"Winbuntu Gamecube": PC Build Suggestions?

[dplxstudios]

 

Overall not a bad revision, but I'd trim some more bodyfat and switch over to a Z97, 4790k or 5775c or similar, drop down to less expensive RAM, and re-think the case a bit more - you can probably save a few hundred more dollars this way, and will still have excellent performance.

 

Some quick edits:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kvzp9W

 

You can dump the Fury X ofc - snagged it because it fit into that same ~$1400 budget and honestly why not. But the 390 is a perfectly competent card in its own right, and a lot less money.

 

Thank you for the advice and the quick edits. Given your advice regarding single-threaded gaming dominance and the cpu/motherboard stagnation, I think I will stick with your recommendations regarding the hardware.

 

Since I'm going to be waiting for the last of my money anyway, I might as well bump up from the R9 390 to the Fury X; the Fury X benchmarks provided by LinusTechTips on Youtube impressed me and it fits in my budget.

 

As for the case, I found the Corsair C70 Military Green to be a good fit for my build (and I like the military theme). Though the default setup is abysmal, with lower drive cages blocking the front intake, I found some modifications on Youtube that could remedy that problem. By removing those lower drive cages, remounting the stock fans onto the front panel, and jury rigging the SSD and HDD into the optical bays via drive adapters, I could allow for those front intake fans to provide better air cooling.

 

Though I found a wireless adapter I believed to be compatible with both OS (I wish I could use the ethernet cable in the same room I will be setting this rig up in), I'm still trying to figure out whether or not the hardware I have selected in my parts list shares that same compatibility. I've searched through the usual manufacturer sites and Linux forums, finding mixed answers. For example, a post in the Ubuntu Hardware forum implied that ASRock and most other motherboards should run both OS smoothly while a post on the ASRock site forum said otherwise. I'm sure everything is compatible, but I wish to confirm that before I buy the parts and attempt to build.

 

Thank you once again for your help.

[FMod]

That said, I don't see a real reason not to use the latest CPU aka Skylake, unless you're saving by buying a used one. There's a clear benefit in Skyrim: http://www.sweclockers.com/test/20862-intel-core-i7-6700k-och-i5-6600k-skylake/16

 

Skylake is still going to work under Win 7. Just won't get driver updates that never come out anyway and no one cares if they do. Besides, your resolve to stick with W7 is going to end with the first DX12-only game that you want. And for Linux (to the extent that Ubuntu counts) the latest hardware always gets better support than legacy.

 

If you're adamant about sticking with previous-gen, take the 5820K. It's the best CPU that will ever get W7 driver support (in the event that you believe in it) and the premium is fairly modest, the trick is finding a cheap LGA2011-3 motherboard. If you manage the latter, as you can see from the link above, i7 parts perform noticeably better in Skyrim.

[dplxstudios]

That said, I don't see a real reason not to use the latest CPU aka Skylake, unless you're saving by buying a used one. There's a clear benefit in Skyrim: http://www.sweclockers.com/test/20862-intel-core-i7-6700k-och-i5-6600k-skylake/16

 

Skylake is still going to work under Win 7. Just won't get driver updates that never come out anyway and no one cares if they do. Besides, your resolve to stick with W7 is going to end with the first DX12-only game that you want. And for Linux (to the extent that Ubuntu counts) the latest hardware always gets better support than legacy.

 

If you're adamant about sticking with previous-gen, take the 5820K. It's the best CPU that will ever get W7 driver support (in the event that you believe in it) and the premium is fairly modest, the trick is finding a cheap LGA2011-3 motherboard. If you manage the latter, as you can see from the link above, i7 parts perform noticeably better in Skyrim.

 

Like I said, my main reasons for sticking with Windows 7 were the forced updates and the high level of things not working, especially drivers, in Windows 10. That being said, I've heard from many sources that the worst of the bugs/glitches, things not working, and forced all-or-nothing updates have fixes or solutions of some sort; I'm going to give Windows 10 another try (a previous laptop was bricked by a Windows 10 update shortly after the OS launch date) and I will verify for myself how much it has improved, flashing back to a backup image of Windows 8.1 if things are still intolerable.

 

As for hardware, I will leave my part list as is until my personal test-run of Windows 10 yields enough support for either decision. Should Windows 10 prove to be more optimal than Windows 7, I will update the parts list accordingly.

 

My apologies if I sounded belligerent or defensive in any way; I just want to make sure the Windows OS I choose for my gaming platform will work properly with minimal risk of avoidable-errors and perform optimally for my dual-booting purposes.

[FMod]

I run W10 on all my laptops, W7 and parallel W10 IP on my main PC, and it basically just works, nothing special. I like the W7 UI better, but it's not that much better as to be left without DX12 and future hardware drivers. And xbone runs W10, so it's going to be used.

 

I'm holding off my official update until the first game or application that makes significant use of the new features that I care about. On my laptops, I migrated to W10 as soon as it was offered, no issues, of course YMMV. I don't see any reason to choose W8 over W10 (unless the latter outright doesn't work for you), the only advantages other versions of Windows have over W10 are better UI in W7 and compatibility + EAX in XP.

 

But it's not just Windows, UIs are getting worse across the board. First a few special apps, now the new 3DS Max with its dark gray on black with no borders or guiding lines scheme. Something about making sure the colorblind aren't at a disadvantage by making everyone's UI an equivalent of what a colorblind person sees (while wearing two pairs of sunglasses).

 

Could still be worse, could be CLI, but we'll bounce back before hitting that bottom. In the meanwhile just have to bear with degraded UX. I don't see not upgrading as much of a choice; you can skip a product version here and there, but not a decade of OS development. So it comes down to when to upgrade, not whether.

