Here is my potential build since my PC was zapped by lighting and I don't feel like going through component by component on a 3 yr old machine.
CPU
Intel Core I7-6700K 4.00 GHz 8M Processor Cache 4 LGA (unlocked)
MB
ASUS Z170-A ATX DDR4 Motherboard
MEM
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz
GPU
EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC Gaming ACX 2.0+
PSU
Corsair RM Series, RM850, 850 Watt (850W), Fully Modular Power Supply, 80+ Gold Certified
COOLING & CASE
Corsair Hydro Series H80i GT Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition Twin Pack Fan
CM Storm Enforcer - Gaming Mid Tower Computer
Reuse my Hard drives...
Still on the fence on what to do, however this is the system I have spec'd out.
PE
Very nice...
However, why not go with a little more RAM and a step up on the graphics card? not much more money to bump the RAM up to 32GB and to upgrade the 970 to a 980. You'll get a little more longevity out of it.
Either way, great system. Congrats!
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on April 25, 2016, 09:03:27 AM
Very nice...
However, why not go with a little more RAM and a step up on the graphics card? not much more money to bump the RAM up to 32GB and to upgrade the 970 to a 980. You'll get a little more longevity out of it.
Either way, great system. Congrats!
I've upgraded the memory to 32 and changed out to the Sentey Metal Blade Power 750 Watts PS. I'm on the fence on video card, mainly because it is a several hundred $ upgrade. Thanks for the feedback O0
PE
Unless your big into music / video editing I think you'd be better off dropping to the i5 series chips and using the savings to get to a 980.
But that's just my personal opinion and you know how they go.
I have the Corsair H80i v2. Maybe a little different then the GT. I love it. I'll never go back to a traditional heat sink.
Only issue I've ever had with it, is that installing it is a little bit of a B**** to do. Make sure you have a second pair of hands on standby to help. Once you get the fan and reservoir installed on the back of the case, its a peace of cake from there. It already comes with thermal paste on the part that connects to the CPU but make sure you order some arctic silver just in case you need it.
Quote from: jamus34 on April 25, 2016, 09:16:44 AM
Unless your big into music / video editing I think you'd be better off dropping to the i5 series chips and using the savings to get to a 980.
But that's just my personal opinion and you know how they go.
I considered getting the i5 6600k unlocked @ 3.5 and OC to 4.5 ~ 4.7 and saving rough $100+ usd
congrats, if only i could get half way to those specs :)
That rig will be able to shred any game you throw at it, especially if you plan on playing on a single 1080p monitor -- although it would likely shred anything at 1440p as well. It sounds like a beast. Is the base clock for the i7 6770k 4.0 GHz? If so, that looks to be a monster of a CPU. I have a i7 3770k comfortably o/c'd at 4.6 GHz, with no especially fancy cooling. My guess is you could get close to 5.0GHz on a 6770k without too much difficulty.
I wonder though about the need for so much RAM. 32GB is an awful lot, unless you're doing heavy video editing and such. I have half that and I'm not sure my system has ever pushed anything near the limit of 16GB RAM usage for anything I do. Just a thought.
One last thought -- I love EVGA cards and think they're top notch. But I have some doubts about the effectiveness of ACX coolers. My case is a fairly small-ish form factor, and as I learned through trial and error, the standard 'blower' cooler works much better than the ACX fans. YMMV, of course.
One last last thought -- I'd be inclined to look for a somewhat higher rated PSU. What you have is probably completely fine, but it would just give me a little more peace of mind having a Silver or Gold rated component. Of course that may just be marketing pablum. But just to completely generalize, I think lots of folks look to save some on the PSU, underestimating a bit just how important that component is!
I'm running an older i5 with two 970's and it's really been a good configuration. Rather than getting a 980 how much would a second 970 run?
One thing to think about on the video card front: 4K Monitors are starting to get a lot more affordable. It'll be a few years (many years?) before the GPU technology catches up with those capabilities, and there's no use even trying to get in that neighborhood right now, but in terms of buying a GPU, you may want to be upgrading that GPU more quickly than you would otherwise...
BTW, I'm pretty envious of those specs. Someday... :'(
Nice rig. O0
Quote from: FarAway Sooner on April 25, 2016, 10:30:01 AM
One thing to think about on the video card front: 4K Monitors are starting to get a lot more affordable. It'll be a few years (many years?) before the GPU technology catches up with those capabilities, and there's no use even trying to get in that neighborhood right now, but in terms of buying a GPU, you may want to be upgrading that GPU more quickly than you would otherwise...
Curious if anyone here is actually gaming on 4K monitor?
