Building my new desktop PC. You can find the part list at the end.
Monitor and video card are still on the way, but everything else is already assembled and being tested. Its long time I had a desktop PC and for some time was only laptop user so now I really had fun building it.
Purpose of this desktop was software development (VisualStudio .NET mostly), learning and experimenting with deep neural networks (participating in some courses now), some gaming (Fallout 4, Battlefield series). Also wanted to last so was building it for future, I hope.
CPU
Intel was an obvious choice, never been AMD user. Now they have 8th series with 4 cores for i3 and even 6 cores for i5 and i7.
Decided to go with Intel – Core i5-8600K 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor as it is in a nice middle and has really nice overclocking capabilities up to 5000MHz.
Cooler
While investigating current market stumbled upon Cooler Master – MasterLiquid ML240L RGB 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler. It had really positive reviews and competitive price so decided to go with it. And it even has RGB feature. And I really like AIO as I will not have to mess with it very much for the moment.
*UPDATE: replaced fans of the cooler to bequiet Master Wings 3 – super silent!
Motherboard
Had to find something for the Intel 8th gen supported z370 chipset. Had a requirement for double M.2 slots, VGA output for old monitor support, 64GB ram support. And the winner was MSI – Z370 PC PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard. And it even has some RGB lightning and it will be sweet for the case I have selected.
Memory
Wanted to use single 16GB slot so after reading some reviews went for Crucial – Ballistix Sport LT 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 Memory. And after that I have 3 more free slots for future upgrades.
Storage
For time being was considering 500GB SSD drive. An M.2 slot was a good choice to save some space in a case. Also wanted some good brand. Was thinking for some time between m.2 PCIe vs M.2 SATA, but considering the price and minor gain decided that M.2 PCIe is just not worth it now. So at the end went for Western Digital – Blue 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive.
Video Card
Oh, how do I hate this mining craze. Was not aware of current market prices and was blown away when found out that most of the cards are out of stock and those that left are sold almost with double prices. For deep learning I was looking for at least 1060 with most video ram possible, unfortunately, miners are looking for the same. Anyway, after some searching I have found some good deal (i hope) on Amazon for Gigabyte – GeForce GTX 1070 8GB G1 Gaming Video Card for 543EUR and it is on its way now.
Case
Last time I had a desktop it was a brown dull box under the table that was as much fun as looking at bubble gum stuck on your shoe. This time I wanted something different and more fun. Ant the end I decided to go with Thermaltake – View 31 TG RGB ATX Mid Tower Case. Price is good, looks is good, airflow is good, tempered glass is good, RGB fans are good.
Power Supply
Wanted something rated and with more power than most calculators show. Also, it had to be modular and good looking. And that was Cooler Master – MasterWatt 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply.
*UPDATE: bad luck with that PSU, read here.
Monitor
As for time being I am using mostly laptops, monitors I own were either old or very old. For this card I have selected I wanted a 144Hz monitor. Also wanted it to have some speakers, VGA, HDMI, video and some USB ports. And the only choice for the reasonable price was AOC – G2460PF 24.0″ 1920×1080 144Hz Monitor. I will not be using FreeSync but all GSync monitors were way out of a budget.
Build it
Overclock it
After build it was working on good stable 3.6GHz without any issues but as I have i5-8600K that is unlocked and can be overclocked up to even 5000MHz I had to do that. First I tried MSI OC Genie and looked what values it was changing. Genie overclocked CPU to 4.4GHz.
Then I turned OC Genie off and changed some values manually and achieved stable 5GHz for this i5-8600k CPU. Actually, it is easy to do. To get 5000Mhz for i5-8600k all you have to do is:
In bios go to overclocking folder,
change OC Explore mode -> Expert,
set CPU Ratio Apply Mode -> All,
set CPU Ratio -> 50,
set CPU core voltage -> 1.280 (if it crashes on stress test – increase to 1.30 etc) (UPDATE: i have tested more with Prime95 and it gives some errors, so it seems that voltage should be higher than 1.280 for 5GHz even CineBench, Intel and PassMark tests are stable. Prime95 seems to stress test system quite well, you can literally hear it when it runs 🙂 ),
leave everything else as it is, mostly Auto, see screenshots below.
Intel – Core i5-8600K running on 5GHz, MSI Bios settings
Test it
CPU-Z validator results for overclocked i5-8600k 5GHz.
PassMark baseline for this overclocked i5-8600k 5Ghz
*ISSUES:
I had some issue that bios was not saving the setting for one of the fans, updated bios to latest, fan settings are saved ok now but when going to bios it takes a bit longer, something related to latest bios probably.
*UPDATE
Torture test with Prime95 with voltages 1.28 and 1.30 fails in about 10 minutes, so voltages should be higher:
Changed core voltage to AUTO. Prime95 went on for 20 minutes without any errors, passing previous crashing point. HW monitor sshowcore voltage fluctuating between 1.216 and 1.376 volts on heavy load. So we could increase voltage over 1.3 or just keep it AUTO that seems to work fine for now.
*UPDATE
One more experiment. Changed RAM XMP profile to 2800 that overclocked RAM to 1400MHz (instead of original 1200MHz) and with 50x CPU multiplier and Auto voltage tested on PassMark and CineBench:
*UPDATE
Noticed that CineBench gives best results when you have 50x multiplier and some fixed voltage like 1.350 (NOT Auto). Best CineBench result i got was 50 x multiplier, 1.350 core voltage, MSI RAM Test It Limit profile.
*Update
Vide card has arrived, build is really complete 🙂
Passmark results with overclocked CPU and stock 1070
Part list:
| Component | Selection | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU |  |
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| CPU Cooler |  |
Cooler Master – MasterLiquid ML240L RGB 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler | ||
| Motherboard |  |
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| Memory |  |
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| Storage |  |
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| Video Card |  |
543EUR (2018.02.09) | (On its way) | |
| Case |  |
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| Power Supply |  |
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| Monitor |  |
(On its way) |