Critique My Build: Upgrading An Old Gaming Rig

[YellowJersey]

Budget (including currency): Best bang-for-buck (sub-$900 CAD)

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 1080 and 1440 gaming, photo editing (Affinity Photo, Photoshop CS5, Capture 1 Pro

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 100Hz (max)

 So a buddy of mine sold me his old gaming rig for $85 CAD, which included: 
Intel i5-6400 w/ stock cooler
Corsair Vengeance 16GB 2100MT/S
MSI GTX 1060 (3GB)
Kingston 240GB SATA SSD (don't recall the exact model number)

Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3 mobo
EVGA 850w PSU
Corsair Graphite 230T Case
x2 intake fans on the front
x1 vent fan on back

I upgraded it with the following: (gross cost of upgrades: $860 CAD, net cost of upgrades after selling off old components, $640 CAD)
Intel i7-6700k (overclocked to 4.4GHz) $150 CAD (used) (Explanation: I wanted to go 7700k, but I thought used chips were too expensive IMHO given the cost of the 6700k)

Noctua NHD-15S CPU cooler $130 CAD (new) (Explanation: I wanted a good air cooler, I don't want to fuss with AIO or water cooling, and I wanted something that could be carried forward to a future build. I originally wanted the full fat NH-D15, but I couldn't find any ram that was low enough due to clearance issues)

GSkill Ripjaw 32GB 3200MT/S $110 CAD (new) (Explanation: 3200MT/S seems to be the max supported by my CPU and mobo and the 16GB of ram in my previous system wasn't enough for my photoshop work, so I decided to go with 32GB. My CPU's memory controller didn't seem to be able to handle 3200MT/S and I was getting stability issues with XMP enabled, so I downclocked it to 3100MT/S and that solved the stability issues, so I doubt it could have handled any faster ram anyway)

MSI RX 6600 XT  Mech X2 OC Edition $360 CAD (new) (I don't care about ray tracing or 4k, I wanted to give the finger to nvidia, I run Linux on one partition of my SSD, and I only really wanted/needed something that could perform around the 3060/3060 TI area, and the 6600 XT seemed to fit my needs nicely and the cheapest 3060 at Memory Express is $480. I was actually going to go with an RX 6600, but I found the discount on the 6600 XT enough to buy it, even compared to available used 6600 XTs in my area)

Western Digital Black SN 7700 NVMe 1TB SSD ($140 CAD)

Net cost of system after selling off old components: $640 CAD

 What do you guys think? Did I achieve a good cost-to-performance? Would you have done anything different? So far I'm pretty happy with the build and have had no issues after a 6 hours gaming session yesterday in Grounded (playing it on game pass with a few friends. I killed all the ladybugs and wolf spiders)

 

 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Pretty meh

 

6700k is old asf you would have been better off reselling the board and cpu and getting some cheap b550 and a 5600. Or atleast do a bios mod and make coffeelake compatible on your board so you can get a 9th gen instead of a crappy overpriced quadcore from 2016

 

D15 has been superceeded by cheaper better coolers like the ak620, fuma 2, pa120, etc.

 

I think nvidia would be a better buy if you wanna do productivity stuff

 

Gen4 is useless and actually that board is so old you cant even use gen4 since that board supports gen3 and gen4 has been a thing on the consumer market since zen2 so its relatively new still

 

 

Atleast the new stuff you can return, definitely try returning the 6700k if you can, if not you can just sell it with the board and get a b550 and 5600 in exchange so you can mostly reverse bad choices, maybe youll lose a few $ but thats ok

[dizmo]

Make use of eBay, and you can do far better. Hell, I'm selling stuff that's better and not much more than what you have listed.

$140 for a 1TB SSD seems ridiculous. There are better, cheaper options.

 

Also, wait for Black Friday. Sales abound.

 

EDIT: Seems you've already done this. I'd have gone a far different route, but as long as you're happy, that's all that really matters.

You just didn't get a super good deal.

 

32 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Pretty meh

 

6700k is old asf you would have been better off reselling the board and cpu and getting some cheap b550 and a 5600. Or atleast do a bios mod and make coffeelake compatible on your board so you can get a 9th gen instead of a crappy overpriced quadcore from 2016

 

D15 has been superceeded by cheaper better coolers like the ak620, fuma 2, pa120, etc.

