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Marshall Islands104 Posts
Hello there, looking for some help on a build.
What is your budget?
1300-1400 USD
What is your monitor's native resolution?
1920x1080 or 1920x1200
What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings?
Modern AAA titles on highest settings (other than anti-aliasing maybe?)
What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming?
Nothing heavy (no editing/rendering). Internet browsing.
Do you intend to overclock?
No
Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire?
No
Do you need an operating system?
Yes, likely Windows 10.
Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget?
Yes to a monitor. I like 1920x1200 like this Dell UltraSharp, but it seems pricy, so I'm open to something cheaper and maybe 1920x1080. ASUS has some more inexpensive ones. Any brand/model suggestions here are appreciated.
If you have any requirements or brand preferences, please specify.
I'll need a wifi card and optical drive. Are there any problems with this basic ASUS 24x DVD Burner and TP-LINK PCI-E Wireless Adapter?
What country will you be buying your parts in?
United States.
If you have any retailer preferences, please specify.
I've ordered before from newegg and have been happy, but other places are fine too.
Build comments:
CPU: thinking skylake i5 since only $250
CPU Cooler: No overclocking so thinking 212 evo
GPU: GTX 980 Ti won't fit on this budget. Think 970 is sufficient or should I go for 980?
Case: Likely the Corsair Carbide 200R
Motherboard: looking for help--too many new/unreviewed ones by different manufacturers
PSU: also looking for help--550 ok?
RAM: also looking for help, should I be looking for high frequency with skylake/Z170? If so, how high?
HDD/SSD: On this budget do you recommend an SSD/HDD split or just an HDD? A 128 or even 250 SSD alone would fill up pretty fast from ~20 GB titles. I'm leaning towards just an HDD.
Much appreciate your input!
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I think it feels kind of weird to get a non overclocked skylake processor at the moment because the non Z170 boards and the non-k processors aren't out yet. If you're sticking to stock clocks then maybe look at a good Haswell refresh board. It's like 5-10% IPC weaker but it's also a lot cheaper.
If you're buying in the united states, then the Rosewill Capstone is a good PSU to buy. You're looking at a 450W unit rather than a 550W unit.
That said a good 450W unit is often close in terms of cost to a good 550W unit. So even if it's overkill, eh, maybe it's worth looking at. 550W if you're looking at a big die Titan-X or high end AMD card. With a budget such as yours I'd actually get this absolutely ridiculous PSU:
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-SuperNOVA-Modular-Supply-220-G2-0550-Y1/dp/B0106RDI3W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439972335&sr=8-1&keywords=supernova 550 g2
For like $20-30 more over a budget unit you can have one of the most high end platforms out there.
Here's a mockup of a build for $1300, which leaves you about $100 for a good 1080p monitor. I went with stock haswell refresh and took advantage of dead cheap DDR3 RAM, which leaves your more room for GPU power. Heck with your budget you can afford a 980 Ti.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/J7GZyc
That said, it might not be a bad idea at all to just get an overclocked skylake set-up. Here's a mock-up of such a build:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LH7NmG
Here is the skylake set-up. You lose the "Ti" but it's still quite a strong build. I kind of went with generic RAM (not sure what's good) and I got a high-end air cooler but I'm not sure if it's a good pick (since couldn't find Thermalright Macho Rev.B). You get SLI capability down the line.
This is kind of an overkill for 1080p60 though. This is 1440p60 or 1080p144.
Well, really with your budget you have lots of strong options. A lot of the stuff I picked I did so in 5 minutes, you should probably look up specific graphic cards models and CPU coolers. x)
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@Incognoto
Can't you buy broadwell in the US yet? It's obviously for an outdated platform but I'd never recommend haswell over broadwell if you're determined to not go skylake. Broadwell is just immensely stronger, and it's for the same mobo/DDR3 as haswell.
In fact, for pure gaming performance there's literally no reason to even get skylake over broadwell today.. Wish I had known this last week before I got the 6700k. =)
In Sweden the 5675c is only ~$50 more expensive than the 4690k.
http://cdn.sweclockers.com/artikel/diagram/10443?key=7c2f1fa7ae9875b6856ebfc54cf81a9b
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ah well i might be wrong then ^^
for sure it might be good or better to get broadwell
i have my i5 6600k waiting downstairs as well. just waiting for my motherboard now
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HDD/SSD: On this budget do you recommend an SSD/HDD split or just an HDD? A 128 or even 250 SSD alone would fill up pretty fast from ~20 GB titles. I'm leaning towards just an HDD.
