$2000US Build Advice

[paincow]

With the Vive out now, I decided that I wanted to get an upgrade. So, I put together a list for VR, AAA gaming, and maybe some video editing. This list includes monitor(s) and peripherals, so keep that in mind. I also don't plan on overclocking anything. I want to build it by the end of summer.

 

Original List:

Spoiler

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/ymtw6X
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/ymtw6X/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($199.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($65.38 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Team Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($186.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: *MSI GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Video Card  ($649.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($77.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Monitor: *Dell S2716DG 27.0" 144Hz Monitor  ($537.00 @ Adorama)
Keyboard: Cooler Master Storm QuickFire Rapid Wired Gaming Keyboard  ($79.67 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Mad Catz R.A.T. PRO S Wired Optical Mouse  ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1943.98

Updated list (may change):

Spoiler

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

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($199.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($65.38 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Team Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 7K3000 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($75.07 @ Amazon)
Video Card: *MSI GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Video Card  ($649.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case  ($22.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($77.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Monitor: *Dell S2716DG 27.0" 144Hz Monitor  ($537.00 @ Adorama)
Keyboard: Cooler Master Storm QuickFire Rapid Wired Gaming Keyboard  ($79.67 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Mad Catz R.A.T. PRO S Wired Optical Mouse  ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1935.04
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-27 16:39 EDT-0400

I would be open to changing most of the list, except the storage, unless there is something as good, but cheaper.

All help is appreciated. Thanks!

[CostcoSamples]

I would change the storage to a regular SATA drive with double the storage for the same price or cheaper.  I can speak from experience on this because I purchased the Intel 750 series SSD thinking the incredible speed would be awesome.  The truth is, I can't tell the difference between it and my 850 EVO on my laptop.  Although it is fun to have the best, I was disappointed that it didn't make any noticeable difference.

 

Go ahead and pick up an 850 EVO 500 gb or 1TB. You'll be much happier with more storage than extra speed you can't perceive.

 

I would not get that GPU, try to find one with a better cooler.  The blower style coolers are very loud and do not perform well.

 

And for the mouse, be sure you try it first.  The RAT is great quality, but the ergonomics are not for everyone.  I returned my RAT 9 because it was way too heavy for fast FPS games, and I had way too many accidental clicks on the left button.

[paincow]

13 minutes ago, CostcoSamples said:

I would change the storage to a regular SATA drive with double the storage for the same price or cheaper.  I can speak from experience on this because I purchased the Intel 750 series SSD thinking the incredible speed would be awesome.  The truth is, I can't tell the difference between it and my 850 EVO on my laptop.  Although it is fun to have the best, I was disappointed that it didn't make any noticeable difference.

 

Go ahead and pick up an 850 EVO 500 gb or 1TB. You'll be much happier with more storage than extra speed you can't perceive.

 

I would not get that GPU, try to find one with a better cooler.  The blower style coolers are very loud and do not perform well.

 

And for the mouse, be sure you try it first.  The RAT is great quality, but the ergonomics are not for everyone.  I returned my RAT 9 because it was way too heavy for fast FPS games, and I had way too many accidental clicks on the left button.

Thanks for your advice. I'll probably swap the SSD for a pair of 240gbs in RAID, with a few terabytes of storage for games and backups.

As for the GPU, there aren't really many 1080s out that have a non-blower cooler. Before I order the parts I'll check again.

I really like the RAT series of mice. My mouse right now is a RAT 3, and I really like it. That is my reasoning for putting it in the list.

[Guest]

I would go with the EVGA G2 or GS for the power supply, as it is much better. You also have the Corsair RMx, XFX XTR, Antec Edge etc. You only really need a 550W unit.

 

No point getting 3000MHz ram with the B150 chipset. Just go with 2133/2400 whichever is cheapest.

[paincow]

21 minutes ago, lee32uk said:

No point getting 3000MHz ram with the B150 chipset. Just go with 2133/2400 whichever is cheapest.

It's the cheapest 16gb kit I could find. No point in spending extra money for slower RAM. I'll also look into the power supply

[ALPHA17]

42 minutes ago, paincow said:

Thanks for your advice. I'll probably swap the SSD for a pair of 240gbs in RAID, with a few terabytes of storage for games and backups.

As for the GPU, there aren't really many 1080s out that have a non-blower cooler. Before I order the parts I'll check again.

I really like the RAT series of mice. My mouse right now is a RAT 3, and I really like it. That is my reasoning for putting it in the list.

 

Putting them in RAID is not doing any good since even a decent SSD like the SAMSUNG 850 EVO series is pretty much at the limits of what a SATA III connector based interface can get you in terms of performance. Just get one larger SSD for now.