 

I think nvidia would be a better buy if you wanna do productivity stuff

 

Gen4 is useless and actually that board is so old you cant even use gen4 since that board supports gen3 and gen4 has been a thing on the consumer market since zen2 so its relatively new still

 

 

Atleast the new stuff you can return, definitely try returning the 6700k if you can, if not you can just sell it with the board and get a b550 and 5600 in exchange so you can mostly reverse bad choices, maybe youll lose a few $ but thats ok

They're cheaper, but IIRC the D15 still stands at the top of the pack. It's just not great value for where it sits.

[YellowJersey]

@Somerandomtechyboi @dizmo

 I dunno, I just did a test using Memory Express' system configurator and I couldn't come up with a system that was substantially better without spending a lot more. Even after selling off the old components, I think that's more than I'm willing to spend. Like I said, I'm pretty happy with what I got, especially without wanting to run the used parts gambit (other than for the 6700k).

[KNice]

Getting an SSD with DRAM would have been nice. Something like Gigabyte Aorus 1TB or Samsung 970 Evo/980 Pro if NVMe, and MX500/Samsung 870 Evo if SATA. You overspent on the CPU Cooler. An AK620 or a Fuma 2 for dual fan, and Freezer 34 or a Pure Rock 2 for single fan should have been plentyful now and in the future. 

 

With that being said, getting these four parts may have served you better.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

2 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

@Somerandomtechyboi @dizmo

 I dunno, I just did a test using Memory Express' system configurator and I couldn't come up with a system that was substantially better without spending a lot more. Even after selling off the old components, I think that's more than I'm willing to spend. Like I said, I'm pretty happy with what I got, especially without wanting to run the used parts gambit (other than for the 6700k).

3600 cl16 doesnt do shit for performance, primaries are irrelevant all the performance is in the subtimings, particularly trfc, trc, trrd-l/s, and tfaw. Also just buy windows from microsoft if you wanna pay that price, oem keys are like 20$ on cheapkeys sites like scdkeys or kinguin

 

You can still resell that 6700k and z170 then buy a 5600 and a cheap b550 or a520 even, you dont need to swap the entire system just the cpu and board

 

3 hours ago, dizmo said:

They're cheaper, but IIRC the D15 still stands at the top of the pack. It's just not great value for where it sits.

I have heard of ppl claiming the ak620 has better cooling performance though im honestly really skeptical of that since its just smaller than the d15. But like the fuma 2 comes within margin of the d15, has better ram compatibility, and is cheaper so theres an example of a cooler that mostly superceeds the d15

[dizmo]

8 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

@Somerandomtechyboi @dizmo

 I dunno, I just did a test using Memory Express' system configurator and I couldn't come up with a system that was substantially better without spending a lot more. Even after selling off the old components, I think that's more than I'm willing to spend. Like I said, I'm pretty happy with what I got, especially without wanting to run the used parts gambit (other than for the 6700k).

I mean, in that list you seem to have picked some very high priced "similar" parts when you could have bought something cheaper.

You also didn't have Windows10 in your list above. Rather disingenuous.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($223.50 @ shopRBC)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler  ($99.95 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550 AORUS PRO AC ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($169.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory  ($119.99 @ Memory Express)
Storage: HP EX950 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($119.88 @ Canada Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte GAMING OC Radeon RX 6650 XT 8 GB Video Card  ($329.99 @ Canada Computers)
Total: $1063.30
 

About $400 less than the build you put together above, with more performance.

It's also only $200 more than the build you have put together now, however the 6650XT beats the 6600XT in almost every case. Some are slim margins, others it beats by 10 to 15 frames. It's hard to find direct comparisons between the CPUs given the age of the 6700k, but the few I did find it beat handily as well. Much faster SSD than the one above. If you factor in the fact that you can sell the motherboard and CPU as a combo now, which is far easier, then you're eve further ahead.

 

You can also knock another $50 - $100 off the price of the above build by going with slightly different parts, like an AK620, 3200mhz RAM, a cheaper SSD, etc.

 

6 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

I have heard of ppl claiming the ak620 has better cooling performance though im honestly really skeptical of that since its just smaller than the d15. But like the fuma 2 comes within margin of the d15, has better ram compatibility, and is cheaper so theres an example of a cooler that mostly superceeds the d15

The AK620 trades blows. Depends on the test. It's within a degree or two of the D15. So it wouldn't be a terrible choice. Not sure how the mounting hardware is though.

The Fuma 2 doesn't beat the D15, it's several degrees worse. It is, however, very quiet.

Really depends what you're going for.