Workstation upgrade from i7-920 feedback

[jarotgers]

My i7-920 is limping along. It has worked well for many years, but lately the motherboard seems to be slowly dying. It can no longer see all attached drives and has lost the C: drive while the machine was running. Rather than spending the money on a used motherboard, I figured this is a good excuse to upgrade.


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
A little bit of everything. I plan to do some gaming, photo editing, light video editing, programming, some light VM testing, web browsing, etc.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
The parts I've been looking at are coming in around $700, but I'm willing to spend more if it'll provide enough benefit.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
U.S. Chanhassen, Minnesota I have access to a Micro Center.

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.
I'll need CPU, RAM, Motherboard, Cooler and possibly power supply

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Case - NZXT H440
Graphics Card - Radeon HD 6950 (Looking at picking up a GTX 1070 when they're released)
SSD - Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB
HD - HGST 4TB
Power Supply - Corsair HX 850 (This was purchased with the CPU around 7 years ago, so it may be worth getting a new one.)
Monitors
Keyboard
Mouse
Speakers

6) Will you be overclocking?
I'm not planning to.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
I run 3 monitors (Dell U2415) at 1920x1200, but only use one for gaming.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
I'd like to order soon and build it this coming weekend.

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.
Nothing comes to mind

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Windows 10 64bit


This is what I've come up with so far:


PC Hound Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 8M ($346.39 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI MSI Gaming Z170A-G45 Gaming ($122.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.SKILL 32GB (2 x 16GB) Ripjaws V Series ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 220-G2-0750-XR ($79.99 @ NCIX)
CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 ($29.49 @ Amazon)
Total: $688.84
Price may include shipping, rebates, promotions, and tax
Generated by PC Hound

There's currently a package deal on the processor and motherboard from B&H. It is 459.99 with $40 MIR. Seems like a good deal, and with some looking there doesn't seem to be much difference between this motherboard and the MSI Gaming Z170A GAMING M5. I'm not sure how I feel about the Killer NIC, but I figure if it causes problems I can get an Intel PCIE NIC (and it seems difficult to get away from). From what I read, there isn't much of a performance difference with different memory speeds. Has that changed with the z170 chipset?

Anything that should change? Any possible problems with the listed hardware?

 

[rhansen5_99]

Fyi ebay has the 6700k for 319 right now so it might be worth saving on tax. Otherwise not a bad looking build. You could probably skip the hs if you are not ocing, but the 212s are a beast.

 

[Spidey329]

Fyi ebay has the 6700k for 319 right now so it might be worth saving on tax. Otherwise not a bad looking build. You could probably skip the hs if you are not ocing, but the 212s are a beast.

Thanks for that tip! Ironically, I'm replacing my old PC, it's also an i7 920 from years ago (few months after the 920 launched). Figured it's time to replace it.

I had ordered on Amazon last week:
MSI z170-g3 mobo, 2x8gb DDR4, and an i5 6600k. But the 6600k doesn't ship until May 27th .. cancelled the 6600k and grabbed a 6700k on eBay.

 

[SBSuperfly]

Sorry to hear about your i7 920 system. I just recently swapped my i7 920 from my Gigabyte ex58-ud3r motherboard with a Xeon w3690 that I got cheap from ebay. Wow, what an impressive upgrade! It's amazing to me that a system that I built in early 2009 is still so relevant. Unfortunately, if your mobo is the problem, this is not a solution available to you. I would definitely recommend replacing that old PSU. It's possible that the aging Corsair PSU was the cause of your motherboard problems.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

If you're not overclocking then you don't need the "K" processor. Go with the non-K version and save yourself like $30.
750W is way, way overkill for your needs as well.
Also living in MN I doubt you'll really need an aftermarket CPU cooler unless you're just looking to make the system a bit quieter, but do make note that the GPU will make way more noise under load than the stock Intel cooler ever will.

 

[jarotgers]

Thanks for the replies. I spent last weekend getting things up and running and am quite pleased.

Fyi ebay has the 6700k for 319 right now so it might be worth saving on tax. Otherwise not a bad looking build. You could probably skip the hs if you are not ocing, but the 212s are a beast.

Thanks for that tip! Ironically, I'm replacing my old PC, it's also an i7 920 from years ago (few months after the 920 launched). Figured it's time to replace it.

I had ordered on Amazon last week:
MSI z170-g3 mobo, 2x8gb DDR4, and an i5 6600k. But the 6600k doesn't ship until May 27th .. cancelled the 6600k and grabbed a 6700k on eBay.

If you're not overclocking then you don't need the "K" processor. Go with the non-K version and save yourself like $30.
750W is way, way overkill for your needs as well.
Also living in MN I doubt you'll really need an aftermarket CPU cooler unless you're just looking to make the system a bit quieter, but do make note that the GPU will make way more noise under load than the stock Intel cooler ever will.

The 6700k does not come with a heatsink and fan in the box, that's the reason I went with the 212 Evo. It has good reviews and is relatively cheap. I likely would have gone with an i7 6700, but the 6700k runs 600 MHz faster (3.4 GHz v. 4 GHz). The bundle pricing was too good to pass up after the taking into account the rebate.