New PC Build - Trimming The Fat.

[SkylessCloud]

So, firstly hello to everyone. I'm just looking for some outside input on a PC I'm looking to build. Goal is 1080p Gaming on High to Ultra and streaming/recording at Medium to High on current gen titles.. Specs are as follows, I'm just wondering if there's anything here that could be toned down without doing any harm. I don't feel any great urge to spend more than I need to even though I'm still within budget.

- ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING Motherboard

- Intel i5-6600K

- 2x8 16GB 2400MHz DDR4

- GTX 970 Strix 4GB

- 500GB M.2 Samsung 850 EVO Solid State Drive

- 2TB Seagate SSHD

Power supply cooling etc, don't really need any input on those.

Also if anyone feels what I have wouldn't be enough for my purposes and wants to suggest upgrades I'd be interested to hear, although from the research I've done that looks fairly solid. All answers appreciated except the ones without punctuation or coherence

Thanks,

SkylessCloud.

 

[naturesninja]

Everything looks good, but I would recommend skipping the Seagate Hybrid. Try a WD Blue or Black HDD on for size. An i7 can't hurt in the long run for what you're wanting to do, but you are on par with your goal.

 

[lucas_7_94]

Well, yes, its a solid build like you said. i would do a little OC to the micro to powerfull usage. Do you have any PSU in mind?

 

[Forever Oleg]

You don't need an SSHD for the "dumpster" drive. Just get a 2GB Barracuda.

I recommend this amazing card instead: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100382ntoc2l

ASUS Z170-A is a good board as well.

If you are not TOO much into overclocking, you can go for i5-6500 + Asrock Fatality board because Asrock has technology to overclock locked Skylake chips.

If streaming is important, picking up an i7 would be a better idea.

 

[SkylessCloud]

I'm seeing SSHD's and regular HD's at pretty close prices for the size. I'll admit I'm not quite clear on what impact an SSHD would have since I've never owned one but assuming I've got at least some of my games/applications on the SSHD (Which if I'm installing most of my games library would be inevitable) would I be seeing any benefit from owning one?

Also, no, I don't have a specific power supply in mind, if you've got something in mind let me know. I don't intend to heavily overclock anything and I need to leave myself some headroom for future upgrades.

 

[SkylessCloud]

You don't need an SSHD for the "dumpster" drive. Just get a 2GB Barracuda.

I recommend this amazing card instead: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100382ntoc2l

ASUS Z170-A is a good board as well.

If you are not TOO much into overclocking, you can go for i5-6500 + Asrock Fatality board because Asrock has technology to overclock locked Skylake chips.

If streaming is important, picking up an i7 would be a better idea.

Interesting.

A little more detail on the i7 thing if you wouldn't mind? What issues might I have with my current choice?/What would an i7 add that I don't currently have?

 

[Forever Oleg]

EVGA Supernova B2 750W for $65 - that is considered cheap. The next BEST would be a G2 unit for around $90-100.

As for SSHD, if you wanna keep some of your games there, then I see the reason why you chose it now. Otherwise, just get a regular drive if you wanna use it as a "dump" for all your videos and files.

 

[Forever Oleg]

You don't need an SSHD for the "dumpster" drive. Just get a 2GB Barracuda.

I recommend this amazing card instead: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100382ntoc2l

ASUS Z170-A is a good board as well.

If you are not TOO much into overclocking, you can go for i5-6500 + Asrock Fatality board because Asrock has technology to overclock locked Skylake chips.

If streaming is important, picking up an i7 would be a better idea.

Interesting.

A little more detail on the i7 thing if you wouldn't mind? What issues might I have with my current choice?/What would an i7 add that I don't currently have?

You will not have issues with streaming with the overclocked i5 but it depends on the game.

If you wanna stream Witcher 3 or Crysis PC Melter then you better have the i7 (or at least Xeon E3 1231V3 which is pretty much i7-4770 for a fraction of a price + if you choose that you can get a cheap H97 motherboard to go with it but by going this route you are turning away from Skylake).

