PC Building Guide and Discussion #11 (everything is expensive...)

[SniperHF]

My single fan 1060 will get pretty hot so I bought a third case fan today.

Is it a blower fan?

Either way you can try setting a custom fan curve with MSI afterburner or the like. I find you can usually increase the fan speed a bit without upping the noise too much. With the stock fan curve my fan will go only up to like 50% but the difference in noise between 50 and 70% is pretty small.

For whatever reason at 80% the fan sounds like it's gonna explode though .

 

[flyingkiwi]

Nah it's this little guy

EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING, ACX 2.0 (Single Fan), 06G-P4-6161-KR, 6GB GDDR5, DX12 OSD Support (PXOC), Only 6.8 Inches - Newegg.com

Passed on the superclocked version cause it was way more expensive down here.

And yeah, I'll fiddle with afterburner. Gotta say I will miss the super cool and quiet of my Gigabyte 960. Hopefully I'll get some money back on it.

 

[crazychimp]

Just a heads up to anyone thats thinking about ordering parts from NCIX, the company has filed for bankruptcy, many orders have not been fulfilled so if you've ordered anything and have not received your item it's best to contact them. As of right now there site is still running but it's recommended not to place any orders.

 

[karnige]

I had a $25 gift card so I bought a few things that said were in stock. (sata cable, a pen lol, thermal compound...) we shall see if it shows up. no lost sleep over it

 

[Sarcastic]

Nah, not bad at all. I've used double sided tape to mount and SSD before. Like Sniper said, SSD's don't get damaged from moving around like hard drives do, so do it whatever way works for you. I've even had them just hanging in air from their cables - that was more of a temporary measure so I wouldn't necessarily recommend it as a permanent measure, but really, as long as you're not kinking or damaging cables, you should be fine.

I just managed to get it to sorta stay in one of the bays and then closed the case. Guess I won't bother until I get velcro tape or something.

Thanks again guys.

 

[Kestrel]

I just managed to get it to sorta stay in one of the bays and then closed the case. Guess I won't bother until I get velcro tape or something.

Thanks again guys.

No problem!

 

[Bocephus86]

I had definitely knocked the CPU fan/heat sink during my drunken GPU install. I figured it out this AM and the fan/heat sink was super loose. Cleaned off the old gel and replaced, its back running at the old temps I remembered (not even touching 50) with the "standard" intel fan/sink.

I also realized I had been "wasting" my ram for nearly a year, running in single channel. That's embarrassing to admit but I undercovered during testing; got that working as well.

Next step, the longest of long term projects: Fix my wiring/cable management

 

[Kestrel]

Not really a building question, but I usually get my best answers here. Anyone know much about eGPU's? From what I can tell, a laptop with Thunderbolt 3 is the best way to go for eGPUs to be viable? If so... I seem to be having trouble finding any that would otherwise seem like good value machines. I absolutely want a 17 inch screen, and I'm after at least an i5 level machine.

What I'm thinking is that with eGPU as an option, I can maybe get more life out of a laptop - ie, I can just upgrade my GPU over the years, and I'm thinking that taking all the video processing out of the laptop itself would help to keep life sapping heat out of the chassis too.

Any thoughts/knowledge out there?

 

[Kestrel]

I'm rethinking the Thunderbolt 3 eGPU thing... but damnit, laptops have gotten ridiculously expensive. My 17.3" i7-4702mq with GTX 760m costed me around $950. Just about any 17.3" laptop with anything better than a 1050 looks to be around $1500 on up - mostly on up.

 

[Devourers]

I'm rethinking the Thunderbolt 3 eGPU thing... but damnit, laptops have gotten ridiculously expensive. My 17.3" i7-4702mq with GTX 760m costed me around $950. Just about any 17.3" laptop with anything better than a 1050 looks to be around $1500 on up - mostly on up.

I know Like... I want one with a 1060 not a 1050, soon as you reach 1060 territory it's 1400$(SALE) to 1900$(LOL come on). I think 1070 is more fair at that price point personally, but then you're talking 1800$(SALE) to well over 2000$+

 

[flyingkiwi]

Laptop prices have really gotten disgusting.

My first computer was a beefy ish consumer grade laptop. Toshiba running an i7, 8gb RAM, can't remember the exact 1gb gpu; but it was pretty sweet for a grand NZD in 2012. That entire price point is gone now.

