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

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Manatox

Member
How does this look for a starting PC that can eventually be upgraded?

https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/kfttt6/modest-gaming-build

The only thing i would suggest to change to CPU to a 6600K at least. The CPU isn't something you are going to change for years (at this rate they progress, this CPU should still be good enough +5 years later), you spending the extra 30-40$ for a OC able CPU (and ofc higher base clock) is very well worth it imho.

So yes, it is going to be pushing the budged a bit, but when all is done, you will see that it was worth it the years to come.
 
The only thing i would suggest to change to CPU to a 6600K at least. The CPU isn't something you are going to change for years (at this rate they progress, this CPU should still be good enough +5 years later), you spending the extra 30-40$ for a OC able CPU (and ofc higher base clock) is very well worth it imho.

So yes, it is going to be pushing the budged a bit, but when all is done, you will see that it was worth it the years to come.

As a 2600k owner who is still GPU-bound by modern games (with a GTX 970), I can't agree with this enough =D
2500 owners have been starting to feel the age of their CPUs, but the 2600k just keeps on going.
 
I built a new PC for my brother while visiting for Christmas. The problem is I only tested the audio using the front panel connector. When he plugged his new speakers into the back of the mobo he is only getting good sound from one speaker (and very faint audio from the other). Speakers test good elsewhere. Same problem with headphones. Front panel audio is still good. Motherboard is an MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon.

Returning the mobo would be a bit of a nightmare since I'm 2,000 miles away now and his computer teardown/rebuild skills are limited. Anyone have any ideas? I don't know if I've ever heard of a bad audio jack on one of these things out of the box. I'll try to call MSI support tomorrow when they're open I guess but I'm not expecting much. He seems somewhat OK with using the front panel headphone jack with his speakers. I don't know if I like that solution. Maybe an add-on sound-card?
 
So, after some deliberation - and seeing Amazon's little discount code - I'm thinking I'll grab the Gigabyte GA-Z270-HD3P. More affordable for me, but still gives me some options for the future.

My question then, is that since I'm currently using an Asus 970 Pro Gaming aura, what should I look out for in, well, changing over my motherboard? I currently have some Asus software installed which I imagine could get rather confused if there's Gigabyte hardware in its place.
 

kennah

Member
The only thing i would suggest to change to CPU to a 6600K at least. The CPU isn't something you are going to change for years (at this rate they progress, this CPU should still be good enough +5 years later), you spending the extra 30-40$ for a OC able CPU (and ofc higher base clock) is very well worth it imho.

So yes, it is going to be pushing the budged a bit, but when all is done, you will see that it was worth it the years to come.
If he did this he would also need a z series board. The 6400 is fine and if he needs to upgrade the 7700k would be a hell of a jump a couple years down the road.
 
I built a new PC for my brother while visiting for Christmas. The problem is I only tested the audio using the front panel connector. When he plugged his new speakers into the back of the mobo he is only getting good sound from one speaker (and very faint audio from the other). Speakers test good elsewhere. Same problem with headphones. Front panel audio is still good. Motherboard is an MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon.

Returning the mobo would be a bit of a nightmare since I'm 2,000 miles away now and his computer teardown/rebuild skills are limited. Anyone have any ideas? I don't know if I've ever heard of a bad audio jack on one of these things out of the box. I'll try to call MSI support tomorrow when they're open I guess but I'm not expecting much. He seems somewhat OK with using the front panel headphone jack with his speakers. I don't know if I like that solution. Maybe an add-on sound-card?
There's like 6 jacks on the back of the Mobo. He has to test all of them, because the speaker systems only accept full output through one jack. I had the same problem with my speaker set until I figured out which jack was the right one (IIRC, it was the center channel, but I dunno what color that matches).
 

SpacLock

Member
OK guys. My final build and I think it's time to finally pull the trigger. My original goal of $750 ended up being passed by a few bucks. My decision with help from you guys pushed me to the 6600K from the 6500, and of course a Z mobo had to follow. Oh, and more expensive ram, but hey, that's life I guess.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($234.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 400 74.3 CFM CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($153.49 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($104.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: PNY CS1311 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($79.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.55 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 480 8GB GTR Video Card ($259.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.33 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1047.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-20 10:18 EST-0500

Is this a decent enough build to allow me a year or two of, well, not spending anymore money and still have a relevant machine? Any last words, changes, etc. before I pull the trigger?

I'm ordering before the end of the day.
 

paskowitz

Member
What's the overall opinion on PCIe SSDs as boot drives these days? I read into this 12 months ago and there were a lot of mixed reactions - some people saying they got speed increases over SATA SSDs, some saying no difference, and some saying their PC even booted slower. Tried Googling for some new articles on using them as boot drives, but top hits are still the exact same topics and articles from 2015 and early 2016...

