Another new PC build

[hometeam]

Just wanted to see what you guys thought. I know there are some like minded folks on here.

I really liked Ryzen but the deals where so good on the Intel stuff I couldn't refuse. Plus, I game, I don't do Photoshop etc, and I will keep my 6 core 12 thread machine for a streaming box etc. The 7700k is still the winner in single threaded applications, and 4 cores and 4 threads on this is plenty for maxed out upcoming AAA titles at 4k.

My original plan was to reuse a bunch of parts from my current rig, but as I got deeper in, the hardware deals are SO GOOD right now that I am only going to end up reusing my SLI 970s, and my PSU from my current box, both of which will be replaced in upcoming months.

I put the REAL price I paid for everything, and everything is brand new with the exception of the aforementioned GPUs and PSU.

Oddly enough, every single lowest price thing on PC partpicker I was able to find cheaper elsewhere, mostly through www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales, which included the free p400 case with the mobo purchase. I am REALLY in love with the case, except for the possible airflow restriction on the front, and I do plan to mod the front panel for straight through airflow. I also really wanted to go with the Cryorig A80, which is a 280x27mm radiator, but its sold out everywhere, so I 'settled' on the A40 ultimate which is the big body 240x38mm radiator, at the cost of about 1 degree Celsius in performance. You can also see that I only went with a single 500GB m.2 NVMe drive, and that is because I basically leave everything in the cloud and download on demand since I have gigabit internet, but I will add a mechanical HDD to it next month when I also upgrade to a big boy monitor setup. After Vega releases I will see what GPU prices do, and end up with a couple of 1070s or 1080s, or possibly a vega GPU depending on the market.

The 7700k will be delidded before it goes in the machine. I did not list the 24 dollar delidding tool and the 10 dollar liquid metal for that. I will be shooting for AT LEAST a 4.8 ghz stable OC, and I will definitely push it to 5 to see how it handles it. All in all, I got away for a thousand bucks. Not bad for a top of the line gaming PC.

Here we go!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($295.00)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - A40 ULTIMATE 83.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($128.00)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z270 Taichi ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($189.00)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($98.00)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($219.00)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI)
Case: Phanteks - ECLIPSE P400 ATX Mid Tower Case ($0.00)
Power Supply: Corsair - 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($0.00)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($32.00)
Total: $961.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-24 19:35 EDT-0400

Tell me what you guys think, and where you think I ****ed up!

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by jd1020

Everyone that gets them seems to rave about them but I haven't read any comparisons that corroborate the claims. It's also typically the most expensive of the dual tower coolers. Just not sure. I'm ultimately a bang for the buck kind of guy and the Phanteks cooler can be found on some really good sales in the $60 range but I just built someone a computer with the NH-D15 and for a big cooler it was stupid easy to work with. Noctua is on point with their mounting bracket ease of use.

Why does Noctua have to make their equipment so damn ugly? It's like they don't care about the aesthetics aspect of a build.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by vailpass

Why does Noctua have to make their equipment so damn ugly? It's like they don't care about the aesthetics aspect of a build.

They do have products that are black, but they are industrial and not quite as good and louder.

Not sure why they stick with the brown/tan combo but it doesn't really seem to affect their sales. Personally I dont really care about all the RGB or color matching stuff.

Phanteks would be the best bet if you were going for a color theme since their tower comes in black, blue, red, white, and I think orange or yellow.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by jd1020

They do have products that are black, but they are industrial and not quite as good and louder.

Not sure why they stick with the brown/tan combo but it doesn't really seem to affect their sales. Personally I dont really care about all the RGB or color matching stuff.

Phanteks would be the best bet if you were going for a color theme since their tower comes in black, blue, red, white, and I think orange or yellow.

True it doesn't seem to hurt their sales though I've passed them by on my 3 builds because of how they look even though they are so highly rated.
End of day there are a lot of different coolers out there that get the job done just fine and instead of baby poop brown I'd rather look at this

[jd1020]

Personally, I'd rather look at this



But it's not worth the hassle, imo. Can you imagine if one of those RAM goes bad? Dear lord.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by jd1020

Personally, I'd rather look at this



But it's not worth the hassle, imo. Can you imagine if one of those RAM goes bad? Dear lord.

Right? That's what I want to do for my next build but soft line not hard line. That is some ninja level work in that build.

