Build for my brother

[BlargKing]

My brother's laptop died and he wants a desktop this time around, so I offered to build him one if he bought the parts.

 

He does some modest gaming, but mainly he wants it to be reasonably powerful so it isn't obsolete in 6 months.

 

Heres what I've chosen for him:

 

Core i5-6600 3.3Ghz quad core

ASUS H170 PRO LGA 1151 Motherboard

16GB (2X8GB) Mushkin Enhanced Blackline DDR4-2400

EVGA GeForce 1070 SC Gaming ACX 3.0 8GB

Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SATA III SSD

EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650 Watt full modular PSU

Antec Gaming Nine Hundren ATX Mid-Tower case

ASUS PCE-AC56 Dual-Band AC PCI-E wireless card

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU cooler

 

Everything looks good to me, and I went over all the parts and explained my choices with him and he's happy with it, but I figure its always better to have extra eyes on projects like this. I'm ordering all these parts off Newegg.ca as thats where I always order parts and I've had good dealings with them. 

 

He's buying his monitors and peripherals locally so they aren't included in the list.  

[Zyndo]

2 minutes ago, BlargKing said:

Snip

I cannot find your cooler compatibility height anywhere for your CPU cooler, but the Hyper 212 is fairly tall. make sure to double check before pairing those two together. I would recommend the Cryorig H7 instead of the Hyper 212 if you can afford it (because its shorter, better looking, a bit better performing, and only a few dollars more) but if you're running a stock chip you don't really need an aftermarket cooler anyway (you could also take a look at the Cryorig M9i for aesthetic/height purposes, but its not quite as good as the hyper 212 or H7... cheaper though =)

 

The only other thing is I wouldn't get that case for aesthetic reasons. looks ugly imo. It also doesn't have CPU clearance specs anywhere, or a external exhaust vent for your PSU or dust filters... at that price range you can get a case with all those features and more... buuuut if you like it then all the power to you =)

[Dargenfire]

Are you asking a question?

 

BTW For a "modest" build, a 1TB SSD is gonna be overkill. Go with a 500GB SSD and a 1-2TB HDD.

Also, If you're not going to upgrade this build to something like 1070 SLI in the future, then you don't need a PSU with that much wattage. 450-550W is more than plenty.

[Zyndo]

9 minutes ago, BlargKing said:

Snip

Also, in the interest of future proofing a bit, you may want to get a Z170 board. a cheaper Z170 board will cost about the same as your current selection and it will enable (among other things) overclocking and SLI if you ever decided to go that route. If you know for sure you will never do that then you needn't feel obligated to go Z170, but it may not be a bad option.

[BlargKing]

Just now, Dargenfire said:

Are you asking a question?

 

BTW For a "modest" build, a 1TB SSD is gonna be overkill. Go with a 500GB SSD and a 1-2TB HDD.

Also, If you're not going to upgrade this build to something like 1070 SLI in the future, then you don't need a PSU with that much wattage. 450-550W is more than plenty.

He wants lots of storage and SSD speed. His laptop had 2 m.2 drives in RAID 0 and he likes how fast everything loads. He isn't very tech savvy so I don't want him to have to bother with managing an SSD and a HDD. 

 

Its possible he may get a second 1070 in the future thus why I chose the 650 watt PSU. 

[Zyndo]

1 minute ago, BlargKing said:

Its possible he may get a second 1070 in the future thus why I chose the 650 watt PSU. 

You're going to need a Z170 board to SLI in the future. the H170 chipset doesn't support it.

[BlargKing]

4 minutes ago, Zyndo said:

I cannot find your cooler compatibility height anywhere for your CPU cooler, but the Hyper 212 is fairly tall. make sure to double check before pairing those two together. I would recommend the Cryorig H7 instead of the Hyper 212 if you can afford it (because its shorter, better looking, a bit better performing, and only a few dollars more) but if you're running a stock chip you don't really need an aftermarket cooler anyway (you could also take a look at the Cryorig M9i for aesthetic/height purposes, but its not quite as good as the hyper 212 or H7... cheaper though =)

 

The only other thing is I wouldn't get that case for aesthetic reasons. looks ugly imo. It also doesn't have CPU clearance specs anywhere, or a external exhaust vent for your PSU or dust filters... at that price range you can get a case with all those features and more... buuuut if you like it then all the power to you =)

I'll double check cooler height clearances. I'll also take a look at the Cryorig cooler. I know an aftermarket cooler isn't really needed but with more cooling capacity I can run the fans slower. 

