What will I regret with this build? Couple of questions as well

[Triscone]

Below is the breakdown, but a couple of questions to go along with it. What is the difference between a SATA SSD and an M.2 performance wise? Is there a reason to pick one over the other when making a build in this price range? Along those same lines, is there a reason to look into liquid cooling for a build like this? PC is expected for 1440 60hz gaming as well as everyday use. I'm a fairly wide range gamer and am looking for something that will not be obsoleted quickly in the next year or 2. Thank you guys very much for any assistance you could provide.


PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/LC3GHN
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/LC3GHN/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($343.35 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($85.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME Z270-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($166.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($114.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($237.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($116.99 @ Best Buy)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card ($419.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair Air 540 Silver ATX Mid Tower Case ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.88 @ OutletPC)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($94.00 @ Amazon)
Monitor: BenQ GW2765HT 27.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor ($318.90 @ Amazon)
Total: $2146.54
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-09 05:51 EST-0500

[caervek]

What will I regret with this build?

Buying an i7-7700K just before the i7-7740K and the new AMD chips launch.

[Metallourlante]

The only thing that comes in mind is the CPU, as caervek already pointed out wisely.
Other than that the build seems really solid

[Triscone]

Buying an i7-7700K just before the i7-7740K and the new AMD chips launch.

I imagine there is rarely a time when "the next big thing" isn't just around the corner. But it is a consideration nonetheless. That being said, any benefits or detriment between a pcie x4 m.2 SSD and something like the Evo 850 series I currently have selected? Also still looking for input regarding Air Cooled or stepping into a liquid solution as well.

Thanks!

[Sorshen]

Buying an i7-7700K just before the i7-7740K and the new AMD chips launch.

i7-7740K is X299. That's august most likely.
I'd wait for Ryzen. Just in case.

[Remilia]

AMD platform is less than three weeks off supposedly? Kabylake one is a few months off however. So take that as what you will.

[caervek]

Also still looking for input regarding Air Cooled or stepping into a liquid solution as well.

Thanks!

I have the Noctua you listed cooling a 4930K, put simply it's a beast, the pinnacle of air cooling, it's inaudible under normal use and during gaming any noise it makes is drowned out by the game. Overall I rate it higher than any AIO liquid cooler, and when combined with an MSI card like you listed (I have a MSI gaming 980ti) which will stop its fans at idle you will ensure a super quiet system.

I switched to this setup after over a decade of using custom water cooling on CPU/GPU/Mobo, so have a good basis for noise comparison.

[Deleted]

Keep in mind that the attitude "I will wait for X because it will be better or cause a price reduction of Y" is generally a wise one to follow but you should also keep in mind that there will ALWAYS be something better around the corner. I got my 980ti about a year and a half ago and several months later the 10xx series was announced with a release date shortly after.

Build in general seems good; I personally would go for the 1080 if I had a 1440p screen but I also generally always go for the best.

[Lathais]

Keep in mind that the attitude "I will wait for X because it will be better or cause a price reduction of Y" is generally a wise one to follow but you should also keep in mind that there will ALWAYS be something better around the corner. I got my 980ti about a year and a half ago and several months later the 10xx series was announced with a release date shortly after.

Build in general seems good; I personally would go for the 1080 if I had a 1440p screen but I also generally always go for the best.

No, no it is not. New things coming out historically have never caused a price reduction in something else. Just look at the price of Haswell i5-4690k compared to a Skylake i5-6600k compared to a Kabylake i5-7600k. They are all relatively the same price. Skylake did not lower the price of Haswell, Kabylake did not lower the price of Skylake. It just doesn't work that way. Never has.

Aside from there never being price drops on older tech when newer tech comes out, generally, there is always something else around the corner and generally it's not that much of an upgrade.

That said, lately it has been wiser, as this latest generation of GPUs was actually a really large increase in performance compared to previous generations. With CPUs, it may be wise to wait for Ryzen because it will likely have performance similar to Haswell for quite a bit cheaper. It won't lower the cost of anything intel has, because things just don't work like that, but it itself may be a good consideration.