[DJJasonp]

Figured I'd jump in here and ask: will a core i5/7400 and a gtx 1060 with 3gb be above average and enough for high quality gaming and potentially VR? 8gb ram expands to 16gb. ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[FlintHillsChiefs]

Originally Posted by DJJasonp

Figured I'd jump in here and ask: will a core i5/7400 and a gtx 1060 with 3gb be above average and enough for high quality gaming and potentially VR? 8gb ram expands to 16gb. ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'd get the i5 6600 for 10 bucks more and get the 1060 6gb variant instead of the 3gb variant. The 1060 might be kind of iffy for VR. If you can swing a 1070 I'd definitely do that instead.

[hometeam]

Originally Posted by DJJasonp

Figured I'd jump in here and ask: will a core i5/7400 and a gtx 1060 with 3gb be above average and enough for high quality gaming and potentially VR? 8gb ram expands to 16gb. ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

3gb isnt going to be enough for VR. Now, if you are talking about a DECENT gaming rig with that setup? On 1080p you are probably just fine, and 8gb is enough for that too. You're not going to be gaming on Ultra type settings with 60 fps on that rig, but some games you will be able to play at high and most at medium and keep those frames up.

[DJJasonp]

thanks for the feedback - yep, if I'm going to do this, I want to plan for VR and 4K.....so maybe step up a bit from what I described earlier.

the specs I mentioned were a pre-built machine. I'd like to build my own, but not sure how good I'll be at it.

But either way, thanks for the feedback.....as always, you get what you pay for!

[hometeam]

Originally Posted by DJJasonp

thanks for the feedback - yep, if I'm going to do this, I want to plan for VR and 4K.....so maybe step up a bit from what I described earlier.

the specs I mentioned were a pre-built machine. I'd like to build my own, but not sure how good I'll be at it.

But either way, thanks for the feedback.....as always, you get what you pay for!

It's easy. If 12 year olds can do it you can do it.

[hometeam]

If you want to do 4k and VR expect to invest more money.

If its me, I would do something similar to what I built in the OP, but add in a 1070 or two instead of holding out on my 970s.

Also if your going to wait a little bit, we are in the midst of a CPU showdown and I expect the performance per dollar to keep rising.

[FlintHillsChiefs]

If this is a new build I actually wouldn't go with a Intel CPU.

Ryzen is the performance/dollar winner at the moment. With optimization it has come within a few percentage points in singlethreaded tasks of Intel, and it blows it out of the water when it comes to multithreaded performance. Plus you get way more cores and threads for your money with Ryzen. Finally, 1151 socket is a dead architecture. You won't be able to upgrade your processor down the road with Intel without forking out money for a whole new setup. Whereas Ryzen's AM4 socket architecture is going to last until at least 2020.

So, with that said, I would be looking at a Ryzen 1600, 1600x, 1700, or 1700x depending on what your want to spend and then for a GPU a 1070.

Be aware that no single GPU out there can do 4k 144hz gaming right now, not even a 1080ti. A better goal to shoot for is 2k 144hz gaming, which 1070 can do on some titles, but if you want to be able to do it on most titles and be future proof for A+ games, you might have to consider investing in a 1080, or waiting until VEGA comes out and see what kind of performance it offers. 2k 60hz gaming can easily be done by the 1070, but my concern is VR really needs a high framerate, so if you're going for a VR capable rig you might as well be using a 2k 144hz monitor.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by FlintHillsChiefs

Finally, 1151 socket is a dead architecture. You won't be able to upgrade your processor down the road with Intel without forking out money for a whole new setup.

Uhhh???? What?

1151 is the new socket that replaced 1150 and was brand new with Sky Lake. Coffee Lake will use 1151 as well because Intel has abandoned their previous tic-toc model so there's no telling how long 1151 will last.

[FlintHillsChiefs]

Originally Posted by jd1020

Uhhh???? What?

1151 is the new socket that replaced 1150 and was brand new with Sky Lake. Coffee Lake will use 1151 as well because Intel has abandoned their previous tic-toc model so there's no telling how long 1151 will last.

Coffee Lake/Cannon Lake will be the last ones to use 1151.

[Aspengc8]

Originally Posted by hometeam

3gb isnt going to be enough for VR. Now, if you are talking about a DECENT gaming rig with that setup? On 1080p you are probably just fine, and 8gb is enough for that too. You're not going to be gaming on Ultra type settings with 60 fps on that rig, but some games you will be able to play at high and most at medium and keep those frames up.

fwiw, I'm running a similar setup and play everything on the highest settings possible. Never had it dip below 60fps.

MSI Z270, i57600k oc'd, GTX 1060 6Gb. It might have to do with the games though. Been playing mostly World of Warships, Dark Souls 3, Witcher 3, Diablo 3 and Player unknown. FPS always chillin between 60-70. Some 1080p 144hz monitor I think its AOC? I wanted to spend more, but 1K was the budge the wife set lol.