Gaming PC help needed.

[Dragon18007]

Hi
Im looking at getting a new PC as the one I currently have is getting a bit old, its about 9 years old and the only thing I have upgraded in that time in the GPU so need help in picking a new PC that will last a reasonable amount of time, I've only ever had Intel before and know nothing of AMD other than people say its cheaper but does that mean a lot worse than intel? My budget is around £1500 to £2000 give or take.

Current PC is -

i7-930 2.8GHz
ASUS® P6X58D-E
6GB KINGSTON HYPER-X TRI-DDR3 1600MHz
GTX 770
Western Digital WD10EZEX Blue 1 TB 7200 RPM 64 MB
and some SSDs

My current monitor is a Acer Predator XB271HU at 2560 x 1440.

It will be used for gaming, watching movies, word etc, The type of games I play (or will be playing) are Witcher 3, Skyrim, PUBG, GTA V, Tomb Raider series, Final Fantasy XV, different online MMO games like Guild wars 2 etc.

I done a quick spec and came up with this -

Case
THERMALTAKE V200 TEMPERED GLASS RGB EDITION GAMING CASE - not fussed about RGB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 Eight Core Processor i9-9900K (3.6GHz) 16MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING II: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
NOT REQUIRED
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB WD Black™ SN750 M.2 NVMe SSD (up to 3470MB/s R | 3000MB/s W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
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/Thunderbolt 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. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Price: £1,886.00 including VAT and Delivery

The case I picked just cause it looked nice and I'm not fussed about RGB but would like it to be as quiet as possible, would have been good if more cases had disk drive spaces as I would have just kept my current one and put it in the new case but don't like the look of the other ones with drive spaces.
The CPU I picked had more cores and more threads than the i7-9700K but both were 3.6ghz so does that mean its better for games?
I wasn't really sure about the graphics card, I was hoping they still had 1080TI as don't know much about these RTX ones and expensive.
also the RAM options is it better to have 2x 8gb or 4x 4gb?
I would just put my current WB 1TB drive in to the new PC also.

Would this kind of spec be good or is it under/overkill?

Any help would be great.

Thanks

 

[ollmor]

Hi, I think your i9-9900K is rather overkill if you're not doing heavy productivity work. You'd be better with an i5-9600K and save a lot of money (you could get a 2080 for the difference) as most games won't use any more than 4 cores anyway, but you'll still be able to overclock to in the region of 5GHz. RTX 2070 should perform about as well as the GTX 1080, and RTX 2080 as the GTX 1080Ti - either way it's a good card for gaming. If you're not bothered about RTX, you could always select 'already have a card' and just buy a 1080Ti from somewhere else - they're easy to install. Whilst 4x4GB should yield better performance I doubt you'd ever notice it, and it's really not worth it for your needs. If you go with 2x8GB you then leave some room for expansion. That SSD is an absolute monster and you could probably save yourself a lot of money by dropping down to a cheaper NvME SSD, whilst still getting great performance

 

[ubuysa]

The motherboard you've selected only supports dual channel RAM (not quad channel) so there is no point at all in 4x4GB RAM, it's just a waste of potential expansion slots.

I agree that the 1TB WD Black SSD is likely overkill, especially since you have a 1TB HDD to slot in there too. Windows and programs (and scratch files for some applications) derive the most benefit from an SSD, most user data doesn't really benefit noticeably from being on an SSD. Videos and music gets no benefit at all. The user data that does benefit from being on an SSD is high-res images and similar large files that must be loaded quickly (some databases, spreadsheets, etc.).

I would reduce the size of that SSD, perhaps even to 256GB, and use it just for Windows and programs and store all your user data on the HDD you have.

 

[Pokkai]

If you must go for a i9 9900k, I'd strongly recommend getting it overclocked by PCS, it will cost peanuts and will get some extra juice out of the chip.

Consider it runs hot though, so make sure you equip an appropriate cooling solution to it.

Change your RAM to to 8gb sticks as Ubuysa notes as well.

 

[Dragon18007]

Thanks i'll have a look.

What about AMD CPU, any benefit going that route other than price?

so it doesn't matter if a CPU has 8 cores and 16 threads as games will only use 4 cores anyway? what are the threads? (sorry if that's a stupid question)

 

[Scott]

The threads debate isn't technically true. Most games are actually single thread for the most part, where it comes to throughput. There are a few games that use multi-core properly and a few again that use hyperthreading properly. For the most part, you want to concentrate on single thread performance.

The best single thread performing CPU stock is the 9900k. It's one helluva premium for that CPU for this use though. In your shoes I would take the slight hit in CPU performance and boost it with the 2080 GPU choice.

I would recommend an AMD 2600x Build in this case. New CPUs will be released from AMD in a few months that will be compatible with your build. This leaves the door open for future upgrade potential, whereas the intel offerings are at the end of their life so you're stuck with what you have.

