NEW PC BUILD - need help and advice!

Brudarion · Aug 22, 2016

Hello everybody!

I would lik to build a new computer but I'm still quite green you could say as I've only build 1 PC before which has lasted me 4 years now. I have bought a new graphics card and it ended up not working with my pc, I tried everything including reformatting and flashing BIOS and then the problems began.. I feel kind of heartbroken that my hard earned money just got wasted but on the other side of the coin it did last me 4 years at least...

Ok so on to the actual topic! This was my current build:
CPU: Intel I7 3770K
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-D14
MB: Z77A-GD65
RAM: 16GB DDR3
SSD 250 GB (POSSIBLY BROKEN)
HDD 2X 1T
GPU: EVGA GTX 680
PSU: CORSAIR AX 850 GOLD
OS WIN 7 64 BIT (Home)
CASE: CORSAIR 600T BLACK
MONITOR: PHILLIPS 248C3LH

I am willing to upgrade any of the above including mouse and keyboard if needed (unlikely). I have no budget, my previous pc was at the time nearly top of the line, the reason being i wanted to have a future proof pc so that it would last me a couple of years (I guess I saw it as a nice investment to get a really good pc so it would last me a long time so in the end I made a good deal out of it.

Now for the new build I have already bought 1 MSI GTX 1070. The main usage of the system is for YT, livestreaming and gaming with heavy taxing games like witcher 3 and skyrim heavily modded (500+ mods, heavy on graphics) etc. I hope my current GPU will be up to the task really..

I would greatly appreciate any input of you guys on what I could or should buy next for my PC, fast responses are greatly appreciated seeing as I don't have my own pc anymore since my mb broke down. I am planning to play and record at 1080p/1440p. I am uncertain at the moment but I am leaning towards getting 2 good monitors. Give me your suggestions guys.

Thank you in advance!!

basroil · Aug 22, 2016

Don't bother "upgrading", just get a new SSD, new GPU, and call it a day. The 3770K is still a top tier CPU, no sense in replacing it with just skylake (minimum replacement target should be a 6800k and X99 mobo, not 6700k with z170)

Brudarion · Aug 22, 2016

Thank you for the quick reply. However I have a few more information to share, my motherboard is broken so I am forced to replace my MB and possibly CPU. My plan was to actually buy this gtx 1070 to temporary let me do what I wanted which was YT livestream and the biggest part of this GPU was obviously for the games. The games I play are witcher 3 and skyrim and so on which is heavily modded with 2-4k resolution textures, whenever I am turning, stuttering occured so I was guessing its a CPU issue since the graphics couldnt load in the world in time so resulted in FPS drops and stuttering even and crashes. In general I was having low fps too and witcher same story. I am planning to game and record either 1080p or 1440p. I might get 2 monitors too so possibly need a bigger PSU perhaps? My original plan was to buy this 1070 as a temporary solution.. I wanted this to be good for another 2 or so years and then to buy a completely new PC all nicely done with led lights and everything. The fact my gpu didnt work on my computer because of outdated bios which resulted in my mb breaking when trying to flash it, made me wanting to build the entire new pc sooner. However I still prefer to wait untill a really good and solid TI gpu comes out and then Ill buy that and build an entire new pc out of it. Maybe the best thing would be is that I could buy a MB that is moderaltely future proof for lets say a 1180 ti in the future for example. Any suggestions on what MB and possibly CPU I should get?

basroil · Aug 22, 2016

You never stated what motherboard or it's condition, your original post said the SSD was broken!

If the mobo is broken you might as well do a full upgrade, i5 6600K should match your 3770K in multithreaded and exceed it in single thread, and with z170 gigabyte d3 motherboard and 16gb ram will only be ~$380. You can use the 680 as a stopgap, or even get a 1060 while waiting, bringing your total to ~$600

Brudarion · Aug 22, 2016

My apologies for the confusion, yes both are broken in my opinion. No signals nothing. I will be taking your suggestion into consideration. I think I would like a better CPU though than what you suggested. Keep in mind what I'll be using it for: Gaming with heavily modded games (2-4k resolution textures) or really taxing ones. I'm trying to avoid any bottlenecking too. Also videoediting for YT will be a thing but I would mainly focus on gaming for this rig. You have suggested a GPU (1060), I have already bought a GPU though which is a MSI GTX 1070 which I think didn't break... I mean the lights and fans were spinning when installed I just didn't have any video output on the monitor, at the start I only got a black screen with B2 in the corner and a white cursor. I'm guessing it was BIOS and then yeah I already explained what happened after. I would like to have a system that's future proof though as I said for at least 4 or more years, I'm not afraid of spending up to 2000 euros for it. My plan is replacing my gtx 1070 as soon as a very good TI comes out and is worth upgrading to which I'm guessing could be next year. So a system that could support one of the newest gpu's would be an asset (my old mb didn't support my newer gpu).

