Check This Build, Judge It's Validity, Tell Me If I Should Commit

[JacobusRex]

Budget: $1800.00 for complete build, excluding games

Purpose: Gaming (WoW, SCII, HotS, Dawn of War II and III, Possibly Planetside 2)

Limitations: I only want Intel and NVidia, unless there's evidence to the contrary that AMD and Radeon can compete per $. No more than $1800.00 for the build.

Link: PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($238.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($5.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($199.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill TridentZ Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3400 Memory ($112.88 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($91.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ B&H)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($299.99 @ B&H)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($47.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($71.90 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Software: Microsoft Office Home and Student 2016 Software ($118.95 @ Amazon)
Monitor: LG 25UM56-P 25.0" 60Hz Monitor ($150.98 @ Newegg)
Keyboard: Corsair K70 Wired Gaming Keyboard ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Corsair Scimitar RGB Wired Optical Mouse ($74.99 @ Micro Center)
Headphones: Corsair Raptor HS40 7.1 Channel Headset ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1766.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-30 18:34 EDT-0400

[Evildeffy]

Double post because 1 of them will probably be closed by the mods when they see this.

Currently it is not worth it putting a high end machine together using an AMD FX-8350 CPU.

ZEN on the other hand (last rumours put more info on this CPU in October, possibly even releasing) might be the first AMD CPU worth it in years for high end gaming.
Whilst AMD does have a price advantage it's simply too old and outdated for it to be useful nowadays when Intel's so far ahead on IPC etc. that even 8 cores don't change anything.

That doesn't mean the FX-8350 is bad... far from it... just not worth it anymore.

As for GPUs it doesn't matter either way, AMD or nVidia both work perfectly fine and are very good in combo with an Intel CPU.
Anyone that tells you that AMD is better or nVidia is better in general are idiots, they are both equally fine in the GFX department.

Though having said that I would not pick the R9 Nano or the GTX 970 but either the RX 480 or the GTX 1070 in the builds you mentioned.

The GTX 970 is not worth it vs. the RX 480 and the R9 Nano is not worth it vs. the GTX 1070 so you need to make a choice here.

Also your build is fine but with that case add another 120mm fan so you have 2 intakes, worth it.
The RAM I would reduce in speed to 3200 or 3000MHz as above 3200 it is known to generate some weird RAM clocking issues on Skylake unless messing with overclocks.

I would drop Windows 10 from that entirely and grab a Windows 7 Pro key from Kinguin for 1/3rd of the price and upgrade before the 29th of July to W10 Pro for free.

Having said that ... that monitor is a UW 1080p ... and EVERY SINGLE UW 1080p screen I've seen so far is atrocious beyond belief.
I'd rather you pick a 24" 1920x1080 screen that does 120/144Hz... but that of course is personal.

[JacobusRex]

I noticed that in the other thread. Particularly the GTX 970. I'm leery about the 1070 because all I see are "founder's editions" which, after research, is still confusing. :P Not to mention it's out of stock in reputable dealers. I've never heard of Zotac >.>

Why do you say the 970 isn't worth it? Is it worth it to wait even longer for the 1070?

[Evildeffy]

I noticed that in the other thread. Particularly the GTX 970. I'm leery about the 1070 because all I see are "founder's editions" which, after research, is still confusing. :P Not to mention it's out of stock in reputable dealers. I've never heard of Zotac >.>

Why do you say the 970 isn't worth it? Is it worth it to wait even longer for the 1070?

Since you're in the US you should have the most amount of access to the GTX 1070 than the rest of the world.
So you should be easily able to find a GTX 1070 in the next few days if not tomorrow already.

ZOTAC on the other hand is a brand primarily sold in the US/Asia.. less of a market presence in Europe.

Grab a non-founder's edition MSI Gaming X or GigaByte G1 Gaming edition if you want a 1070.
If not wait a month at most for the AMD RX 480 custom designs since the reference design is already better than the GTX 970.

The 970 is now "old tech" whilst still not bad is simply outclassed by new tech and since nVidia doesn't have a replacement in the GTX 970 price class just yet the 1070 is your lowest option in the nVidia field where AMD have a reference design RX 480 out which is better than the GTX 970.