Coupling a 2600x with a 2080 GPU and with the rest of the spec you have, it would be a very good build. If you wanted to save money, you could stick with the 2070... more than good enough for 1440p. If you fancy 4K in the future, then consider the 2080.

You could definitely save some money on your storage options. I would always advocate 512gb primary personally.

With the RAM you want to fill the channel but minimise the slots. In this case you want to go with 2 sticks of RAM.

 

[Mustafo95]

so it doesn't matter if a CPU has 8 cores and 16 threads as games will only use 4 cores anyway? what are the threads? (sorry if that's a stupid question)

Yeah that's overkill. Think of it like having a can of soda and asking Hulk to open it for you. You'd have to be multi-tasking savant to be able to utilize all those 8 cores and 16 threads. The better thing to do would be to listen OLLMOR Sensei and get i5-9600k and RTX 2080.
That's significantly more effective combo for gaming.

 

[ubuysa]

Thanks i'll have a look.

What about AMD CPU, any benefit going that route other than price?

so it doesn't matter if a CPU has 8 cores and 16 threads as games will only use 4 cores anyway? what are the threads? (sorry if that's a stupid question)

There are no stupid questions, just things you don't yet know.

The basic unit of work in Windows is the process. A process contains all the resources for a specific application to function (although some complex applications can use more than one process). Every process gets its own virtual address space. Within each process the individual units of work (that can be executed on a CPU) are called threads. A process with more than one thread executing (or executable) at the same time is called a multi-threaded process. The Windows component that assigns threads to CPUs is called the Dispatcher, it dispatches ready threads on to idle CPUs. The Dispatcher doesn't care whether the threads come from the same process or from different processes, any thread that's ready for execution can be dispatched on any CPU.

When we're talking about CPUs, as you know modern CPUs are multi-cored, which means there's more than one executing engine in each processor chip. A four-core CPU for example has four individual processing engines and can be running four individual units of work at the same time. Hyperthreading is a hardware technology that can manage two separate units of work on one core at the same time. The CPU core internally switches between each of these units of work so that in fact only one is actually executing at at time. To the outside world, and especially to Windows, it appears as though a four-core CPU is running eight separate units of work, so that a four-core hyperthreading CPU will appear to Windows as an eight 'processor' CPU. To distinguish between these two views of 'processors', the real cores are called physical processors and the hyperthreading ones are called logical processors. A four-core hyperthreading CPU has four physical processors and eight logical processors.

The Windows Dispatcher dispatches threads on to logical processors, so on a four-core hyperthreading CPU the Disptahcer dispatches eight (different) threads at the same time.

 

[polycrac]

Another way to think of it is as tills at a supermarket. A four core cpu has four tills, each with a worker and as the jobs queue up they process them. Hyperthreading is like each worker having a 2nd, spare, till. This means that when they would normally be idle (the customer they are dealing with is fiddling with their purse or packing their goods) they can use the second till to start serving the next customer in the queue.

It isn't as good as having twice as many actual workers, but it is better than each worker having just one till.

 

[SlimCini]

If you must go for a i9 9900k, I'd strongly recommend getting it overclocked by PCS, it will cost peanuts and will get some extra juice out of the chip.

Consider it runs hot though, so make sure you equip an appropriate cooling solution to it.

Change your RAM to to 8gb sticks as Ubuysa notes as well.

PCS add approx £100 to the build if you choose the overclock section nowadays. It's definitely not peanuts anymore like it used to be. I wouldn't overclock it.

 

[Dragon18007]

Thanks for all the info.

I have amended the build slightly, what do you think of this, I do want this to last me a good while and be able to play games on high settings at least for a wee while at least, I read on other posts about the new AMD CPU that will be coming out in a few months so I might save this quote and try hold off to see what they offer (that's if I have the will power to hold off) -
Case
THERMALTAKE V200 TEMPERED GLASS RGB EDITION GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-9600K (3.7 GHz) 9 MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING II: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
NOT REQUIRED
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
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/Thunderbolt 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. Single Licence
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 6 to 8 working days
Price: £1,774.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-pc/gkxg5RwgHR/

Is that a good enough cooler?


Thanks

 

[Flo]

I would go with an AMD build as it is more future proof. Perhaps something like this? You could upgrade the CPU cooler to an AIO one if you would like but the stock should be OK if not overclocking. The case is just a personal preference. Comes with good reviews though.

Case
CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 570X RGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.25GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
Gigabyte X470 AORUS Ultra Gaming: ATX, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2933MHz ~ (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
NOT REQUIRED
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD 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
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt 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. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
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)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £1,642.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-pc/rJYTrK3cZ9/

 

[Dragon18007]

Thanks, I'll save the builds and see if I can hold out for the new AMD CPUs to check them out before I order anything.