 

[Kestrel]

I know Like... I want one with a 1060 not a 1050, soon as you reach 1060 territory it's 1400$(SALE) to 1900$(LOL come on). I think 1070 is more fair at that price point personally, but then you're talking 1800$(SALE) to well over 2000$+

It's just nuts. I don't need the laptop for portability, rather it's the footprint and weight that work really well where I want to use it. Using a desktop PC and getting a monitor in that space will take some real rearranging, and be a real hassle, but at this point, I'm starting to think I would be better off building a desktop, and getting a Ryzen 7. Thread Ripper even crossed my mind, given that I'm in the middle of transferring the X-Files from Blu-Ray to PC, and the encoding is brutally slow on my 6700K, but I'd probably stick with the Ryzen.

 

[SniperHF]

How about a micro PC/NUC mounted on the VESA on back of a monitor?

 

[Kestrel]

How about a micro PC/NUC mounted on the VESA on back of a monitor?

It's not as ideal as a laptop - but it might very well be preferable to a desktop. Even if I did a desktop/tower, I was thinking of just putting m.2's in it anyway. I've just had a quick look, but I'm seeing some NUC's have Thunderbolt 3. eGPU's don't seem to quite be all they're cracked up to be, so I will have to think about it and research it to make sure it's worth going that route, but it might be the right option. Thanks for reminding me of their existence!

 

[Kestrel]

Threadripper is getting more and more tempting I'm just hammering my i7-6700K with Handbrake - 99 to 100% utilization across all 8 threads. The good news is that the max temperature is 63 degrees on the hottest core, with the lowest core maxing out at 53 degrees. Not bad for stock cooling!

 

[flyingkiwi]

Just got back from Australia!



There's a Beyonce song for every occasion.

 

[flyingkiwi]

Pricing on the second hand market down here is weird.

Someone is trying to flip a 2gb 960 for $200 reserve on Trademe (NZ ebay), and another person scored 16gb of ddr3 for $140

And another person tried their luck listing a perfectly good 6gb 1060 as $1 reserve, now it's at $200 closing on Friday.

 

[Kestrel]

So, as I figure out what direction I want to go when I replace my laptop, either with a new laptop, a mini-PC, or a mid-tower, I have run into some difficulty in answering one of my big questions. I will ultimately want to run a 4K capable Blu-Ray drive. I know that this can be done with a Kaby Lake or later CPU. What I have not been able to confirm is if Ryzen processors can do it. If necessary, I might be willing to wait on Ryzen 2000 processors as I believe they are supposed to be coming out around April - I could be confusing those with the new AMD APU's though. If AMD can't run a 4K capable Blu-Ray, I might be forced to consider Intel processors only - in which case I'll likely wait for - I believe it's the 8 gens that get the core count boost - to be more widely available.

My understanding is that this relies on HDCP 2.2 and certain DRM's being supported by the processor. I see in my Google search that there are some reddit threads on this - but reddit appears to be down at the moment - I keep getting an "our servers are busy" message.

 

[Kestrel]

And... Reddit is back up - it sounds like you just need a video card that supports HDCP 2.2, Playready 3.0, and HDMI 2.0 - and that this may be the case for Netflix 4K as well. So, if I go with a mid tower, there's a good chance I go AMD, depending on what the $/core ratio is with Intel at the time.

 

[Dick Sledge]

I've decided to build my first desktop. I haven't had a desktop since the early 2000's. I've always had laptops since then.

So I'm new to the build your own scence. I'm not looking for high end gaming or much gaming at all. I do all of that with consoles.

What I want to do is build one that is basically semi high end with 4k playback capabilities.

From everything I've read if I wanted to do 4k Netflix for example I would need a Kaby Lake processor correct? Or have other models caught up? If not then I'll probably be going with the i5 Kaby Lake 7600k. Although I probably won't be overclocking it much at all. From my understanding that has a pretty decent integrated graphics card with it already.

Does anyone have any experience with Kaby Lake at all?

Now I'm researching motherboards. It seems I would want something that's obviously compatible with the Kaby Lake and that has z270 for extra bandwith? I'm fairly ignorant when it comes the the motherboard portion. I was looking at an MSI "gaming plus" but from what I've read it may not be my best option.

This is going to be a project with research and waiting for deals on the parts I want. So I'll keep checking in with questions and any responses will be appreciated.

 

[SniperHF]

Now I'm researching motherboards. It seems I would want something that's obviously compatible with the Kaby Lake and that has z270 for extra bandwith? I'm fairly ignorant when it comes the the motherboard portion. I was looking at an MSI "gaming plus" but from what I've read it may not be my best option.

This is going to be a project with research and waiting for deals on the parts I want. So I'll keep checking in with questions and any responses will be appreciated.

