How are these specs?

[Zelatrix]

I'm building my first PC currently, and it has the following specs. It has been suggested that I get an SSD, a bigger PSU, or 2 8GB RAM sticks rather than 1 16GB stick, which I may do further down the line, but for now, it has the following components inside it. Are these good specifications for 3D modelling and/or gaming?

Case	CoolerMaster Black MasterBox Lite 5 Tower PC Gaming Case
HDD	Seagate 3.5 Inch 2 TB BarraCuda Internal Hard Drive – Silver
PSU	Corsair CP-9020102-UK CX550M 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply Unit
Screws	N/A
Standoffs	N/A
Graphics card	EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING 6GB GDDR5 VR Ready Graphics Card, 1280 Core, 1506MHz GPU, 1708MHz Boost
RAM	16GB (1x16GB) Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX Black, PC4-19200 (2400), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 16-16-16-39, XMP 2.0, 1.2V
Processor	Intel Core i5 8400, S 1151, Coffee Lake, 6 Core, 6 Thread, 2.8GHz, 4.0GHz Turbo, 9MB Cache, 1050MHz GPU, 65W, CPU, Box
Motherboard	MSI Intel 1151 Socket Z370 Chipset PC Pro D4 ATX Motherboard - Black

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, USBHoarder said:

I'm building my first PC currently, and it has the following specs. It has been suggested that I get an SSD, a bigger PSU, or 2 8GB RAM sticks rather than 1 16GB stick, which I may do further down the line, but for now, it has the following components inside it. Are these good specifications for 3D modelling and/or gaming?

Case	CoolerMaster Black MasterBox Lite 5 Tower PC Gaming Case
HDD	Seagate 3.5 Inch 2 TB BarraCuda Internal Hard Drive – Silver
PSU	Corsair CP-9020102-UK CX550M 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply Unit
Screws	N/A
Standoffs	N/A
Graphics card	EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING 6GB GDDR5 VR Ready Graphics Card, 1280 Core, 1506MHz GPU, 1708MHz Boost
RAM	16GB (1x16GB) Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX Black, PC4-19200 (2400), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 16-16-16-39, XMP 2.0, 1.2V
Processor	Intel Core i5 8400, S 1151, Coffee Lake, 6 Core, 6 Thread, 2.8GHz, 4.0GHz Turbo, 9MB Cache, 1050MHz GPU, 65W, CPU, Box
Motherboard	MSI Intel 1151 Socket Z370 Chipset PC Pro D4 ATX Motherboard - Black

well for the RAM you are losing Dual Channel with may (it will but the impact may vary) cause slowdowns. unless you are planning on getting another 16gb stick go with 2 8gb sticks

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Get an SSD, like, now. WIn10 on a hard drive is MISERABLE, besides it's $20

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/JPgzK8/team-l5-lite-3d-120gb-25-solid-state-drive-t253td120g3c101

[Zelatrix]

@Nolanrulesroblox I am planning on getting another 16GB stick, but it probably won't happen for a while. 

@OrbitalBuzzsaw I already bought the HDD, but I ran Windows 10 on an HDD before on my old machine and it wasn't that bad. I also get Windows 10 free from my university.  

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

2 minutes ago, USBHoarder said:

@Nolanrulesroblox I am planning on getting another 16GB stick, but it probably won't happen for a while. 

@OrbitalBuzzsaw I already bought the HDD, but I ran Windows 10 on an HDD before on my old machine and it wasn't that bad. I also get Windows 10 free from my university.  

If you insist I guess, but it's really worth it and how does it being free change anything? Besides, $20.

[NunoLava1998]

Get an SSD.

The PSU change isn't needed at all, but if you are planning to upgrade soon definitely get something like a RM650x

[Zelatrix]

I'll probably switch to an SSD when I get the money, or when I've had my computer for a while. 

[Dedayog]

9 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

If you insist I guess, but it's really worth it and how does it being free change anything? Besides, $20.

 

11 minutes ago, USBHoarder said:

@Nolanrulesroblox I am planning on getting another 16GB stick, but it probably won't happen for a while. 

@OrbitalBuzzsaw I already bought the HDD, but I ran Windows 10 on an HDD before on my old machine and it wasn't that bad. I also get Windows 10 free from my university.  

"Wasn't that bad"

 

If that's your level of ambition in life...

 

Not sure how getting Windows free impacts your drive choice.  

 

Btw, your RAM choice is terrible.  Go Dual Channel ( a 2x kit) and get speeds over 3000MHz, which isn't much more if anything.

[Zelatrix]

Quote

2 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

"Wasn't that bad"

 

If that's your level of ambition in life....

 

 

At this point in time, I'm not really looking for the best PC ever, just one that does the job and that I can afford. I think at this point in time, being a university student, I might not be able to afford an SSD. Plus, I already have the HDD.  

