1000 USD Range Rig planning

[Dunkan77]

Hello guys,

I have been planning a rig upgrade for one of my friends who has been stuck with his 7 year old Dell laptop since he started gaming 2 years ago... I will put a link to the PcPartPicker list here but my question is whether the Pentium G3258 is better for gaming with a GTX 960 than an i5-6600(or K, depending on pricing). Will the GTX 960 be bottlenecked by the 2 only cores? Also if I go with the -K SKU, which motherboard would you recommend to overclock on air cooling? I am configuring the build with the most expensive hardware (core i5) for a worst case scenario so I can improve on it later and redistribute the budget out should the i5 not be needed. Take into consideration that this PC will probably last him 6 to 7 years as well and this is where I have divergent opinions: Pentium is a LOT cheaper but probably not so futureproof VS i5 which is 4x the price but will last longer AND it's the latest LGA1151 CPU meaning smaller process size.

Here's the link: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/pmLYnQ

Feel free to change some parts out for something else if you know it will be better but please do no go too overboard on it ;D 

Regards

[ReesZRB]

G3258 - Lightgaming, will bottleneck on heavy loaded games

i5-6600k - Pretty much ok

[Dunkan77]

3 minutes ago, ReesZRB said:

G3258 - Lightgaming, will bottleneck on heavy loaded games

i5-6600k - Pretty much ok

Yeah I knew that but how badly will it slow the GPU down in demanding games like Cities Skylines. Also right now my friend mostly plays MOBA's and Unturned so the Pentium might be fine for now but if he ever decides to start FC series or AC series or the worst for the G3258: Cities Skylines or GTA V, then its shortcomings will become pretty obvious.

The question was do I switch the i5 for the Pentium or is the build fine as it is?

[ReesZRB]

6 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

Yeah I knew that but how badly will it slow the GPU down in demanding games like Cities Skylines. Also right now my friend mostly plays MOBA's and Unturned so the Pentium might be fine for now but if he ever decides to start FC series or AC series or the worst for the G3258: Cities Skylines or GTA V, then its shortcomings will become pretty obvious.

The question was do I switch the i5 for the Pentium or is the build fine as it is?

i5-6600k
I made a list for you
 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WHRRQ7
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WHRRQ7/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($253.89 @ OutletPC) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($24.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($153.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($67.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card  ($319.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Corsair SPEC-02 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $995.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-01 10:36 EST-0500

[Van Weapon]

If you want to get the most life out of it then you may as well invest in the better CPU. The reason Cities Skylines gets bottlenecked by a CPU before the GPU is because of the sheer amount of things it needs to calculate to keep the simulation running. The graphics arent that intense, but there's a lot going on behind the scenes to keep it going so slower CPUs will really notice the hit to performance. 

However we've already seen some mainstream FPS games get killed by slow CPUs like Far Cry 4 which flat out wont start with a Celereon processor. 

[Dunkan77]

2 minutes ago, ReesZRB said:

i5-6600k
I made a list for you
 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WHRRQ7
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WHRRQ7/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($253.89 @ OutletPC) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($24.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($153.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($67.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card  ($319.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Corsair SPEC-02 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $995.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-01 10:36 EST-0500

Isn't it wiser to go GTX 970 instead of R9 390 if jumping up a tier is an option? I'm not picking sides but nvidia overclocks better and has lower thermals aimirite?

[ReesZRB]

Just now, Dunkan77 said:

Isn't it wiser to go GTX 970 instead of R9 390 if jumping up a tier is an option? I'm not picking sides but nvidia overclocks better and has lower thermals aimirite?

Yes but the 390 out performes the 970 by 15% or more

[Dunkan77]

2 minutes ago, Van Weapon said:

If you want to get the most life out of it then you may as well invest in the better CPU. The reason Cities Skylines gets bottlenecked by a CPU before the GPU is because of the sheer amount of things it needs to calculate to keep the simulation running. The graphics arent that intense, but there's a lot going on behind the scenes to keep it going so slower CPUs will really notice the hit to performance. 

