Long Overdue Upgrade

trents said:

The CPU will come with thermal grease as long as it comes packaged with a cooler. Most retail versions come with a cooler. But if you are purchasing a used or OEM CPU then you will need to buy thermal grease.

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Thanks Trent

Would anybody else like to look through the build before i pull the trigger on the purchase today? Thanks!

I'd spend $5 more and get this cooler instead of the 212 EVO (unless you're getting a better deal than what's in your build list):

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=34971103632

Will equal or outperform the Cooler Master and do so running 4-5dB quieter (also looks nicer, IMO )

Not certain if it comes with thermal paste, however EDIT: Pure Rock comes with paste pre-applied

Looks like this ram is only available in-store, but if you're close, it would save you a bit and perform similarly:

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=24_311_1326&item_id=075910

Looks like a great build though

trents said:

I wonder about the wisdom of using an SSD for the "scratch" drive. I'm thinking a spinner might be better where there is a lot of constant data turnover. It's the same reasoning as why its not a good idea to defrag an SSD. Maybe I'm all wet here.

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You can use a new SSD for a scratch drive.

Consumer SSDs managed to survive writing and reading well over 700TB of data. These drives usually come with a three to five year warranty, and manufacturers assume you’ll write 20GB-40GB per day in data. That means to get to that 700TB, you’d have to do 40GB every day for 17,500 days, or about 50 years.

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http://lifehacker.com/how-long-will-my-hard-drives-really-last-1700405627

+1 I would purchase the Be Quiet Pure Rock CPU Cooler.

Hey bud,

I know you have a lot of information to sort out but you are in luck, there are a bunch of people who know their stuff. But I'm going to throw my 2 cents in anyways.

First with the ram, amount does play a big part in it. 16 gb is great for what you are doing BUT the speed really does matter specially in design. I would take Ninjacore's suggestion and go with something that has 2800+ speed. You wont regret it and its like 20$ more.

CPU all depends on the MOBO really. Again I would say i7 but stick with a z97 chipset. If you want to have fun you can do a x99 but that's a lot of board so unless you are using some serious power z97 is top choice (in my opinion) The z170's are great but over rated and over priced for now.

Video card: r9 390... I know, all of you Nvidia fans (such as myself) are giving me the stinkeye BUT if you look at the benchmarks then the 390 speaks for itself. It beats the GTX 970 in every aspect except power consumption.

Hard Drive: I recommend a 1 TB HHD and an SSD. Trents says it best, they are all the same but Samsung does have a more reliable product. On the flip side, Sandisk has never failed me.

HeatSink: I'm just going to say the number 1 most mentioned heatsink I have found... Corsair H100i. I really only do custom water cooling so I cannot personally vouch for this product BUT everyone has great things to say about it.

I am going to post my latest build. I had a $1350 USD budget for parts. My main focus is Design (and lots of it), gaming, OVERCLOCKING, and Cuda or openCL (haven't decided)

SushiSlayer said:

CPU all depends on the MOBO really. Again I would say i7 but stick with a z97 chipset. If you want to have fun you can do a x99 but that's a lot of board so unless you are using some serious power z97 is top choice (in my opinion) The z170's are great but over rated and over priced for now.

Video card: r9 390... I know, all of you Nvidia fans (such as myself) are giving me the stinkeye BUT if you look at the benchmarks then the 390 speaks for itself. It beats the GTX 970 in every aspect except power consumption.

Hard Drive: I recommend a 1 TB HHD and an SSD. Trents says it best, they are all the same but Samsung does have a more reliable product. On the flip side, Sandisk has never failed me.

HeatSink: I'm just going to say the number 1 most mentioned heatsink I have found... Corsair H100i. I really only do custom water cooling so I cannot personally vouch for this product BUT everyone has great things to say about it.

I am going to post my latest build. I had a $1350 USD budget for parts. My main focus is Design (and lots of it), gaming, OVERCLOCKING, and Cuda or openCL (haven't decided)

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A couple things...

First, I think you missed the fact that he's buying from Canadian sites (he mentions his budget in the OP..), so the prices are significantly higher than from US sites. I'm just guestimating, but the build you posted, for example, would probably be ~$2K for OP, so very likely well-beyond their budget. If you're buying retail, there's not much difference in price between Haswell and Skylake, so I would definitely go with the new chip. OP put together a pretty nice build in post #19, which should serve as a good jumping off point for further suggestions, Sushi.

