Been out of the game for a while. Could use some advice for my son's build...

[Dr. Spankenstein]

Hello everyone.

Going to put together a set-up for my son. He already has a GPU (he's been using it in dad's antiquated rig. Yep, it's still kicking...)

pcpartpicker link

Not looking for a monster system, just something to game comfortably on for a while. Was originally looking at a 1150 socket set-up with a 4790k, but I've missed out on so many generations, I'm not sure whether I'd realize the move to Skylake (or if it is even necessary.)

Never thought when I joined that I'd be in this position, but life keeps marchin' on.


Looking forward to some input from you fine folks and willing to see the "error of my ways"!



Cheers,

Bryan

 

[little cat]

When using huge aftermarket coolers avoid to use RAM with big heatspreaders . Otherwise , the cooler would block the RAM and vice versa . I would use in your case something like Corsair LPX DDDR4 RAM .

Also Samsung 850 EVO 250GB would be better , because its performance is close to that of Pro but You get 2x more storage .

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e250bam

 

[Dr. Spankenstein]

Good point. Thanks.

Maybe I'll go with the lower profile ram and get the double-fan version! Also, the PSU in that list is not the one I truly want.
EVGA 110-B2-0750-VR 80 PLUS Bronze 750W Semi-Modular SLI/Crossfire

Again, any thoughts between the different socket builds (MSI z97 G5 + i7 4790k versus GB GA-z170xp + i5 6600k)?

 

[manofthem]

Also Samsung 850 EVO 250GB would be better , because its performance is close to that of Pro but You get 2x more storage

I would also go with a 250gb since the prices are really low, worth it! I bought one for like $79 I think, definitely worth it

 

[xvi]

What will the rig be used for primarily? Also, what GPU do you have currently?

I'd definitely take an i5/i7-6000-series over the older i5/i7-4000-series. Newer, faster, less power consumption, and about the same price. If it's for gaming, an i5 will do great (and the i7 won't benefit you much at all).
Last thing, go for the gold! (..efficiency PSUs. Considering how inexpensive a Gold or better rated PSU is, I'd definitely recommend it. They're generally built a little better and the slight decrease in the power bill should negate the slight increase in PSU cost).

 

[Dr. Spankenstein]

Noted. I'll take your advice.
No gaming advantage to a 6700k, eh? That's good for the pocketbook!

Is SLI not a consideration for anyone anymore? Unfortunately, his eagerness to jack his FPS in Minecraft over 500 drove him to purchase a EVGA GTX 960 SSC without consulting me first... oh well, lesson learned.

xvi,

It will be an exclusive gaming rig.
You make a good point about the PSU. I'll likely modify that too.

 

[little cat]

with i7 Skylake
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($327.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($142.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($87.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.97 @ Directron)
Case: NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G-750 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($102.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $849.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-23 23:27 EDT-0400

with GPU
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($215.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock Z170M Pro4S Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($92.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($87.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.97 @ Directron)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($309.88 @ OutletPC)
Case: NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $964.68
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-23 23:33 EDT-0400

 

[xvi]

No gaming advantage to a 6700k, eh?

Not particularly. It's up to the game to take advantage of the extra threads and most games won't.

Is SLI not a consideration for anyone anymore?

Come to think about it, I've seen less mid-range SLI systems recently. I don't think it's generally considered these days unless you're looking at something GTX 970 and up. Perhaps someone else can weigh in here?

Unfortunately, his eagerness to jack his FPS in Minecraft over 500 drove him to purchase a EVGA GTX 960 SSC without consulting me first... oh well, lesson learned.

Generally considered to be a good card. Minecraft, I'm pretty sure, loves high CPU clock speeds, or at least it did back in the day. Might have improved recently.

If it's for general gaming and primarily Minecraft, I'd say i5-6600k, a decent ASRock Z170 board (Z170 and i5-6600k for , Hyper 212 Evo for cooling, G.Skill memory in whatever color looks good (~16GB or so is a good sweet spot), a Samsung 850 Evo ~250GB if the budget allows for an SSD, whatever mechanical drive you like for storage (if storage is needed), whatever case you like, and EVGA or SeaSonic for the PSU. Case is personal preference, whatever fits and looks good.
Brands are, of course, up to you, but those are my more preferred.

Looks like no one has asked yet. Did you have a certain budget in mind?

 

[manofthem]

Noted. I'll take your advice.
No gaming advantage to a 6700k, eh? That's good for the pocketbook!

As @xvi said, not worth it for just gaming. Save the money and out it toward something else, either that ssd, quality psu, or a better gpu.

Is SLI not a consideration for anyone anymore? Unfortunately, his eagerness to jack his FPS in Minecraft over 500 drove him to purchase a EVGA GTX 960 SSC without consulting me first... oh well, lesson learned.

I think you needn't worry about SLI. While it has pretty good support, that 960ssc should game well at 1080p. Down the road, you can worry about adding or changing out.

You make a good point about the PSU. I'll likely modify that too.