On paper they're around 5 or 6 times faster than SATA SSDs, so I'd love to know that I can genuinely have a PC that boots literally in 5-10 seconds one day.

In many cases pcie ssds are actually slower as boot drives vs conventional ssds. However for tasks like scrubbing a 4K video file in Adobe Premiere or working with large data sets they are significantly faster. In some games like GTA V and Fallout 4 you will also notice a slight difference in game load times.
 

kennah

Member
OK guys. My final build and I think it's time to finally pull the trigger. My original goal of $750 ended up being passed by a few bucks. My decision with help from you guys pushed me to the 6600K from the 6500, and of course a Z mobo had to follow. Oh, and more expensive ram, but hey, that's life I guess.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($234.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 400 74.3 CFM CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($153.49 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($104.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: PNY CS1311 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($79.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.55 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 480 8GB GTR Video Card ($259.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.33 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1047.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-20 10:18 EST-0500

Is this a decent enough build to allow me a year or two of, well, not spending anymore money and still have a relevant machine? Any last words, changes, etc. before I pull the trigger?

I'm ordering before the end of the day.
Solid build. Easily get three years before needing upgrades.
 
I built a new PC for my brother while visiting for Christmas. The problem is I only tested the audio using the front panel connector. When he plugged his new speakers into the back of the mobo he is only getting good sound from one speaker (and very faint audio from the other). Speakers test good elsewhere. Same problem with headphones. Front panel audio is still good. Motherboard is an MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon.

Returning the mobo would be a bit of a nightmare since I'm 2,000 miles away now and his computer teardown/rebuild skills are limited. Anyone have any ideas? I don't know if I've ever heard of a bad audio jack on one of these things out of the box. I'll try to call MSI support tomorrow when they're open I guess but I'm not expecting much. He seems somewhat OK with using the front panel headphone jack with his speakers. I don't know if I like that solution. Maybe an add-on sound-card?

Time for your brother to learn. It isn't like it is complicated, give him a guide and tell him to read the mobo manual.

Tell him to take a picture of the insides.
 

noomi

Member
My Corsair Carbide 400r case started to short out my motherboard, and I didn't want to be bothered finding what the problem was (something with the power switch) so I set out to buy a new Case.

Purchased the Corsair 400c , very nice case and also an improvement in many ways over the 400r, but it is a tight and cable management can be a pain.... patience is the key.

Anyone else using the 400c and run into issues with cabling?
 

Ludono

Member
First, reseat your cooler. Then go into your bios and start fresh. Load optimized defaults and follow the OC guide I linked.

In broad strokes, you're going to increase your multiplier to 45. Raise your voltage in manual mode until it's stable at that rate. If your temperatures go above 85C or stability requires more than 1.45v, stop.

If after reseating your cooler you still can't keep it cool, replace the cooler and/or delid. Repeat the above process. Once you determine the voltage needed for a given clock speed, then you change voltage from manual to adaptive or offset. But all that comes after you figure out this initial step.

H60 showed up early!

I replaced the H50 with the H60 and also move the radiator from the back to the front of the case, switched it from an outake fan to an intake fan and this has seemingly done the trick!

Idle temps are still the same, hovering between 20-30 but I am now able to crank it up to 4.6gHz at 1.395 volt hitting below or at 80 C on the AIDA64 stress test.

I think I will leave it at that for now and see if its stable for the next few days as I only ran the AIDA stress test for 15 minutes. Might lower the voltage by .5 or so and see if its still stable as well.
 

vector824

Member
OK guys. My final build and I think it's time to finally pull the trigger. My original goal of $750 ended up being passed by a few bucks. My decision with help from you guys pushed me to the 6600K from the 6500, and of course a Z mobo had to follow. Oh, and more expensive ram, but hey, that's life I guess.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($234.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 400 74.3 CFM CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($153.49 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($104.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: PNY CS1311 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($79.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.55 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 480 8GB GTR Video Card ($259.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.33 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1047.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-20 10:18 EST-0500

Is this a decent enough build to allow me a year or two of, well, not spending anymore money and still have a relevant machine? Any last words, changes, etc. before I pull the trigger?

I'm ordering before the end of the day.

You will be very, very happy with this. Upgrade to Vega for 4k in a year if you want and you'll be good to go for a long time. Otherwise this will last 4-5 years anyway.
 

ohkay

Member
Is $445 for the Dell SD2716DG monitor a really good deal? I'm currently using an Asus VG248QE and am happy with it, but was thinking I'd jump on a 144Hz gsync monitor if I could get one for a good price.
 

