New overclocked build for the new year

[supanova]

The original idea was to do this for between £1000 and £1200. But as I need something I can be confident will last a while I can stretch to £1500. With the pcspecialist overlocked option I can manage it with these components:

Fractal Define R5
Intel® Core™i7-6700k overclocked to max 4.6GHz
ASUS® Z170 PRO GAMING
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB ( 2x8G ) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz
4GB GEFORCE GTX 970
1TB WD BLACK WD5003AZEX SATA 6 GB/S 64 MB CACHE 7200RPM
512GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2 PCIe NVME
Corsair 650w cs series modular 80 plus gold ultra quiet
NOCTUA NH-D15S FAN CPU COOLER
Windows 10 Home

£1,452.00

OR

Fractal Define R5
Intel® Core™ i7-5820K overclocked max 4.4GHz
ASUS® X99-A
16GB Corsair Vengeance 3000MHz Kit
4GB GEFORCE GTX 970
1TB WD BLACK WD5003AZEX SATA 6 GB/S 64 MB CACHE 7200RPM
512GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2 PCIe NVME
Corsair 650w cs series modular 80 plus gold ultra quiet
NOCTUA NH-D15S FAN CPU COOLER
Windows 10 Home

£1,569.00

With regard to usage, I use Photoshop and Premiere for work, I also have a Youtube channel, so I use DXtory/Shadowplay, and as far as gaming is concerned I have Falcon 4 BMS, DCS, rFactor 2, Assetto Corsa, Euro Truck Sim 2, FSX, IL2 BOS, with some Payday 2, The Long Dark and The Forest thrown in.

It seems to me that the 6700 might be a better choice for me over the 6600 because of the hyperthreading. I'm thinking it will give me more options when using TrackIR, VoiceAttack and DXTory to reduce CPU workload, as well as the work bonus with apps like Premiere. That's what is keeping me from saving a bit with the 6600.

I'm thinking of buying two Fractal Design GP-14 Dynamic fans for the case, one drawing air in at the front, the other pushing air out at the back.

TTL makes a point here about the back of the case:

http://youtu.be/q7FVSLNyJsw?t=9m47s

I'm wondering whether two at the front and the one stock at the rear would be better for positive air pressure? I have no idea about that, but I'm guessing air pushed in from the front prevents dust being pulled in at the back.

At the moment the graphics card they're fitting is the Zotac AMP 970GTX.

I like the SM951 for OS, applications and games, which is why I'm going for the 500Gb option. I have heard it has issues with heat, which might also be a good idea for the second fan in the front. The WD 1TB for data.

I'm currently using a Samsung Spin Point F1 1TB. Would that WD 1TB drive be significantly faster? I'm thinking in terms of DXTory writing to it in particular.

The 650w I would assume is going to have no problems with that system? Most USB devices plugged into it will draw power seperately.

I'm hoping the Noctua will be more than adequate to cool the CPU.

Any thoughts, suggestions, corrections, etc, welcome.

 

[AlienALX]

For £1500 I would expect, or even demand a 980ti. I'd rather I5 and 980ti than I7 and 970.

Just my opinion feel free to ignore

 

[supanova]

The 6700 with a 970 would cost £1450. A 6600 with a 980 £1550, and with a 980ti that would be £1650.

My thoughts are that it's easier to upgrade the graphics card than the CPU.

 

[Davva2004]

How much would an X99 motherboard and a 5820K run you to? They clock nicely up to 4.5 and 4.6ghz and you'd definitely benefit from two more cores and four more threads rather than slightly higher IPC and a useless onboard GPU.

 

[supanova]

How much would an X99 motherboard and a 5820K run you to? They clock nicely up to 4.5 and 4.6ghz and you'd definitely benefit from two more cores and four more threads rather than slightly higher IPC and a useless onboard GPU.

That CPU overclocked to 4.4GHz and a Gigabyte X99M Gaming 5 board would come to £1500.

I do notice that it draws quite a bit more power than the 6700. I'll have to do a bit more research on that combination.

 

[Excalabur50]

For what you want to do you have a pretty good selection there an x99 chipset would probably be better for your needs but if the budget can't stretch that far the 6700k should do fine

 

[supanova]

I'm going to post something from somewhere else that I think may sum up the choice between the two CPU's:

For games that use 4 threads or less, you'll have 20-25% higher performance with Skylake.

For games that use 6 threads, you'll have similar performance between the two, with the 5820k taking a small lead (6700k will scale a little from the 4 extra threads, while 5820k will scale 50%)

Only when you exceed 6 threads will the 5820k really shine (like in Welcome to the Jungle). But that's not a common thing in games today,, and probably won't be for some time.

Does that sound about right?

 

[AlienALX]

DX12 is supposed to be highly threaded at API level as well as supporting more than one GPU.

Given that you probably expect to have this rig for more than a year I would go with the X99 system as it has a broader spectrum of upgrades. 5960x 8 core for example as well as the next lot which will carry up to 10 cores.

I think the thing people miss the most when talking about core count is multi tasking. It never gets mentioned and there is only one true benchmark for it (Asus Realbench 2.0) but Win 8 and onward are highly threaded and thus more cores mean better multi tasking.

 

[SykesIT]

I think you should be able to build this for less yourself.

I just built a similar system and I think it cost me £1200.

I7 6700K
Asus Z170-A
32GB Corsair Platinum
Samsung 950 Pro 256GB
Samsung 850 Evo 256GB x 2
Asus Strix GTX 970
NZXT Kraken X61 AIO
NZXT H440 case
Leadtek Superflower 1200w PSU
Windows 10 Pro

From my recent build I would forget the SM951 and put 2 850 Evo in Raid, I did a speed test and not much difference, but it is nice to have a separate Windows drive.

I did a lot of shopping around and took me a few months to get everything but this is the time for deals.

 

[supanova]

Updated the original post with a 5820K option.

Either way, would one extra fan in the front, or one extra fan in the front and on in the top be the better option? I'm thinking in terms of heat and also preventing dust entering the case from the back case vent.