building a 2016/17 desktop

Remus

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Hi guys, i am thinking to get a new pc to replace my current 6 years old desktop.
http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12036 my 2011 pc
http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3389 my 2007 pc

Here's my old rig from 2011:

Processor - Intel sandy bridge core i5-2500k
Motherboard - Asus p8p67
Graphic Card - nVidia 580
8 GB Corsair 1333 DDR3 dual channnel
Corsair 600T casing
Corsair HX750 PSU
1TB Samsung Spinpoint
Dell U2711
22x Samsung DVD rewritable
Creative SB X-FI XtremeGamer
Logitech z-5500 5.1 Speaker
Logitech Mx518

So far, the core i5-2500k run quite well at many tasks i thrown at it, except video editing and newest games. The Asus p8p67 died on me after few months of use, and since then i use its replacement (a same model) until now. The nvidia GTX 580 drop dead in 2012, replaced by GTX 670 and it definitely help a lot in running The Witcher 3 but its frame rate was clearly stuttering. As for Samsung spinpoint, it got busted in 2014 while the logitech mx518 died a year earlier. The 22x samsung DVD is also pretty much on a dead bed, as it started to act erratically since a year ago.

Everyting else works fine, especially the z-5500 which i bought earlier in 2007 (almost 10 years now :) ), and the Dell U2711, a wonderful monitor!. I definitelly to reuse them with my future new desktop. I havent finalized the component in the new rig yet, but pretty much as follow:

1) Processor ------Core i5 6500----------------------
2) Motherboard ----GIGABYTE H170-GAMING 3------------
3) RAM ------------GSKILL AEGIS Series 8GB DDR4 x 2--
4) Graphics Card---GTX 1070/1060/RX 490 8GB----
5) SSD-------------Samsung 750 EVO 120GB-------------
6) Hard disk ------WD Blue 1TB 7,200 RPM-------------
7) Chassis --------Sharkoon BW9000 Black-------------
8) Power Supply ---Xigmatek Shogun 600W (80+ Bronze)-
9) OS -------------Windows 10 Home-------------------

I use it for video/graphics editing as well as gaming. I am not in hurry to build it, maybe in 3-6 months or even early next year (kind of curious with Kaby Lake); Any suggestion?
 
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If you're open to waiting, I would do so. Mainly to see what AMD can do with their Zen CPUs, and how their new GPUs perform with DX12/Vulkan games going forward. The signs are that they could be very competitive again, and they seem to be getting their act together with their drivers. They also seem to be committed to a more open strategy with their tech, contrasted with Nvidias very proprietary approach, and that's a big plus, to me anyway.
 
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Years ago i used the excellent Athlon processor; it was very good processor but nowadays AMD is seriously lagging behind Intel.

Yeah, i really like to see Zen CPUs to competes with Intel processors. Without competition Intel seems to slow down in term of innovation in recent years…
 
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I'd be surprised if AMD really challenge Intel at the top end, but I could imagine them having a sort of i5-level offering, excellent for gaming, at a tempting price.
 
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You've got the right idea by sticking with Intel. AMD just isn't very competitive right now if you want performance.

Why only 8GB of RAM though? You'll definitely want 16GB if you plan on keeping the same rig for a few years.

Also, I wouldn't bother with separate internal drives. Just get a 500GB SSD if you can afford it. The prices have come down quite a bit on SSDs over the past year. You can always store extra stuff on an external HD if you need to.
 
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Yeah, 120 gigs SSD is really on the smallish side. You will fill it up in no time at all...
 
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That "old" rig up there is still great IMO.
Yea, TW3 has a stutter here and there, so what. It stutters even more on consoles and you don't see them complaining. ;)

Noone needs 16Gb RAM at home today unless you're compressing stuff with archievers or ripping movies from DVD over handbrake daily where more RAM means less time needed. But time is something you have, right? :D
8 is currently enough. If a game appears that desperately needs more than 8, you buy. Or if you find it cheap, buying 16 won't hurt your pocket and will be nifty to have 3-4 years from now.

