Around 5 to 10% improvement per generation.

Intel Core i5 6500 - RM 835
ASRock H110M-ITX - RM 315
Kingston 8GB DDR4 2133MHz Value RAM - RM 147
Gigabyte GTX1060 6GB GDDR5 G1 Gaming - RM 1459
Kingston SSDNow UV400 120GB SSD - RM 165
WD Blue 1TB HDD - RM 209
Superflower Leadex Silver 550W - RM 339
CM Elite 130 - RM 178
BenQ GW2270H - RM 397

Total: RM 4044 (ETech price inclusive of GST)

Intel Core i5 6402P - RM 707
Gigabyte H110M-DS2 (D4) - RM 276
Kingston 8GB DDR4 2133MHz Value RAM - RM 147
Sapphire RX 470 4GB GDDR5 Nitro+ - RM 989
WD Blue 1TB HDD - RM 209
FSP Hexa+ 550W - RM 188
TP-LINK TL-WN722N USB WiFi - RM 45
Tecware Alpha - RM 199
BenQ GW2270H - RM 397

Total: RM 3157 (ETech price inclusive of GST)

No gaming right?

Intel Core i5 6500 - RM 835
Gigabyte H110M-DS2 (D4) - RM 276
Kingston 16GB (8GB x 2) DDR4 2133MHz Value RAM - RM 290
Palit GTX950 2GB GDDR5 StormX OC - RM 609
WD Blue 1TB HDD - RM 209
FSP Hexa+ 450W - RM 166
Tecware F3 - RM 119
BenQ GW2270 - RM 379
Logitech Wired MK200 Combo - RM 65

Total: RM 2948 (ETech price inclusive of GST)

Well TBH Palit and Zotac GTX1060 are cheaper than RX480 reference card, just don't look at Asus ridiculous pricing on their Strix series

RX480 aftermarket version, i.e. Sapphire Nitro+, PowerColor Red Devil both cost around RM 1450, GTX1060 Gigabyte G1 and EVGA and MSI Gaming are all around the same price too.

I suggest you to get RX470 instead if you want to save money, the performance is extremely/very close to RX480 in most of the games, 4GB version costs RM 989.

GTX1060 performs better in DX11/OpenCL titles while RX480 excels in DX12/Vulkan titles, both have pros and cons.

This post has been edited by terence_nwb: Aug 15 2016, 12:06 AM

Look for Lazada/GemFive coupon code, you can get discount up to RM 250 with item > RM 1250, so you might end up buying the card at just slightly above 1k, I have seen few people bought their GTX1060 (Zotac Mini and Palit Dual Fan) at just RM 10xx 2 weeks ago.

If you want to get at retail shop (cash and carry), then RX 470 4GB is more budget friendly for those with limited budget (< 1k) or looking for cheap performance card.

You get what you pay for, so technically RX470 won't be able to beat GTX1060 in terms of raw performance, including the entry level one (level doesn't really matter since entry level is still having same GP106 chipset, only the clock speed and cooling solution aren't the same compared to high end model), it is all about your budget, if got budget and willing to spend extra for it then go ahead.

For 9xx series, ASync compute in DX12 is not explicitly turned on in the driver level, we don't know if this feature is completely absent in 9xx series or not but Nvidia said they were working at it since this fiasco came out last year. For now, Nvidia simply tells the GPU (9xx series) to ignore all ASync compute instructions so that's why 9xx series doesn't show any gain from DX12 at the moment. For 10 series, ASync compute is indeed there and working well, just the performance gain is not that much or significant compared to AMD side, the gain is around 10% on Nvidia side versus AMD's 25% (average).

As for Vulkan, Nvidia added the support in driver level since Feb 2016 and the only games (stable one) that is using this API is DOOM 2016, there is another one in beta branch which is Dota 2. Vulkan roots to AMD's Mantle API, so we can expect AMD card to benefit more when this API is being used, the "true" ASync compute in Vulkan also brings improvement to AMD card, this feature is not enabled in Nvidia card yet according to the developer (id Software), proper support will be added later on.

