So basically, I got tired of keeping up with the console wars and jumped off the carousel.  I've decided to try PC gaming for a while instead.  This is my first experience with a true modern graphics card (GTX 1070), and the investment was more than worth it.

Build:

• Silverstone RVZ02B-W (mini-ITX, this is an AWESOME case)


• Gigabyte GA-Z170N motherboard


• Intel Core i7-6700K @ 4GHz (no overclock)


• EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 FTW


• 16GB HyperX DDR4 RAM @ 2133MHz


• SanDisk X400 1TB SSD (M.2)


• Panasonic UJ-265 slot-loading BluRay burner

It turned out that the graphics card is nicely showcased by the window on top of the case.  I'm glad I didn't know this before installing it, or I would have been severely tempted to splurge on a GTX 1080.

I also have two additional 1TB Seagate HDDs for additional data storage.

Benchmark: http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/1648275

Pictures: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxPKLRqQOUSNeUw5U3JnSmVXdWc

Very nice! Any possibility of a pic?

Edit: speaking of pics, your signature is broken.

Hm, seems Google doesn't keep the direct image links active for long, I did originally post pictures but they disappeared.  Here's a link to the Google Drive folder with the pics:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxPKLRqQOUSNeUw5U3JnSmVXdWc

I don't have any pics of the inside of the machine yet, I'll have to open up the case and take a couple later.

That's one sleek puppy piglet.

I personally stick to notebooks myself. There's a performance sacrifice for sure, but the portability makes it all good. Really glad cards like the 1070 can go in modern notebooks without sacrificing performance though.

I actually already have a gaming-capable notebook.  i7-6700HQ with GTX 950M, also with 16GB of RAM.  While it's no 1070, it makes a decent enough stand-in when the desktop is unavailable.

Oh, did I mention that the new machine has a 5.1 surround speaker system hooked up to it?  Because it does.

Just posted a link to the pictures in the OP, and added pics of the inside of the case with everything installed.  It's, uh... very tight under the hood.

Here's the pics: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BxPKLRqQOUSNeUw5U3JnSmVXdWc

Notice the secret to the case's sleek look: Besides taking a mini-ITX motherboard (only one PCIe slot), it takes laptop drives.  Both the optical drive and hard disks are laptop parts to save space (for some stupid reason though, the case didn't come with a slimline adapter for the optical drive, so I had to buy one before the Blu-ray burner would work ).

The way the graphics card installs in the Silverstone case is interesting.  You can't plug it directly into the PCIe slot; there's not enough room for that.  Instead, the case comes with a 90-degree riser which goes through to the other side of the case and the graphics card mounts parallel to the motherboard, above it but in a separate compartment.  You can kind of see how that works in these two images (you can also see that the graphics card lights up):
Graphics card: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxPKLRqQOUSNWnBOV0lILV93SjA
Motherboard: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxPKLRqQOUSNb3psMGo4ZE42Z3M

It's a bit hard to see the riser in the PCIe slot because it's obscured by all the SATA cabling, but you can spot it if you look hard enough.  I didn't want to pull out all the cabling for the photo op because it was a pain in the ass to stuff it all in there the first time without interfering with any cooling devices.

Oh, and here's another interesting thing, the tiny M.2 solid state drive:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxPKLRqQOUSNNm1DSTVRNFJtdHc

This is my first experience with this type of SSD.  It's about the size of a large flash drive and plugs into the back of the motherboard right near the CPU socket.  Installing this freed up one of the 2.5-inch bays for my third hard drive.   Let me just say that between the i7 processor and the SSD (~500MB/sec), this thing screams.  I don't have to wait for anything; even huge programs like Word and Visual Studio launch in 5 seconds--from a cold boot!  Speaking of which, cold boot takes about 20 seconds from the time I press the power button till the desktop shows up.

Oh, and my motherboard has built-in wi-fi.  So I don't have to waste a USB port on a wi-fi adapter, which is nice.

I noticed you've very conspicuously avoided mentioning how much this setup cost :p

Actually, I'm reminded of that article that made the rounds some years ago of something like "high-end gaming PC runs Crysis at consistent 60 FPS for under $300." The guy just waited to buy all the parts individually until they were on super-good clearance sales.

I should keep my eyes out for sales and do the same...

My original budget was $1000, I went way over that at ~$1700.  I honestly don't know the exact cost because I didn't buy everything at once - I bought everything over the course of a month as I realized I wanted more stuff, and lost track of the grand total.

I also reused some spare parts I had lying around, like a close-to-new HDD I swiped from my laptop when I upgraded to an SSD.  The Blu-Ray drive was also recycled from another machine and is only lightly used.

That's a very nice computer, this is mine:

nVidia gtx 970
MSI z170a Gaming Mobo
Intel Core i7 6700 4ghz (no oc)
8GB RAM 3200 DD4 (no oc)
1GB SSD 540r/420w

I'd like to say I had a budget of under $1000, but I honestly don't know. I do know it must be close, some items were borrowed from my old computer like the power supply, case and fans.

I've been thinking of getting a PCIe SSD.

Your computer is better, btw, the gaming category is nicer for your setup than mine. The other stats are close, regarding userbenchmark score.

The i7-6700K is such an awesome processor, isn't it?

I was going to go for the Samsung PCIe m.2 SSD (2.0GB read/1.5GB write!), but it only goes up to 512GB and I wanted 1TB.  Plus it's expensive as hell.  So I ended up settling for the SanDisk drive, which plugs into the m.2 slot also but is SATA based and only gets ~500/400 read/write.  That's still leagues faster than any HDD, so I'm happy.

As for reusing parts, I don't mind doing that, but I don't like to reuse power supplies - if the PSU fails it can take everything else with it so I prefer to start with a brand-new one.

As for reusing parts, I don't mind doing that, but I don't like to reuse power supplies - if the PSU fails it can take everything else with it so I prefer to start with a brand-new one.

I agree with you there. In my case the power supply was basically brand new, and I bought it knowing I might upgrade other parts. Because getting a new processor (i5 to an i7) I had to get a new motherboard, and then with it I got new RAM and then, why the heck not, got the 970 when the 980 was still brand new. I saved like $300.00 for only 10% less performance getting the 970. It's okay, and a huge upgrade from the 560ti I had before.