Mixed use gaming/FEA simulation/workstation build - review requested

[Umberger]

First, the requisite questions:

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Mostly gaming. I'd like to be relatively future-proof in that regard, I'd like to be able to play AAA titles at 60 FPS at reasonably high settings for the next several years. I'm opening to purchasing a second (or upgraded) video card a few years down the road, but I'd rather not need to change anything else.

Also will be used for home office work. I'm an engineer and do a lot of finite element analysis (FEA), which is the driver for the 32GB RAM. I know that this is completely overkill for gaming -- the FEA is the impetus for the RAM amount, as well as the CPU choice -- clock speed is a major driver in solution time, as 95%+ of FEA solution time is inverting huge matrices.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
~$3-3.5k including 2 monitors and UPS. I do NOT need other peripherals included in this amount, and storage drives will be coming from my previous build. (LGA775 mobo died and it's not worth carrying over anything else from that build)

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
US

5. IF YOU have a brand preference.
Preferably Intel and NVIDIA.

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Keyboard, mouse, 3 HDDs, 1 Samsung 850 EVO.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Yes, mild/medium overclocking.

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
2560x1440. Gaming will only be on one monitor. However, I do require two monitors for work use. I'm not particularly concerned w/ >60Hz (although feel free to tell me if that's retarded and I should change my mind) I'm not willing to go down to 1080 to make budget with a higher refresh rate monitor.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Before the end of the year. Between TG and xmas.

10. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
Win10 Pro only.


Here's the PCPartPicker build that I have put together to date:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vq2vrH

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($377.98 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($105.98 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-DELUXE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($299.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($347.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card ($509.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($107.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($154.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM (64-bit) ($129.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus PB278Q 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($399.99 @ Adorama)
Monitor: Asus PB278Q 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($399.99 @ Adorama)
UPS: CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD UPS ($214.95 @ B&H)
Total: $3234.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-22 11:02 EST-0500

I've tried to future proof myself wherever possible. (eg. Skylake, DDR4, GTX980, enough PSU for a second GTX980). Please let me know if you see any potential issues or potential areas of improvement.

Thanks!

 

[frozentundra123456]

Right now, 6700k is overpriced at microcenter. I would go with the 4790k for 259.00 (what it is listed, but I thought it was on sale for 249.00), or the 5820k which also is cheaper than 6700k at microcenter. I would also go with a 980Ti or 970 instead of the 980. Or 390/390x if you are willing to go AMD.

 

[Ken g6]

First, if you're overclocking, on that kind of budget, I'd start with Haswell-E. Take a look at [thread=2455214]this guy's build[/thread], for instance. Take the i7-5820K and whatever mobo fits your needs; keep the H100i and your RAM. I see a comment about clock speeds - you're likely to get similar clock speeds out of Haswell-E, with better RAM bandwidth, unless you're willing to de-lid your 6700K. (You can't de-lid Haswell-E.)

Also, are you sure your core limitation isn't an artificial software license limitation?

Second, the 980 isn't well priced for its performance. As long as you have the budget - and you do - spring for a 980ti.

 

[Umberger]

Right now, 6700k is overpriced at microcenter. I would go with the 4790k for 259.00 (what it is listed, but I thought it was on sale for 249.00), or the 5820k which also is cheaper than 6700k at microcenter. I would also go with a 980Ti or 970 instead of the 980. Or 390/390x if you are willing to go AMD.

Thanks for the feedback! I'll definitely look into a 980Ti -- I wasn't aware that the performance bump was worth the premium.

Part of the reason for the 6700k over the 4790k is the newer socket and the DDR4 memory -- this is a build I plan on keeping for a while. Also, the 5820 wouldn't work well for me because I'd rather have 4 faster cores than 6 slower ones. With Abaqus, it's beneficial to have fewer fast cores as compared to more slower ones, for both computational efficiency as well as licencing issues. The only LGA 2011 processor that is close in terms of clock speed is the Xeon 1630, for just as many dollars. I think I'd rather eat ~$100 now on the overpriced new shiny processor. Maybe I'll regret it...

First, if you're overclocking, on that kind of budget, I'd start with Haswell-E. Take a look at [thread=2455214]this guy's build[/thread], for instance. Take the i7-5820K and whatever mobo fits your needs; keep the H100i and your RAM. I see a comment about clock speeds - you're likely to get similar clock speeds out of Haswell-E, with better RAM bandwidth, unless you're willing to de-lid your 6700K. (You can't de-lid Haswell-E.)

Also, are you sure your core limitation isn't an artificial software license limitation?

Second, the 980 isn't well priced for its performance. As long as you have the budget - and you do - spring for a 980ti.

My core limitation is definitely a license limitation, at least in part. We pay ~$125,000/year for our Abaqus license, and for the Implicit simulations that I run, parallelization efficiency drops off significantly after ~4 cores. I have an 8 core Xeon in my machine at work, and a 16 core compute box with Tesla GPU acceleration, so any big simulations are likely to be run there. For most run of the mill stuff, 4 fast cores is faster and also uses fewer tokens from our license pool (and spends less time waiting in line for those tokens)

You're the second person to mention a 980Ti. To be honest, I hadn't done my research on the merits of 970/980/980Ti, and I think you're both right. Thanks!

I really appreciate both of your feedback. I don't want to come across as argumentative or ungrateful with my processor pushback. Does my reasoning at least make some sense? Call me out if I'm wrong!

Cheers.

