Optimal rig for GTX 1070

Tonyp123 · Jun 11, 2016

Hi all, new to the forum :bounce:

I'm planning on building a new gaming desktop after a few years of living with a MacBook. I built my last PC about 10 years ago, so I'm looking forward to seeing what's improved in the last decade! I'm hoping to get something relatively top of the line, with some room for expansion and upgrades.

It looks like Nvidia's GTX 1070 is the card to go for, the reviews sound amazing. I'd also like to be able to buy a second and run them with SLI when requirements inevitably progress.

Could this be achievable with a budget of around $1200 (for the box only, no accessories)?

If anyone could recommend a build, particularly the motherboard and processor which would facilitate this I'd be very grateful!

Update 1: Some of my aspirations for this PC.

I still have my FrankenMacBook, going well with every upgrade i could feasibly do, so size and portability are not an issue. Graphics performance, upgrade potential, reliability and quietness are the most important factors, in order.

I want to have something that will be able to play all new games in amazing quality (maxing out 1080p, some concessions for 4k), use a VR headset when they're available, and be able to upgrade (another GFC card with SLI) without having to buy a whole new rig or mess about with cooling.

The GTX-1070 looks like it's nearly as powerful as the top-dollar cards, plus the 'Founders Edition' looks like it pumps all the heat out of the back of the case, easing heating concerns.

I've been checking the Best Builds of 2016 and the Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 seems to be a firm favourite in my budget. However, I'm not too sure about the PCI slots, newegg states this on the specs:

"1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
* For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
* The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)

(All of the PCI Express slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)
PCI Express x1
1 x PCI Express x1 slot
(All of the PCI Express slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)"

Also it's a microATX board, which I'm not really sure I need.

The i5 6600k looks like a good processor choice, after reading a comparison with the 6700k it seems there's very little in paying any extra.

Thanks all!

Tony

Bearmann · Jun 11, 2016

Welcome! Here is a consideration:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($297.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z170M Extreme4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($101.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk X400 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($74.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($47.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.88 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Other: GTX 1070 Non-Founders Edition ($400.00)
Total: $1201.18
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-11 22:50 EDT-0400

smorizio · Jun 11, 2016

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/z8Zzyf
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/z8Zzyf/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Z170-PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($169.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($34.49 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($87.69 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX Core Edition 850W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($107.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $747.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-11 23:16 EDT-0400

Tonyp123 · Jun 11, 2016

Thanks Bearmann! I was just about to have a go at the PCPartPicker, thanks for giving me a headstart.

As I mentioned in my update just before you posted, I really like the idea of the Founders Edition cards as they port the heat straight out of the case. Also the link I added with the comparison of the 6600k and 6700k seems to show very little difference for the money.

Do you have any thoughts on this?

Thanks for the reply friend!

Tony

smorizio · Jun 11, 2016

the i7 is an i5 just with hyper threading it helps in some games and when your doing video editing or live streaming.
with newer gpu they still cant fill the pci bus if there two cards in the rig. (8x). the newer 200 chipset from intel up the lanes from 16 to 24. the x99 has more pci lanes but it more costly mb and cpu set up.
on the gpu wait a while for the aib to drop there 3 party gpu. you want a non founders card. when looking at gpu look at the stock speed and cooler used. it not worth paying 100 more for few extra mgz is speed. your better off buying a card with a good cooler. using the money for a larger ssd or ram or better cpu. for mb your need a full size atx for sli or crossfire. to give the gpu room for air for cooling (card spacing) and leave room for wifi or sound card. some people love the sound of 3 party sound cards. with z mb there be 4 ram slots. if you want 32g of ram use two 16g ram stick. for 6g use two 8g sticks. leave the other two slots open in case one set of slots goes bad. if you can wait till after summer the prices for gpu and cpu should drop a bit as stocking level get better. if you have a local micro center they do cpu and mb combo deals. for the case on a first build go mid size atx it have extra room to work with a new builder. micro atx and cube case can sometime be a pain for there small size.

Tonyp123 · Jun 12, 2016

Thanks smorizio!

So are you saying I don't need to worry about the 'x' of the PCI bus, because even 2 x GTX 1070's will only be 8x? I'm confused, is it the limit of the speed/bandwidth of the motherboard, or the physical size of the PCI slots?

A full size ATX case is fine, i'd prefer that. So you think it's better to get an AIB card with better cooling on the card and in the case? They sure do look sexy, though..

I think 16gb RAM should be fine to start with, is there much difference between 2133 and 300 mHz?

I've got a 2tb external hard drive, so hoping just to use a 250gb solid state for this as I want it to be free from clutter, I can do everything else with the Macbook.

I'd rather get a kick-ass Motherboard with a decent on-board soundcard, I've never really noticed the difference, besides my headphones and speakers are pretty cheap anyway.

That's a good idea about buying after summer, I've got time to plan this build anyway so there's no rush!

Thanks!

Tony

Bearmann · Jun 12, 2016

Tonyp123 :

I was leaning toward the i7 somewhat because of the future SLI intention. I had not seen that article. This is another situation in which the more I study, the less I know

Digital Foundry found that an overclocked i7 6700K was slightly superior to an overclocked i5 6600K, and the same for non OC versus non OC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhaB1dqYv_I

But you could make a good argument that an overclocked i5 6600K is superior to the non-overclockable, non-K i7 6600 that I chose due to the higher frequency. I think I would buy that argument if you wanted to overclock.

You added most of your post after I had already answered. The non-reference cards usually cool better even though the air is expelled into the case because of large heatsinks, more and larger fans, and other custom cooling solutions that the manufacturers incorporate. However when you do SLI, especially if in a small case, sometimes it is better to have the blower type cards so they are not blowing heat onto one another. IIRC, the reference cards and some of the third party cards allow liquid cooling, so I think a Founders edition may be more likely to allow for liquid cooling without knowing each card specifically. There have already been reports of overclocked Founder's cards (the 1080, I believe) having to throttle down due to poor cooling.

The Gigabyte Gaming 5 is very nice, but may knock you out of budget. Now that I think about it, a full sized ATX board may be better so as to possibly allow the GPU's in SLI to be further apart. If you are not going to liquid cool the GPU's, having a case that allows the ability to add a side intake fan can be important. I'll adjust the build.

Oh, and having one card at x16 and the other card at x8 makes minimal difference. I can provide a reference if you would like.

Faster RAM seems to benefit some games:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1478-page1.html

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/492721-skylake-gaming-performance-scaling-with-ddr4-ram-frequency/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESeoexGLVFU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qksXthUcbiQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er_Fuz54U0Y

Bearmann · Jun 12, 2016

Here is revised build with the Founders card while you are thinking about your options. Its a bit over budget. I switched the RAM to 1.2V RAM which I like better when overclocking the CPU. Both the old and new MB have the ALC 1150 codec for upgraded sound.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.50)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($136.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk X400 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($74.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card ($449.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($47.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.88 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1247.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-12 00:41 EDT-0400

smorizio · Jun 12, 2016

with ram and intel cpu. the default speed is 2100 at 1.2v. that intel spec for ram for the new skylake cpu.. the max voltage for the chip is 1.35v. you can run faster ram just look for newer ddr4 ram with low voltage. it be up to how good the intel cpu memory controller is on how fast you can over clock the ram.

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Optimal rig for GTX 1070

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