Intel Pentium G4400 - RM 221
Gigabyte H110-DS2 (D4) - RM 276
Kingston 8GB DDR4 2133MHz Value RAM - RM 147
Zotac GTX750Ti 2GB GDDR5 Single Fan - RM 470
WD Blue 1TB HDD - RM 209
Corsair VS450 - RM 162
Armageddon T1x - RM 95
AOC E2180SWDN - RM 318

Total: RM 1898 (ETech price inclusive of GST)

Intel Core i7 6700 - RM 1289
Gigabyte H170-HD3 (D4) - RM 446
Kingston 16GB (8GB x 2) DDR4 2133MHz Value RAM - RM 290
Gigabyte GTX1060 6GB GDDR5 G1 Gaming - RM 1459
Kingston SSDNow UV400 240GB SDD - RM 255
WD Blue 1TB HDD - RM 209
Superflower Leadex Gold 550W - RM 409
Tecware Alpha - RM 199

Total: RM 4556 (ETech price inclusive of GST)

Optional upgrade:
1. GTX1070 (+ RM 500)

You have to deal with the 3rd party seller, not Lazada nor GemFive because they are just a platform for the sellers to sell their stuffs, unless it is stated "Sold and fulfilled by Lazada/GemFive".

Occassin/Techview/TMT are the example of the sellers, you can claim the warranty from them instead of going through Lazada/GemFive when needed.

You can find coupon code in Kopitiam section, there are 2 dedicated threads for Lazada and GemFive discussion.

The total cost of the rig above is around 4.8k (the price added above is based on rounded off price). You can get a much better build with such budget.

My recommendation:

Intel Core i7 6700 - RM 1289
Gigabyte H170-HD3 (D4) - RM 446
Kingston 16GB (8GB x 2) DDR4 2133MHz Value RAM - RM 290
Zotac GTX1060 6GB GDDR5 Mini - RM 1219
Kingston SSDNow UV400 240GB SDD - RM 255
WD Blue 1TB HDD - RM 209
FSP Hexa+ 550W - RM 188
Asus DVD-ROM - RM 70
TP-LINK TL-WN722N USB WiFi - RM 45
Tecware Alpha - RM 199
BenQ EW2440ZH VA - RM 579

Total: RM 4789 (ETech price inclusive of GST)

Play all the games in next 3 years? Too ambitious to say that now, games requirements are changing almost every year, if you don't mind playing at slightly lower graphics settings in return for better FPS then it should be fine.

Intel Core i5 6402P - RM 707
Gigabyte H110M-DS2 (D4) - RM 276
Kingston 8GB DDR4 2133MHz Value RAM - RM 147
Sapphire RX 470 4GB GDDR5 Nitro+ - RM 989
WD Blue 1TB HDD - RM 209
FSP Hexa+ 550W - RM 188
Armageddon T1x - RM 95

Total: RM 2611 (ETech price inclusive of GST)

If you cannot make the top up at all, then you have to stick with last gen R9 380/GTX960, I suggest you to top up for it instead since you are aiming to get a rig which can last you for the next 3 years.

If gaming only, I suggest you to spend more on GPU instead of CPU, CPU overclocking doesn't bring significant performance boost, it can be none at all if the games you play isn't CPU demanding.

Intel Core i7 6700K - RM 1444
Asus Z170M-PLUS - RM 517
Kingston HyperX Savage 16GB (8GB x 2) DDR4 3000MHz RAM - RM 423
XFX RX 480 8GB GDDR5 GTR Triple X - RM 1329
Samsung 850 PRO 120GB SSD - RM 399
Superflower Leadex Silver 550W - RM 339
Corsair Hydro H100i V2 - RM 508
Corsair Carbide 88R - RM 226

Total: RM 5185 (ETech price inclusive of GST)

Intel Core i7 6700 - RM 1295
Gigabyte H170M-D3H - RM 469
GSKill Aegis 16GB (8GB x 2) DDR4 2133MHz RAM - RM 338
EVGA GTX1080 8GB GDDR5X Gaming ACX 3.0 - RM 3199
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD - RM 469
WD Blue 1TB HDD - RM 219
Superflower Leadex Gold 550W - RM 409
Corsair Carbide Air 240 - RM 455

