Workstation Build Evaluation

[vibeit]

• What do you guys think of this build? I'll used it for web development (basically it's a workstation), run Fallout 4 at least, and some 3D Rendering.
• As much as possible I don't want to exceed $1000, this whole build costs 1207.28 in PCPartpicker. I think my absolute max price will be $1200.
• Last week I posted here and decided to compose a better build today.
• NOTES: No overclocks planned for this build, 2 monitors preferred (it's a workstation after all) It makes it easy to preview the webpage on one monitor while coding on another.
• Should I stick with this processor or can I still get away with an 8-Core AMD since this is only 4 Cores, unless its hyperthreaded? But I'm told here that Intel can execute more instructions/cycle even if AMD has more clock speed so I'm leaning towards intel. But then the number of cores can be a game changer?
• I know the 32GB RAM can be overkill but going to buy another pair months later seems like a hassle. It's better to have it all in there right now.
• Also, is there a component here that can bottleneck another?
• Can the graphics card really support 2 HDMI monitors? I looked at screenshots of the card and the ports look different.
• I don't plan to buy another PC in 5 years so will this build be future proof for at least 5 years?
• Parts:

• Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor	190.99
  Cooler Master GeminII M4 58.4 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler	33.99
  Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	60.98
  Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory	169.99
  ADATA Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	37.99
  Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	48.89
  Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Mini Video Card	129.99
  Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case	84.99
  SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	38.99
  Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit	98.99
  Asus VX228H 21.5" 60Hz Monitor	119.99
  Asus VX228H 21.5" 60Hz Monitor	119.99
  Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard	9.99
  Cobra E-3lue Wired Optical Mouse	9.87
  APC BE550G UPS	51.6

[Guest]

Maybe not that PSU. Rest is fine

[vibeit]

15 hours ago, deXxterlab97 said:

Maybe not that PSU. Rest is fine

PC partpicker says it's 263Watts, so I still need more than 300W?

[Guest]

Just now, vibeit said:

PC partpicker says it's 263Watts, so I still need more than 300W?

That PSU might not be good in terms of quality

[vibeit]

15 hours ago, deXxterlab97 said:

That PSU might not be good in terms of quality

How about a SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply?

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, vibeit said:

How about a SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply?

Not sure about that, someone with more knowledge should able to answer it for me @Energycore @Comic_Sans_MS @Starelementpoke @STRMfrmXMN

 

How about EVGA 500b or 430w?

[The Sloth]

if you can get a 6700 it will be really good for long run especially for work also get a higher watt psu as caps degrade over time and other  inefficiency 

[LeprekonKilla]

Not sure if you need a CPU cooler, especially if you're not planning to OC

[vibeit]

15 hours ago, LeprekonKilla said:

Not sure if you need a CPU cooler, especially if you're not planning to OC

Yes but I'd be multitasking heavily like doing some 3D rendering in the background while developing in the foreground. My room is also quite hot during the day, If I put this PC next to an open window I may get away without an aftermarket cooler.

[LeprekonKilla]

1 minute ago, vibeit said:

Yes but I'd be multitasking heavily like doing some 3D rendering in the background while developing in the foreground. My room is also quite hot during the day, If I put this PC next to an open window I may get away without an aftermarket cooler.

Ah, if your room if fairly hot then I can see a reason for using one then

[Moress]

About spit out my drink when I saw the 32 gigs of ram lol. But if you know for sure your use case needs that much go for it.

[vibeit]

15 hours ago, Moress said:

About spit out my drink when I saw the 32 gigs of ram lol. But if you know for sure your use case needs that much go for it.

I guess it's payback for my own mistake from the first PC I built in 2005. The mobo was capable of 3 GB RAM and I only installed 256 MB because I thought it was enough and I couldn't find the cash to bring it to 3GB since then because I was still in college. Now I have the opportunity to max the RAM out.

[Moress]

5 minutes ago, vibeit said:

I guess it's payback for my own mistake from the first I built a PC in 2005. The mobo was capable of 3 GB RAM and I only installed 256 MB because I thought it was enough and I couldn't find the cash to bring it to 3GB since then because I was still in college. Now I have the opportunity to max the RAM out.

Do you know for a fact that you will need all 32 gigs of ram for your use? Because if you reduce down to 2x8 you can fit in a 6700. An I7 is much better than I5s in most workstation builds. BUT, I don't know a whole lot about specific workloads on workstations. Just putting that out there.

[brob]

44 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

Not sure about that, someone with more knowledge should able to answer it for me @Energycore @Comic_Sans_MS @Starelementpoke @STRMfrmXMN

 

How about EVGA 500b or 430w?

Seasonic is a top notch psu manufactuer. They make units for EVGA, Corsair, and a number of other companies as well as offer retail units under their own name.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2697/30 discusses the SS-xxxET models. Which, according to the article are built on the same platform as the excellent S12II retail models.

 

The EVGA 500B is not a bad unit, http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=351. But I would choose the Seasonic.

 

@vibeit,

 

If this is a development machine a larger ssd would be in order. A significant activity of development is storage i/o. Speeding that up makes for a much more productive system.

 

Get a 2x16GB memory kit. That will leave two memory slots free for an upgrade and will put marginally less strain on the memory controller. Something like G.Skill Aegis 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory will also save a few $. But unless you are sure that 32GB is needed, why not start with 16GB (2x8GB). You can then upgrade to 32GB (2x8GB) or 48GB (2x16GB) should it prove necessary.

 

I would get a less expensive case. Something like Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case.

 

I would also get a less expensive cpu cooler. Something like Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO.

 

 

[vibeit]

• After taking in everyone's suggestions, here's some changes I made. I'll have to upgrade the RAM later.

• Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor	$299.99
  Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler	$29.99
  Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$59.9
  Mushkin Essentials 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory	$79.99
  ADATA XPG SX930 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$79.99
  Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$48.89
  Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Mini Video Card	$129.99
  Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case	$39.99
  SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$38.99
  Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit	$98.99
  Asus VX228H 21.5" 60Hz Monitor	$119.99
  Asus VX228H 21.5" 60Hz Monitor	$119.99
  Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard	$9.99
  Cobra E-3lue Wired Optical Mouse	$9.87
  APC BE550G UPS	$51.65
  Total:	$1,227.28

[Glennieboyyy007]

you have a "k" cpu, if you want to OC you'll need to have a z170 MOBO as well. go with a "k" cpu and a z170 MOBO, or go with a non "k" and a h170, b150 MOBO. best option is the first so you can OC, but it will be more expensive.

[chechenglin]

post deleted

[brob]

59 minutes ago, Glennieboyyy007 said:

you have a "k" cpu, if you want to OC you'll need to have a z170 MOBO as well. go with a "k" cpu and a z170 MOBO, or go with a non "k" and a h170, b150 MOBO. best option is the first so you can OC, but it will be more expensive.

The price differential between then locked and unlocked i7-6700 is literally a couple of $. Well worth the added speed. A Z170 motherboard OTH, is almost double the B150 motherboard cost.

 

1 hour ago, vibeit said:

• After taking in everyone's suggestions, here's some changes I made. I'll have to upgrade the RAM later.

• Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor	$299.99
  Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler	$29.99
  Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$59.9
  Mushkin Essentials 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory	$79.99
  ADATA XPG SX930 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$79.99
  Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$48.89
  Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Mini Video Card	$129.99
  Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case	$39.99
  SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$38.99
  Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit	$98.99
  Asus VX228H 21.5" 60Hz Monitor	$119.99
  Asus VX228H 21.5" 60Hz Monitor	$119.99
  Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard	$9.99
  Cobra E-3lue Wired Optical Mouse	$9.87
  APC BE550G UPS	$51.65
  Total:	$1,227.28

Other than the memory this is pretty good. You are sacrificing performance by choosing a 1x16GB memory kit over a 2x8GB kit. 

 

Not sure why you picked the Adata ssd. The price seems on the high side for its size & performance.

[vibeit]

15 hours ago, brob said:

The price differential between then locked and unlocked i7-6700 is literally a couple of $. Well worth the added speed. A Z170 motherboard OTH, is almost double the B150 motherboard cost.

 

Other than the memory this is pretty good. You are sacrificing performance by choosing a 1x16GB memory kit over a 2x8GB kit. 

 

Not sure why you picked the Adata ssd. The price seems on the high side for its size & performance.

I'll try to make the changes with the Processor and Mobo. For the RAM, I'm going to add three more 16GB in the future to get 64 GB so to buy 2 8GB now will go to waste, provided the performance drop isn't that big with the single 16GB stick. As for the ADATA SSD, other options are too expensive or capacity is too low. Anyway, since it's SSD I suppose it's still better than a 1 TB magnetic drive. To be honest, this will be my first time using an SSD so I really can't tell how good this is going to be compared to the other choices. Right now I'm still thinking if I should ditch the 1 TB WD blue caviar and go full Samsung 1 TB SD as my entire storage, despite the more expensive price tag. But then the 1 TB is supposed to be for data backup so when I reformat the PC I'll only wipe out the 240 GB SSD.

 

Another option is 120 GB SSD, 2 TB Magnetic drives in RAID. I don't think I'll be installing that many software,anyway. At the least there's hardware drivers, Netbeans, Blender, photoshop, a slicing software for 3D printing, a couple of web browsers, and Fallout 4. I'm fine with installing one video game at a time and I really don't play games that much.

[brob]

1 minute ago, vibeit said:

I'll try to make the changes with the Processor and Mobo. For the RAM, I'm going to add three more 16GB in the future to get 64 GB so to buy 2 8GB now will go to waste, provided the performance drop isn't that big with the single 16GB stick. As for the ADATA SSD, other options are too expensive or capacity is too low. Anyway, since it's SSD I suppose it's still better than a 1 TB magnetic drive. To be honest, this will be my first time using an SSD so I really can't tell how good this is going to be compared to the other choices. Right now I'm still thinking if I should ditch the 1 TB WD blue caviar and go full Samsung 1 TB SD as my entire storage, despite the more expensive price tag. But then the 1 TB is supposed to be for data backup so when I reformat the PC I'll only wipe out the 240 GB SSD.

 

Another option is 120 GB SSD, 2 TB Magnetic drives in RAID. I don't think I'll be installing that many software,anyway. At the least there's hardware drivers, Netbeans, Blender, photoshop, a slicing software for 3D printing, a couple of web browsers, and Fallout 4. I'm fine with installing one video game at a time and I really don't play games that much.

Where are you shopping for the ssd?

[vibeit]

15 hours ago, brob said:

Where are you shopping for the ssd?

Amazon.

[vibeit]

15 hours ago, brob said:

Where are you shopping for the ssd?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012ASDEM0/?tag=pcpapi-20

[brob]

6 minutes ago, vibeit said:

Amazon.

Can you shop anywhere else? Perhaps Newegg.com or NCIX.com?

 

Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E250B/AM)

is a really good deal at the moment.

[vibeit]

15 hours ago, brob said:

Can you shop anywhere else? Perhaps Newegg.com or NCIX.com?

I'll try. On the day I purchase I'll try to hit up local stores in my area first so I can inspect the parts properly. Shopping online will be last resort.

[brob]

1 minute ago, vibeit said:

I'll try. On the day I purchase I'll try to hit up local stores in my area first so I can inspect the parts properly. Shopping online will be last resort.

Good thinking.