# The sweetspot- i5 6600K - sept 2015 - Starter Build



## Andronykus (Sep 22, 2015)

Hi guys,

I am posting this so others can get inspiration from it when buying a new build, especially if they want to find the price/performance sweetspot.

I don't need an upgrade of any kind, but just in case someone wants to start new, this configuration below should be the starting point, depending on their personal needs.

I am also gonna give an explanation for each part, so you guys can understand it better.

*Title: *
*i5 6600K - sept 2015 - Starter Build*


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

*CPU:* Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($248.95 @ Amazon) 
*CPU Cooler:* Cooler Master Glacer 240L Ver. 2 86.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($109.99 @ Newegg) 
*Motherboard:* Asus Z170-DELUXE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($299.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
*Memory:* G.Skill Ripjaws Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($219.99 @ Newegg) 
*Storage:* Samsung XP941 Series 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($299.99 @ Newegg) 
*Storage:* Crucial BX100 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($316.99 @ Newegg) 
*Storage:* Seagate Archive 8TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($249.99 @ B&H) 
*Video Card:* Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card  ($309.99 @ NCIX US) 
*Case:* Cooler Master MasterCase Pro 5 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($138.59 @ B&H) 
*Power Supply:* SeaSonic G-750 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($102.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
*Total:* $2297.46
_Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-22 04:22 EDT-0400_

So, now, on to each component.

*The CPU:* - Intel Core i5-6600K - with this one, whatever your needs would be, gaming, browsing, editing, encoding, it would be more than enough. K version for overclocking ofc pushes this choice even further.

*CPU cooler:* - Cooler Master Glacer 240L Ver. 2 - I always went air, up till my last build, when I realized that from now on the water cooling would be the better choice, due to lower temps and also lower noise overall. Also allows you to use any type of ram heatsinks, due to clear space around the cpu area. This model from CoolerMaster allows you to keep it at very low noise, or to crank it up if you wanna break some OC record. For my next upgrade I will most certainly go water cooling for the cpu.

*Motherboard:* - Asus Z170-DELUXE - When you choose a motherboard, it's not like with ram, when you can add some more, or with the cpu, where you can replace it, or some add-in card. You're gonna stick with that MoBo until you get a new complete upgraded build. Now, what people don't account for is future expansion possibilities. You could go with the cheapest Z170 mobo, but you have to think ahead of how many disks are you gonna stick on it, how many GPUs are you gonna add and how many pci add-in cards you gonna mount, depending on your needs now and in the future. This one has it all, you can compare it with the rest of the pack. Plus, it is an ASUS, stable all the way, from my personal experience with this brand especially.

*RAM:* - G.Skill Ripjaws Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 - In my past builds I had 2 GB, then 4 GB, then 8 GB, reaching in my last and current the 16GB mark. I always had that one day and that one moment when you needed just a bit more ram so you could do some more and a bit faster. I am talking about having some p2p connections in the background, some 20+ Chrome tabs, some streaming on the side of the screen and also playing some game while all of this is loaded up in the ram. You want to be able to alt tab fast and avoid some pagefile caching on the hdd/ssd. 32 GB should be the next step, most definitely.

*Storage:* 
- Samsung XP941 Series 512GB M.2-2280 - you wanna store the OS on this SSD. When you upgrade to a new build, you always gotta choose the latest tech available. If you cannot afford something right now, you just wait a couple more months, save a bit more, and get it. This is the real deal as per upgrade from a sata 6 ssd and the OS is the most demanding part of all your software running on the machine.

- Crucial BX100 1TB 2.5" SSD - as I said previously, you are gonna be running some p2p connections in the background, most definitely, especially when you wanna keep that torrents ratio up , so downloading and seeding on this 1 TB ssd will avoid any disk overloaded situations. I am currently using a 2TB HDD drive and it occurs quite often with a 1Gbit connection. That random access time on a SSD is a breeze compared to a HDD.

- Seagate Archive 8TB 3.5" HDD - with this one, after you download some stuff, some of it you're just gonna watch it and then delete it, but what about that special folder or file that you wanna save for a possible collection to rewatch in the future? This is your saving spot. You're gonna save here whatever you download and store it for a rainy day when you just wanna rewatch some trilogy or something. And trust me, 8 TB are still not enough, when you add those blurays one by one, you are gonna fill it up pretty quickly.

