Help with Fallout 4 Build for Xmas

[soylorn]

This is a novel, but I tried to cover everything

Approximate Purchase Date: Anytime between now and mid-December - I'm hoping for some decent Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals. I'm ready to buy now, willing to wait some for good prices, but want to be ready-to-game come 12/18

Budget Range: about $1000 after shipping, rebates, etc... (but excluding the parts I already have)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, streaming video

Are you buying a monitor: No - gonna use a 1080p TV

Parts to Upgrade: CPU, motherboard, memory, graphics card, power supply, cooling

Do you need to buy OS: Don't think so (if so, it's not included in budget - I have a retail copy of Win7 that's not in use but I have to find the key for it)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: prefer Amazon due to Prime membership and 5% cashback this quarter, but Newegg is also good. Will shop elsewhere for a good deal, and there is a Microcenter 100 miles away which could be an option given the right price

Location: Lexington, KY

Parts Preferences: open-minded but assuming Intel and nvidia

Overclocking: probably not at first, but I always like messing with things so I want the option down the line

SLI or Crossfire: I want to be able to upgrade to a dual card situation, so I want 2-way SLI compatibility, but not 2 cards at this time.

Your Monitor Resolution: just a 1080p TV, but may upgrade to 4k (TV) in a year or two and want the computer to be able to upgrade with me

Additional Comments: I primarily want good components for the price, but I also want parts that look good together when/if possible. Also my husband and I like green and purple when available. (I think the MSI gaming motherboards look really cool, but it's a lot of red. I'd prefer to not clash horrendously) I'd like case fan recs too, but I'm not counting them in the budget at this time.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Basically, we want a "console replacement" in function, that will be able to play Fallout 4 at or near max settings at 1080p/60fps. In a year or two, we'll probably upgrade to a 4k TV and want to be able to upgrade the computer at that time (new processor? SLI? Liquid cooling?). I'm sure when it comes out, we'd like to be able to play Elder Scrolls 6 at 4k. I expect to use kodi, or maybe Big Picture, but also definitely up for suggestions for interfacing. We will have a keyboard/mouse, but would prefer to use a game controller where possible (I have a steam controller on preorder). We'll also use it to watch movies on Netflix and our home NAS (and hopefully bluray), but that's not the primary function.

I have a preliminary parts list at pcpartpicker, but I really have no idea about motherboards or graphics cards. I'm leaning toward Z170 and gtx 970, but no clue how to narrow it down more than that. I have the pieces I already own marked on that list: an hdd and ssd, OS, bluray drive. I also bought a case (TT Core X9 Snow) a few days ago that IS included in the budget, and it's a beast so I don't think space will be an issue. (My husband said he wanted to invest in a big case with plenty of room to expand - well we definitely have that haha)

I know Fallout 4 recommends a 4790, but the clock speed on the 6600k is about the same as the 4790 and I just can't believe 4 threads will be a limitation, but I do intend to wait until I've seen how it performs for others before making a final decision. Please explain if you do think an i7 will improve gameplay at 1080 - I still have lots to learn!

This will be my 4th from-scratch build, but my first gaming PC which makes this a whole new world, especially if I'm OCing. Honestly at this point I would consider saving some money by using a locked CPU then later upgrading to something unlocked. Is it just crazy to upgrade a CPU along the timeline that Intel reuses their Core sockets? (which seems to be every other generation or so, so I'd likely be replacing a locked 6th gen i5 with an unlocked 7th gen - possibly i7) I don't feel like I have any perspective for that sort of thing. For example: Buy a 6500 for now, upgrade to 4k and SLI in a year, then an unlocked 7th gen i7 in 2017 when the price has dropped. Is that remotely reasonable or just a total waste? (don't worry, I get this is aaaaall speculation lol) My past experiences with trying to "upgrade" ended when I realized that my parts were all so out of date that I would have to replace them all or else spend extra on obsolete hardware because it was no longer being manufactured.

 

[dudeman509]

970 will be fine for 1080p, but gaming @ 4K is going to require SLI'ing or upgrading the graphics card to a 980ti in the future.

 

[soylorn]

Any i5, 8 gig ram and a mid range gaming card. You are asking for people to spec a pc running at 1080p then move on to a 4k setup.. Impossible to spec from one to the other.

Thanks for your thoughts, but I'm not sure I understand... If someone came on saying they have a z170/6600k/970gtx and are wondering what upgrades they need in order to play 4k, would that not be a reasonable question? I get that y'all can't predict what specific components I'll need in a year or two, and I'm not actually asking for suggestions on future upgrades, but I DO want to try to pick components that are more probable to be upgrade-able over the next 1-3 years (like Skylake over Haswell) (any such theoretical upgrades are obviously not included in the budget)

Bethesda are full of it; NOBODY writes a successful selling game requiring an i7 as a 'minimum'.. Bankruptcy and failure would ensue. Any game that wont run playabaly on an i3 will struggle to break even.

This was my thoughts as well. My husband was worried that it wouldn't even RUN on his laptop (which has an i7 and a middling discrete GPU). I'm sure that it won't be especially impressive, but I'd be surprised if it's not playable.

