ATX? Micro-ATX? Mini-ITX? Which one and what to run it with?

[Mr. Swede]

Hello and thank you for taking your time helping me, now lets get to it!

 

Starting off mentioning Ryzen 7. Ryzen 7 1800x performs in several games including Witcher 3, Battlefield 1 and Fallout 4 equal or worse than a i5-7600K which is less than half the price of the flagship Ryzen processor (benchmarks taken from Sweclockers). Having that in mind I'm having a hard time thinking Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 3 will have better single-core performance than ryzen 7 and therefor it is not worth the wait. So therefor I am thinking of good old lazy Intel.

 

Why I'm upgrading

Spoiler

The past months/year my computer has experienced the feeling of being old. The soundcard "leak" sound from computer through voice coms, Get a quarter of internet speed as different computer using cable, my power supply pulsate a high frequency sound even when computer off and I've had to replace the fan. The biggest reason though is that my CPU bottlenecks my GPU.

 

Fun story about my Fractal Design S. When putting in my current motherboard in it I used the Drive screws to put it in, didn't go so well. Even with another two pair of hands and with tools we could not get loose the motherboard from the case, would have to drill it away and in that removing the possibility to put a different motherboard in that case.

Budget

Computer has to be fully upgraded(yes, new case) except GPU and Drives, so something around 600-1000 USD // 800-1350 CAD would be my sweet spot, don't have a fit budget but I want value for my money.

 

Usage

Gaming while having stuff in the background, I like to multitask so I usually have one/two games + chrome + movie at the same time. Games I play are all in 1080p and range from Battlefield 1, witcher 3 to League of legends and to eastern MMORPG's like Black Desert Online. I basicly play everything.

 

Current Specs

Spoiler

I'm currently running the following;
 

Processor: i5-2500K

CPU Cooler: Be quiet! Pure rock

Graphics: asus GTX 970

Memmory: 8GB RAM

Drives SSD: 250 GB 850 evo

Drives HDD: 1 TB WB blue

Power Supply: 600W 80%

Case: Fractal Design S

Monitor: 2x 1080p with one being 144 Hz

Aim

I want this new build to hopefully last me for 4+ years as my current one has, so I don't want to cheap out. A quiet Mini-/Micro-ATX build is what I'm aiming for, don't play in running SLI or more than 4 drives so can't really tell why I would need a full size ATX, please explain if you think I need one.

 

Key features:

• 16GB or more RAM
• Silent and preferably not water cooling
• Smaller computer = better
• Below 1000$

 

Good to have features:

• Case having front side USB 3.0 along with headphone and microphone jack
• Clean look of the case
• Having 6 or more USB ports in the back
• Having one USB-C
• Having 4 slots of RAM if going for 32 GB (it's cheaper)
• Good integrated sound card (TBH maybe all are good, don't know)

 

I think that was everything I can point out! Full build examples are very much appreciated!

 

[19_blackie_73]

what about reusing the pure rock? are you ca$ or us$?

[MrPants_]

3 minutes ago, 19_blackie_73 said:

what about reusing the pure rock? are you ca$ or us$?

His name is literally Mr. Swede

[Mr. Swede]

1 minute ago, 19_blackie_73 said:

what about reusing the pure rock? are you ca$ or us$?

I have no problem with reusing my old stuff that still works, like my pure rock.

 

When I say 600-1000 I'm having my mind on US dollars but to be honest both works, as long as it's clear which currency you use. I live in Sweden so will have to change currency anyway ^^

[19_blackie_73]

1 minute ago, MrAwesomepants said:

His name is literally Mr. Swede

that does not tell anything in a forum  

Just now, Mr. Swede said:

I have no problem with reusing my old stuff that still works, like my pure rock.

 

When I say 600-1000 I'm having my mind on US dollars but to be honest both works, as long as it's clear which currency you use. I live in Sweden so will have to change currency anyway ^^

I'm assuming you are reusing your storage config and the pure rock then  

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-7600K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($238.64 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 51.7 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (Purchased For $0.00)
Motherboard: ASRock Z270M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($113.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($124.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB SC GAMING ACX 3.0 Black Edition Video Card  ($379.99 @ Jet)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ITX Mini ITX Tower Case  ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($78.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1001.38
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-05 12:44 EST-0500

[mariushm]

You should be aware that currently you don't see the full performance of Ryzen, as the Windows OS doesn't detect and use all the cores and threads properly. Basically, instead of detecting 8 cores grouped into two "core complex"-es of 4 cores which are tied to the 16 MB of level 3 cache, Windows thinks the processor has 16 cores each with 16 MB of level 3 cache, for a total of 136 MB of level 3 cache. If a game has a thread running on one core complex and creates another thread but the OS creates that thread on the other core complex, that newly created thread wastes time requsting data from the other core complex and waiting for level 3 cache to be filled with data from level 1 and 2 caches of the other thread .. it's a few nanoseconds lost every time such threads are incorrectly created by the OS.