I actually went *back* to 1080p after giving 1440p a try -- print and just about everything else is just too damn small for me on 1440p (cranking up windows dpi settings helps but creates all sorts of headaches of its own). It was enough to convince me that 4K is not in my gaming future.
Which is nice in a way, since mid-high to high end gfx cards these days can max out 1080p with ease. Even my lappy with a gtx 980m has no trouble maxing 1080p.
Any 4K evangelists out there?
I have not ventured down the 4K path, at least not until it is mainstream. I did upgrade back to the Corsair RM Series, RM850 Gold Certified. Not a huge price difference there.
I believe I will stick with the i7 (it is native 4 GHz) as I have backed off the memory to 16gb and got another case (that 3200 is pretty fast). In the end I am close to what I want. I believe the I can OC the i7 to 5 GHz with relative ease.
PE
Quote from: WYBaugh on April 25, 2016, 09:43:34 AM
I'm running an older i5 with two 970's and it's really been a good configuration. Rather than getting a 980 how much would a second 970 run?
I think almost a 2 for 1. I have seen the 970 for $190.
Quote from: PanzersEast on April 25, 2016, 11:12:17 AM
Quote from: WYBaugh on April 25, 2016, 09:43:34 AM
I'm running an older i5 with two 970's and it's really been a good configuration. Rather than getting a 980 how much would a second 970 run?
I think almost a 2 for 1. I have seen the 970 for $190.
That's not in USD. Here I think the 970's run at least in the 350 range.
Also it might be worth waiting a little bit on the vid card as I think the next gen cards are about to be announced/released, should drop prices on the current tech
Quote from: jamus34 on April 25, 2016, 12:56:48 PM
Quote from: PanzersEast on April 25, 2016, 11:12:17 AM
Quote from: WYBaugh on April 25, 2016, 09:43:34 AM
I'm running an older i5 with two 970's and it's really been a good configuration. Rather than getting a 980 how much would a second 970 run?
I think almost a 2 for 1. I have seen the 970 for $190.
That's not in USD. Here I think the 970's run at least in the 350 range.
Also it might be worth waiting a little bit on the vid card as I think the next gen cards are about to be announced/released, should drop prices on the current tech
I think what I saw was refurbished, so that would be about right.
PE
I haven't taken the 4K plunge. The literature I've seen suggests that software isn't really up to the task of taking good advantage of 4K technology yet.
My sense is that, in addition to more affordable monitors, we need software to take good advantage of the 4K capabilities and we need GPUs that have the horsepower to drive that software. I haven't seen either of the latter two just yet, although I've not looked that hard.
I have a brand new, very nice 4K TV and I love the upscaling it does to boost 1080p content up to 4K. But it's a TV that costs more than a whole new computer would, and upscaling video is one of its primary functions (versus one of the 20 things it tries to do well).
The technology is coming, and when it gets mature, I think it'll mark a huge revolution in gaming. I also suspect it's 2-5 years away.
I wonder though about the need for so much RAM. 32GB is an awful lot, unless you're doing heavy video editing and such. I have half that and I'm not sure my system has ever pushed anything near the limit of 16GB RAM usage for anything I do. Just a thought.
....I would echo this sentiment - after looking at upgrading my RAM recently the accepted wisdom seemed to be that anything over 8gB was probably a waste if you're just gaming or indeed doing most mid range activity.
Regards
Phantom
Alright guys, I have purchased :o
Final Tally
CPU
Intel Boxed Core I7-6700K 4.00 GHz 8M Processor Cache 4
(want to OC to 5.00)
M-Board / Memory
ASUS Z170-A ATX DDR4 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz
PSU
Corsair RM Series, RM850, 850 Watt (850W), Fully Modular Power Supply, 80+ Gold
HDs
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD
(X2) WD Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, 7200 RPM (Already Owned)
GPU
EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC
MISC
Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition Twin Pack Fan
Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-02 Mid Tower Gaming Case
Corsair Hydro Series H80i GT Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Cheers,
PE
O0
Sounds like that should cover your gaming needs and then some for the foreseeable future. Congrats!
Congrats on your new gaming rig, PanzersEast. I am considering taking the plunge myself, but I keep postponing it for just one more year.
Stupid question....
How do you over clock the process and does doing so really make a noticeable difference? Is there any reason to not over clock?
Not a stupid question. The intel processors with the "K" suffix are 'unlocked' for overclocking, which just means they're (on some level) designed for oc'ing and designed to make it easy. With other intel CPUs, oc'ing is a tad more difficult (but not dramatically so).
