Looking for feedback on my future build

[jtinliu]

Second time builder, the first time I built my PC with the help of my dad about 5-6 years ago. I'm planning on actually purchasing the parts throughout next year.
I'm looking to do some 144 Hz gaming on games like Overwatch, as well as other more casual sp games like Witcher 3, Mafia 3, FarCry, etc. I'd like to be able to run these games smoothly (<80 fps?) on at least medium settings.
I'm hoping to spend <$1000 on my build excluding monitor but will go over if it's justified.
Here is my proposed build

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

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Thermal Compound: Masscool G751 Shin-Etsu 0.5g Thermal Paste ($3.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z170A SLI PLUS ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($135.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($93.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: *Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB 6GT OC Video Card ($258.99 @ B&H)
Case: Corsair 100R Silent ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($78.89 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Cougar Vortex PWM 70.5 CFM 120mm Fan ($14.88 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 24.0" 144Hz Monitor ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1250.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-24 05:13 EST-0500

I'm also going to be getting filters for my intake fans, thinking of these.
For cooling, is two intakes on the front and one exhaust on the back enough?
Also considering swapping my motherboard for the Asus Z170-P.
If anyone has questions, suggestions, or general advice please let me know!

 

[Mikel_4]

*** Stick to one online retailer, especially if they have street address ***

■ Viewsonic 24" Freesync 1080p, $149.99 @amazon
■ Asus RX 480, $224.99 @amazon

OR
■ Acer 24" Gsync 1080p, $349.99 @amazon

I endorsed your picks,

• 
  ■ Motherboard QVL passed
  ■ Power supply OK
  ■ Smooth gaming experience, try google free-sync and g-sync, you'll know it'll be better choice than 144Hz.

Consider also gaming headset, Cherry MX mechanical keyboard and gaming oriented mouse, because you don't want to bust your key pad or injured your fingers would you?

 

[jtinliu]

I don't believe that either freesync or G-sync will be better than a 144 Hz monitor, especially in competitive gaming. Being capped at 60 Hz due to the display can lead to latency issues and I think I'd rather have a little bit of tearing than latency.

Also, I have the Corsair Vengeance K70 with Cherry MX Brown switches as well as the Logitech G502 Proteus Core and the Proteus Spectrum. As for headset, I simply use in-ear headphones with a built in mic and connect it to my computer via a splitter cable.

 

[Mikel_4]

I don't believe that either freesync or G-sync will be better than a 144 Hz monitor, especially in competitive gaming. Being capped at 60 Hz due to the display can lead to latency issues and I think I'd rather have a little bit of tearing than latency.

Also, I have the Corsair Vengeance K70 with Cherry MX Brown switches as well as the Logitech G502 Proteus Core and the Proteus Spectrum. As for headset, I simply use in-ear headphones with a built in mic and connect it to my computer via a splitter cable.

both of my picks is 144Hz in fact asus recently release 180Hz g-sync display, I don't understand what is latency issues, as for anybody else reading this post and can describe what is latency issues are, do share.

• ■ If what you refer as latency issues is some kind of performance penalty, then YES (~2%).
  ■ If latency issues you refer as INPUT LAG (stutter mouse or keyboard stroke) then NO. Screen tearing happens when rendered frames is exceeding the FIXED refresh rate, because monitor REFRESH EVERY SECOND so the excess frame will be immediately substituted by NEW FRAMES or the new frames appear in the middle of previous scene (overlap).

Anyway, kinda odd if you want SMOOTH with little bit tearing

 

[jtinliu]

I looked at threads online previously including one here and here. Note the replies by bystander and Automatiic in the first post, and GamingAnonymous in the second.

In addition, based on the table shown on this site, you can see that the monitor I chose has input lag of only 3 ms, while every other monitor, including the ones with G-sync and Freesync, have input lag double, triple, even quadruple the VG248QE.

I don't see the point in spending an extra $100 dollars on a monitor (Nvidia) for marginally better viewing performance when I have to sacrifice precision and accuracy.

 

[Mikel_4]

I have no more comment to your pick just clarification for other readers.
My experience when playing 1st person shooter MMOG is not having choppy image because it'll be awkward targeting, as JTINLIU described he doesn't have problem with targeting on teared screen is a matter of individual skill, so my advice is get the cheapest combo available:

• 
  ■ AMD combo, RX 480 + Full HD 1080P 144Hz free-sync display such as Viewsonic 24" Freesync 1080p, $149.99 @amazon + Asus RX 480, $224.99 @amazon + Intel i5 6600K + Any Z170 motherboard (cheapest Z170 motherboard still provide extra power to overclock i5 6600K)
  ■nVidia Combo, the G-sync gaming monitor is pricier than free-Sync counterpart at equal specification, I'll elaborate why in next paragraph.

