Skylake build (thoughts?)

[SamuelWN]

I've been planning to upgrade my current desktop for a while Skylake's release seemed like a good time to do so.
What I'm looking for:

• I mainly use my current rig (here) as a Plex Media Server / Theater and I could use a machine with better video transcoding ability.
• I do also do a fair amount of programming for high-performance computing, so a good testbench would be nice.
• Though I'm not much of a gamer, but I do dabble, so a machine that can hold its own would be nice.

Here's my current plan:

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/p/GGsfBm

Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/p/GGsfBm/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($359.99 @ NCIX US) 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 240M 76.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($106.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: MSI Z170A KRAIT GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($149.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Mushkin Redline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($148.98 @ Directron) 

Storage: Intel 730 Series 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($139.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $72.99) 

Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $72.99) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $49.99) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card  ($124.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case: Antec GX500 ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $44.99) 

Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For $69.99) 

Wired Network Adapter: TP-Link TG-3468 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI-Express x1 Network Adapter  (Purchased For $12.90) 

Other: Ubuntu 14.04.3 (Desktop) ($0.00)

Other: StarTech 4 Port PCI Express 2.0 SATA III 6Gbps RAID Controller Card (Purchased For $63.95)

 

Total (Not Yet Purchased): $1030.93

Total (Purchased): $387.80

Total: $1418.73

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-16 18:43 EDT-0400

My budget is +/- $1,000 USD. Any suggestions?

Much thanks!

[Arty]

skylake but 1st gen Maxwell card? 

this is a unique build hmmm

 

Theater pc and high computing lol. 

what kind of computing?

[Curufinwe_wins]

 

I've been planning to upgrade my current desktop for a while Skylake's release seemed like a good time to do so.

What I'm looking for:

• I mainly use my current rig (here) as a Plex Media Server / Theater and I could use a machine with better video transcoding ability.
• I do also do a fair amount of programming for high-performance computing, so a good testbench would be nice.
• Though I'm not much of a gamer, but I do dabble, so a machine that can hold its own would be nice.

Here's my current plan:

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/p/GGsfBm

Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/p/GGsfBm/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($359.99 @ NCIX US) 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 240M 76.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($106.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: MSI Z170A KRAIT GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($149.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Mushkin Redline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($148.98 @ Directron) 

Storage: Intel 730 Series 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($139.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $72.99) 

Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $72.99) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $49.99) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card  ($124.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case: Antec GX500 ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $44.99) 

Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For $69.99) 

Wired Network Adapter: TP-Link TG-3468 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI-Express x1 Network Adapter  (Purchased For $12.90) 

Other: Ubuntu 14.04.3 (Desktop) ($0.00)

Other: StarTech 4 Port PCI Express 2.0 SATA III 6Gbps RAID Controller Card (Purchased For $63.95)

 

Total (Not Yet Purchased): $1030.93

Total (Purchased): $387.80

Total: $1418.73

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-16 18:43 EDT-0400

My budget is +/- $1,000 USD. Any suggestions?

Much thanks!

 

730 ssd is shit for the price. Grab the cheapest of the BX100/MX200/850Evo at the capacity you want.

 

That memory is stupid overkill...

 

Actually I have alot of comments so I'm just going to redo it.

[Curufinwe_wins]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/krxdQ7

 

There better in every way. i7 isn't needed and isn't in budget. This build is 20 dollars cheaper overall. You can get a fancier mobo with that. No point on spending 20 dollars on ram/gpu/cpu in this case. It just doesn't get you anything.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($249.95 @ B&H) 

CPU Cooler: LEPA AquaChanger 240 103.6 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($79.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: MSI Z170A KRAIT GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($149.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($109.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $72.99) 

Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $72.99) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $49.99) 

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card  ($329.98 @ SuperBiiz) 

Case: Antec GX500 ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $44.99) 

Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For $69.99) 

Wired Network Adapter: TP-Link TG-3468 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI-Express x1 Network Adapter  (Purchased For $12.90) 

Other: Ubuntu 14.04.3 (Desktop) ($0.00)

Other: StarTech 4 Port PCI Express 2.0 SATA III 6Gbps RAID Controller Card (Purchased For $63.95)

Total: $1397.69

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-16 19:03 EDT-0400

[bip_]

A 750 ti will hold well in gaming, despicably with that CPU. Is your monitor 4k or 1080p, because the 750 ti won't run very well on anything past 1080p (in gaming at least).

