Another new PC build
 

Just wanted to see what you guys thought. I know there are some like minded folks on here.

I really liked Ryzen but the deals where so good on the Intel stuff I couldn't refuse. Plus, I game, I don't do Photoshop etc, and I will keep my 6 core 12 thread machine for a streaming box etc. The 7700k is still the winner in single threaded applications, and 4 cores and 4 threads on this is plenty for maxed out upcoming AAA titles at 4k.

My original plan was to reuse a bunch of parts from my current rig, but as I got deeper in, the hardware deals are SO GOOD right now that I am only going to end up reusing my SLI 970s, and my PSU from my current box, both of which will be replaced in upcoming months.

I put the REAL price I paid for everything, and everything is brand new with the exception of the aforementioned GPUs and PSU.

Oddly enough, every single lowest price thing on PC partpicker I was able to find cheaper elsewhere, mostly through www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales, which included the free p400 case with the mobo purchase. I am REALLY in love with the case, except for the possible airflow restriction on the front, and I do plan to mod the front panel for straight through airflow. I also really wanted to go with the Cryorig A80, which is a 280x27mm radiator, but its sold out everywhere, so I 'settled' on the A40 ultimate which is the big body 240x38mm radiator, at the cost of about 1 degree Celsius in performance. You can also see that I only went with a single 500GB m.2 NVMe drive, and that is because I basically leave everything in the cloud and download on demand since I have gigabit internet, but I will add a mechanical HDD to it next month when I also upgrade to a big boy monitor setup. After Vega releases I will see what GPU prices do, and end up with a couple of 1070s or 1080s, or possibly a vega GPU depending on the market.

The 7700k will be delidded before it goes in the machine. I did not list the 24 dollar delidding tool and the 10 dollar liquid metal for that. I will be shooting for AT LEAST a 4.8 ghz stable OC, and I will definitely push it to 5 to see how it handles it. All in all, I got away for a thousand bucks. Not bad for a top of the line gaming PC.

Here we go!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($295.00)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - A40 ULTIMATE 83.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($128.00)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z270 Taichi ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($189.00)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($98.00)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($219.00)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI)
Case: Phanteks - ECLIPSE P400 ATX Mid Tower Case ($0.00)
Power Supply: Corsair - 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($0.00)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($32.00)
Total: $961.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-24 19:35 EDT-0400

Tell me what you guys think, and where you think I ****ed up!

Stable OC @ 5.0 ghz at 1.3v even. Gaming temps hover around high 30s low 40s at 5 gigs. REALLY in love with this Cryorig cooler.

come at me bros.

What would be the average price for a PC that could handle gaming but also handle Photoshop work as well? Just checking since I'll be PC shopping probably in the next 6 months.

How did the delid go?Thought about doing the same to my 6700k, but I'm probably more limited by the silicon itself than temperature.

Is the WANNACRY virus built in?

If your going that route you need to do a Ryzen build. You can get away for a grand if you shop right and want a powerful system. 6 months fom now I may give you different advice. Hardware is very fluid right now with lots of new releases and price changes coming rapidly.

uhhhh no i dont leave my shit unpatched

Super easy.

TBH I was nervous as ****!

Here is the delidding tool I used.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-CPU-De...-/192162690814

If you watch the guys video he makes it look like you have to strain and work at etc.


Once it was tight, I just gave the allen wrench some muscle and it literally slid right off like butter. No issues whatsoever. Cleaned it all up with rubbing alcohol and a Q tip, and used

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

for the liquid metal. Once it was all cleaned up I just put a BB sized amount on the die, and spread it around with a q-tip. I placed the processor in the mobo socket and positioned the IHS on top, clamped it down and voila. MEGA GREAT TEMPS. I am pumped it was so easy and just makes all the difference in the world.

Another great thing about this build was that I planned correctly, had everything on hand, and put it all together in one fell swoop, and it all just worked from the get go. No tweaks needed in the bios, no nothing needed except to install my monitoring tools and then I went to work OCing. Only took me a few tries to find a stable 5.0 clock and away we go~

Don't really see much to gripe about. I've got my own personal opinions when it comes to SLI and AIO coolers, but you do you.

I've yet to use the MyDigitalSSD m.2 but if I were building a pc today that would be my drive of choice. It's not as good of a performer as the EVO but in the real world what are you really going to notice? I like that the MyDigitalSSD uses MLC giving it really good endurance scores and it comes with 2 more years of warranty.

And I still can't give up my optical drive. I have too many CDs to rip and I still buy CDs, plus old games I get nostalgic for every now and then.

You wont notice it in regular duty, only in file transfers. I just got a smokin deal on it and for the little price diff I said meh, why not, will look good in benchmarks and I have the file transfer overhead if needed.

As for AIO coolers, never had any issues with them (my original h100 is still running strong after 5 years) and they always keep the temps down, quieter than air and cheaper than custom loop. These cryorig coolers are incredible, compared to a custom loop you are talking a few C of difference. Hell of a value.

SLI has never ever ever ever caused me an issue, I see a lot of complaints about it but MOST of them come from people regurgitating what they have heard and they don't have first hand experience. It isn't 2001 anymore and the shit just works. Plus, the GPUs are recycled from my old PC, and I will be upgrading in the future. Could be talked into going single card in the right situation, but will have to see what happens to the market when Vega hits.

I havent used my optical drive on my old rig since 2012 when I built it and installed windows using a disc lol. i actually tested it a few days ago and it doesnt even work, who would have known LOL

My beef with SLI is the added heat from a second card and not all games utilizing a dual GPU setup.

Sure there are games that dont use SLI, but they tend to be few and far between nowadays, and if they dont, they arent much of a GPU hog anyway, and but if they arent using it the other card runs at idle so no extra heat really in that situation. GPU temps are not an issue if you have a good card with an aftermarket cooler, and use fan control software. My cards never get over about 55c at prolonged usage with both GPUs running maxed out at 100 percent.

One thing I did in this build compared to my other is I front mounted the AIO this time instead of top mounted.

Check this out for why~

<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xNAMxZgvves" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


10C better processor temps in an open fan GPU environment! WOW! No change in reference style blowers, but this right here shows that you can offset any added internal case heat by configuring your build correctly.

Even though it goes against every bone in my body, I'm half tempted to say **** it and make my next build, which is maybe 2 months down the road, an AMD build.

I would literally gain nothing by doing it. The sole reason would be just to give AMD a little more market share and hope the Ryzen chips age better as more games start to move towards more threads.

Either way I doubt there would be any buyers remorse. I just have little faith in AMD's ability to keep up.

Threadripper should be out then. It's going to kick Intel's ass at that price point. 16 cores/32 threads and 64 PCIe lanes for $849? Wow.

I think Ryzen is really going to mature into a nice platform for AMD. I didn't feel super awed by the release at first, but I think the next reiterations and the maturation of software support is going to make it extremely competitive down the road.

I really have no interest in Threadripper. It's more like r5 1600 or maybe r7 1700 if I just want to splurge for no reason at all vs Coffee Lake.