Looking for comments/suggestions to improve build

ericshade

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Nov 23, 2015
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This will be my first PC build. Looking for any suggestions on parts to change/replace/add to improve the price and performance.

The objective is a work/gaming computer which can:

  • ■easily handle running multiple heavy applications (heaviest most likely being photoshop)
    ■streaming
    ■multiple VMs
    ■multiple instances of older games
    ■running the newest games on normal settings with other apps running in the background.
    ■support 3 monitors.

My budget is $3000 USD for the whole thing, including monitors and peripherals, but I'm aiming to keep it as far below that as possible. I'll go up to the budget limit for a serious price/performance increase. I'd like to fit in one 4K monitor if I can find one cheap enough. Was also looking at the PCI-E SSDs, but they all seem quite expensive.

Link to my PC Parts
CPU Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Storage Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB WINDFORCE 3X Video Card
Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case
Power Supply EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM (64-bit)
Monitor Asus VH238H 23.0" Monitor x3
Keyboard Corsair Vengeance K70 Wired Gaming Keyboard
Mouse Logitech G502 Wired Optical Mouse
Speakers Razer Leviathan 60W 2.1ch Speakers
 

Nonpossible

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Jan 3, 2015
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If you're running multiple VM's then I would consider upgrading to an i7. The i5's are great for straight gaming but the i7 will be much better for your purposes.
Other than that, it looks solid to me. And that's not to say that the i5 6600k wouldn't perform well, just that I think an i7 would suit you better.
 

ericshade

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Nov 23, 2015
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Thanks for the rapid response. Any opinion as to a PCI-E SSD vs SATA?

Also, would the i7-4790K be a good choice?
 
The 4790K is awesome, no worries there. As far as PCI-E vs SATA, I don't think the extra cost is justified by the real world improvement you would see in performance. An M.2 NVME drive on the other hand.....
 

ericshade

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Nov 23, 2015
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Problem I'm having is finding a motherboard compatible with i7-4790K without dropping the ddr4 RAM.

Looking at going with the i7-5820K and ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard to support the ddr4 RAM, although it's about 150$ more expensive.
 

ericshade

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Nov 23, 2015
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According to pcpartspicker, Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor and ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard are not compatible.

And if I'm changing the motherboard, the i7-5820k is around $20 cheaper at the moment.
 

ericshade

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Nov 23, 2015
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Oh, I actually meant to compare it to the original motherboard and didn't have it selected, so that was my fault. I can see it works now.

As for Microcenter, that would be a toss-up between driving distance and convenience, but thanks for the link and commentary.

Went ahead and put in EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply just in case I decide to tinker with overclocking. Probably going to wait till blackfriday/cyber monday before I buy anything.

I'll probably nix the pci-e ssd, since that seems to be the consensus. Will look into M.2 SSD though.