Been looking for advice in numerous places and hoping these forums will be more helpful than others.
I've read through pages and pages here, and viewtopic.php?f=17&t=68640 seems to be close to what I'm looking for but I need some other suggestions.
I believe I'll be waiting for Skylake and going 6700K - I've already determined that I'm either going with ASUS Maximus VIII Hero or the Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1 which should be compatible (6th gen versions obviously). Here is what I'm looking for in the build:
- Quiet as possible without overclock/heavy loads
- As cool as possible without overclock (a friend recommends Noctua sync/fans 100% so I'd like to see that as an option, reviews seem great)
- Able to handle live streaming/game capturing simultaneously
- Efficient with video editing and rendering
- Ideal budget between $1500-$2000 MAX
- Will be used for streaming/capturing, video editing, rendering, gaming
- Games - COD Black Ops III, Battlefield, D3, WoW, GTA V at high res. (not always on ultimate settings)
I have not chosen any monitors at all, so please suggest. I'm new to liquid cool so the easier the better, but I do NOT want to skimp on being as cool and quiet as possible.
Thanks in advance!
New Rendering/Gaming Build
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
Re: New Rendering/Gaming Build
Welcome to SPCR.
Monitor resolution will determine the graphics card... In general: 1080p choose a GTX 960, for 1440p choose the GTX 970 or possible GTX 980, for 2160p empty your wallet. Your games aren't super demanding.
As mentioned in the other thread, why bother with liquid cooling if you aren't overclocking?
There is no reason to run fans at 100% unless you live in a tropical climate w/o air conditioning. If the PC is in a moderate environment, it's fairly easy to keep it's temperature reasonable with 500rpm (and less) fans. Noctua makes these fans. Decent, but pricey.
I wouldn't do a Skylake build for another couple of months. In the meantime, wait for more mobo reviews before settling on these.
Monitor resolution will determine the graphics card... In general: 1080p choose a GTX 960, for 1440p choose the GTX 970 or possible GTX 980, for 2160p empty your wallet. Your games aren't super demanding.
As mentioned in the other thread, why bother with liquid cooling if you aren't overclocking?
There is no reason to run fans at 100% unless you live in a tropical climate w/o air conditioning. If the PC is in a moderate environment, it's fairly easy to keep it's temperature reasonable with 500rpm (and less) fans. Noctua makes these fans. Decent, but pricey.
I wouldn't do a Skylake build for another couple of months. In the meantime, wait for more mobo reviews before settling on these.
Re: New Rendering/Gaming Build
Thanks for the reply Steve. Any reason to wait on Skylake other than waiting for reviews to be out on it?CA_Steve wrote:Welcome to SPCR.
Monitor resolution will determine the graphics card... In general: 1080p choose a GTX 960, for 1440p choose the GTX 970 or possible GTX 980, for 2160p empty your wallet. Your games aren't super demanding.
As mentioned in the other thread, why bother with liquid cooling if you aren't overclocking?
There is no reason to run fans at 100% unless you live in a tropical climate w/o air conditioning. If the PC is in a moderate environment, it's fairly easy to keep it's temperature reasonable with 500rpm (and less) fans. Noctua makes these fans. Decent, but pricey.
I wouldn't do a Skylake build for another couple of months. In the meantime, wait for more mobo reviews before settling on these.
I'm in the position where I'm torn between building out a PC now and having to upgrade in the next 2-3 years, or just waiting for Skylake and having that last 5+ years.
If you have time would you mind building out a quiet/cool build on PcPartPicker so I can see your suggestions?
Re: New Rendering/Gaming Build
Every newly released CPU and chipset has birthing pains. If you want to take part in them, buy now 
After ~ 2 months, the dire and not so dire bugs are revealed/fixed/or have a fix in queue, BIOS and driver updates slow down to a reasonable pace. Plus, you'll have a better feel for which mobo's have the best set of features and performance.
The difference between Haswell and Skylake isn't another 2 yrs lifetime for your PC There's maybe a 10% bump overall in performance. The big benefits are new mobo features, lower potential idle power.
