PC Building Guide and Discussion #10

[SeidoN]

I would say the 660 is pretty much on its way our for modern games, so whenever that came out, apply roughly that much time to the 960 I guess? *shrug*

 

[kr580]

Pretty much what Zih said. If you just get the motherboard, CPU, and RAM, you've got a functioning system, and can add the video card and SSD drive later. You can reuse the power supply too - I'd eventually replace it where it's an aging unit, but you don't have to right away.

New, continued question: I'm looking at getting the Xeon 1231v3 CPU. I've heard it requires Z97 or H97 boards, with Z97 being overclockable which is a pointless feature for Xeon.

Would it be a bad idea, if price is similar, to just go with Z97 to leave my options open to get a i5/i7 later? I don't imagine I'll upgrade again any time soon but are there any cons in going with a Z97 on a Xeon? Might as well if all else is equal, right?

Here's my new build pending the Mobo selection. Any advice on changes would be awesome. Just swapped CPU, Mobo and RAM at this point. If I can get away with just swapping those three I'll be stoked. And yes, I want 16GB. It's worth it to me.

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/Rj33Fd

Edit: Forgot to ask about these two boards. They're as good as any as far as I can tell. Any one that seems better than the other?
MSI Z97 PC Mate vs ASRock H97 Pro4

 

[SniperHF]

New, continued question: I'm looking at getting the Xeon 1231v3 CPU. I've heard it requires Z97 or H97 boards, with Z97 being overclockable which is a pointless feature for Xeon.

Would it be a bad idea, if price is similar, to just go with Z97 to leave my options open to get a i5/i7 later? I don't imagine I'll upgrade again any time soon but are there any cons in going with a Z97 on a Xeon? Might as well if all else is equal, right?

Here's my new build pending the Mobo selection. Any advice on changes would be awesome. Just swapped CPU, Mobo and RAM at this point. If I can get away with just swapping those three I'll be stoked. And yes, I want 16GB. It's worth it to me.

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/Rj33Fd

Any particular reason you went for the older platform? Just price/bang for the buck on the Xeon? 4c/8t for less than $300?

You can get Skylake i7 6700 locked versions for around $320 fwiw. It would up your budget a bit but also have the benefit of being able to use DDR4, which might not be insignificant based on the applications you mentioned last page. Worth researching anyway. The CPU itself isn't actually much faster though.

Far as H vs Z97 goes, if you aren't overclocking anything there isn't much downside to H97. But also any other CPU that would work in a Z/H97 would be at most a slight upgrade or a sidegrade. So going to an i5/i7 later is basically not a consideration IMO. Also you can put an i5/i7 in an H board, you just can't OC them on it.

The benefit of having Z97 though with your Xeon is you could conceivably OC using the BLCK. My guess is you wouldn't need this.

Also Z97 boards generally support faster RAM speeds, which based on your RAM selection won't matter. There are probably a few other features a Z board has but they aren't a big deal. Also a case by case basis thing since some manufacturers pack different feature sets in their boards of their own.

 

[kr580]

Any particular reason you went for the older platform? Just price/bang for the buck on the Xeon? 4c/8t for less than $300?

I suppose I don't have a good reason other than the raving reviews for that CPU. Other than Xeon and ~$250 or less I don't really have a preference on the CPU. If there's something better for the buck I'm all ears. I don't even need to be spending what I am so any CPU more expensive isn't an option unfortunately. The jump to $320 is huge for me. Hell, I may not even buy anything after all if I can't find the money. I'm out of the loop so any info is good and appreciated.

And thanks for the explanation of H97 vs Z97.

 

[SniperHF]

Hell, I may not even buy anything after all if I can't find the money. I'm out of the loop so any info is good and appreciated.

If what you have fits the budget then go for it, it would be a good base for a system. Just add GPU.

If your budget goes down/up or whatever we can suggest some other parts

 

[kr580]

Thanks for the help. Does this look like it'll all play nice together, with the new CPU, RAM and Mobo?

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/mrFxYr

 

[SniperHF]

Yes, it lines up.


Any reason you have 500GB WD Blue drive on there? Seems like a poor value.

 

[kr580]

Any reason you have 500GB WD Blue drive on there? Seems like a poor value.

It's what I already have. I'm trying to piece together a better PC around my existing parts. I'll upgrade the crappy stuff eventually.

