Need Build help - I am a noob all over again

[p0ntif]

Hi all, haven't been around these parts for a long time. Med school happened, then residency, now i work for myself and I have been using Mac products for the past decade or so and haven't owned a PC. That being said, I am ready to foray back into the PC world, but don't have the slightest clue on what is what, so i am back to my roots here at AT and was hoping y'all could help me build a machine.


1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Mostly remote work (neurophys reads, maybe some video conferencing, watching some movies, image editing, Maybe some sweet games if i have time)

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

$3000.00

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

USA

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.

N/A

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

Nope, no preference
I would just say, the smaller the better if possible.

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

3 of these (Dell UltraSharp U3415W 34-Inch Curved LED-Lit Monitor)
An obutto r3volution cockpit (https://www.mainperformancepc.com/product/obutto-gaming-cockpits/obutto-r3volution-gaming-cockpit/)

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Default

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?

Not sure, probably the highest resolution that feels good with these 3 bad boys (just ordered them and they are on the way) Dell UltraSharp U3415W 34-Inch Curved LED-Lit Monitor. I plan on using all 3 of them in a row (or semicircle I guess since they are curved)

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?

This week or next. Needs to be purchased prior to year end for tax reasons.

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

Yes, but I will purchase that outside of the $3000, so does not need to be included in the build price.


Thanks so much for your help in advance guys!

 

[Ketchup]

Something to get the ball rolling. If you get into demanding games with that setup, you may want to add another 980 Ti to the mix.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($499.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VIII GENE Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($216.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($343.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($649.99 @ B&H)
Case: Silverstone SG10B MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($107.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Full (32/64-bit) ($199.99 @ B&H)
Total: $2203.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-14 22:20 EST-0500

 

[lakedude]

That 6700 seems overpriced @ $500ish. How about this one for $310ish (and matching MB/RAM)?:

Intel Core i7-4790K Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1150

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117369

It is hard to spend $3k these days. Maybe several disks for a ZFS (or similar) server so data storage would be fault tolerant??

 

[Ketchup]

Yeah, I wasn't happy with the price places are asking for the 6700. It should be $319, like it is at Microcenter if you have one nearby:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/453910/Core_i7-6700_34GHz_LGA_1151_Boxed_Processor

 

[p0ntif]

Thanks guys! I'll pick all this up probably tonight!

 

[p0ntif]

Yeah, I wasn't happy with the price places are asking for the 6700. It should be $319, like it is at Microcenter if you have one nearby:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/453910/Core_i7-6700_34GHz_LGA_1151_Boxed_Processor

I have a microcenter nearby, thanks for the heads up!

*EDIT* actually i am going to have to wait because the i7 6700 is sold out at my local Microcenters in Atlanta. Hard to find it at a reasonable price.

 

[DigDog]

i take it you will not be overclocking? (because it's a work pc n all that ..)

also, when you say "small" do you mean small case?

and : http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2457509

 

[p0ntif]

i take it you will not be overclocking? (because it's a work pc n all that ..)

also, when you say "small" do you mean small case?

and : http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2457509

So yeah,

1. Yeah no need or huge desire to overclock anymore
2. By small, I do mean case. It doesn't have to be small, but smaller is better. Space is a premium.
3. Thanks for the link. I want to spend the microcenter price of ~$320, but if its not available at that price by year end, I'll probably buy one around $400 anyway unless there is any huge justification not to. It either goes towards a business expense or towards the IRS, so I have about 2 weeks to find one at a reasonable price.

 

[DigDog]

consider that high end RAM for a haswell costs much less than the same for skylake. take that out and the two chips perform very similar. skylake also is a strong overclocker, something which you will miss entirely.
and if you want, you can opt for for a 5930k. not cheap (should not be a problem with your budget), and defo a businessman's chip. more so when you want to drive 3 high res monitors, god knows how much software you want open at the same time.
speaking of which, you might actually need not one, but two high end gpu if you plan to game on those 3 babies.

 

[p0ntif]

consider that high end RAM for a haswell costs much less than the same for skylake. take that out and the two chips perform very similar. skylake also is a strong overclocker, something which you will miss entirely.
and if you want, you can opt for for a 5930k. not cheap (should not be a problem with your budget), and defo a businessman's chip. more so when you want to drive 3 high res monitors, god knows how much software you want open at the same time.
speaking of which, you might actually need not one, but two high end gpu if you plan to game on those 3 babies.

DigDog, want to take a stab at a build with those specs?
I'm interested in all options! including overclocking if need be.

 

[Ketchup]

Nothing at all against a Haswell-E. Just remember that you want a smaller case, and those chips run much hotter than Skylake, and the socket it uses is probably about gone (LGA 2011 is about 4 years old).

If I were buying a new computer right now, I would want something new, instead of something that may not be upgradeable in the future.

But either will make a great system, so totally up to you p0ntif.

 

[p0ntif]

Nothing at all against a Haswell-E. Just remember that you want a smaller case, and those chips run much hotter than Skylake, and the socket it uses is probably about gone (LGA 2011 is about 4 years old).

If I were buying a new computer right now, I would want something new, instead of something that may not be upgradeable in the future.

But either will make a great system, so totally up to you p0ntif.

Good info Ketchup, thanks. I agree with you. I'll probably end up paying more for the i7 6700 unfortunately if i can't find one reasonably before the tax year is over.

 

[lakedude]

Ketchup is the man around here so generally I'll defer to him. Nothing wrong with that 6700, it is just a bad time to buy with them being sold out everywhere that offers them for a reasonable price.

Also we might look at the AMD Radeon R9 Nano since being small is a big issue with the OP. One reviewer had this to say about the EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti:

"- Quite large, so make sure your case can fit it in"

Finally I wonder if the DDR4 might draw enough power to compensate for the power savings of a Skylake CPU? I haven't checked, it is just a thought.

Now that I'm married with children budget is more of a concern. Price/performance is key to me. Clearly cost is nearly no object so I guess an overpriced 6700 isn't that big of a deal...

Finally I want to restate that you might want spend $2k on the powerful rig and another $1k on a server full of hard drives running some sort of fault tolerant mirroring/RAID/ZFS etc. for storage and backups.

 

[p0ntif]

Finally I want to restate that you might want spend $2k on the powerful rig and another $1k on a server full of hard drives running some sort of fault tolerant mirroring/RAID/ZFS etc. for storage and backups.

This is an interesting idea lakedude. Currently only using a 3TB timecapsule for my apple backups. Any suggestions on a build for such a server?

 

[lakedude]

Fractal Design mid tower cases have room for 8 drives.

Look for a MB with at least 8 SATA plugs as well...

CPU could be almost anything.

Lots of RAM helps with big file operations.

I made mine from a leftover computer from the DDR 2 era. Mine has 6 drives but only provides 4 drives worth of usable space with 2 drives of redundancy. Any 2 drives can fail and the whole system is totally usable with no data loss (if 3 failed at the same time I'd be screwed). Mine runs Solaris based ZFS.

ZFS is flexible in that you can have as many or as few drives of redundancy as you like. Also you don't need 6, you could have more or less as your needs dictate.

I don't really have specific suggestions, maybe others will help with the details. If nothing else I can ask a friend who has done this more recently.

Having a "real" server is totally within your budget and it is something I highly recommend. It will give you peace of mind that your data is safe (or much safer than it would be if it was just on one drive anyhow).