Games installed on HDD vs SSD don't differ much I think. Sure if you dig deep on benchmarks or different scenarios ssd maybe better but it's not night and day for me. I have some games installed on my old drive and I don't notice I didn't move them to my ssd unless I specifically take a look.
But windows and programs installed on SSD is night and day, so I would recommend getting even a 120GB one + a regular 1tb hdd, even at the cost of selling your socks.
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Broadwell is just immensely stronger
Broadwell immensely better than Haswell? :O People were saying broadwell isn't even targeted for desktops...
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Ofcourse you should not notice the difference between SSD and HDD during a game, but you can notice the loadtime.
Generally games dont profit as much as other programs on SSD. I see a very huge difference when you use/open CyberLink PowerDirector (3sec vs 30sec) and/or you execute big data sets .
I am not sure why I cant use my HDD since I used Samsung Data Migration. I think the problem is that there is Win7 on HDD (too)? Ofcourse I want to use my HDD like a storage device. If I start sc2 from HDD, it feels like HDD is the main device from now (even other background screen xD). I have sc2 on both devices.
in other words: like i have two system disk.
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I cant get into the bio's, when i start the computer up it says no hard disk detected. I need a program or tool. Any other ideas for my MSI x58a-gd45
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Marshall Islands104 Posts
Thanks much for the feedback everyone.
@Incognoto
Thanks for the two builds. I like the case you recommended there. If I wanted to go slightly cheaper on the skylake build (since I need to budget for windows/optical drive/wifi adapter), could I go down to a 970? Or at that point would you recommend the haswell setup with maybe a 980 (not Ti)?
If I run into "overkill" at 1080p60 I think that's ok as it just means I'll be able to run more down the road.
I can't seem to find broadwell here (unless I'm doing something wrong).
@everyone
Looks like SSD + HDD is the way to go here.
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Oh, sorry about the extra peripherals I forgot. I got caught up with US prices. :D
I think that one way to approach building a computer is building your entire system, minus the graphics card. Then, your remaining budget goes entirely to the graphics card.
A GTX 970 is strong, but it's not as strong as a GTX 980 or even a Ti. It's up to you to decide how much you prioritize GPU power over the rest of it. ^^
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@Mantequilla It's apparently been crushing gaming benchmarks.
@Jayde It seems that it's not out in the US yet but I can find it in stock in EU so maybe it's coming soon?
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United Kingdom20343 Posts
Games installed on HDD vs SSD don't differ much I think. Sure if you dig deep on benchmarks or different scenarios ssd maybe better but it's not night and day for me.
It's mostly about loading times. A HDD against a great SSD is pretty night and day there, i think the biggest example i saw was planetside 2 loading when changing continents which takes forever on a hdd and like 1/5'th of the time on a fast ssd. Affects all games though, just some don't load stuff much/often
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It sure helps in some circumstances. An M2 ssd is better than a regular ssd in some circumstances. Triple raid 0 SSD are better in some circumstances. Huge RAMDisk is better... Point is, on a fixed budget, a big enough SSD to hold your games is not number 1 priority. Unless, you are in very specific circumstances 
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About the monitor posts earlier in the thread. I have a Samsung u24e850r which is a 23.8 inch UHD display. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how well most apps and games scaled to the very high dpi of the monitor.
The high DPI is really nice for reading text and web browsing also.
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is it just me that thinks "once you use 120/144hz monitor, you cant go back"?
i want to get a 1440p but the price is holding me off as they're 550 to 700. i'd recommend 1080p 144hz over 1440p 60hz but thats just me. overall desktop experience is better, gaming is a plus.
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Hello it's been a while since you last built my current PC (4670k GTX 660 2x8 1600) and with me working again i've got some saved up money for fun stuff and this qualifies as fun stuff.
What is your budget?
Err.. 20-30000 SEK
What is your monitor's native resolution?
1920x1080 144hz
What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings?
