first build First timer making a new desktop

[ThatSoundGuy]

Hey folks! It would be great if I could get some suggestions about this build to either improve it by suggesting a more efficient or a better-suited processor, graphics card, etc... for gaming at 1080p or 1440p (Possibly looking at 4k, but not at the moment), particularly  BF4, the new Tomb Raider, Steam games, and such. I will also be using this computer for Adobe Creative Cloud with all apps and using Logic X Pro and Ableton software for work. Also, I will be planning on a Windows 10 OS but I would also like to have Mac OSX. Anyway, without further ado, here is my build! (Side-note, I built this on PCPartpicker) Btw, if you suggest a better processor or graphics card, etc, please give a reason why it's better. My budget is up to 2,500 US$

• http://pcpartpicker.com/p/4ggxnQ

 

Edited February 20, 2016 by ThatSoundGuy
Many changes to the build, added link for simplicity

[Hunter7263]

Honestly I would spend the extra money on the Z170 chipset and get a Skylake 6700k cpu. The difference in CPU performance is particularly important but chipset supports things like m.2 and usb3.1. I know I'm looking forward to my shiny Samsung 950 pro which people are getting 2700mb/s reads and like 1500mb/s writes on.

[Low_Battery]

11 minutes ago, ThatSoundGuy said:

*snip*

 

It will work for what you are looking for, but you can always get "better" if you are willing to pay more money...so you would need to clarify a budget.  I'm blind and just saw you included your budget...

 

Also, the 980ti is a very good card, but is actually overkill for 1080p.  Although I personally would keep it in the build just to future proof a bit, just letting you know...

[ArmswieldTheHero]

Swap that seagate barracuda for a WD black, you'll get a 5 year warranty and better performance.

[ThatSoundGuy]

(Deleted Comment)

[ThatSoundGuy]

4 minutes ago, ArmswieldTheHero said:

Swap that seagate barracuda for a WD black, you'll get a 5 year warranty and better performance.

Thank you! I have added the change

[ThatSoundGuy]

11 minutes ago, Hunter7263 said:

Honestly I would spend the extra money on the Z170 chipset and get a Skylake 6700k cpu. The difference in CPU performance is particularly important but chipset supports things like m.2 and usb3.1. I know I'm looking forward to my shiny Samsung 950 pro which people are getting 2700mb/s reads and like 1500mb/s writes on.

But if I change my chipset (Sorry if I misunderstand you, I had to look it up and I believe it's pertaining to the mother board? Or processor?) don't I have to change my RAM sticks or my video cards?

[ThatSoundGuy]

7 minutes ago, ArmswieldTheHero said:

Swap that seagate barracuda for a WD black, you'll get a 5 year warranty and better performance.

I posted the forum and then realized that I forgot to add my budget, lol my bad.

[KickinGravy]

For $2500 you could go X99.

This is my PC I built.
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/KickinGravy/saved/#view=GGpwrH

[ThatSoundGuy]

1 minute ago, KickinGravy said:

For $2500 you could go X99.

This is my PC I built.
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/KickinGravy/saved/#view=GGpwrH

X99?

[KickinGravy]

3 minutes ago, ThatSoundGuy said:

X99?

X99 is enthusiast grade chipset, based on 2011-3 socket. Better for video editing and streaming, 3d rendering and such. Better than skylake in those regards, but skylake better at gaming ever so slightly. Something to note is that X99 chipset will be on broadwell and maybe skylake as well in a few years, so upgrading on X99 will be viable if you so choose.

[ThatSoundGuy]

3 minutes ago, KickinGravy said:

X99 is enthusiast grade chipset, based on 2011-3 socket. Better for video editing and streaming, 3d rendering and such. Better than skylake in those regards, but skylake better at gaming ever so slightly. Something to note is that X99 chipset will be on broadwell and maybe skylake as well in a few years, so upgrading on X99 will be viable if you so choose.

Thank you! I'll look into it as I am looking for somewhat future proofing the build. It will be nice to know that I will have that option in the future.

So Intel Core i5-6600K is a X99 chipset?

[KickinGravy]

1 minute ago, ThatSoundGuy said:

Thank you! I'll look into it as I am looking for somewhat future proofing the build. It will be nice to know that I will have that option in the future.

So Intel Core i5-6600K is a X99 chipset?

No it isn't, it is Z170 chipset. Z170 is more consumer grade compared to X99. But as i said if i were spending $2500 on a new system, I would look at X99.

[KickinGravy]

Things you need to ask your self when building a new PC.

-How much money am I willing to spend
-What will I be using my PC for (gaming, video editing, rendering, ect)
-What display resolution will I be using 

These are some of the main things you should be thinking about (there are alot of others to think of, but those 3 are a good starting point)

[ThatSoundGuy]

14 minutes ago, KickinGravy said:

Things you need to ask your self when building a new PC.

