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4k gaming rig need help

2K views 75 replies 11 participants last post by  furdieur 
#1 ·
I have the monitor picked out but this is a list of the parts I need.

Cpu
Motherboard
Ram
GPU

I am torn with the recent release of Ryzen from AMD the 1800x looks mighty tempting but I love Intel. And then you have all these people saying games are going to use more than 4 cores in the vey near future, and some already do, so I definitley want something more than a quad core, I've been running this i7 3770k since 2012.

Any thoughts
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#2 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by kuruptx View Post

I have the monitor picked out but this is a list of the parts I need.

Cpu
Motherboard
Ram
GPU

I am torn with the recent release of Ryzen from AMD the 1800x looks mighty tempting but I love Intel. And then you have all these people saying games are going to use more than 4 cores in the vey near future, and some already do, so I definitley want something more than a quad core, I've been running this i7 3770k since 2012.

Any thoughts
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What is your budget?
 
#3 ·
1500.
 
#4 ·
Honestly, the R7 1800X is a bit of a luxury since you can overclock the much more affordable R7 1700 and get close performance for around 65% of the cost. If you want 6+ cores from Intel, now isn't the most ideal time to buy. Skylake-X, I believe, is hitting the market Q3 and Coffee Lake is coming next year. Gaming at 4K is more GPU dependent anyway.

You should worry about the motherboard and RAM after you settle on the CPU. Your choice should be fairly academic once you settle on the processor. Just look for a board with all the features you need at the lowest price. As for RAM, you experience diminishing returns past roughly 3000-3200 MHz with the best price to performance generally coming in around 2666 MHz. Depends on sales and such.

Other than 4K gaming, which I still think is one or two GPU generations away from being financially reasonable, what do you plan on doing with your PC?
 
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#5 ·
Thanks for the response @chessmyantidrug I honestly just watch movies, netflix, and game, watch twitch, always have about 10 web browsers up. But as far as editing stuff like videos or photo
s etc their is none of that. I think I have decided on the 1700x Ryzen chip, care to help pick out the best motherboard? I want to get atleast 3200 ram speed, and just using one GFX card.
 
#6 ·
I have read your replies, but I'm going to post this without factoring in your budget/RAM speed/processor, these are just my suggestions regarding the original post.

If you want more than four cores, so be it... but it's really the GPU that drives a 4K gaming rig, and even an i5 wouldn't bottleneck it too terribly. This is about clock speed, GPU power, and VRAM.
And yes, imo Ryzen is the best option for 6+ cores right now.

Here goes:
For over 60 FPS in virtually all games at 4K, you need the $700 1080Ti. Of course, it really depends on the game. For some games you could use a 1060 and be fine. Others will barely hit 60 with the Titan X. I don't know what games you play, but as you want 6 cores for future gaming possibility, I'd recommend pairing it with a card that would handle those games at 4K.
1080Ti assumes you want 60+ FPS in every single game. Most people don't want that, but if you do, that's fine, and that's how.

Motherboard variance really doesn't matter, just make sure it's of quality and has enough PCIe expansion slots (probably two, one for the GPU and one for a wireless card, if you want that). I'd also consider using Micro ATX to save money. I don't know how this fares in all cases, but in general you're just straight up saving money. If going with Ryzen, don't bother with an X370 chipset- use the B370 as the only difference is SLI/Crossfire, both of which are unreliable and of poor value.

As for RAM, 16 GB is fine. LinusTechTips just released a video about RAM speed affecting performance, so if that matters to you then you might want to consider using something clocked at 3200MHz if I recall correctly, but again this is highly negligible especially in the interest of saving money. Like a 4.7% performance difference in the most extreme cases, and for $60 more, according to LTT. Personally I just buy whatever's cheapest.
https://youtu.be/D_Yt4vSZKVk?t=7m12s

What monitor are you using? Just curious, unless it's absolutely terrible I'm not going to criticize
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#7 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by furdieur View Post

I have read your replies, but I'm going to post this without factoring in your budget/RAM speed/processor, these are just my suggestions regarding the original post.

If you want more than four cores, so be it... but it's really the GPU that drives a 4K gaming rig, and even an i5 wouldn't bottleneck it too terribly. This is about clock speed, GPU power, and VRAM.
And yes, imo Ryzen is the best option for 6+ cores right now.

