After four years, I need a new office/work/video/gaming machine

c-hri-s

Bronze Level Poster
Hi,

I've had my machine for over four years now and things have moved on to the point where some of the latest games are running a little slowly and I'm not able to make use of some features such as recording xBox streams due to the vintage graphic card.
I'm also wishing my general Windows experience was a bit more zippy and things like video encoding happened faster than they do today.

My current machine is this:

Code:
Corsair Carbide Series™ 500R White Mid Tower Case
Overclocked Intel® Core™I7-2600K Quad Core (3.40Ghz @ Max 4.80Ghz)
Asus® Sabertooth P67 (New Rev 3.0): Usb 3.0, Sata 6.0Gb/S, Thermal Armor!
16Gb Kingston Hyper-X Genesis Dual-Ddr3 1600Mhz, X.M.P (4 X 4Gb Kit)
1.25Gb Nvidia Geforce Gtx 570 - 2 Dvi, Hdmi, Dp - 3D Vision Ready
120Gb Kingston Hyperx Ssd, Sata 6 Gb/S (Upto 555Mb/Sr | 510Mb/Sw)
2 X 2Tb Seagate Barracuda Sata 6Gb/S Hdd, 64Mb Cache (7200Rpm)
10X Lg Blu-Ray Re-Writer Drive, 16X Dvd ±R/±Rw
Corsair 650W Enthusiast Series™ Tx650 V2-80 Plus® Bronze
Coolit Eco Ii A.L.C Fat Boy (Advanced Liquid Cooler)

I don't do a huge amount of PC gaming due to not having a vast amount of free time, but I would like the opportunity to run some of the latest games if I so wished.
I enjoy flight sims, like the look of Planet Coaster - that kind of thing.

As I work from home my machine gets heavily used all day for browsing, office as well as some graphics and video.
I semi-regularly encode videos for YouTube, the iPad or the Car, all of which use Handbrake.
I do an amount of video editing for my kids and of our holiday videos.

I like my machine to work quickly and I have a reasonable amount of money to throw at this machine.
I'd like it to last for another good four years without seeming too outdated.

I've been playing around and have come up with this, which I'd welcome any comment on.

As I work from home noise is important, hence the cooling options I've chosen.

Code:
Case
THERMALTAKE CORE X31 (RGB) MID TOWER GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Six Core Processor i7-6850K (3.6GHz) 15MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® RAMPAGE V EXTREME/U3.1: E-ATX, USB 3.1, SATA 6 GB/s

Memory (RAM)
32GB HyperX SAVAGE DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 8GB Kit)

Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
FREE GEARS OF WAR 4 with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!

1st Hard Disk
1TB Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
16x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW & SOFTWARE

Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£89)

Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i V2 Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Liquid Series Ultra Quiet Fans (£109)

Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)

Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Apache Black Quiet Fan (fitted to extract from rear/roof) (£25)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)

USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Build Time
FAST TRACK 5 WORKING DAY DISPATCH (£29)

I don't strictly need to push the button today, but it feels like I'm getting to the point where I'd notice the difference an upgrade would make.
If there's something new just around the corner, I can hold out.

I didn't spec any storage drives into the system as I plan to use the ones from my current machine (2 x WD Black WD4003FZEX in RAID).
I assume a new drive wouldn't give much benefit - these are already 6Gb SATA drives and seem solid.

I'll be pairing it up with my 27" 2560 x 1440 monitor (http://www.viewsoniceurope.com/uk/products/lcd/VP2770-LED.php)

Thanks
 
Last edited:

c-hri-s

Bronze Level Poster
Also open to the idea of a PCIe SSD for the boot volume if anyone has any experience of those. I suspect this may also add some speed.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
The motherboard is probably excessive for your needs. What's your budget, it may help suggest some options to think on?
 

c-hri-s

Bronze Level Poster
I liked the number of USB 3 ports it had on the back, if I'm honest - thats why I chose that.

Budget .. I'd like to spend <£2.5k, ideally closer to the £2k mark, but open to suggestions if they make sense.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Then your spec seems decent for what you want it for. If you're confident you'll be needing more USB 3.0 ports than the 4 rear + 2 front of the Strix mobo I guess stick with the rampage edition.

I would generally suggest a pre-overclocked build as it ups the performance you get out of those 6 cores a good bit. I'd also suggest the RM850x (PSU) as it has a passive mode where it can often cool itself without needing to use the fan, making it silent, and is much better quality than the CS series. The Noctua cooler is also an option, as it will deliver strong performance very quietly and is £50 cheaper than the H100i.

Here's an OCed spec based on your above:
(I also removed the Fast Track option as it didn't let me select it with that case.)

Case
THERMALTAKE CORE X31 (RGB) MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Six Core i7-6850K (3.6GHz @ MAX 4.3GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® RAMPAGE V EXTREME/U3.1: E-ATX, USB 3.1, SATA 6 GB/s
Memory (RAM)
32GB HyperX SAVAGE DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 8GB Kit)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
FREE GEARS OF WAR 4 with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
1TB Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1[SUP]st[/SUP] DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
16x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW & SOFTWARE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£119)
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler (£59)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Apache Black Quiet Fan (fitted to extract from rear/roof) (£25)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
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) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £2,311.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-x99-overclocked/DXhN2wd5YD/
 
Last edited:

c-hri-s

Bronze Level Poster
Decided to go for the below in the end.
Saved a few quid on the processor downgrade to offset the price rises, but I doubt I'll notice the difference.

Now isn't the time to tell me I made a huge mistake - it's just completed building :)

--

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R5 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE

Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Six Core i7-6800K (3.4GHz @ up to 4.3GHz)

Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X99: ATX, USB 3.1, SATA 6 GB/s, RGB Ready

Memory (RAM)
32GB HyperX SAVAGE DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 8GB Kit)

Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1080 - DVI, HDMI, 3x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!

M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1600MB/W)

Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler

Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 2 to 4 working days
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
In theory it should be likely to perform the same, due to being OCed to the same frequency. You might notice higher temps or voltage, as the 6800k can apparently need more voltage than the 6850k to maintain that OC.

However, the worst case scenario is that you find yourself lowering or removing the overclock if those concern you during video encoding, leaving you with a slightly slower but still very powerful system. And that's quite an unlikely scenario, since PCS should have tested it before shipping it to you. :)
 
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