*GPU:* - Asus GTX 970 4GB STRIX - First of all, Nvidia. It's not all about frame rates per dollar. You gotta have things like fast driver update, before new games go on sale, like the game ready drivers. PhysX, playing without is just a minus and why do it without if you can? and the 970 chip is able to play anything out there at decent 1080p high settings. If you wanna go 4K, just add another one for 2 way SLI 
The STRIX version of ASUS assures low temps and low noise, just read the reviews.

*Case:* - Cooler Master MasterCase Pro 5 ATX Mid Tower - with this one you get the latest windowed model and quick mounting options from CoolerMaster. If you're gonna build something, you can't hide it, sometimes it is very gratifying to be able to watch inside and admire the assembly. I don't have a window on my case right now, although I could order a modded panel, but for my next case it is definitely gonna have a side window to be able to see the components. In the end the case is just a personal look and feel taste.

*PSU:* - SeaSonic G-750 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX - if you're gonna build a small beast of a PC, you gotta trust and rely the components on a decent PSU. Seasonic is one of the best, if not the best brand out there as per reliability and components quality. You just cannot go wrong with one like this.


That's about it, regarding my advice on the current sweetspot for a new build at this particular moment in time.
If you don't have a PC yet and also don't have much money to spend, just play it safe and go for a G3258 build. Cheapest you can go and you cannot go wrong.
If you do not have the money for this one right now, but still it is almost there within your possibilities, just wait a couple of months and save up. It is just not worth it to buy components below the performance of the ones listed. You are gonna buy it once and keep it for a few years, the choice must be done so you get the most out of your money.

Now let the comments and opinions roll.
I always do this for my friends, but thought I would share some knowledge with this community, since it seems like the best out there right now for quality tech talk.

Cheers


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## BarbaricSoul (Sep 22, 2015)

Decent build, but pretty expensive for it's performance level. The same performance can be accomplished for far less money.


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## Jetster (Sep 22, 2015)

Its expensive because of that 8 Tb drive, 32 Gb ram and a $300 motherboard

Much better case. If you can find one


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## BarbaricSoul (Sep 22, 2015)

personally, I'd take this $2k i7/GTX980ti build over the OP's build in a heart beat- http://pcpartpicker.com/p/X6zjrH

very few people need 32 GB of RAM.
8 TB of HD storage? Two different SSDs? WTF you storing?
Seasonic PSU's are the best, no argument there, but the build doesn't need a 750 watt PSU. Also, you are usually better off buying a PSU brand that uses Seasonic as an OEM as opposed to buying a Seasonic PSU. Same quality, less money.
GTX 970 with only 4 (3.5)GB of RAM will have issues at 4K resolutions.
AIO watercoolers are great when they work, but are not nearly reliable as a good air cooler.


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## RCoon (Sep 22, 2015)

I can see this OP was done with good intentions, but it is probably one of the worst price/performance ratios I've ever seen. That RAM and HDD choice is "bigger for the lulz". Not much thought has gone into this. This isn't really a starting point either.


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## BarbaricSoul (Sep 22, 2015)

want a 6 core i7? http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wgg4Lk


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## manofthem (Sep 22, 2015)

It seems most of everything is pretty overkill so I would have opted for the 6700k instead of the 6600k. And $870 in storage.


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## EarthDog (Sep 22, 2015)

OUch... model of what NOT to do???




RCoon said:


> I can see this OP was done with good intentions, but it is probably one of the worst price/performance ratios I've ever seen. That RAM and HDD choice is "bigger for the lulz". Not much thought has gone into this. This isn't really a starting point either.


+1

This is terrible... Sweet spot is $2.2K? 32GB of ram? 8TB of storage? Yikes.....I feel sorry for your friends if this is the advice you give. You are not prepared to be doing so.


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## Alex25 (Sep 22, 2015)

ouch 3200$ CAD for a starter kit ?? not a sweet spot for me  skylake is way too expensive for now  and why so much storage ?


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## P4-630 (Sep 22, 2015)

Alex25 said:


> why so much storage ?



Pr0n collection?


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## BarbaricSoul (Sep 22, 2015)

Alex25 said:


> ouch 3200$ CAD for a starter kit ?? not a sweet spot for me  skylake is way too expensive for now  and why so much storage ?



Actually, Skylake doesn't have to be that expensive. Here is what I consider a good starter kit for a Skylake system- http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CnmJ3C


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## jboydgolfer (Sep 22, 2015)

a $300 moBo and a $250 cPu? seems Extremely excessive to me. a z97m pro 4 would OC nicely, and would be $100'ish. dont waste $$ on boards like that. the build is nice, but WAYYY over spec'd. its gonna have a Price to performance ratio that is Very off.