I play alot of alpha games right now such as Ark RoK and similar, looking to get into witcher/GTA 5 type of games but my current pc can't handle it on decent settings
What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming?
Gaming and browsing I don't think i need to use any CAD tools at home anymore.
Do you intend to overclock?
Yep
Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire?
No I think the day my GPU gets outdated i'll just replace it.
Do you need an operating system?
Uhm.. I own windows 10 right now so I suppose i could use that key to move it over one way or another. thats a No.
Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget?
Nah this is only PC
If you have any requirements or brand preferences, please specify.
Intel, Nvidia. Never EVER touching AMD again even if the version i had all those years ago sucked massive donger. im scarred for life. and i NEED that case btw :> so sexy
What country will you be buying your parts in?
Sweden
If you have any retailer preferences, please specify.
www.inet.se because they assemble it for a pretty cheap price. im lazy i know
this is the little build i scrapped together myself but i haven't been looking into this in a long time so figured i'd head back to good old tl tech support for some tips and pointers. http://www.inet.se/kundvagn/visa/8338366/2015-07-13
if the link stops working let me know or if you prefer it in some other way.
also i did put some thought into titan X and 4K but meh. should be alright just replacing the card for whatever is good when 4k is popular and useful in gaming.
(I know nothing abot clc or soundcards just took these yolo but do suggest better ones for similar or lower prices)
also need a PSU i just realized.
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United Kingdom20343 Posts
On August 20 2015 21:32 mantequilla wrote:It sure helps in some circumstances. An M2 ssd is better than a regular ssd in some circumstances. Triple raid 0 SSD are better in some circumstances. Huge RAMDisk is better... Point is, on a fixed budget, a big enough SSD to hold your games is not number 1 priority. Unless, you are in very specific circumstances
They're just so cheap now. Cost per Gigabyte is 1/5'th of what it was 5 years ago and performance is over 1.5x better as well and that's just on a sata 3 drive. £60-70 for a 250GB 850 evo isn't much against the cost of a system any more, if you're getting an ssd at all it's nice to get a roomy one. I'd never recommend storing an archive of games on an SSD, i have all of my games on there but that's WoW, sc2 and KSP at the moment because that's all i've played in the last month. It's not really for downloading 100 steam games onto, but having 4 to >100x faster storage (depending on the size of files being loaded) is really beneficial for many games
is it just me that thinks "once you use 120/144hz monitor, you cant go back"?
No, 60hz is too low. It's been too low since stepping down from CRT's
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can't make a build right now and even then i can't really recommend any particular skylake mobo, will maybe take a look later/morning
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@KapsyL read this:
http://www.sweclockers.com/test/20908-intel-core-i7-5775c-och-i5-5675c-broadwell
Get a 5775c which is available in Sweden already, depending on what Mobo you have it should be compatible with it already as it's the same socket as your 4670k. Get a good CPU cooler for it since you intend to overclock. Since you're not really interested in SLI just get a GTX 980Ti. You'll land at spending not even half of what your budget is but be on a system that'll destroy games and in pretty much all cases handle 120+fps just fine.
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United Kingdom20343 Posts
OC'd 4670k to broadwell is a relative sidegrade for most people, it's not huge like a 660 to a 980ti (which i absolutely agree with) :D
450w psu would be on the low side for those components + OC, 550w fine and 650 great
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@KapsyL:
If you're determined to get everything new and built by Inet then I'd recommend this over what you had chosen yourself, given the additional strength of the broadwell CPU over Skylake for games, I'm guessing you picked the case because that's what you wanted so just changed the platform from skylake to broadwell really. I personally own a ASUS Xonar Essence ST soundcard and they are really good so you picked the right one for sure, especially if you're going to run with better headphones in the future which might need that amplifier which sits on it.
http://www.inet.se/kundvagn/visa/8339706/2015-08-20broadwell
@Cyro: You're right in most games just getting a new GPU would probably have been fine. But as I noticed for Sc2 when switching from Ivy Bridge to Skylake is that it's pretty damn nice to have the better CPU when the games really thirst for it.
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United Kingdom20343 Posts
I really think buying new is unneccesary (and h75 is not a very good cooler either way)
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EPT
