First Gaming PC + Gold Warranty?

[AmirThePersian]

So after about a year of wanting a laptop I've suddenly switched to PC XD

I decided to ask the community to give their opinion on this spec before I press the button. I'm on a budget of around £800-850.

I also wanted to ask people if I should take the Gold Warranty over the almost standard Silver. I've seen another seller that offers the same spec for cheaper, and with a 2 year parts warranty as standard - PCS only give a 1 year standard parts warranty. Though I trust PCS more and it has a better trustpilot score, so :whistling:

Anyway here's the spec:

Case
PCS ENIGMA 6003B BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-6500 (3.2GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® H110M-R: Micro-ATX, DDR4, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
FREE PARAGON GAME READY PACK with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!
1st Hard Disk
1TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212X (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler (£29)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD (£8)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£89)
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
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: £838

 

[Oussebon]

Warranty terms will vary, as will how easy it is to get people to honour them. PCS have certainly honoured every request I've made of them, some of which I suspect would not have been accepted so readily by other outfits. It's something to consider when making any big purchase I guess.

As for the gold warranty, that's a call you need to make. In my case I actually regretted not having bought the gold warranty, though not because anything failed during the 2nd year, it was purely a peace of mind thing. I think my PC was ~£1500 all told though back in 2012.

If you consider that the cost is an extra £64, that's 7-8% extra to your build cost. You might consider whether there's a 7-8% chance that the PC will have a hardware failure during months 13-24 after purchase.
And also, if there were a hardware failure, some of it might be cheaper to buy and replace yourself than £64. For instance, an HDD is ~£40, a stick of RAM ~£30, a PSU ~£50 for an alright one. Even the motherboard, while a hassle for a novice to replace, is ~£60. Only the CPU or the GPU that are more expensive.

If your PC cost £3000 with individual parts like a £150 mobo, £200 SSD, etc, it would be a lot easier to choose. But in your case you would arguably be paying over the odds. It's therefore more a question of whether it's worth the peace of mind to you, rather than it being a financial no-brainer.

Your build is a nice build. I might make a couple of suggestions though, if I may:


Case
InWIN GT1 BLACK GAMING CASE [much better case, has 3 fans instead of 1, which will help cool the GPU and everything else]
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-6600 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache [slightly more powerful CPU for not too much more - useful for some games and tasks already and is a shade more future-proof]
Motherboard
ASUS® H110M-R: Micro-ATX, DDR4, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
FREE PARAGON GAME READY PACK with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
1TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
1[SUP]st[/SUP] DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19) [For a stock CPU it's pretty much as good as the Evo and £10 cheaper]
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING [stock paste is fine, funnel the savings from this and the cooler into the better case]
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD (£8)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£89)
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
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: £858.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-skylake-home-office-pc/msYQWj2xJp/

 

[AmirThePersian]

Thank you for your advice. £20 extra for a better CPU and cooling is well worth it! I'll edit my spec (until anyone comes up with a better one haha).

 

[keynes]

Thank you for your advice. £20 extra for a better CPU and cooling is well worth it! I'll edit my spec (until anyone comes up with a better one haha).

I think you have a few months after purchase to upgrade from silver to a higher warranty but you need to choose silver as standard. Oussebon's spec is pretty good, I would probably have chosen 8gb ram (add more later on), 550w psu to have more room for future gpu upgrades and if possible fitting an ssd.

 

[Oussebon]

I would probably have chosen 8gb ram (add more later on)

Note that the mobo only has 2 DIMMs, so 8gb (2x4gb) now means replacing both sticks to upgrade. As it's more economical to just get the 16gb from the outset I usually recommend that, if it's within budget

Bigger PSU is never a bad thing. Either it gives more upgrade options, or has more unused headroom, which stresses it less and potentially makes it run quieter too

 

[AmirThePersian]

I probably won't upgrade the GPU, and SSD=££££££££££££££

By the way, thinking about it now, is the £19 for 0.1 GHz of processing power?

 

[Oussebon]

It's 300Mhz: OPCS list the base clocks, but there are the boost clocks that are better on the 6600k: http://ark.intel.com/compare/88184,88188

The actual impact on gaming will vary and can be quite small. But there are some situations where it pays big dividends: http://pclab.pl/art66130-14.html

I probably won't upgrade the GPU

In 3-4 years you might want to. The CPU is decent enough that in 4 years it would still be worth upgrading the GPU without needing to buy a whole new system.

 

[AmirThePersian]

It's 300Mhz: OPCS list the base clocks, but there are the boost clocks that are better on the 6600k: http://ark.intel.com/compare/88184,88188

The actual impact on gaming will vary and can be quite small. But there are some situations where it pays big dividends: http://pclab.pl/art66130-14.html

In 3-4 years you might want to. The CPU is decent enough that in 4 years it would still be worth upgrading the GPU without needing to buy a whole new system.

Ok, I guess I'll take the 6600