New development and gaming build

P

PTNL

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jan 2, 2005
Messages
4,199
So my primary office machine has finally bit the dust (Intel Q8400, 16GB RAM, ATI 6970) and I want to build a new gaming and software development machine.


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
A mix between computer programming (Visual Studio, C#, WebAPI, ReactJS/Angular, and working with some 3rd party video encoders like FFmpeg), using some virtual machines, and doing some single-monitor gaming (Killing Floor 2, wanting to get into PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Dark Souls).
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1500, but I can go higher if it is relevant to my needs.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
St. Louis, Missouri
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU
Motherboard (Micro ATX)
RAM (32 GB+)
SSD (512 GB+, looking at the Samsung Pro models)
Video card (Nvidia, 4 GB+ RAM)
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
If it makes sense to reuse the power supply, it is a BFG ES-800 that was purchased in 2008.
I will be reusing my case (Antec SOLO II, purchased in 2012), some case fans, and a Seagate SATA hard drive with misc. files. (This will not be the OS drive.)
6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Two 24-inch monitors, 1920x1080
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Building ideally within a few weeks
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Required would be RAID-1, USB-3 and SATA-3.
This machine will be wirelessly connected to my network, so it needs extra PCIe sockets so I can put a wireless card in it or an integrated wireless card. (Actually, my preference would be to just have the extra PCIe socket and get a PCIe card that has an external antenna.)
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I will need to buy a copy of Windows 10 Professional (64-bit).


Aside from the above list...
- This machine will be attached to a dual-monitor KVM that has DisplayPort connections. So the video card will need to have two DP sockets. (I already have enough regular-to-mini DP adapters, btw.)
- I need the GPU to be usable by FFmpeg's commandline EXE for hardware decoding.
- I do prefer to have a quiet machine. So I am ok with spending more on video cards with quieter fans and a quieter CPU fan.
 
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Well, for 1.5K you would do great with this, shame the GPU prices are a bit inflated.

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/phfWGG
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/phfWGG/by_merchant/
CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($349.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H100i v2 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock - Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming K6 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($171.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($184.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($179.99 @ Samsung)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($46.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB GT OCV1 Video Card ($334.98 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT - S340 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.90 @ Newegg)
Total: $1502.11
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-02-17 05:55 EST-0500

Not sure about the used parts you have, if you can reuse some stuff, you have margin to have 32Gb of system memory.
 
I updated my original post to include the case I will be re-using, and the existing power supply that I could possibly reuse. (If it makes sense to replace the PSU, then so be it.)

SliceT said:
Well, for 1.5K you would do great with this, shame the GPU prices are a bit inflated.
Click to expand...
I do need the list to include a copy WIndows 10 Professional x64. I am willing to go higher a bit on the budget, if it is warranted. Note that the NZXT case will not be necessary, nor will the extra Western Digital drive. The 850 EVO was an interesting choice, but with my software development projects I would like to have fast write performance; so I am interested in this decision versus the "pro" series from Samsung.
Edit: I noticed the liquid cooler HSF. Given that I am not OC'ing and am more interested in a quiet machine, how does this compare with a large HSF with a quiet fan in regards to my needs? Also, the mobo needs to be mATX.
Edit-2: That Nvidia GPU only has a single DP connection. I need one that has two DP connections. (I know I could buy an HDMI-to-DP adapter, but I'd rather not introduce this converter with my KVM and possibly have it act wonky.)
Edit-3: I still need to have 32 GB of RAM in the build. This is to ensure plenty of headroom for the VMs, development tools, etc.

Speedeu4ia said:
He said he wants matx with wifi
Click to expand...
That is correct on the mobo size. I was leaning more toward just having a spare PCIe socket that I can put in a wifi card that has an external antenna, instead of having wifi integrated with the mobo. (In all fairness, I could have worded that section better.)
 
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So I just ordered this:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bmhycY

(Total $1753)

I started from the idea that SliceT provided, and made some adjustments:
- Swapped the mobo for an ASUS mATX model
- Bumped RAM to 32 GB
- Removed the case
- Removed the extra storage drive
- Different MSI graphics card model that has 2+ DP connections
- Added the necessary OS to the price list.
- Replaced the closed-loop liquid HSF with quiet air unit. I just want a quiet machine, and did not want to buy a new case to support mounting that radiator within the case.
- Bumped the Samsung 850 EVO to a 960 PRO.
​
Some other considerations that went into the build list:
- I did consider the SATA Samsung 860 Pro in comparison to the slightly more expensive m2 960 PRO, and decided $50 was worth the bump in overhead potential.
- I did want a nicer graphics card, but the current ridiculousness of the crypto market influencing prices made this prohibitive. (I considered waiting it out with my ATI 6970, but decided against that plan because it seems like there isn't an end in sight for the price gouging... and I'd like to have a better gaming experience now than later.)
- I opted out of buying an external wifi card. I decided that if the integrated one is insufficient, then I can always order a better PCIe card.

