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CandyStripes05
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CandyStripes05 polycounter lvl 9
Time to upgrade, is it reasonable to think I can purchase all the parts needed and assemble my first pc for under $1000 CDN? I can figure something out if it's more but it would be nice to keep below if possible

I'm hoping people will help me out with mobo's, CPU's, etc as that all goes over my head a bit. 

WISH LIST:
16GB RAM minimal
SSD Drive for programs and install/reuse my old 1TB HDD for files
how compatible are optical drives? hopefully I can also reuse my dvd burner

USAGE:
maya, photoshop, quixel suite, zbrush, the odd UE4 maybe - and Diablo 3 ;) 

took tips from another fellow's thread, does this still look like a good setup? what are peoples recommendations?

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

decided to list the parts since pcpartpicker doesn't seem to want to find the cheaper prices on amazon which is where I'll probably be ordering everything from anyways

CPU
Intel i5-6600K 3.5GHz  $250
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Boxed-I5-6600K-Processor-BX80662I56600K/dp/B012M8M7TY/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1455058213&sr=1-1&keywords=Skylake+6600k

CPU Cooler
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO  $30
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Hyper-212-RR-212E-20PK-R2/dp/B005O65JXI/

MOBO
ASUS Micro ATX DDR4 Motherboards H170M-PLUS/CSM - $104
http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Micro-Motherboards-H170M-PLUS-CSM/dp/B014F7BM3M/

MEMORY
Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2X8GB) DDR4  $70
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TY6A1LY?keywords=ddr4 ram&qid=1455061443&ref_=sr_1_1&s=pc&sr=1-1

Storage
SanDisk SSD Plus 240GB (SDSSDA-240G-G25) Plus  $65
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Plus-240GB-2-5-Inch-SDSSDA-240G-G25/dp/B00S9Q9VS4/

Video Card
EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB  SSC ACX 2.0 $325
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Cooling-Graphics-04G-P4-3975-KR/dp/B00R3NK2LE/

Case
ThermaThitake CORE V21 Micro ATX Cube  $60
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PDDMN6S/ref=twister_B015KMTH4M?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Power Supply
SeaSonic G Series 550-Watt 80 Plus Gold Certified  $80
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00918MEZG?keywords=SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply&qid=1455059351&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1



link just for compatibilty reference: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/GPFY4D
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  • m4dcow
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    m4dcow interpolator

    I would definitely get a larger SSD, the sweet spot is 250 GB now. If you want to stick with Samsung their 250gb 850 evo is a only a few bucks more, but Sandisk has a 240GB SSD that is actually cheaper than the 840 EVO you had listed.
    http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U/
    http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Plus-240GB-2-5-Inch-SDSSDA-240G-G25/dp/B00S9Q9VS4/

    Personally I would look to get one of the newer Skylake processors, while the 6700K might be a bit out of the budget it might be worth looking at the 6600K. With that you would need a different motherboard (socket 1151) and DDR4 memory.

    Graphics wise, I would look for at least a GTX 960, GTX 970 being the sweet spot for now.

    Unless you really love that case, there are equivalent cases for quite a bit less. Fractal Design has their core series, and corsair has a few decent value cases like the 100R.

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  • SonicBlue
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    SonicBlue polycounter lvl 10
    Samsung 840 series has a problem with maintaining performances over time, so I would avoid them.

    The Ultra II is also a valid SSD.
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  • CandyStripes05
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    CandyStripes05 polycounter lvl 9
    I'm not attached to any of it lol 

    **updated first post with new specs
    there are a few GTX 970 options to choose from so not sure if I picked the right one
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  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    That GTX 970 is fine, I would just get the cheapest one with the 2 fan design. If you care about overclocking, you can get better than factory over clocks with minimal effort, so don't worry about if it's OC edition, or the clock speeds. The EVGA ones are some of the quietest and coolest, and have great support if there's any issues. 
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  • CandyStripes05
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    CandyStripes05 polycounter lvl 9
    does it being SSC mean I have to mess with speeds etc? or is it still plug and play?
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  • m4dcow
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    m4dcow interpolator
    CandyStripes05 said:
    does it being SSC mean I have to mess with speeds etc? or is it still plug and play?
    I know from EVGA SC means "Super Clocked" which is just a simple factory overclock, I assume SSC is a step up from SC (Super Super Clocked?) or something along those lines since the clock speed is higher on the SSC than the SC. Either way it is plug and play you don't have to do anything extra.
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  • CandyStripes05
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    CandyStripes05 polycounter lvl 9
    yea from what I've read it means Super Super Clocked was just confused if it meant I had to do something extra or not, thanks for clearing that up

    any recommendations for a mobo now that I changed the CPU?
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  • m4dcow
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    m4dcow interpolator
    CandyStripes05 said:
    yea from what I've read it means Super Super Clocked was just confused if it meant I had to do something extra or not, thanks for clearing that up

    any recommendations for a mobo now that I changed the CPU?

    I'm partial to Asus boards, so that's where I would lean, but anything a Gigabyte, MSI or even ASRock board has that features or porice you might prefer go for it.

