Building a New PC

"Dunnik" (dunnik) 11/03/2015 at 21:41 • Filed to: COMPUTERS, GAMING

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Imagine if you could customize a car as you saw fit. Body by Pininfarina. LS motor. Japanese electrics. BMW 6-speed. Volvo seats. Well, you can with computers! That happy time has arrived: time to plan out my new computer build. Oppocomp help requested (Oppo+Computer=Oppocomp??)

I’m really just at the beginning stages. Need to find a case that is no more than 18” in height. Dust intake is an issue, so I’ll need one with filters and, since I’m going with a CPU and possibly a GPU liquid cooler, I won’t need lots of front intake to keep things cool.

The Micro-ATX format would seem to work best. Midtowers with full ATX boards might be too tight a squeeze, and frankly I don’t need the extra room and expansion that ATX towers give. Any case recommendations that might fit those parameters?

The case determines the board, but I do know I want to get an ASUS. I’ve used them for 20 years. Will probably splurge and get a ROG board, mostly for the upgraded audio chipset.

CPU would be an i7, but I’m trying to narrow down which one. Wish I could budget for the 8-core, to future-proof my comp, but I’ll likely go with one of the latest 6-cores (Update: A Skylake quad-core seems to be the WTG for future-proofing) RAM would likely be 16 gigs of Corsair Vengance - I’m unusually brand-loyal when it comes to PC parts - with an option on the board to scale that up to 32.

nVIDIA is coming out with some new chipset in the the new year called Pascal, or something, that apparently dropkicks the Titan X in the face. So I think I’ll go with something in the $300 range, and will stick with GeForce cards. Was a long-time ATi user going all the way back to the RagePro but shitty drivers finally sent me over to the other side a couple years ago and I’ve never looked back.

On to the less sexy stuff: Corsair PSU (the one I have in my current rig is 7 years old and still going strong), will have to find what wattage I need later when I add everything up (then add some more). Samsung EVO SSD, will likely splurge on a 500GB instead of the cheaper 250. Two Terabyte Hitachi Deathstar (have had great luck with them over WDs and Seagates). May also get a NAS box later.

Time to upgrade my monitor as well, since my old Synchmaster would let the side down. ASUS makes one with 1.4 hertz and a stupid 1ms response for only around $300.

Comments, questions and especially suggestions welcome!

Phyrxes once again has a wagon! > Dunnik 11/03/2015 at 21:45

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Just make sure whatever motherboard you go with will fit in the case and not cause you to hate yourself.

MM54 > Dunnik 11/03/2015 at 21:48

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Sounds like you’ve got it pretty well figured out!

For the case I tend to lean towards something a bit bigger (mid tower works nicely) since you have more room for everything and still maintain good airflow. Not sure what your budget is for a case, I tend to go on the cheaper side on cases since I’d rather put the money into making it work well.

Dunnik > Phyrxes once again has a wagon! 11/03/2015 at 21:50

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Thankfully Micro ATX boards are reasonably common now, as are cases. They should fit together, and if they don’t, I’d RMA it.

Dunnik > MM54 11/03/2015 at 21:51

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This may sound crazy but money is no object this time when it comes to the case. Like most I tend to go for cases in the 60-100 range, but willing to spend more if it gets me the features and specs I need for this build.

CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist) > Dunnik 11/03/2015 at 21:53

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Off topic, I bought a HP Elitebook 8470p with a dual Core i7 (top of the line yo) for 200 dollars used with a variety of cosmetic dents and scratches. It runs pirated GTAV on normal settings perfectly. Overengineered last year’s goods are pretty good as the futureproof materials.

Dunnik > CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist) 11/03/2015 at 21:56

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Good deal, I’d have gone for it as well if I needed a laptop.

As much as I want another Thinkpad, I’m probably going to get a cheap Windows Tablet for home/couch use. Toshiba makes one that is well reviewed for only about $300.

P.S. My house is an Apple-free zone.

beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard > Dunnik 11/03/2015 at 21:59

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what CPU intensive work will you be doing? I wouldn’t recommend going X99/2011-3 unless you were really going to blast the shit out of it.

The Z170/1151 chipset is even newer, for the price of the lowest end 6 core 5820K @3.2Ghz per core you can get a 6700K @ 4.0GHz per core out of the box... sure the 5820K supports more PCIe lanes but if you’re going mATX you’re not going to be able to use them anyway.

both support DDR4 RAM.

If you’re mostly going to be gaming I’d swing on the Z170/1151 side, you’ll save pennies that you can spent on a larger SSD (m.2 instead of SATA if the motherboard supports it), monitor or better graphics card. Benchmarking between the 6700k and 5820k show a bum’s hair worth of frame rate difference.

If you’ll be doing HD video work or software dev stuff that will make use of the extra cores then you could justify the extra two cores.

CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist) > Dunnik 11/03/2015 at 22:03

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I considered Thinkpads and asked Nibby, who recommended these. Thinkpads past the T60 have a lot of the cool features removed (titanium cover, display lid roll cage reinforcements, the nice keyboards, and HP took up the helm of the tough laptop. This survived waist high drop onto concrete. Countless careless throws into the trunk. And it weighs 4 pounds, but what the hell!

Dunnik > CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist) 11/03/2015 at 22:04

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Yea, HP, after a bit of a rough start, has been making some good laptops of late, especially at the higher end.

MM54 > Dunnik 11/03/2015 at 22:05

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I’m not up on the high-end case market, but I recently built a computer for my dad in this case, it’s pretty nice - has filters, and the feet with the PSU on the bottom make it stable. It also has the grommet on the back for water-cooling. Should work for ATF or micro.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc…

Dunnik > beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard 11/03/2015 at 22:17

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Now this is the juicy reply I was hoping for.

Was eyeing the 6-cores to future proof my comp. When I built my current one, no games used all four cores (not many do today, it must be admitted). Some didn’t even use two. But going with a quad-core years ago has allowed me to really get a lot of life out of this current PC. I hoped to repeat the experience with the 6-cores.

CPU Boss gives the edge to the 6700 over the 5820 due to single core performance, but its close overall. The hexa-core is actually...cheaper?

Really haven’t yet boned up on the current chip market. I keep tabs, of course, but its only when you start a new build that you really drill down into the nitty grtitty.

CPU Boss, for what its worth, is saying the older 4930k is the best for gaming, but it’s certainly not cheap.

beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard > Dunnik 11/03/2015 at 22:36

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The 6700K’s have been selling a bit cheaper than the 5820K’s down under, but the real savings come when you buy the motherboard. like for like the Z170’s seem to be at least $100-150 cheaper than an X99 board.

But all that said, if you go into it knowing you’re spending more now to potentially save worry later on, maybe a 5960X will be somewhat affordable in a few years time? that’s what I’m hoping for anyway.

I wouldn’t go with a 4930k, if only cause Z170 and X99 have DDR4 now.

and in full disclosure, I’ve had my 5820K running stable at 4.0Ghz OC’d anyway. I keep it at factory settings 99% of the time because really it’s fast enough to get all my work done without me having to wait.. and I like seeing my CPU temps sit at around 23C :P

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Dunnik 11/03/2015 at 22:37

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Definitely MicroATX. MiniITX boards are too much compromise, ATX is seriously oversized. I build MiniITX for people that have specific needs, but for myself with expansion and small size in mind, MicroATX is the best form factor at the moment.

If it wasn’t for your want to have liquid cooling (Realistically, the i7s with stock heat sinks are beasts... I don’t know why people OC them anymore considering practically nothing is processor-bound these days. Save the money there and get more SSD space and/or SSDs.), the case I got is pretty awesome: Silverstone Sugo SG10. It’s tiny, yet plenty big enough for a full size video card (or two) and it has incredibly good ventilation (and decent dust control).

I’d spring for the best processor you can get. Computers last FOREVER these days. It’s not like the old days where your PC feels stupid slow a year later. Mine is really wanting for nothing, even with a modern 4K display (the only upgrade I’ve done since 2013).

Power supplies are nuts these days. They’re also kind of cheap... I think I’m running a Corsair, too...

See if two SSDs are a better deal. I like to stripe them together with a pretty big block size for crazy speed. My computer cold boots to a login prompt in ~5 seconds (with a full second delay just to ensure I can get into the BIOS and a lot still on the table). Nothing makes your computer feel faster than fast storage...

Those are all my thoughts. You’re looking good already, though.

Another thought: A case is really the hardest thing to choose. There are so many and a slick build requires a slick case that matches nicely. Plus, you probably want one you would feel comfortable living with through a number of builds, since they outlast their guts by a wide margin. The thing I agonized over the most when I built my home machine was the case...

Dunnik > beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard 11/03/2015 at 22:38

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23, that’s hot.

So to speak.

Didn’t know the boards were cheaper. I’ll be sure to factor that in, thanks.

Dunnik > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 11/03/2015 at 22:48

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1. Agreed, ATX too big, ITX too small, Micro ATX just right.

2. Liquid to give it a longer life, support a mild OC, and primarly to cut down on the overall air intake needs so I intake less dust. Will check out that case!

3. Yea for this build I do want to get more CPU than I currently need, in order to future proof it.

4. Like tires on cars, I never skimp on the PSU.

5. Five seconds to boot to logon whaaaaaa??? now you make me up my budget to get 2x500GB SSDs and RAID it up (still want a 500GB OS/program drive, 250 is too small, I feel), though unless I find savings elsewhere that’ll almost break the bank.

tromoly > Dunnik 11/03/2015 at 22:52

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Hitachi Deathstar

You mean Deskstar right? The nickname “Deathstar” came around because ~10 years ago they had a tendencey to fail at a high rate.

