New i7-6700 4K video rig - Case Suggestions? M.2 specs?

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mschubb
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Location: United States

New i7-6700 4K video rig - Case Suggestions? M.2 specs?

Post by mschubb » Tue Feb 16, 2016 2:23 pm

Am doing a new 4K video editing build (Windows 7, Adobe CS6) and wondering if there are any new ideas out there for a smallish, quiet, mATX mini-tower. Also have a question about m.2 storage. Would welcome any suggestions or advice.

My current parts list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JZDTsY
  • i7-6700K -- $394.99
    Cooler Master Hyper 212 -- EVO $24.99
    Asus Z170M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1151 -- $122.98
    G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory -- $140
    Samsung 850 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive -- $84.99
    EVGA SuperNOVA P2 650W 80+ Platinum Certified -- $90
    Pioneer BDR-209DBK Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer $58.88
    Asus PCE-AC68 802.11a/b/g/n/ac -- $83
    Build will also include 2-3 SDDs and 1-2 HDDs from existing gear.
CASE: Been thinking about the Fractal Design Define Mini MicroATX Mini Tower Case -- or ARC MINI -- but both are actually quite large for a mATX mini-tower. My old Coolermaster Elite 341 is 7.3x14.4x15.75". The Define Mini is only an inch wider and taller, but 4 inches deeper.. Any other smaller cases you would suggest I look at?

M.2 STORAGE: This will be my first experience w/ an M.2 boot drive. The $90 Samsung 256GB EVO specs are READ/WRITE 540/500, 97,000 IOPS. The Samsung PRO is READ/WRITE is 2200/900,, 270,000 IOPS. Will I really experience that performance difference? Is the $182 PRO worth twice the cost?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Fire-Flare
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Location: Seattle

Re: New i7-6700 4K video rig - Case Suggestions? M.2 specs?

Post by Fire-Flare » Tue Feb 16, 2016 4:12 pm

I'm afraid I can't help you with the case, but you probably won't notice much of a difference with the M.2 SSD.


I use 4 SATA III SSDs in RAID 0 on my system, and I rarely notice anything happening faster than when I had just one.

Also, Windows 7 doesn't have drivers for NVMe drives, you'll need to download them beforehand then point Windows to them when installing if you want to use one as the boot drive.


There will be a speed advantage to using the Pro SSD, but it won't be as fast as the raw speeds advertised because your CPU has to process what goes into and out of the drive. Most of the time opening programs is bottlenecked by the CPU rather than read speed of the drive they reside on.


If I were you I would get the SATA SSD for now, and add the M.2 later as a data drive, perhaps dedicated to saving videos to see if any time is saved.

xan_user
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Re: New i7-6700 4K video rig - Case Suggestions? M.2 specs?

Post by xan_user » Tue Feb 16, 2016 5:47 pm

there is zero reason to prefer m.2 840/50 over the sata version, unless you just want no cables for some reason. m.2 vs sata interface with 840/850 evo/pro, the speed is essentially same. even the 950 pro advantages are very minimal in real world use.

m.2 bandwidth increase are only noticible when multiple users are hitting the same drive (950 pro/similar) simultaneously, AND they are hitting it hard.

Abula
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Re: New i7-6700 4K video rig - Case Suggestions? M.2 specs?

Post by Abula » Tue Feb 16, 2016 6:44 pm

I prefer a bigger SSD than going into NVME or M.2, for me we are reaching points where the use of mechanical hdds is mostly for storage, but programs and games are getting bigger, to me 512GB is way to close to what i need, so 1tb for me is now a days what i use.

Now talking strickly about the 950Pro, its probably the best consumer ssd in the market, weather you benefit from it depends on your workloads, what you will gain is very high sequential reads and writes, a little better random 4k over the 850pro, for the average user, this are things he will never notice on the daily bases. Now if your editing software do benefit from high sequentials, go for it, is at fast as you can get atm for consumer drives. Personally i have been waiting for Sata Express to take off, not sure why it hasn't, but in time, if it stays the same, when I move platforms and ill move to M.2 once they cover my storage needs.

About the case, I would suggest the SilverStone Temjin TJ08-E: MicroATX Evolved, the Asus FanXpert3 should be able to drop the rpms of the AP181 to about 450rpms and it will have very good airflow, coolers like Thermalright HR02 or Scythe Ninja4 would be my pick over the Coolermaster 212, they come with very decent fans for what you pay and specially if you are going to be editing and loading the CPU, would be great to have a better CPU cooler with a better fan. I would remove the hdd cage for better airflow and you can still have a single 3.5 hdd on the bottom or you can mount extras on the 5.25 bays, ssds there is a bottom mount but a lot of people have mounted in the bottom of the case or in the back or in 5.25, lots of places to velcro them, not a big deal either.

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