 

For the GTX1080, I was under the assumption that you folks finally had a steady supply of the GTX1080 / 1070 cards. For custom editions I would suggest the following (no particular order),

• GIGABYTE G1 Gaming Edition
• eVGA SuperClocked (SC) / FTW Gaming
• MSi Twin Frozr GAMING

Hope this comes handy. Cheerio~

 

 

[CostcoSamples]

1 hour ago, paincow said:

Thanks for your advice. I'll probably swap the SSD for a pair of 240gbs in RAID, with a few terabytes of storage for games and backups.

As for the GPU, there aren't really many 1080s out that have a non-blower cooler. Before I order the parts I'll check again.

I really like the RAT series of mice. My mouse right now is a RAT 3, and I really like it. That is my reasoning for putting it in the list.

Don't bother with SSDs in RAID.  A PCIE SSD like the Samsung 950 or Intel 750 are much faster.  Just get a single 500 gb or 1TB 850 EVO so you can easily keep all of your games on it without worrying about storage.  It sucks having to uninstall an old game to make room for a new game.  It sucks even more having to run games off a HDD.

[ALPHA17]

5 minutes ago, CostcoSamples said:

It sucks even more having to run games off a HDD.

 

Depends on the game for the most part. Newer ones obviously scale well with SSD's for shorter load times but older titles from even five years ago manage on a spinner.

 

But you are absolutely correct about RAID being wasted on SATA III SSD's. The interface simply does not have the bandwidth to push performance further.

Edited July 27, 2016 by ALPHA17
Edit instead of multi-post

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, paincow said:

It's the cheapest 16gb kit I could find. No point in spending extra money for slower RAM. I'll also look into the power supply

Where are you buying from ?

 

If you put that 3000MHz kit in, it will just run at 2133MHz.

[paincow]

2 hours ago, CostcoSamples said:

Don't bother with SSDs in RAID.  A PCIE SSD like the Samsung 950 or Intel 750 are much faster.  Just get a single 500 gb or 1TB 850 EVO so you can easily keep all of your games on it without worrying about storage.  It sucks having to uninstall an old game to make room for a new game.  It sucks even more having to run games off a HDD.

 

2 hours ago, ALPHA17 said:

 

Depends on the game for the most part. Newer ones obviously scale well with SSD's for shorter load times but older titles from even five years ago manage on a spinner.

 

But you are absolutely correct about RAID being wasted on SATA III SSD's. The interface simply does not have the bandwidth to push performance further.

Actually, it does

2 hours ago, lee32uk said:

Where are you buying from ?

 

If you put that 3000MHz kit in, it will just run at 2133MHz.

The RAM is from Newegg. Even if it gets more expensive, the RAM is on a filter, so it will automatically give me the cheapest prices.

[ALPHA17]

8 hours ago, paincow said:

Actually, it does

 

That is a three year old video, current SSD's like the 850 EVO on their own are capable of peaking at over ~500 MB/s of throughput.

 

RAID 0 is not going to be like that video where the majority of SSD's were based on the SandForce controller and had margin for improvement in performance made pairing them up a viable option.

 

All this before mentioning that these are theoretical benchmarks, yes, they exist but grading them on a user-to-user basis is not going to be a linear exercise nor will the scaling work that way something that Linus mentions before the number slides go up.

 

Also, just to put the performance aspect in perspective, here is the SAMSUNG 850 EVO (drive being suggested) squaring off against the ADATA SX900 (drive used in benchmark video).

[paincow]

9 hours ago, ALPHA17 said:

 

That is a three year old video, current SSD's like the 850 EVO on their own are capable of peaking at over ~500 MB/s of throughput.

 

Even with newer SSDs, it still holds true. The twin Adata drives are nearly twice as fast as the Samsung drive, while having twice the space and the same cost. Unless I am missing something, the RAIDed SSDs provide twice the bandwith at the same cost.

[Guest]

20 hours ago, paincow said:

 

Actually, it does

The RAM is from Newegg. Even if it gets more expensive, the RAM is on a filter, so it will automatically give me the cheapest prices.

Prices in the USA are crazy  You wouldn't get a 3000MHz kit for the price of a 2133MHz kit here in the UK. I guess you might as well stick with the fast stuff then 

[ALPHA17]

2 hours ago, paincow said:

Even with newer SSDs, it still holds true. The twin Adata drives are nearly twice as fast as the Samsung drive, while having twice the space and the same cost. Unless I am missing something, the RAIDed SSDs provide twice the bandwith at the same cost.

 

And individually are slower plus have a higher coefficient of failure than that single drive.

[paincow]

27 minutes ago, ALPHA17 said:

 

And individually are slower plus have a higher coefficient of failure than that single drive.

Thus the hard drives for backup.