[SamuelWN]

skylake but 1st gen Maxwell card? 

this is a unique build hmmm

 

Theater pc and high computing lol. 

what kind of computing?

I mainly do just highly threaded C++ imaging analysis (ITK).

I was toying with the idea of a GTX 960 (here). Other than for gaming / CUDA programming, etc, would it make all that much of a difference?

[KemoKa]

 

I've been planning to upgrade my current desktop for a while Skylake's release seemed like a good time to do so.

What I'm looking for:

• I mainly use my current rig (here) as a Plex Media Server / Theater and I could use a machine with better video transcoding ability.
• I do also do a fair amount of programming for high-performance computing, so a good testbench would be nice.
• Though I'm not much of a gamer, but I do dabble, so a machine that can hold its own would be nice.

Here's my current plan:

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/p/GGsfBm

Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/p/GGsfBm/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($359.99 @ NCIX US) 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 240M 76.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($106.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: MSI Z170A KRAIT GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($149.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Mushkin Redline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($148.98 @ Directron) 

Storage: Intel 730 Series 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($139.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $72.99) 

Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $72.99) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $49.99) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card  ($124.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case: Antec GX500 ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $44.99) 

Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For $69.99) 

Wired Network Adapter: TP-Link TG-3468 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI-Express x1 Network Adapter  (Purchased For $12.90) 

Other: Ubuntu 14.04.3 (Desktop) ($0.00)

Other: StarTech 4 Port PCI Express 2.0 SATA III 6Gbps RAID Controller Card (Purchased For $63.95)

 

Total (Not Yet Purchased): $1030.93

Total (Purchased): $387.80

Total: $1418.73

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-16 18:43 EDT-0400

My budget is +/- $1,000 USD. Any suggestions?

Much thanks!

 

Get rid of the 730 SSD. It's only suitable for data centers where they need SSDs with high tolerances. if you want a performer, grab a HyperX Savage or a Neutron GT.

 

For the price of that 750Ti you could easily find a 7870 somewhere. Much more competent at any dabbling you may want to do, especially since Nvidia drivers on Linux are absolutely horrendous right now. Like, SSH-into-machine-to-finish-driver-install horrible.

 

Other than that, looks great.

[SamuelWN]

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/krxdQ7

 

There better in every way. i7 isn't needed and isn't in budget. This build is 20 dollars cheaper overall. You can get a fancier mobo with that. No point on spending 20 dollars on ram/gpu/cpu in this case. It just doesn't get you anything.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($249.95 @ B&H) 

CPU Cooler: LEPA AquaChanger 240 103.6 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($79.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: MSI Z170A KRAIT GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($149.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($109.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $72.99) 

Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $72.99) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $49.99) 

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card  ($329.98 @ SuperBiiz) 

Case: Antec GX500 ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $44.99) 

Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For $69.99) 

Wired Network Adapter: TP-Link TG-3468 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI-Express x1 Network Adapter  (Purchased For $12.90) 

Other: Ubuntu 14.04.3 (Desktop) ($0.00)

Other: StarTech 4 Port PCI Express 2.0 SATA III 6Gbps RAID Controller Card (Purchased For $63.95)

Total: $1397.69

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-16 19:03 EDT-0400

 

I do a lot of heavily threaded programming, so I think it'd make sense to spend the extra few bucks to get hyperthreading...

Also, I'm kinda looking for an NVIDEA GPU (they do a better job with Linux drivers)

I'll definitely look into that watercooling rig, though...

[Curufinwe_wins]

I do a lot of heavily threaded programming, so I think it'd make sense to spend the extra few bucks to get hyperthreading...

Also, I'm kinda looking for an NVIDEA GPU (they do a better job with Linux drivers)

I'll definitely look into that watercooling rig, though...

Ok then swap a 390 for a 970. They are same price. There is no reason to go with that cpu and a 750ti. Thats like a 960 with a 5820k it just doesn't make sense.

 

Hyperthreading isn't that big of a deal honestly, and few programs out there can use more than 4 threads efficiently anyways. (in fact only CFD, MOC and Monte Carlo are the only ones I am aware that are basically infinitely scalable.)