UND3RxOATH

Neo Member
I'm in the market for a new Wireless Network Card (PCI is fine). What's a good get that's not going to break the bank? I currently have a TP Link 4800 but it's been extremely spotty.
 

th3dude

Member
Is $445 for the Dell SD2716DG monitor a really good deal? I'm currently using an Asus VG248QE and am happy with it, but was thinking I'd jump on a 144Hz gsync monitor if I could get one for a good price.

I bought it a little cheaper than that ($475 - $75 special from ebates - $25 dell rewards) and I absolutely love it. Awesome screen and I can never go back from 144hz/Gsync. People will tell you not to get it since it isn't an IPS screen, but I love it. I have it paired with a 27" Dell Ultrasharp IPS and they both look fantastic.
 

Kito

Member
My final PC build. Assembling it tomorrow. Goodbye iMac.

CPU: Intel i5-6600 (£199.99)
CPU Cooler: NZXT X41 (£79.99)
Motherboard: Gigabyte H170N-WIFI (£90.05)
Memory: Corsair DDR4 LPX 2x8GB (£96.58)
Storage: 2.5" Samsung EVO 250GB (£86.98)
Video Card: Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB (£215.99)
Case: Fractal Nano S (£57.35)
Power Supply: Corsair VS550 (£42.80)
Monitor: Samsung S24E390HL (owned)

Total: £869.73, all Amazon purchases.

I'll increase my storage with a Sasmung M2 SSD when it's back in stock.

Edit: I'll also get a freesync monitor somewhere down the line.
 
I'm in the market for a new Wireless Network Card (PCI is fine). What's a good get that's not going to break the bank? I currently have a TP Link 4800 but it's been extremely spotty.
Not sure. Every time I see an AC card in the same price range as the TP-Link 4800, it has a lot more reviews with issues.
 

LilJoka

Member
My final PC build. Assembling it tomorrow. Goodbye iMac.



I'll increase my storage with a Sasmung M2 SSD when it's back in stock.

Edit: I'll also get a freesync monitor somewhere down the line.

This doesnt seem so optimum.
I think that is 3000Mhz rram for that price, which wont run more than 2133mhz on H170.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£215.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£28.49 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£119.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£92.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Crucial MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£77.10 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 480 4GB GAMING X Video Card (£221.96 @ More Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Define Nano S Mini ITX Desktop Case (£57.35 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: be quiet! STRAIGHT POWER 10 500W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£65.99 @ Aria PC)
Total: £879.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-20 17:39 GMT+0000
 

Dave_6

Member
Is $445 for the Dell SD2716DG monitor a really good deal? I'm currently using an Asus VG248QE and am happy with it, but was thinking I'd jump on a 144Hz gsync monitor if I could get one for a good price.

Yes, I paid $499 at BB a couple of days ago. No regrets though, plus I finally got a ICC profile I liked and now it looks great!

I was using a VG248QE as well and it is still hooked up beside the new Dell.
 

UND3RxOATH

Neo Member
Not sure. Every time I see an AC card in the same price range as the TP-Link 4800, it has a lot more reviews with issues.

Crazy! It's annoying playing a game and all of a sudden I'll disconnect from the game and reconnect moments later. Any suggestions on anything slightly more expensive?
 

kennah

Member
So if I were to upgrade from the i5 in the future I would
Need a new motherboard?

No. If you want to overclock an overclockable chip, you'd need a different motherboard. If you have no intention of ever overclocking, then get the cheaper H series board, and non-K chip (which comes with a cooler, saving even more money).

That all said - the 4.2ghz i7 7700K is hella fast even before overclocking, and I easily recommend it to people who don't want to overclock anyway. But it's a couple hundred more, and i'm sure an i5-6400 would be more than enough for you for a few years.
 

Kito

Member
This doesnt seem so optimum.
I think that is 3000Mhz rram for that price, which wont run more than 2133mhz on H170.

The memory is 2400Mhz.

Thanks for your part suggestions. However, I don't need to overclock and that case requires a blower style GPU. Also, I'm never buying a nonmodular PSU again.

Somehow PSU types slipped my research, and I ended up with this god awful Corsair VS550, made only worse by the fact I am doing a small form factor ITX build.
 
Velcro straps works great to tie wires.
That requires actual effort though.

It's kinda ghetto but I've found this to be really useful.

toiletpaper_mini.jpg

Oh, this is neat. Are they any products I can buy that would do something like this except not be made out of cardboard? I don't save my empty rolls...
 