-How much money am I willing to spend
-What will I be using my PC for (gaming, video editing, rendering, ect)
-What display resolution will I be using 

These are some of the main things you should be thinking about (there are alot of others to think of, but those 3 are a good starting point)

Those are very good questions to ask myself and thank you

[Hunter7263]

Its also important to ask your self what programs you will be using outside of gaming. I know X99 was the go to thing for video editing for a while but especially recently gpu acceleration has really started to shine. A 980ti for instance in adobe premier is about 10x more effective than an 8 core 5960x at rendering and editing which makes the extra cores generally not worth the money anymore.

 

As far as your previous question yes Z170 requires DDR4 which is slightly more expensive but honestly not by much anymore. I remember just a year ago when it was twice what DDR3 was. The video card works just the same on the chipset as PCIE is very standardized and is used on all but the oldest of motherboards (and Im talking like 10-15 year old one which is ancient in computer terms though not quite prehistoric).

 

Honestly though you cant really go wrong with Z97. CPU overhead on games is coming down with DX12 and most people wont notice a huge difference between m.2 and regular ssds. Well they will but honestly 1 second vs 3 seconds to open a large program isn't going to ruin your day, its not like hdd which can take what seems like forever compared to either. Video cards I don't think will be going away from the pcie3 standard and even pcie4 is going to be backwards compatible and since current vid cards don't come close to utilizing the bandwidth for gaming I don't see future ones doing it either.

[connorpiper]

Side note(s):

The EVGA GTX 980ti is a much better card. And I would recommend that over the Strix. 

Also, the 750D is a full tower, and much bigger than you will need, so it will be hollow.

[ThatSoundGuy]

1 hour ago, connorpiper said:

Side note(s):

The EVGA GTX 980ti is a much better card. And I would recommend that over the Strix. 

Also, the 750D is a full tower, and much bigger than you will need, so it will be hollow.

1

What case do you recommend? Also is this the card? 

[connorpiper]

5 minutes ago, ThatSoundGuy said:

What case do you recommend? Also is this the card? 

No, the one with the ACX 2.0 Cooler. http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-06gp44991kr

 

Case is personal preference, but look for Mid Tower size. There are not very many similar cases to the 750D in mid tower form, but if you must have something that is that black Aluminum, the Phanteks Enthoo Pro is smaller, even though it is still a full tower. 

 

[ThatSoundGuy]

2 minutes ago, connorpiper said:

No, the one with the ACX 2.0 Cooler. http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-06gp44991kr

 

Case is personal preference, but look for Mid Tower size. There are not very many similar cases to the 750D in mid tower form, but if you must have something that is that black Aluminum, the Phanteks Enthoo Pro is smaller, even though it is still a full tower. 

 

What about the clock speed on the EVGA card? It seems lower than the Strix, so how does it perform better than the Strix?

[ThatSoundGuy]

3 hours ago, Hunter7263 said:

Honestly I would spend the extra money on the Z170 chipset and get a Skylake 6700k cpu. The difference in CPU performance is particularly important but chipset supports things like m.2 and usb3.1. I know I'm looking forward to my shiny Samsung 950 pro which people are getting 2700mb/s reads and like 1500mb/s writes on.

Would you recommend this chipset?

[connorpiper]

Just now, ThatSoundGuy said:

What about the clock speed on the EVGA card? It seems lower than the Strix, so how does it perform better than the Strix?

The EVGA card can match the Strix if you overclock. And the EVGA card has a better cooler, so it will be quieter. 

If you do not wish to overclock. The EVGA FTW version stock clock is very close, and can overclock much higher for $10 more than the regular EVGA model. 

 

[Hunter7263]

19 minutes ago, ThatSoundGuy said:

What about the clock speed on the EVGA card? It seems lower than the Strix, so how does it perform better than the Strix?

If you see a lot of the videos on benchmarks youll notice that they boost higher than their stated boostclocks. This has to do with thermals and such. There is also a bit of luck with silicon lottery just like most processors. The clocks you see on the box are the guaranteed ones that the card can absolutely hit no problem. Different cards with different thermal solutions end up slightly different. Its important to note some cards dont use the standard pcb but a custom layout potentially giving them better power delivery or what not which also can effect how the card boosts and overclocks.

 

As far your other question I would use the gaming M5 by msi for the Z170 chipset. It has dual 32gb/s m.2 slots, dedicated killer Lan and has decent overclocking potential plus native support for usb3.1 and even includes a type c slot as well. You probably wont hit 5ghz but 4.7 or 4.8 should be fairly easy if you decide you want to try that.

 

Edit: Also note if you do want to push better overclocks on the CPU motherboards with different power phases now makes a much bigger impact than with the Z97 chipset as (I think) the voltage regulator was moved out of the chip and onto the boards for the Skylake cpus. It was some power bit anyway. My point is boards that cost more may not seem like they offer any more features but will have better power delivery which is important for overclocking.

[ic3panda]

i7 6700
z170a msi gaming m5
ddr4 ram
better psu with at least 750w for you to overclock your cpu and videocard
 

[ThatSoundGuy]

Also, if I want 16 gbs of RAM, is it better to have 4 sticks of 4 gbs of RAM, or 2 sticks of 8 gbs of RAM?