Here goes:
For over 60 FPS in virtually all games at 4K, you need the $700 1080Ti. Of course, it really depends on the game. For some games you could use a 1060 and be fine. Others will barely hit 60 with the Titan X. I don't know what games you play, but as you want 6 cores for future gaming possibility, I'd recommend pairing it with a card that would handle those games at 4K.
1080Ti assumes you want 60+ FPS in every single game. Most people don't want that, but if you do, that's fine, and that's how.

Motherboard variance really doesn't matter, just make sure it's of quality and has enough PCIe expansion slots (probably two, one for the GPU and one for a wireless card, if you want that). I'd also consider using Micro ATX to save money. I don't know how this fares in all cases, but in general you're just straight up saving money. If going with Ryzen, don't bother with an X370 chipset- use the B370 as the only difference is SLI/Crossfire, both of which are unreliable and of poor value.

As for RAM, 16 GB is fine. LinusTechTips just released a video about RAM speed affecting performance, so if that matters to you then you might want to consider using something clocked at 3200MHz if I recall correctly, but again this is highly negligible especially in the interest of saving money. Like a 4.7% performance difference in the most extreme cases, and for $60 more, according to LTT. Personally I just buy whatever's cheapest.
https://youtu.be/D_Yt4vSZKVk?t=7m12s

What monitor are you using? Just curious, unless it's absolutely terrible I'm not going to criticize
smile.gif
)
Thank you for the reply, I looked for the b370 motherboards and couldn't find any, also question can you overclock them? Because I would try to like to get a little overclock on the 1700, going with it, not the X version.

AS far as 60 fps every game, or close to it would be what I would think is ideal. I am on a Dell Ultrasharp 1080p monitor right now, but looking at the Asus 28 inch 4k montor to go with this build.

Here are the parts I've picked out so far opinions?

Monitor - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236399&ignorebbr=1
Motherboard- https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144017&ignorebbr=1
CPU- https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113428&ignorebbr=1
Memory- https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233859&cm_re=16gb_ddr4_3200-_-20-233-859-_-Product
GPU-https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125880&ignorebbr=1
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by kuruptx View Post

AS far as 60 fps every game, or close to it would be what I would think is ideal.

GPU-https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125880&ignorebbr=1
If you're looking for close/near to max settings @ 4K with 60fps and minimal drops to the 50's, a 1080 will unfortunately not cut it. Even with some setting turned down on a lot of newer games, you'll be hard pressed to get anywhere close to a 60fps average. Even an OC'ed 1080 TI struggles with some games @ 4K. Realistically, a Titan Xp would be the best single card option but hardly worth the price difference with the TI.

Edit: I see your budget is 1500, does that include the monitor?
 
#9 ·
This is why I say 4K gaming isn't financially reasonable for another GPU generation or two. I'm never going to recommend a multi-GPU setup and that's pretty much what it takes to achieve high frame rates in the most demanding games.

I honestly don't know much about AM4 boards. My best suggestion is figuring out which features you need, finding out which boards have those, then making your decision based on a combination of price versus reviews. Doing your own research will help you more than us suggesting what to do.

My personal recommendation is "settling" for 1440p gaming for now and making the move to 4K in a couple years when GPU technology makes it more manageable.
 
#10 ·
X370, B370, and X300 can be overclocked. Only difference is XFire/SLI.

As for multi-GPU, it's unnecessary. Poor bang for your buck and unreliable.

About 4K being financially reasonable- you have $1500. Assuming this is only for the PC itself (and not the monitor), you should be able to get yourself
-$700 1080Ti
-$150 Motherboard
-$400 CPU
-$150 on RAM
-$100 for an SSD
This obviously leaves out a few things (notably the power supply), but you already have a working computer, and you can eBay some stuff if costs get high. Sacrifices will have to be made in order to keep your current system alongside building a new one...

I can't recommend you a system for $1500 that will play all games at 4K 60Hz. Doesn't exist yet.
But there's a lot that can come close.
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Two advices really and the first one is either drop 4K or get a bigger monitor

4K on a 28 inch is too many pixels on too small an area unless you are sitting 20 cm from your monitor you are not getting anything out of 4K on such a small display which means you are throwing money out the window

As i said either drop 4K and get a 27 inch 1440P monitor instead such as the Asus MG279Q or the PG279Q if you can spend that much

Or get a 30 inch or bigger if 4K is a must because the pixel density is too big on a 28 inch screen with 4K, thats like having 1080P on a 7 inch screen or in other words completely wasted and pointless

4K on a $1500 budget is a stupid idea frankly and the money is far better spent elsewhere or you need to spend a LOT more to get a decent 4K gaming rig

And my second advice is the video card which besides that its not powerful enough for 4K its not a very good card either
Stay away from Gigabyte cards and find something else instead

I would recommended you get an EVGA card instead or ANY other brand then Gigabyte.
 
