Newest HTPC/Gaming build

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bburk
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Newest HTPC/Gaming build

Post by bburk » Wed Oct 17, 2018 2:10 pm

Building a computer for my brother. Here's the plan so far:

CPU; Intel - Core i5-8600K 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor
There anything in the new 9th gen chips worth knowing about?

CPU Cooler; Scythe - SCNJ-4000 84.6 CFM
Open to other suggestions here.

Motherboard; MSI - Z370 GAMING PRO CARBON ATX LGA1151
Love my MSI Z270, am hoping this is as good

Memory; Corsair - Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3600
Open to suggestions here too. Would 4000 speed chips make any noticeable difference? GSkills are cheaper, anything bad about them?

Storage; Samsung - 970 Evo 1.0TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Pretty much perfect for installing all software on. Will use external drives for media.

Video Card; MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB Video Card
Hoping to see price drops on this real soon. (Also considering the new 2070)

Case; Fractal Design - Define R6 Black ATX Mid Tower
Love my R5, any differences here to know about? Also there are 2 versions with different ports, which is best for a 370 MB?

What's the best options for 2 fans to put in the front of this?

Power Supply; EVGA - SuperNOVA P2 650W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Already have this, so basically free.

thanks for any input.

Abula
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Re: Newest HTPC/Gaming build

Post by Abula » Wed Oct 17, 2018 3:17 pm

bburk wrote:CPU; Intel - Core i5-8600K 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor
There anything in the new 9th gen chips worth knowing about?
Really good CPU, although i would recommend to look into i5 9600K that in essence is very similar, will give you 100mhz extra (probably wont notice much), but more importantly it comes with a soldier IHS, so it should net you better temps overall. One other change that came on intel 9th gen has spectre/meltdown hardware fixes.
bburk wrote:CPU Cooler; Scythe - SCNJ-4000 84.6 CFM
Open to other suggestions here.
I would recommend the Scythe Mugen5 RevB specially since you are going with RGB memory, so might aswell have a cooler that don't overlap with it.
bburk wrote:Motherboard; MSI - Z370 GAMING PRO CARBON ATX LGA1151
Love my MSI Z270, am hoping this is as good
No comments, i like MSI also, only recommendation might be to consider Z390, MSI has some nice ones.
bburk wrote:Memory; Corsair - Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3600
Open to suggestions here too. Would 4000 speed chips make any noticeable difference? GSkills are cheaper, anything bad about them?
First select the motherboard, then go into the manufacturers QVL List of memory and chose one from it, to avoid incompatibilities. Try to buy Samsung B-die memory, usually its the one that reaches higher and has less issues with AMD/Intel, Gskill trident Z usually uses Samsung B-die, and that would be my recommendation, the speed.... on intel.... unless you are rendering or doing something that its very memory dependent i would go with CL14 3200mhz, higher than that the gains are very specific under certain scenarios.
bburk wrote:Storage; Samsung - 970 Evo 1.0TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Pretty much perfect for installing all software on. Will use external drives for media.
Im going to recommend another that performs very similar but cost a lot less, even temperature to me its lower than 970, ADATA XPG SX8200.
bburk wrote:Video Card; MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB Video Card
Hoping to see price drops on this real soon. (Also considering the new 2070)
Great choice, no comments here.
bburk wrote:Case; Fractal Design - Define R6 Black ATX Mid Tower
Love my R5, any differences here to know about? Also there are 2 versions with different ports, which is best for a 370 MB?
This is more a personal preference, R6 to me its a very well design case, has its bads like extra money for the USB C, and pricing is not that cheap, the PSU cover makes it harder to build (minor nitpick). But its a medium to big case, your current hardware could work fine on Meshify C and end up smaller, but again all this is more a personal preference.
bburk wrote:What's the best options for 2 fans to put in the front of this?
The R6 comes with 3 fans, use them first, MSI bios fan control is really good and can control PWM or 3pin (switching them on the bios), you can create your ramping up etc, so to me its worth shot to the stock fans. If you after testing the included find them not good enough, then consider be quiet! BL067 SILENTWINGS 3 PWM or if you want a cheaper keeping the R6 theme, Thermalright TY147ASQ
bburk wrote:Power Supply; EVGA - SuperNOVA P2 650W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Already have this, so basically free.
I also have one, and its a very nice PSU overall, i would keep using it.

CA_Steve
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Re: Newest HTPC/Gaming build

Post by CA_Steve » Wed Oct 17, 2018 3:24 pm

CPU: 9th gen moved some of the Meltdown mitigations into the hardware. 100Mhz base clock bump and 300MHz turbo.

Z390 chipset brings native USB-C.

Are you planning to OC?

Not sure if there's any benefit to a gaming PC build for faster than 3000-3200 RAM speeds. Note Ninja 4's limited RAM clearance. There's also the Ninja 5 and Mugen 5 Rev B.

Fractal case: try the included fans first. See if you like the temp/noise profile.

bburk
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Re: Newest HTPC/Gaming build

Post by bburk » Wed Oct 17, 2018 4:18 pm

I had not thought of the specter/meltdown issue. Yes, a good reason to go with the 9th gen chip.

