New Midrange Foundation Build

[CTX-SLPR]

So I head to my daily driver station tonight to check a forum post and my email and I notice the screens are dark but the fans are running pretty high.  No mouse or keyboard wakeup so I hit the reset button and what I get is not encouraging... Checksum error.  Reboot and now its not even posting.  Considering I got a message at one point and it's not showing me a drive failure, I have to assume that my long serving i5-2500 on an Intel P67 has conked out hard.  It's sitting off overnight but if it doesn't come back tomorrow morning I'm definitely going to pull the trigger on a new foundation layer for my system.  Lets just say that I evolve my systems over time so most of the rest of the stuff is pretty solid.

 

Need: MB, CPU, Cooler (maybe), and RAM

Have: GTX-1070, 250GB 850 Evo, 550W EVGA G2 power supply, ATX case, 1TB data drive

Budget: $750 max, rather keep it down to around $550 or so though

Usage: I play older or non demanding games like The Long Dark, Homeworld series, etc. but really use the system for SolidWorks CAD work with some rendering but not enough to be a driving factor.  I've already hacked the SolidWorks install to think the 1070 is a supported card so it'll render.

Notes: I'd rather keep the cooler from my current setup (Zalman  CNPS5X PERFORMA) but I fully realize that its not likely to work so suggestions are certainly welcome on what to replace it with.  Height is not a huge bottleneck in my case.  I'm pretty stuck on Intel as well, not too interested in an AMD build.  Maybe I'm over hyped by Linus but Optane and M.2 support are something that intrigues me.

 

Thanks

 

[emosun]

run the system with only a single ram stick , try each stick alone in the machine , that might get it fired back up again.

[Damascus]

I7 8700 non k

Whatever x370 mobo takes your fancy (I would avoid msi)

16gb of ddr4, again purely up to you what you want it to look like.  All RAM is overpriced rn so you may as well get some nice looking dimms 

[Damascus]

Here's a parts list, I'll tell you why I picked each part

 

• 8700k

Only $20 more than the non k, allows OC and can turbo higher.  Enable mce for a 24/7 turbo boost of 4.7ghz

• Z370 extreme 4

Good vrms, nice looking and decently priced

• GeIL memory

"Cheap" rgb and in stock

 

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/qyLybj

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor  ($379.00 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock - Z370 Extreme4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($145.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: GeIL - SUPER LUCE RGB SYNC 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($167.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $692.97

[CTX-SLPR]

I guess I should mention that I really don't care about RGB as it lives inside of a computer cabinet anyway.  I have liked my Ripjaws red memory but I hardly have a color theme going, more just a pile of functional parts.

[Damascus]

3 minutes ago, CTX-SLPR said:

I guess I should mention that I really don't care about RGB as it lives inside of a computer cabinet anyway.  I have liked my Ripjaws red memory but I hardly have a color theme going, more just a pile of functional parts.

Ya, my choice of memory was less "ooh rgb" and more "what's cheap and in stock right now?"

[Damascus]

These guys have the lowest price/gb

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/9HBrxr/patriot-memory-psd416g2133k

[CTX-SLPR]

13 hours ago, emosun said:

run the system with only a single ram stick , try each stick alone in the machine , that might get it fired back up again.

Thanks for the idea, I'll try that after work today.

13 hours ago, Damascus said:

I7 8700 non k

Whatever x370 mobo takes your fancy (I would avoid msi)

16gb of ddr4, again purely up to you what you want it to look like.  All RAM is overpriced rn so you may as well get some nice looking dimms 

Why go for the i7-8700 over an i5-8400?    Just wondering since the i7 is $370 and the i5 is $210, plusing up to the 'K' models is as you point out pretty darn cheap big picture. 

I spitballed myself an i5-8400 ($210), ASRock Z370 Pro4M ($130), and Ripjaws V 4x4Gb DDR4-3200 from Newegg at $520.  Going up to the i5-8600K is a minor $50 difference.  Any gottya's in that spec or unbalanced pieces?

 

Thanks

[Damascus]

2 hours ago, CTX-SLPR said:

Thanks for the idea, I'll try that after work today.

Why go for the i7-8700 over an i5-8400?    Just wondering since the i7 is $370 and the i5 is $210, plusing up to the 'K' models is as you point out pretty darn cheap big picture. 

I spitballed myself an i5-8400 ($210), ASRock Z370 Pro4M ($130), and Ripjaws V 4x4Gb DDR4-3200 from Newegg at $520.  Going up to the i5-8600K is a minor $50 difference.  Any gottya's in that spec or unbalanced pieces?

 

Thanks

Nothing wrong with the 8400 other than it's much lower base/boost clocks and halved threads.  If you can tough it out the 8500 and 8600 are coming out soon, both chips will provide a hefty speed bump.

[CTX-SLPR]

Good News Everyone... DIMM Socket #3 was bad, I got the computer back working by first testing all the DIMMs in the #1 socket and all worked.  Then I tried the higher speed kit in the #1 and #2 slots which passed the Windows Memtest.  I then put the second kit in the #3 and #4 and it wouldn't start.  Pulled #4 and still no start, swapped the DIMM over to #4 and it's started and running stabilly though it took two tries to get it to start after I put it all back together and into the cabinet.  Now not an emergency upgrade but need to take care of it.  Looking at the prices of stuff it looks like you could buck it up to into two equal parts; Motherboard and RAM in one batch then CPU and maybe cooler in the other batch.

 

Newegg has i5-8600K for $260.  Now that you mention it, its much faster in boost and base than the i5-8400.  Definitely worth the price there but I don't think I need the i7-8700K (non-K would be stupid at $10 less) for my application. 

Any reason why the ASRock Z370 Pro4 is overkill for my needs?  I should mention as well that I would like to put an array of drives in there as a backup array for my household and I don't need onboard WiFi.

 

Thanks

[Damascus]

The pro 4 is a great, inexpensive mobo.