New PC Build 2016 Version (Skylake)

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Winnow
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New PC Build 2016 Version (Skylake)

Post by Winnow »

Even though I passed all of the performance tests for the the soon to be delivered Rift and Vive VR headsets by upgrading to a 980 ti GPU, I really only passed the test due to a brute force high end GPU update.

My i7 920 (2008) build has served me well and was one for the ages in terms of longevity but..7-8 years is a really long time in terms of technology developments.

CPU

I went with the high end i7 6700K Skylake 4 GHz for a few reasons. I'm not really wanting to take the time for intense overclocking. I can afford it. I'll be able to OC it to 4.6 GHz with the push of a button anyway with it being unlocked and the MB I'm getting.

It's a monster performance increase over the i7 920:

Image

Significant increases. Don't forget to buy a HSF. The new boxed CPUs don't come with them anymore.

Lastly, it's a good time to upgrade. Intel has said they don't plan on major performance increases for the next 5 years. They'll be focusing on power efficiency during that time.

STORAGE

This is the big one. My ancient motherboard has PCIe 2 and 3 Gbit/s transfer rate. Besides updating to 6 Gbit/s for my Sata drive, I'm going for ludicrous speeds for my OS drive.

Image
Size comparison to standard SSD.
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Compared to any SSD drive out there, the m.2 NVMe Samsung absolutely destroys it in performance. Ludicrous speeds! If you have an old spinning HD it doesn't even make the chart. It runs $328 for the 512GB version which is more than standard SSD but...ludicrous speeds! A TB version will be out in a few months and there's a cheaper 256GB version available. 512GB felt right for my needs. OS+a good amount of primary apps and games. I just cleaned up my 256GB SSD OS and had 130 GB avail with a few games and OS installed so 512 will work for me as I start installing lots of VR games/apps for Rift and Vive.

MOTHERBOARD

I cheaped out on this one and went with the ASUS Z170-A LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard. It's a mid range $154 board. Primary focus was it having an M.2 slot for my Pro 950. Bonus is it having USB 3.1 both A and C types for future proofing. It's a little short on USB 3.0 but I had already purchased a 5x USB 3.0 card in preparation for my VR headsets so I'll have plenty.

MEMORY

Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2666MHz (PC4-21300)

Researched to make sure works well with my chosen MB. Clock speed, etc all good for simple 4.6 GHz OC.

GPU

Already recently upgraded: Nvidia 980 ti

REST OF SYSTEM

Everything else will be crap I already have. My Antec Case is ancient but was a good buy way back when I bought it. Probably need to get new one at some point. Power Supply is quality something or another I bought a few years back. (don't skimp on your PSU..and I mean quality, not Watts)

Will stick with my external 8 bay SATA tower for my hard drives for now. Converting to SSD for those in a year or two.

-------------

Summary

CPU: Intel i7 6700K 4 GHz
HSF: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2666MHz
Motherboard: ASUS Z170-A ATX DDR4
GPU: Nvidia 980 ti
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO -Series 512GB PCIe NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD

About $1,650 for those parts (not complete system)

It was time for an upgrade. MB holding up transfer rates. CPU twice as fast as current one. What finally made me pull the trigger was the insane speed and relatively reasonable price of the NVMe M.2 drive.

There's a chance I'll be able to clone my current Samsung SSD to the 950 Pro. If not, I'll need to install fresh window from USB thumb drive. I really should do a fresh install. Haven't done that since 2008 or maybe even earlier. This core should set me up nicely for 5 years with the given eventual upgrade or two of GPU etc. I anticipate it being a day or two project depending on SSD cloning success. If I do have to fresh install, it will be a monster project with the installs/configurations. (A good password app for your phone is highly recommended to keep track of all sorts of stuff for times like these)
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Re: New PC Build 2016 Version (Skylake)

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You Windows haters will love this. In order for me to move my windows 10 pro to my "new" PC, I'll need to first install my old Windows 8.1 image (thank god I still have an Acronis image of it), upgrade that to Windows 10 using my product key (thank jesus I saved that somewhere), after that, Microsoft's windows registration will have taken note of my new hardware. I can then replace the upgraded old 8.1 image with my most recent (today) image of Windows 10 and it will be recognized as genuine.

You can't move Windows 10 to a new PC. You can move your RETAIL version of windows 7-8.1 to a new PC and then upgrade it again to Windows 10 until July 29 2016. Guess it's a good thing I'm upgrading now.

Supposedly, as of a recent update, you can activate Windows 10 using an old Windows 7-8.1 product key on the same computer. Not sure with this will work on new PC though. I doubt it.

Could be a fun couple hours of image installs and re-installs. Better than paying $199 for Windows Pro.

Received 3 of the items I ordered today 5 hours after ordering them. The rest arrive tomorrow. Amazon Prime > All.
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Re: New PC Build 2016 Version (Skylake)

Post by Kluden »

I did the win10 install direct to a new PC. It worked for me using the win 7 key.