Bloodember

Member
Somebody know the difference between these two?
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB £87.99
model: MZ-75E250B/EU

Samsung 850 EVO MZ-75E250W 250GB Solid State Drive - 5 Year UK Warranty and FFP packaging £74.99
model: MZ-75E250BW/EU


According to this it might be only warranty? where the cheaper has better warranty?
It also has longer delivery time and another packaging.
But there isn't any performance differences right?

Looks like just the packaging, not sure about warranty as the other one doesn't state it anywhere, unless I missed it.
 

LilJoka

Member
The memory is 2400Mhz.

Thanks for your part suggestions. However, I don't need to overclock and that case requires a blower style GPU. Also, I'm never buying a nonmodular PSU again.

Somehow PSU types slipped my research, and I ended up with this god awful Corsair VS550, made only worse by the fact I am doing a small form factor ITX build.

You seem to be limiting yourself for no reason.
I have an ITX build that is much smaller and i do not run a blower style cooler. That is old school strategy. My GTX 970 is pushing well over 230W in a Node 304. Plus a CPU pushing over 120W. All air cooled with fans set for ultimate silence - quieter than the AIO you have chosen.
Since TDP has dropped a lot, we dont need blower cards anymore.
Fair on the non modular stance, modular is preferred here, but yes the corsair is not so good.

Rather than spend on money on CPU cooling - which there is no use for with a non K chip, get a system which can be overclocked to stretch the systems legs for a few more years! You dont want to regret this down the line, think of people who bought the i5 2500 vs 2500k. You are talking 3 years of use vs 5. Remember your only upgrade path is i7, which will be pointless in 3 years.
 

Retsudo

Member

If your getting a 7700K, don't skimp on the mobo, the Z170's are from last year and are designed for the 6000 series chips, go with a Z270 mobo. This one should be good Asus Prime Z270-K

The Ram should be good though.


I have the z270 motherboard Bloodember mentioned. It's more than enough for what you want, and it's quite cheap considering some of the other asus z270 boards.

I also have that ram (4 dims in my case due to a mistake by amazon that sent 2 sets of ram by mistake). If you go with the motherboard recommended make sure to check the clock speed of the ram in the motherboard BIOS/UEFI. It was set to 2133 mhz initially.
 
That requires actual effort though.



Oh, this is neat. Are they any products I can buy that would do something like this except not be made out of cardboard? I don't save my empty rolls...

could try and buy some PVC pipes like that...since they come in different sizes could be easy to find ones that would fit your needs
 
If your cooling is good enough and you can reach higher clock speeds in a reasonable voltage range then cpu overclocking is just fine. A 7600k should be able to reach at least 4.8ghz without any kind of problems.
I also have the feeling you're trying to build a foundation for a future 'high end' gpu upgrade (whatever high end means). If that's true please consider to get higher clocked xmp ddr4 ram (3000+mhz). All Intel CPUs seem to profit from higher clocked ram, especially in CPU bound scenarios.



And I know you asked about saving money and not spending even more, but I really think it makes sense to invest the extra $30.

Yea switched the ram and PSU and ordered a GTX 1070 already on the side

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($124.89 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $194.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-20 14:48 EST-0500
 
I just can't find a decent mid-high range Z97 motherboard. The Asus Z97I-plus is out of stock, and so are a lot of Z97 mini ITX motherboards. I guess it is time to move to Skylake and have a new 150$ Z97 motherboard around collecting dust.


Edit: I do find 60-120$ ones but not on Amazon (I have issues ordering from other websites/retailers).
 

Pakoe

Member
Yes, I paid $499 at BB a couple of days ago. No regrets though, plus I finally got a ICC profile I liked and now it looks great!

I was using a VG248QE as well and it is still hooked up beside the new Dell.

I'm looking to upgrade from the VG248QE as well, need to take a look at the Dell i guess.
 

Gandie

Member
What are you guys using to merge two cables? I got a clip on mic attached to my headphones, but I'm struggling to make the cables look tidy. Custom sleeving seems challenging. Are there other options?
 
Deciding on a new monitor, wondering if it's worth buying a 24" with G-Sync over a 27" without. The rest of the specs are pretty much equal. (1440p, 144+ hz, TN Panels)
 
There's like 6 jacks on the back of the Mobo. He has to test all of them, because the speaker systems only accept full output through one jack. I had the same problem with my speaker set until I figured out which jack was the right one (IIRC, it was the center channel, but I dunno what color that matches).
That's not the problem, I verified over desktop sharing software that the connection was detected on the correct port. And I have a similar MSI board on mine with an identical speaker layout in the back.
 
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