New Mid-level gaming/work build (AU)

[Parynziux]

Hello clever computer people!

I haven't upgraded or built a PC for almost a decade and, after using my friend's alienware laptop for the last few years, I have finally decided to bite the bullet and go in for a moderate purchase.

Budget: 1500-2000 (cheaper is fine)
Resolution: 1080p is fine; 1440p ideal for monitor upgrade later
Games / Settings Desired: BF1, WoW, other low-intensive games. I want max performance on high+
Any other intensive software or special things you do: Will be doing 3D models for printing if I can
Country: Australia
Parts that can be reused: none
Do you need an OS? Yes
Do you need peripherals? Not for this post.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($275.00 @ Centre Com)
Motherboard: MSI B150M BAZOOKA Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($119.00 @ IJK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($50.60 @ Newegg Australia)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($122.00 @ IJK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($68.00 @ CPL Online)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB Superclocked Video Card ($279.00 @ CPL Online)
Case: Corsair Air 540 ATX Mid Tower Case ($189.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($143.00 @ Umart)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($19.00 @ IJK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($137.00 @ Umart)
Total: $1401.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-18 16:10 AEST+1000

NOTES: I plan on getting a GTX 1080 or other high-end card within a year, so went for a cheaper gfx card for now. My main concern is having the ability to upgrade easily with the other parts (PSU, Mobo, RAM, case size) without sacrificing too much performance for what I am doing now

I'm not sure about i5 6500 - I could easily grab a 6600 if the difference is enough. Not fussed about 6600K because I don't feel like buying a separate heatsink (is the cost overall worth it over a 6500/6600?)

I was also looking at a Fractal Design R5 case

Remember I am in Australia, so prices are generally higher for everything vs US vendors.

I appreciate any and all suggestions/feedback

[Mythbredor]

So I don't know too much about the requirements for 3D modeling. But a few things I noticed. That motherboard is a Micro ATX not a standard ATX board and your build seems to be an ATX build i'd recommend looking at a Gigabyte GA-H170-GAMING 3 instead. 8 GB of ram may be too little for you again I don't know much about 3D modeling at all. 6500-6600 not a huge difference. Case is a bit pricey you could probably find something cheaper, it's a nice case tho. Fractal R5 is also nice.

Now the biggest thing is, if you can wait till the end of the month, which I highly recommend. You can look at getting an RX 480 for 200$ we don't have confirmed benchmarks on this card yet but it's rumored to be more powerful than a 980 and in crossfire they will beat the 1080. Again we don't have solid benchmarks for this card yet. But it will be a better price/perfomance card than the 960 and may save you from buying a 1080 later, and instead buy another RX 480 and save a little bit of money.

[Ghâzh]

Any other intensive software or special things you do: Will be doing 3D models for printing if I can

Depends on what engine you're using for this and if it needs more CPU or GPU power. And if you're doing it professionally or not. What I mean by this is that you can probably make do with i5 and weaker GPU and just wait slightly longer for renders and the work itself to complete but if you make your living out of it, the faster you complete it the more money you'll make.

And I sort of agree @Mythbredor here. Kind of silly to buy that 960 now if you're planning on upgrading it later. Save the money and buy something more powerful a bit later. It will go a long way for both 3D modelling and gaming. You could even run integrated graphics without any GPU for a bit until the new GPU's are out.

[Parynziux]

So I don't know too much about the requirements for 3D modeling. But a few things I noticed. That motherboard is a Micro ATX not a standard ATX board and your build seems to be an ATX build i'd recommend looking at a Gigabyte GA-H170-GAMING 3 instead. 8 GB of ram may be too little for you again I don't know much about 3D modeling at all. 6500-6600 not a huge difference. Case is a bit pricey you could probably find something cheaper, it's a nice case tho. Fractal R5 is also nice.

Now the biggest thing is, if you can wait till the end of the month, which I highly recommend. You can look at getting an RX 480 for 200$ we don't have confirmed benchmarks on this card yet but it's rumored to be more powerful than a 980 and in crossfire they will beat the 1080. Again we don't have solid benchmarks for this card yet. But it will be a better price/perfomance card than the 960 and may save you from buying a 1080 later, and instead buy another RX 480 and save a little bit of money.

Thanks mate - if it isn't right on the last day of the month I can definitely wait if those rumours are true.

When you say ATX build, do you mean the case I chose or other factors I haven't noticed?

I agree about the case, just like the size and look, plus it shows up in a few builds. Maybe I can shave off some dollars there and get more RAM and something else, save upgrading later.

- - - Updated - - -

Depends on what engine you're using for this and if it needs more CPU or GPU power. And if you're doing it professionally or not. What I mean by this is that you can probably make do with i5 and weaker GPU and just wait slightly longer for renders and the work itself to complete but if you make your living out of it, the faster you complete it the more money you'll make.

And I sort of agree @Mythbredor here. Kind of silly to buy that 960 now if you're planning on upgrading it later. Save the money and buy something more powerful a bit later. It will go a long way for both 3D modelling and gaming. You could even run integrated graphics without any GPU for a bit until the new GPU's are out.