FD2Raptor · Aug 22, 2016

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (€341.16 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€213.77 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Kingston Savage 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (€109.13 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Sandisk Extreme Pro 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€174.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €839.05
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-22 12:47 CEST+0200

German prices are used as the standard, which may fluctuate depend on where you are in EU.

The Kingston Savage DDR4 selection is because the height of the usual recommendation GSkill Ripjaws V could prove to be problematic for the Noctua cooler (Gskill 42mm vs Kingston 34.57mm).

The Gaming7 version of Gigabyte Z170X includes the Creative SoundCore3D chip i.e the same one on the 100USD Creative SB! Z. So it is of great value if you don't have a limit on your budget.

The i7 6700k is the highest clocked LGA1151 CPU around right now, and YT video editing for the non-hardcore would not require the 6+cores of the LGA2011-3.

Right now, 2x1080 is around 360W; latest Titan is around 200W a piece, so I'd expect 1080Ti to not exceed that and therefore a bigger PSU than your 850W isn't needed at all.

Brudarion · Aug 22, 2016

Thank you so much for the suggestion, very detailed! I do like the idea of the 6700k and the SSD you listed. Good thing I can just use my PSU in the next build! Any reason you stated 6700k over 5820k? I read on so many pages now they go head to head without much differences and 5820k has 2 more cores and more threads but on the other end has a different mb (X99). I actually might go into watercooling, never done it before but I might want to give it a try, also I can buy a new CPU air cooler too if its a big problem because its true the noctua is a big block to put on such a small processor

I've been thinking of making a build with a red and black theme (with LED lights in fans that I will buy seperately). I dont mind making it fancy, it will after all last me min. 4 years hopefully.
On part picker what I have right now is the following:
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI Z170A GAMING M7 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
SSD for OS: Sandisk Extreme Pro 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Windows 10 (I personally dislike it bu I have read that the newer hardware might bottleneck with win 7 or lower, my favourite).
Case and led fans are undecided for now.
Also I have 2 extra HDD of 1T each laying around that I reformatted before my PC died. I hope to be using them in the new build, or is this a bad idea?
Would like to see your opinions on this build!

FD2Raptor · Aug 22, 2016

For black and red build and water cooling, you may want to take a look at the ID Cooling FrostFlow 240L. It can offer performance on par with the larger Noctua D15 without being as heavy on the CPU and it should fit into your Corsair 600T. Although if it is to be your first time with water cooling, I strongly suggest you create a separate thread purely focus on that question.

Brudarion said:
Any reason you stated 6700k over 5820k? I read on so many pages now they go head to head without much differences and 5820k has 2 more cores and more threads but on the other end has a different mb (X99).

There's literally no reason to use a X99 board with its associated LGA2011-3 CPU for gaming unless you know for sure that you're going to do SLI as well as using a M2 NVMe drive (16xPCIe lanes [8x for each graphic cards and nothing left for NVMe drive] vs 28 lanes[8x for each card and still have extra lanes for NVMe] vs 40 lanes [only available in the more expensive LGA2011-3 starting from the 5830k and therefore even lower cost-to-performance value with regards to gaming]). Recommend reading: HSIO lanes.

With regard to editing video for YT, unless you are or are going to be doing very elaborated and lengthy video, the extra cores/threads just aren't worth it. At stock clock, the i7 6700k is already ~78% that of the 8 cores i7 5960x; OC to 4.6Ghz and it's already at ~90% that 8cores/16threads CPU. The value arguments just aren't there if your livelihood don't depend on that encode being done some minutes sooner.

Brudarion said:
Also I have 2 extra HDD of 1T each laying around that I reformatted before my PC died. I hope to be using them in the new build, or is this a bad idea?

There shouldn't be any issue reusing HDD at all. The MSI Z170 you picked should support 6xSATA devices and including the Sandisk SSD, you would be using only 3.