 

[SniperHF]

It's what I already have. I'm trying to piece together a better PC around my existing parts. I'll upgrade the crappy stuff eventually.

Ah, I thought it was something else because it has a price on it.

 

[Lecavilier_4]

Anyone know current situation of the Radeon RX 480?

Newegg.ca doesn't seem to have any in stock, just wondering if I missed them while I was at work or if they haven't hit yet.

 

[SniperHF]

They were in stock on the US site for a little bit this morning but now on backorder.

 

[Lame Lambert]

RX 480: I am disappoint.

 

[Kestrel]

Soft launch?

 

[Lame Lambert]

Soft launch?

I was talking about benchmarks and more specifically heat and OCing ability.

 

[Kestrel]

I was talking about benchmarks and more specifically heat and OCing ability.

I was referring more to the June 29 release date and almost non-existant stock.

 

[Lame Lambert]

I was referring more to the June 29 release date and almost non-existant stock.

Oh okay my bad. I haven't looked at stock for it.

 

[Avenger*]

Apparently european dealers have large stock. Can't really comment on North America. It guess it depends how badly you need to be the first person to own one. I'd personally wait for a non-reference card with an upgraded cooler before making a purchase. You'll have more options and cards that potentially have better support for over clocking if that's your thing.

 

[Sined]

RX 480: I am disappoint.

Why is that? It seems right in line with what AMD promised and still comes in at a price/performance ratio that's more attractive than anything in team green's offering at the $200USD price point.

 

[Commander Clueless]

The RX 480 cometh, and it brings death to the mighty GTX 970 with it.

 

[Zih]

The RX 480 cometh, and it brings death to the mighty GTX 970 with it.

Eh, with the RX 480's performance ending up below what it was hyped at, I don't think anyone who bought a GTX 970 when it was ~$250 on sale will be disappointed. In any case, the RX 480 will need to compete against the GTX 1060, which will release in the next month-ish. The RX 480 might not end up winning the price/performance battle for long.

I wonder how much better the aftermarket RX 480s will be. It looks like the single 6-pin connector in the reference card is a significant drawback. With a decent cooler and an 8-pin connector to supply enough power to overclock, it might actually be able to get up to the GTX 980 performance that was hyped before launch.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Eh, with the RX 480's performance ending up below what it was hyped at, I don't think anyone who bought a GTX 970 when it was ~$250 on sale will be disappointed. In any case, the RX 480 will need to compete against the GTX 1060, which will release in the next month-ish. The RX 480 might not end up winning the price/performance battle for .

Very true.

No real reason to go 970 going forward is what I meant...barring a massive price drop of course.

 

[Lame Lambert]

Why is that? It seems right in line with what AMD promised and still comes in at a price/performance ratio that's more attractive than anything in team green's offering at the $200USD price point.

I'm talking more on an architecture basis than the 480 itself. I was expecting it to sit in-between a 980 and 970, so that's a little disappointing, but the temperatures and OC ability is really disappointing to me. The card is running at mid 80s C and the temps skyrocket with any type of overclock. My reference 780 Ti with a 300Mhz OC runs cooler than this card with a slight overclock, and this card has a 6 pin, 150 watt TDP, and a node process half of the 780. So I'm more disappointed in what this means for the 490 or whatever the high end card will be. Maybe it's just a really poor stock cooler?

 

[SniperHF]

The heatsink really does suck, you can see it here:

http://techreport.com/r.x/2016_6_22...nd_bare_for_centerfold/radeon_rx_480_bare.jpg

There was a better image I saw awhile back but I can't find it now.

No heatpipes either.

Bunch of reviews even noted how light the card is due to the smaller heatsink.


Fake edit: Found it -
http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&p=1311616

I still wouldn't expect it to be an OC beast with a 6 pin though.

 

[Lame Lambert]

The heatsink really does suck, you can see it here:

http://techreport.com/r.x/2016_6_22...nd_bare_for_centerfold/radeon_rx_480_bare.jpg

There was a better image I saw awhile back but I can't find it now.

No heatpipes either.

Bunch of reviews even noted how light the card is due to the smaller heatsink.


Fake edit: Found it -
http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&p=1311616

I still wouldn't expect it to be an OC beast with a 6 pin though.

That's atrocious. Maybe it is the cooler then. Hopefully we'll see some 490n+ information soon.

 

[Lame Lambert]

Yikes
http://www.gamerevolution.com/featu...uble-with-its-nonpci-express-compliant-rx-480