Desktop Computers

Having lived with a 1700X with a Noctua NH-D15 for the last month or so, I can safely say that this much cooling power is stupidly unnecessary. Get the 1600 and use the Wraith cooler that comes with it. The voltage requirements/power use goes over a cliff as you start approaching 3.9 ghz/1.35 volts, but the heat/power usage is stupid low at about 3.8 ghz/1.2 volts.

I don't understand why anyone needs 32 GB of RAM at this point... but it definitely has taken a while for the RAM issues to get ironed out. I'm on my fourth pair of RAM sticks now since release, since things have been changing so rapidly. Originally got the 3000 mhz Corsair Vengeance sticks, but they wouldn't boot at all on the original BIOS. Had to go get some 2133 mhz sticks, just to boot and update the BIOS, then returned them. Then got the 3600 mhz Corsair Vengeance sticks, but it was a waste since they wouldn't go over 2933 mhz stable, and the timings sucked. So now I'm on my shiny new 3200 mhz Flare X sticks, which have awesome timings... they really do seem like the sweet spot at the moment. In fact, my Time Spy CPU score went up 15% compared to yesterday on the Flare X sticks, that went straight to a stable 3200 mhz/CL14 right out of the box.

I also kinda regret getting an X370 board, since I was running 1070's in SLI when I started, but I scored a shiny new 1080 Ti Sea Hawk X earlier this week, so B350 would have been plenty.

But seriously, I would do 1600 /w Wraith and a B350 w/ 16 GB Flare X memory if I had it to do over again. There's absolutely nothing to worry about with thermals/noise at 3.8 ghz, and pushing to 3.9/4.0 just isn't worth the efficiency losses.

So I think I've decided on a GTX 1060 with 6GB.

I'm heavily weighing between these two:
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB SSC GAMING ACX 3.0, 6GB GDDR5, LED, DX12 OSD Support (PXOC), 06G-P4-6267-KR-Newegg.com
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 Windforce OC GV-N1060WF2OC-6GD Video Card-Newegg.com

The EVGA one has a slightly higher clock, but I'm a little concerned with how large it is (10.5"). My current GPU is just a touch over 9" and there's barely clearance for the PSU connector with my hard drives in the way. I could probably figure out a way to move everything, but it'll be a tight fit (edit: Just noticed the PSU connector for this one is on the top, not back. That would definitely help, but still tight).

The GIGABYTE one was my first choice, but apparently the fans on it don't kick on until 60C. I don't know why, but this seems like a strange decision. Fans are also apparently kind of noisy.

So, which should I pick? Or is there another 1060 6GB that I haven't considered? The price point on these two is about where I want to be. I'm also not a huge fan of ATI, so I doubt I go that route.

Why don't you just measure 10.5 inches in your case? Also, if you are in that gpu price range I would get a 480 8gb if you just doing 1080p. If not that spend a little bit more and go 1070 with 8gb. You could also wait a bit as new 580 and 570 are coming out at the 150-300$ price range.

Gravel said:

So I think I've decided on a GTX 1060 with 6GB.

I'm heavily weighing between these two:
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB SSC GAMING ACX 3.0, 6GB GDDR5, LED, DX12 OSD Support (PXOC), 06G-P4-6267-KR-Newegg.com
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 Windforce OC GV-N1060WF2OC-6GD Video Card-Newegg.com

The EVGA one has a slightly higher clock, but I'm a little concerned with how large it is (10.5"). My current GPU is just a touch over 9" and there's barely clearance for the PSU connector with my hard drives in the way. I could probably figure out a way to move everything, but it'll be a tight fit (edit: Just noticed the PSU connector for this one is on the top, not back. That would definitely help, but still tight).

The GIGABYTE one was my first choice, but apparently the fans on it don't kick on until 60C. I don't know why, but this seems like a strange decision. Fans are also apparently kind of noisy.

So, which should I pick? Or is there another 1060 6GB that I haven't considered? The price point on these two is about where I want to be. I'm also not a huge fan of ATI, so I doubt I go that route.

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The advertised stock/boost clock speeds of a GPU out of the box are rarely relevant if you're willing to spend 10 minutes in MSI Afterburner getting the ideal clock speed.

I'm not sure why the fans not turning on until 60C would matter to you - why would they need to be on before that? The only reason for the fans is to keep the heat of the chip from reaching a point where it's damaged, which is going to be 90C+. If the GPU is at 55C and the fans are off - who cares? As soon as it starts warming up they'll turn on. Most modern GPU's have a fan curve that goes silent when the GPU isn't in use - which is the only time the GPU is going to be under 60C on air. As soon as it's doing anything, it warms up and the fans turn on. Simple.

Evidently I've been pegged as an AMD fanboi since I like Ryzen, so take this with a grain of salt, I suppose, but against 1060, it seems like the ideal choice right now is the RX 480. And evidently RX 470 is much better than 1050 Ti if you go downmarket. I haven't used a non-nVidia card in at least 10 years, so I can't speak from personal experience, but yeah... supposedly it's better than 1060 for most use cases now.

