greenlotad

Calling 1440p "2K"

Oh wow, that's a huge difference in temps. Neat.

Just checked it for you:
https://videocardz.com/review/msi-geforce-gtx-1060-6gt-oc

 

Not official specification but judging by what other owners say it is set to 49% min.
And yeah I wouldn't mess with VBIOS for this either heh.

Cooler Master NR200. Bringing those tiny boutique style to the masses and not being a piece of crap in the process. 

Alright, thanks so much for your help!

In case you haven't seen it, JayzTwoCents recently made a video that seems relevant here.
 

You sound like me trying to justify a new purchase. 
 
"Look honey, i just wanted to help reduce the power bills around the house, that's why i bought this 2080ti Kingpin..."

You're welcome fam. Honestly, that's a really good decision too. I borrowed a high refresh rate from a friend once and what I liked most about it was the screen real estate from having two monitors, not the refresh rate. If you do that it's kind of a best of both worlds scenario. cheers.

A 1070 should have no problem playing most games at either 1440p 60Hz or 1080p 144Hz. I'd think a 5700XT could probably run 1440p 144Hz on a decent amount of games, but definitely not every game. I mean, all of this really depends on what you're playing. A 1070 could even run some games at those specs, it's just going to be a more limited selection.
 
If it's within your budget to buy a monitor that supports 1440p 144Hz I'd say go for it. Even when you're playing a game that can't take full advantage of it you might get, say 90fps which is going to feel noticeably better than 60.
 
If you need to choose between the two, that's really up to your personal preference. My preference is resolution over refresh rate, but that doesn't seem to be the majority opinion for the pc gaming community. Competitive games benefit more from refresh rate but otherwise there's no definitive answer.
 
Also, I'm approaching this from a gaming perspective, but you said you do other things too. I think it makes more sense to prioritize resolution for most other applications. There aren't many tasks outside of gaming that are going to benefit much from a high refresh rate.

Eh, this was true 4-ish years ago, but these days cheap phones can be pretty good. You really don't need a flagship to get something worthwhile anymore. As an example, let me bring up the Moto G line again. Cheap? yes. But it isn't full of bloat, has a decent screen, fast enough specs for normal use, and it even includes features like fast charging. I'm not saying they are perfect phones (the cameras definitely aren't flagship-quality) but I think that they'd suit the needs of most people.

The two have approximately the same performance according to these sources (Idk how reliable they are, just found at the top of Google). In the Witcher 3, there's only a single frame of difference. Therefore, I think the biggest question is how much you value the warranty.
 
https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare/GeForce-GTX-970-vs-GeForce-GTX-1060-3GB/2954vs3566
http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-970-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1060-3GB/2577vs3646

This is just anecdotal, but I bought a Gigabyte GPU a year ago and it has been nothing but trouble. 

yes no problem, if you want to go all out for silence, you're going to need a large heatsink with a low spinning fan or a silence optimized fan.
 
Be Quiet! and Cryorig have pretty quiet and nice performing/looking products. Noctua is also a good choice I believe.

I really have no semblance of budget here because I'm just asking out of curiosity. If I was to do something like this it wouldn't be for at least a couple years, once I finish my degree and whatnot
 
I think I see what you're saying here though; water cooling is not the place to start for silent builds. Large heatsinks, cases, and pwm fans are more important to focus on. Thanks!

@aedan929 How are you so positive about your GPU being dead, especially with prices these days? I admire your positivity
 

There is a physical limitation.  In an IPS display the crystals do not move fast enough to accommodate high refresh rate displays.  The crystals in a TN panel move much faster which is why they are more common in high refresh rate displays.  I think ASUS offers some 144 Hz IPS displays, but they probably worked with a panel maker to try and optimize response time.

VA might be a better option for you.  They generally have better viewing angles and color than TN but switch faster than IPS.  It's a good compromise.

Alright, so--humor me here, I've probably lost my mind. There's a very small chance that I'll actually get this--I found this build on the front page of pcpartpicker. Ignoring the lack of monitor, it's only ~$100 more, and it's comparable in some aspects and pretty decked out in others. Does anyone see any drawbacks?
https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/yDFfrH/great-amd-gaming-build

Oh, it requires water cooling? Is that why this 1080 is so cheap? 

Is there a particular reason for the changes? It's slightly more expensive that way and doesn't make it any smaller.