First Custom Desktop Build Help Required

[Harun677]

Hi, I bought my laptop from PCSpecialist a few years ago and it worked out to be awesome and now decided to go for a desktop.
I have already ordered the spec below but since it will arrive after the new year I can still make changes to it so any help will be appreciated.

It will mainly be used for gaming (so excited for Dragon's Dogma coming to PC in January), general online stuff like browsing and some programming. I will be hoping to play in 4k (I already ordered a 4k moniter).
My budget is around £2,200 for tower, mouse and keyboard. I also opted to go for platinum warranty in case I need to upgrade in future.

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 III ADVANCED CASE (GREEN)
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-6700k Quad Core (4.00GHz @ upto MAX 4.60GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® MAXIMUS VIII HERO: RoG, PCI-e 3.0, SATA 3.0
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3000MHz X.M.P (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 980 Ti - DVI, HDMI, 3 DP
2nd Hard Disk
2TB 3.5" SEAGATE SSHD, SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM (64MB + 8GB SSD CACHE)
1st PCI-E SSD Drive
400GB INTEL® 750 SERIES PCIe SSD (up to 2200MB/sR | 900MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
16x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW & SOFTWARE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Corsair H80i GT Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
LED Lighting
60cm Green LED Strip - To Compliment The Colours of Your Case
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11 AC1300 867Mbps/5GHz, 400Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB Options
2 PORT (1 x TYPE A, 1 x TYPE C) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - 3 User, 1 Year + 100MB Online Backup
Keyboard & Mouse
CM Storm Devastator Keyboard and Mouse
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Promotional Item
FREE RAINBOW SIX OR ASSASSINS CREED with select GTX 9 Series GPUs!
Quantity
1

Total £2,187.00

Any help or savings will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Harun

 

[keynes]

For your budget and for 4K gaming I would suggest 2 x GTX 980 ti. Expensive motherboard when a cheaper one would do the same job. The pci-e ssd is overpriced for what it offers

 

[Stephen M]

I would drop the hybrid for a better second drive. The SSD cache on the hybrids is small and will not be used if you are running an SSD as main drive, a WD Black is as fast, possibly a bit quicker and a better and more reliable drive. I agree with Keynes about the GPUs and other stuff.

 

[Harun677]

Ok I changed the main PCI-e SSD to a 480GB HyperX Savage SSD and the second HDD to a 2TB Caviar Black and saved £113. That sound good?

Idk how I can fit a second 980Ti card without going over the budget

 

[Stephen M]

That looks fine. Not too sure about finding budget for a second GPU, a change of motherboard as Keynes suggested would help and you could drop the SSD to 240GB, that will still hold the OS and a lot of other stuff and save a bit of cash.

 

[keynes]

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 III ADVANCED CASE (GREEN)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6700 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 3 ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
8GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 980 Ti - DVI, HDMI, 3 DP
Free Item
FREE RAINBOW SIX OR ASSASSINS CREED with select GTX 9 Series GPUs!
2nd Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 980 Ti - DVI, HDMI, 3 DP
Free Item
FREE RAINBOW SIX OR ASSASSINS CREED with select GTX 9 Series GPUs!
1st Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£109)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) 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 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
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 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,994.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-skylake-pc/4VpQq79GdO/

 

[Harun677]

Thanks for that.

I would rather keep the SSD at that size. I have a 128 SSD on laptop and that got maxed up real fast. I know to put games I don't play on the HDD but most of the games I have are either through Steam or Origin clients and they kept creating issues after a while when I put them on the second drive so I prefer to have them on main and not worry about that.

I may change the motherboard though. If there's no bonus to having it.

 

[Harun677]

Oh I replied before Keynes post. Thanks Keynes. I'll have a lookie

 

[SlimCini]

Thanks for that.

I would rather keep the SSD at that size. I have a 128 SSD on laptop and that got maxed up real fast. I know to put games I don't play on the HDD but most of the games I have are either through Steam or Origin clients and they kept creating issues after a while when I put them on the second drive so I prefer to have them on main and not worry about that.

I may change the motherboard though. If there's no bonus to having it.

It shouldn't make a difference what drive games go on. It's not like a cpu has a human brain which can get confused about where to look for software. What issues did you have? A 480gb ssd seems unnecessary to me when the budget could go better towards a second 980ti.

 

[Tysuro]

isent 850w PSU pushing it to load 90% of the time? the build will be using 833w according to PCS personally i'd bump it upto 1000w

 

[Harun677]

It shouldn't make a difference what drive games go on. It's not like a cpu has a human brain which can get confused about where to look for software. What issues did you have? A 480gb ssd seems unnecessary to me when the budget could go better towards a second 980ti.

No idea what happened. After a while when I went back to the Origin client the games just wouldn't load and it told me to install them again.

I'm considering Keynes build but idk if I want to sacrifice the components. Plus I want the platinum warranty just so I can change components in the future like add another gpu or power unit when it becomes necessary. From what I read 980ti can handle 4k gaming decently for the games I want to play plus I always have the option to get another 980ti later or another one that comes out.

 

[Tysuro]

1 980 ti can handle 4k but you would have to lower the settings in game to medium-high and prolly get 30-50 fps where as with sli 980 ti you should be able to get 60+ fps in most games on high settings. Check some benchmarks you will see how low it cna get with a single 980 ti. Btw you will want atleast 1000w PSU if you get an 850w PSU it could run at 90%+ all the time. PSU is a very important component in your tower it's not something you should go 2nd best on.

But then again 1440p monitors are prolly the sweet spot between 1080p and 4k might be worth checking out?

 

[Harun677]

1 980 ti can handle 4k but you would have to lower the settings in game to medium-high and prolly get 30-50 fps where as with sli 980 ti you should be able to get 60+ fps in most games on high settings. Check some benchmarks you will see how low it cna get with a single 980 ti. Btw you will want atleast 1000w PSU if you get an 850w PSU it could run at 90%+ all the time. PSU is a very important component in your tower it's not something you should go 2nd best on.

But then again 1440p monitors are prolly the sweet spot between 1080p and 4k might be worth checking out?

Yep definitely I've also considered 1440p and looks pretty good till I can get a second gpu. May well do that on some more demanding games.

I was looking at Witcher 3 benchmarks on youtube and they were getting a solid 45-50 fps on ultra settings and was running pretty smoothly. I'm very happy with that.

 

[Harun677]

Is the M.2 SSD drive worth getting over the standard SSD drive?

Keynes mentioned that the PCI-e SSD drive is currently overpriced for its capabilities. Is the M.2 drive overpriced or is it worth it?

Thanks

 

[jerpers]

I have a M.2 SSD It is fast. It seems faster than my SSD but that was in my old PC and there may have been other bottlenecks. It is more expensive. I it worth the extra as in pounds per performance....probably not, but if you have the money to spare, its worth going for IMO.

 

[Harun677]

The Difference to my current one is around £70. Now do I spend that on a new SSD or wait for steam winter sale games for the new pc lol. Decisions decisions.

 

[jerpers]

isent 850w PSU pushing it to load 90% of the time? the build will be using 833w according to PCS personally i'd bump it upto 1000w

1000w definitely for sli. My PSU is nice and silent during normal use and only just spins up when gaming for a while. Even then I can't here it.