I didn't realize the 1600 came with a spire. Thought it came with a worse cooler. I guess I'll just make a judgement call on any sales I see in the next few weeks as to which Ryzen I get. Really wish I had done that 1700 $250 sale.

Noodleface said:

You mine crypto currency on your home PC? Doesn't the electric cost negate any gains?

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Several coins are desktop minable: Ethereum, Monero, LBRY/LBC, Sia, Decred. Margins are thin if you sell immediately however, so if you sell as fast as you mine, it's probably not worth the trouble to build mining rigs unless you enjoy it as a hobby. I'm doing it to greatly mitigate the cost of the hardware and I'm also going to hold it because I'm bullish on some of these coins. I bought an RX 470 10 weeks ago and it mined enough to pay for half of itself already. Electricity is very cheap for me however.

Monero's algorithm is unique in that it was designed to be ASIC resistant/CPU friendly, so it can be worthwhile to CPU mine that if you think the value will increase. That's what I mine because it's easy on the hardware: my cards (mining on my old 7950 as well) mine it at temps of low 60s with fans at 50%. I've even run multiple EQ clients while it's mining and it works; haven't tried a more demanding game though.

So why not the X series of the 1700 or 1600? Seems the base clocks are higher? Or you saying you can get them nearly equal with overclocks so there isn't a point in the X?

I'm going X simply because I'm not a fan of running max clocks when my pc isn't being used and it does 4ghz out of the box.

If I was going 7 I'd probably go 1700 over the X but for the $20 it is, and the mobo savings going B350 I can't see how it isn't worth the minimal cost to get the 95w Ryzen 5.

Anyone who is looking for the R5 1600, here it is on Jet.com for $189.

New Jet Customers: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor $189 + Free Shipping

Any cpu should throttle down when not under load

Big Phoenix said:

Uh Ryzen doesnt down clock when not under load?

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Not the way most people are overclocking them, no.

I used to build my own every year or so, but I'm too lazy for that now. I just spec something on ibuypower and add shit in later. Let them run that water cooling, power, and the rest of the nonsense for me, don't have to mess with it, plus I'm terrible at cable management. They are much better than cyberpower was, molded packing inside your the case and shit when they ship, etc. Good shit, it's not much more than individual pricing on newegg for the main components if you keep the extras down, and I'll pay a little extra for the convenience. Barebones on ibuypower, buy extras (RAM, SSD, 2nd vid card, etc) on newegg, just pop it in and call it a day. I've got 3 of them right now actually. 2 - 6 core i7s, 1 i5 I think. All watercooled. Easy Peasy. Most came with those nice gtx's from MSI.

Key things I recommend for longevity:
Corsair watercooling
MSI Mobo
Samsung SSD
probably Thermaltake PSU
MSI graphics
probably Corsair Memory

I've never been a person to buy a computer part on the first day, but due to timing, it's more likely today. Where should we start seeing the RX 580's pop up? So far I don't see any.

I'm in a toss up between a 6gb 1060 and the RX 580. Basically my only hangup being the massive power consumption difference between the two. But I'm thinking it's not as big a deal because how often will the card be at 100% load anyway?

Anyway, I decided to hop on the Ryzen train. Ordered that 1600 from Jet.com last night. Going to go ahead and order a B350 board (probably MSI B350 Tomahawk, unless I find something better), and 16gb of Corsair Vengeance. That should finally bring my computer into a more modern era. Also, because of the Ryzen 1600, I'm thinking my overall GPU power consumption will be lessened, which makes the RX 580's have even less impact.

slippery said:

Okay so with my Tax Return and a bunch of Overtime moneys I'm looking to build new from my 2600k, probably max around $1500 and I don't need Keyboard/Mouse/Monitors. I haven't kept up the past few years, what am I looking at?

General thoughts are I'll probably want a closed loop water cooler (I'm assuming something like Corsair h110?) I'd like to get a new case, main concerns there are I live in Florida and it's usually hot as fuck, and I'd like it as quiet as possible. My 2600k is Overclocked to like 4.2, and I'd probably want to Overclock whatever I get. I have a 1080p, a 1080p 144hz, and a tv that will all be attached. The TV mostly just for watching shit from my computer. I don't need super crazy storage, but I'd like to get a decent size SSD

I dunno, I'm tired, I've been working too much. Just looking for opinions

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Go to PCPartPicker and just start tossing in parts

I'd recommend:
Intel 7700k
Some Z270 board - I like MSI but a lot like Asus
16-32GB RAM depending what you do - DDR4 3200 might be a sweet spot
h110 is fine
I usually get 1 or 2 SSds (Samsung, 512GB or 1TB) and then just some WD Blues of varying storage sizes. think I have 4TB right now and can always add more.
GTX 1070/1080/1080 Ti/Titan - this depends on how much you want to spend

This is just me spitballing.

How much PSU do you have?

all of the psu