anything in the near future worth waiting on for a new PC?

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bburk
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anything in the near future worth waiting on for a new PC?

Post by bburk » Thu Feb 23, 2017 4:19 pm

Building yet another gaming PC. Looking for MB, CPU, heatsink, RAM, & PS recommendations, can put up to $1000 into these. I already have an 850 pro SSD and Zotac GXT 1070 GPU to put in it and planning on a Fractal R5 case. I have some time with this one and am wondering what's out there now & good to get, and is there anything coming in the next few months that might be worth the wait. I plan no major overclocking, but if the MB does some automatically, fine. thanks

CA_Steve
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Re: anything in the near future worth waiting on for a new P

Post by CA_Steve » Thu Feb 23, 2017 5:42 pm

Intel Kaby Lake desktop came out in Jan...biggest consumer benefit over Sky Lake for you is built in DRM needed to play Netflix 4k on a PC. Also, new generation of Realtek audio chip on the mobos - good if you run analog audio out. Haven't heard any mobo horror stories (yet), but, as always, recommend waiting 2-3 months after release to let the firmware/driver updates settle down. An i5 is the typical sweet spot for gaming. Runs cooler at higher freq than Sky Lake, no noticable game benefit just lower temps and potentially slightly less power use.

AMD Ryzen processors (i7 equivalent) out on March 2ish...but the i5 equivalent not out until June-ish. No hardware reviews, yet - just AMD hype. In any case add 2-3 months for their mobo firmware/driver issues to settle down as well. Have no idea whether or not they've incorporated the DRM needed for 4k Netflix. Ask again in March.

bburk
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Re: anything in the near future worth waiting on for a new P

Post by bburk » Fri Feb 24, 2017 2:44 am

ok, here's what I am considering atm...

Intel Core i5-7600K - as suggested
MSI Z270 TOMAHAWK - bad luck with ASUS last time, & this looks to have what I need ?
16GB RAM - suggestions ?
Fractal Design Define R5 - got one before, love it
EVGA SuperNOVA P2 650W - no reason other than it was suggested here on my last build
Scythe Kotetsu - same as above

already have;
zotac 1070 Amp Extreme (the R5 will have room for this with the lower drive cage removed? )
256GB Samsung 850 Pro
4TB external drive to plug in as needed
48" 4k Samsung TV/monitor

Please offer suggestions / other ideas for any of this. thanks

Olle P
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Re: anything in the near future worth waiting on for a new P

Post by Olle P » Fri Feb 24, 2017 4:57 am

bburk wrote:Intel Core i5-7600K - as suggested, MSI Z270 TOMAHAWK - bad luck with ASUS last time, & this looks to have what I need? 16GB RAM - suggestions?
Let's find out what you need (minimum sufficient), what you want and what's worth paying a little more to get.
* Is overclocking a big thing for you, or is just the ability to do a little sufficient? That should set some minimum requirements for the motherboard and type of RAM.
- 16GB of RAM seems to be the new standard target, though I certainly didn't notice any form of improvement over 8GB. Having faster RAM (>2.4GHz) does at least give a small measurable increase in performance.
- There are cheaper mobos around that have all the connectors and features you need. Look less sexy and possibly can't overclock that far though.
- Depending on what games you play it might be worthwhile to consider a Core i7 or Ryzen to get more multithreaded performance at the expense of single thread. I'd at least wait for some proper Ryzen reviews before making a final decision.
bburk wrote:EVGA SuperNOVA P2 650W - no reason other than it was suggested here on my last build
Did you get it? And why not re-use the PSU of your last build?
bburk wrote:Scythe Kotetsu - same as above
Scythe FUMA seems to be the new cool kid on the block, although the review I read didn't go as deep into the lack of noise as SPCR usually do.

quest_for_silence
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Re: anything in the near future worth waiting on for a new P

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri Feb 24, 2017 5:37 am

Olle P wrote:though I certainly didn't notice any form of improvement over 8GB.