#12 ·
I'v played plenty of 4k games on my sig-rig which you could beat in performance with Ryzen 1700 and 1080ti. Media and games look noticeably better and I'm sold on 4k with HDR being the next best thing.

Most games will run locked 60FPS in 4k on my rig with MSAA off, and you can't even see the difference it makes anyway. Some really hard hitters like Witcher 3, you can change a couple post processing effects and still get 60FPS minimum, so it's not like a 1080ti would be hard to play 4k.

But the monitor you linked isn't all that remarkable other than being 4k. TN panel, 60Hz, no G-sync / freesync.

I think there is better 1440p screens out there that would be more satisfying to use. 1440p 144Hz IPS with G-sync might be the best thing to do right now, as you could easily pull a steady 100FPS in majority of titles instead of struggling to achieve 60fps. Once they start coming out with monitors like the Asus PG27UQ under $1000, then it will be allot more enticing than it is now.

Personally, I'm waiting for the Samsung 1440p 144Hz HDR monitors with quantom dot VA panels to come out. It's just a bad time to buy a monitor when better things are around the corner.
 
#13 ·
Sorry but most newer games can't run a "locked" 60 FPS @ 4K with a 1080. If I can't do it with a Titan X Pascal or 1080 Ti then a 1080 definitely can't.

Locked refers to no fps drops below 60 except for maybe the occasional 1-2 fps if we're being generous.

Titanfall 2
Resident Evil 7
Watch Dogs 2
Mass Effect Andromeda
Ghost Recon
Dead Rising 4
Gears of War 4
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Fallout 4
For Honor
Sniper Elite
etc etc etc

In fact the only major newish games that comes to mind that can run a locked 60 fps w/ a 1080 is Overwatch/Halo Wars 2/Battlefield 1 (pushing it on 64P MP) ....

If we're talking games 3-4 years ago, sure.....but not 90% of the games that matter today.

Dropping half the settings to maintain something remotely close to "locked" 60fps isn't worth it @ 4K when you can max out/lock nearly all games @ 1440P which is still a nice upgrade over your current 1080p monitor.

My suggestion would be a 1080 w/ a 1440p monitor or a Ti w/ 4k.

Edit: As someone mentioned in a previous post, next generation of GPU's (Volta etc) should bring 4K 60FPS gaming to the masses at a more affordable price. I'd also watch out for AMD's VEGA releasing (hopefully) in the next 1-2 months.
 
#14 ·
Ok so I've read of this and read everyone replies closely and decided to go with this build.

ASUS MG279Q Black 27" IPS 144 Hz 4ms Adaptive-Sync (Free Sync)
AMD RYZEN 7 1700 8-Core 3.0 GHz (3.7 GHz Turbo)
MSI B350 TOMAHAWK AM4
G.SKILL Flare X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 08G-P4-6286-RX FTW GAMING ACX 3.0, 8GB

I am happy with this, it's a little bit over my budget, but I feel like it would be worth it, I chose the ram, sadly it's abit more expensive than the other kits that are that same speed, but apparently this is the only one thats almost guranteed to run stable at 3200. And I chose the board because I don't need all the extra bells and whistles and maybe it will be enough for the a decent overclock.

Question though, do you think I will be fine with a Corsair H 60 water cooler, or should I get the h110 or something with the larger radiator?
 
#15 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by kuruptx View Post

Ok so I've read of this and read everyone replies closely and decided to go with this build.

ASUS MG279Q Black 27" IPS 144 Hz 4ms Adaptive-Sync (Free Sync)
AMD RYZEN 7 1700 8-Core 3.0 GHz (3.7 GHz Turbo)
MSI B350 TOMAHAWK AM4
G.SKILL Flare X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 08G-P4-6286-RX FTW GAMING ACX 3.0, 8GB

I am happy with this, it's a little bit over my budget, but I feel like it would be worth it, I chose the ram, sadly it's abit more expensive than the other kits that are that same speed, but apparently this is the only one thats almost guranteed to run stable at 3200. And I chose the board because I don't need all the extra bells and whistles and maybe it will be enough for the a decent overclock.

