New Year New PC - Advice please

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Brawler

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#189551 4-Jan-2016 06:32

Hi guys,

Do you guys see any flaws in the build below? The budget is $2200.

Asus STRIX GTX 970 4GB Graphics Card
Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI Motherboard
Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Gaming Case (Black) no window
650W EVGA SuperNOVA G1 Modular PSU
2×4GB G.SKILL Ripjaws V 2133Mhz DDR4 Ram
Intel Skylake i5 6500 3.2 – 3.6GHz Processor
Western Digital 1TB Hard Drive - Secondary drive
Kingston V300 120GB SSD - Boot
LG 24X SATA Internal Sata DVD Writer
Microsoft Windows 10 64bit

Will be used for Photoshop/Zbrush and Premier Pro with some gaming.

Final cost is below the $2200 mark.

Getting it from MightyApe

Regards,
B

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#1460894 4-Jan-2016 06:56

Seems like you're going for an SLI motherboard - any reason? I get the cheapest motherboard in a good brand that does what I want. Might save you a few bucks. For example (random selection not a recommendation) this Asus is $159 and has USB C.

You'll want more RAM for Photoshop and Premier Pro, 8GB isn't really enough for that - go for 16GB, 32GB if you can afford it. Any reason for the Kingston SSD - price? Samsung drives have been very good to me.

Seems pretty expensive, can you add prices easily? Video card is $550, which I guess is necessary for games, and may help video, but won't help photo editing.

Brawler

29 posts

Geek

#1460896 4-Jan-2016 07:32

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the reply.

The reason for the SLI is future proofing it, if I want to add the additional card.

I will up the ram to 16GB/32GB thanks. The only reason for the Kingston SSD is because I used the Razor back build from Mighty Ape as a starting point and didn’t change that item. I will change the SSD to 120GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD.

Should I rather go for the EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SSC 4GB Graphics Card?? If I play games on medium settings that's fine.

Again thanks for the help.

Regards,
B

timmmay

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#1460898 4-Jan-2016 07:36

I know nothing about games sorry. The rest sounds good. 16GB RAM is plenty for photo work, at least with moderate megapixel cameras and moderate numbers of photos, but 32GB can apparently be useful for video.

Jase2985

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#1460905 4-Jan-2016 08:45

go for a 240gb SSD over a 120

why mightyape? can generally get cheaper elsewhere, and some places will do a price match

i can get it in for $2241, with 240gb SSD, 16GB ram and 2TB HDD, could probably go cheaper with changing a few component brands a little

try pricespy for comparing prices, but the likes of computer lounge will give you discounts on full system builds and also do price matches

macuser

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#1460909 4-Jan-2016 08:51

I just got the SSC 970, it turns into a vacuum cleaner after about 30 mins of game play (fans on full)... it's pretty quick though, boosting to over 1500mhz with a +100mhz OC

Lias

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#1460917 4-Jan-2016 09:23

As others have said.. Why MightyApe? not a store known for selling gaming builds etc.

I'd suggest talking to Computer Lounge.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.

toyonut

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#1460975 4-Jan-2016 12:19

Even though PB are not my favorite shop, they have good prices too.
Here are some that seem to be around the same level and you could always get them to upgrade components like SSD, RAM etc.
i5, 8GB RAM, SSD and HDD, GTX 960 - $1800.
Another Skylake i5 build - $1750.
i5 6600K, 16GB RAM, 240GB SSD + HDD, 970 - $2300.

Plenty of other shops do decent builds as well and your price range should net you a solid PC. I think, like most others have said already, you can get more for your money than the Mighty Ape build offers.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

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Brawler

29 posts

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#1461479 5-Jan-2016 11:29

Will shop around thanks guys.

Inphinity

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#1461486 5-Jan-2016 11:38

Some of this has been said by others, but...
I would go for more SSD - either bump to 240GB, or go with 2x 120 (boot, and main apps/games) at least. I'd go Samsung or Intel for the SSD.
A 1TB HDD doesn't go far these days, I'd go 2TB at least.
The STRIX 970 is awesome, but if you're not doing heavy gaming the 960 will likely be just fine - it plays most games at 1080p on medium settings very well.
I'd probably go 16GB RAM.
I wouldn't bother with a SLI-capable board if there's any price premium to it, and no other benefits.
I love Mightyape, but they're not the cheapest for a PC build imo (though they may well price match other reputable resellers).

timmmay

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#1461578 5-Jan-2016 12:33

IMHO you don't need a massive SSD as anything that's not performance sensitive can go on a regular disk. Non-gamers can get away with a 60GB SSD (if they made them that small), I have a 120GB and it's full. I put OS/apps on the same SSD.

I'd partition an SSD into Windows and core apps (60GB or so) then games and such. The reason is you can then use Macrium Reflect Free or similar to take an OS image backup that's reasonably compact.

macuser

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#1461582 5-Jan-2016 12:36

timmmay: IMHO you don't need a massive SSD as anything that's not performance sensitive can go on a regular disk. Non-gamers can get away with a 60GB SSD (if they made them that small), I have a 120GB and it's full. I put OS/apps on the same SSD.

I'd partition an SSD into Windows and core apps (60GB or so) then games and such. The reason is you can then use Macrium Reflect Free or similar to take an OS image backup that's reasonably compact.

Actually...most recent games are best played from the SSD...

Batman Arkham knight for example has the recommended settings of an SSD, so I'd get a 240GB to allow you to throw one or two games on at a time that require the performance of an SSD, and run the rest from regular disk

Jase2985

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#1461594 5-Jan-2016 12:50

FYI a game like Starcraft 2 is 20gb, Modern warfare 2 is 12gb, it really doesn't take much to make your 120gb reasonably full when it comes to games

the price difference between a 120 and 240 gb ssd is about $60

macuser

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#1461611 5-Jan-2016 13:10

Jase2985: FYI a game like Starcraft 2 is 20gb, Modern warfare 2 is 12gb, it really doesn't take much to make your 120gb reasonably full when it comes to games

the price difference between a 120 and 240 gb ssd is about $60

Arkham Knight is 38GB, Witcher 3 is 32GB...go for the 240GB!

Plus managing a small SSD is a hassle!

timmmay

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#1461663 5-Jan-2016 13:58

macuser: Actually...most recent games are best played from the SSD...

Batman Arkham knight for example has the recommended settings of an SSD, so I'd get a 240GB to allow you to throw one or two games on at a time that require the performance of an SSD, and run the rest from regular disk

Yeah that's why I said "for non-gamers". I don't know much about games, haven't played them since Doom 2 came out... I tried Doom 3 but it wasn't the same.

JWR

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#1461682 5-Jan-2016 14:20

I'd go for a 240GB+ SSD too.

The old advice was get a 60-120B SSD for OS + HDD for storage. That was when SSDs were much more expensive.

Now days (IMO) get a reasonably big SSD and run as much as possible from it.

SSDs just run everything faster. It is a shame to hobble a decently fast PC with slow disk I/O.

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