I want a new gaming rig

[Tamas]

I don't know the price differences, but an i5 6500t could be a good entry point.  You could later upgrade to an i7 of the same series.

Do you think it would be a noticable improvement over an i7 4700MQ? I guess having an SSD drive for the OS and a better video card thrown in the mix would surely dip the scale toward the i5 6500, but I am wondering if I would take any step forward strictly on the CPU part.

[Tamas]

actually, I could just go with the i5 6600, doesn't seem that much more expensive.

[Tamas]

This is the config I am thinking now, if I'd be brave enough to assemble myself I could get for 580ish:

Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor
CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler
Asus H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
MSI GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card
BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case
Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer

But I will need a decent monitor as well so unless I convince myself to put myself into some 10 month paying scheme over this, it won't happen for a few months at least.

[viper37]

I don't know the price differences, but an i5 6500t could be a good entry point.  You could later upgrade to an i7 of the same series.

Do you think it would be a noticable improvement over an i7 4700MQ? I guess having an SSD drive for the OS and a better video card thrown in the mix would surely dip the scale toward the i5 6500, but I am wondering if I would take any step forward strictly on the CPU part.

If you play DirectX 9/10/11 games, you will not see the difference.  If you play brand new games, those developped with the new Vulkan API or DirectX 12 (yet to be released), than the i7 would likely be better since it has more cores.

The way most games works, to (over) simplify it is they do all the instructions they can on one core, than they go to the next and so on while the first finish the tasks it has.

With DX 12&Vulkan, the load is balanced through all cores, and the GPU(s) if needed.  That means even if you single-core speed is lower, if you have more cores, the load balancing will improve performances for the CPU.

[viper37]

This is the config I am thinking now, if I'd be brave enough to assemble myself I could get for 580ish:

Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor
CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler
Asus H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
MSI GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card
BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case
Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer

But I will need a decent monitor as well so unless I convince myself to put myself into some 10 month paying scheme over this, it won't happen for a few months at least.

Your SSD is too small.  You'll only be able to put Windows on it, never any game (you can use Steam Mover to shuffle games around), and with Windows 8/10 way of installing apps on the main drive, without any easy control over it, it will be filled to the brim very quickly.

Also, the hard drive you picked is really, really, really slow.  A combination of small SSD + slow hard drive will drive down your performances.

Either you keep the small SSD and upgrade to a Caviar Black, or you keep the Caviar blue and pick a large SSD.

[Tamas]

[Grey Fox]

Viper is overstating the speed your SDD will fill up but it is damn annoying to keep on managing it. Listen to him, spend the money for a bigger one.

[Norgy]

Viper is overstating the speed your SDD will fill up but it is damn annoying to keep on managing it. Listen to him, spend the money for a bigger one.

Yes, I can only add my voice to this.
240 GB at the least for the system drive. Else system popups will drive you into deep depression and rage.

[Grey Fox]

We should all be buying this right now :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ADATA-Premier-SP550-2-5-960GB-SATA-III-TLC-Internal-Solid-State-Drive-SSD-ASP/291677924054

for 190$us.

[viper37]

300$ Can.  For 960gb.  Pretty impressive. Decently fast.  A little slow for heavy gaming, but perfect for office work.

[Barrister]

We should all be buying this right now :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ADATA-Premier-SP550-2-5-960GB-SATA-III-TLC-Internal-Solid-State-Drive-SSD-ASP/291677924054

for 190$us.

Shipping: Does not ship to Canada

[Grey Fox]

Well, shit.

[Alcibiades]

Martim, you seem to want to build a system that will still be ideal in five years.  That's a ridiculous level of future-proofing, and probably impossible in any event.

Rather than spend $800 or more on a top of the line graphics card now, I spent $300, and then in 3-5 years I expect I'll replace it with a new one for around the same price.

New CPUs show as being only 5-10% faster than a previous years.  There's really no point in upgrading a CPU unless it is many years old.

I mean I spent about $2200 on my computer 6 years ago and am just now looking at replacing it save for my extra drive failing this past fall.... and that's only because I'm now starting to have overheating issues with my CPU during CPU intensive games(which can maybe even be solved by applying more thermal paste?).

[Alcibiades]

What's the best cooling option for an upper-upper middle class gaming PC? Is liquid cooling any good? What do the cool kids use these days?

For air cooling the best option is Noctua:
http://www.amazon.com/Noctua-D-Type-Premium-Cooling-NH-D15S/dp/B00XUVGLEU?SubscriptionId=AKIAJ7T5BOVUVRD2EFYQ&tag=cameltracker-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00XUVGLEU

You can usually get this for right around $70 and usually outperforms watercooling and is cheaper, the downside being that it is BIG.

For watercooling this is one of your best choices:

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Series-Extreme-Performance-CW-9060027-WW/dp/B019955RNQ?psc=1&SubscriptionId=AKIAJ7T5BOVUVRD2EFYQ&tag=cameltracker-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B019955RNQ

Was on sale for 106$ last week but up to 124$ right now.

[Barrister]

Martim, you seem to want to build a system that will still be ideal in five years.  That's a ridiculous level of future-proofing, and probably impossible in any event.

Rather than spend $800 or more on a top of the line graphics card now, I spent $300, and then in 3-5 years I expect I'll replace it with a new one for around the same price.

New CPUs show as being only 5-10% faster than a previous years.  There's really no point in upgrading a CPU unless it is many years old.

I mean I spent about $2200 on my computer 6 years ago and am just now looking at replacing it save for my extra drive failing this past fall.... and that's only because I'm now starting to have overheating issues with my CPU during CPU intensive games(which can maybe even be solved by applying more thermal paste?).

I bought my Mac Pro in 2008 for $2000(CDN), and only replaced it in 2015.  You can definitely buy a computer that lasts a long time.  I expect my current rig to last 5-8 years at a minimum, with perhaps only a few small upgrades.

My comment to Martim Silva is you can't future-proof to the extent that you buy a system now that will still be ideal five years from now.  You can definitely buy something that will be good enough in 2021.