SSD got cheap so I'll say the same as JDR. Grab 480Gb one. If you can afford at once both 120 and 480 Gb, go for it, on the smaller one you'll run windows, on bigger you'll install games.
You can use HDD from your old machine in the new rig, if that's not an option, you can always buy an external HDD for unoptimized games that need 50+ Gb of space on disc like Wolfenstein. Dunno how would that work, nor care. I avoid buying such games. ;)

Currently any i5 is the best choice for home machine, so that part is done right. That doesn't mean buying Xeon or AMD CPU is wrong, it's just these CPUs might easily be a bottleneck in some games.
i7 at home is paying $100 more for nothing. Or better said, paying $100 to get unplayable games (Risen3 release, was later patched) or to get crashes in games that run flawlessly on other CPUs (Final Fantasy X/X-2).

PSU 600W is a good choice for one GPU based system. That horsepower won't be enough if you plan to (ab)use upcoming dx12/vulkan capability of mixing different hardware, where you should go with 700W.
If your longterm plan is like mine (one nVidia and one AMD GPU) or you'll make SLI/Crossfire right now, you may calculate the power you need on this site:
http://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator
They still didn't add RX 480 though, but both GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 are there.

Which GPU if it's just one inside to buy, IMO today the best choice is RX 480. If you're gonna wait a bit, maybe, not saying it will be, but maybe GTX 1060 becomes a better choice when released which should be soon.
If you don't care about price/performance aka bang/buck, if all you want is to have the fastest GPU in the whole universe, currently it's GTX 1080. Keep in mind that in your machine currently it'll generally be an overkill since Dell U2711 can't go 4K resolution.

You forgot CD/DVD drive. How are you planning to enjoy your home DVD (pr0n) collection, man? :)
Grab an external (USB) one. You plug it in only when needed, the rest of time it's not vacuuming dust like internal ones.

WiFi antenna? If you plan to use one you already have, great. If not get some Alfa network longrange model. Not sure about TP Link products, some say those are good though. Sadly the best one ever, Airlive WL1700, is discontinued and virtually impossible to buy a new. In any case, just get rid of the LAN cable.

However, and I know you don't want to hear this, IMO you should keep the old rig some more time and just replace GPU with RX 480. And then wait for Zen CPU benchmarks as Ripper said, we just can't know what will happen when it gets out.
I mean, what's wrong with that old "trashcan"? Nothing. It's one of those configurations that were ment to last long. Longer than phones. We're at the moment where console audience seems will be forced to buy a new one every 3 years because of new technology, stuff we just buy and plug in our PC for some cheap $ while they're forced to buy everything new.
The only reason not to keep it would be if you want to sell the old machine while you still can and cover some expenses from a new one.
 
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I've been using TP Link for the last 4 years and I'm happy with it.
 
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No reason to upgrade. The 2500k is still a great CPU.

Just upgrade your GPU first. If you still aren't satisfied with the performance increase from a GTX 1070 then you can use it as part of a new build, since you'd be buying it anyways.
 
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You've got the right idea by sticking with Intel. AMD just isn't very competitive right now if you want performance.

Why only 8GB of RAM though? You'll definitely want 16GB if you plan on keeping the same rig for a few years.

Also, I wouldn't bother with separate internal drives. Just get a 500GB SSD if you can afford it. The prices have come down quite a bit on SSDs over the past year. You can always store extra stuff on an external HD if you need to.

If you're comparing stock core to stock core, no. The intel is the better choice. However. Once you factor in number of cores, price and overclocking ability, AMD is still VERY competitive. You can pick up an FX-8320E for pennies, overclock it to 4.5 (or higher) on air (Evo 212 or equivalent) and still come in at less than a comparative Intel platform. AMD is also enjoying new breath of life in their FX-83** series, because of better multi-core optimization in games these days. That being said, if you're going brand new from scratch, there's no point starting with an almost End of Life socket like AM3.
 
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No reason to upgrade. The 2500k is still a great CPU.

Just upgrade your GPU first. If you still aren't satisfied with the performance increase from a GTX 1070 then you can use it as part of a new build, since you'd be buying it anyways.

This, I recently threw a Titan x in a system with a 2500 because we needed another computer for my sons lan/birthday party and I had the 2500, motherboard and 8 gigs of memory sitting around.

