Drew's PC Build 2016

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Drewski
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Drew's PC Build 2016

Post by Drewski »

3 Years ago, I Was in my local supermarket and i came across a maximum PC magazine. It was talking about the original GTX Titan. Up until that point, I Knew pc gaming existed, but had no idea it was on this scale. But i didn't have the money to build or buy one at the time. until now.

Here is the link to my PCpartpicker build page:


http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qhCCGX

While many of you know i'm paying for a trip to Hawaii so this will be a VERY slow build, but i am taking care of the most expensive stuff first. I Really need to get this done by at least summer so i can have time to save enough spending money for hawaii.

Here is my GPU and PSU. I also have the case but it's not pictured. The case and psu were chirtsmas gifts, but the GPU was out of my pocket. I Passed a trip to NYC and could have spent time with my *almost* girlfriend. CPU is next.
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if you want, please post your opinions or advice for me, since this is my first build.
Last edited by Drewski on Fri Jan 15, 2016 1:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
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MartijnV
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Re: Drew's PC Build 2016

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Maybe you want to try to find a 4x4gb set of RAM for your build, better in many way's...

And you defenitly don't want to save on your PSU tho, sadly you allready got it :/ bronze is waay too less if you ask me, it has to be at least gold in my opinion, if your PSU dies, 90% chance it takes other expensive componments with it to die


The others parts makes a decent setup tho
Last edited by MartijnV on Fri Jan 15, 2016 1:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Drew's PC Build 2016

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MartijnV wrote:Maybe you want to try to find a 4x4gb set of RAM for your build, better in many way's...

And you defenitly don't want to save on your PSU tho, sadly you allready got it :/ bronze is waay too less if you ask me, it has to be at least gold in my opinion, if your PSU dies, 90% chance it takes other expensive componments with it to die


The others parts makes a decent setup tho
I Took your advice and changed it to 16GB 4x4. And about the PSU, if that does happen, i have a 3 year warranty on the GPU so far so i think it will be okay.
Last edited by Drewski on Fri Jan 15, 2016 2:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Drew's PC Build 2016

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Even then, i don't think PSU dying is covered by the warranty.... + it can take down every componement, CPU, mobo, RAM, HD's etc....

But..... Corsair is a decent brand tho :)
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Re: Drew's PC Build 2016

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Drewski wrote:
MartijnV wrote:Maybe you want to try to find a 4x4gb set of RAM for your build, better in many way's...

And you defenitly don't want to save on your PSU tho, sadly you allready got it :/ bronze is waay too less if you ask me, it has to be at least gold in my opinion, if your PSU dies, 90% chance it takes other expensive componments with it to die


The others parts makes a decent setup tho
I Took your advice and changed it to 16GB 4x4. And about the PSU, if that does happen, i have a 3 year warranty on the GPU so far so i think it will be okay.
Warranties on GPUs generally only cover the GPU itself, not parts that might get damaged from it. I may also note that that series of PSUs are known to fry parts when put under too much strain (done a little research as I have two myself). It should be good for the load you would have drawing from it, I'd just say replace it if you get a second graphics card to install.

I'd honestly hold off on getting such an expensive keyboard and instead get a SSD as your primary drive for OS/priority files.
Last edited by MoneyKidKing on Fri Jan 15, 2016 1:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Drew's PC Build 2016

Post by Drewski »

MoneyKidKing wrote:
Drewski wrote:
MartijnV wrote:Maybe you want to try to find a 4x4gb set of RAM for your build, better in many way's...

And you defenitly don't want to save on your PSU tho, sadly you allready got it :/ bronze is waay too less if you ask me, it has to be at least gold in my opinion, if your PSU dies, 90% chance it takes other expensive componments with it to die


The others parts makes a decent setup tho
I Took your advice and changed it to 16GB 4x4. And about the PSU, if that does happen, i have a 3 year warranty on the GPU so far so i think it will be okay.
Warranties on GPUs generally only cover the GPU itself, not parts that might get damaged from it. I may also note that that series of PSUs are known to fry parts when put under too much strain (done a little research as I have two myself). It should be good for the load you would have drawing from it, I'd just say replace it if you get a second graphics card to install.




I'd honestly hold off on getting such an expensive keyboard and instead get a SSD as your primary drive for OS/priority files.

I actually replaced the keyboard with just a chroma deathstalker. I have been considering getting a sad for boot and is storage. Will 128gb be enough?
Last edited by Drewski on Fri Jan 15, 2016 2:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Drew's PC Build 2016

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For boot only, yes,

Got a M.2 250gb SSD myself, for booting, and >SOME< games for quickrun... 3 games maximum tho... so don't expect much spare storrage in a 128, but will do the job
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Re: Drew's PC Build 2016

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Okay, mini-wall of text.

1. Going with a 4x4GB kit will actually not improve performance. It's completely identical - actually worse for this platform in some ways. It puts extra stress on the memory controller onboard the CPU(albeit by minor amounts), and since you have more sticks you have higher chances of developing bad RAM over time. Go with 2x8GB - although Corsair Dominator Platinum is way overpriced unless you want the asthetics.

http://ark.intel.com/products/88184/Int ... o-3_60-GHz

If you scroll down to memory specifications, the Max # of Memory Channels is 2. It is 2 for all chipsets on the LGA1151 socket. That means that RAM will run in dual-channel whenever possible, and therefore 2 sticks is the most you can take advantage of. 4 RAM slots means that you can just add another 2 sticks in the future if you ever want 32GB of ram.