 

He personally likes that case's aesthetics but if it doesn't have good venting I'll look with him and see if we can find a case he likes that has better airflow. 

[BlargKing]

2 minutes ago, Zyndo said:

You're going to need a Z170 board to SLI in the future. the H170 chipset doesn't support it.

Ah. I looked at the spec sheets for the Skylake chipsets and I must have mixed up the Z170 and H170. Thank you for pointing that out that would have been rather unfortunate. 

 

(This is why I posted, other people might catch mistakes I overlook)

[Zyndo]

Just now, BlargKing said:

I'll double check cooler height clearances. I'll also take a look at the Cryorig cooler. I know an aftermarket cooler isn't really needed but with more cooling capacity I can run the fans slower. 

 

He personally likes that case's aesthetics but if it doesn't have good venting I'll look with him and see if we can find a case he likes that has better airflow. 

the case looks like it has a fine amount of airflow. it is just missing features that other cases in its price bracket have.

 

Since you said you may want a second 1070 in the future, you should make some changes to your build...

 

1. Get a Z170 motherboard.

2. now that you have Z170 there isn't really any reason not to get the 6600k (its only a couple bucks more and potentially going to be MUCH faster)

3. now that you're looking at an overclockable chip it makes alot more sense to get a Cryorig H7 (it now makes more sense because you will appreciate the extra performance)

 

You could do all that for ~50 bucks more. It would be an excellent investment if you're interested in future proofing.

[BlargKing]

Just now, Zyndo said:

the case looks like it has a fine amount of airflow. it is just missing features that other cases in its price bracket have.

 

Since you said you may want a second 1070 in the future, you should make some changes to your build...

 

1. Get a Z170 motherboard.

2. now that you have Z170 there isn't really any reason not to get the 6600k (its only a couple bucks more and potentially going to be MUCH faster)

3. now that you're looking at an overclockable chip it makes alot more sense to get a Cryorig H7 (it now makes more sense because you will appreciate the extra performance)

 

You could do all that for ~50 bucks more. It would be an excellent investment if you're interested in future proofing.

All right, you make good suggestions. Overclocking would make the CPU hold up longer and I might as well as you said its only a minor cost increase. 

[PigWithAMustache]

So I'm going to go balls over the case, as it doesn't look high quality to me. Go with the new NZXT S340 Elite for a much cleaner look. And try to find something other than a 212 evo because its a pain in the a$$ to install (i speak from personal experience) and since you are going with Z170 and a 6600k, it would be better to invest in a Cyrorig H7 tower cooler for better overclocks.

[Zyndo]

Just now, BlargKing said:

All right, you make good suggestions. Overclocking would make the CPU hold up longer and I might as well as you said its only a minor cost increase. 

I mean, there are certainly reasons to go with H170 boards. But if you want to SLI, you NEED a Z170 board. and since you're locked in there, and were already getting a decent aftermarket cooler, the only real price difference you're looking at is going from 6600 to 6600k, which is about 15 bucks difference... that equates to almost nothing against the cost of a computer haha. the motherboard you chose has similar price costs to some entry level Z170 boards, so its not going to be alot more in that area, and a Cryorig H7 is only 10 bucks more than a hyper 212 evo. You're looking at about a 25 dollar price difference to switch to a Z170/overclock build lol. Kind of a no-brainer tbh (even if you never ended up overclocking)

 

 

Also, when you said Asus H170 pro board... did you mean the Pro gaming? or just the pro?

[BlargKing]

Newegg Canada doesn't have the Cyrorig H7. Any other suggestions?

[BlargKing]

What about a small AIO watercooler? My personal machine has always used an AIO with good results.

 

CORSAIR Hydro Series H55 Quiet Edition 

This one isn't too expensive and has good reviews, and it wouldn't make finding a case any more difficult.

[Zyndo]

6 minutes ago, BlargKing said:

Snip

Honestly if you don't have the H7 available to you, the Hyper 212 evo is probably your next best bet. You COULD go for that H55, but its a fair bit more expensive and isn't likely to perform significantly better.

[BlargKing]

Okay after discussing changes with my brother heres what I've revised his build to:

 

-ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming LGA 1151 motherboard

-Core i5 6600K 3.5Ghz quad core

 

He likes the idea of the Corsair AIO water cooler so I've chosen the Corsair Hydro H55 Quiet Edition. 

 

No definitive case choice yet but he likes the look of the NZXT Phantom 410.