I did: I'm used to have dozens and dozens of Firefox tabs open, and with 16Gb life is much easier.

CA_Steve
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Re: anything in the near future worth waiting on for a new P

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Feb 24, 2017 8:09 am

Intel Core i5-7600K - ok.

MSI Z270 TOMAHAWK - Intel NIC but older Realtek ALC892 audio codec. If you are running digital audio out - it's a don't care. Looking at the product stack...the next step up has the newer ALC1220 but the Killer NIC. If you want both Intel NIC and ALC1220, then there's the Gaming Pro for $25 more.

16GB RAM - suggestions ? Look at the mobo's qualified vendor list for a first cut. Kaby Lake's memory controller's baseline is 2400 speed. Haven't seen any memory scaling articles for Kaby Lake...for Sky Lake there was a little bit of benefit for going with faster RAM...I'd say look at the 2400 and 2667 and if it's just a few bucks, get the faster. If the gap is wide, don't bother.

Fractal Design Define R5 - ok - it fit's a 16" card with the drive cage removed, btw...

EVGA SuperNOVA P2 650W - ok. There's also the Corsair RM550x and 650x.

Scythe Kotetsu - If stock or just OC, then ok. If planning to overvolt, you might want to go with Ninja 4.

If you plan to use the motherboard's OC wizard for overclocking, be aware of the potential of higher than needed core voltage, leading to higher than expected cpu temps...

CA_Steve
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Re: anything in the near future worth waiting on for a new P

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Feb 24, 2017 8:39 am

Also, is 256GB SSD enough space for you?

bburk
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Re: anything in the near future worth waiting on for a new P

Post by bburk » Fri Feb 24, 2017 1:27 pm

256GB SSD space is working for me, it's only about 60% full after a couple years of use, and I already have it, so...
Speaking of, is there a difference in M2 vs SATA worth knowing about yet? That could be a future upgrade.

Running digital audio, so audio codec is a moot point. Part of the reason I am considering that MB though is it is among the lower end ones that has a SPDIF output which is a requirement of mine.
Are there lower cost boards with a SPDIF out that you would recommend?

I saw the notes about the MSI MB core voltage problems, they say the new bios fixes that?

I also generally have LOTS of tabs open in firefox, so 16GB RAM seems the way to go.

A little overclocking is plenty.

I have been debating on going to an I7, not so much for the games I play now as to future proof the system a bit. Path of Exile is the main game I play ATM, running it at 4K res. Got Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen as a xmas gift, not gotten into it much yet.

As for re-using the PSU or anything else. My current computer is going to my wife, minus the GPU & SSD. Hers is just plain obsolete. It's kind of amazing it lasted as long as it did, it's the one I posted about a couple years ago about repair parts for a computer that was partially under water and it was already a several years old then.

I'd be interested to see a review with noise details on the Scythe FUMA.

thanks much, Doug

CA_Steve
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Re: anything in the near future worth waiting on for a new P

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Feb 24, 2017 3:34 pm

bburk wrote:Speaking of, is there a difference in M2 vs SATA worth knowing about yet? That could be a future upgrade.
For gaming? Not really. It'll load games a little faster but won't impact performance. View it as an eventual path rather than a required one.
bburk wrote:Are there lower cost boards with a SPDIF out that you would recommend?
Not offhand.
bburk wrote:I saw the notes about the MSI MB core voltage problems, they say the new bios fixes that?
Don't know a specific problem related to MSI. Just know mobo mfgrs tend to have a heavy thumb on the core voltage scale when it comes to presets.
bburk wrote:I have been debating on going to an I7, not so much for the games I play now as to future proof the system a bit.
<Shrugs> You are far more likely to run out of GPU steam than CPU with a very fast i5 at 4k. Don't think that'll change anytime in the next few years. I'd save the money for use on your next gfx card :)

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