Convince friend of bad build

[jackkep]

One of my good friends had someone help him build a custom PC, and I think he made extremely poor build choices, I need some good, compelling arguments to show him the error of his ways.
Can someone also please make a better build for around the same price. I want good price 2 performance.


USES: Gaming as the main use
And 3D rendering as a hobby. I know this build is "okay" as is but I'm pretty sure he can do much better
TL;DR: My friend chose bad config, help me help him


http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9QHgK8

 

[PizzaTheHutt]

What parts are you trying to get him to change?

 

[jackkep]

What parts are you trying to get him to change?

Mainly the CPU and PSU and lower the RAM.

 

[PizzaTheHutt]

Show him this for the PSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj8-wNmYJvM 😀, the RAM can be taken down to 16gb to save a good $100 - games aren't massively ram intensive and you may only utilize about 8gb in RAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJtrQ5CcCN0 . The CPU is overkill unless you are video editing or transcoding videos.

 

[Nextg_Rival]

Here you go: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LHzghM

Better and cheaper CPU, better 16 GB RAM with room for upgrade if he wants to, added a second 980 with the leftover money /which means vastly superior gaming power, especially good at 4k (even though the R9 295x2 would probably be better for 4k and 5k, but the 980 SLI is still excellent and cheaper too)/, picked a smaller wattage power supply but still left enough (although if he wants to upgrade a lot, maybe the initial PSU is a better idea) .

 

[Rocking Durgesh]

First thing, I think your friend has lots of money to built their PC. Second thing, if he want to do gaming, 8 GB is more than enough. 32 GB will go so far. ... After 8 GB the difference in performance is almost negligible. .. now about the PSU. Is he want to increase its electricity bill a lot? Because for this built 750 watt is more more than enough. ... then why he is getting 1200 watt..... there is no need at all. .. is he think that by giving more power their cpu and GPU will work more than expectation? No. .. definitely not. ....

 

[jackkep]

Here you go: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LHzghM

Better and cheaper CPU, better 16 GB RAM with room for upgrade if he wants to, added a second 980 with the leftover money /which means vastly superior gaming power, especially good at 4k (even though the R9 295x2 would probably be better for 4k and 5k, but the 980 SLI is still excellent and cheaper too)/, picked a smaller wattage power supply but still left enough (although if he wants to upgrade a lot, maybe the initial PSU is a better idea) .

Thanks, I will show him and get back to you

 

[jackkep]

First thing, I think your friend has lots of money to built their PC. Second thing, if he want to do gaming, 8 GB is more than enough. 32 GB will go so far. ... After 8 GB the difference in performance is almost negligible. .. now about the PSU. Is he want to increase its electricity bill a lot? Because for this built 750 watt is more more than enough. ... then why he is getting 1200 watt..... there is no need at all. .. is he think that by giving more power their cpu and GPU will work more than expectation? No. .. definitely not. ....

Can you make a cheaper, comparable build config

 

[Rocking Durgesh]

Some thing same as Nextg_Rival

 

[mdocod]

The things I see wrong with the build:

1. X79? go X99 instead, get an 8 core haswell for the same price as that 6 core Ivy!!! i7-5960X!!!
2. Platform switch to R3 socket will come with switch to DDR4.
3. Use WD Black or SE drives for storage for a nice build like this, not consumer trash drives.
4. H100i provides no advantage vs a large format liquid heatpipe cooler, but introduces plenty of disadvantages, (louder, no passive cooling capability, pump noise potential, pump failure potential, leak potential etc). Pumped liquid cooling isn't advantageous until the radiator size is 280mm or larger.

 

[Nextg_Rival]

The things I see wrong with the build:

1. X79? go X99 instead, get an 8 core haswell for the same price as that 6 core Ivy!!! i7-5960X!!!
2. Platform switch to R3 socket will come with switch to DDR4.
3. Use WD Black or SE drives for storage for a nice build like this, not consumer trash drives.
4. H100i provides no advantage vs a large format liquid heatpipe cooler, but introduces plenty of disadvantages, (louder, no passive cooling capability, pump noise potential, pump failure potential, leak potential etc). Pumped liquid cooling isn't advantageous until the radiator size is 280mm or larger.

Why would anyone want to get the 5960X? The 5930K beats it in price, benchmarks and actual performance, plus can be overclocked easier.

 

[mdocod]

The things I see wrong with the build:

1. X79? go X99 instead, get an 8 core haswell for the same price as that 6 core Ivy!!! i7-5960X!!!
2. Platform switch to R3 socket will come with switch to DDR4.
3. Use WD Black or SE drives for storage for a nice build like this, not consumer trash drives.
4. H100i provides no advantage vs a large format liquid heatpipe cooler, but introduces plenty of disadvantages, (louder, no passive cooling capability, pump noise potential, pump failure potential, leak potential etc). Pumped liquid cooling isn't advantageous until the radiator size is 280mm or larger.