Question though, do you think I will be fine with a Corsair H 60 water cooler, or should I get the h110 or something with the larger radiator?
Forget about all those rubbish CLC coolers and consider a good air cooler instead
Air coolers are better more quiet more reliable at the same price point or lower, a dual tower air cooler is better and cheaper then almost all the 240/280mm CLC kits

If you want a liquid setup consider a proper AIO kit from EK or Swiftech instead of some CLC rubbish

Edit: also note that the EVGA GTX 1080 FTW you picked has some serious overheating issues on some of them
The problem should have been fixed but you never know so the FTW2 is what replaced the older FTW

If you cant afford the FTW2 EVGA has an SC2 model which is a little bit cheaper
 
#16 ·
#17 ·
See the edit i made in my last post if you did not see already
As for an air cooler you got 180mm of clearance in the H440 you picked which is tall enough for almost any cooler

You got lots of option but do you want a dual tower cooler or a single tower?
These are some of the the options you have

http://noctua.at/en/products/cpu-cooler-retail
http://www.phanteks.com/CPU-Coolers.html
http://www.cryorig.com/product.php
http://www.bequiet.com/en/cpucooler
http://thermalright.com/product-category/heatsink/

My personal preference is Noctua but many hate the Noctua colors and often ends up with Phanteks Cryorig or Be Quiet
I have only tried Be Quiet besides Noctua and one thing i can say for sure is their mounting system is a massive pain in the butt!

The NH-D15 SE-AM4 is what i would go for.
 
#18 ·
Alright that is awesome thank you and yes I saw your previous post and I made the change on the GFX card to the FTW 2!

Also, with that Motherboard, would I be able to get a few clocks on the overclock?
 
#19 ·
One thing i almost forgot to say is since you are buying a Ryzen CPU and motherboard you need to make sure the CPU cooler you end up buying will actually work with the new AM4 socket
The Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4 is the only one i am 100% sure works

As for overclocking i am not the one you should ask about that as i have zero experience with Ryzen.
 
#21 ·
I'm liking your choices.

Don't go for high clocked RAM, I only mentioned it because I wasn't sure how all-out you were going with this. Get whatever's cheapest, or at least whatever has the best price-to-performance. Don't waste your money on the 3200.

As for the graphics card, I've never heard of problems with Gigabyte cards- often they're quoted as one of the best and most reliable manufacturers. EVGA, on the other hand, has had cards catch on fire, overheat, and other issues that cause an official recall. Nothing against either company from me- I just don't see why EVGA is superior to Gigabyte.

I just made a PCPartPicker list... you CAN get the 1080Ti. It will require a cheaper case, slower memory (2666MHz instead of 3200), and general smarter spending on the rest of the parts.

You can decide whether you want a proprietary cooler or not: but the Wraith Spire cooler is fabulous from what I've read, and I've seen an article claiming it can hit a stable overclock on the 1700 at 4 GHz.
The board I picked is full ATX size, has 6 PCIe slots (two 3rd Gen 16x slots), and has two M.2 interfaces with one of which supporting 3rd Gen PCIe x4 speeds.
I picked a 250GB Intel 600p M.2 SSD to go with it for the boot drive, and a 2TB Seagate Barracuda for HDD storage. Obviously you can play around with the sizes, maybe 500GB M.2 + 1 TB HDD or just a 1TB M.2.

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/cQdrf8
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/cQdrf8/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($317.66 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($88.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Patriot Viper Elite 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Intel 600p Series 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($108.98 @ Directron)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($66.26 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Gaming OC 11G Video Card ($684.79 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($141.01 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($84.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1590.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-23 20:05 EDT-0400

NOTE: The extra $90 on top is because the prices are not all accurate (says $140 for your $110 case), and you can probably cut corners in other ways.
I think this is a pretty dang nice rig, however. If I were you I'd get a $40 case and not worry about such aesthetics... but there's other solutions, such as eBay, reusing older parts, etc.
 
#22 ·
You forgot its $1500 with a monitor not without

Never heard of problems with Gigabyte before?
What was those 5 weeks of hell i had tried fixing the problem with my defective Gigabyte GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming card?