[Denpepe]

That said, lately it has been wiser, as this latest generation of GPUs was actually a really large increase in performance compared to previous generations. With CPUs, it may be wise to wait for Ryzen because it will likely have performance similar to Haswell for quite a bit cheaper. It won't lower the cost of anything intel has, because things just don't work like that, but it itself may be a good consideration.

I'm not saying Ryzen will lower intels prices, but seeing Ryzen leaks at 70% cheaper then comparable intel CPU's might make intel act anyways. Time will tell.

To the OP you have an 850 pro selected iso EVO which is more expensive and usually not needed for regular use, and also you don't need a 750w PSU unless you intend to SLI graphics cards, 550w to 650w should be more then enough.

[DeltrusDisc]

Your peripherals, especially your monitor, will ultimately be the deciding factor in your quality of life and how you view and play the games.

I'd seriously consider a higher resolution and/or higher refresh rate monitor than a simple 1440p... is that 1440p even IPS/PLS/VA? If not, I'd steer clear.

Personally I'd advise either ultra-wide (2560x1080, 3440x1440 *curved is especially good on the 3440x1440 34" variants) as these can get you a nice 100Hz in some cases...

Or... a 4k. However I think ultra-wide is a far better gaming experience, if your games support it, which more and more games do, actually. Also, if your budget is reached, I'd take money out of other things, like, do you really NEED an i7? If not, get an i5. Use the $100 towards a better monitor. If you only have $400~ to get a monitor, get a top of the line $400 monitor, like a very high-end 1080p or something else.

1440p@60Hz just feels like you are going back to 2011, and that's boring. =/

[Ealyssa]

Keep in mind that the attitude "I will wait for X because it will be better or cause a price reduction of Y" is generally a wise one

In what world ? That's actually completly wrong.

Never buy earlier generation if the current one is better. That's true for intel, Nvidia, AMD.

[DeltrusDisc]

In what world ? That's actually completly wrong.

Never buy earlier generation if the current one is better. That's true for intel, Nvidia, AMD.

Not only this... but waiting... leads to more waiting, leads to more waiting. At some point you need to actually upgrade.
@Triscone what's your current rig, anyways?

[Lathais]

I'm not saying Ryzen will lower intels prices, but seeing Ryzen leaks at 70% cheaper then comparable intel CPU's might make intel act anyways. Time will tell.

To the OP you have an 850 pro selected iso EVO which is more expensive and usually not needed for regular use, and also you don't need a 750w PSU unless you intend to SLI graphics cards, 550w to 650w should be more then enough.

Never said you were, but the guy I quoted did.

[pansertjald]

What is the difference between a SATA SSD and an M.2 performance wise? Is there a reason to pick one over the other when making a build in this price range?
is there a reason to look into liquid cooling for a build like this?

If you are only using it for gaming and not doing any Video rendering, then i would go for the i5 and not the i7

Normal SSD speed is about 500 to 600MB's in read/write. A true M2 drive is 1200-3200MB's/1000-2400MB's read/write.

Just remember that there are sata SSD M2's. that is not true M2 drive. They have the same speed as a normal SSD drive, but just ueses the M2 slot.

I would say yes to a AIO water cooling kit. I hate the Big air tower coolers. They are big and ugly and the fans on the Noctua NH-D15 are REALLY ugly.
I would go for Corsair H100i/110i V2 or the nzxt kraken x61/x62. They cool better and they makes your build look much cleaner inside the case

[Lathais]

There is always 'the next big thing', you're right. However, this thing in particular is bigger than what's happened in a long time. AMD's new chips, due later this month according to leaks, are standing up to the 7700K while having double the number of cores and double the number of threads (8/16 configuration) while also being competitive in price vs the 7700K. AMD haven't come close to competing at this level for a long time.

In terms of everything else, except motherboard, it looks solid. 16GB RAM is becoming the standard for builds these days and even people on DDR3 such as myself have moved up to 8GB modules purely because of the increased memory requirements of games.

The 1070 8GB is a really strong card. I play at 1440p windowed mode, and it can still push upwards of 75 FPS in heavy sections of BF4 at ultra (DX12 mode, GPU VRAM limit disabled). I'm only on a 4670K as my CPU so it's not even up there with modern chips and it is my limiting factor.