 

[Umberger]

So here's a reworked build using a 5820k and a 980Ti. Better? Worse? Still need to change anything? I'm worried about the slower clock speed. I'm sure I can hit 4.0, but the 6700k looks like it's good to ~4.8GHz.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($335.98 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($105.98 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($184.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($347.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB HYBRID Video Card ($689.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($107.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($154.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM (64-bit) ($129.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus PB278Q 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($399.99 @ B&H)
Monitor: Asus PB278Q 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($399.99 @ B&H)
UPS: CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD UPS ($214.95 @ B&H)
Total: $3257.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-22 15:38 EST-0500

Compare that to the 6700k build revised with a 980Ti, and there's relatively little price difference, all in the processor and motherboard, and I'm sure I could save another $100 with a different Mobo, but I'm having trouble picking -- seems like every motherboard on the market has awful Newegg reviews. Trying to decide the worth of ~$150 either way.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($377.98 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($105.98 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-DELUXE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($299.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($347.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB HYBRID Video Card ($689.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($107.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($154.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM (64-bit) ($129.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus PB278Q 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($399.99 @ B&H)
Monitor: Asus PB278Q 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($399.99 @ B&H)
UPS: CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD UPS ($214.95 @ B&H)
Total: $3414.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-22 15:39 EST-0500

 

[Ken g6]

My core limitation is definitely a license limitation, at least in part. We pay ~$125,000/year for our Abaqus license, and for the Implicit simulations that I run, parallelization efficiency drops off significantly after ~4 cores. I have an 8 core Xeon in my machine at work, and a 16 core compute box with Tesla GPU acceleration, so any big simulations are likely to be run there. For most run of the mill stuff, 4 fast cores is faster and also uses fewer tokens from our license pool (and spends less time waiting in line for those tokens)

Software licenses...

So I guess the next question is whether you think games will make good enough use of 8 threads to justify a 6700K over an i5-6600K. They should overclock about the same; one just doesn't hyper-thread its four cores.

 

[Umberger]

Software licenses...

So I guess the next question is whether you think games will make good enough use of 8 threads to justify a 6700K over an i5-6600K. They should overclock about the same; one just doesn't hyper-thread its four cores.

Yeah, the licenses are expensive and in high demand, so we have to compromise sometimes.

If we're at the level where the debate is ~$100 for the i5-6600k vs the i7-6700k, then I'll default to the 6700k and save everyone the time.

See any issues with my choice in any other major components? I like the mobo features, chose memory (somewhat) arbitrarily from the brands I trust, picked monitors based on B&H and customer reviews (I don't particularly want to pay for >60Hz), chose CPU cooler based on Anandtech review comparison, chose the EVGA card based on their stellar (in my experience) customer care, UPS based on (close to) pure sine wave output, case because I love the R5 I have at work, PSU because I think it's one of the ones manufactured by Seasonic, and I've had good luck w/ Corsair PSUs in the past, and the M.2 drive because I clearly have no self control and like going overkill.

Appreciate all the feedback, it sounds like the CPU choice is the main hangup, with a ~$100 swing in 3 possible directions. I'm tempted to go with the 6700k of the available options.

 

[Ken g6]

Hm, now that we've resolved the absurdly-priced CPU issue (and gone with it!) I do see other issues.

Next is the absurdly-priced mobo issue. Maybe get a slightly less-absurdly priced mobo. ("TweakTown Best Overclocking Award Winner"!)

You might as well maximize your memory speed with faster RAM.

There's a Rosewill 750W platinum PSU that's on a good rebate/sale AR at Newegg. It looks generally good, if you're careful when installing it. Edit: Bottom-mounted PSU might mean the CPU cables are literally a bit of a stretch.

 

[Umberger]

Hm, now that we've resolved the absurdly-priced CPU issue (and gone with it!) I do see other issues.

Next is the absurdly-priced mobo issue. Maybe get a slightly less-absurdly priced mobo. ("TweakTown Best Overclocking Award Winner"!)

You might as well maximize your memory speed with faster RAM.

There's a Rosewill 750W platinum PSU that's on a good rebate/sale AR at Newegg. It looks generally good, if you're careful when installing it. Edit: Bottom-mounted PSU might mean the CPU cables are literally a bit of a stretch.

Yeah, the mobo is absurdly priced. It seems that every damn motherboard on the market has terrible Newegg reviews. I went with one with plenty of SATA and onboard wireless that I'll probably never use. I'll look into saving some cash there.

RAM is probably my weakest understanding. I did some research and it looked like the faster frequency tended to have a latency penalty. Am I better off choosing one over the other, or trying to hit the mid range of both?

My PSU is actually based on a PCPP parametric filter right now. I'll probably end up with whatever reputable brand happens to be on sale at the time I pull the trigger.

Can't thank you enoght for the replies. Cheers.

 

[DigDog]

that asus deluxe is way overpriced. and you could easily have 2x 240Gb SSDs for less than 1 512. or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0446076&PID=3327827&SID=ih4z42h6tn0004jw00053
also, before you chose windows 10, i would consider this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8umYPwTy5TA

 

[Umberger]

that asus deluxe is way overpriced. and you could easily have 2x 240Gb SSDs for less than 1 512. or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0446076&PID=3327827&SID=ih4z42h6tn0004jw00053
also, before you chose windows 10, i would consider this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8umYPwTy5TA

Thanks for the feedback. The motherboard seems to be the biggest thing that I was way of base on. Agreed re: the Asus Deluxe. Think I'm going to back off a bit and save some dollars there.

If I wasn't going to go M.2, I'd just use the 500GB 850 Evo that I currently have, but M.2 is new and shiny and stupid fast. Dual 256GB M2 950Pros aren't any cheaper than a 512, so I'm going to stick with it.

I don't really get the issue with Win10 auto updates. I've been using 10 at work for months and haven't really had any complaints. Deferring updates are also a non-issue w/ the Pro version. I like having remote desktop, so I'm going to have Pro anyway.