• 
  ■ CPU-GPU vice versa Bottle-necking
  Although graphic card(Graphical Processing Unit) is the one that doing the image/video rendering, how much data GPU process still depend from CPU, the easiest way to roughly determined this is by price tag differential. Usually a ~ $100 CPU can still paddle a ~ $200 graphic card. http://www.anandtech.com/show/10543/the-skylake-core-i3-51w-cpu-review-i3-6320-6300-6100-tested .
  ■ Monitor's Resolution, Refresh rate, Game's image quality-PC Bottle-necking
  How big your screen resolution should be the 1st choice of building gaming PC, if you comfortable playing at 1280x720p 60Hz (60Hz translate to fixed 60 frames/sec) display than an i3 6300 + GTX 1050 or RX 470 is suffice to give playable experience on latest PC 3D game titles.
  THE WRINKLES
  Latest mainstream graphic cards such as GTX 1060 or RX 480 was built to respond mainstream full HD 1080p gaming monitor, you can still play on 720p with those, comes small wrinkle, those cards is too fast for 720p display, sometimes on certain game titles a choppy image(screen tearing) + blur (ghosting effect) + stutter (blink freeze) appears, for some gamer it'll ruin the experience. This is not GPU or PC system faulty, if your GPU weak then it'll just give low frames/sec, let say in some point the GPU renders 65 frames/sec then the monitor either skipped the last frame or the new frames overlap the previous frames. I call this monitor is bottle-necking GPU.

Shorthand
Frames/sec average min max
< 20 = unacceptable. 20 to 60 = acceptable. 40 to 75 = playable. 60 to >120 = decent

FreeSync and GSync advantage
Let say you'd like to upgrade your graphic card to high end such as AMD Fury X while you wish to keep your 1080p monitor, after you set it, yes it'll provide > 60 frame/sec average. In some point you'll notice occasionally choppy, blur, blink freeze when playing, this due to fixed refresh rate skipping the excess frames or new frames overlapping previous frames.
What free-sync and g-sync does is controlling monitor refresh rate, so instead of displaying fixed rates, the free-sync and g-sync monitor has variable refresh rate which controlled by g-sync module on monitor or free-sync on GPU(no more skipped or overlapped frames).
Fast refresh rate advantage
Because g-sync require hardware module make a g-sync monitor pricier than non g-sync monitor at equal specification, the thing is g-sync is nVidia cards only, as JTINLIU stated "I don't see the point in spending an extra $100 dollars on a monitor (Nvidia)..." so opting for 144Hz base on his imaginative GTX 1060 future buy is make sense as in some heavy quality image setting games the GTX 1060 won't pass 144 frames/sec boundary.
The nature of human being is to want more and more, what if someday you want to play on max setting (all anisotropic and anti aliasing filter maxed)? oh well you'll have to get pricier cards, after that, oh why this expensive cards is still giving me choppy+blur+blink freeze display?

 

[jtinliu]

Could you answer my question regarding increased input lag on all monitors other than the VG248QE as well as spending extra money to buy a monitor supporting g-sync when the image is only on the screen for 1/144th of a second? At that rate wouldn't screen tearing be barely noticeable? And monitors aside if you could answer my concerns about the rest of my build that would be great

 

[jtinliu]

Hi Mikel_4,

If you are responding to my thread, you should be responding to my questions and addressing my concerns, not replying "to all other readers". If you don't want to give feedback and help, then please stop replying.

Thanks!

 

[Mikel_4]

Hi Mikel_4,

If you are responding to my thread, you should be responding to my questions and addressing my concerns, not replying "to all other readers". If you don't want to give feedback and help, then please stop replying.

Thanks!

"......I endorsed your picks,

Motherboard QVL passed
Power supply OK......"

• 
  ■ Seemed you arguing adaptive sync base on price tag ($249.99 Asus VG248QE to $149.99 Viewsonic VX2457).
  ■ I don't care if some people (not necessarily you) buy X model X brand base on what they believe, nor force someone to buy X model X brand, I'm no vendor's fan boy and will never arguing competing market share vendor's products.
  ■ Example of misleading such as "...I don't see the point in spending an extra $100 dollars on a monitor (Nvidia) for marginally better viewing performance when I have to sacrifice precision and accuracy...." MEDITATE ON THIS I WILL (yoda)
  ■ Yea this is your thread but not your forum.