Need advice on new build

[aktorsyl]

Hi guys,

So a power surge royally screwed my CPU/mobo, and left me in a bit of a mess. I'm in the process of figuring out a new build, and based it on the Build of the Month (Unicorn) for May. Can I please get your opinions on this build? I went for DDR3 instead of DDR4 due to the massive price difference locally. As for the mobo, I also can't source the Z170-A locally, so went with the Z170-P as I don't plan on overclocking much.

Motherboard: Asus Z170-P D3 LGA 1151 Socketed Motherboard
CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K Processor - Socket 1151
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3-1600MHz Module (x2)
Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212X CPU Cooler
PSU: Corsair CX Series CXM750 750W High Performance Modular Power Supply
Case: Raidmax Cobra Gaming Chassis Black - No Power Supply Unit
UPS: RCT 2000VA Line Interactive UPS (mostly just for brownout/surge protection)
Graphics: MSI Geforce GTX 980 Graphics Card - 4GB (until the GTX 1070 is released, it will then be replaced with that)

This build only has to last 3 years, hence going for DDR3 as I've checked on quite a few benchmarks, and the performance/value ratio seems pretty pointless on most games. A few fps difference and the ability to overclock seems to be the only advantage of DDR4 at the moment.

Let me explain what my requirements are so you can get a better picture. I mostly want to be able to play the following on maxed out settings, on 1920x1080 resolution on a single monitor while maintaining a solid framerate:

- WoW
- BF4 (and later BF1)
- Witcher 3
- ARK

And others, but those cover all the bases of the resource-hungry games. Will this build be able to maintain those games at 60fps on 1920x1080 res, single-monitor? If so, it should be future-proof for the next 3 years, after which I'll do a new full build. In the meantime, I might be able to clock the CPU to 4GHz, although Turbo-boost already boosts it to 3.9 so not sure whether overclocking is really worth it.

My budget can cover the components above, but not much more. (I already have the GTX980 so will keep that until I can get my hands on a 1070, if it's even worth the upgrade over the 980)

[Arkura]

For those games you could get by pretty solid on a GTX 970 The performance difference from 970 -> 980 is about roughly 15%.
And wow for example is a CPU intensive game, not GPU intensive.

If you can survive with the card you have now I would probably wait with buying a GPU until the 1070 is out.

[aktorsyl]

Yup, already have the GTX980 though
And as for the rest?

- - - Updated - - -

For those games you could get by pretty solid on a GTX 970 The performance difference from 970 -> 980 is about roughly 15%.
And wow for example is a CPU intensive game, not GPU intensive.

If you can survive with the card you have now I would probably wait with buying a GPU until the 1070 is out.

While I have found that this is mostly true, my GTX 670's framerate did go up from 35ish to 100 when disabling AA and shadows, so it nails the GPU pretty hard.

[Arkura]

Obviously it will help, as there is several factors coming into play here, with the cards performance to bottleneck between card and cpu.
And I didnt mean to say that wow completely ignores the gpu, its just that more or less it puts alot more pressure on the cpu then the card. And to be fair, a 670 should struggle with high graphics on wow.
If I went from a 670 to 980 and didnt see that performance difference I would have been dissapointed to be honest :P
I went from 760 to 970 and my 970 crushed my 760 hard.

Only thing I found weird was that DDR4 is so much more expensive for you locally then DDR3, in my country its alot cheaper for DDR4... Someone is doing something wrong in my country lol.

But if you already have the 980 then its cool man

[aktorsyl]

Obviously it will help, as there is several factors coming into play here, with the cards performance to bottleneck between card and cpu.
And I didnt mean to say that wow completely ignores the gpu, its just that more or less it puts alot more pressure on the cpu then the card. And to be fair, a 670 should struggle with high graphics on wow.
If I went from a 670 to 980 and didnt see that performance difference I would have been dissapointed to be honest :P
I went from 760 to 970 and my 970 crushed my 760 hard.