Why would anyone want to get the 5960X? The 5930K beats it in price, benchmarks and actual performance, plus can be overclocked easier.

I'm not sure what benchmarks or "actual" workloads you're referring to, but 8 cores is 33% more execution resources than the 6 core. If the workload can take advantage, the 8 core X series is the nicer CPU to have.. In fact, it's the first "X" series i7 ever released that is competitive in terms of price/performance scaling.

I'm sensing the effects of envy in this thread... people just looking for a way to tear down a great build to make them feel better about their own.

 

[Xenology]

This would be good http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Drankoolaid/saved/PXcmP6

 

[Nextg_Rival]

I'm not sure what benchmarks or "actual" workloads you're referring to, but 8 cores is 33% more execution resources than the 6 core. If the workload can take advantage, the 8 core X series is the nicer CPU to have.. In fact, it's the first "X" series i7 ever released that is competitive in terms of price/performance scaling.

I'm sensing the effects of envy in this thread... people just looking for a way to tear down a great build to make them feel better about their own.

I am not envious. I am perfectly aware that my humble FX-6300/GTX 750 Ti can't match any of that and I don't even hope to get a build with the 5930K in it, what less of the 5960X. I am simply pointing out what I think needs improvement. The 2 extra cores on the 5960X offer nothing that the 5930K doesn't have, except for the 4 more threads which are almost completely used for gaming, as games are not optimised for multithreading. The 5930K on the other hand has a more efficient microarchitecture and better clock speeds on the cores, plus it provides a much more significant performance boost after overclocking. It also rips through the 5960X in actual game performance by about 10%.

 

[mdocod]

This would be good http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Drankoolaid/saved/PXcmP6

Looks more like a hodpodge to me. Mixing 2600 series Xeons with X99 is a waste, comes with problematic RAM support and limitations, unusable performance tuning features, huge price premium on an unused QPI link.

If you want to play with the E5-2600V3 series, check out Asus's C612 chipset dual socket workstation boards. Those are the "correct" choice for a top of the line Xeon workstation.

 

[mdocod]

I'm not sure what benchmarks or "actual" workloads you're referring to, but 8 cores is 33% more execution resources than the 6 core. If the workload can take advantage, the 8 core X series is the nicer CPU to have.. In fact, it's the first "X" series i7 ever released that is competitive in terms of price/performance scaling.

I'm sensing the effects of envy in this thread... people just looking for a way to tear down a great build to make them feel better about their own.

I am not envious. I am perfectly aware that my humble FX-6300/GTX 750 Ti can't match any of that and I don't even hope to get a build with the 5930K in it, what less of the 5960X. I am simply pointing out what I think needs improvement. The 2 extra cores on the 5960X offer nothing that the 5930K doesn't have, except for the 4 more threads which are almost completely used for gaming, as games are not optimised for multithreading. The 5930K on the other hand has a more efficient microarchitecture and better clock speeds on the cores, plus it provides a much more significant performance boost after overclocking. It also rips through the 5960X in actual game performance by about 10%.

I'm not sure how you figure the 5930K having a more efficient architecture. These are both haswell CPUs. When clocked the same they will have similar performance core-for-core.

I'm not sure why you are assuming this build is just for gaming, jackkep hasn't said anything about what the build is FOR. Even if it IS for gaming, lots of gamers with these builds use them for recording, editing, and trans-coding as well. (gota youtube that awesome moment on the battlefield!) The 5960X offers a nice advantage in lots of those areas, especially if they are going on at the same time. Benchmarks don't really paint a great picture of real world multi-tasking use anyway. On a $3000 machine, a $400 premium to add 33% more execution resources is actually a pretty GOOD DEAL from my perspective.

 

[jackkep]

The things I see wrong with the build:

1. X79? go X99 instead, get an 8 core haswell for the same price as that 6 core Ivy!!! i7-5960X!!!
2. Platform switch to R3 socket will come with switch to DDR4.
3. Use WD Black or SE drives for storage for a nice build like this, not consumer trash drives.
4. H100i provides no advantage vs a large format liquid heatpipe cooler, but introduces plenty of disadvantages, (louder, no passive cooling capability, pump noise potential, pump failure potential, leak potential etc). Pumped liquid cooling isn't advantageous until the radiator size is 280mm or larger.

Why would anyone want to get the 5960X? The 5930K beats it in price, benchmarks and actual performance, plus can be overclocked easier.