My advice is to get a good psu up front, even if it's a few extra $. I used to see people talk about good psus and not fully understand, but now it's something that I wouldnever skimp on. Also, plan ahead with what you want/need regarding modularity (that the right word?) for cables; a modular psu is really nice.

 

[little cat]

GTX 960 is yet a gaming card . SLI/Crossfire is not a great idea . If trying 2x GTX 960 in SLI . there will be no need of 750W PSU . GTX 960 ref has 120W TDP x2 = 240W . Along with a Skylake/Haswell i7/i5( with TDP up to 91W) , the need would be 550W good PSU

 

[Azumay]

Read this. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-intel-skylake-core-i5-6600k-review

I5 is more than plenty strength wise,and will be fine for many years. I would opp for a 250g ssd though.
Plenty of budget ssd's that work great out there and you will never know the deference in a few micro seconds. LoL.
550 watt psu is plenty for any mid range graphics card.
I would wait a few months on getting a new graphics card, newer ones will take less power to do the same.
You could get a gtx 760 off ebay pretty reasonable for the time being.

Enjoy your build.

 

[wolar]

Something like this

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($238.87 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: RAIJINTEK THEMIS 65.7 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($116.24 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($35.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ ARC 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Define S w/Window ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($62.00 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($86.95 @ OutletPC)
Total: $705.02
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-24 04:47 EDT-0400
| Generated by [PCPartPicker](http://pcpartpicker.com) 2016-03-24 04:43 EDT-0400 |


Add any dvd drive if needed or extra HDD, wd ezex 1tb or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145911 depending on capacity needed is my recommendation.

Edit: Also drop the 6600k if you are not going to OC it and get a 6500/6600, i would keep the cooler though. 8gb ram are more than einaf for now and can always add more in the future.

 

[Toothless]

1. Where are you buying your parts from? Everywhere or one spot?

2. A normal i5 6600 would be fine however even a 4690 would work just as well.

3. 650w PSU would work perfectly for a good long time with single-GPU setups, and SLI isn't worth it unless he plays exclusively SLI-supported games. Take it from someone who uses SLI.

4. Ignore the cat, he can't math from his posts.

5. 850 EVO is amazing but this is just from me using it. I heard OCZ got better recently. SSD for programs/OS and HDD for games/storage is best way to go.

6. If he plays Minecraft, might wanna bump to 16GB as the game runs so much better with more ram given to it.

 

[little cat]

Ignore all haters !

The cat knows Maths very well . My high school was Maths school . Also my university was Financial one .

 

[Dr. Spankenstein]

Thank you so much everyone! Still as helpful and spirited as ever here at TPU!

All good considerations and will save me from wasting a bunch of money and energy. I'll provide an update on a "final" and see if it still passes the "sniff test"...

1. Where are you buying your parts from? Everywhere or one spot?

Likely one spot. More likely - the egg

2. A normal i5 6600 would be fine however even a 4690 would work just as well.

Well, I'll certainly want to OC it a bit. That would require a K version, yes? Where are non-Ks availble?

3. 650w PSU would work perfectly for a good long time with single-GPU setups, and SLI isn't worth it unless he plays exclusively SLI-supported games. Take it from someone who uses SLI.

Even better. This is the stuff I wouldn't have known. Thank you.

4. Ignore the cat, he can't math from his posts.

Bustin' chops. Good ol' TPU!

5. 850 EVO is amazing but this is just from me using it. I heard OCZ got better recently. SSD for programs/OS and HDD for games/storage is best way to go.

That was the plan. Glad I was on the right track with that one.

6. If he plays Minecraft, might wanna bump to 16GB as the game runs so much better with more ram given to it.

16GB was my preference (2x8GB) all along.

 

[Toothless]

So a 6600k with a decent cooler (reviews will be your friend)

Case is personal preference so I can't recommend one here.

I'd cook up a parts list for pricing for the scrambled egg but I'm in the rare process of cleaning my room; a dragon cannot stop once he's going.

 

[LightningJR]

Don't listen to most of these guys when it comes to 6600 vs 6700, they're living in the past. Nearly EVERY recent game will use 4 or more cores. I can say that with a 960 it wont matter at all since the system wont push a game hard enough to make it an issue but if you ever go SLI or something much more powerful it might an issue if you don't overclock.

As someone with a 2500K @ 4.7Ghz and a 670 I can tell you that I have come across CPU bottlenecked games and some others that got very close. My brother with a 6 core Phenom II also has noticed most games using all of his cores.

The system looks good though. I would for sure go 16GB of RAM.

 

[wolar]

An i5 bottlenecks GPUs when they are pushed way too much and sli/high end gpus , which according to DX12 , it won't matter that much , so an i5 is still the king for gaming until you go for ultra high end gaming rig which this build isn't .

 

[LightningJR]

which according to DX12 , it won't matter that much

I forgot about DX12, that'll help too in the future. I had a sever bottleneck in Cities Skylines with my current system and came very close when playing NBA 2k16, n2m a couple others.

But yes agree with higher end GPUs or SLI it might be an issue.