 

[soylorn]

970 will be fine for 1080p, but gaming @ 4K is going to require SLI'ing or upgrading the graphics card to a 980ti in the future.

Thanks, I'm definitely thinking I'll do SLI when that time comes. Should two 970s and an i5 be able to handle 4k? Any thoughts about which specific 970 card is especially good bang for my buck, or else which one is likely to do better in SLI? What kinds of things even govern if a GPU card is good in SLI?

 

[g-unit1111]

I do not believe 4k can be done reasonably by a gtx970/980 sli setup. Vram on the cards does not double running multiple cards. You would need GTX 980 T.I. SLI for 4K, So you should buy one now,which will feel a bit wasted on 1080p and buy the other one later.
Its going to cost 'teens' hundreds of $ to run 4k gaming,unfortunately,
just for the graphics cards.
You will be powering the same no of pixels as 4x1080p monitors.

No that's not correct. 980 SLI and 970 SLI can run 4K performance better than a single card can. At least for a single monitor. Multiple 4K displays would definitely require something a lot more powerful, but a single 4K monitor can be adequately powered with some pretty decent frame rates. It's when you start adding the additional monitors that you run into trouble. Take a look at this benchmark from Tweak Town: http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/74/recap-nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-sli-performance-4k/index.html

 

[g-unit1111]

Some of those games using 980's SLI have barely playable minimums even at medium presets,it doesnt bode well for fallout.
Interesting,none the less.
I would still bet the frame rate falls flat on its face when 4gb of Video ram is not enough,
its a situation that will get worse quickly is my guess.

A single 980 got 50FPS on ultra on 4K. That isn't playable enough?

 

[soylorn]

No that's not correct. 980 SLI and 970 SLI can run 4K performance better than a single card can. At least for a single monitor. Multiple 4K displays would definitely require something a lot more powerful, but a single 4K monitor can be adequately powered with some pretty decent frame rates. It's when you start adding the additional monitors that you run into trouble. Take a look at this benchmark from Tweak Town: http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/74/recap-nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-sli-performance-4k/index.html

Thanks for this article. I think all this discussion just confirms what I already basically knew to be true: I need to just wait until benchmarks are actually out for FO4. I definitely don't need anything running maxed out at 60fps at 4k, but until people actually start playing it, there's no way to know just how (un)reasonable their recommended specs are. In the end, I may just get something that'll work great for 1080p now and let future-me worry about upgrades.

All that said, as a more general question, would y'all recommend a 3.4 GHz 6600k with a 970 gtx or a 3.2 GHz 6500 with a 980 gtx (for 1080p)? Depending on which specific cards I pick, the 6500/980 is only $20ish more expensive.

 

[dudeman509]

6500 + 970. The others are overkill for 1080.

 

[g-unit1111]

Thanks for this article. I think all this discussion just confirms what I already basically knew to be true: I need to just wait until benchmarks are actually out for FO4. I definitely don't need anything running maxed out at 60fps at 4k, but until people actually start playing it, there's no way to know just how (un)reasonable their recommended specs are. In the end, I may just get something that'll work great for 1080p now and let future-me worry about upgrades.

All that said, as a more general question, would y'all recommend a 3.4 GHz 6600k with a 970 gtx or a 3.2 GHz 6500 with a 980 gtx (for 1080p)? Depending on which specific cards I pick, the 6500/980 is only $20ish more expensive.

*ALWAYS* get the unlocked processor. Even if you're not overclocking right away, the unlocked processors generally have a much higher base clock than their locked counterparts do. And when you are ready to overclock, the feature is there and will provide a much needed speed boost. Especially if your long term plans include VR or upgrading to 4K, you will have a much faster CPU capable of handling the new tech. Changing a GPU is easy, changing a CPU isn't always.

 

[dudeman509]

I disagree. Overclocking on Intel CPUs brings only marginal improvements to performance - the CPUs are already very strong.

 

[soylorn]

Sensible overclocks with current intel cpu's scale impressively and efficiently in gaming.
The 'easy' 800 meg baseclock added on a 4690K will keep it in the game for another year or more if the board lasts.
Feel free to disagree, also feel free to read up on it.

What board would you use with the 4690k, and why? I'm still leaning towards 6600k, but I'm having a heck of a time figuring out what is actually important on a motherboard.

 

[KingDingDong]

Sensible overclocks with current intel cpu's scale impressively and efficiently in gaming.
The 'easy' 800 meg baseclock added on a 4690K will keep it in the game for another year or more if the board lasts.
Feel free to disagree, also feel free to read up on it.

What board would you use with the 4690k, and why? I'm still leaning towards 6600k, but I'm having a heck of a time figuring out what is actually important on a motherboard.

It seems you want want a board that would do sli and likely crossfire if you decide to red in the future. You want a Z board for overclocking. Having a nmber of fan headers is important when you start upgrading it to a higher end build. At least a 3 year warranty is important to me so that leaves out AsRock but others are very happy the brand. The Z170 board will likely require DDR4 so there is an added expense there.

Personally I would get the 4690k for now and pocket the cash for future upgrades when the 4K landscape is more clear. My focus is getting to 2K (1440p) 144hz with adaptive sync.