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## 5DVX0130 (Sep 22, 2015)

This seems like a poorly conceived build. Well at least to me.

My main gripes with it:
- Supposedly a price/performance build, but using many high-end (overpriced) parts.
- $2.3k build and not having an i7.
- Motherboard cost more than the CPU.
- $300 motherboard.
- CPU cooler seems to have a high pump failure rate.
- 8TB HDD without a backup? Only place I would put a hard drive of that size in, is a NAS with a supporting drive as a backup. For the vast majority 2TB is more than enough.
- XP941 has a horrible P/P and you don’t need it. For “normal” use there isn’t much of a noticeable difference between the BX and this one.
- The 2nd SSD is pointless, taking your explanation into account.
- Expensive case considering it’s a P/P build. Also there are much better cases for that money.
- 750W PSU is overkill for this system.


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## GhostRyder (Sep 22, 2015)

Andronykus said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> I am posting this so others can get inspiration from it when buying a new build, especially if they want to find the price/performance sweetspot.
> 
> ...


Its got some good points but a lot of points where the balance is completely off causing the budget to soar a bit out of control.  For the money your spending  Ifeel yo ucould make a build that includes a much more powerful card and even an X99 with 5820K.  I am with the others, you need to get rid of some of the options like the 8tb and 32gb of ram.  If you need a lot of storage, I feel you could Raid some cheaper 1tb drives together and even get redundancy for longevity (Which to me would be safer than 1 8tb drive that could potentially fail and lose everything when you jump up to those levels of storage) and you may want to rethink the choices of SSD's.  You also have a pretty expensive motherboard to go with that i5 which seems way overkill.

Before you buy, you might want to seek out some alterations to the build as you can get much more performance for the money your spending.


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## thebluebumblebee (Sep 22, 2015)

Before we can have a discussion about a "starter build", we need to define it.  To me, a $2,300 build is quite high end.


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## erixx (Sep 22, 2015)

Poor greek, first build, first post and crushing him like it was a taliban... Come on, he's starting like a pro


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## EarthDog (Sep 22, 2015)

Sorry, there is a better way to get the point across, but,  there are so many things fundamentally wrong with this build and the 'reasoning' mentioned, it needs smacked down MOAB style or others may follow it...

This:

- Supposedly a price/performance build, but using many high-end (overpriced) parts.
- $2.3k build and not having an i7.
- Motherboard cost more than the CPU.
- $300 motherboard.
- CPU cooler seems to have a high pump failure rate.
- 8TB HDD without a backup? Only place I would put a hard drive of that size in, is a NAS with a supporting drive as a backup. For the vast majority 2TB is more than enough.
- XP941 has a horrible P/P and you don’t need it. For “normal” use there isn’t much of a noticeable difference between the BX and this one.
- The 2nd SSD is pointless, taking your explanation into account.
- Expensive case considering it’s a P/P build. Also there are much better cases for that money.
- 750W PSU is overkill for this system.

Plus:

GTX 970 for 4K... not with 3.5GB of vRAM!!!



Truthfully. The thread needs obliterated. Shock and Awe is my take. LOL!!!


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## CrAsHnBuRnXp (Sep 22, 2015)

Andronykus said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> *CPU cooler:* - Cooler Master Glacer 240L Ver. 2 - I always went air, up till my last build, when I realized that from now on the water cooling would be the better choice, due to lower temps and also lower noise overall. Also allows you to use any type of ram heatsinks, due to clear space around the cpu area. This model from CoolerMaster allows you to keep it at very low noise, or to crank it up if you wanna break some OC record. For my next upgrade I will most certainly go water cooling for the cpu.
> *You're not going to be breaking any OC record with an AiO water cooler. You need L2N for that.
> ...


My replies are bolded in the quote.