However we've already seen some mainstream FPS games get killed by slow CPUs like Far Cry 4 which flat out wont start with a Celereon processor. 

Yeah thanks, that's what I thought too. Some game will really benefit more of slower cores than fewer faster ones. I'll keep the 6600K and I'll get DDR4 and smaller transistors along with the performance  

[Van Weapon]

3 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

Yeah thanks, that's what I thought too. Some game will really benefit more of slower cores than fewer faster ones. I'll keep the 6600K and I'll get DDR4 and smaller transistors along with the performance  

Not to mention that more and more game devs are utilising multicore support to aid in performance

[Dunkan77]

3 minutes ago, ReesZRB said:

Yes but the 390 out performes the 970 by 15% or more

The benchmarks I saw have it perform slightly better than the GTX 970. I will change the GPU but I have to get a beefier cooler now. Thanks ;D

[ReesZRB]

1 minute ago, Dunkan77 said:

The benchmarks I saw have it perform slightly better than the GTX 970. I will change the GPU but I have to get a beefier cooler now. Thanks ;D

You can certainly go for a SSD or AIO Liquid Cooling

[Dunkan77]

1 minute ago, ReesZRB said:

You can certainly go for a SSD or AIO Liquid Cooling

I think it's fine as it is. He can add an SSD later down the road (probably for x-mas 2016) and AIO cooling would be nice but I want to take the sapphire Nitro R9 30 because Sapphire is the best in AMD cards right? Moreover AIO isn't needed except for big overclokcs which he isn't going to run anyway. I can buy one for him if ever I see he needs a bit extra CPU performance. Honestly for now the CM212 Evo should be fine.

[Redicat]

Try slam an SSD 

[ReesZRB]

1 minute ago, Dunkan77 said:

I think it's fine as it is. He can add an SSD later down the road (probably for x-mas 2016) and AIO cooling would be nice but I want to take the sapphire Nitro R9 30 because Sapphire is the best in AMD cards right? Moreover AIO isn't needed except for big overclokcs which he isn't going to run anyway. I can buy one for him if ever I see he needs a bit extra CPU performance. Honestly for now the CM212 Evo should be fine.

I normally just run MSI AMD Cards

[Dunkan77]

1 minute ago, Redicat said:

Try slam an SSD 

Okay then. Samsung 850 evo or some crucial SSD?

[ReesZRB]

Just now, Dunkan77 said:

Okay then. Samsung 850 evo or some crucial SSD?

Samsung 850 Evo

[Dunkan77]

1 minute ago, ReesZRB said:

Samsung 850 Evo

Okay. Let's go for a 120GB 850 evo or 250GB? I got my 250 GB for 60 USD 2 weeks ago

[Dunkan77]

Here's the updated build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wHq93C

 

Anything else I should change?

[ReesZRB]

Just now, Dunkan77 said:

Here's the updated build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wHq93C

 

Anything else I should change?

You are all good

[Dunkan77]

Just now, ReesZRB said:

You are all good

Thanks

[Dunkan77]

Actually one last thing... EVGA is know for their very forgiving warranty policy and they let you remove the cooler, put a waterblock on and even do crazier stuff given that if you send the card in for an RMA, it is in factory condition. Does Sapphire allow you to remove the cooler even for a TIM swap? if they d then I'm golden because I have Arctic Silver 5 which would really help a hot running card like this stay cool.

[Redicat]

Personally i would go for gigabyte board because they are rock solid and its sexy red, white, black colors.

UD/Gaming lineup like this one:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gaz170xgaming6

[Dunkan77]

31 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

Actually one last thing... EVGA is know for their very forgiving warranty policy and they let you remove the cooler, put a waterblock on and even do crazier stuff given that if you send the card in for an RMA, it is in factory condition. Does Sapphire allow you to remove the cooler even for a TIM swap? if they d then I'm golden because I have Arctic Silver 5 which would really help a hot running card like this stay cool.

Anybody want to answer? I am going to bed though so I will see the answers (in 20-22 hours) tomorrow.

Thanks for your help guys if I have questions I would like you to help me.