Time to upgrade the SteamBox....

D

Doward

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 3, 2004
Messages
1,541
Current specs:
Raven RVZ01 ITX case
Silverstone 550w ST55F-G SFX power supply
AMD 7850k FM2+
ASRock fm2a88x-itx+
960GB SanDisk Ultra SSD
2GB EVGA 960GTX SSC
8GB Radeon Gaming Memory


It's my HTPC/SteamBox, hooked up to my 60" 1080p TV. Considering I sit almost 8' away, I don't see any need for 4k, so I'm looking to Max out all games @ 1080p.

I'm thinking of the following setup:
EVGA Stinger Z170
I5-6600K (I've got an NT06-Pro cooler)
16GB Corsair LPX Vengeance DDR4 ram
GTX1070 8GB

And sell the old guts to partially offset the cost.

I mostly game and browse on the system, with lots of TV/Movie usage.

Thoughts? Budget isn't an issue, but I'm aiming for price/performance.

Thanks!
 
It's not super hard to max things out at 1080p these days. I think you can do it with most games with a 1060, you don't even really need the 1070. Other than that it looks fine, probably no real need for the 16GB kit, but given the price difference, you might as well. Maybe get an m.2 SSD to save some space and wiring inside the case and get a small speed boost? Or maybe skip the 6600k and not overclock to keep temps down?
 
I'd go 16GB minimum for new builds today. 8GB is still serviceable, but expect the Xbox Scorpio to jump to 16GB next year.
 
whateverer said:
I'd go 16GB minimum for new builds today. 8GB is still serviceable, but expect the Xbox Scorpio to jump to 16GB next year.
Click to expand...

You can't really compare to the consoles, since the memory is shared between GPU and CPU. For a desktop, I'd always go with 16GB...but an HTPC/Steambox probably won't use more than 8GB. That being said, the price difference is $30-ish depending on the speed, and you might as well get 16GB.
 
Bandalo said:
You can't really compare to the consoles, since the memory is shared between GPU and CPU. For a desktop, I'd always go with 16GB...but an HTPC/Steambox probably won't use more than 8GB. That being said, the price difference is $30-ish depending on the speed, and you might as well get 16GB.
Click to expand...

That was my thought as well. I've never touched the 8GB I've got now, and I was originally eyeing 32GB (with only 2 slots on the board, I'd hate to upgrade later, since I'd end up buying the new size and selling the entire old set), but figured the price/performance sweet spot was @ 16GB right now. I feel 16GB system ram + 8GB video ram would do alright @ 1080p for a while ;)

I had considered the GTX 1060 6GB, but the price/performance seems to scale linearly to the GTX 1070 (provided I get one @ MSRP of $379). ~45% more performance for ~45% more price. To me, that just seems that the 1070 will last me that much longer.

For this system, ideally I'd like to get a 'console lifespan' between upgrades. Say 3-5 years. I built it ultra-budget ~3-4 years ago, spending the pennies on the 'important' stuff - Case, PSU, HSF - the stuff I'm hoping will last through 3+ upgrade cycles.

The AMD APU is getting long in the tooth for me, and I can't see it powering a GTX 1060 or 1070 very well. I had hoped to get one more upgrade (Carrizo or Bristol Ridge) from it, but the FM2+ platform didn't live as long as I'd hoped.

With Intel, it seems that every new CPU is a new motherboard - but considering my nearly 5 year old Ivy Bridge i5-3570k is STILL not stressed, I feel like a jump to Skylake could last a *long* time.

I'm also willing to wait out Zen, if it seems like that's gonna be worth the wait. I don't mind supporting the underdog, I'm no pro-gamer, but I refuse to get sucked into the consoles again. Tired of my games no longer working - with virtualization, I can break out C&C Gold right now if I felt froggy enough ;)

*edit* forgot to mention - I'll likely do a M.2 pcie SSD, but I'm not feeling any pressure to move off my SATAIII SSD (yet)
 
Doward said:
That was my thought as well. I've never touched the 8GB I've got now, and I was originally eyeing 32GB (with only 2 slots on the board, I'd hate to upgrade later, since I'd end up buying the new size and selling the entire old set), but figured the price/performance sweet spot was @ 16GB right now. I feel 16GB system ram + 8GB video ram would do alright @ 1080p for a while ;)

I had considered the GTX 1060 6GB, but the price/performance seems to scale linearly to the GTX 1070 (provided I get one @ MSRP of $379). ~45% more performance for ~45% more price. To me, that just seems that the 1070 will last me that much longer.

