i5 6600k and GTX 1070 build questions

[2009miles]

I've been using a Toshiba laptop with a Pentium 2020m CPU clocked at 2.4GHz with no discrete GPU so i've been rocking hard with those integrated framerates. Now while i must admit this little Pentium has done more than its fair share of work when it comes to light gaming and even (very sluggish) photo editing, it's time to move on to bigger and better things. I set myself a 1000 to 1100 EURO  budget and am looking to build myself my first (done by me) desktop. It will be used mostly for gaming (1080p/1440p, i already own a 1080p monitor and all the peripherals), school work and photo editing, altough nothing too serious.

 

This is the PCPP list: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/g9LmWX

 

I went with the german PCPP link but i am open to buying components from all over europe (read: amazon and other reputable websites) and am always looking for a good deal while trying to keep the same parts list or equivalent parts for less money. I am from Portugal if it makes any difference.

 

My questions to the nice folk over here are:

1- Is this a 'balanced' build? I know this is pretty much a buzzword but basically does the CPU bottleneck the GPU or am i good with the build as is?

2- Should i go with the K unlocked skylake CPU or opt for a locked newer gen kaby lake (7500/7600)?

3- I couldn't really decide between the ASUS Z170-P and the MSI Z170-A PRO motherboards, which one do you guys think is better?

4- Should i get a single 8GB stick of ram and at a later time buy another one or buy the 2x4GB kit on the PCPP list and later on buy another 2x4GB kit to fill the four RAM slots?

5- Is the PSU i chose good enough for this build in terms of watts and just plain quality? I saw it is on the third tier of the PSU tier list on here but i'm not sure how that stacks up against the rest of the build, even with it being 80+ gold certified.

6- And finally, is the case adequate? I like the way it looks and it seems to have adequate air flow but since this is my first build i still have no real idea and am not looking to slowcook my components.

 

Those are all the things that, off the top of my head, i can think to ask. I'd greatly appreciate any help or feedback!

 

Also, before anyone asks, i will eventually slap an SSD on that thing to use as a boot drive.

[Herman Mcpootis]

1.looks decent. i'd try for 16gb of ram if you can.

2.if it doesn't cost too much more try for kabylake. if it does just stick to skylake.

3.whichever is cheaper or has the features you need.

4.get one 8gb stick now and add in another stick later, or get 16gb at once.

5.it's good enough.

[Princess Luna]

It is 60$ more expensive but you will get the latest chipset and Kabylake, the locked i7 7700 will destroy the overclocked 6600k while Hyper-Threading will give you a lot more of "future proof" as well, a money well invested in more horse power and longevity.

 

Get a single 8gb RAM stick now, from my personal experience it is well worth it the single stick still performs lovely and makes upgrading path a lot easier as you can just get a second stick down the line and have 16gb dual channel.

 

The following PSU is a tad more pricy but superior, always consider spending some more on the PSU as a faulty one will kill your other componenets while a great one will last for years to come giving you plenty upgrade room.

 

Following case offers better air flow.

 

And at last, if I were you would strongly consider buying a 240gb SSD for boot already so you can build the PC and get windows on it already, moving windows to other driver all will be annoying if you plan on upgrading later on.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€332.32 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€80.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  (€69.44 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€51.55 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Windforce OC Video Card  (€431.80 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (€80.40 @ Mindfactory)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (€97.84 @ Mindfactory)
Total: €1144.24
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-10 11:57 CET+0100

[Herman Mcpootis]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€246.77 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 400 74.3 CFM CPU Cooler  (€29.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Motherboard: ASRock Z170A-X1 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€110.15 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  (€120.62 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€51.55 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Mini Video Card  (€414.93 @ Mindfactory) 
Case: NOX Hummer ZX ATX Mid Tower Case  (€65.75 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€50.98 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Total: €1090.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-10 12:07 CET+0100

[Morgan MLGman]

What about this instead:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€332.32 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€75.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  (€109.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€49.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€51.55 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB SC Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card  (€443.25 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Phanteks ECLIPSE P400 ATX Mid Tower Case  (€75.84 @ Mindfactory)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€50.98 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1188.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-10 12:07 CET+0100

[2009miles]

I took the input given and made a new list just under the pretty hard budget limit of 1100 euros and another one above it. Kind of trying to stick to the budget here so here are the lists:

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/tWqZr7 

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/Cg7NWX

 

@Morgan MLGman 

@Princess Cadence

What do you guys think?

[Morgan MLGman]

10 minutes ago, 2009miles said:

I took the input given and made a new list just under the pretty hard budget limit of 1100 euros and another one above it. Kind of trying to stick to the budget here so here are the lists:

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/tWqZr7 

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/Cg7NWX

 

@Morgan MLGman 

@Princess Cadence

What do you guys think?

Good, but this would be better and would barely fit your budget

Just add another 8GB of RAM and more storage in the future (possibly a quieter CPU cooler as well) and you're golden for a couple years.:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€332.32 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€75.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  (€49.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Green 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€79.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB SC Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card  (€443.25 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox 5 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  (€67.12 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€50.98 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1099.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-10 12:45 CET+0100

 

 

[Gonio]

Going locked limits you once you reach a CPU limit. So stay unlocked so you can OC one day to extent the useable lifespan of your platform. And y 16GB of RAM could help and should be enough for the years to come.

 

Would swap HDD for a atleast 250 GB SSD and possibly add HDD later. SSD makes your system much more snappier and multitasking suited.

