The concept of my playing rig

tkocsir · November 3, 2015

Hello, guys!

In the past 12+ years I always built my rigs for myself and it was always AMD based, but now I am switching to Intel.

I always plan for long-term, I don't want to buy new hardware every 1-2 years (except maybe for storage or rarely the GPU). So in the past 12+ years I built only 3 rigs IIRC every 5 years maybe. So I am not really following the hardware industry, but I have put a lot of research into the following build. I plan to buy this until the mid of december.

I will use the computer to play GTA V, Diablo 3, World of Tanks, city building games, No Man's Sky (not out yet), etc. And I always browse the web with ~40 open tabs in Firefox... I also plan to buy a 4K TV later and play games on that. Oh, and I love silence. I need silence. Silence is live, silence is life.

So, I would like to build this computer:

Case: SilverStone Raven 2 SST-RV02 (the mobo is rotated 90 degrees, so the I/O panel faces upwards)

Motherboard: still hesitating on this one, the current canditate is: ASRock Z170M Pro4S (I like the orientation of the heatsinks, it's important because of the case)

CPU: Intel Skylake Core i7-6700K 4GHz LGA1151

CPU cooler: Thermalright HR-22 (I will try it first without any additional fan, then I will see if it needs one...)

VGA: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti HYBRID

PSU: Seasonic X650 SS-650KM3

RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 2400MHz HX424C15FBK2/16

System storage: probably a 128 GB, inexpensive M.2 SSD, because I will run out of my budget and I can easily buy a bigger one later. (And I can use my existing HDDs too.)

So... the case is not usual, I know, but I always dared/wanted to be different. It is ideal to my desk, because on the left side of the case there is the wall and I am sitting on the right side of the computer, so I can see inside, if I want. (Visual is not important for me, silence is more important.) But the real reason I chose this case is because of the motherboard layout. The rear I/O panel facing up, making the hot air easier to escape from the GPU (but then I decided to choose a water cooled GPU), and other stuff. If you check the motherboard, you can see that the notches of the north bridge's (? I am not sure if that's it...) heatsink are just ideal for the heat to escape. The case intakes air only from the bottom and exhales it only on the top. The PSU won't start its fan until a certain temperature and I hope that with this setup it will breathe easily and most of the time it will be silent. Now, I know that a single passive heatsink is enough for the CPU. But there is nothing in the way from the bottom fans to the heatsink, so I hope that those 180mm fans will be enough. If not, it's not a problem, I will then install a fan to the bottom of the HR-22.

I don't plan doing overclock, I never did that and I don't want to risk anything and/or lower the lifespan of the hardware...

I also don't need more than 2 PCI express 16x slots, as currently I don't plan using SLI. Maybe later I will try it, but not now.

I hope everything is clear and I didn't forget anything to mention...

So, I have two questions about this build.

1. What is your overall opinion about it? Are the components good together, or there are some bottlenecks or overkills? Also silence is very important for me.

2. I am not sure where to place the radiator and fan of the VGA. Concerns: if I put it to the top exit, then it will receive the heat from the CPU heatsink, so it will be less effective. If I put it under the CPU heatsink and use the fan to help remove the air from the CPU heatsink, the it will receive the VGA's heat, so again it is not very effective... Unfortunately I fell in love with this factory pre-built VGA+watercooler stuff and don't really want to buy an air cooled VGA now... The same with the case...

Thank you very much!
Tom

Edit: I just remembered I have seen VGAs that turn on their fans only above a certain temperature. Maybe I should consider one of those, hmm...

TechGod · November 4, 2015

So a small build? Cut down to a 6600K and get a R9 Fury Nano? You didn't tell us what GPU you're using.

tkocsir · November 4, 2015

Why is it important what GPU I am using right now? Btw it is an Asus Nvidia GTX 560 and I always had Nvidia and want to have Nvidia in the future... What do you mean by small build?