Get an i7 that supports Quad-Channel memory and RAM to match it, you won’t regret it.

Phyrxes once again has a wagon! > Dunnik 11/03/2015 at 22:56

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I went with a mid-tower case for my desktop as I didn’t care enough to look for a smaller case and motherboard. It was off the shelf case and Asus motherboard without any thought required. My next project a NAS but I haven’t started seriously looking and there are some stupidly easy to use turnkey solutions that do everything I want for a reasonable price.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Dunnik 11/03/2015 at 23:14

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1. The funny thing is that I always start out aiming for Mini-ITX because I want a tiny machine. Then there’s less RAM slots and one PCI-E x16 slot. Then you realize that all decent video cards take two slots, so you’re restricted to cases that are big enough to hold them, which puts you within an inch or so of a MicroATX...

2. For a mild OC, you can do it with a stock OEM heatsink. Seriously. They generate so little heat that they already last practically forever... My case, in spite of having a lot of huge fans, is still quite clean inside. The case has these super thin filters that I blow out a couple times a year and they’re pretty quiet due to their size.

5. Yeah. My machine at work is a hair slower, but they’re pretty insane. Short of video cards, SSDs are the most important components for speed. Nothing is more of a bottleneck than disks. With how much their prices have dropped, you should definitely invest in at least one. On that front, if you can, go with an M.2 card to bypass the (slow) SATA controller entirely.

beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard > Dunnik 11/03/2015 at 23:14

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no worries man, good luck with the build. if you end up going 5820k its going to be veeeeery similar to my build. Though I went with a large Corsair Air 540 case because I have the space.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > Dunnik 11/03/2015 at 23:45

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I will be back to this thread tomorrow as I am planning an X99 build right around the first of the year.

Dunnik > beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard 11/03/2015 at 23:47

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Actually, the more I investigate Skylake the more I’m thinking that’s the chipset I should go with if I want to future-proof.

Several sources recommend the i5 Skylake vs the i7, its like $100 cheaper. Can be OC’d up to 4.7 easily, I’ve read.

Dunnik > R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet 11/03/2015 at 23:47

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Nice

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > Dunnik 11/03/2015 at 23:48

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PCIe SSD ftw!!!!

Dunnik > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 11/04/2015 at 00:00

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Yes, tempted to get an M.2 SSD now that I think I’m going to go with Skylake.

One day I’ll tell my grandkids about loading screens...

Dunnik > tromoly 11/04/2015 at 00:05

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Yes, the Deskstar :)

But once, long ago, it was called the Deathstar.

The tech and rights were bought by Hitachi, and they took great pains to improve the drive. Took a long time for people to start buying them again. I was leery too at first but after seeing vaunted WD Blacks fail - twice - at young ages I went with the Deathstar for my last build and plan on getting another one.

tromoly > Dunnik 11/04/2015 at 00:14

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I bought one WD Black terabyte drive, it arrived DOA so I returned it and bought a Seagate terabyte drive, I’ve owned 5 Seagate drives of varying capacities and all of them are going strong.

beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard > Dunnik 11/04/2015 at 00:46

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yeah, I think you won’t have any troubles with a factory clocked skylake within the next 4-5 years anyway. It really depends if you’ll be using software that will take advantage of the extra CPU’s of Haswell-e

Dunnik > beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard 11/04/2015 at 01:30

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Not really: light video/audio processing will be just fine with a quad-core. AFAIK no PC game uses a hexa-core (yet). And will likely be a while before games do. And if that day happens, the new chipset will likely allow me to add a new Skylake 6-core.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > Dunnik 11/04/2015 at 10:31

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Case: Mastercase 5 Mid-Tower

Board: MSI X99A Raider

CPU: Intel i7-5820k

CPU cooler: LEPA AquaChanger 240

Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 4x4 kit:

GPU: ASUS R9 390 STRIX 8GB

Storage: I already have a bunch of HGST and Seagate 1TB drives and will end up building a standalone NAS for storage. And I have 2 Samsung 840 EVO 250GB drives currently earmarked for this build. But I will be adding this as the primary drive.

Samsung 850 EVO M.2 250GB

Power supply: Corsair HXi 850 (80 Plus Platinum)

Extra case fan: Noctua NF-P12 120mm (it’s fucking ugly to look at but powerful and quiet)

Right at 1500$ I have a couple 1080 24” monitors to use. The reason for the x99 build is the need to run and build test VMs in addition to hosting the NAS via a VM and running a media server VM and a domain controller for the house.