To test it I ran Witcher 3 and it was between 65-70 fps@1080p. I'm sure the cup bottlenecked it some but it was still plenty fast. The gamed all day and the thing never skipped a beat. I actually couldn't visually tell a difference between it and my 5930k@4.5ghz with 32GB ddr4 and a Titan x, although I'm sure there's some difference.

Not sure what's required for video editing but for gaming as Joxer said there's virtually no Benifit to an i7 over an i5.

I'd buy the gpu first if your not happy you can always buy the rest.
 
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Why only 8GB of RAM though? You'll definitely want 16GB if you plan on keeping the same rig for a few years.

Also, I wouldn't bother with separate internal drives. Just get a 500GB SSD if you can afford it. The prices have come down quite a bit on SSDs over the past year. You can always store extra stuff on an external HD if you need to.

Nah, i decided to get 8GB x2.

as for SSD, i intended to get a bigger one but based on my previous experience it will get quickly filled with various video, graphics, music & gaming files that i throw around. So a 1 TB HDD is economically better choice for storage.
 
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You forgot CD/DVD drive. How are you planning to enjoy your home DVD (pr0n) collection, man? :)
Grab an external (USB) one. You plug it in only when needed, the rest of time it's not vacuuming dust like internal ones.

…..

However, and I know you don't want to hear this, IMO you should keep the old rig some more time and just replace GPU with RX 480. And then wait for Zen CPU ….
The only reason not to keep it would be if you want to sell the old machine while you still can and cover some expenses from a new one.

Well, i barely have any use my previous DVD so i think wont need one.

And yeah i indeed want to sell my current rig before getting a new one :)
 
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Between these sound chip below and its implementation, which one is the best?

1)Gigabyte
a)Realtek® ALC1150 codec
Support for Sound Blaster X-Fi MB3

b)Creative® Sound Core 3D chip
Support for Sound Blaster ZxRi

2)Asus
SupremeFX 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC

Also, how headphone amplifier works on motherboard?
 
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Realtek audio chips on motherboards are the worst thing that exists. After numerous reports, oversized drivers and updates every few months, those chips and audio over them still have problems. What's even worse, if you didn't use the correct driver combination in a machine that has also Realtek LAN chip, it becomes a noise disaster.
These chips are cheap that's why are frequently used on motherboards, but most common problem they have is static in speakers you cannot get rid of by any means.

Everything else is good.
So if you can avoid Realtek, do it. If it's on the motherboard which means you can't skip it, plan in front buying some PCI audio card.
You can use your old soundblaster, it'll do.
 
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Between these sound chip below and its implementation, which one is the best?

1)Gigabyte
a)Realtek® ALC1150 codec
Support for Sound Blaster X-Fi MB3

b)Creative® Sound Core 3D chip
Support for Sound Blaster ZxRi

2)Asus
SupremeFX 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC

Also, how headphone amplifier works on motherboard?

For most people (ie those that are fine using Beats or Skullcandy headphones to listen to music), onboard audio is fine. Realtek audio wasn't so super years back, but isn't much of an issue really anymore.

However if you're a sound/music hobbyist, are using a DAC (or you're one of those people who have stereo brands that others haven't heard of like NAD or Hafler ) then you'll want one of the cards.
 
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I found a interesting review on silent PC cases here.

I am shocked that the Sharkoon BW 9000W is perfoming as good as Fractal Design R4 in noise test, even though it's not advertised as a silent case! Anyone familiar with the website, is it reliable and trustworthy review?

The editor at silentpcreview liked the Fractal Design Define S and R5, but also admitted that sound dampening material played a minor rule in silencing a fans noise inside a PCs. What more importance is selecting a silent PC components.

Currently i'm considering Fractal Design Define R5, Define S and Sharkoon BW9000 casings for my 2017 PC build.
 
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I'm thinking... is it better to have less internal ram, and store more in the cloud?
 
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If by cloud you mean wireless Synology located in your home, then yes it's better.
If by cloud you mean internet rubbish services you have no control over, then no.

I suppose you ment data storage capacity (HDD/SDD/rewritable optical media), not actual RAM.
 
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