I'm not sure what benchmarks or "actual" workloads you're referring to, but 8 cores is 33% more execution resources than the 6 core. If the workload can take advantage, the 8 core X series is the nicer CPU to have.. In fact, it's the first "X" series i7 ever released that is competitive in terms of price/performance scaling.

I'm sensing the effects of envy in this thread... people just looking for a way to tear down a great build to make them feel better about their own.

This build has a terrible price 2 performance. And is extremely unbalanced. -OP

 

[rpenri]

Why anyone would go with an i7 for gaming...idk. You only need an i5...spend the cash on a better GPU. Looks like he can afford a Titan or two...if he wants a better ratio of price to performance, go with an i5, the Titan or two, and keep the PSU. BTW...PSUs don't draw the full amount of power specified on the box...only what's needed. A 1000W PSU won't continuously draw 1000W. Especially if it's on idle.

However, with that said, if he also does 3D rendering/video editing then that's a pretty sweet setup. I wouldn't mind having that kind of cash to do renders.

 

[mdocod]

This build has a terrible price 2 performance. And is extremely unbalanced. -OP

high end builds will almost always be plagued by diminishing returns, that's the nature of it.

The "balance" issue depends on workload. A $2000 CPU like the E5-2687W with a $350 workstation GPU like the W5100 can be a very good balance for a 3D production and render machine using a CPU based renderer like arnold and an openGL view-port.

On the other hand, a machine with an $80 FX-4300 and 4X GTX980s ($2400) would be a perfectly good balance for a GPU accelerated export/render machine or mining rig.

Without consideration of what this machine is for, there's really no way to determine what sort of "balance" is appropriate.

 

[jackkep]

Why anyone would go with an i7 for gaming...idk. You only need an i5...spend the cash on a better GPU. Looks like he can afford a Titan or two...if he wants a better ratio of price to performance, go with an i5, the Titan or two, and keep the PSU. BTW...PSUs don't draw the full amount of power specified on the box...only what's needed. A 1000W PSU won't continuously draw 1000W. Especially if it's on idle.

However, with that said, if he also does 3D rendering/video editing then that's a pretty sweet setup. I wouldn't mind having that kind of cash to do renders.

He also does 3d rendering. Buts that's a hobby. Gaming is his true passion so this is not a good compromise between the two, the price 2 performance isn't very good and the RAM & PSU is a little excessive

 

[Redzonezzz]

Here you go! A pc that can play games great! I just built this piece by piece. And when i bought the parts it came out to under 1k. But now its a little over.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QGxXdC

 

[jackkep]

Here you go! A pc that can play games great! I just built this piece by piece. And when i bought the parts it came out to under 1k. But now its a little over.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QGxXdC

It needs to have some 3D rendering capability.

 

[rpenri]

He also does 3d rendering. Buts that's a hobby. Gaming is his true passion so this is not a good compromise between the two, the price 2 performance isn't very good and the RAM & PSU is a little excessive

I mean...if he does 3D rendering even if it's a hobby those parts actually can really help. I don't know if you know much about it, but some complex scenes and environments take tons of RAM to load more so than even the most demanding games. A top tier CPU helps out too and if he's using those CUDA cores for rendering as well, it may mean the difference between waiting 3 hours for a single frame to render or 10 minutes. I'm all for being smart about cash but if he's got the cash to burn and it's what he wants then I don't see a problem with it. Now as long as he isn't throwing his wife and kids out on the streets to afford this.

 

[rpenri]

Here you go! A pc that can play games great! I just built this piece by piece. And when i bought the parts it came out to under 1k. But now its a little over.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QGxXdC

It needs to have some 3D rendering capability.

A computer is all you need to 3D render...however without knowing what 3D software or render engine he uses we won't know exactly how fast it would be to render. Like I said earlier, if he uses any software that utilizes CUDA cores that means he's not reliant on just the CPU to do the rendering. And the 3790K isn't a slouch either...just not as fast as GPGPU can be.

 

[jackkep]

This build has a terrible price 2 performance. And is extremely unbalanced. -OP

high end builds will almost always be plagued by diminishing returns, that's the nature of it.

The "balance" issue depends on workload. A $2000 CPU like the E5-2687W with a $350 workstation GPU like the W5100 can be a very good balance for a 3D production and render machine using a CPU based renderer like arnold and an openGL view-port.

On the other hand, a machine with an $80 FX-4300 and 4X GTX980s ($2400) would be a perfectly good balance for a GPU accelerated export/render machine or mining rig.

Without consideration of what this machine is for, there's really no way to determine what sort of "balance" is appropriate.

The problem is, 3D rendering, as of now, is still just a hobby, gaming stays #1 3D magic #2. That means that a lower class i7, smaller PSU, and less RAM would be appropriate