Need opinions on new computer

[Amuscaria]

My old PC is slowly dying and is become too obsolete for my educational and gaming needs. I'm currently buying parts to build a new one. I would like some opinions on whether this PC is overkill or what not.

CPU: Intel i7-6700k w/ Cooler Master Fan
GPU: 2x EVGA GTX-1070 with SLI
PSU: EVGA 850 W Full modular
Mobo: MSI Gaming z97
Hard drives: 1x Kingston 480 gb SSD, 1x Kingston 120 gb SSD, 1x Western Digital 2TB HDD (from old PC)
Memory: 16 GB (from old PC)
Case: Antec 1200 V3 Black Steel ATX
OS: Windows 7 OEM

Price Total: ~$1900.00

[Rachael]

Nothing is overkill, eventually it'll all become obsolete, but if you spec it up a bit that will take longer.

That being said, that system does look pretty beefy. It should be able to handle most things for the next 3 years or so with no problems at all. And probably for the next 7-8 years with minimal, if any, problems.

[Amuscaria]

So I was shopping around on Alienware and a similar computer there costs 3000 dollars (with a single 1080 instead of 2 1070s) WTF?

I am a little worried about the cooling capacity of my PC, though. Is it worth putting in a liquid cooler for my CPU? The case has 6-fans total already.

[Rachael]

The steep price of the 1080 might be because it's the newest and most cutting-edge card available. It is pretty powerful. I don't think it's a linear step in price vs power, however, but there are some people who really need that extra push the 1080 can give.

I have never personally played around with liquid cooling but I know it is extremely powerful and well worth it to use, at least from what my friends tell me. If you're pushing 6 fans though it might be worth considering it, because there's a real hard capacity to what fans are actually capable of doing (unless you're REALLY clever about how they're set up and how their airflow is formulated) and when you keep adding more and more of them, you're eventually just expending more power for little gain.

[Graf Zahl]

Buying all that high end stuff, and then putting an old clunker like Windows 7 on it?
Seriously, if you want to use SSDs stay away from Windows 7 and go at least for 8.1.

[Ixnatifual]

I've never tried two GPUs personally, but from what I've read it is usually a better experience overall to just have a single, powerful card. Mainly because many games fail to properly support a multi-GPU setup.

[Amuscaria]

Buying all that high end stuff, and then putting an old clunker like Windows 7 on it?
Seriously, if you want to use SSDs stay away from Windows 7 and go at least for 8.1.

I'm just worried that my old art software aren't Win-10 compatible. I have a copy of Win10 if I need it.

[Accensus]

I've never tried two GPUs personally, but from what I've read it is usually a better experience overall to just have a single, powerful card. Mainly because many games fail to properly support a multi-GPU setup.

Well, I tried Fallout 4 with 2 Radeon HD 7770's and it had worse performance than when I removed one. Then again, Wolfenstein: The New Order got a minor performance increase. I think it matters if the game itself supports Crossfire/SLI.

[Kappes Buur]

Certainly this looks like a nice system.
The only thing I would change is going for a 1000W power supply.

Just for comparison,
my system is now several years old, all housed in an Antec 1200 case with a 1000W psu. The only things I have upgraded was the memory to 16 GB and the video card to GTX 660. And I added a couple of harddrives.



Old it may be, but it runs everything without problems.

On top of the cpu sits a huge Scythe MUGEN-2 heatsink with a fan mounted on top of that. This heatsink cools the cpu so effectively that the fan starts spinning only after playing DOOM 2016 or Quake 4 for a few hours.

[leileilol]

Since you're not going more than a cooler master fan for insane overclocking, the dual GTX 1070s would be very bottlenecked. Also there's constant shifts and APIs (Vulkan) and driver support of cards in the recent generations so i'd advise to also stick to one. SLI is more of a benchmark ego thing and serves less practical use for gaming..

DISCLAIMER: Have not used an nvidia card since the FX series as i've promised to not buy new Nvidia products ever again. They're the Creative of the video card world


The CPU's fine though I hear skylakes can have crash problems. Note that earlier Core i5/i7s also perform similarly at the same clock rate as the CPU power race became stagnant since AMD stopped being competitive, so there's an opportunity to cut a corners for a budget in the intel side on the same socket.

As for HDs you could always use more terabytes (for redundant backups, large work files etc) you're an artist you'll want the space

[Dancso]

I would advise against SLI. SLI only really helps in some cases, if you're trying to do a three monitor surround or otherwise high resolution gaming (4k@60fps), and even then it might not work for all games, generally SLI is more trouble than it's worth in my opinion.
It would be interesting to know what your monitor resolution is. I have a GTX 970 with a factory overclock and it has absolutely no issue running any game at or above 60 fps at 1080p, the only exception is maybe GTA V becasue of its ridiculous advanced graphics settings and whenever the antialiasing is put unreasonably high (I see no point in going above 4X on 1080p and above)
Future proofing a graphics card can be okay, I bought the 970 knowing I'll be rolling with 1080p for years to come - until 4k monitors are more affordable and graphics cards are actually capable of getting 60 fps on it.

Also, you REALLY do NOT need 1000W for your system, that is just plain stupid. Sure your power requirements are going to be higher if you do use SLI but if you were to use a single more powerful card you'd even be saving on power draw.
I have a 750W PSU and that is a slight overkill for my system, it could support dual SLI 970s theoretically and have some wiggle room left.

Check your entire system in a power draw calculator to figure out what you really need, exxagerate some of the overclocks and additional devices attached just so you never feel like you're handicapping yourself. Some future proofing is alright becasue you will likely be using these years into the future, and I've heard PSUs can perform worse over time so leaving that extra wiggle room might help in the long run.
http://www.coolermaster.com/power-supply-calculator/

What's this about Windows 7 being worse with SSDs? I'm not arguing, I'm generally curious. I am still running win7 because I don't like the changes in 8/8.1 and win 10 is sort of half-a-catastrophe still, so I'm sitting pretty until there's another obvious system. Any specific reason why I'd want a new windows? I've got my system running an SSD and I can't say I'm unhappy with my bootup time (couldn't care for the extra seconds saved through UEFI boot becasue I never shut down my PC, i just put it to sleep), does it affect much else that the OS has a big say in?

[Amuscaria]

EDIT: Nvm, Neweggs just restocked some of the 1080s.

So it's better to have 1 1080 vs 2 1070s in SLI? (price a asside)

[Accensus]

Also with GTX 970 Jetstream and can't say I've had any problems with it. Sure as hell ain't gonna be buying a new card cause this one runs almost everything on max. Only game that struggles is StarCraft 2 when I spam units. DSR is also very neat. Unfortunately, I've had some problems with my icons scattering all over the place when I switch between HD and UHD. Could be because of my 2nd monitor.

EDIT:

So it's better to have 1 1080 vs 2 1070s in SLI? (price a asside)

Yea, I'd go for single card.

[leileilol]

What's this about Windows 7 being worse with SSDs?

the usual "you must upgrade Windows" FUD. Most SSDs should ship with support software that switches a bunch of Windows settings to better suit the SSD

[Graf Zahl]

What's this about Windows 7 being worse with SSDs?

the usual "you must upgrade Windows" FUD. Most SSDs should ship with support software that switches a bunch of Windows settings to better suit the SSD

No FUD. Windows 7 comes from a time when there were no consumer-grade SSDs and this does have implications. SSD support on Windows 8 is indeed somewhat better than on 7. On 7, as you say, you need to switch some settings, while Windows 8.1 will detect and properly handle SSDs automatically.

But well, go ahead and install an old OS. It will bite you in the ass sooner or later, that's completely inevitable.