[Dedayog]

Just now, USBHoarder said:

At this point in time, I'm not really looking for the best PC ever, just one that does the job and that I can afford. I think at this point in time, being a university student, I might not be able to afford an SSD. Plus, I already have the HDD.  

Even this for $30 will be MUCH faster....  Install Windows on it, put your programs/games on the HDD.

 

https://smile.amazon.com/Inland-Professional-240GB-Internal-Solid/dp/B076XXMJZH/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1546889944&sr=1-5&keywords=240gb+ssd

[Zelatrix]

Would that CoolerMaster case be able to support both an SSD and a HDD? I might get an SSD when I get paid in a few days. 

[Kryptyle]

An SSD is definitely a big deal in terms of performance improvement, especially boot time. I know windows might seem okay on an HDD but believe me, booting from an SSD shows you how responsive windows can really be (before it decides to update lol), you should definitely get one. I think the case does support it, if not you can just shove it in somewhere and hack it on with double sided tape, SSDs are tough buggers like that.

 

I understand going with the single RAM module for upgrade room in the future, while Dual Channel is ideal, single channel won't be the death of you. I believe a certain Nexus of Gamers has an article and video showing the negligible impact of Single vs. Dual Channel in gaming. If you are planning on getting another 16 gig stick in the near future, it makes sense to me.

[NunoLava1998]

3 minutes ago, Kryptyle said:

An SSD is definitely a big deal in terms of performance improvement, especially boot time. I know windows might seem okay on an HDD but believe me, booting from an SSD shows you how responsive windows can really be (before it decides to update lol), you should definitely get one. I think the case does support it, if not you can just shove it in somewhere and hack it on with double sided tape, SSDs are tough buggers like that.

SSDs are pretty good for updates too. On a regular (and pretty low quality, barely saturates SATA 2) SATA SSD that I use as my boot drive it updates very quickly.

[Kryptyle]

3 minutes ago, NunoLava1998 said:

SSDs are pretty good for updates too. On a regular (and pretty low quality, barely saturates SATA 2) SATA SSD that I use as my boot drive it updates very quickly.

Very good point, I hadn't thought of that. Generally SSDs FTW. Try your best to swing it.

[Dedayog]

8 minutes ago, Kryptyle said:

An SSD is definitely a big deal in terms of performance improvement, especially boot time. I know windows might seem okay on an HDD but believe me, booting from an SSD shows you how responsive windows can really be (before it decides to update lol), you should definitely get one. I think the case does support it, if not you can just shove it in somewhere and hack it on with double sided tape, SSDs are tough buggers like that.

 

I understand going with the single RAM module for upgrade room in the future, while Dual Channel is ideal, single channel won't be the death of you. I believe a certain Nexus of Gamers has an article and video showing the negligible impact of Single vs. Dual Channel in gaming. If you are planning on getting another 16 gig stick in the near future, it makes sense to me.

Going to go with no on this one.  Go 2x8 now and another 2x8 in the future, that's how you should run your 16GB RAM purchases.  No reason to get single sticks on a mobo that has 4 slots.  

[Kryptyle]

4 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

Going to go with no on this one.  Go 2x8 now and another 2x8 in the future, that's how you should run your 16GB RAM purchases.  No reason to get single sticks on a mobo that has 4 slots.  

Fair point, hadn't considered that at all.

 

Feel free to go about your business as I go to the corner and die of humiliation.

[Dedayog]

5 minutes ago, James Evens said:

If you need to save some money buy used RAM. The 20-30 bucks you saved this way can be used for a 250gb SSD.

 

@jstudrawa Depends. Upgrading from 2x8 to 4x8 could lock further upgrades. You will lock yourself to 32gb. If you go with 8gb sticks first then better upgrade with 16gb sticks you will sit at 50gb.

This build realistically, based on previous generations of CPU releases, won't need more than 32GB of RAM.   That'll last you until you want a new generation of CPU that needs DDR5.

 

Just like how the 4xxx and 6xxx generations used 8 and 16GB of ram... we're at the 16 and 32GB level for the current gen.  Folks in 5 years will build with 32GB and upgrade to 64GB with the next gens.

 

That's my reasoning.  If I am wrong, I'd sell my 2x8 when I wanted to upgrade and get 2x16 to leave room for 2x16 more.  I just don't see builds needing over 32GB RAM within 3-5 years is all.

[Dedayog]

1 minute ago, James Evens said:

Gaming? no

3d modeling? they can eat 32gb for breakfast. It depends on what you job is in 5 years.

Selling and buying complete new sticks is more work and might be more expensive then just buying the larger one right now since 1x16gb cost the same as 2x8gb.

You're completely right, I was only focusing on the gaming side of things.  Totally missed that he asked about 3D Modeling.