    Since you aren't looking to do any overclocking, I would go for an H170 chipset.

    http://www.amazon.com/Asus-DDR4-Motherboards-H170-PRO-CSM/dp/B013HIDM3I/

    http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Micro-Motherboards-H170M-PLUS-CSM/dp/B014F7BM3M/

    The 2 Asus boards I linked have a USB type C port on the back, which is cool incase that ends up being a thing you want down the line. The 2nd is also a Micro ATX design, which means there are 4 PCI Express ports instead of 7 on the ATX. Unless you are looking to have multiple video cards/PCI Express devices and 5+ hard drives there isn't really a need for ATX. Micro ATX tends to have the same amount of ram slots and is a bit cheaper than the equivalent ATX and the reason I tend to use them on my builds now is they allow for smaller cases. Mini ITX is the next step down, but those are often more expensive than both ATX and MATX boards, and you lose 2 ram slots so I wouldn't recommend.

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  • CandyStripes05
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    CandyStripes05 polycounter lvl 9
    Just remembered both my monitors are DVI something or other, I use to plug one in directly and the other was rocking a DVI - VGA adapter as my first mobo didn't support two DVI slots, that was replaced and my current has two slots but I don't think visually there is a difference so I can use the mobo you linked and rock the adapter again unless there is any real reason to get a mobo with two dvi slots

    really appreciate all the help guys! 

    one of the "go to" places back home told me:

    "I still need a good idea of what your budget is as we can easily range in the low thousand to 3-4 thousand for this type of machine. There is a huge variety of components made for this type of work and a real solid professional machine will easily be in the high end price range. If you looking to spend less than $1500/2000 then upgrading may be the best choice to save a little bit."

    by upgrading he is referring to me asking what it would cost to swap out my mobo, cpu, ram, and add an ssd drive - told him I'm not comfortable paying 1500 - 2000 for a partial rebuild and that I had the entire machine built and lasted me about 5 years (some minor updates here and there) for between $1000 - $1500 by my dad's co-worker who no longer does this type of thing

    he basically told me to hold off till I had a better budget and to not cheap out, that's when I came to my polycount peeps for saving : ) 
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  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    USB C seems really cool, you could power a monitor, use it for the display cable, and allow the monitor to be used as a USB hub all with one cable. But it's barely being used for anything besides some phones at this point, although CES did show a monitor similar to what I was describing. 

    Micro ATX is definitely the way to go unless you know you will need a ton of 3.5in storage drives or PCI slots for stuff (really most people only use 1 for their GPU, rarely 2 if you want a PCI SSD, but M.2 seems to be a better solution, or if you need a dedicated sound card, which you probably wouldn't need).
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  • CandyStripes05
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    CandyStripes05 polycounter lvl 9
    do I need to buy any additional wires or connectors for this build or does everything already come ready to be plugged in? Hopefully all I'll need is some zip ties for cable management haha
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  • m4dcow
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    m4dcow interpolator
    CandyStripes05 said:
    Just remembered both my monitors are DVI something or other, I use to plug one in directly and the other was rocking a DVI - VGA adapter as my first mobo didn't support two DVI slots, that was replaced and my current has two slots but I don't think visually there is a difference so I can use the mobo you linked and rock the adapter again unless there is any real reason to get a mobo with two dvi slots

    really appreciate all the help guys! 

    one of the "go to" places back home told me:

    "I still need a good idea of what your budget is as we can easily range in the low thousand to 3-4 thousand for this type of machine. There is a huge variety of components made for this type of work and a real solid professional machine will easily be in the high end price range. If you looking to spend less than $1500/2000 then upgrading may be the best choice to save a little bit."

    by upgrading he is referring to me asking what it would cost to swap out my mobo, cpu, ram, and add an ssd drive - told him I'm not comfortable paying 1500 - 2000 for a partial rebuild and that I had the entire machine built and lasted me about 5 years (some minor updates here and there) for between $1000 - $1500 by my dad's co-worker who no longer does this type of thing

    he basically told me to hold off till I had a better budget and to not cheap out, that's when I came to my polycount peeps for saving : ) 

    So your monitors will connect to your video card and it doesn't really matter what your motherboard has. Depending on the 970 you select there are a number of connectivity options.

    The EVGA card I would select, happens to be the fastest
    http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Cooling-Graphics-04G-P4-3975-KR/dp/B00R3NK2LE/
    Because it is about the same price as the other slightly slower ones, that card has one DVI port, one HDMI port and 3 Displayport ports. DVI and HDMI are electrically identical, so they can use cheap converters to change from one another.

    Instead of a single adapter I would get an HDMI to DVI cable like this, because while an adapter going from DVI to HDMI is secure on the back of the card because of screws, HDMI to DVI is less secure because HDMI ports don't have screws to secure and could possibly come loose or even damage the videocard
    http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-HDMI-DVI-Adapter-Cable/dp/B00L3KNZZ8/

    The computer guy you talked to is probably thinking about speccing out a workstation with Xeon processors and quadro cards, which in many cases ends up worse for real time purposes. The build you have listed so far hits the sweet spot for pretty much all the components. With your ram, you could upgrade to 32gb down the line if you needed that. The processor could be upgraded to a 6700k but right now that would be an extra $150 ($100 when it comes back down to MSRP). Sure you could get a faster graphics card, but the next rung up is the $500 class and newer cards are around the corner.