Indeed. I'm trying to figure out what FPS to expect in Witcher 3 on Ultra with the GTX 980 (I have it, but it's not physically installed at the moment, don't want to risk it with the mobo being all screwed up after the surge) combined with the i5 6600K. Everything ultra, with MSAA, but with hairworks disabled.

Only thing I found weird was that DDR4 is so much more expensive for you locally then DDR3, in my country its alot cheaper for DDR4... Someone is doing something wrong in my country lol.

Yeah it's a little more than double the price for the RAM itself, and the DDR4 boards also vastly outprice their DDR3 counterparts. I think the exchange rate isn't helping right now.

[Lathais]

Indeed. I'm trying to figure out what FPS to expect in Witcher 3 on Ultra with the GTX 980 (I have it, but it's not physically installed at the moment, don't want to risk it with the mobo being all screwed up after the surge) combined with the i5 6600K. Everything ultra, with MSAA, but with hairworks disabled.

Probably close to 60 FPS, but not quite. This benchmark here:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/N...X_1080/22.html

Does not mention MSAA but does say in the interest of neutrality they turned Hairworks off. The CPU they used was an i7-6700k, so the only difference between it and your is hyperthreading and larger cache, neither of which will make a difference. So I'd say your results will likely be very similar to theirs.

[aktorsyl]

I see - thanks, that link was very helpful.

Brings me to my next question, will I need to overclock the CPU to get Ultra @ 60fps in the mentioned games? Especially WoW? I got the K version so that I'm able to overclock sometime in the future, but don't really want to do it for the first year or two. Warranty and all that.

[Lathais]

I see - thanks, that link was very helpful.

Brings me to my next question, will I need to overclock the CPU to get Ultra @ 60fps in the mentioned games? Especially WoW? I got the K version so that I'm able to overclock sometime in the future, but don't really want to do it for the first year or two. Warranty and all that.

WoW will certainly benefit from an OC. Also, I do not think OCing will void your warranty, it was MEANT to be overclocked, or it would not have a K and you would not be able to OC. OCing today is not like it was years ago where it was something you were not meant to do, it was just possible. Nowadays, the chips have protection built in to shut off if they run too hot or something goes wrong. They are quite literally made to be OCed. Now if you go de-lidding it to apply different cooling solutions and whatnot, yeah, you'll void the warranty, otherwise though, you'll be just fine.

[aktorsyl]

WoW will certainly benefit from an OC. Also, I do not think OCing will void your warranty, it was MEANT to be overclocked, or it would not have a K and you would not be able to OC. OCing today is not like it was years ago where it was something you were not meant to do, it was just possible. Nowadays, the chips have protection built in to shut off if they run too hot or something goes wrong. They are quite literally made to be OCed. Now if you go de-lidding it to apply different cooling solutions and whatnot, yeah, you'll void the warranty, otherwise though, you'll be just fine.

Ah, thanks. That's encouraging.
With that in mind, what's realistic to aim for? The i5 6600K has a stock speed of 3.5GHz I believe, so is 4.2GHz realistic?
With the cooler on my spec: Coolermaster Hyper 212X

[Lathais]

Ah, thanks. That's encouraging.
With that in mind, what's realistic to aim for? The i5 6600K has a stock speed of 3.5GHz I believe, so is 4.2GHz realistic?
With the cooler on my spec: Coolermaster Hyper 212X

4.2 should be easily obtainable, however, you are dealing with silicon lottery once you start OCing. Take my 4690k for example. Mine got up to 4.6 before it started getting unstable, so I run it at 4.4. My best friend however, same CPU, 4690K, same motherboard(his is the anniversary edition, but it's really the same thing) and he was able to get his up to 5.0 and just did not care to even try to take it higher than that, so never got to a point where it was unstable.

I have no personal experience OCing Skylake, nor have I read much about it, so I can't really say for certain, but I would think hitting 4.4-4.6 would be pretty easy.