The best way to get 5 years out of a build is to recognize you'll be replacing the GPU somewhere in the middle.
After ~ 2 months, the dire and not so dire bugs are revealed/fixed/or have a fix in queue, BIOS and driver updates slow down to a reasonable pace. Plus, you'll have a better feel for which mobo's have the best set of features and performance.
The difference between Haswell and Skylake isn't another 2 yrs lifetime for your PC
There's maybe a 10% bump overall in performance. The big benefits are new mobo features, lower potential idle power.The best way to get 5 years out of a build is to recognize you'll be replacing the GPU somewhere in the middle.
Re: New Rendering/Gaming Build
It really comes down to the resolution you will use and what you will use to render/encode. Will it make use of Cuda cores? will your rending/streaming software need lots of memory?
Look into SPCR's Quiet ATX Gaming Build Guide should fit well in terms of your budget and choices.
I would go with Fractal Design Define R5, great cable management, great overall design, very well made, a little restricted but expected as it does dampen some the noise, dont expect the case will make a build quiet, it will help, but you must chose quiet components to end up with a quiet pc. As an alternative, specially if you dont need many 3.5hdd or 5.25 optical slots, you can go with the Fractal Design Define S Silent Computer Case that was also reviewed by SPCR Fractal Design Define S Tower Case
For fans, since your friend and you seem to like Noctua, look into Noctua NF-P14s redux should be a good option, you can get them in 4pin PWM or 3pin voltage control styled version, chose based on what motherboard you will and how you will control the fans (not all motherboard headers are equal, even when they look like it). Personally what i would do its just add 2x Antec TrueQuiet 140 140mm Cooling Fan in the front and call it a day, cheaper and works pretty good.
Motherboard is more a user preference, i like more MSI minimalist bios fan control than Asus FanXpert2 software based, but either will work fine. I dont like much the way Asus AI suite measure temps, not sure how it will be on Z170 boards, but in the past they had their own algorithm to estimate a sort of speak, "more accurate cpu temp", which was totally different from core temps, and climb differently as well, and the thing that i like worst was it was not linear, thus planning a curve to adjust was almost impossible, this is not to say it wont work, as FanXpert2/3 is a superb fan control software, but why go into all that fuss, when you can the motherboard BIOS manage the fans as well.
For CPU coolers i would recommend you read SPCR Scythe Kotetsu CPU Cooler: A Compact King, you can find it around $45 or so, Scythe Cooling Motherboard SCKTT-1000, another good option that its close in price is the Thermalright HR02 Macho RevB.
As Steve posted, i would chose the GPU according to the resolution and if your rending/streaming programs will use the Cuda cores, but i would probably chose from the GTX970 to the GTX980Ti, i like more MSI fan design and ramps than Asus Strix, btw i don't dislike asus, i own 3 motherboards of them and 2 gpus, but for me MSI simply does what i want quieter and simpler.
SSD, up to you, for me the Crucial MX200 offers a lot of bang for the buck, i would suggest 250/500gb versions, if you want the best of sata III ssds, i would go with Samsung 850pro. Hdds to store your recording or you movies/pics/media, i would suggest a WD Green or Red, whatever size you need and fits your budget.
For a pure gamer stand point my dream monitor would be Acer XB270HU bprz 27-inch WQHD NVIDIA G-SYNC (2560 x 1440) Widescreen Monitor, if you wish to see more about it, check Acer Predator XB270HU 144Hz IPS G-Sync Monitor - The best I have ever seen?. But its hard for me to say if it would best for you, since you are into streaming, not sure if you will stream only at 1980x1080, and if the software scales.... also very expensive monitor, might not fit the $2k budget, so might be better to look for a 1080p gaming monitor, so here research what would work better for your streaming purposes.
PSU, personally i like to invest a lot on PSU, not the best, but i do not skimp on PSU nor i advise to, i would probably go with something like SeaSonic Snow Silent 750, or if you want soemthing cheaper EVGA 220-G2-0750-XR 80 PLUS GOLD 750 W.