Brudarion said:
newer hardware might bottleneck with win 7

There are extra performance increase when you move from 7 to either 8.1 or 10; and with Windows 10, you'd also gain support for DirectX 12 which may very well become important to gaming in the coming years. Otherwise I've never heard anything about newer hardware bottlenecking in Windows7.

Brudarion said:
Would like to see your opinions on this build!

Solid picking on parts. Do remember that at most, the Gskill Ripjaws V could be just 2mm away from the Noctua fan, so better not bump the desk.

Zerk2012 · Aug 22, 2016

You can still use windows 7 the OS is not going to bottleneck anything.
MS has said all current OS will be updated eith DX 12 support.

basroil · Aug 22, 2016

Zerk2012 :

Absolute nonsense, ONLY WIN 10 will ever have DX12 dues to the need for WDDM2.0. Win 7 is already in security update only status, and will not receive new features.

Skylake should only be used with Win 10 for maximum performance.

FD2Raptor · Aug 22, 2016

FD2Raptor said:
Brudarion said:

Would like to see your opinions on this build!

Click to expand...

Solid picking on parts. Do remember that at most, the Gskill Ripjaws V could be just 2mm away from the Noctua fan, so better not bump the desk.

Just adding a bit:
If you are looking to LED parts, you may be interested in Avexir RAM. The Avexir Core DDR4 is available up to 2666Mhz@CL15 and is 40mm tall with plain single color LED (red is one of the option); the Avexir Blitz with its more impressive LED design is 48mm tall (not compatible with the Noctua, but if you decide to go liquid, the big air tower cooler will no longer be blocking the view of the DIMMs) and available at 3000Mhz@CL15.

Brudarion · Aug 23, 2016

Great idea, info and input guys, loving it! You guys are helping me out greatly in chosing my next new system. The idea of having this big red glowing monster is cool, I just hope it will look good in reality too!
Let's round this thread up and come to conclusions now shall we?

Components I'm kinda sure I will buy for my next build:
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
MB: MSI Z170A GAMING M7 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card (owned already)
PSU: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Cert. ATX Power Supply (owned)
OS: Windows 10

Not sure/ debatable:
CPU cooler: Noctua is nice but it's quite ugly in my system, it's just this big block in my system that offers amazing cooling but not stylish for the pc i want to build now. I'm looking for alternatives if not better cooling to OC better. Currently thinking of buying Corsair H100i.
Storage: Not entirely sure, debating between samsung 500gb/1T 850 EVO or Sandisk Extreme Pro 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive.
RAM: Again.. the ripjaws look nice but recently FD2Raptor has brought Avexir Core DDR4 to my attention. Not only do these look absolutely gorgeous but they seem to be good too. not sure wether it competes with other better known (to me) brands though, also are those reliable?
Case: ... yes I'm considering buying a new case. The latches on my current case are sometimes locking up for no reason so I would like a new case too.. Right now I'm looking at the NZXT Phantom 410 in black. I would buy red led fans with this too to further make this build look amazing. The case I'm looking for has to be black, I'm open to any suggestions!
Sound card: Not sure wether it's needed... I own 2 headsets. 1 is the hyperx cloud 1 and the other one is from audiotechnica ath m50x
1 last question.. are games not using more than 4 cores nowadays? Like these really graphically advanced ones like gta v, far cry, skyrim modded, witcher 3 and so on.

Sorry if i sound like an idiot here but I just want to be sure that I buy good components and you guys are very knowledgable so I rather be safe than sorry!
I've only built my own system once but without any problems though. Anyways thank you guys so much for the help so far! Very helpful site.

FD2Raptor · Aug 24, 2016

Brudarion :

Case: Regarding the NZXT Phantom 410, it's a fine pick so long that you understand that the featured Pivot fan for GPU would actually make it unable to handle a good chunk of high end graphic card cooling solution (Asus ROG STRIX OC, Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming, Zotac AMP! Extreme will not fit; MSI Gaming X will barely manage to fit but with only 1mm between it and the fan, I'm sure you and I would agree that that would be a risky several hundred dollars bet to take).

RAM: If those Avexir were failing en mass, the people who were using them certainly haven't made it known. If one bad review on Newegg can be an "Avoid at all cost" sign then one could just as easily assume the same for either Gskill ripjaws or Kingston Fury/Savage.
One thing to note though, the Avexir Core DDR4 is available in 2400Mhz and 2666Mhz. The 2400 however has looser CL of 16-16-16-36 vs the 2666 of 15-15-15-35 which cause me to suspect that the 2400 version is just the DIMM stick from their Budget line with the LED strapped on it. If you go with the Avexir Core, be sure go with the 2666 instead.

