Ashtrix - Requesting Help With A Desktop Build

Hello fellas,

My friend's old 2600K Sandy system is broken, AMD 5xxx Twinfrozr II is dead too.

I said him to get a the mid range config, budget is ~1200 USD - We thought, a Z170 chipset, EVGA 1070 (still have to look what EVGA's 1070 versions release, not founders scam), 6600K /6700K , Crucial MX200 or SanDisk Ultra II (No samsung TLC junk or firmware b$) CM HAF 912 ATX case is already there. He's in India , I'm planning to get him the GPU, CPU, RAM, SSD from US by August.

So there's time & It's way better to invest here than there. About the Mobo & Liquid CPU cooler (Prefer the no refill / no hassle types - H100i / Kraken, which I recently got to know ) . Maybe have to buy there only since it might be not possible to carry them overseas. Still It'd better If I get to know what are the options (Offer a quite good Quality / Price / Perf)

About RAM iirc the DDR4 maintains high clocks but lose at latency timings over CL14+, It'd be great to pick the one best for buck and good performer.

Please could you guys suggest some basics (all components, where to buy , etc)

Thanks & here's the basic things I've configured !

 

where do u live and is there a MicroCenter near u?

they have a MoBo + CPU + SSD bundle discount if u buy all 3 at the same time. u get -$30 off your MoBo and -$10 off your SSD purchase.

pretty much everything else can be found online. especially if u're not in a rush then just wait for deals/coupons/sales.

 

Nope, It just got closed in Santa Clara

 

Most people don't realize that you can build an X99 system for the same price as a Z170 system.

Check out /r/hardwareswap if you don't mind buying 2nd hand.

 

Pc part picker is always there to help you out! haha
Seriously, though, just a FYI, I'm also trying to build a pc around 1200- 1300, and this is what I can tell you based on my research.
CPU: 6600k vs 6700k, if you are only gaming, the 6600k will work very very well, and in terms of light 3d renderings or light video editings, this CPU will work just fine and you can put that extra cash somewhere else (like the GPU) However, if you are going to use it for gaming and workstation stuff, then the 6700 or the 6700k is recommended. While the 6700 doesn't perform as well gaming compared to the 6600k, I think the 6700 will do fine in gaming and it's better for a workstation. Or, you can pay $40-$50 more and get the 6700k, which is just plain better than both of them.
Mobo: After tons of research, the motherboard brands from most popular are: Asus, gigabyte, MSI, ASRock. Looking at pricing wise, I would suggest getting a motherboard for under $150, but if you want or you find a great deal, going up to $200 shouldn't hurt. I personally got a gigabyte sli for $120, mostly because my case went over my budget so I had to take some $ from the mobo... stupid cases
CPU cooler (assuming you overclock the CPU): This becomes a question of do you want performance of silence. Water cooler will be a few degrees c cooler than the top notch air coolers, but air coolers will be 5-10dbs cooler. I will upload a crappy excel sheet with a few coolers on there for comparison. I used this to pick my cooler. However, the be quiet dark rock 3 and Noctua nh d-15 were not on my list at the time when I picked... well, I wouldn't have gotten the be quiet one since it's not the best performing in air coolers, and the nh-d15's color scheme really drives me nuts... brown... seriously...
GPU: gtx 1070 is a great choice, but if the price gets the best of it, you can wait for the r9 480. Since I went with a 6700k, I ended up with the sapphire nitro r9 390 (I wonder how that card works as a workstation card...) but then again, I'm also waiting for the 1070 and r9 480.
Ram: I literally went to the pc part picker, clicked on ram, 2x8 GB, and sorted it from lowest price to highest. As of right now, you can get the corsair vengeance lpx ddr4 2400 for 49.99. That's what I ended up getting...
SSD: I can't help you there (sorry) since I personally went with the Samsung 750. If you're worried about reliability, as far as I'm concerned, there isn't that much fault in the tlc system. I mean, if it were such a big deal, I would wonder why the 850 Evo is such a high seller for 250gb SSD's, or people just love Samsung that much that they don't care about reliability. Again, the Samsung cards last a long time, and if crashing is a big issue, just do a full SSD backup.
And I think that covers it all. Again, I strongly recommend using pcpartpicker.com. They show the different parts that are compatible with certain parts so you don't have to worry about buying a z79 board for a z170 chip. However, do make sure the size specifications do match. For example, I needed to check if my ram was small enough for the r1 ultimate, and whether or not the case would fit it. Luckily, not only is the case over my case budget, it's also way over the height limit of my fan and gpu... Anyways, sorry if there's misprinted info or any major error, and honestly, you'll just have to experiment on pcpartpicker.com since you know your price range, I listed a few basic brands, you just have to pick what model/ price each can be and what not and kind of relocate $ here and there! And here's my crappy cooler excel. Again, this is only for overclocked cpu, if you don't overclock, then a cooler master hyper evo 212 will be fine, or whatever you find that's cheap and you like.