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## GreiverBlade (Sep 23, 2015)

i prefere my 6600K based build ... dunno but RAM+Mobo+CPU+GPU i am at 1200chf (~ 1228$) where the hell you get 1000$ more for case PSU storage

it's not a sweetspot build but a unbalanced build ...

my actuall list
I5-6600K
Raijintek Triton (moded)
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 5 EU
16gb 2666 DDR4
SSD OCZ Vertex III 120gb (3yrs and NO problem at all)
HDD 2x Toshiba DT01ACA100 1tb
ASUS GTX 980 Poseidon Platinum on a Phobya G-Changer 240 V2 + DC12-220 + Balancer 150
Corsair Carbide AIR 540
Seasonic M12II 750 Evo

counting all at the price i paid i am at 1665chf (1703$~)

argument, 16gb is enough (for a regular user ...), 2tb 7200rpm HDD well ok 6tb less but already enough for a regular user, 750 bronze 750 gold well ... the mobo IS actually a sweetspot mobo (let the 250+ mobo for the 2011-v3 platform or someone who use a i7 ... tho even in that case it's pointless )  shaving some cost here and there ... enable to have a "real" GPU (sorry for me the 970 doesn't exist or is a mid end card  )

sweetspot means good price/performance ratio: your listing is not qualified.

edit: i just hope you are not working in a computershop. because you make me remember of my friend who was doing list picking the most expensive mobo or hdd because he thought it would be way better.

the only thing that is right in that build, is the 6600K

the mobo ... well my mobo is 100$ less and do the same. it has also a dual m.2 X4 oops ... 2 m.2 on board no need for a PciE add on card to have 2 m.2 also 6 SATA3 (3 SATA Express in fact ... that can be used as 6 SATA3, versus 1 Express on the ASUS well that means 8 SATA3 if using the Express as a 2xSATA3 tho) 2x 4 USB3.0 header instead of 1 the only things it does not have is the WIFI (tho i considere it as a accessory and not a obligation.)


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## krusha03 (Sep 23, 2015)

I feel that (especially in the US) every build needs to be custom made with the budget and intention of the user and the offers currently available. That's why I always get pissed when people ask for a build withing certain budget and then say the will buy it 6 months from now.


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## EarthDog (Sep 24, 2015)

I wonder if the guy is going to reply... he has been here since he posted multiple times....


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## GhostRyder (Sep 24, 2015)

EarthDog said:


> Sorry, there is a better way to get the point across, but,  there are so many things fundamentally wrong with this build and the 'reasoning' mentioned, it needs smacked down MOAB style or others may follow it...
> 
> This:
> 
> ...


All great points!



EarthDog said:


> I wonder if the guy is going to reply... he has been here since he posted multiple times....


I am starting to wonder if this was a troll attempt...It seems a bit fishy since there have been no posts afterwards and the choices in parts seem very off especially some of the comments in the build (Along with what he lists as his actual system specs)...


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## manofthem (Sep 24, 2015)

GhostRyder said:


> I am starting to wonder if this was a troll attempt...It seems a bit fishy since there have been no posts afterwards and the choices in parts seem very off especially some of the comments in the build (Along with what he lists as his actual system specs).



This makes far more sense than his OP.


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## Luka KLLP (Sep 24, 2015)

GhostRyder said:


> I am starting to wonder if this was a troll attempt...It seems a bit fishy since there have been no posts afterwards and the choices in parts seem very off especially some of the comments in the build (Along with what he lists as his actual system specs)...


Yeah, I've been thinking that too, also because he seems just a bit too arrogant in his original post


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## erixx (Sep 24, 2015)

hello Leonidas!


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## lilhasselhoffer (Sep 24, 2015)

Me thinks that this is not a troll, but someone that genuinely believes what they are saying.  Unfortunately, sometimes our reach exceeds our abilities and we need help.  It's time we offer a helping hand, rather than scorn.


Qualify the statements, with what you see.
1) The CPU isn't the highest end i7, but it is a k series.  Overclocking is viable, but no hyperthreading means limited professional uses.
2) Storage is...odd.  Rather than a RAID array, they focused on a huge single drive.  Great performance from the SSDs for programs/OS and a single drive for "Blu-rays."  Fishy, cost inefficient, but not entirely unreasonable for a completely unaware user.  Sometimes, only having one storage drive is worth the huge bump up in cost.  
3) 970 GPU is a great budget option.  Easily plays 1080p content, which is in line with most users current requirements.  I'm assuming this was chosen because there had to be some concession to "budget" in a starter build.
4) RAM is..completely off base.  The idea of more is better is interesting, but after about 8 GB nothing currently on the market uses it.  This is a rookie misuse of funds, but not entirely unreasonable for the uninitiated. 


