Sanity Check, Please

[_deadbeef]

I'm new here, I hope this kind of first post isn't frowned upon.

 

The basics first: This thing is primarily for gaming - mid-high settings at 2560x1080@60+ is enough - and video processing and encoding (personal DVD and BD rips, no "content creation" or anything). Parts will be purchased in Germany with a budget of about 1000€.

 

Here's what I have picked out right now: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/kY3H8K

 

I had a 6600K build pretty much planned out already, but thought I'd try something a little more "fun". Obviously I don't need a C226 board or ECC memory, but while I'm getting a Xeon, I thought why not.

 

Here's my rationale for the parts:

• CPU: Pretty much a Haswell i7 without some of the bells and whistles and with some other bells and whistles for less money - seems great.
• Cooler: Should be plenty for a non-overclocked 80W chip, and a bit quieter than a stock cooler.
• Board: Only board on PCPP that fit all my criteria - USB3 on the back and on the board, M.2, ECC and a load of fan headers. Small form factor is a bonus. A little pricey.
• RAM is RAM, this one's ECC. Not on the QVL but shouldn't matter, right?
• Storage: Seems really good for the price and I don't have to fiddle with SATA cables. Mass storage will be either on USB or NAS, so 512G should be enough.
• Graphics: No need to go overkill here. RX 480 beats the 1060 because of FreeSync. Benchmarks I've seen have shown 4GB to be enough and I'll probably get something new before they aren't anymore.
• Case: Nice color, relatively small and seems generally pretty unobjectionable. Even has an ODD bay for a BluRay drive.
• Power: Already have the V750 lying around, so I'm keeping that.

So basically my only question is: Does this look good or am I better off just going with a bog standard Z170, 6600K system for about the same price? Is the WS board + ECC a really dumb idea?

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€257.72 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9x65 33.8 CFM CPU Cooler  (€44.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Motherboard: ASRock C226M WS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (€175.30 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (€107.11 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Intel 600p Series 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (€173.54 @ Mindfactory) 
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 480 4GB NITRO+ 4G Video Card  (€226.99 @ Mindfactory) 
Case: BitFenix Prodigy M Atomic Orange MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (€77.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: Cooler Master 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For €0.00) 
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan  (€19.99 @ Aquatuning) 
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan  (€19.99 @ Aquatuning) 
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 82.5 CFM  140mm Fan  (€21.79 @ Aquatuning) 
Total: €1125.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-21 20:02 CET+0100

[stealth80]

4 minutes ago, _deadbeef said:

I'm new here, I hope this kind of first post isn't frowned upon.

 

The basics first: This thing is primarily for gaming - mid-high settings at 2560x1080@60+ is enough - and video processing and encoding (personal DVD and BD rips, no "content creation" or anything). Parts will be purchased in Germany with a budget of about 1000€.

 

Here's what I have picked out right now: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/kY3H8K

 

I had a 6600K build pretty much planned out already, but thought I'd try something a little more "fun". Obviously I don't need a C226 board or ECC memory, but while I'm getting a Xeon, I thought why not.

 

Here's my rationale for the parts:

• CPU: Pretty much a Haswell i7 without some of the bells and whistles and with some other bells and whistles for less money - seems great.
• Cooler: Should be plenty for a non-overclocked 80W chip, and a bit quieter than a stock cooler.
• Board: Only board on PCPP that fit all my criteria - USB3 on the back and on the board, M.2, ECC and a load of fan headers. Small form factor is a bonus. A little pricey.
• RAM is RAM, this one's ECC. Not on the QVL but shouldn't matter, right?
• Storage: Seems really good for the price and I don't have to fiddle with SATA cables. Mass storage will be either on USB or NAS, so 512G should be enough.
• Graphics: No need to go overkill here. RX 480 beats the 1060 because of FreeSync. Benchmarks I've seen have shown 4GB to be enough and I'll probably get something new before they aren't anymore.
• Case: Nice color, relatively small and seems generally pretty unobjectionable. Even has an ODD bay for a BluRay drive.
• Power: Already have the V750 lying around, so I'm keeping that.

