4K console killer PC build?

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tkline

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I would like to ditch my current console and build an all new gaming PC that will be used for nothing but gaming on a 4K TV. This is the system I came up with on PC Park Picker

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/nyfGZ8

It's too pricey though, at over $1700. I may be able to skip the video card and use the 1070 I have in my desktop PC, and just use the on board graphics there since I won't be gaming on it anymore. But is a 1070 good enough for 4K?

Also I could probably save a bit on the storage with a smaller M2 drive, but I thought this would be a good way to go since I wouldn't need to have any other internal drives, since space will be tight in the case. 1TB should be more than enough for the games I play and new ones I will pick up later. I spoiled myself going with all SSDs on my desktop, I don't think I can ever go back to a traditional hard drive ever again. And I love the idea of M2's plugging right into the motherboard and not needing any cables.

Any advice on what I can take away or change to make it cheaper, but without sacrificing performance too much? I want something that will be great now, but will also be able to last several years without an upgrade. I'd like to be below $1000.
 
Solution
Hellfire13
Looks ok, but not sure why you went with 8 cores. Unless you need brute compute power for stuff like modelling/rendering/game designing/engineering/etc, you wont be really needing 8 physical cores.
Also go with 3000 or 3200 mhz ram. Ryzen shines with higher ram. Something like this is more balanced...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($197.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-AB350N-Gaming WIFI (rev. 1.0) Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 1.1TB M.2-2280 Solid State...
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Your not going to build a 4k gaming pc for under 1k. A 1070 is not good enough for 4k at reasonable frame rates. You will need at least a 1080, I would argue for a 1080ti.

But there are some areas where you can save some money. You should go with a Ryzen 1600 and you don't need 32gb of memory. 16gb is more than enough. I left your 1tb ssd on there, buy you could drop that down to 500gb and upgrade to a 2.5 SSD later and still have room in the case.

Do not use the case you selected. The PSU is not strong enough and I have not come across a case with a PSU included that is made of good quality. A cheap PSU can damage your PC. So I chose a different case and a 650 watt PSU to push a 1080ti.

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/y3wpPs
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/y3wpPs/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($197.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-AB350N-Gaming WIFI (rev. 1.0) Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($141.86 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 1.1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($270.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB AORUS Video Card ($708.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cooler Master - Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($81.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($89.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1636.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-04 15:02 EDT-0400

 
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This is as low as you can go. While this will give few fps less, it will last you much longer than the i7. Still a console killer.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($197.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-AB350N-Gaming WIFI (rev. 1.0) Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 525GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($150.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Mini Video Card ($629.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Thermaltake - Core V1 Mini ITX Tower Case ($45.88 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($47.79 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1312.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-04 15:03 EDT-0400

Edit: Download Windows free and get it activated later on by purchasing a key. Wont affect your gaming... https://www.howtogeek.com/244678/you-dont-need-a-product-key-to-install-and-use-windows-10/
 
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1070 is likely to deliver a 4k but not at ultra settings. so it won't last several years.
for that you need a 1080ti ... thanx to miners it is about 600-700 alone so that's not good budget for 4k + several years of games.

you can ditch intel and get ryzen 1600 and a 100$ mobo which will deliver better performance than that. .
you need about 500w power supply. sesonic evo series is good choice and sligtly cheaper than mentioned.
 
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he can get away with a >100$ mobo like asrock ab350
 
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Yes he can, but at just $14 extra he gets wifi capability better than some aft wifi cards. Quiet a deal breaker.
 
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Good call on the PSU. Much better price than the G3 I selected.
 
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Thanks :)

I didn't even consider AMD. I read somewhere that they're not as good as intel for gaming. I'll look into that. I think to save cash I will stick with my 1070 for now, and maybe around xmas time I'll see if I can find a good deal on a 1080.. Or what about AMD Vega instead? I don't know if they're out yet but I think I read they will be soon...