And if you see anything significantly wrong with my build, let me know now; I can cancel and re-order parts without penalty. Thanks, everyone!
 
PTNL said:
So I just ordered this:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bmhycY

(Total $1753)

I started from the idea that SliceT provided, and made some adjustments:
- Swapped the mobo for an ASUS mATX model
- Bumped RAM to 32 GB
- Removed the case
- Removed the extra storage drive
- Different MSI graphics card model that has 2+ DP connections
- Added the necessary OS to the price list.
- Replaced the closed-loop liquid HSF with quiet air unit. I just want a quiet machine, and did not want to buy a new case to support mounting that radiator within the case.
- Bumped the Samsung 850 EVO to a 960 PRO.
​
Some other considerations that went into the build list:
- I did consider the SATA Samsung 860 Pro in comparison to the slightly more expensive m2 960 PRO, and decided $50 was worth the bump in overhead potential.
- I did want a nicer graphics card, but the current ridiculousness of the crypto market influencing prices made this prohibitive. (I considered waiting it out with my ATI 6970, but decided against that plan because it seems like there isn't an end in sight for the price gouging... and I'd like to have a better gaming experience now than later.)
- I opted out of buying an external wifi card. I decided that if the integrated one is insufficient, then I can always order a better PCIe card.

And if you see anything significantly wrong with my build, let me know now; I can cancel and re-order parts without penalty. Thanks, everyone!
Click to expand...
The cooler is questionable as far as being quiet and I wouldn't recommend it for OC(which you're not)

Cryorig H7 or thermalright true spirit direct will be quieter and cool better

Only other issue I see is 2400mhz ram, 8700k specs 2666mhz

If it we're me I would prob go 8700 non k with 2666 ram and then wait a month as the H370 boards are coming soon
 
The Samsung Pro SSD isn't really worth the increase in price over the Evo, the difference is essentially only visible in benchmarks. Also, you can pick up a cheap (< $30) Windows Pro license off of one of the traders in the For Sale / Trade section of the forums.

Only thing I would really change in your build is the RAM - I'd go 2x16GB vs 4x8GB, that way if you need more ram a few years down the road you can just throw more memory in rather than having to pull sticks out. Your decision to go with 32GB is definitely the right call, I can easily push past 16 GB of actual (not system cache) use with a couple of instances of Visual Studio and VMs

Looks like a pretty smokin' system and you should be really pleased with it!
 
Speedeu4ia said:
The cooler is questionable as far as being quiet
Click to expand...
The NewEgg specs did list a peak volume of 36 dB, so that seemed close enough to ambient noise. Plus, I will have some light music going while writing code and any games I am playing will have music. So given the sound level, my case, and the distance between me and the tower at my desk, I didn't foresee it as an issue. What do you think of this?

Speedeu4ia said:
Only other issue I see is 2400mhz ram, 8700k specs 2666mhz
Click to expand...
Just to be clear... Is this an issue that will keep the build from working, or from working as optimally as it could? If it is the latter, would this be a real-world noticeable issue?

TrailRunner said:
The Samsung Pro SSD isn't really worth the increase in price over the Evo, the difference is essentially only visible in benchmarks.
Click to expand...
Ah, thank you for the clarification. I did find some articles that showed the small, benchmark-only differences. I will consider swapping the PRO for the EVO model.

TrailRunner said:
Also, you can pick up a cheap (< $30) Windows Pro license off of one of the traders in the For Sale / Trade section of the forums.
Click to expand...
Interesting, I wasn't aware of this... I did some brief searching and skimming through the FS/FT forum, and found a thread that matched what you described. Those are some cheap keys! However, the comment in the thread that keys are guaranteed to work for two months has me a little concerned; I don't know what my situation will be if, in the future, I need to wipe and rebuild. What are your thoughts?
 
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PTNL said:
However, the comment in the thread that keys are guaranteed to work for two months has me a little concerned; I don't know what my situation will be if, in the future, I need to wipe and rebuild. What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...

Antecdotally speaking, I think you’ll be fine.

On one of my machines, I was running Insider Preview (before RTM) and using the publically released insider key. This key was supposed to be deactivated after release. I ended up doing a fresh install of 10 down the road, on a new drive, and it automatically activated the new install without requiring a key.

I’ve also used a single retail Win 7 license across several machines to activate Windows 10 installs (only doing one install at a time; using the licensing agreement’s provision to transfer a license between hardware. IE following the licensing terms, not pirating Windows) It has always activated online, I’ve never needed to call MS to activate.

Worst case scenario if a year or so down the road you did have to wipe and rebuild, and if activation failed for some reason at that time, imho the immediate savings of $100 is worth it.
 
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