Sounds reasonable to me. So far it is just amateur, early day stuff, I was hesitant to even mention it but figured it would at least steer me towards particular options or open up discussion from people in the know. I always tend to do things with the future in mind, sometimes too much...

I tend to agree about the GFX card and almost left it out - since not one, but two of you have suggested waiting, I think it may very well be the way to go given the time frame!

[Mythbredor]

The 29th I believe. ATX is the form factor of both the motherboard and the case. A standard ATX motherboard is bigger than the Micro ATX. Technicly it'll work fine but it's generaly better to go standard ATX over Micro you lose quite a few features. Case is great it was originaly the case I was going to go with but that $$$ was too much for a case. Now the one thing you're going to want to consider living in Australia is that you guys genneraly get parts a bit slower kinda like Canada. It may not make it to you on the 29th it could be a bit later. And sadly it will probably cost you more being that your vendors charge premium even more so for cutting edge parts. I'd contact your local vendor(s) and see if they're getting the RX 480 on release or if it's going to be awhile.

[Ghâzh]

Sounds reasonable to me. So far it is just amateur, early day stuff, I was hesitant to even mention it but figured it would at least steer me towards particular options or open up discussion from people in the know. I always tend to do things with the future in mind, sometimes too much...

In that case I wouldn't worry too much about it. Keep the overall build balanced and you'll be well set for it. And I agree on the RAM as well, 16GB certainly wouldn't hurt especially future in mind.

That micro ATX board will be fine as long as it has all the features you need. No crossfire or SLI support though (however I don't recommend that anyway, a single powerful card will be better).

[Mythbredor]

In that case I wouldn't worry too much about it. Keep the overall build balanced and you'll be well set for it. And I agree on the RAM as well, 16GB certainly wouldn't hurt especially future in mind.

That micro ATX board will be fine as long as it has all the features you need. No crossfire or SLI support though (however I don't recommend that anyway, a single powerful card will be better).

Problem with not supporting Crossfire is it removes the option to buy a second RX 480 later for a big power boost for alot cheaper than buying a 1080. Plus Crossfire bandwidth to cards is much higher than Nividas SLI. And with the release of the RX 480 I presume alot of developers (of games that need the power 2 RX 480s will provide) will support it (decently).

[Parynziux]

Does crossfire suffer the same problems SLI does/did? Something to do with stuttering and requiring G-sync/FreeSync to mitigate - I have only done a little bit of research so far because I am generally on the side of getting 1 powerful card over 2 lesser ones, but the supposed price-performance (even given the mark up for Australia) of the 480 has me interested, especially if Crossfire later is a worthwhile option.

[Mythbredor]

Does crossfire suffer the same problems SLI does/did? Something to do with stuttering and requiring G-sync/FreeSync to mitigate - I have only done a little bit of research so far because I am generally on the side of getting 1 powerful card over 2 lesser ones, but the supposed price-performance (even given the mark up for Australia) of the 480 has me interested, especially if Crossfire later is a worthwhile option.

Uhh that problem of stuttering in games was just in general, gsync/freesync fixes it. Not a specific SLI/Crossfire problem to my knowledge. 1080 is a great card, but it's pretty pricey. The RX 480 is a cheaper card, and weaker. But it will still run games perfectly fine, and down the line when you want more power crossfire a second RX 480 and you'll have a 400$ investment roughly the power of a 1080. Now disclaimer crossfire and SLI aren't always the most reliable thing. Some games straight up don't support it, some games don't support it well. That's just a fact of Crossfire/SLI. It's getting better even more so with AMDs fairly recently software update and improvements to their drivers. And with the RX 480s price point and performance I would imagine alot of devs would see they need to fully support Crossfire.

[Parynziux]

Ah, thanks, it does seem to suit my situation and future prospects. I'll have to contact some vendors and see how they sit for the RX release.

Would I need a better PSU down the line too if I went Xfire?

[Mythbredor]

650W should be perfectly fine for you.

[Ghâzh]

Does crossfire suffer the same problems SLI does/did? Something to do with stuttering and requiring G-sync/FreeSync to mitigate - I have only done a little bit of research so far because I am generally on the side of getting 1 powerful card over 2 lesser ones, but the supposed price-performance (even given the mark up for Australia) of the 480 has me interested, especially if Crossfire later is a worthwhile option.

Yes it does. The biggest problem with dual cards is the software support. Most games will support it eventually but there will be problems usually right after the release of a new title. In my opinion it's just not worth the hassle unless you can't get the performance you're looking for from a single card (e.g. one 1080 isn't enough). Or at the least you have to know what you're getting yourself in to when you go down that route. There will be problems and tinkering needed eventually. Whether that's worth it to you for better price to performance is for you to decide.

And most people who buy one card thinking they will later get another one never actually do that. It's not an official statistic but something I've noticed and heard. You usually end up waiting for a few years until you start noticing the age of the card and at that point it's too late to get another one because the new generation is out and the old cards are not in stock anymore. So it ends up being cheaper and easier to just get a new card altogether.