Also about the case, I picked the Node 202 because I wanted something slim that would fit on a shelf under the TV along with my receiver and cable box. I think if I were to get a bigger one I might go for the Phantex itx case and stick it on the floor. But like I said I was looking for something small, and I'd like to keep the cables neat and tidy hidden behind my tv stand. Would it be good if I got the Node 202 without the PSU and got that separately, or will good PSUs be too big? Or are there any other good but slim cases that would fit a normal sized PSU?
 
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Those slim cases cannot fit the quality psu's. Most of them come with proprietary crap. Dont compromise on quality for space saving. Will come to bite you later on.
About the cpu, those comments on AMD were for the previous generation cpu's, which were released 5-6yrs ago. Ryzen is current tech released this year and is currently better value than Ryzen.
 
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Look at Hellfire comment
and for 4k you might be going to watercool or buy aftermarket aircooler which won't fit in that case.
buy or build a case for yourself. big enough to fit those parts and have good airflow
 
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Hey,
How far do you sit from the HDTV anyway, because gaming at 4K may not even make sense if you don't benefit.

It may make more sense to just build a 1080p gaming machine which you can do much cheaper.

*I'd also consider waiting for VEGA 56 (maybe an Asus Strix) if the actual (not MSRP) price is roughly $450USD. That GPU will age better than a GTX1070/1080 as it's nearly identical in architecture to what the modern consoles have so the ACE, intrinsic shaders etc that can be optimized for console will start to be applied to console.

We've already seen indications of how much AMD can improve with DOOM and other games and this is still early days optimizing for AMD's GCN (and VEGA has improvements to earlier versions).

So again, I'd probably think 1080p with anti-aliasing or manually upscaling individual games to reduce jagged edges would make more sense.

*FYI, you can't choose "2560x1440" like you can with a monitor. I'm not sure if you can ONLY game at 4K or if you can choose 1080p for individual games if the desktop is set to 4K.

Maybe someone can confirm that because if you can ONLY game at 4K then that's a big problem, and 1080p again would make more sense (even if you COULD tell the difference which I'm not sure you can).

Our eyes resolve such that if you are further than 1.5x the HDTV diagonal you can't tell the difference between video content. Now, that's caused some confusion because it doesn't mean there aren't benefits such as anti-aliasing but you can already do anti-aliasing to 1080p so I'm fairly convinced that 4K might be pointless to most people.

Wish I could test that myself, though I've tested it with my 2560x1440 monitor by moving back a ways.
 
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Hey folks

So, I put together a new built based on the and Ryzen .. how does this look?
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/VGK9D8

I went with the processor that has the cooler included just so it’s 1 less thing to worry about and I don’t think I’ll need anything bigger, I’m too scared of breaking things to ever attempt overclocking. It’s lacking a video card right now, because I’m going to take the 1070 out of my current desktop for now. It might not do 4K, but I will wait till around xmas time or see if I can get some Black Friday deals on an 1080 later on.. or what would be the equivalent for one of those new Vega cards?

Also, the case I’m looking at now is the Phanteks Shift, which won’t be out till September. So I have some time to wait.. but it looks pretty sweet and should fit good on my TV rack right by my Home theater receiver which is about the same size. Or if it looks too big I can always stick it on the floor next to it (a little worried about ventilation if it’s in the rack). I kinda like the taller and thinner Shift X better, but that definitely won’t fit in the rack. So for now it looks like I’ll be right around $1000. I think I read the case will cost something like $139.