For this system, ideally I'd like to get a 'console lifespan' between upgrades. Say 3-5 years. I built it ultra-budget ~3-4 years ago, spending the pennies on the 'important' stuff - Case, PSU, HSF - the stuff I'm hoping will last through 3+ upgrade cycles.

The AMD APU is getting long in the tooth for me, and I can't see it powering a GTX 1060 or 1070 very well. I had hoped to get one more upgrade (Carrizo or Bristol Ridge) from it, but the FM2+ platform didn't live as long as I'd hoped.

With Intel, it seems that every new CPU is a new motherboard - but considering my nearly 5 year old Ivy Bridge i5-3570k is STILL not stressed, I feel like a jump to Skylake could last a *long* time.

I'm also willing to wait out Zen, if it seems like that's gonna be worth the wait. I don't mind supporting the underdog, I'm no pro-gamer, but I refuse to get sucked into the consoles again. Tired of my games no longer working - with virtualization, I can break out C&C Gold right now if I felt froggy enough ;)

*edit* forgot to mention - I'll likely do a M.2 pcie SSD, but I'm not feeling any pressure to move off my SATAIII SSD (yet)
Click to expand...

I'm sure your build will be more than enough to last a long time. Video cards seem to be focused on getting 4k to 60fps or better these days, so they're blowing standard 1080p out of the water. I personally think a 1060 will last a long time, but if you've got the cash and the power/thermal headroom in the case, then a 1070 would be a great choice too.

Zen might be great, it might suck, it's really impossible to tell at this point. I doubt it's going to be the super 5.0Ghz 8C/16T monster for $300 some people seem to expect. I'm betting you'll get something that performs within 90% of a last-gen Intel chip for 10% less cost.

The m.2 upgrade probably won't give you really noticeably more speed or anything, but it will let you remove the larger 2.5" drive and 2 cables from the case, which may help out on the airflow/thermals depending on how you have things arranged. Maybe not really worth the cash since you already have a 1TB SSD installed though. Wouldn't matter in a normal case, but it might make a world of difference in an ITX build.
 
The RVZ 01 has dual 2.5 bays side by side on top of the area where the graphics card lives. The thermals of the system... I'm ashamed to say I've never actually done a thorough test of. Perhaps I need to fix that :)

Local Best Buy had an EVGA GTX 1070 SC ACX 3.0 in stock, had them price match Amazon, and snagged it for under MSRP after my best buy certificates I've been holding on to were applied. I'll install that tonight as well, just for S&G and see what (if any) difference it makes with the AMD 7850K.
 
You can do all that you said and I'm sure it'll be great. But really, the only real limiter you have is the GPU. Yes, an i5 is faster than the A10 you have, but it's not what's holding you back - your GPU is.

Get the 1060 6GB, an RX480 8GB, or a 1070 if you feel like blowing the cash. If it was me choosing, I'd get one of the ITX-sized 1060 cards.

Just getting the GPU will likely take whatever framerate you've got now and quadrouple it. You can get the CPU and memory and all of that later on if you feel like you need it.
 
sinisterDei said:
You can do all that you said and I'm sure it'll be great. But really, the only real limiter you have is the GPU. Yes, an i5 is faster than the A10 you have, but it's not what's holding you back - your GPU is.

Get the 1060 6GB, an RX480 8GB, or a 1070 if you feel like blowing the cash. If it was me choosing, I'd get one of the ITX-sized 1060 cards.

Just getting the GPU will likely take whatever framerate you've got now and quadrouple it. You can get the CPU and memory and all of that later on if you feel like you need it.
Click to expand...

I already picked up the 1070, lol. :) The RVZ01 case allows a full sized 13" dual slot card. Part of why I went with it :)
 
As the proud, if accidental, owner of a pair of 1070 cards, you should be pleased :) I game at 1600p with no issues in anything as long as the game isn't programmed like a bag of assholes (looking at you Dishonored 2)
 
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