Bolt 3 questionsPost Date: 2016-06-08 |
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daystrom33
Newbie Joined: 08 Jun 2016 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1 |
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Topic: Bolt 3 questions Posted: 08 Jun 2016 at 8:31pm |
Budget:
~2000ish Expectations: Lot of Rift usage. Will be traveling for work every few weeks so want something portable without, if possible, sacrifices and extra cost of gaming laptops. Usage: Mostly single player VR stuff, some regular games like XCOM/Civilization. Want games to look good with smooth framerates but I don't need overclocking or really crazy settings. Good but not absolute world beating performance is good enough for me. Special Needs: For work, for the next year I will be traveling every few weeks to a new location where I will be staying for a few weeks before moving to the next place. To this end, I want something as light as possible (hence Bolt 3) and I also want to keep it to air cooling (in case I have to fly with it I don't want to worry about the TSA getting upset about liquid cooling). Saved Ticket #: [Please Type Here] Specifications: Here's what I'm considering right now: Specifications: Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Pre-built Digital Storm Bolt 3 Exterior Finish: Black Brushed Aluminum Hairline Finish Side Window: Edge to Edge Premium Acrylic Processor: Intel Core i7 6700 3.4GHz (Codename Skylake) (Quad Core) (Not Overclockable) <br><strong></strong> Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z170N-Gaming 5 (Intel Z170 Chipset) (Mini-ITX) (Up to 1x PCI-E Device) System Memory: 16GB DDR4 2666MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series <br><strong></strong> Power Supply: 450W SilverStone ST45SF (Bronze Rated) (Supports up to GTX 980) Expansion Bay: - No Thanks Optical Drive: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 8x / CD-Writer 8x) (Internal) Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (250GB Samsung 850 EVO) Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (1TB Seagate / Western Digital / Toshiba) Storage Set 3: - No Thanks RAID Config: - No Thanks RAID Card: - No Thanks Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Graphics Card(s): 1x GeForce GTX 1080 8GB (NVIDIA Founders Edition) (VR Ready) <br><strong></strong> Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio HPC Processor: - No Thanks Extreme Cooling: High Performance Cooler with Five Heatpipes HydroLux Tubing Style: - Not Applicable, I do not have a custom HydroLux liquid cooling system selected HydroLux Fluid Color: - Not Applicable, I do not have a custom HydroLux liquid cooling system selected Cable Management: Premium Cable Management (Strategically Routed & Organized for Airflow) Chassis Fans: Standard Black 120mm Fans Internal Lighting: - No Thanks, Front Panel LED Lighting Only Airflow Control: - No Thanks Chassis Mods: - No Thanks Noise Reduction: - No Thanks LaserMark: - No Thanks Boost Processor: Standard Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 Automatic Overclocking <br><strong></strong> Boost Graphics Card(s): - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s) Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-Bit Edition) Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows CD) Virus Protection: FREE: McAfee AntiVirus Plus (1 Year Service Activation Card) (Not Pre-installed) ($35 Value) Office: - No Thanks Game: - No Thanks Display: - No Thanks Surge Shield: - No Thanks Speakers: - No Thanks Keyboard: - No Thanks Mouse: - No Thanks Branded Gear: - No Thanks Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 10-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed My top three questions regarding this build, in order of priority: How much does a Bolt 3 actually weigh? I know it varies a little with components, but ballparked. In reviews I've seen figured ranging from 13 lb to 35 lb - because I'll be traveling so frequently this will make an ENORMOUS difference. There are of course always laptops but I'm staying put in each place just long enough, and the performance hit is just big enough, that I'd prefer not to go that route if I don't have to. With this configuration (no overclocking) will I be CPU bottlenecked on the 1080 to a significant degree? Significant enough that I might not get much difference from a 1070, or will it still make a big difference? Just to verify the "high performance cooler" is air-cooled only? (For the reasons mentioned above re: flying). Thanks! |
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bprat22
DS ELITE DigitalStorm East -- (Unofficially!) Joined: 08 Jun 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 20391 |
Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jun 2016 at 2:23am |
Hi daystrom33..... The Bolt is listed as 30-40 lbs depending on configuration. The high performance cooler is air cooling, no liquid. Figuring 35lbs would be a good bet.
Bottlenecking is a very over hyped , over used term that worries way too many people. With single card systems, It usually applies to modern graphics cards paired with processors over 5 years old. Even then, it's not that limiting for most gamers. For your build, no worries with any card you pick. If you'll be gaming at 1080p, the gtx 1070 will smoke it and save money over the gtx 1080. Hope this helps. Edited by bprat22 - 09 Jun 2016 at 2:24am |
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Marvc13
Newbie Joined: 08 Jun 2016 Online Status: Offline Posts: 20 |
Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jun 2016 at 7:54am |
Yeah you don't need the 1080 unless you want to do 4K I think, grab a 980 ti. That will be more than enough for your current needs. Can always upgrade the card later if you want 4K when better cards are released. Is a laptop not an option?
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db188
DS Veteran Joined: 29 Jul 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2115 |
Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jun 2016 at 1:50pm |
the lower the resolution the more you bring the cpu into the equation, so at high resolutions (1440p and up) game performance is more on the gpu. that's why you see bench marker's dropping resolution down to 1080p (and lower) when they want to compare various cpu performance, so as to attempt to take the gpu out of the equation. that being said, very few games rely heavily on multi-threaded performance. some games are more physics intensive and you will see the cpu usage spike. however, i have a hard time believing that any modern quad core cpu of the past 5 years will bottleneck a single gpu currently offered on the market. if you're concerned, get a "K" sku cpu and speed it up (overclock it).
there's a lot of bs out there right now surrounding these new Pascal cards. i think it's rather convenient considering the recent launch of Broadwell-E. perhaps someone's trying to push sales? if these cards are backwards compatible with pcie 2.0, how can they be too much for a Sandy Bridge cpu? also consider that not a single Maxwell or earlier generation card has been enough to saturate pcie 2.0, let alone pcie 3.0. so now, all of a sudden Pascal is? Pascal is nice and all, but it's performance perception is somewhat inflated over high end Maxwell cards like the 980ti/Titan X. anyone who wants 4k (with ultra settings) is still going to want to pair 2 cards to get it to work well. that is, possibly, until they release the "ti" and/or "titan" versions of Pascal. Pascal architecture is a smart choice for VR. Edited by db188 - 09 Jun 2016 at 1:54pm |
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Aventum 3
I7-6700K Gigabyte G1 Z170X Gaming GT 16GB Corsair Dominator 3000MHz Corsair Hx1000i 1000W Samsung M.2 980 Pro 2TB;Samsung 850 EVO 1TB MSI RTX 3080 Ventus OC 10G LHR Gigabyte M28U 4K |
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Goku1910
Groupie Joined: 08 Apr 2015 Online Status: Offline Posts: 121 |
Quote Reply Posted: 12 Jun 2016 at 5:13pm |
In my case, there is such a thing as bottleneck. Try using a HP m9510f with DDR2 and PCI-E 1.0 slot. The GT 440 I have is not running nearly to what it is capable of. Had to replace the failed graphics card the system came with and this one was cheap.
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Bolt 3!
Stage 1: 6/2/16 Stage 2&3: 6/7/16 Stage 4&5: 6/11/16 Stage 6: 6/16/16 Stage 7&Shipped: 6/24/16 |
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