 

[little cat]

Don't listen to most of these guys when it comes to 6600 vs 6700, they're living in the past. Nearly EVERY recent game will use 4 or more cores. I can say that with a 960 it wont matter at all since the system wont push a game hard enough to make it an issue but if you ever go SLI or something much more powerful it might an issue if you don't overclock.

As someone with a 2500K @ 4.7Ghz and a 670 I can tell you that I have come across CPU bottlenecked games and some others that got very close. My brother with a 6 core Phenom II also has noticed most games using all of his cores.

The system looks good though. I would for sure go 16GB of RAM.

i5 2500K stock is 16.7% slower than i5 6600 . So to catch up with it you should overclock . If the game uses 1 or 2 cores , you might see lagging . I have several games which do that .

i5 6600K is a sweet point but investing a lot of money in an expensive aftermarket cooler is way smart only for old systems to avoid buying new CPU/mobo . Otherwise there are other options like i7 6700 and Xeon E3-1241 v3 Overclocking , expensive coolers and overheating is not for me .

So i would prefer : i5 6600K + EVO cooler , or i7 6700 or Xeon E3 1241 v3 , even i5 6600

I forgot about DX12, that'll help too in the future. I had a sever bottleneck in Cities Skylines with my current system and came very close when playing NBA 2k16, n2m a couple others.

But yes agree with higher end GPUs or SLI it might be an issue.

Your rig meets even the recommended sys req . So , I guess you expect too much of GTX 670 trying to play on Ultra . Time for upgrade of the GPU , not CPU

 

[LightningJR]

i5 2500K stock is 16.7% slower than i5 6600 . So to catch up with it you should overclock . If the game uses 1 or 2 cores , you might see lagging . I have several games which do that .

i5 6600K is a sweet point but investing a lot of money in an expensive aftermarket cooler is way smart only for old systems to avoid buying new CPU/mobo . Otherwise there are other options like i7 6700 and Xeon E3-1241 v3 Overclocking , expensive coolers and overheating is not for me .

So i would prefer : i5 6600K + EVO cooler , or i7 6700 or Xeon E3 1241 v3 , even i5 6600



Your rig meets even the recommended sys req . So , I guess you expect too much of GTX 670 trying to play on Ultra . Time for upgrade of the GPU , not CPU

I am overclocked, to 4.7Ghz, I understand the bottleneck when it's only using 1-2 cores, the two games I referenced were using all 4 cores, it wasn't a multithreading issue it was the game using a lot of CPU power.



I don't remember ever saying that I played on ultra either. I know my 670 needs an upgrade. It doesn't ignore the fact that I have been CPU bottlenecked in some games at some settings. I am saying that games today will use many cores and some really likes a powerful CPU. I mean even BF4 uses a lot of CPU and has no issue using lots of cores. I've seen The Division use 12 threads equally as well.. so 4 cores is fine for a mid range GPU but any higher and you may run in to issues.

 

[little cat]

I am overclocked, to 4.7Ghz, I understand the bottleneck when it's only using 1-2 cores, the two games I referenced were using all 4 cores, it wasn't a multithreading issue it was the game using a lot of CPU power.



I don't remember ever saying that I played on ultra either. I know my 670 needs an upgrade. It doesn't ignore the fact that I have been CPU bottlenecked in some games at some settings. I am saying that games today will use many cores and some really likes a powerful CPU. I mean even BF4 uses a lot of CPU and has no issue using lots of cores. I've seen The Division use 12 threads equally as well.. so 4 cores is fine for a mid range GPU but any higher and you may run in to issues.

I know everyone of us wishes something like i7 5930K but ...
i removed the video , finding it inappropriate for children !

 

[LightningJR]

I know everyone of us wishes something like i7 5930K but ...
Here an interesting video :

6 games. Not a very good overall picture of performance.

Listen, this argument is moot anyway because the OP has a 960, so 4 core is fine especially since it's a 6600k and he's gonna overclock.

All I am saying is that 4 cores isn't "enough" for everything, back 3 years ago I would say yes 4 cores is enough but today a lot of games are taking advantage of more cores, all I am trying to do is inform people of the current reality since so many people think 4 cores is fine in all circumstances, if you think this you're ignorant of the state of games and how they use resources. This comes from someone who is a techie that never plays a game without rivatuner open.

Would I go for a 4 core CPU after having my 2500K? No, I wouldn't. Not anymore.

 

[nedooo]

Also for cooler I would recommend this:

http://www.scythe-eu.com/en/products/cpu-cooler/mugen-max.html

or

http://www.thermalright.com/html/products/cpu_cooler/true_spirit_140_bw_reva.html

 

[Toothless]

I know everyone of us wishes something like i7 5930K but ...
\

You can't speak for all of us, so don't even go there.

OP said he wants to OC, then he can get a K version.

Games that are using more than 1-2 cores are just barely becoming common but that doesn't mean shit since the i5 is still a very powerful processor. Paired with an already bought GTX960 he'll be fine.