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Critics advise please

JasonBourne

Member
I'm gonna put together a $1200 ish rig in a couple of months. Since I was out of touch with the tech world, but I put together these

GPU - Gigabyte GTX970 4GB
CPU - i5 6600K
HEATSINK - CM 212 Hyper Evo
MOBO - Asus Z170 PRO
RAM - Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2x8 GB
PSU - Seasonic G-650 650W
DISPLAY - MI TV 2 40"
CASE - Antec P280
HDD - Samsung 256 GB M2 SSD
- WD Caviar 2TB 7200 rpm
NETWORK - DLink WiFi PCI card

Now I've got some questions. Community please help me out.
1. Since I'm putting a new rig together is Skylake worth it?
2. Gaming will be totally on 1080p with all Settings turned on. Is GTX 970 enough to last 4 years?
3. What to buy in SSD SATAIII, M.2 or NVMe(when it's available)?
4. Should I go for two 1TB HDD over one 2TB HDD for more speeds? Will it even matter?

Waiting for replies. Thanks guys
 
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1. Yes, always into the future with better CPU architecture
2. Only future will tell but should be able to cover for a year or two comfortably, for the most part.
3. M.2 looks like a better choice.
4. In day to day operations speed is noticeable if you wants things done in the speed of light, all the time.

Personal opinions*
 
Thanks TheDayDreamer for the answers.
I've played games on 27" monitor and am tired of it. So I listed a 40" 1080p TV instead. I primarily play a game for 1 week or few days more if its a long one. No multiplayer. So 60fps is comfortable for me. Will the TV's refresh rate matter in any way?
 
Doesnt look bad, but with a 1200.00 budget I would go the extra hundred dollars or so for the i7 6700k. Also if you go with Skylake, you need fast, low latency RAM to get the best performance. Others could advise you better with specifics.

970 is a good choice for the gpu, but if you dont mind some extra power use and heat generation, you might want to consider AMD 290x/390x. They have a full 4gb of vram (8gb models are also available) and they may be somewhat more efficient with DX12. Unless you want to run at reduced settings, I doubt any gpu will last 4 years, especially since die shrunk cards with much better performance and power usage should come out sometime in 2016.
 
@frozentundra123456
Well I think i7 is too much for my needs as I dont need to do video related stuff and that much multi tasking.
I've no thoughts on SLI. So do you think 390 will make any difference than 970 at 1080p?
And yeah I need to find better latencies in RAM. Point noted.
Thanks for the constructive thoughts
 
OK, your choice on the cpu. The i5 will be quite powerful, but some games are starting to utilize the larger cache and hyperthreading of the i7, so it is something to consider. A top end cpu should last 4 or 5 years, so the initial cost is minimal over the life of the system.

390/390x and 970 should either one be a good choice. Like I said though, I would not expect either one to last more than a couple of years, as powerful new gpus on 14/16 nm should be coming out in a year or so.
 
Yeah, I think an unlocked i5 is all I need. Have been using the locked Sandy Bridge for more than 2 years so unlocked Skylake should be good enough.

For the smaller die size and better performance, should I wait for the upcoming generation of GPUs?
Meanwhile I can reuse my old GTX 560 Ti, though it'll be painful for the GPU but I think it'll hold for a quarter with lower settings.
 
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Thanks TheDayDreamer for the answers.
I've played games on 27" monitor and am tired of it. So I listed a 40" 1080p TV instead. I primarily play a game for 1 week or few days more if its a long one. No multiplayer. So 60fps is comfortable for me. Will the TV's refresh rate matter in any way?

It will, if you games like FIFA with fast moving screen from one side to another, flicker on screen might happen. 125mhz refresh screens are pretty cheap these days.

Edit - Just noticed that you have Mi TV2. I could not find the refresh rate of it though.
 
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ASAMOF, I do play FIFA, a lot. Well then I guess I need to find a Samsung TV with that refresh rate to for in right. Anything else?
 
NVMe would be better choice when it is out, like the Samsung 950 Pro. A Sata 3 M.2 drive has no real benefits over a regular 2.5" SSD. Only thing is that the NVMe SSDs are a little more pricey.
 
I'm ready to go with i5 over i7 for that as I don't need that much processing power. But daily speeds matter much to me. Let's hope I can grab one when it's a little cheap than its now.

970 is okay or do I need to stretch to 980?
 
On your budget, the 980 is too much. Should go for the r9 390 if you can, should be able to find them for < $300.
I'm not much of a AMD fan since they are late on drivers and heat a lot. In future when I'll overclock the GPU, I fear that it might get burnt. Are my fears feasible?
 
A GTX970 4GB is a reasonable card for your current build... I would, however, expect to upgrade it in 2 years or so if you plan to play newer titles and high settings. The base rig will still be viable (for the most part, see Frozen's comment about the i7) even in 2 years, so a GPU upgrade at that time would make sense... sell the GTX970 to offset the cost of new tech. I don't really know if going to a GTX980 right now really makes any sense, even looking 2 years ahead.
 
A GTX970 4GB is a reasonable card for your current build... I would, however, expect to upgrade it in 2 years or so if you plan to play newer titles and high settings. The base rig will still be viable (for the most part, see Frozen's comment about the i7) even in 2 years, so a GPU upgrade at that time would make sense... sell the GTX970 to offset the cost of new tech. I don't really know if going to a GTX980 right now really makes any sense, even looking 2 years ahead.
That sounds reasonable.

But I'm gonna part with 380 for now due to it's heat and extreme power consumption. I think I'll have to hold for Nvidia to launch something similar to 970 with 8GB memory so as to future proof my way for high textures in upcoming titles.

I was thinking of getting this
http://www.corsair.com/en-in/hydro-series-hg10-n970-gpu-liquid-cooling-bracket
since my room temperature is around 30C always.
What do you guys think? Is it feasible for the price?
 
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Is it possible to share a common radiator for 2 liquid cooling setups, one for CPU another for GPU?

Sorry if the question is noobish, but couldn't help asking.
 
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