Total: RM 6853 (Idealtech price inclusive of GST)

To lower down the total cost, you can do the following:
1. Get a cheaper and smaller size SSD (or remove it completely if you don't need it)
2. Get a cheaper PSU (full modular is recommended for cable management purpose)
3. Get a cheaper GTX1080 like Palit Jetstream which runs at stock reference clock speed (you can overclock manually if needed)
4. Get a cheaper mATX case

Time for 144Hz master race

Acer XB240H is below 1k now, if you own a compatible GSync enabled Nvidia GPU and you want to try out GSync then you can look for XB241H (around 1.8 - 1.9k), but your display type will be "downgraded" from IPS to TN.

If your budget is restricting you from getting the XB271HU (IPS 144Hz) then you have 2 options:

1. Go for TN 144Hz either with or without GSync/FreeSync

2. Go for IPS 60Hz

For me, I prefer IPS over TN, the refresh rate is not that important to me because I rarely play FPS shooter/Dota 2 which benefit from high refresh rate and low input lag display.

I bought a XB241H to test "water" last month, was hoping it could replace my old Dell U2414H as the main monitor for me when I am travelling back to my hometown (my XB271HU is too big to bring back ), but just after 2 days, I sold off the XB241H for 2 reasons, thick bezel (I already get used to thin bezel monitor so this is totally my personal preferences only, it might not apply to you) and TN panel which spoils my mood due to washed out colors, then I ended up upgrading to U2417H instead.

650W is recommended for RX480 CF but the mobo doesn't support dual PCIe 3.0 x8 speed when 2 of its PCIe 3.0 slots are occupied, one will run at x4 mode only, this will slow down the card by a huge margin (bottleneck by PCIe slot).

We don't have many Z170 mATX mobo choices to make in Malaysia, it is either you go all in with Asus Maximus VIII Gene (supports dual x8/x8 mode, around 1.2k) or get an ATX mobo and ATX case.

Z170 mobo with dual PCIe x8/x8 mode support for optimal CF setup (between RM 650 - RM 800):

1. Asus Z170 Pro Gaming
2. Asus Z170 Pro Gaming Aura (new)
3. Gigabyte Z170XP SLI
4. Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 3
5. ASRock Z170 Extreme 4
6. MSI Z170A Gaming Pro
7. MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon
8. MSI Z170A Krait Gaming

This post has been edited by terence_nwb: Aug 17 2016, 04:02 PM

Palit/Zotac GTX750 is around RM 400 - RM 450.

If want to keep below RM 400, then you can look for R7 250.

You can look for ETech/Techview/DotaTech.

GTX750Ti's pricing is very close to GTX750 (can be as low as RM 470), GTX750Ti is around 15 - 20% faster, but if you don't game too much, then R7 250 should be enough.

No but EW2440ZH's bezel is thinner.

Not much, probably around RM 500 - RM 800.

The GPU isn't worth to sell/buy anymore since latest Intel Skylake iGPU can beat it easily, the i5 can sell for around RM 400+.

Cheap rig is always possible with some sacrifices to the components, which indirectly increases the total time needed to finish the task/operation/render etc.

Intel Core i5 6500 - RM 835
Gigabyte H110M-DS2 (D4) - RM 276
Kingston 16GB (8GB x 2) DDR4 2133MHz Value RAM - RM 290
Zotac GTX750Ti 2GB GDDR5 Single Fan - RM 470
Kingston SSDNow UV400 120GB SSD - RM 165
WD Blue 1TB HDD - RM 209
FSP Hexa+ 550W - RM 188
Tecware F3 - RM 125

Total: RM 2558 (ETech price inclusive of GST)

Min requirment for Lumion 3D is 6k CPU PassMark points and 2k GPU PassMark points with 2GB VRAM, CPU is fine but GPU is at border line, you can upgrade to GTX960 (4GB) or GTX1060 (6GB) or RX460 (4GB) or RX470 (4GB/8GB) if needed.

SSD can be dropped as well to save money.