So yeah, I think MS "fixed" that right before I did this build 2 months ago. Worth a shot, it doesn't take long to install win10 nowadays from USB 3.0 stick to SSD drive.
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Re: New PC Build 2016 Version (Skylake)

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Kluden wrote:I did the win10 install direct to a new PC. It worked for me using the win 7 key.

So yeah, I think MS "fixed" that right before I did this build 2 months ago. Worth a shot, it doesn't take long to install win10 nowadays from USB 3.0 stick to SSD drive.

Nice. I have Windows 10 already set to install from a USB Thumb drive. At worst I'd install fresh Windows 10, activate it with Win 8.1 retail key and then image my previous Samsung SSD over to the 950 NVME drive. What I'll probably do is see if I'm able to boot up with my current OS SSD (if it allows and downloads the new MB drivers, etc) and then activate with Win 8.1 Key. If that works it won't take long at all to clone the old SSD to the ludicrous speed drive.

Kinda hoping to not have to end up starting with fresh Window 10 Pro install but if I do, it will get rid of years of abandoned old files on my OS drive from many many upgrades. Just waiting for the rest of my stuff to arrive later today to begin.

Oculus Rift orders are starting to charge/ship so there's a chance I'll have that by Friday. It would be nice to have this new PC set up by then.
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Re: New PC Build 2016 Version (Skylake)

Post by Aslanna »

Don't be blowing all that money on a PC. You need to save up for the PlayStation 4.5.
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Re: New PC Build 2016 Version (Skylake)

Post by Winnow »

Christ that took longer than it should have.

Upgraded my CPU, memory, motherboard. First time with aftermarket HSF. That took awhile to get right.

Windows was a major pain in the ass. Installing the Samsung 950 NVME was a breeze. It's so tiny, about the size of a stick of gum and light as a feather. Once that was on my MB, along with all the other upgrades, I went about fiddling with the BIOs so I could install Windows 10 to the M.2 drive.

Initially forgot to update my motherboard BIOS but got around to that pretty fast.Once BIOS settings were correct, installing a fresh Windows 10 from a USB Drive was...hella fast. Worked perfectly.

Problem was that I couldn't activate my Windows 10 with my 8.1 Retail Key. I knew this might happen. Next thing I tried was imaging 8.1 onto my old Samsung 830 SSD. I go that to boot up on the new PC. Thought I was on my way but as I installed updates on 8.1 to get ready to update it to Windows 10, I got stuck in "unable to install your updates, removing updates" Couldn't get out of the loop, not even to safe mode.

By this time I had resigned to doing it the ridiculous way. I put an 8.1 install on a USB and then installed 8.1 onto my old SSD...unfortunately Acronis doesn't support NVME drives yet so I couldn't just install to that. After installing a fresh 8.1, and activating it with my 8.1 Pro product Key, I immediately updated it to Windows 10. Worked. So now my new hardware had official Windows 10 entitlement on Microsoft's servers.

I then used Acronis to take yesterday's backup of my Windows 10 install and put it on the old SSD again. Now that my hardware was registered, the Acronis image was automatically activated as genuine. I then used Samsungs Migration software to clone that to my NVME drive...holy freaking fast transfer that was. 6 minutes and something seconds to move the entire drive over to my 950 pro.

I then booted up Windows with no problem and proceeded up install the new drivers for my motherboard etc. Also installed Samsungs driver for the NVME which boosts speeds significantly over the already fast Microsoft drivers.

I was mostly out of the woods at this point except for my RAID tower/Card. Without it, I booted to windows in 12 or so seconds. With it, it took 7 minutes to scan and then wouldn't boot into Windows. Fuuuuuck. I spent hours, like 4 hours trying to figure that shit out. Installed/uninstalled the hardware, bazillion bios adjustments...nothing worked. I was so close to pulling out two of the drives from my raid and sticking them into my PC and saying so long to the mirrored raid but I gave it one more shot. Not exactly sure what I did because I switched like three things in BIOS but I "think" it was disabling network booting, legacy, crap that enabled the RAID scan to finally blow through it's paces and allow windows to boot.

----

Stayed up all night doing this but was worth it in the end although the windows multiple imaging/installing/migrating bullshit was ridiculous.

I'll say this. BIOS UI's have come a long way since 2008. Asus' bios is sweet looking and you can use a mouse etc. I did the no hassle OC but it was only to 4.2 GHz. I really was just making sure my memory was recognize at it's higher frequency etc.

Going to run the VR test later to see how much the changes impact my "score" now that I have a decent system to go along with the nice GPU. VR and file transfer rates/application/game snappiness were the focus for this upgrade.
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Re: New PC Build 2016 Version (Skylake)

Post by Winnow »

Image

http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmark

Ran the test to see the changes in performance:


GTX 670 with i7 920 @ 2.67 Ghz: 5,682
Oculus Rift Recommended: 9,271
GTX 980 Ti with i7 920 @ 2.67 Ghz: 10,627
GTC 980 Ti with i7 6700K 4.0 GHz: 15,850

GPU definitely the most important upgrade. That alone almost doubled my score. Adding the updated MB/Memory/CPU almost tripling the score.

