New Kaby Lake Build

[Chaptorial]

Hello Anandtech. I’m looking to put together a new build after about 7 years with my current setup. I was actually looking to wait until later in the year but I’m going to be giving my current setup, minus my peripherals, to my young nephew who loves playing Minecraft, so in turn my hand is forced into purchasing a whole new build (the horror ).

My current setup has worked as intended over the years requiring only a video card upgrade and I couldn’t have been happier with it. I will be going from Bloomfield to Kaby Lake and am excited to finally perform a true upgrade.

• Just like my current build, my new one will be used for gaming (Witcher 3, GTA V), web browsing & streaming media like Netflix.

• Budget for this build is $2,500 USC. Can go +/- a few hundred and not be of much concern.

• Will be purchasing all parts here in the USA. Newegg, Amazon and I also have a Microcenter close by so will look to purchase from there also.

• Intel, nVidia, Samsung and Corsair in terms of brand preference.

• Would like to do some moderate overclocking.

• For now will be sticking with 1920 x 1200 resolution but am planning on upgrading the monitor in the near future. I have no problem with running an overkill setup for the time being.

• Would like to order/purchase the parts within two weeks and will need a fresh copy of Windows 10 Home 64 bit.

So my current build which I’ll giving to my nephew consists of an i7-920 on air, Asus P6X58D, HD 7970, Crucial m4 256 GB SSD, 1 TB HD, 12 GB RAM, Corsair 750HX PSU and a Cooler Master HAF 932 full tower case.

Current parts I have selected for me new build are as follows:

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz $343.49

CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i 113.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler $119.99

Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming K6 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard $167.99

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory $214.99

Storage: Samsung 960 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive $329

Storage: Samsung 960 Evo 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive $249.99

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card $609.99

Case: Corsair 750D Airflow Edition ATX Full Tower Case $149.49

PSU: Corsair RMx 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply $100.98

Wireless Network Card: Asus PCE-AC68 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter $92.88


PC Part Picker Full List


Total price, with additional items not listed above, comes to $2522.06 and also that’s without taking Microcenter prices into account or otherwise shopping around.

I have some replacements fans picked out both for the case and for the radiator of the Corsair AIO CPU cooler. This is my first foray into water cooling so I'm going to ease into it with an AIO cooler. Will also be picking up Windows 10 Home 64 bit and again I'll be keeping my current peripherals. My mobo selection has no onboard Wi-Fi so I'm looking at that ASUS card. The memory selected is on the motherboard manufacturers list of compatible RAM.

I don't really amass that much data storage on my computer so the plan is to avoid a mechanical hard drive for this build. If I need more storage beyond the two m2 drives I will add an SSD or two. With that in mind I can remove both drive bays from the 750D case for increased air flow. I really like the idea of limiting the amount of cables running through this case. If I need a optical drive I'll look to use an external one.

I did a decent amount of research and put together this build but I know my limitations and bow to those much more educated on this topic. I have a fairly decent budget but have zero problems trimming the fat if it looks like I'm just throwing money away. So if anyone has any suggestions etc. I'd love to hear it and see where I can improve this build. Appreciate it.

 

[EliteRetard]

I dunno why, but I always feel like if you're going over $1,500 you should get more cores. Broadwell isn't that much worse per MHz than Kaby lake.

You could do something like this, and get a 6800 at 4.4 - 4.5 Ghz "guaranteed" which puts it's single thread near stock 7700k.
https://siliconlottery.com/collections/2011-3/products/6800k44g
https://siliconlottery.com/collections/2011-3/products/6800k45g

Just slapped together a build real quick to give you an idea:

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/rKTVCy
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/rKTVCy/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-6800K 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor ($409.69 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H115i 104.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX X99 GAMING ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($319.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory CAS 15 1.2v ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 960 Evo 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($479.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card ($609.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define S ATX Mid Tower Case ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ B&H)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Total: $2368.20
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-06 17:53 EST-0500

 

[rh71]

I'm hearing the ASRock mobos aren't coming with support for Kaby Lake so you have to flash it. How does that work nowadays? Used to do it from a floppy (yes that long ago) - is there support for a USB stick? Is it still a BIOS or UEFI that has USB support?

FYI jet.com has 15% off if you're a new customer for 3 orders. Just did my build with them, which really just negates the tax. Used Newegg (no tax) for parts that offer rebates.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'm hearing the ASRock mobos aren't coming with support for Kaby Lake so you have to flash it. How does that work nowadays? Used to do it from a floppy (yes that long ago) - is there support for a USB stick? Is it still a BIOS or UEFI that has USB support?

FYI jet.com has 15% off if you're a new customer for 3 orders. Just did my build with them, which really just negates the tax. Used Newegg (no tax) for parts that offer rebates.

Any links? Z270 motherboards or just older 170, etc.? It seems implausible that the Z270 motherboards introduced alongside KB would need a BIOS update.

 

[rh71]

Any links? Z270 motherboards or just older 170, etc.? It seems implausible that the Z270 motherboards introduced alongside KB would need a BIOS update.

Sorry I misread and thought it was the 170.

 

[Chaptorial]

EliteRetard & SliceT thanks for the replies. I never considered doing a Broadwell build but have been doing some research based on your suggestions and definitely have some additional choices now going forward. I've tweaked my build sheet a bit but still have some decisions to make.

FYI jet.com has 15% off if you're a new customer for 3 orders. Just did my build with them, which really just negates the tax. Used Newegg (no tax) for parts that offer rebates.

Thanks for the heads up on jet.com, will be looking to save some coin on this new build. What type of build did you go with for your most recent purchase?

 

[rh71]

Thanks for the heads up on jet.com, will be looking to save some coin on this new build. What type of build did you go with for your most recent purchase?

On a budget so I'm re-using my old case/PSU/SSD/GPU. and replacing the core components to upgrade from a Q6600.
i5-7600K
Cooler Master Hyper T4 fan
ASRock Z170 Pro4S
Viper Patriot 4 16GB RAM

Came out to under $478 and it's about 250% faster than what I have.

 

[Chaptorial]

On a budget so I'm re-using my old case/PSU/SSD/GPU. and replacing the core components to upgrade from a Q6600.
i5-7600K
Cooler Master Hyper T4 fan
ASRock Z170 Pro4S
Viper Patriot 4 16GB RAM

Nice build! Enjoy it till the next upgrade.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

On a budget so I'm re-using my old case/PSU/SSD/GPU. and replacing the core components to upgrade from a Q6600.
i5-7600K
Cooler Master Hyper T4 fan
ASRock Z170 Pro4S
Viper Patriot 4 16GB RAM

Came out to under $478 and it's about 250% faster than what I have.

I'm behind schedule for retiring my Q6600 server system, almost ashamed to say it. You really got some mileage from that sucker!

 

[Chaptorial]

Went with the completed build in my sig. Has been running stable for a couple of months and overall I'm very pleased. I went with an EVGA gfx card and will be upgrading to a 1080 Ti via their 'Step-Up' program. First time using an EVGA product and all the positive things said about their customer service that I've read over the years have definitely been validated for me.

PCPartPicker page of final build.

 

[MadOver]

Nice! Did you had to use their customer service?

 

[Chaptorial]

Sorry for the late reply on this. In regards to the EVGA customer service, the entire 'Step-Up' process was done through their website with no fuss. Never actually had the need to contact their CS directly via phone or email. It's a very streamlined service and have been very pleased with EVGA overall.