[aktorsyl]

4.2 should be easily obtainable, however, you are dealing with silicon lottery once you start OCing. Take my 4690k for example. Mine got up to 4.6 before it started getting unstable, so I run it at 4.4. My best friend however, same CPU, 4690K, same motherboard(his is the anniversary edition, but it's really the same thing) and he was able to get his up to 5.0 and just did not care to even try to take it higher than that, so never got to a point where it was unstable.

I have no personal experience OCing Skylake, nor have I read much about it, so I can't really say for certain, but I would think hitting 4.4-4.6 would be pretty easy.

Ok good. Only concern I have left then is temperature. Wondering if I should change that Hyper 212X cooler for a closed-loop liquid cooler, but then I have to consider overrunning budget again. Hmm decisions.

[Lathais]

Ok good. Only concern I have left then is temperature. Wondering if I should change that Hyper 212X cooler for a closed-loop liquid cooler, but then I have to consider overrunning budget again. Hmm decisions.

I wouldn't get a closed loop liquid cooler. They are really not much better than the best air coolers and are more expensive. My friend and I both use the Noctua NH-D14 ourselves, though there is the NH-D15 which is a little better and other option like be quiet! Dark Rock Pro and some good Phanteks stuff I am less familiar with. The 212X should get you a decent little OC though. Why not just see how well it does and what your WoW performance is like before going and spending more money?

[aktorsyl]

I wouldn't get a closed loop liquid cooler. They are really not much better than the best air coolers and are more expensive. My friend and I both use the Noctua NH-D14 ourselves, though there is the NH-D15 which is a little better and other option like be quiet! Dark Rock Pro and some good Phanteks stuff I am less familiar with. The 212X should get you a decent little OC though. Why not just see how well it does and what your WoW performance is like before going and spending more money?

Will definitely try yes - safest to keep load temps under 70C still? Or do the Skylakes have higher tolerance?

[Eroginous]

For those games you could get by pretty solid on a GTX 970 The performance difference from 970 -> 980 is about roughly 15%.
And wow for example is a CPU intensive game, not GPU intensive.

If you can survive with the card you have now I would probably wait with buying a GPU until the 1070 is out.

With WoD and Legion adding major graphics engine updates and increasing the settings maximums, this is no longer true. It's both CPU and GPU demanding, especially if you want to play on higher settings.

[Lathais]

Will definitely try yes - safest to keep load temps under 70C still? Or do the Skylakes have higher tolerance?

Again, not entirely sure about Skylake, but I think the chips are fine up to about 90C. You probably wouldn't want to run it at that all the time, but if you are hitting 90 in stress tests I think that's ok as normal use will never take it that high. Under 80C I think is safe. Neither my friend nor I go anywhere near those temps with our 4690Ks though, but we do have better coolers and cases with great airflow, so your results may vary.

[Arkura]

With WoD and Legion adding major graphics engine updates and increasing the settings maximums, this is no longer true. It's both CPU and GPU demanding, especially if you want to play on higher settings.

This comment was ment if he didnt have the GTX 980 already. And yeah you can run wow on max setting with a normal card like GTX 970 and a kickass CPU, considering im doing it now in the beta.
Have to mention I got the 6700k Skylake, I dont know how much of a difference this would be with a 6600k.

[aktorsyl]

This comment was ment if he didnt have the GTX 980 already. And yeah you can run wow on max setting with a normal card like GTX 970 and a kickass CPU, considering im doing it now in the beta.
Have to mention I got the 6700k Skylake, I dont know how much of a difference this would be with a 6600k.

Define kickass though :P In terms of model and clock speed?

[Lathais]

Define kickass though :P In terms of model and clock speed?

Yours qualifies. Basically, any OCable intel CPU newer than the 2500K qualifies.

[aktorsyl]

Yours qualifies. Basically, any OCable intel CPU newer than the 2500K qualifies.

Ah. In the words of Gandhi... Booya.

[coprax]

Yours qualifies. Basically, any OCable intel CPU newer than the 2500K qualifies.

hey...I'm still using that. Best (and longest lasting) CPU investment I ever made