I'm almost ready for 4K gaming! Kind of like the PS4/Xbox One were almost ready for 1080P gaming.

-------

Regarding the build, seems stable after two days. One added bonus is that my ancient LAN/NIC must have been holding up my bandwidth somewhat. I've downloaded a few things after the update and they are zooming along at 150-200 Mbps on a single pipe. I easily tap out my 300 Mbps if downloading multiple files.

While my score above is geared mostly for video, my M.2 drive is working as advertised. No waiting for anything installed on my OS drive. Current plan is to install primary games and apps on the remaining 375 GB available on my OS super speed drive and then anything else that would require speed onto my old Samsung 930 256 GB SSD drive. That should take care of my needs until eventually getting a 2 TB SSD in a year or so. Everything else (media files) are fine on spinning drives for now.

Noise: my 980 ti fan almost never even turns on unless playing a game (or compressing files etc). dead silent. new Cooler Master Hyper 212-EVO (most popular aftermarket HSF) doesn't make enough noice to be heard. The loudest thing in my PC is my PSU fan now. Unfortunately my 8-bay tower raid fan drowns out anything coming from my PC. Just a low hum though, nothing high pitched. BTW, my high pitched coil noises are gone. Older PC parts can product high frequency noise when you move around your mouse. Highly irritating. That's gone. whew.

I set about manually deleting the OS and files from my old Samsung SSD. There are a fuck ton of files that don't need to be there. You really should do a fresh install when upgrading. That said, I'm not going to and will sacrifice the storage space. I also discovered PLEX indexed a lot of my drives when I tried it out a few years back. I had like half a million thumbnails sitting in my appdata that weren't deleted when I deleted PLEX. Going to reformat the drive. Can't really manually delete an OS drive files without losing your sanity with all of the protected files.

So far, I'm pleased with the upgrade. If someone has a CPU and Motherboard that's 5+ years old, it's worth an upgrade with the consideration that Intel's just released Skylake processors are probably the last speed boosts for the next 5 years according to Intel.
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Re: New PC Build 2016 Version (Skylake)

Post by Aslanna »

Should have waited!
Nvidia revealed its newest cards last night, the GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, both of which overtake its current top-of-the-line product in performance, efficiency and especially price.

The GTX 1080 will be on shelves May 27 and costs $699. Nvidia's current best-in-class graphics card, the Titan X retails for about $1,000. It is less powerful and much less efficient than the GTX 1080

The GTX 1070 will buy Titan X-level performance for $449. It launches June 10.

As a point of reference, the GTX 1080 is faster than two GTX 980 cards running together.
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Re: New PC Build 2016 Version (Skylake)

Post by Winnow »

Nah, the Ti version, which is always the best power/value version won't be around until next year at best. That's the one that would replace my card.

1 - wait for the real world benchmarks to see how much faster it actually is.
2 - wait for several nvidia driver releases to work out the bugs
3 - get the Ti version a year later that includes the best of the generation at the best value

Make sure the rest of your system is up to par!

Good news for future VR headsets what won't be out until after the 1080 ti would be out though with the VR specific improvements.

1080 Ti will have HBM2

HBM2 Will Revolutionize Your Computer

So, get one of these first 1080's and you'll regret it! I like to look for significant developments. The NVME SSD is crazy faster (ludicrous speeds!) than a standard SSD, the Skylake CPU is the last significant speed boost for the next 5 years, etc. HBM2 appears to be a monster increase in performance for GPU memory. So the nice new 1080 line combined with that would be a sweet spot which would be the Ti, and not out until next year which is way too long for me to have waited with my 680 and VR requirements. The 980 Ti out performs a base 1080 (will have to see the benchmarks when the tech sites get them) so I won't be hurting too much over the next few years.
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Re: New PC Build 2016 Version (Skylake)

Post by Aslanna »

Maybe in the past. If these versions are as good as they say I'll be moving to a 1070 and not bothering with waiting on the Ti versions.
In fact, the more significant GPU announced today might well be the GTX 1070, a $379 card that also outperforms the Titan X.
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Re: New PC Build 2016 Version (Skylake)

Post by Winnow »

Aslanna wrote:Maybe in the past. If these versions are as good as they say I'll be moving to a 1070 and not bothering with waiting on the Ti versions.
In fact, the more significant GPU announced today might well be the GTX 1070, a $379 card that also outperforms the Titan X.
Cheap!
Well sure, if you're a few generations old on your video card. I'd wait for the real world benchmarks to see how they actually stack up. Always seem to be not quite as good after that but this is one of those big leap years in performance.
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