I'm tending to agree with other posters, so let's talk.  There are 
1) Go down to either a 16 GB or 8 GB memory kit.  Pricing is much lower, and if you actually need it you can easily upgrade in the future.  Right now, 32 GB is insanely overkill.
2) You've got SATA ports and RAID, so use it.  For the price of that 8 TB drive ($250) you could have three 3 TB drives, and setup a RAID 5 array.  Yes, that's 2 less TB now, but you can have a single drive fail without data loss and you can get 7200 RPM spindle speeds.  Honestly, the 8 TB drives are largely unproven and at a price premium.  If your data means that little to you, go ahead and go with that single point of catastrophic failure system.  
3) Why go for the highest end SSDs?  You can't form a RAID 0 array with disparate sized drives, so you're looking at an OS, programs, and storage drive.  There are much cheaper SSDs, and the performance isn't appreciably worse from a usage standpoint (even if benchmarks say otherwise).  If you wanted raw speed a couple of 512 GB drives in RAID 0 would beat out just about anything on the market.

4) Motherboard choice is... interesting.  A starter isn't going to overclock, so why spend more on a motherboard than the CPU?  Remember, starter builds assume the user isn't trying to set new overclocking records.
5) That GPU, it makes no sense.  Cut $300 out of something else, and you'll have enough to go to a 980ti.  Why you'd choose to go for a more budget oriented card, while spending gross sums of money on the SSD, is just unfathomable.  The GPU would matter more than the milliseconds you save on storage access speeds with and SSD.
6) OS, monitor, and peripherals; where are they?  If this is a starter build, with none of these things, then it isn't a starter build.  You could fairly suggest it's a middle range tower build (with a high end tower price), but anything beyond that is just inaccurate.



In fairness, this isn't a well thought out build.  You've budgeted too much money in some area, while cutting others to maintain a more "reasonable" budget.  It just doesn't make sense.  For example, let's look at the Blu-ray storage issue.  If you were to fill that 8TB (1000*8=8000 GB) with movies, and each movie was 50 GB (dual layer Blu-ray), that's be 160 movies.  At $20 a pop, you're looking at $3200 in movies.  You're trusting that much data to a $250 drive, without a backup if you should have a crash.  

I just don't think you've thought the build through, and it needs another few revisions.  Good initial try, but please don't spend this kind of money without someone reviewing the plans.  You'll wind up with less performance, at a higher cost, and that's just silly.  For $2300 you should be able to build a fairly high end PC, not a starter model.


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## RejZoR (Sep 25, 2015)

I don't think Z170 Deluxe and 32GB of RAM make much sense for such build. In fact, for Skylake CPU's, none of the highest end overclocker boards make much sense. Maybe for 6600K and much less for 6700K, but still, you'll get same overclock from cheaper board. Z170 Deluxe is ridiculously expensive.


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## johnspack (Sep 25, 2015)

Should be enough for a Skylake-e system...  wait,  not out yet....


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## dieselcat18 (Oct 8, 2015)

erixx said:


> hello Leonidas!






**+ 
*


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## EarthDog (Oct 9, 2015)

Dude has one post... the OP. He has been here nearly daily but still has not replied to his own thread...

Thread needs to be deleted so people don't buy that mess in the first post.


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## Vayra86 (Oct 9, 2015)

The lack of attention to this thread, accompanied by a blatant advertisement for certain brands based purely on an N=1 experience... deserves a deletion.

Also in terms of being a sweetspot, this could hardly be further from it.


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## lilhasselhoffer (Oct 9, 2015)

EarthDog said:


> Dude has one post... the OP. He has been here nearly daily but still has not replied to his own thread...
> 
> Thread needs to be deleted so people don't buy that mess in the first post.




I don't think that'll be a problem.

Bucharest is in Romania.  Cited sourcing is Newegg largely.  Newegg doesn't sell outside the US.  This means the target is on people inside the US not smart enough to recognize that the original author is making a personal wish list and doesn't have the technical authority to carry the weight of their suggestions.

I think the average TPU user is smarter than that, and if not this thread is buried under responses of "that idea isn't particularly intelligent."  This said, we've managed to rez a functionally dead thread.  If nobody added to it it would have died.


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## EarthDog (Oct 9, 2015)

lilhasselhoffer said:


> I think the average TPU user is smarter than that,


LOL.. no. (not a dig on TPU, just the average reader of any tech forum... some I wonder how they manage to breathe involuntarily...others, should be wearing a helmet 24/7 to protect themselves. There are few like us lilh. )


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