So basically my only question is: Does this look good or am I better off just going with a bog standard Z170, 6600K system for about the same price? Is the WS board + ECC a really dumb idea?

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€257.72 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9x65 33.8 CFM CPU Cooler  (€44.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Motherboard: ASRock C226M WS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (€175.30 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (€107.11 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Intel 600p Series 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (€173.54 @ Mindfactory) 
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 480 4GB NITRO+ 4G Video Card  (€226.99 @ Mindfactory) 
Case: BitFenix Prodigy M Atomic Orange MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (€77.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: Cooler Master 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For €0.00) 
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan  (€19.99 @ Aquatuning) 
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan  (€19.99 @ Aquatuning) 
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 82.5 CFM  140mm Fan  (€21.79 @ Aquatuning) 
Total: €1125.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-21 20:02 CET+0100

Ive read somewhere that if you're lucky, some 4gb 480's unlock to 8gb via bios flash

[Castdeath97]

Do you really need all these fans? I would skip them and use the ones included in the case to save money since they don't make much of a difference:

 

 

 

[stealth80]

https://www.techpowerup.com/223913/amd-retail-radeon-rx-480-4gb-to-8gb-memory-unlock-mod-works-we-benchmarked

[ARikozuM]

2 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

Ive read somewhere that if you're lucky, some 4gb 480's unlock to 8gb via bios flash

When quoting the first post, please use a "snip" as the quote or take the portion you are referring to.

[Energycore]

Let's save you a looot of money, shall we?

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€257.72 @ Amazon Deutschland)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9x65 33.8 CFM CPU Cooler  (€44.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M OC Formula Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (€116.25 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Kingston Beast 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (€68.42 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Crucial MX300 525GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (€127.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 480 4GB NITRO+ 4G Video Card  (€226.99 @ Mindfactory)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy M Atomic Orange MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (€77.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Cooler Master 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For €0.00)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan  (€19.99 @ Aquatuning)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan  (€19.99 @ Aquatuning)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 82.5 CFM  140mm Fan  (€21.79 @ Aquatuning)
Total: €981.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-21 20:21 CET+0100

 

You don't need ECC memory for a 1231 v3 to work, nor an expensive motherboard.

[The Sloth]

9 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

Ive read somewhere that if you're lucky, some 4gb 480's unlock to 8gb via bios flash

don't risk it 

[_deadbeef]

10 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

Ive read somewhere that if you're lucky, some 4gb 480's unlock to 8gb via bios flash

 

8 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

https://www.techpowerup.com/223913/amd-retail-radeon-rx-480-4gb-to-8gb-memory-unlock-mod-works-we-benchmarked

No way to know for sure if that works with a certain aftermarket card without disassembling it though, right? If it does work, it's nice to know in case it becomes necessary, I guess.

 

10 minutes ago, Castdeath97 said:

Do you really need all these fans? I would skip them and use the ones included in the case to save money since they don't make much of a difference:

It's less about being cool and more about being quiet. Maybe fewer fans might do though.

 

6 minutes ago, Energycore said:

Let's save you a looot of money, shall we?

 

You don't need ECC memory for a 1231 v3 to work, nor an expensive motherboard.

As I said, I know I don't need it - just thought it might be cool to have. The more I think about it, the less appealing it sounds though...

 

Quote

don't risk it

That's what I'm thinking.

[Castdeath97]

23 minutes ago, _deadbeef said:

 

No way to know for sure if that works with a certain aftermarket card without disassembling it though, right? If it does work, it's nice to know in case it becomes necessary, I guess.

 

It's less about being cool and more about being quiet. Maybe fewer fans might do though.

 

As I said, I know I don't need it - just thought it might be cool to have. The more I think about it, the less appealing it sounds though...

 

That's what I'm thinking.

Even with noise, the improvement isn't that great.

[stealth80]

1 hour ago, ARikozuM said:

When quoting the first post, please use a "snip" as the quote or take the portion you are referring to.

No, your finger needs the exercise on scrolls

[ARikozuM]

6 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

No, your finger needs the exercise on scrolls

Haha, I have a G502! Smooth scroll FTW!