2. While the CX lineup of power supplies isn't amazing, they'll work for the budget. You're going to be barely pulling 350w at stock speeds, so I don't see any real issue. Of course, it'd be nice to grab one with higher efficiency and better build, but plenty of builds have used CX500 and CX600 series power supplies with little to no issue. IMO, since you have it, it's not worth returning.

3. SSD makes your overall computer usage feel super snappy. I'd highly recommend one. ~250GB if possible, but ~120GB is definitely doable. I have a 120GB in my own system, backed up by a 1TB WD Blue for storage. You still have around 50GB on your SSD after windows gets installed.

Some more things about the build:

- You've got a locked CPU with a motherboard and cooler that are aimed at overclocking. You won't really be able to properly overclock the CPU unless you grab a K skew - in this case it's the i5-6600k. Also, the H100i GTX is pretty noisy. I'd highly recommend grabbing a large air cooler like the Noctua NH-D14/NH-D15 or the Phanteks PH-TC14PE since they perform similarly to 240mm radiators but already have larger and extremely high quality fans attached. If you aren't overclocking, a H170 or B150 board with stock cooling would be a much cheaper route to go.

- As I've stated before, It's really not worth going for Dominator Platinums. Many cheaper kits from Corsair, PNY, G.Skill, or Kingston will perform the same at much cheaper prices. All ram sticks should come with a lifetime warranty, so there's no real reason to go for the Platinums unless you really want to pay for the kit's asthetic.

- Consider the R9 390 over the GTX 970. The R9 390 performs around 5-10fps faster in most titles than a GTX 970, and won't stutter when you pass the 3.5GB VRAM limit of the GTX 970. The last 500mb of the GTX 970 is a partitioned section of slow-accessing memory due to the way the GPU has been cut down from the GTX 980, resulting in a lot of stuttering once you pass that limit. Your case has plenty of space to accomodate the extra heat that the R9 390 puts out, and your power supply still has plenty of headroom.

//after typing this I just remembered you have the 970 already. Eh. If you have to pay for return shipping, then just keep the 970. It still performs well enough.

- I personally wouldn't get the deathstalker. Spend the extra money on a mechanical. Just find out what type of switch you want - it'll vary between Blue, Brown, and Reds mostly. I don't recommend the newest lineup of Razer keyboards since they're replaced the German Cherry MX switches with Chinese Kailh ones and beefed them up with marketing. A Corsair Strafe RGB would be a good pick. The deathadders are fine though. There was a 50% off sale yesterday on all razer products though - you missed it :P

- Also, headsets are crap. Period. Grab a nice set of headphones and a desktop microphone. If you still really want a headset, I'll recommend the HyperX Cloud or Cloud II. These headsets were made in partner with QPad, a reputable headphone design company.

And finally, some advice about purchasing parts:

Purchase parts over a 1-3 week timespan at most. If you buy them one by one over a span of a couple months, you just purchase parts earlier in their lifecycle. Doing so means that you pay more for parts that might actually become outdated by the time you get all your parts in and built.
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Re: Drew's PC Build 2016

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4x4 would be slightly faster than 2x8 because there would be more interleaving. Interleaving means that the data is spread out across more memory chips...... + Four sticks gives you the option to use them in quad-channel mode if you have a motherboard that supports it. This will give you more bandwidth than dual-channel, but you likely wouldn't see any practical performance gains unless you are running really memory-intensive programs.

I highly reccomend Corsair for RAM, you got a life-time warrenty on the RAM if you choose Corsair.... super decent ram sticks (in my opinion the best RAM maker on the market ATM)
Last edited by MartijnV on Sat Jan 16, 2016 3:06 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Drew's PC Build 2016

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MartijnV wrote:4x4 would be slightly faster than 2x8 because there would be more interleaving. Interleaving means that the data is spread out across more memory chips...... + Four sticks gives you the option to use them in quad-channel mode if you have a motherboard that supports it. This will give you more bandwidth than dual-channel, but you likely wouldn't see any practical performance gains unless you are running really memory-intensive programs.

I highly reccomend Corsair for RAM, you got a life-time warrenty on the RAM if you choose Corsair.... super decent ram sticks (in my opinion the best RAM maker on the market ATM)
Quad-channel memory is not available on the LGA1151 platform. It is only on X99. I even linked an intel ark spec. There is zero performance difference going with 2x8GB and 4x4GB on Z170/H170/B150/H110/C226. I remember me and soulharvester trying to explain this to you when you were planning out your build, but you didn't quite listen :P.

Corsair RAM is fine, but so are many, many manufacturers. As long as the brand is reputable, RAM should be exactly the same, bar timings and frequencies and voltages. And ALL RAM FROM REPUTABLE MANUFACTURERS COME WITH LIFETIME WARRANTIES. Check for yourself. PNY, Crucial, Mushkin, G.Skill, etc. All lifetime. Even less popular ones in the north american market such as "Team" have lifetime warranties on all their ram.
Last edited by goinundercover on Sat Jan 16, 2016 4:29 am, edited 2 times in total.
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