I'm of a mixed mind when it comes to oc'ing. I think the cost / benefit of doing it is ultimately pretty mixed. I think if you can get a stable oc that gives you a boost of 1.0 GHz or more, then the performance gain is probably more than negligible. I have a stable 1.1 GHz oc on my i7 3770k (base clock 3.5 oc'd to 4.6 GHz). The trick is finding that 'stable' oc state, which involves trial and error and can be a bit of a headache. It involves pushing the oc up incrementally, often by increments of as little as 0.1 GHz at a time, then running some 'stress tests' to see if your computer BSOD -- which sounds kind of reckless but I think overall pretty harmless to the system.
OC'ing means more heat for your CPU, and that's the danger. Frying your CPU. So that's the cost / benefit. Cost is possibly irreparably damaging your CPU or MOBO, Benefit is a modest improvement in performance -- unless you're a oc'ing pro and have some crazy expensive elaborate cooling system that let's you push oc's past the 2.0 GHz territory or beyond.
Setting the OC also involves some jiggering about in the UEFI/BIOS, which should give one pause if you haven't carefully figured out what you're doing.
In short -- not sure I'd bother to OC my next system. I'm not sure the performance gain is anything more than modest, and the process of getting the stable OC is possibly more trouble than it's worth.... Just my opinion -- great site, btw, not just for OC'ing but for lots of technical PC matters: overclock.net (http://overclock.net)
Doesn't overclocking raise the heat output of the rig as well?
Quote from: DoctorQuest on May 06, 2016, 07:01:34 AM
Doesn't overclocking raise the heat output of the rig as well?
It effects the CPU and with Water Cooling (or correct air cooling) it is not an issue.
There are several reasons to OC, however I do it because of the sheer requirement from FSX (CPU hog) to process all of the add-ons and base game.
Another reason to overclock is when your CPU is showing some age and newer games have a higher requirement, you can squeeze some performance out of it. If you are currently running everything that is comfortable to you, I would not bother. The trick is getting your machine stable and under a certain optimal temperature. Once that is achieved I have not had any issues.
PE
So, I have a PC Intel Core i7 5820K (3.30 GHz). Because there is a 'k' in the designation, my processor is designed to OC?
To OC, or not to OC, that is the question...
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on May 06, 2016, 08:18:34 AM
So, I have a PC Intel Core i7 5820K (3.30 GHz). Because there is a 'k' in the designation, my processor is designed to OC?
To OC, or not to OC, that is the question...
Yup. Pretty sure the "K" also means you will not void the CPU's warranty for OCing, which otherwise you definitely would -- but don't quote me on that.
Remember that intel chips have a built-in 'boost clock' for when it comes under heavy load, meaning that it some sense there's a modest 'overclock' built in to the chip itself.
Honestly, if you're happy with your rig's performance and don't feel like it's bottlenecking your games, I'd probably leave the oc'ing alone.
Thanks for the advice, Sandman.
Its hard to know whether I would notice any improvement due to overclocking. My rig runs pretty much everything I throw at it on max settings without any real noticeable hit to performance.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on May 06, 2016, 08:18:34 AM
So, I have a PC Intel Core i7 5820K (3.30 GHz). Because there is a 'k' in the designation, my processor is designed to OC?
To OC, or not to OC, that is the question...
Couple of notes / thoughts - also please no one take this personal, it's my opinions (and we know what those are worth) and what you use the PC for may vary greatly.:
Sandman - You can OC non "k" Intel chips - at least you use to be able to - It's just that you had to mess with voltages which means you are overclocking the entire system. So you would need to make sure in the least RAM and motherboard can take the strain.
Typically with gaming the biggest bottleneck is almost always the vidcard.
That said VR and video capture (specifically when gaming) are two things I have never done. A high end multi-core CPU probably will help there quite a bit, I just don't know about it.
To me the biggest advantage to liquid cooling is a relative reduction in noise - typically you need less fans. I do not liquid cool although on my next build I might pick up a closed loop liquid cooler. Would love one on the GPU front but they are typically prohibitively expensive. Also I look for cases that can run bigger fans as they can move the same CFM as smaller fans at a lower RPM.
JH - In all honesty if the chip is outside the warranty period anyway there's no reason to try to overclock. Just do it slow and have good monitoring software and if it looks like it's getting too hot then shutdown and step the OC down a bit. Typically the biggest issue nowadays is making your rig unstable. There's usually enough protections built into modern hardware to keep you from melting down.
Any, just my thoughts on it...YMMV
Your i7 5820K is a very powerful CPU on its own, perfectly capable of running 99.9% of games out there without overstraining itself, with some very rare exceptions like FSX that PanzersEast mentions that are notoriously CPU heavy. I can't offhand think of a single other game that's so computational heavy -- not even the reputed CMx2, which some folks insist can be laggy because it's so CPU heavy and constantly calculating LOS and the like -- which I don't buy for a second -- it's laggy not because of any CPU bottleneck but because it's badly optimized.