My current build has a Scythe Mugen5 in it. I did not know it was compatible with these motherboards. I will definitely go with that.

Switched the build to a 390 motherboard. Is there better choice on network cards than MSI includes with the AC version? Does it generate any heat to speak of that would make sticking with an external one better?

I don't care about LEDs on the RAM. I just want the fastest reliable RAM for a good price. The only I thing I'm set on is two eight gig sticks.

Is the Adata SSD as fast as the Samsung?

I did not know the R6 came with 3 fans. My R5 came with one. That is the only reason I was asking about 2 more fans. So, problem solved.

I am not planning to overclock anything more than what the MSI motherboard "Turbo mode" automatically will do.

One thing I know my brother will want for this computer are fast external hard drives. What's out there that will use the 10G speeds USB3 ports offer these days?

The changes so far are;
Intel - Core i5-9600K 3.7GHz 6-Core
Scythe - Mugen 5 Rev. B 51.2 CFM CPU Cooler
MSI - MPG Z390 GAMING PRO CARBON AC ATX LGA1151 Motherboard

thanks

bburk
Posts: 70
Joined: Sat Jul 08, 2006 5:08 am
Location: IA

Re: Newest HTPC/Gaming build

Post by bburk » Wed Oct 17, 2018 4:48 pm

Or might this be even better? Had great luck in one build with it.
https://www.amazon.com/Thermalright-814 ... B00PKJ21LW

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: Newest HTPC/Gaming build

Post by Abula » Wed Oct 17, 2018 5:59 pm

bburk wrote:Or might this be even better? Had great luck in one build with it.
https://www.amazon.com/Thermalright-814 ... B00PKJ21LW
Its fairly similar in performance to Mugen5, both are very close in pricing, i didnt suggest it more because you liked Scythe, so Mugen5 seem like a better suit, regardless its a good cooler with a good fan, and matches better the black n white of the Fractal cases, up to you, performance wise you will be very similar.
bburk wrote:Switched the build to a 390 motherboard. Is there better choice on network cards than MSI includes with the AC version? Does it generate any heat to speak of that would make sticking with an external one better?
The board you have chosen is among the best ones, not considering the MSI MEG that cost $650, the only other one that i like more than the MSI carbon is the AsRock Z390 Taichi Ultimate that comes dual intel 1ge nics and aquantia 10GE, but if you are set on MSI i don't want to discourage you, both do great mobos with superb bios fan control.
bburk wrote:Is the Adata SSD as fast as the Samsung?
Look at the bottom pic. Check the following review, Tweaktown ADATA XPG SX8200 240GB & 480GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD Review, quoting from the conclusions,

The SX8200 absolutely crushed Samsung's 1TB 970 EVO and SanDisk's 1TB Extreme Pro when running actual applications. Performance, where it matters, is performance that is tangible to the end-user.

The user experience delivered by an SSD this fast is incredible. The SX8200 boots as fast or faster than any flash-based SSD we've tested to date, multitasks with ease, and never lags no matter what you throw at it. A true Tier-1 SSD experience.

bburk wrote:I don't care about LEDs on the RAM. I just want the fastest reliable RAM for a good price. The only I thing I'm set on is two eight gig sticks.
This is to me the sweetspot in ram, its samsun b die with very good timings and 3200 is good enough without going ultra expensive (intel doesn't benefit as much past this point, only very few scenarios do), G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C14D-16GTZR, again crosscheck that its on the QVL List of the mobo before committing.
bburk wrote:I did not know the R6 came with 3 fans. My R5 came with one. That is the only reason I was asking about 2 more fans. So, problem solved.
One thing to consider is the Fractal Design Define S2, in case you are not using mechanical hdds (or just a few), the gain is that it comes with USB-C at no extra cost, on the R6 you need to buy it separately. Specially since you are mentioning your brother like fast externals, its very likely he will end up with USB C drive.
bburk wrote:I am not planning to overclock anything more than what the MSI motherboard "Turbo mode" automatically will do.
Since the 9600K has a soldier IHS, you should give a shot to Enhanced turbo, to get full 4.7ghz on all cores, i think the cooler will handle it quietly.
bburk wrote:One thing I know my brother will want for this computer are fast external hard drives. What's out there that will use the 10G speeds USB3 ports offer these days?
The fastest external ssds are the Samsung 1TB T5 Portable Solid-State Drive (Black), you can try to build with NVME drive, there are enclosures you can use, crosscheck that you are getting USB3.1 gen2 though, specially since the mobo now has native intel usb 3.1 gen2.
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bburk
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Re: Newest HTPC/Gaming build

Post by bburk » Wed Oct 17, 2018 8:45 pm

That Samsung 1 TB is impressive, that's a lot of money for one terabyte though. Any good 4 TB drives out there that use the 10 GB port.

I will try the enhanced Turbo mode. Is there another variant that could be even better for games that will only use one core?