    The only place I would possibly invest in would be to get a 500gb class ssd like

    http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-2-5-Inch-Height-SDSSDHII-480G-G25/dp/B00M8ABFX6

    While it is good value, it is double the 250gb class SSD and not necessarily in the pricing sweet spot. Some people get on just fine with a 250gb but I had one before, and found myself not running out of space, but getting close and worrying about it having to uninstall games and shuffle project files back and forth.

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  • m4dcow
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    m4dcow interpolator
    CandyStripes05 said:
    do I need to buy any additional wires or connectors for this build or does everything already come ready to be plugged in? Hopefully all I'll need is some zip ties for cable management haha

    The motherboard will come with all the sata cables you need for hooking up your SSD and DVD burner. The power supply will come with the power cables obviously, the one you selected is modular so you can plug in the cables you need and not have extra cables taking up room in the case. I mentioned the HDMI to DVI cable in the post above.
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  • CandyStripes05
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    CandyStripes05 polycounter lvl 9
    that's the card I meant to link in my first post - changed it now
    and I totally forgot I plug into the video card and not mobo, derp - but it's good to know about the cable vs. adapter 
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  • CandyStripes05
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    CandyStripes05 polycounter lvl 9
    m4dcow said:
    CandyStripes05 said:
    do I need to buy any additional wires or connectors for this build or does everything already come ready to be plugged in? Hopefully all I'll need is some zip ties for cable management haha

    The motherboard will come with all the sata cables you need for hooking up your SSD and DVD burner. The power supply will come with the power cables obviously, the one you selected is modular so you can plug in the cables you need and not have extra cables taking up room in the case. I mentioned the HDMI to DVI cable in the post above.
    you're insanely helpful, thanks so much!
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  • CandyStripes05
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    CandyStripes05 polycounter lvl 9
    think I've found my case, something with windows without the tacky at times bright led lights in your face plus I Just bought a 3D printer so I think they will look good in the same area

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M2UKGSM/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00M2UKGSM&linkCode=as2&tag=techs096-20&linkId=ZBPN6EXB3F3KSCBW

    http://folgertech.com/products/folger-tech-reprap-2020-prusa-i3-full-aluminum-3d-printer-kit

    I'll have to compare the size of the different cards etc after work to make sure they will fit, but I know I'll be loosing my optical drive which really is no biggie, barely use it now a days anyways everything always comes with a download link.
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  • m4dcow
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    m4dcow interpolator
    The case you linked (Core V1) is a mini ITX case, but the Core V21 which is on the options page is Micro ATX and would work once you get a Micro ATX board.
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  • CandyStripes05
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    CandyStripes05 polycounter lvl 9
    Would getting a Micro ATX Board then screw up all my other picked parts?
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  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    No getting a Micro ATX board will not screw anything up, but I would not get an ITX motherboard/case unless you make sure everything is going to work and fit together. ITX cases can have clearance issues with the graphics card, CPU cooler, and even the power supply. The Thermaltake CORE V21 does look pretty roomy though, don't think there will be any issues. 
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  • CandyStripes05
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    CandyStripes05 polycounter lvl 9
    Yea think I'm going to get the V21, so my current mobo is good then?
    the only issue pcpartpicker has is:

    • Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor does not include a stock CPU cooler. Adding a CPU Cooler to your part list is recommended.
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  • m4dcow
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    m4dcow interpolator
    CandyStripes05 said:
    Yea think I'm going to get the V21, so my current mobo is good then?
    the only issue pcpartpicker has is:

    • Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor does not include a stock CPU cooler. Adding a CPU Cooler to your part list is recommended.


    Oh yeah, that's true :)

    Something like this should be fine
    http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Hyper-212-RR-212E-20PK-R2/dp/B005O65JXI/

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  • CandyStripes05
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    CandyStripes05 polycounter lvl 9
    damn that thing looks huge lol I tossed it into pcpartpicker and it says "Compatibility Check: No issues/incompatibilities found." I hope that will fit in the case
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  • m4dcow
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    m4dcow interpolator
    CandyStripes05 said:
    damn that thing looks huge lol I tossed it into pcpartpicker and it says "Compatibility Check: No issues/incompatibilities found." I hope that will fit in the case

    It isn't too bad, the core v21 says it can fit coolers up to 185mm tall so it should be fine.
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  • CandyStripes05
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    CandyStripes05 polycounter lvl 9
    okay so everything in my first post looks good then? I'll be making the purchase tomorrow : )

    only change is the video card, instead of the GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0 which is now only available from used sellers I'll be getting the GTX 970 SSC Gaming 2.0+ which I take is pretty much the same if not better, and for only $10 more it's available now and I don't want to wait much longer as the RAM sticks have already gone up over $10 in price too
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