I don't know much about the 4k Question. Maybe Kestrel does he was just looking at something similar.
A quick google search says you're correct that you'll need a Kaby Lake. I assume the newer Coffee lake will also work.

As far as the bandwidth/motherboard is concerned, what that's likely referring to is PCIe lanes. The various chipsets like H270 and B250 and others all have different feature sets.

But for your applications I don't think it will matter. All of them support enough lanes to run a single PCIe 3.0 graphics card at least plus more for other cards or SSDs. If you were running some sort of server set up with a lot of fast solid state drives, or multiple graphics cards for SLI the extra PCIe lanes would matter.

But for what you outlined it won't make a difference and just go unused.

If you aren't interested in gaming you probably won't need a video card, the iGPU of most (all?) Intel CPUs can handle 4k content.

If you have a budget in mind I could give you an idea of what you can build. Are you looking for something upgradable if you decide to game later. Looking for a small form factor to set it up as a HTPC or just keep the space requirements down. Stuff like that.
But it might be more economical since you aren't gaming to just buy a prebuilt desktop.

 

[Dick Sledge]

I don't know much about the 4k Question. Maybe Kestrel does he was just looking at something similar.
A quick google search says you're correct that you'll need a Kaby Lake. I assume the newer Coffee lake will also work.

As far as the bandwidth/motherboard is concerned, what that's likely referring to is PCIe lanes. The various chipsets like H270 and B250 and others all have different feature sets.

But for your applications I don't think it will matter. All of them support enough lanes to run a single PCIe 3.0 graphics card at least plus more for other cards or SSDs. If you were running some sort of server set up with a lot of fast solid state drives, or multiple graphics cards for SLI the extra PCIe lanes would matter.

But for what you outlined it won't make a difference and just go unused.

If you aren't interested in gaming you probably won't need a video card, the iGPU of most (all?) Intel CPUs can handle 4k content.

If you have a budget in mind I could give you an idea of what you can build. Are you looking for something upgradable if you decide to game later. Looking for a small form factor to set it up as a HTPC or just keep the space requirements down. Stuff like that.
But it might be more economical since you aren't gaming to just buy a prebuilt desktop.

I will be using solid state for around 250Gb and then another TB added on. As far as servers does Plex really count. That's the only thing close to a server that wil be running.

I'm not going to get a graphics card but I would like it to be upgradeable in the future, just because you never know. I'll like having the option.

There's no budget per se but I do have a set limit on what I'll spend per part if that makes sense. I'm well aware the monitor will be the most expensive item. Honestly the thought of buying a prebuid never crossed my mind. I enjoy this type of process. I like researching different things and want that joy of knowing I did it myself. (aside from internet advice)

I'm not going to be buying all the parts at once. Christmas won't allow that. I wouldn't mind having everything but the monitor by February. Also getting a new desk and chair too. I may ask about some chair options later.

 

[Kestrel]

I'm about to take a nap... I'll weigh in later. Oh... with up to date drivers, I believe a 10xx video card (might need to be at least a 1050) will now do 4K Netflix, but yeah, Kaby Lake and up will do it. I believe AMD Ryzen has what is needed to be able to do 4K Netflix, but may not be opened up to it yet, but likely will be later - but your best bet at this time is likely just to go with a Kaby Lake processor. If you're not in a hurry, when 8th gen Intel processors become more available, I think you can likely get a better processor (more cores) for roughly the same money - but based on what you're doing, you may not know the difference. Okay, I'm headed for my nap... tchau

 

[Kestrel]

Okay, I'm a little more coherent. Netflix OFFICIALLY requires Intel SGX, which is on Kaby Lake or later. However, the Windows Fall Creator's Update appears to have enabled AMD hardware to support Netflix 4K. You will need current drivers though.

I'm in the process of updating my rx 480 drivers to see if my Skylake based system will support 4K Netflix - I have my doubts, but I'll report back.

Edit: Nope, an updated 480 does NOT get me 4K Netflix - oh, you will have to use the Edge browser to get your 4K as well. I can hit 1080p with my rx 480, but that's where I'm capped. Which is really stupid, given that the card is physically capable of all the requirements. I have seen people reporting that they get 4K Netflix with a Vega card - I suspect a 560 on up would do it for AMD too, but can't confirm it. Nvidia cards, once again I believe it's the 1050 and up, can do it. If I build a Ryzen based machine, I might try my 480 again, but my understanding is that if your card is supported, your processor doesn't have to be.

 

[Kestrel]

Nvidia requirements for 4K Netflix:

4K UHD Netflix content on NVIDIA GPUs | NVIDIA