Second, the 390 does not beat out a GTX 970 until you get to resolutions above 1080P. At 1080P, the 970 is actually faster on average and is such with 100-150w (!!!) lower power consumption.

In the past, AMD has priced their cards lower than nvidia at the same performance mark and were therefore, a better bang-for-your-buck pick, but that's no longer the case. AMD is now trying to sell you on 8GB vs. 4GB and at 1080P (and arguably, even 1440P), you just don't need more than 4.

Third (and I'm adding this one after looking at O's build in post 19 again), he isn't looking at a 970 anyway. Looking at a 980, which would be comparable to a 390X (though, it would beat it out at resolutions up to 4K...). Methinks you skipped a few posts in this thread, Sushi

I really do appreciate all the info guys and i will be looking into all suggestions mentioned.

*I have increased my budget: $2000.00 CND(Canadian)*


As of now this is how my current build looks. I was thinking of going with the "Asrock Extreme6" versus the "Extreme 4". Also i am still unsure of the case but i am looking for something with a good build quality (nothing thin/flimsy) and not too expensive.
Also i am still open to different CPU cooler options like the H100i although research has shown mixed reviews. The Noctua D14 may also not fit in the case mentioned so that may also be an issue. (Bigger case?)
I would prefer to stick with Skylake (Z170 chipset), when the time comes i can easily replace the CPU with a hex core for my video editing or add a card later.

Thanks for all the help i really do appreciate it!

Looks somewhat similar Good luck with the build

HAHA yeah so it seems ninjacore. And here I am thinking I got in on this early on. bwahaha!!!

To be honest, I never knew Canadian money was so much more inflated. When I went to Canada they accepted USD everywhere, even at the brothel. Which is a long story that requires a squishy couch.

Here is the benchmarks for the 390 vs 970, I don't understand what I am missing. Obviously the 980 is the best pick but with the new GPUs that are coming out it wouldn't that be such a waste of money? To get something that expensive? Specially knowing that the 980 has to have a price drop after the new GPUs release, which is suppose to be this year! Whoop Whoop!



I didnt realize that the 4gb is pushing harder than the 8gb graphics. Can you explain that because out of all the research i've done, no one has ever said that. Which i'm not saying that isn't true, I just don't understand it.

SushiSlayer said:

HAHA yeah so it seems ninjacore. And here I am thinking I got in on this early on. bwahaha!!!

To be honest, I never knew Canadian money was so much more inflated. When I went to Canada they accepted USD everywhere, even at the brothel. Which is a long story that requires a squishy couch.

Here is the benchmarks for the 390 vs 970, I don't understand what I am missing. Obviously the 980 is the best pick but with the new GPUs that are coming out it wouldn't that be such a waste of money? To get something that expensive? Specially knowing that the 980 has to have a price drop after the new GPUs release, which is suppose to be this year! Whoop Whoop!

View attachment 173912

I didnt realize that the 4gb is pushing harder than the 8gb graphics. Can you explain that because out of all the research i've done, no one has ever said that. Which i'm not saying that isn't true, I just don't understand it.

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That is not benchmarks, you're just looking at specs on paper, which as someone mentioned to you in the other thread you posted this is not the whole story. You're trying to compare on paper GPU's from two different brands that use two different architectures.

SolyBuds said:

I really do appreciate all the info guys and i will be looking into all suggestions mentioned.

*I have increased my budget: $2000.00 CND(Canadian)*


As of now this is how my current build looks. I was thinking of going with the "Asrock Extreme6" versus the "Extreme 4". Also i am still unsure of the case but i am looking for something with a good build quality (nothing thin/flimsy) and not too expensive.
Also i am still open to different CPU cooler options like the H100i although research has shown mixed reviews. The Noctua D14 may also not fit in the case mentioned so that may also be an issue. (Bigger case?)
I would prefer to stick with Skylake (Z170 chipset), when the time comes i can easily replace the CPU with a hex core for my video editing or add a card later.

Thanks for all the help i really do appreciate it!

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Dude tell me about it! I love this forum for this reason here. Everyone is helpful and friendly. I'm not going to lie, I am new to all of this so every time I spout off my opinion I get constructive criticism that helps out more than google ever could! I think your build is going to kick *** and it seems like you are getting a pretty stellar rig for the cash there my friend!

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Evil-mobo,

Right, I know what we talked about in the other thread, I was kinda there.... but we never discussed what it was about the 4gb that pushes harder than the 8gb which is a point that was brought up in this thread but not the other.....

So, since you added quote my comment, could you be as so kind to answer the question I asked?