Only you can decide how much storage you need, but you'd be surprised how quickly 512GB will fill up with games. For example, I've got a 960GB Sandisk SSD as my OS drive, and it's got 625GB free. I've got another 750GB Samsung SSD that's got 185GB free. On top of this, I've got a 6TB WD HDD which has 2.86TB free, but that's the drive I use for photography, videography and projects. The games I have installed on the Samsung SSD include BF1, BF4, D3, HotS + PTR, WoW, Skyrim, Dead by Daylight and a few other smaller games. Space requirement for games are increasing.

The PSU selected is much more powerful than you need. For example, the 1070 uses around 151W maximum, and under moderate usage will sit at under 100W. The 7700K uses around 85W under load. 2x DDR4 modules uses around 10W. HDD's use around 5W and SSD's around 3W. That's less than 260W for the build you've got there. Of course, there's overheads to account for, but these are not that high. Unless you're planning on going the SLI route or adding watercooling, you don't need 750W. 600W is more than sufficient, but ensure that it's at least 80+ bronze rating (ideally, if you can get gold or platinum rated, go for it).

Please please please, for the love of whatever you consider holy, back this up with some facts. Would love to see it. 4GB is still really enough for gaming honestly. 8GB is still really overkill.

http://www.techspot.com/article/1043...ram/page3.html

No real discernible difference between 4, 8 or 16GB RAM for gaming. They even state at the end of the article that with 16GBs of RAM, those were the only 3 games they tested that used more than 6GB, with 65 Chrome Tabs open. Even though it used more than 6GB when 16GB was available though, there was no difference in performance at all dropping down the 4GB.

That's the thing people really fail to understand ALL THE TIME. Just because a game or program uses more RAM when it is available, does not necessarily mean it needs all the RAM it is using. It can accomplish the same performance with less RAM. This is due to the way things are pre-cached. If more RAM is available, it will pre-cache more and leave things there it doesn't need anymore. It doesn't really need all that RAM, it just uses it if it's there.

Sure, if you do other things that require more RAM it can make a difference, like encoding or compressing:
http://www.techspot.com/article/1043-8gb-vs-16gb-ram/

Even in simulations though, not a big difference between 8 and 16, and depending on the application, not even much difference from 4 to 8 sometimes:
http://www.techspot.com/article/1043...ram/page2.html


Now, don't think I am telling people to get 4GB. I am not. Get 8GB for sure. If you have the room in the budget and already have your CPU, GPU and an SSD, then sure, spring for 16. But to say that games need it is ridiculous. Keep in mind, in the gaming performance, they did that with 65 Chrome Tabs open and going from 4 to 8 still made no real difference in gaming performance. So please, if you are going to say people need 16 because games need 8, prove it.

- - - Updated - - -

If you are only using it for gaming and not doing any Video rendering, then i would go for the i5 and not the i7

Normal SSD speed is about 500 to 600MB's in read/write. A true M2 drive is 1200-3200MB's/1000-2400MB's read/write.

Just remember that there are sata SSD M2's. that is not true M2 drive. They have the same speed as a normal SSD drive, but just ueses the M2 slot.

I would say yes to a AIO water cooling kit. I hate the Big air tower coolers. They are big and ugly and the fans on the Noctua NH-D15 are REALLY ugly.
I would go for Corsair H100i/110i V2 or the nzxt kraken x61/x62. They cool better and they makes your build look much cleaner inside the case

If you want to say go for it for looks that's fine. But to say they cool better is absolutely false:

http://www.relaxedtech.com/reviews/n...quid-coolers/2

The NH-D15 cools the same as the kraken x61 and the H100i at idle. Actually, 1 degree better than the h100i. Under load, yeah, the Kraken is better by a whopping 4 degrees, but we are stlil way way far away from dangerous temps. In addition, the NH-D15 is quieter than all of them, due to the lack of pushing air through tiny radiator holes and a pump. All the air cooler noise comes from the fans. AIO Coolers have fan noise, "whooshing" noise from air being forced through a radiator and a pump that makes some noise. They are more expensive, for the same cooling, while being noisier. Looks are the only real reason to buy them.