Also, I do sit kind of close to the TV. I haven't gotten the 4K tv yet, but will be soon. I currently have an old 60" plasma and sometimes it feels like I'm a little too close, but I can't go farther back since the man cave isn't big enough. I may go with a 55" for the 4K. I think my head is around 5 feet away from the screen, maybe 6. We have a 75" 4K in our main living room, but I'm not allowed to play games on that one cuz the boss said so :)
 
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Looks ok, but not sure why you went with 8 cores. Unless you need brute compute power for stuff like modelling/rendering/game designing/engineering/etc, you wont be really needing 8 physical cores.
Also go with 3000 or 3200 mhz ram. Ryzen shines with higher ram. Something like this is more balanced...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($197.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-AB350N-Gaming WIFI (rev. 1.0) Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 1.1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($270.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $798.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-07 15:47 EDT-0400
 
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Solution
Another new question, about CPUs.. if a Ryzen 5 is a better choice than 7 for a machine that's only gaming and nothing else.. would the same be true for intel? Is an i5 better option than i7? If so why do all of the PC builders seem to stress that your new system has to be an i7? Just to sell you something more expensive?

Just curious, I noticed AMD has a new Threadripper coming out that's super expensive... way out of my price range, but is that good for gaming? And same thing with an intel i9? Who is going to want a $1000 processor, like what would you even need that for? Or is it aimed at people who do bitcoin mining or whatever that is... ?
 
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Most games nowadays dont even scale well to 4 cores. A few of them does. And even fewer to more than 4 cores. Although games are moving to higher cores gradually but that transition is excruciatingly slow and sluggish. Although 4 cores is enough for now, it will be a long time, before most games can utilize 6 cores. So a 6 core Ryzen will avidly take care of gaming needs for the forseeable future.
The thing with Intel is that their i5 range has just about 4 cores, but without Hyperthreading, whereas the i7 has hyperthreading giving it 4 extra logical cores. Some games like bf1 has started showing limitation to 4 threads when maxed out. So an i7 has more leverage when playing games, specially on higher settings.
Now coming to threadripper and i9, as i have said in one of the earlier post, you should only look for more cores when you need raw compute power for non gaming purpose. Softwares and apps contrarily use more cores than games usually and scale well to more cores if available. We are talking about high octane softwares here like game designing/3d modelling/engineering, so on and so forth.
Bitcoin mining needs more gpu power than cpu power so its doesnt count in this discussion.
 
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Ryzen 5s and 7s operate in a different space than i5s and i7s do. i5s are quad core/HT disabled, 4c4t, i7s are quad core/HT enabled, 4c8t. Most games at the moment (barring DX12 titles, and even then it is entirely up to the dev to support it) are at the quad core point. There are other games (mainly AAA) that push to utilize more cores as they wanted as many systems to be able to play it as possible back when FX CPUs were still a used component. Ryzen 5s and 7s all have SMT (AMD's version of HT) enabled. The Ryzen 5s you're looking at are 6c/12t, the 7s are 8c/16t. Going back to the point that many games are utilizing around the 4 core range, the more cores you give your CPU, the more useless those cores/threads may be in the middle of gaming.

Depending on what you want from your build an i5, i7, Ryzen 5, or Ryzen 7 may be better than all of the others.

Examples: I would pick an i5 if I wanted a steady 60FPS in the majority of modern titles. I would pick a K sku i5 if I wanted a steady 60FPS in virtually all of the modern titles.
I would pick an i7 if I wanted a higher refresh rate than 60, or if I wanted to do VR. i7s are still the best hardware for gaming.
I would pick a Ryzen 5 if I wanted to do light streaming/video editing, along with gaming. This is also likely a more future proof option than an i5. While i5s typically get more FPS, Ryzen chips typically have more overhead available. This is simply the game engine not utilizing the CPU to its fullest, which may change as DX12 takes more root. Take this with a grain of salt, as "future proofing" is always speculative and not a hard and fast truth.
I would pick a Ryzen 7 if I wanted to stream often, with intense titles, and do a lot of editing/content creation. This is also very much so usable for gaming. But, the only time I would get a 7 would be if I were going into hardcore content creation.

Threadripper is enthusiast line, and would also be nice for heavy high end content creation, or for servers. Mostly for servers. Can also double for gaming but is a bit of a waste at that point.