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LD8qnQ

[spartaman64]

I do a lot of heavily threaded programming, so I think it'd make sense to spend the extra few bucks to get hyperthreading...

Also, I'm kinda looking for an NVIDEA GPU (they do a better job with Linux drivers)

I'll definitely look into that watercooling rig, though...

not from my experience with nvidia linux drivers

[Curufinwe_wins]

not from my experience with nvidia linux drivers

It doesn't really matter either way, but a 350 dollar cpu with a 128 dollar gpu is sacrilegious.

[SamuelWN]

Really? I haven't had to set up an nvidea gpu in a while and they used to do a good job with that.

 

 

not from my experience with nvidia linux drivers

 

Get rid of the 730 SSD. It's only suitable for data centers where they need SSDs with high tolerances. if you want a performer, grab a HyperX Savage or a Neutron GT.

 

For the price of that 750Ti you could easily find a 7870 somewhere. Much more competent at any dabbling you may want to do, especially since Nvidia drivers on Linux are absolutely horrendous right now. Like, SSH-into-machine-to-finish-driver-install horrible.

 

Other than that, looks great.

[SamuelWN]

It's not a big deal for gaming, but I do a lot of highly threaded programming

Ok then swap a 390 for a 970. They are same price. There is no reason to go with that cpu and a 750ti. Thats like a 960 with a 5820k it just doesn't make sense.

 

Hyperthreading isn't that big of a deal honestly, and few programs out there can use more than 4 threads efficiently anyways. (in fact only CFD, MOC and Monte Carlo are the only ones I am aware that are basically infinitely scalable.)

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LD8qnQ

[Curufinwe_wins]

It's not a big deal for gaming, but I do a lot of highly threaded programming

*scoffs* What compiler do you generally use?

[SamuelWN]

A 750 ti will hold well in gaming, despicably with that CPU. Is your monitor 4k or 1080p, because the 750 ti won't run very well on anything past 1080p (in gaming at least).

My display is only 1080p. 

[SamuelWN]

*scoffs* What compiler do you generally use?

gcc, mpicc, etc

also: "*scoffs*"? Huh?  

[Curufinwe_wins]

gcc, mpicc, etc

So I'm not sure how much experience you have with this, but once you start really hammering those cores (we see this on our clusters at work all the time) ,esp with memory intensive tasks, virtual cores tend not to help very much because they massively cut down on the resources available to each thread such that running a program on 8 threads is often less efficient at running on just 4 (now less intensive work doesn't have this issue as much and the more background clutter the more advantage those virtual threads will give you.)

 

And this is just because swapping times while short are not particularly great and all other threads get held up by non-parallel tasks going on now at gimped threads. Basically what I'm getting at is even if you get improved performance it wont be any more than say 5-10% and MOST 'heavily multi-threaded workloads' don't even benefit at all (benchmarks like cinebench simulate codes that basically never have to communicate concurrently and as such are about as extreme of a benefit you can possibly get, the ONLY modeling method I have ever experienced that comes close to this basically ideal scaling is Monte Carlo and lets be honest there, you throw that onto a super-cluster or you are going to be spending weeks if not months on that thing anyways.)

 

That said the 33% increased cache is also fairly appealing.

 

I guess what I'm saying is sure it's better. But man, it's not worth the cost at your current budget. You would get way more mileage out of getting a better gpu than dealing with the less than goodness that is the 750ti.

[SamuelWN]

Revised parts list:

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/p/f2yPqs

Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/p/f2yPqs/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($359.99 @ NCIX US) 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 240M 76.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (Purchased For $96.99) 

Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($158.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Mushkin Redline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($148.98 @ Directron) 

Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (Purchased For $134.00) 

Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $72.99) 

Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $72.99) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $49.99) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB FTW ACX 2.0+ Video Card  ($201.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case: Antec GX500 ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $44.99) 

Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For $69.99) 

Wired Network Adapter: TP-Link TG-3468 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI-Express x1 Network Adapter  (Purchased For $12.90) 

Other: StarTech 4 Port PCI Express 2.0 SATA III 6Gbps RAID Controller Card (Purchased For $63.95)

Other: Ubuntu 14.04.3 (Desktop) (Purchased For $0.00)

 

 

 

Total (Not Yet Purchased): $869.95

Total (Purchased): $618.79

Total: $1488.74

 

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-18 22:23 EDT-0400