 

Yeah, I will be getting the 6600K only since the Z170 will be upgradeable to Kabylake when It comes, the i5 should suffice. I'm sticking with the 1070 EVGA SC / FTW versions depending on the price seems like a better investment to me over the Polaris card, I didn't knew that Air coolers were also great performers, I was looking into the AIOs because the temps are hotter back there and he might get a better ux with that Kraken / Corsair will see what is best. As for the SSD I'll just get the SanDisk Extreme Pros or Ultra II else MX200, I don't like that Samsung Magician bloatware tbh even their SSDs and NAND tech is best. I'm also looking into the Corsair LPX Vengeance only for the RAM mostly.

Thanks a lot for the much info bud, +rep !

 

Glad this helped. Have fun with the build!

 

I'm looking at these Mobos..

ASUS Z170 Sabertooth S / Z170 Pro Gaming / Z170 A if budget constraint, the Pro is high quality or MSI Z170 Gaming M5 / M7 or Gigabyte G1 GA-Z170X- Gaming 7.

I'll look into articles and reviews, Any input would be appreciated.

 

How much are you willing to spend on the mobo?

 

I'm sorry for the late reply, will update soon.

 

Apologies for bringing this up again so late..

Time has come to buy,

Looking at GTX 1070 for a friend, I checked out the EVGA SC (was out of stock for so many times seems a hit) / FTW but the coil whine / fan issue comments are too many at newegg, while the Zotac 1070 AMP looks sweet with dual 8 pin / best backplate / Build looks great too, Any ideas about reliability since It's not going to stay in US ? EVGA I guess does offer Global warranty right ?

Memory Is going to be GSkill Ripjaws V 2400MHz I think that'd be great or the 3000MHz version & the CPU will be i5 6600K.

MoBo & CPU cooler, we will be getting them in India only, It's mostly the MSI M5 Gaming Z170A, Cooler we will have to check out Noctua DH14 on a custom order else will buy it here only.

Thanks for your time, Any help would be grateful.

Thanks for the suggestion but it's not for me so have to get new HW.

 

Gpu. I've been digging around too as I've been recently informed that the 1070 is better than the 980ti in terms of gaming and workstation power. So after digging around, it's hard to say which 1070 is better. I noticed that you said the 1070 ftw edition had coil wine, but can you check out the evga SC gaming acx 3.0? I've looked into that gpu a bit but I didn't see a thing about coil whine in reviews. However, iI did not check Newegg reviews, mostly article reviews and videos. If the evga SC gaming acx 3.0 has coil whine, I believe the zotac will do well for you, so yeah. Check out the other evga model, if it's a no go, I personally believe zotac will be a good choice also.

Note, the big issue here is that evga has great support, much better than other companies, however, I'm not sure this goes the same for out of country...

Mobo. If msi has warranty support in India, then it's safe to buy it, however, I do believe gigabyte is better in terms of mobo. I only say this because Asus and msi have terrible quality control (as I'm told by others) and Asus in general also has a non existent customer support. I've never really heard much from as rock so can't say much, and evga is too expensive.

Ram and cooler looks good to me.

X99 now, for rendering, more cores is better, however, I tried to build an x99 system to replace my 6700k build, but in the end, the x99 build was much more expensive. The cpu is much more expensive, and the mobos, for their prices, have pretty bad reviews. I mean, a $200 mobo with a 3* review... Sketchy as f in my books. So yeah, also, the lower clock speeds on the cpus of haswell e and broadwell e won't help as much compared to less cores amd faster clock rate... Either that or my whole understanding of the cpu's role in gaming is wrong. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

 

all models, from all brands, could have the possibility of coming with coil whine. sometimes the coil whine might be induced by a component in your system like a bad/cheap PSU. that's why u should always go with a major company if cost is not an issue. GPU's can be RMA'd for excessive coil whine. go with whichever brand 1070 u like. i check the EVGA forums regularly and there's a crap ton of people having problems with their EVGA 1080/1070's. i would take Newegg reviews with a grain of salt.

as for MoBo's, Asus is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, when it comes to selling them. i don't have too much personal experience with their customer service, but the one time i did call them. they stayed on the phone with me for about an hour trying to trouble shoot my issue so i have no complaints.

just remember that when it comes to PSU's: clean power is better than more power.

 

Got the EVGA 1070 SC, 6600K, RAM, thanks for your suggestions, Can't just check it unfortunately none of any friends here have a DT atm.

ASUS Z170 Sabertooth and Z170 A are not available back at that time. Some issue was there that's why we settled for the MSI M5.