Bitcoin miners want the most bang for their buck possible. At this point in BC mining, electricity costs are very much so a thing, and CPUs are not used all that heavily anymore. The more power you can get for the less wattage, the better. I would say it's probably a no-go on a nigh 200W CPU for bitcoin miners.
 
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Cool thanks for that :) I don't really plan on streaming (if you mean playing while people watch me play online.. I don't get the point of that, personally, but to each their own). I'm really only going to be playing games and maybe watching the occasional netflix show, and I'm mostly into solo adventure / rpg games not so much the competitive online kind of gaming. I won't even be checking email or web surfing, not often anyway. And once it's done I like knowing I will be able to swap out parts and upgrade things as necessary in a few years. I just want a game "console" that can play PC games at PC detail levels with pc power, and it will be nice to be able to get add ons for some games too that would never make it to a console version. I was also going to pick up a bluetooth keyboard/touchpad combo and I'm shopping around for a good gamepad too. Not a fan of the keyboard / mouse thing for gaming. I mostly just plan to run it with Steam big picture mode though.

 
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The above list in my post is more than enough for your needs. While Intel can game better but current Intel chips cannot outlast Ryzen in terms of game optimization. But incase, you just plan to game and game only, even this can be considered...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($323.53 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($32.49 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Motherboard: Asus - STRIX Z270-E GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($196.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 1.1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($270.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $913.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-09 17:17 EDT-0400

 
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Thanks, I'll stick to the cheaper Ryzen option for now. That way I can still afford the nice Phanteks case and a bluetooth keyboard/touchpad and hopefully still be under my $1000 budget or just slightly over.
 
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Bear in mind the Silverstone gd05 & gd06.
They're matx cases that will take a full size PSU , are slim height ,width & depth (think slightly smaller than an av receiver) , will also take a good sized GPU ,5 hard drives ,(or 4 & an optical drive) & have good cooling options.

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=293

They are not cheap , they're not particularly easy to build in.

But the results are worth it imo , the gd06b really looks the part under a TV rack (own one myself)

Untitled-2.jpg


We're like minded mate , my PC is under the lounge TV (65inch aquos) & I game 98% of the time with a wireless 360 controller

If you're looking at Bluetooth then just buy an Xbox one wireless pad mate - there isn't a better gamepad than that IMO.

Otherwise wireless 360 pad & a cheap USB wireless adapter (less than $10 from eBay amazon)


 
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That case looks good. I think I want to stick to the Phanteks one though, it has that really sleek high tech look I'm going for and as far as I can tell it looks like it will be easy to build in and update later and should have decent cable management.. even though I want to try and have as few cables as possible. I also have one of the newer bluetooth white Xbox One controllers for my current PC, so I plan to use that for the game system instead.

So another question. I was just looking up that Gigabyte motherboard and I noticed it had HDMI and display port for video. I thought AMD didn't have video, and you must have a separate GPU? Just curious as to why it was on the motherboard, seems like it's just wasted .. or is it capable of some kind of basic video?

 
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Video outs are in preparation for the upcoming raven ridge ryzen based apu's (think a ryzen chip with a RX 460 onboard near enough)

I still love my Silverstone though mate , had it 4 years & I don't think I will ever get rid of it.
It currently runs (wait for it)
An old fx 6300@4.4ghz , 3x3tb hard drives , 1x 275gb mx300 ssd , 1x full size pioneer bluray writer & a Galax exoc black gtx 970.
Nothing gets over 65c ever.

Good case should you change your mind ;-)


 
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Just looked at the shift , yeah that's a damn nice looking little number .

I need optical though or I'd be tempted myself.

I will say - whack a 3 or 4tb Toshiba secondary bin there from the off , games are 60-70gb now , drive space fills up fast nowadays if you're an avid gamer.

I have nearly 10tb of storage (that's just my lounge rig) & have about 600gb free which makes me sweat. ;-)
 
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