Memory.... whatever you like, there is very few difference out there, i would suggest to go with standard or low profile memory as tall heatsinks are more a marketing hook than a real necessity, i like crucial ballistic ultra low profile because it doesn't affect the fans on my CPU cooler, but again more a personal preference, all should perform pretty much the same.
Look into SPCR's Quiet ATX Gaming Build Guide should fit well in terms of your budget and choices.
I would go with Fractal Design Define R5, great cable management, great overall design, very well made, a little restricted but expected as it does dampen some the noise, dont expect the case will make a build quiet, it will help, but you must chose quiet components to end up with a quiet pc. As an alternative, specially if you dont need many 3.5hdd or 5.25 optical slots, you can go with the Fractal Design Define S Silent Computer Case that was also reviewed by SPCR Fractal Design Define S Tower Case
For fans, since your friend and you seem to like Noctua, look into Noctua NF-P14s redux should be a good option, you can get them in 4pin PWM or 3pin voltage control styled version, chose based on what motherboard you will and how you will control the fans (not all motherboard headers are equal, even when they look like it). Personally what i would do its just add 2x Antec TrueQuiet 140 140mm Cooling Fan in the front and call it a day, cheaper and works pretty good.
Motherboard is more a user preference, i like more MSI minimalist bios fan control than Asus FanXpert2 software based, but either will work fine. I dont like much the way Asus AI suite measure temps, not sure how it will be on Z170 boards, but in the past they had their own algorithm to estimate a sort of speak, "more accurate cpu temp", which was totally different from core temps, and climb differently as well, and the thing that i like worst was it was not linear, thus planning a curve to adjust was almost impossible, this is not to say it wont work, as FanXpert2/3 is a superb fan control software, but why go into all that fuss, when you can the motherboard BIOS manage the fans as well.
I would avoid liquid cooling if possible, there are points where liquid will be quieter but you must have tons of hardware and stressing it a lot. On the normal basis air cooling will be simpler and in most cases will end up quieter. Now if you going with SLI setup + X99 CPU and 4.5ghz oc, then go with water, will end quieter, but single GPU and Z170 i would go air.but I do NOT want to skimp on being as cool and quiet as possible
For CPU coolers i would recommend you read SPCR Scythe Kotetsu CPU Cooler: A Compact King, you can find it around $45 or so, Scythe Cooling Motherboard SCKTT-1000, another good option that its close in price is the Thermalright HR02 Macho RevB.
As Steve posted, i would chose the GPU according to the resolution and if your rending/streaming programs will use the Cuda cores, but i would probably chose from the GTX970 to the GTX980Ti, i like more MSI fan design and ramps than Asus Strix, btw i don't dislike asus, i own 3 motherboards of them and 2 gpus, but for me MSI simply does what i want quieter and simpler.
SSD, up to you, for me the Crucial MX200 offers a lot of bang for the buck, i would suggest 250/500gb versions, if you want the best of sata III ssds, i would go with Samsung 850pro. Hdds to store your recording or you movies/pics/media, i would suggest a WD Green or Red, whatever size you need and fits your budget.
For a pure gamer stand point my dream monitor would be Acer XB270HU bprz 27-inch WQHD NVIDIA G-SYNC (2560 x 1440) Widescreen Monitor, if you wish to see more about it, check Acer Predator XB270HU 144Hz IPS G-Sync Monitor - The best I have ever seen?. But its hard for me to say if it would best for you, since you are into streaming, not sure if you will stream only at 1980x1080, and if the software scales.... also very expensive monitor, might not fit the $2k budget, so might be better to look for a 1080p gaming monitor, so here research what would work better for your streaming purposes.
PSU, personally i like to invest a lot on PSU, not the best, but i do not skimp on PSU nor i advise to, i would probably go with something like SeaSonic Snow Silent 750, or if you want soemthing cheaper EVGA 220-G2-0750-XR 80 PLUS GOLD 750 W.
Memory.... whatever you like, there is very few difference out there, i would suggest to go with standard or low profile memory as tall heatsinks are more a marketing hook than a real necessity, i like crucial ballistic ultra low profile because it doesn't affect the fans on my CPU cooler, but again more a personal preference, all should perform pretty much the same.