[pansertjald]

Please please please, for the love of whatever you consider holy, back this up with some facts. Would love to see it. 4GB is still really enough for gaming honestly. 8GB is still really overkill.

http://www.techspot.com/article/1043...ram/page3.html

No real discernible difference between 4, 8 or 16GB RAM for gaming. They even state at the end of the article that with 16GBs of RAM, those were the only 3 games they tested that used more than 6GB, with 65 Chrome Tabs open. Even though it used more than 6GB when 16GB was available though, there was no difference in performance at all dropping down the 4GB.

That's the thing people really fail to understand ALL THE TIME. Just because a game or program uses more RAM when it is available, does not necessarily mean it needs all the RAM it is using. It can accomplish the same performance with less RAM. This is due to the way things are pre-cached. If more RAM is available, it will pre-cache more and leave things there it doesn't need anymore. It doesn't really need all that RAM, it just uses it if it's there.

Sure, if you do other things that require more RAM it can make a difference, like encoding or compressing:
http://www.techspot.com/article/1043-8gb-vs-16gb-ram/

Even in simulations though, not a big difference between 8 and 16, and depending on the application, not even much difference from 4 to 8 sometimes:
http://www.techspot.com/article/1043...ram/page2.html


Now, don't think I am telling people to get 4GB. I am not. Get 8GB for sure. If you have the room in the budget and already have your CPU, GPU and an SSD, then sure, spring for 16. But to say that games need it is ridiculous. Keep in mind, in the gaming performance, they did that with 65 Chrome Tabs open and going from 4 to 8 still made no real difference in gaming performance. So please, if you are going to say people need 16 because games need 8, prove it.

- - - Updated - - -



If you want to say go for it for looks that's fine. But to say they cool better is absolutely false:

http://www.relaxedtech.com/reviews/n...quid-coolers/2

The NH-D15 cools the same as the kraken x61 and the H100i at idle. Actually, 1 degree better than the h100i. Under load, yeah, the Kraken is better by a whopping 4 degrees, but we are stlil way way far away from dangerous temps. In addition, the NH-D15 is quieter than all of them, due to the lack of pushing air through tiny radiator holes and a pump. All the air cooler noise comes from the fans. AIO Coolers have fan noise, "whooshing" noise from air being forced through a radiator and a pump that makes some noise. They are more expensive, for the same cooling, while being noisier. Looks are the only real reason to buy them.

And here the H100i v2 cools better then the NH-D15 by 5 Degrees. H100i v2l

And here the H100i v2 beats the Kranken x62 by 2 degrees and the Kranken beast the NH-D15 with 3 degrees. nzxt kraken x62

So who is false???????

[Lathais]

And here the H100i v2 cools better then the NH-D15 by 5 Degrees. H100i v2l

And here the H100i v2 beats the Kranken x62 by 2 degrees and the Kranken beast the NH-D15 with 3 degrees. nzxt kraken x62

So who is false???????

Yeah, 5 degrees, while both are still at VERY safe temperatures. So unless you need to flex e-peen, that 5 degrees doesn't really make a difference. Meanwhile, for no real meaningful difference, you are still paying more and have more noise.

[pansertjald]

Yeah, 5 degrees, while both are still at VERY safe temperatures. So unless you need to flex e-peen, that 5 degrees doesn't really make a difference. Meanwhile, for no real meaningful difference, you are still paying more and have more noise.

But you said i was false?????

[the boar]

And here the H100i v2 cools better then the NH-D15 by 5 Degrees. H100i v2l

And here the H100i v2 beats the Kranken x62 by 2 degrees and the Kranken beast the NH-D15 with 3 degrees. nzxt kraken x62

So who is false???????

results in one test location will differ in another, and then results in your own personal home will differ again.

i think really unless you are some super enthusiast (in which case, simply buy every cooler and see which gets you the best results), even 5 degrees doesn't matter that much. get whatever you think looks better.
noctua's air coolers are awesome, but i prefer not having the huge cube of metal. i'm happy with my h100i, makes working in the case a little bit easier for me.

if you are worried about an aio leaking, get an air cooler. if you don't want a big lump, get an aio.
if you are worried about an aio leaking and don't want a big lump, get a custom loop.
if you are worried about a custom loop or an aio leaking and don't want a big lump.. there are some weird off-set coolers but.. just get a slightly smaller lump?