 

[SkylessCloud]

You don't need an SSHD for the "dumpster" drive. Just get a 2GB Barracuda.

I recommend this amazing card instead: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100382ntoc2l

ASUS Z170-A is a good board as well.

If you are not TOO much into overclocking, you can go for i5-6500 + Asrock Fatality board because Asrock has technology to overclock locked Skylake chips.

If streaming is important, picking up an i7 would be a better idea.

Interesting.

A little more detail on the i7 thing if you wouldn't mind? What issues might I have with my current choice?/What would an i7 add that I don't currently have?

You will not have issues with streaming with the overclocked i5 but it depends on the game.

If you wanna stream Witcher 3 or Crysis PC Melter then you better have the i7 (or at least Xeon E3 1231V3 which is pretty much i7-4770 for a fraction of a price + if you choose that you can get a cheap H97 motherboard to go with it but by going this route you are turning away from Skylake).

I get it. Any settings changes I could make to deal with that, or since it's CPU based am I just stuck in that case?

Edit: Sorry my response was kind of vague. I mean, if I try to run super high end games for streaming or recording, can I deal with having a weaker processor by dialing down some options in game or is it just a case of: Better processor or it won't work?

 

[SkylessCloud]

Everything looks good, but I would recommend skipping the Seagate Hybrid. Try a WD Blue or Black HDD on for size. An i7 can't hurt in the long run for what you're wanting to do, but you are on par with your goal.

Regarding the hard drive recommendation, because those drives would be faster or because they're cheaper?

 

[Forever Oleg]

Yes, because they are cheaper.

And yes, you can put the settings down.

PS. I will tell you a scary fact. When people are really determined to stream demanding games, they would choose FX-8320 OVER the i5 just because of the extra cores. Surprise!

 

[SkylessCloud]

Yes, because they are cheaper.

And yes, you can put the settings down.

PS. I will tell you a scary fact. When people are really determined to stream demanding games, they would choose FX-8320 OVER the i5 just because of the extra cores. Surprise!

Any other benefits of the FX-8320 vs the i5 6600K except for streaming? Also to what extent if any would recording and streaming differ? Thanks for all your help so far by the way, I'm aware I'm asking a lot of questions. In case it isn't clear I'm building a machine to start doing this stuff properly with, I don't have any real experience.

 

[Forever Oleg]

Honestly, the new Skylake i5-6600K edges out the i5-4690K so FX-8320 vs i5-6600K is a tight battle even in streaming but if you want an overall awesome CPU, definitely go i5.

FX-8320 would have to be heavily overclocked to actually be worth it. People would pick them over i5's but when you take hardcore overclocking into account, then it is a tight run, but I don't think getting a 3+ year old AMD is worth over a new-gen DDR4-based Skylake. Also, make sure you get faster RAM - surprisingly it was proved to improve Intel performance with DDR4.

 

[SkylessCloud]

Honestly, the new Skylake i5-6600K edges out the i5-4690K so FX-8320 vs i5-6600K is a tight battle even in streaming but if you want an overall awesome CPU, definitely go i5.

FX-8320 would have to be heavily overclocked to actually be worth it. People would pick them over i5's but when you take hardcore overclocking into account, then it is a tight run, but I don't think getting a 3+ year old AMD is worth over a new-gen DDR4-based Skylake. Also, make sure you get faster RAM - surprisingly it was proved to improve Intel performance with DDR4.

So getting a better class of DDR4, say 3000Mhz is worth it? My reading suggested for gaming purposes 2666 was where it stopped being cost effective but even then the difference wasn't significant.

 

[Forever Oleg]

2666 is really the top - that's true. Higher than that wouldn't be getting best bang for the buck.

 

[SkylessCloud]

2666 is really the top - that's true. Higher than that wouldn't be getting best bang for the buck.

How about 2666 vs 2400, am I going to see that difference in a practical way?

 

[Forever Oleg]

Nope: http://www.legitreviews.com/ddr4-memory-scaling-intel-z170-finding-the-best-ddr4-memory-kit-speed_170340/5