EDIT @Jamus (Posted before I read) -- absolutely correct -- didn't mean to imply that you *can't* overclock intel chips that don't have the K designation -- you certainly can, and possibly the only real advantage of the K is the warranty issue I mentioned.
Quote from: sandman2575 on May 06, 2016, 08:35:54 AM
Your i7 5820K is a very powerful CPU on its own, perfectly capable of running 99.9% of games out there without overstraining itself, with some very rare exceptions like FSX that PanzersEast mentions that are notoriously CPU heavy. I can't offhand think of a single other game that's so computational heavy -- not even the reputed CMx2, which some folks insist can be laggy because it's so CPU heavy and constantly calculating LOS and the like -- which I don't buy for a second -- it's laggy not because of any CPU bottleneck but because it's badly optimized.
EDIT @Jamus (Posted before I read) -- absolutely correct -- didn't mean to imply that you *can't* overclock intel chips that don't have the K designation -- you certainly can, and possibly the only real advantage of the K is the warranty issue I mentioned.
Yeah, a badly optimized game will run like shat regardless of what you throw at it. Look at Arkham Knight.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on May 06, 2016, 05:31:41 AM
How do you over clock the process and does doing so really make a noticeable difference? Is there any reason to not over clock?
Raising voltages, primarily.
I've never felt the need to OC my CPUs. I think it's more of a hobby for people than something truly needed. If the CPU is decent in the first place, then you don't really need the extra processing boost.
Besides, I'm usually more concerned about processor temperatures, and try to keep my cooling systems simple & relatively inexpensive. Much rather have a stable system than something that may freeze & crash when pushing it. I suppose pushing the limits is fun for some, but I'd rather it just work all the time, with no fuss and CPU temps well within the green.
Change of items:
Canceled the 970 (month out from the 1070 being released) I hope my 660 is still running.
Canceled the ASUS Z170-A ATX DDR4 Motherboard and went with the Gigabyte LGA1151 Intel Z170 2-Way SLI ATX DDR4 GA-Z170X-Gaming 7. Primary reason is the memory issue with the ASUS Z170-A.
I also added primary boot a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB and added a secondary drive of Seagate 2TB Desktop Gaming SSHD(Solid State Hybrid Drive). May add a second one, however not in a Raid config.
So in total:
Intel Boxed Core I7-6700K 4.00 GHz 8M Processor Cache (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012M8LXQW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Corsair Hydro Series H80i GT (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SV7IIDU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Gigabyte LGA1151 Intel Z170 2-Way SLI ATX DDR4 Motherboards GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012IBPJ6I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0143UM4TC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OAJ412U/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Seagate 2TB Desktop Gaming SSHD(Solid State Hybrid Drive) (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EIQTKAS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Corsair RM Series, RM850, 850 Watt (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EB7UIXM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
(//http://)
Cheers,
PE
Yeah, just saw news that the Gtx 1070 and 1080 are due this month. And word is they are a *significant* upgrade over the (already plenty powerful!) 900 Maxwell line.
Funny, I still find my 780Ti a fantastic performer. But then, I'm still perfectly happy playing on a single 1080p monitor.
EDIT - some more info - and the MSRP is surprisingly reasonable
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10304/nvidia-announces-the-geforce-gtx-1080-1070 (http://www.anandtech.com/show/10304/nvidia-announces-the-geforce-gtx-1080-1070)
Quote from: sandman2575 on May 07, 2016, 04:43:44 PM
Yeah, just saw news that the Gtx 1070 and 1080 are due this month. And word is they are a *significant* upgrade over the (already plenty powerful!) 900 Maxwell line.
Spanking new video card lines have ridiculously inflated pricing. I only recommend waiting for them to be released in order to get further discounted pricing on the previous generation. The previous gen prices will slowly start dropping after the new ones are out, and you'll eventually be able to pick up the higher end ones notably cheaper.
Edit: Unless you absolutely want to spend a few hundred extra dollars for bragging rights of having the latest & greatest big bad, that has extra power your probably don't even need. ;D
Got parts in and new PC build. Installing software and then the OC. Thanks for all the feedback and now I wait on the release of the 1080!
Cheers,
PE
PE, you got me looking at putting together a new PC. I'm an AMD guy, but when I got to looking at motherboards, you cannot get one with a PCIe 3 slot for their fastest CPU's. Does anyone know, if that's correct or am I missing something.