 

AMD submitted a patch to Microsoft but they're still testing it internally, so at this moment in some games and some applications that create and kill threads often, you'll see a decrease in performance. So basically if you're patient, you'll see even more performance from Ryzen as Windows patches the OS to be aware of AMD's SMT and other features, so your statement that Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 3 would suck is somewhat incorrect (or basically you rushed to conclusions)

 

[Mr. Swede]

12 minutes ago, 19_blackie_73 said:

that does not tell anything in a forum  

I'm assuming you are reusing your storage config and the pure rock then  

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-7600K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($238.64 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 51.7 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (Purchased For $0.00)
Motherboard: ASRock Z270M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($113.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($124.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB SC GAMING ACX 3.0 Black Edition Video Card  ($379.99 @ Jet)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ITX Mini ITX Tower Case  ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($78.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1001.38
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-05 12:44 EST-0500

My only issue is that I want it to be compact but quiet while having similar specs as those that you picked. To keep in mind, I already have a GTX 970 which I will keep.

 

Also, could anyone please explain why someone who uses 1 GPU and 1-4 drives would need a ATX motherboard before micro or mini??

[Mr. Swede]

1 hour ago, mariushm said:

You should be aware that currently you don't see the full performance of Ryzen, as the Windows OS doesn't detect and use all the cores and threads properly. Basically, instead of detecting 8 cores grouped into two "core complex"-es of 4 cores which are tied to the 16 MB of level 3 cache, Windows thinks the processor has 16 cores each with 16 MB of level 3 cache, for a total of 136 MB of level 3 cache. If a game has a thread running on one core complex and creates another thread but the OS creates that thread on the other core complex, that newly created thread wastes time requsting data from the other core complex and waiting for level 3 cache to be filled with data from level 1 and 2 caches of the other thread .. it's a few nanoseconds lost every time such threads are incorrectly created by the OS.

 

AMD submitted a patch to Microsoft but they're still testing it internally, so at this moment in some games and some applications that create and kill threads often, you'll see a decrease in performance. So basically if you're patient, you'll see even more performance from Ryzen as Windows patches the OS to be aware of AMD's SMT and other features, so your statement that Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 3 would suck is somewhat incorrect (or basically you rushed to conclusions)

 

I know that when Windows and there after games start optimizing for AMD the results might improve from the current state. Do people think that it will improve it so much that it it will be on par with Intel in value/performance? I'm not a expert, I only listen to experts and look at results. As far as I can tell people are happy that AMD can make a relevant CPU but that they can not recommend it above Intel when its for gaming. 

[19_blackie_73]

14 minutes ago, Mr. Swede said:

My only issue is that I want it to be compact but quiet while having similar specs as those that you picked. To keep in mind, I already have a GTX 970 which I will keep.

 

Also, could anyone please explain why someone who uses 1 GPU and 1-4 drives would need a ATX motherboard before micro or mini??

what's not quiet about that build? Fractal has quite good fans and you could run them on a very low speed, especially the 200mm in the front will make not much noise. The 1070 switches its fans off while idling, and even under load its not loud. And your pure rock isn't that bad either. Though you could upgrade it to a dark rock advanced or pro.

If you don't plan on getting a new gpu, get the 7700k or a ryzen and save the rest of the money for a gpu upgrade down the road.

 

To answer your second question: ATX simply because it was cheap when buying mine and my case choice was made before considering motherboards. It would have been ridiculous to plant a matx or mitx in the silent base 800 (a lovely case btw). I didn't care that much about size because it will stand right next to my desk, and an itx case would just be too small to do that because constant bashing because i did not see it  And there were no appealing matx cases at that time and i love the look of the silent base. So i bought a atx motherboard to have the flexibility to get expansion cards and so on.