SSD: If there are such price differences between the 850 Evo and the Extreme Pros that you could have a 1TB EVO in the same price brackets as the 480GB Extreme Pro, then go with the Evo. If Evo and Extreme Pro are priced similarly to each other, get Extreme Pro.

Sound card: If you go with a high end Z170 board, they're already equipped to deliver excellent sound to most headsets. What I'm seeing is that unless you're interested in the virtual surround sound processing for headphones (which could make the most difference in competitive First-Person-Shooter), the discrete sound card won't be a huge increase to the sound quality compare to the one integrated on your high-end MB in music. This is squarely a whether you want it or not.

basroil · Aug 24, 2016

Brudarion :

Skyrim definitely, it's still practically a single threaded game (as are most bethesda ones). Other notable examples are:
Starcraft II
All mobas
CSGO (barely even a single thread)
Basically anything from ubisoft

Brudarion · Aug 24, 2016

Thank you for all the answers. I'm almost decided on all the parts now. Back to what basroil said, I can see skyrim not using many cores as its quite old by now ofcourse, what about the more recent games? witcher3, far cry 4 and primal, gta V, all maxed out graphics and options ofcourse. Do they use more than 4 cores? also if they do how will my 4 core processor react if the game needs more cores? Will bottlenecking occur and start to shave down fps ? I'm really curious about this..
Also with this 1 msi gtx 1070, will there be any problems if I will have a second monitor hooked up to my pc?

basroil · Aug 24, 2016

Brudarion :

They can, doesn't mean they need to. With a 1070 an i5 is fine, even an i3 can work if you want max quality but don't care about 100fps+

Brudarion · Aug 24, 2016

Alright awesome, well then all I need to chose is a nice case to compliment this big red machine, preferably a nice black case with a window pane so we see the led lights and also possible to see red fan leds. Also the CPU cooling im not sure of... Im leaning towards corsair h100i but at the same time apparently its loud and you need to refresh the water every 6 months, or so ive heard. What i liked with air cooling is that it doesnt really need maintenance others than a little but dusting from time to time, i didnt need to uninstal anything. Any suggestions for cases and cpu coolers? I'm looking to OC to 4.2-4.5 with the 6700k

FD2Raptor · Aug 24, 2016

Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with Pentium, i3, i5 and i7

Um... the 6700k start at 4Ghz and the default Turbo is 4.2Ghz... at that clock rate, even a cheap slim tower like the Deepcool Gammax 400 (blue LED fan, but the cooler itself is so cheap, it's easy to just replace the fan) could manage to hold it together.

For higher OC, excluding Noctua, it's between the 2 big air towers: CRYORIG H5 Universal and be quiet! Dark Rock 3. The H5 offer better cooling while the Dark Rock 3 is as the name of its manufacturer offer quieter operations. Both are equal to the H100i in cooling performance, and both are quieter than the close loop AIO. The Dark Rock 3 could somewhat blocking the RAM and its LED though.

Taken into consideration of SLI and liquid cooling (or big air cooling), you may want a Full-ATX case. Something like the IN WIN 707 or Phanteks Enthoo Pro/Luxe.

Brudarion · Aug 25, 2016

Would the dark rock 3 pro conflict with the ripjaw ram? Im kind of concerned as it is essentially a black noctua nh d14, i like this cooler but im afraid it will conflict and the only option ill have is to chsoe a full tower and not mid

FD2Raptor · Aug 25, 2016

From: TechPowerup

Clearance for tall memory sticks is a no-go once the fan is attached. With all four DIMM slots populated, the Dark Rock 3 has no room for the likes of Corsair's Dominator Platinums or anything larger than standard-height memory, although the fan can be raised a bit to accommodate the likes of GSKill's Ripjaw Z if the case allows it. Users should have no problems with memory clearance if two DIMM slots are populated.

The Ripjaw V is 2mm taller than the Ripjaw Z. So that's a bit extra height to take care of if you want to go with the Dark Rock 3.

Taken that into consideration, to use the Ripjaw V and the Dark Rock 3 with Mid-Tower case, you'd be looking at cases with CPU cooler clearance of ~170mm+ like Phanteks Enthoo Pro M (194mm), NZXT H440 (180mm) or NZXT Noctis 450 (180mm).

NEW PC BUILD - need help and advice!

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