[obobski]

Just to add on "why stick to Windows 7 over Windows 8/10" - there's a few other features that were deprecated with Windows 8, these are generally of zero use to average users, but if you're into old games it might matter. Specifically, MIDI support (http://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/blog/2013/03/what-happened-midi-mapper-windows-8) and the further gutting of DirectDraw (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-gaming/directdraw-emulation-is-broken-in-windows-881/4edfc685-72b2-4688-95ed-c745ddd38825?auth=1) - again none of this matters for typical modern users (because it all affects software that's easily 15 years old at this point) but it may be worth considering, primarily, if you're into old games. Of course, you could just have a second machine running Windows 98 (did I mention "old"?) with the appropriate hardware if you're really needing that stuff (XP will mostly work too), but for contemporary DirectX 9/10/11 gaming there should be no difference. EAX, to the very limited extent that anything remotely modern uses it, is still supported via emulation (e.g. ALchemy) by many sound devices in Windows Vista and beyond.

 

About the #s posted for Skylake as providing a "clear benefit" - we're talking a few FPS total performance difference (comparing 6700k and 4790k), in frame-rates well above 60 FPS (which is a no-no for Skyrim; the physics engine doesn't behave right). Personally I'd regard that as "it doesn't really matter - modern CPUs of many types are extremely well suited to this game." Any of the three Intel platforms discussed would do equally well with Skyrim.

Edited June 1, 2016 by obobski

[FMod]

On compatibility: W7 has some compatibility benefits over newer OS, but the old software compatibility king is still XP. Anything designed for W7 generally runs on anything newer as well.

Alchemy is a workaround, but it degrades stability, at least for me, and I occasionally had to turn it off for a while simply to get through an area without crashing. Not quite worth using XP over, but that counts as an advantage for it.

 

 

On performance: Even that little is an improvement as far as Skyrim is concerned - hard to get any extra fps in there. It will also help when modded and FPS slows down.

 

Not a big difference, but what's the downside? They cost the same and Skylake still has all the x86 compatibility features required to install and run old Windows versions, you're just not going to get driver updates specific to the CPU.

 

Which were never coming in the first place - W7 mainstream support ended over a year ago. In effect, the threat is hollow; Microsoft just said it won't do something it wasn't doing anyway. The implications for a private user are next to nonexistent.

 

Now, for an enterprise, the implications are huge. With this policy, any system that combines Skylake and Windows 7 no longer meets the "support must be provided" requirements. No support, no procurement. Good thing I didn't hold off on ordering new gear. Broadwell-E is the last CPU generation we'll purchase, and I'll probably never have a workstation with "lake" in its CPU core name. You don't normally roll out an enterprise OS upgrade unless everyone gets it, and you can't get W10 to servers, can't get it to industrial PCs, can't always get it to secure PCs, and can't just replace them all because there's no budget section for "hostile software vendor policies".

[obobski]

Can't say I can really disagree with any of those points/that reasoning, FMod. :thumbsup:

 

On ALchemy and such - IME it was no more or less stable than "native" implementation (e.g. actual DS3DHW support) in XP or 2k, but I'm betting it depends heavily on the specific game in question. There are other, non-Creative solutions that will provide DS3DHW support (e.g. Xear 3D EX and 3D Soundback), and may be better or worse, but you won't have full EAX 5 support (because Creative restricts that to their own products); a lot of newer motherboards should have this kind of thing out of the box too.

[dplxstudios]

Thank you all once again for the advice. Hopefully this will be the last version of this part list: link

 

Since my personal tests with Windows 10 have turned up solutions for my previous grievances (there is at least one stable build, marking a connection as metered allows for manual control of updates, professional version allows for more customization, etc.), I have decided to go with the retail version of Windows 10 and have included the Skylake i5 6600K CPU. I will pass on the i7 as the ~$130 difference could be better spent on other things.

 

The Fury X GPU has also jumped in price (and was water-cooled, meaning it was difficult to work with space-wise), so I chose the Nano, which should have similar capabilities as the Fury X, draw less power, and require less space. Should I ever wish to run Crossfire in the distant future (not advisable in Skyrim, I heard, but can be done if I want to play something like Witcher 3) I have a 750 watt power supply that can cover the increased power draw. I don't think I would ever need to upgrade this as Crossfire setups above 2 GPU don't seem worth it to me.

 

Still going with the Corsair C70 case, especially since a $20 adapter for the optical drive bays could house four 2.5" drives in one bay. With a 2.5" HDD, this means even more room for future expansion.

 

Though I believe some games could run better in Windows 7 than Windows 10 (the Star Wars KOTOR series, for example), I have discovered that a lot of them can run natively on Linux. Not sure if this would be better than keeping all of my games on the Windows partition, but I thought it worth mentioning.

 

Thank you all for the help. I truly appreciate it.

[FMod]

Some adjustments I'd make:

CPU cooler - the one you picked appears to be worse than what used to be supplied in the CPU box. The minimum capable cooler is Cooler Master 212 Evo, somewhat above any Zalman CNPS 10X and above are good, also anything Scythe.

 

With Windows, there are indeed games that prefer Win 7. What I suggest is not to buy Win 10 directly, but instead Windows 7 Pro: http://pcpartpicker.com/product/fbPfrH/microsoft-os-fqc04649

Once you install it, you can reserve a free upgrade to Windows 10 Pro (no later than July) by accepting Microsoft's offer that will pop up, then choosing to go back. Or not, then your old Windows 7 will be reserved.

Either way, you get a permanent license for both Windows 7 and Windows 10 (one at a time) for the life of your PC. It comes out cheaper and this way, you can run whichever you prefer until you need the other. That's what I'm doing.

 

Optical bay adapter: Remember that the your case, the C70, already has 6 bays for 2.5" or 3.5" drives.