How can you tell if RAM is Samsung B-die? F4-3200C14D-16GTZR is not on the QVL list.
https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/support/ ... port-mem-5
Closest I see is https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product. ... 6820232410

Still debating between the 1070 TI or the new 2070. Looks like a gamble of $180 extra on 'future proofing'. Gain near nothing now, but who knows...

The S2 case looks neat, however I know my brother would not like a case with a window in it. At least on Newegg S2 is only being sold in the window version.

From what I can tell the R6 does have a USB-C port on it?
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product. ... 6811352091

Speaking of Windows, I HATE Windows 10. I am still very happily running Windows 7 with a Z270 MB and a I5-7600K. I figured out my way around the update blockade Microsoft tried to implement. I have been extremely careful to avoid all telemetry and Windows 10 updates, and it's working flawlessly. I've seen other systems running Windows 10 and they move at a crawl compared to mine. Now the catch, I only see Windows 10 drivers for this motherboard on the MSI site. Is that going to be a problem?

thanks

Abula
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Re: Newest HTPC/Gaming build

Post by Abula » Wed Oct 17, 2018 9:50 pm

bburk wrote:That Samsung 1 TB is impressive, that's a lot of money for one terabyte though. Any good 4 TB drives out there that use the 10 GB port.
I'm a little confused, not sure what do you mean about 10 GB port? do you mean USB3.1 gen2 If he/you are looking for portability and ease of use (no power supplies involved), Seagate Backup Plus 4TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0, although its not a slow drive, expect around 100mb/s. And dont worry about USB C, these drives you can use any USB3 port and they will not saturate the port.
bburk wrote:I will try the enhanced Turbo mode. Is there another variant that could be even better for games that will only use one core?
That i know no, but probably the software that manufacturers bundle can do some higher overclocking, but personally i always find the voltages on the high side leading to higher temps and thus a noisier PC, i would suggest if you cant more performance overclock manually, that said this intel cpus are pretty fast, i personally dont see the need for more, but each of us have different needs.
bburk wrote:How can you tell if RAM is Samsung B-die? F4-3200C14D-16GTZR is not on the QVL list.
https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/support/ ... port-mem-5
Closest I see is https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product. ... 6820232410
You need to search, either reviews or forums, some manufactures on their QVList puts comments about the die (not in all), but upon checking and checking you find who is the OEM, takes time though. Now that white gskill seems like a good option, imo it uses the same chips, but again better to go with QVL, so if that white is and the RGB isnt then i would chose the white, its good memory, CL14 3200mhz.
bburk wrote:From what I can tell the R6 does have a USB-C port on it?
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product. ... 6811352091
Initially you had to buy the IO with USB3, maybe later retail versions do include it, seems the one you linked does have it.
bburk wrote:Speaking of Windows, I HATE Windows 10. I am still very happily running Windows 7 with a Z270 MB and a I5-7600K. I figured out my way around the update blockade Microsoft tried to implement. I have been extremely careful to avoid all telemetry and Windows 10 updates, and it's working flawlessly. I've seen other systems running Windows 10 and they move at a crawl compared to mine. Now the catch, I only see Windows 10 drivers for this motherboard on the MSI site. Is that going to be a problem?
If you or your brother want windows 7 still, do not buy an RTX2070, nvidia already said their new cards wont have support for windows 7.

Now about the motherboard, atm my AsRock Z370 Taichi only supports officially windows 10, I have two ssds, one with windows 10 that 95% is the one i boot, and i have a second ssd with windows 7 for certain things that i rarely use, i didnt have much issues, most drivers work on windows 7, and the ones that dont, you can find similar on Z270/Z170 motherboards that should work. One issue that i did had was with intel igpu, there was no support for 630 for windows 7, there are some hacked drivers out there in case you do want to use the integrated, but a GTX1070Ti does have support for 7. That said my recommendation is move on from 7, lots of manufacturers are starting to drop support for drivers, new hardware wont work, over time it will get harder, i dont like the windows10 spyware but i have accepted it, i dont want to be enclosed on something that it will get worst over time. Now if you want windows 7, dont worry you will find ways to make it work.

bburk
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Location: IA

Re: Newest HTPC/Gaming build

Post by bburk » Thu Oct 18, 2018 1:00 am

By 10 GB port I do mean the USB 3.1 Gen 2. Those Seagate 4 TB drives are good, he already has a couple of them. I was just wondering if there's something faster, but still economical from a price per TB standard?

If by white Gskill you mean the RAM in the newegg link I posted, yes, it is on the QVL for the motherboard. That is Samsung B-die RAM? If so, that is what I will get.

That settles it, the RX2070 is out for now. I am less worried about the Windows 10 spyware than I am over the fact of how much slower systems run with it. Even "optimized" it is still much slower than Windows 7 from everything I have seen.

I think I will go with your idea of setting up a dual-boot system on my computer as a way to start learning my way around something I guess I will be eventually stuck with. I will leave Windows 7 as my main, it will just be there as something to learn.

Other than getting an answer when I see him next on the Adata versus the Samsung SSD, I think I've got this settled. Thank you so much for your help.

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