Looking to build new rig, input appreciated

Some games are already starting to be held back by only 4 cores if you are trying to push higher than 60 frames per second. It will only become more of an issue in the future as games have started to become heavy multithreaded since the new console generation, and they will continue to become more and more multi-thread efficient.

How long are you planning on keeping this computer?

 

Ryzen CPUs are pretty good. They lack in top of the line power per core, meaning that a single Ryzen core vs a single Kaby Lake core the Ryzen one will lose. It is about equal to an Ivy or Haswell class CPU, which is 4-5 years ago from Intel. Though Intel cores have not progressed much in 3-4 years, so that isnt as far behind as it sounds. Overall though, because Ryzen has up to 2x as many cores and they all have HyperThreading, they are very powerful CPUs and do win in multi-threaded situations. So for gaming use, an 6 or 8 core Ryzen CPU should do fine as far as 4-5 years from now. Just pair it with a good MB and some DDR-3000 or DDR-3200 RAM and you should be fine. I would expect an i7-7700K would also be perfectly fine 4-5 years from now too though. Maybe not for pushing higher FPS, but still "fine". You cant go wrong either way, the 7700K would be cheaper than an 8 core Ryzen, but you also get less PCI-E lanes for peripherals if you happen to need those.


AMD is about to rip apart Intel's high end lineup in 1-2 months from now, but I doubt you want to spend $900 on the CPU alone so the high end platforms from each company are probably out of the question.



So pick whether you want an AMD or Intel build and I can put together a system for you based on either preference.

 

are the 3000 3200 ram worth it without overclocking your system etc?

 

RAM speed has a lot to do with minimum fps in games, especially when games are very heavy on the CPU side and less so on the GPU side. MMOs, RTS, some FPS, and stuff like that. MMOs also have a bottleneck in that they always have to wait for server side data too though.

Just an arbitrary example, but you could go from something like 30fps minimum with DDR-2400 to 35fps minimums with DDR-3000. The timings also matter though, If you have DDR-2400 with 10-10-10 1T and DDR-3000 with 16-18-18 2T then the 2400's would likely be better. But you can buy DDR-3200's with 14-14-14 1T and sometimes tune them even tighter and obviously that speed and timings would kick the ass of either the previous two examples.



In a very general, way oversimplified way of thinking of it:
CPU = how much data you can crunch and how high the max fps can go
RAM = how good the minimum frames per second can be
GPU = how high of resolution you can run and how high the max fps can go.
=====================================================================
high max fps = high amounts of data crunching and a GPU than can process all the data
high min fps = how much can we throw into ram to relieve bottlenecks
high resolution = need a good GPU regardless of the other two things.

 

yeah I was just reading that the ram DDR didnt matter all the much at the end of the day comparably. just weird we have so many different ways to measure each thing.

 

and then if you have paired sticks, say two sticks at one speed do the next two sticks need to be the same speed? So say I have two 8 sticks now for 16, and i decided to get 2 more 8 sticks, do all the sticks need to be the same ddr or just the paired? would 4 at the same speed be better than two sets at different speeds?

 

Here is the list with everything on it:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/YygQsJ

The 7700K has an extra 300MHz speed over the regular 7700 and allows for overclocking. You can save $30 dropping it down to the non-K though.
The cooler I chose is a great cheap cooler, it will let the CPU run at around 4.7GHz no problem (if you get the OC version and turn the speed up a bit). It is really the best value for the money. While AIO liquid coolers will let you overclock higher, they also cost 3x as much, so value for the $ is far lower.

If you are going to re-use your old tower then you can take the Corsair 200R off the list and save $50

If you have an old DVD drive you can use to install Windows then you can take that off the parts list too

If you have a way to get Windows "alternatively" then you can remove Windows from the parts list.

That power supply I chose is a much better model than the EarthWatts one you had before. A gold rating is plenty fine and the stability of the voltage is in the top 3 PSUs you can buy.

I changed your motherboard because you need a Z270 chipset board if you are doing a fresh build with all new parts.


And you can drop down to a GTX 1070 and save about $100 if you are looking to save some money:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814126119&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker, LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

 

If you buy new sticks at a higher speed they will only work at the speed the slower sticks are running at. You cannot run one set at one speed and the other at a different speed. RAM doesnt work that way. You also have a 50/50 shot of getting newer RAM sticks to work with other sticks in the computer. Just adding in 2 more sticks of the same speed and density will not always work, it might cause the computer to no longer boot at all. This sort of thing used to be fine, but now at these higher frequencies you really want to get matched sticks that are all pre-sorted and sold as compatible together. So if you upgrade RAM, you most likely should take out the old sticks and only use new ones.

 

Seems like shenanigans! Now I'm slightly regretting the lower numbered ram!