1440p capable gaming PC with a budget of £2000

[morriserick]

Evening all,

What do all you think of this gaming build for a budget of £2000? I would like to play demanding games at 1440p with at least a consistent 60fps up to 144fps at ultra settings. The games I intend to play will be somewhat CPU intensive such as simulation and strategy games but also graphically demanding ones as well. I also would like the machine to run quieter and cooler than the jet engine PS4 I currently have. I do a little multitasking sometimes, but nothing too intensive. No OS as I already have a key.

Any additions or adjustments is much appreciated.

Thanks!

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R6 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor i7-9700K (3.6GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Choose from 6 Incredible Ubisoft Titles FREE with select SAMSUNG SSDs!
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Promotional Item
Choose from 6 Incredible Ubisoft Titles FREE with select SAMSUNG SSDs!
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland

Price: £1,912.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-pc/gTpTgXV2Hw/

 

[Oussebon]

Spec looks very good for the uses and wants you've set out.

I'll give a (my usual) caveat about "ultra". Some games just won't give good performance on literally 'ultra' settings no matter how deep your wallet stretches, and sometimes even when performance is okay on ultra, you can get much higher framerate on very high settings with no appreciable loss in fidelity. You probably know that, but just mentioning in case

You could switch the SSD to the SX6000 as you're unlikely to notice any difference (apart possibly from the £100 saved)

If you're not too bothered about USB 3.1 Gen 2 then you could switch the motherboard to the cheaper gigabyte UD. The VRMs are apparently decent enough, and the gaming performance, again, would be unaffected. That's another £60.

What monitor are you gaming on?

 

[Nomad]

It's not a bad machine, although Id contact support to find out what the CAS latency of that specific 3200Mhz vengeance is, after spending a LONG time with support to figure out what the timings were of the ram I was looking at, turned out to be pretty high CL ram.

The storage is a bit of a mess. Samsung M.2 drives are very expensive for what they are, and seagate which seems to be most of what PCS sell are the least reliable drives on the market. You can definitely save yourself some money by just selecting the cheapest drive available, giving it to a friend when it arrives and seperately order a 1tb Sabrent rocket (PCI3 and not Q) alongside a 2/4TB WD Blue (Or black for performance at a bit more cost).

Your CPU and motherboard arent bad. I wont suggest an AMD alternative because the board is both cheap and pretty high tier, therefor you don't need to be so concerned about having faster ram (3600mhz over 3200 in this case), but you really should be concerned at making sure its low CL, like CL14 instead of CL16 which I suspect they may be selling you here. As I did, ordered the cheapest 4gb stick and bought ram elsewhere.

Your PSU is Tier A, I like your case, 2080S is a good choice for 1440p60 gaming and your CPU is not TOO expensive and wont bottleneck it, the last thing Id make sure of is that you are ordering a good 2080S. Something like the EVGA XC I can fully recommend which is almost at the bottom of the costs of 2080S. Palit or Zotac Id be a bit more wary about, and MSI have had some real bombs lately although I cant specifically say about the 2080S.

To round off on the 1tb m.2 drive: While I said the sabrent rocket is equal with it in essentially the highest speeds a PCI 3 m.2 can go for much cheaper, that free 6 ubisoft games, if you had games in mind that you already wanted to buy that the offer allows you to get, then perhaps that might be worth the cost difference. Personal to you.

Good luck with the order!

 

[Oussebon]

after spending a LONG time with support to figure out what the timings were of the ram I was looking at, turned out to be pretty high CL ram.

PC Specialist support?

 

[Nomad]

PC Specialist support?

Indeed. I can't remember specifically which one it was at the time, but I believe it was a blanket corsair name that had both CL18 and CL16 that PCS didn't specify on the build site. When I first asked about it, the support agent linked me to a website. It wasn't corsair's, and it wasn't for corsair ram. The second was a different model IIRC, and the third was the seemingly correct one. Which I can only assume was correct. It's not the first of quite a few problems I've had with support (though that is quite an interesting one, as it suggests as with other encounters the support is outsourced to people who don't actually really know anything about computers), but I've only ever had one problem with the actual building and that was just recently where a side panel came basically destroyed with scratches and marks over a panel without a film to peel off. I think the team that build them in general are pretty good. The small touches all over the board as well as pretty tidy and accurate assembly is impressive. I'd recommend PCS to anyone who didn't want any building hassle as long as they didn't have reason to contact support.

 

[Oussebon]

If it's Vengeance 3200 MHz it will be C16 afaik. 3600MHz will be C18. There doesn't seem to be any ambiguity about that on the Corsair website, it's a shame PCS weren't able to link it

 

[Nomad]

If it's Vengeance 3200 MHz it will be C16 afaik. 3600MHz will be C18. There doesn't seem to be any ambiguity about that on the Corsair website, it's a shame PCS weren't able to link it

That's not correct. Corsair sells C18, C16 and even C14 Vengeance LPX. PCS labels it generically as "Corsair vengeance," not even specifying LPX which it is. Hence why I contacted support to find out which. Expecting C16 of course, C14 would have been obviously out of the question.

 

[Oussebon]

Sorry I must have missed the CL14 3200 MHz RAM on their site, it didn't seem to be there just now but I only glanced.

 

[Nomad]

Sorry I must have missed the CL14 3200 MHz RAM on their site, it didn't seem to be there just now but I only glanced.

Actually, I was talking about the 3600. Its available in C14, 16 and 18.

VENGEANCE® LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3600MHz C14 AMD Ryzen Memory Kit - Black

VENGEANCE LPX memory is designed for high-performance overclocking. The heatspreader is made of pure aluminum for faster heat dissipation, and the eight-layer PCB helps manage heat and provides superior overclocking headroom.

www.corsair.com

VENGEANCE® LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 DRAM 3600MHz C16 Memory Kit - Black

VENGEANCE LPX memory is designed for high-performance overclocking. The heatspreader is made of pure aluminum for faster heat dissipation, and the eight-layer PCB helps manage heat and provides superior overclocking headroom.

www.corsair.com

Their website is just not well designed.

 

[Oussebon]

Oh, sorry, you were suggesting the OP should contact support to establish the latency of the 3200MHz RAM - as far as I knew it's only C16 if it's Vengeance and 3200MHz.

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You're quite right about the 3600MHz, I'd forgotten there were lower CL ones

 

[Scott]

That's effectively my build save for the 9900k vs the 9700k. Should serve you very well. I would recommend a 240mm AIO water cooler with that build over the Noctua though as the 9700k will get quite toasty under simulation gaming for long periods. H100x would do nicely but it's quite noisy so the H100i RGB platinum would be the quietest option. I know it's quite pricy though so it might be a step too far