Answered Building a new system - X99 or Z170?

NotMyRealName123

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Hey guys.

Looking at building a new system and was just wondering what peoples opinions were on this? The pc will be a general workhorse pc doing video editing, photo editing, gaming etc.

Looking to get best use of about £1000 and something that isnt going to be out of date no sooner than i have bought it. I would either be going for a 5820k haswell-e, or a 6700k skylake setup, with no discreet GPU for a few months as my wallet cant stretch it all in one go.
 
For gaming spending less and getting a graphics card instead will give you far more performance.

In terms of other uses the 5820k has more potential performance but higher clockspeed is performance that more programs can use so which delivers more performance will depend on the individual program.

A couple of other things that might make a difference are:

1. Whether you're going to overclock it. HWBot reports average overclocked speeds as 4.62Ghz and 4.33Ghz which reduced the 6700k's clockspeed lead to 7% instead of 17% which is a big argument in favour of the 5820k

2. What features you need from the motherboard. If you don't need anything special (other than Z170) there there could be a big saving there.
 
Yeah ill be overclocking it, been a while since ive done any overclocking/computer building tho, good 10 years or so, things have changed a lot since then.

The reason i haven't added a GPU to my build from the beginning is AFAIK, the new range of GPUs are due to be released shortly, so im hoping for a discount on the "old" gpus, rather than paying £500 for a GPU now, only for it to be discounted to say £300 or whatever a couple months later due to new top of the range all singing all dancing models.

Base model prices are from what ive seen are around the same price to be honest, give or take £30 or so.
 
@Hulligan probably to late coz you might have already bought your kit - but FWIW.

Unlike the 6700K the 5820K does not have any on board graphics capabilities. So you would have to get a discreet GPU at the same time.

If you are serious about video and photo editing, then its a no brainer. Go for the 5820K. You'll need nearer £1500 for a decent system though.

If you are only going to do video and photo editing occasionally then a 6700K will be fine - but slower. You should be able to get something decent within your £1000 budget.
 
Thanks @moonbeam120 . Yeah you're a little late unfortunately, bought most of my gear already, just got my last part for the tower delivered today so should be building soon.

I went for :

£139 - Phanteks Evolv Evoo case
£174.29 - MSI X99A Sli Plus USB 3.1 Motherboard
£318.85 - Intel i7-5820K Extreme Hex Core CPU Processor
£56.98 - Antec H2O Kuhler H1200 Pro Water Cooling Kit 2xPWM Led Fans 275mm Radiator
£64.99 - 16GB (4x4) Quad Channel DDR4 2400Mhz
£68 - 250GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD
£20 - XFX HD-545x 1GB pcie gddr3 graphics card - Stop gap to get the system running until i can get a decent one
£9.99 - El cheapo keyboard and mouse to get it up and running to make sure all parts work.

Total - £843.1 so far.

So things i need to still buy are : Better GPU. More HDD space. Monitor. Better KB & mouse at some point.

 
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Thanks @moonbeam120 . Yeah you're a little late unfortunately, bought most of my gear already, just got my last part for the tower delivered today so should be building soon.

I went for :

£139 - Phanteks Evolv Evoo case
£174.29 - MSI X99A Sli Plus USB 3.1 Motherboard
£318.85 - Intel i7-5820K Extreme Hex Core CPU Processor
£56.98 - Antec H2O Kuhler H1200 Pro Water Cooling Kit 2xPWM Led Fans 275mm Radiator
£64.99 - 16GB (4x4) Quad Channel DDR4 2400Mhz
£68 - 250GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD
£20 - XFX HD-545x 1GB pcie gddr3 graphics card - Stop gap to get the system running until i can get a decent one
£9.99 - El cheapo keyboard and mouse to get it up and running to make sure all parts work.

Total - £843.1 so far.

So things i need to still buy are : Better GPU. More HDD space. Monitor. Better KB & mouse at some point.

That's a good build you have there and at a decent price. That GPU will do you fine for the time being. The 5820K is fantastic for video/photo work. Compared to my old 2600K (which is still a very capable CPU) it transcodes a good 100% faster or more.

The silicone lottery plays a part though. I can OC mine to 4.3GHz (stable) but I don't like my CPU to run hotter than 65 degrees C on full load so I dialed it back to 4.1GHz. Some guys get 4.5GHz with no stability problems and good temps but this is my experience. It is generally considered that if you can achieve 4GHZ or above stable at 60 - 70 degrees you are doing well with these processors.

You have the basis for a very good system which should keep you going for several years without the need to upgrade (except SSD and GPU of course).

Don't skimp on the PSU. Get a good branded PSU of at least 650w plus. Great case BTW.
 
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Love the case mate. Its a bloody heavy bugger though haha, pulled it out the box and nearly broke my back! Compared to the POS case i was using on my last build 10 years or so ago, this feels like a quality bit of kit. One thing i do wish it had tho, is an built in SD reader but cant have it all i suppose.

Looking forward to getting it built

Forgot to add the psu, oops.
£99 - EVGA Super NOVA 850W 80+ Gold fully modular

Bringing the total to £943 so far... (oops, better not tell the missus!)
 
Good PSU. :smashin: Should last you for years.

I fitted a multicard reader into one of the 5 1/4 inch drive bays in my 650D. But that isn't an option for you. This would work well. Anker® USB 3.0 Card Reader 8-in-1 for SDXC, SDHC, SD, MMC, RS-MMC, Micro SDXC, Micro SD, Micro SDHC Card, Support UHS-I Cards, 18 Months Warranty: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories It's not elegant but you can use it only when you need it and it's cheap. :D

Another upgrade I would recommend when funds allow. Is to install a M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD of at least 256GB or above (preferably 512GB) as a boot drive they're super fast. They are expensive now (£140 - £260 for a Samsung 950 Pro) but give it a year or so and they'll half in price. :) It takes longer to post than to load windows. Games load very quickly and it also helps with video/photo editing.
 
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