 4.2GHz.

Everything is stock:

W9xr9MF.png


I've had a niggling feeling that something isn't quite right for a while.
 

LilJoka

Member
Let it loop for a few min but no progress so far.

You don't think it's a problem with the HDD/SSD since it started looping after I changed the boot order?

No because that comes much alter in the POST process.
Its going to check CPU+RAM to begin with. Make sure the 8pin CPU power and 24pin ATX power cables are securely seated.

If the boot loop is within 1-2 sec then the issue could be CPU related.

Manually reset CMOS by removing the CMOS battery - instructions in the motherboard manual.

You can unplug your drives (HHDs+SSDs) while you troubleshoot this. Unplug all USB peripherals too.
 

BadWolf

Member
No because that comes much alter in the POST process.
Its going to check CPU+RAM to begin with. Make sure the 8pin CPU power and 24pin ATX power cables are securely seated.

If the boot loop is within 1-2 sec then the issue could be CPU related.

Manually reset CMOS by removing the CMOS battery - instructions in the motherboard manual.

You can unplug your drives (HHDs+SSDs) while you troubleshoot this. Unplug all USB peripherals too.

Thanks man but if it's that serious then I'll probably just take it to an ncix store instead of possibly making things worse :
 

LilJoka

Member
Thanks man but if it's that serious then I'll probably just take it to an ncix store instead of possibly making things worse :

It may not be though, so check/try:
- Unplug the HDDs/SSDs SATA Data cable which conencts to the motherboard
- Unplug all peripherals
- 8 pin CPU and 24 pin ATX power cables
- Reset CMOS
- Test Ram individually

You cant make things worse by doing the above.
 

iamblades

Member

those numbers look fine(really good even, for stock clocks, my graphics score was like mid 21s on stock clocks), and your max framerates in valley look reasonable as well, it's only the minimums that seem off.

Maybe some back ground process is doing something that is interfering with Valley or something, but it doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the way the hardware is working.
 
those numbers look fine(really good even, for stock clocks), and your max framerates in valley look reasonable as well, it's only the minimums that seem off.

Maybe some back ground process is doing something that is interfering with Valley or something, but it doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the way the hardware is working.

Cool, that's good to read. I don't have much installed on the system, I'm pretty weird like that so I'll see if I can resolve it.
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
Ugh, how long is it going to take for Samsung 960 SSDs to be in stock long enough for me to buy one? Been wanting an 512gb 960 Pro for like a month now... :(
 
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