[Deleted]

Can't you get MS office for free? If you are a student you should be able to probably a copy of windows as well. You can also grab an OEM key from kinguin for 25-30bucks. Nevertheless i will include the full price for o/s in the list below.

I think you need to balance more the build to get out more of it. Mobo and ram are too expensive for your budget while you get a very low end cpu cooler and a mediocre monitor. You can make it better, loose basically nothing but fit a gtx1070 and a 1440p monitor!


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($238.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H5 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($55.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($92.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus PB258Q 25.0" 60Hz Monitor ($329.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Keyboard: Cooler Master Storm QuickFire Rapid Wired Gaming Keyboard ($75.50 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Logitech G600 MMO Gaming Mouse Wired Laser Mouse ($46.99 @ Amazon)
Headphones: Kingston HyperX Cloud Core Headset ($53.99 @ Amazon)
Video card: Gigabyte gtx 1070 G1 ($430.00)
Total: $1789.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-01 06:05 EDT-0400

[Lathais]

I noticed that in the other thread. Particularly the GTX 970. I'm leery about the 1070 because all I see are "founder's editions" which, after research, is still confusing. :P Not to mention it's out of stock in reputable dealers. I've never heard of Zotac >.>

Why do you say the 970 isn't worth it? Is it worth it to wait even longer for the 1070?

The 970 is not worth it because the RX 480 performs about the same, slightly better actually, and is quite a bit cheaper. I'd wait for the third party ones to come out before purchasing one though. That or spend the extra for the 1070. The 970, really the entire 9xx series, is basically dead and no real good reason to buy it. The only exception is at extremely small budgets where the 950 still makes sense, since with an OC it can reach near 960 performance. If you were planning on buying a 960 though, the 480 is hands down better, or spend less on a 950 and OC it. Close to the same price for nearly double the performance. If you were going to buy a 970, then the 480 is around the same performance for much less. If you were going to buy a 980/980ti, then the 1070/1080 are superior choices.

[Evildeffy]

Can't you get MS office for free? If you are a student you should be able to probably a copy of windows as well. You can also grab an OEM key from kinguin for 25-30bucks. Nevertheless i will include the full price for o/s in the list below.

I think you need to balance more the build to get out more of it. Mobo and ram are too expensive for your budget while you get a very low end cpu cooler and a mediocre monitor. You can make it better, loose basically nothing but fit a gtx1070 and a 1440p monitor!


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($238.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H5 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($55.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($92.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus PB258Q 25.0" 60Hz Monitor ($329.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Keyboard: Cooler Master Storm QuickFire Rapid Wired Gaming Keyboard ($75.50 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Logitech G600 MMO Gaming Mouse Wired Laser Mouse ($46.99 @ Amazon)
Headphones: Kingston HyperX Cloud Core Headset ($53.99 @ Amazon)
Video card: Gigabyte gtx 1070 G1 ($430.00)
Total: $1789.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-01 06:05 EDT-0400

The OP had PMed me yesterday to make him such a build but I was unable to because I needed sleep yday.
I finally come home today and I see this post which is actually almost identical to what I was wanting to create in a list for the OP.

The only difference would've been the SSD to a Crucial MX200 and RAM to 2666MHz but for the rest ... almost identical in every way I thought.

So @Missionary Jacobus ... take heed of Kost's build, this is a good one and should do most, if not all, of what you wanted.

Also @Kostattoo ... I'll be in Greece in less than a week

[Deleted]

Also @Kostattoo ... I'll be in Greece in less than a week

Was away in an island since friday and will be in and out most weekends till august which will be away with the family. I hope you bring plenty of sunscreen and have a great time

edit: where will you be going? (sorry for the off-topic)

[Evildeffy]

Was away in an island since friday and will be in and out most weekends till august which will be away with the family. I hope you bring plenty of sunscreen and have a great time

edit: where will you be going? (sorry for the off-topic)

Thessaloniki - Halkidiki - Athens - Argos probably.

[Kuntantee]

Do people pay for Microsoft office and Windows? Are you a student? If yes, get a Dreamspark account. I think they give office programs and operating system (1-year only) for free. Or ask a university licence from your department. I was given Win7 ultimate from my university, together with Visual Studio and Office programs for free. If not, just get OpenOffice. It's will meet the needs of average user. Also, I think you can find Windows cheaper. I was told you can get keys like $20-25 or so.