[2009miles]

4 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

Good, but this would be better and would barely fit your budget:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€332.32 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€75.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  (€49.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Green 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€79.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB SC Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card  (€443.25 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox 5 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  (€67.12 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€50.98 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1099.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-10 12:45 CET+0100

I'll look and compare princes of those parts now and try to see how cheap i can get all of that from across europe. Thanks for the help!

 

If anyone else reading this still has any input, it's more than welcome.

[2009miles]

13 minutes ago, Gonio said:

Going locked limits you once you reach a CPU limit. So stay unlocked so you can OC one day to extent the useable lifespan of your platform. And y 16GB of RAM could help and should be enough for the years to come.

 

Would swap HDD for a atleast 250 GB SSD and possibly add HDD later. SSD makes your system much more snappier and multitasking suited.

I will buy a small SSD (thinking 250GB) and use it for a boot drive and pretty much as full system storage for a little while and then get a hard drive. I have an external 1TB USB 3.0 HDD i can use to store music/videos/etc on in the meanwhile.

 

As far as the unlocked sku goes, what's the real advantage there from the standpoint of someone who has never overclocked before and wouldn't really want to push it too far? I know it can do something like 4.4-4.6GHz OC but would i really be able to pull that off without any prior experience and, most of all, without frying anything? Also wouldn't it be locked at the clock speed i OC it to (read: always running at the speed i OC it to)? I'm not set on either CPU yet, although i am certainly considering the 7700 now, but i need to look around more to be sure which route i'll take. Kind of why i started this thread in the first place. About the RAM, i can get another 8GB stick later on, right now i'm just looking to build something and 8GB is good enough for a start.

[Gonio]

Yup 8 can help you along for the time being.

 

I have build many PC's for others, that at first disagreed with a OC but later where happy because they ran into limits.. A unlocked CPU does not mean you have to OC right away, but can do it later if you run into certain CPU limits. A OC is free, a new CPU or even worse a new platform not. Despite being able to sell stuff second hand, upgrading later to a better CPU is then more costly.

 

A good platform can come along with you for years. So the inital cost now is worth it later on. There are still many situations where the CPU is bottleneck in games. Sometimes it is overall usage, sometimes single threaded usage. But both is running into a limit.

[2009miles]

9 minutes ago, Gonio said:

Yup 8 can help you along for the time being.

 

I have build many PC's for others, that at first disagreed with a OC but later where happy because they ran into limits.. A unlocked CPU does not mean you have to OC right away, but can do it later if you run into certain CPU limits. A OC is free, a new CPU or even worse a new platform not. Despite being able to sell stuff second hand, upgrading later to a better CPU is then more costly.

 

A good platform can come along with you for years. So the inital cost now is worth it later on. There are still many situations where the CPU is bottleneck in games. Sometimes it is overall usage, sometimes single threaded usage. But both is running into a limit.

What would you say then to the point made earlier by another user: " (...)the locked i7 7700 will destroy the overclocked 6600k while Hyper-Threading will give you a lot more of "future proof" as well, a money well invested in more horse power and longevity."? Especially on the hyper-threading bit. Wouldn't that be benifitial over the 6600k's ability to get higher clock speeds? I don't mean to sound like i'm against the idea of the 6600k, on the contrary, but i'd like to hear yout thoughts on this bit of nuance.

[Syphno]

Get the Kabylake i7 7700 It is a good bang for buck and will not need upgrading anytime soon, If you are planning on upgrading anyway in about a yr or 2 then the skylake will serve you well

[2009miles]

6 hours ago, Syphno said:

Get the Kabylake i7 7700 It is a good bang for buck and will not need upgrading anytime soon, If you are planning on upgrading anyway in about a yr or 2 then the skylake will serve you well

My idea is to keep the system as is for 4 to 5 years (provided there isn't a good upgrade path i can use by selling some parts second hand and buying new), adding only some RAM and storage as i go.

[Gonio]

On 10-2-2017 at 1:15 PM, 2009miles said:

What would you say then to the point made earlier by another user: " (...)the locked i7 7700 will destroy the overclocked 6600k while Hyper-Threading will give you a lot more of "future proof" as well, a money well invested in more horse power and longevity."? Especially on the hyper-threading bit. Wouldn't that be benifitial over the 6600k's ability to get higher clock speeds? I don't mean to sound like i'm against the idea of the 6600k, on the contrary, but i'd like to hear yout thoughts on this bit of nuance.

To some degree that is true but destroy is a big word in this context and depends on situation, but still a unlocked CPU can last five years. Allthough they run into the limits of the platform and max OC of the CPU's that is comfortable, people can still play on on 2500/2600k CPU's from 6 years ago. Depending on your loads not everyone needs more then 4 threads/cores. But Hyperthreading can help a lot allthough HT is not 100% same as actual cores. But a 7700k for example should last years. Also the normal 7700 is clocked a bit higher then then the previous gen (as always) and is in general good enough. But still if you run into the limit you run into the limit.

 

The need for CPU power seems to get growing faster with upcoming cards, a 1080 can really be held back by a lesser range CPU. For years a i5 quadcore has been said to be plenty for gaming (and still is in most cases), but with cards like the 1080 and high demanding CPU need with games like GTA V or Battlefield 4 MP it is a somewhat a educated guess that this will happen more in the future since new gen cards bring similar or better performance then last gen at lower pricepoint.. And some of these issues are helped by the I7 partly because of HT but also because of higher clockspeeds. Clockspeeds is in general still the more important factor for games (allthough it always depends on the game). I play several games that are focussed on single thread performance. So playing them with CPU's that have a gaziljon cores, but are also clocked lower then gives a worse result. this is also the reason why the mainstream i7 are considered the best gaming CPU's despite the more cores from the highend platform.