Not only are EVGA superior their warranty and service are far superior as well, i know first hand how good Gigabyte so called service is
Their cards also look a lot better unlike ugly as sin over the top in your face look the new Gigabyte cards has

As for EVGA it was only a few cards that overheated and the models with the problem where called back and fixed, they even made a new model with 9 temperatur sensors and a fuse so the card wont damage the rest of the system if it dies so that problem wont happen again

Never ever going to recommend Gigabyte again after all the problems with not only my video card but my Gigabyte motherboard as well
And then there is the Gigabyte RX480 G1 Gaming i bought for my nephew which overheated so much that card would always throttle forcing me to download a new VBIOS to fix the damm card

Gigabyte SUCK and so does their quality control! it started a short while ago but Gigabyte has taken a huge nosedive in quality
One problem i could forgive them for but 3-4 defective products in a row?

There is a good reason why Gigabyte is cheaper then everyone else you get what you pay for

Edit: if you dont like EVGA get something else like Asus / MSI / Zotac / Gainward / Galax / Galit / Inno3d / PNY or ANYTHING else just not Gigabyte
 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by kuruptx View Post

Ok so I've read of this and read everyone replies closely and decided to go with this build.

ASUS MG279Q Black 27" IPS 144 Hz 4ms Adaptive-Sync (Free Sync)
AMD RYZEN 7 1700 8-Core 3.0 GHz (3.7 GHz Turbo)
MSI B350 TOMAHAWK AM4
G.SKILL Flare X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 08G-P4-6286-RX FTW GAMING ACX 3.0, 8GB

I am happy with this, it's a little bit over my budget, but I feel like it would be worth it, I chose the ram, sadly it's abit more expensive than the other kits that are that same speed, but apparently this is the only one thats almost guranteed to run stable at 3200. And I chose the board because I don't need all the extra bells and whistles and maybe it will be enough for the a decent overclock.

Question though, do you think I will be fine with a Corsair H 60 water cooler, or should I get the h110 or something with the larger radiator?
I bought 32GB of 3000Mhz memory for $10 cheaper than that 16GB set you linked. There is several 16GB 3000Mhz sets for $110 which is about top end before it gets to be a complete waste. Anything in 2666-3000 would be your best bet and put that money toward something more noticeable like 1080ti or Gsync, SSD ect...

As for cooling, the Noctua dual tower heatsinks would be your best bet.

Also, another vote against Gigabyte. I'v never had DOA computer parts until I bought from them and had repeated failures across several different products. Last month my brother had them ship a brand new replacement R9 290 that died within an hour, and the original 290 he had came with a heatsink that kept thermal throttling because of physical defects. The only upside was they let him swap the heatsinks and send the DOA card back with the bad heatsink installed on it.
 
#24 ·
Damn, didn't realize Gigabyte was so hated. My only experience was a few comments I've seen around saying their motherboards are fabulous and the only ones that people trust.

Get any 1080Ti you want. The Gigabyte one was the cheapest but not by much. They'll all be more or less the same, overclock and temps aside.

Also, confused by the statement about the monitor. Is it $1500 + the price of the monitor or $1500 for the whole thing, monitor included?
 
#25 ·
Their motherboards are probably better then their video cards which has a ton of problems across many of their AMD and Nvidia models
Maybe i would some day buy another Gigabyte motherboard and thats a big maybe but never ever one of their video cards

And its $1500 with a monitor included which means everything must be $1500 or under
 
#26 ·
Guys, I wanted to thank you all for all the post and the information and advice.

Just now checking in, just walked in from work.

To clarify, the 1500 was for the cpu mobo ram and GFX card, the monitor I am getting is separate from that budget.

Wanted to say after careful consideration, and taken everything into account. This is the build, just fixing to order it now at this very moment. I wanted a 1800x, but going with 1700, and a cheaper mobo, allowed me to throw in a 1tb ssd, which I am very excited for, as at the moment all i have is a samsung evo 128 gb ssd along with a 1tb WD Black.

So here she is complete parts. Mind you, I already have a PSU 650w EVGA Gold I'm going to transfer into the new build.

AMD RYZEN 7 1700 8-Core
MSI B350 TOMAHAWK AM4
CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000
MSI GeForce GTX 1080
Mushkin Enhanced Reactor 2.5" 1TB
Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4
NEW NZXT H440 STEEL Mid
ASUS MG279Q Black 27" IPS 144 Hz 4ms Adaptive-Sync (Free Sync)

I have kept this build I'm on for almost five years or over now, and I like to keep the build about 6 years, so I just hope this 1700 will do that just fine for me as all I do is game, watch youtube, twitch, movies etc.
 
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