SushiSlayer said:

Dude tell me about it! I love this forum for this reason here. Everyone is helpful and friendly. I'm not going to lie, I am new to all of this so every time I spout off my opinion I get constructive criticism that helps out more than google ever could! I think your build is going to kick *** and it seems like you are getting a pretty stellar rig for the cash there my friend!

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Right, I know what we talked about in the other thread, I was kinda there.... but we never discussed what it was about the 4gb that pushes harder than the 8gb which is a point you brought up. So I ask you, Why?

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Go look at the "benchmarks" in the link you were provided it's a good read

Evil-Mobo said:

Looks somewhat similar Good luck with the build

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Very nice build you have there!

How do you like your Fractal Design Define R5? I was looking for something simple, clean all while retaining solid build quality. It wil serve as a somewhat workstation, no fancy lights etc...

Okay so please refresh my memory because we discussed that the best one is based on the programs you run and weather or not you want to go with CUDA or openCL. I am looking back right now and I cannot find where someone tells me how the 4gb 970 is able to push more than the 8 gb 390..... Obviously you can look at a benchmark and see which one is better but can you actually explain it? Your evasiveness to answering the overall question and your constant reference to a completely different topic is only frustrating. I am here to learn and retain knowledge. Not argue over.... well whatever it is you are tying to argue....

I need to take my question and start a new thread, maybe I can find someone helpful. yeah....

GOOD LUCK ON YOUR BUILD BUDS!!!!!!! I'm excited for you!!!

Sushi, don't know what you mean by "pushes harder". VRAM doesn't actually push anything. The more of it you have, the more detail from a game can be loaded into it for fast access. At 1080P, however, there is no game that has more than 4GB of data to load, so more than that is not necessary. Resolutions over 1080P will have greater than 4GB and that's why you see the 390 jump ahead of the 970 at 1440P and the 390X jump ahead of the 980 at 4K.

At 1080P, the nvidia cards will beat out their AMD competitor.

There was some discussion over newer tech and how the nvidia cards will be outdated soon. The maxwell GPU is actually a year or so newer than the one being used in the 390(x). Regardless, "will be outdated when the next gen launches" is something a buyer should ignore as that is always the case. 970/980 and 390/390X are the newest available (in the $300-400 price range), so those are the cards to look at. There's always something new coming down the pipe.

Fractal and Phanteks are my goto picks for excellent cases in the $60-150 range. Corsair is in that same price range and generally have the same feature set, but I find the first two to feel more "solid".

SushiSlayer said:

Okay so please refresh my memory because we discussed that the best one is based on the programs you run and weather or not you want to go with CUDA or openCL. I am looking back right now and I cannot find where someone tells me how the 4gb 970 is able to push more than the 8 gb 390..... Obviously you can look at a benchmark and see which one is better but can you actually explain it? Your evasiveness to answering the overall question and your constant reference to a completely different topic is only frustrating. I am here to learn and retain knowledge. Not argue over.... well whatever it is you are tying to argue....

I need to take my question and start a new thread, maybe I can find someone helpful. yeah....

GOOD LUCK ON YOUR BUILD BUDS!!!!!!! I'm excited for you!!!

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I don't think any of us are hardware engineers (and more importantly, you aren't), so benchmarks are the best way to show which card is better at a particular resolution and in a particular game.

Even if we were, and described the differences of the 970 vs 390 architecture, what would that really tell you? Nothing. You would still need some comparable performance data (benchmarks...) from each in order to see which performs better.

If you're that interested, please use google and let us know (in a new thread).

SushiSlayer said:

Okay so please refresh my memory because we discussed that the best one is based on the programs you run and weather or not you want to go with CUDA or openCL. I am looking back right now and I cannot find where someone tells me how the 4gb 970 is able to push more than the 8 gb 390..... Obviously you can look at a benchmark and see which one is better but can you actually explain it? Your evasiveness to answering the overall question and your constant reference to a completely different topic is only frustrating. I am here to learn and retain knowledge. Not argue over.... well whatever it is you are tying to argue....

I need to take my question and start a new thread, maybe I can find someone helpful. yeah....

GOOD LUCK ON YOUR BUILD BUDS!!!!!!! I'm excited for you!!!

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How much VRAM do you really need at 1080p 1440p http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/89/much-vram-need-1080p-1440p-4k/index.html

How much video memory is enough?
4GB versus the world
http://techreport.com/blog/28800/how-much-video-memory-is-enough