Grateful for any comments on this spec

[sebthi]

Hi

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to tell me what they think of this spec.

One thing I'm not sure about is the Samsung EVO SSD: very well-reviewed, but I haven't been able to find out whether the ASUS TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING mobo actually supports NVMe: if it doesn't, spending that much on that drive is pointless.

CPU: the i5-8400 seems to have been reviewed to be pretty much as good as the old I7-7700 for gaming, and is cheaper. I might do a bit of OC tweaking, but it's not a major thing for me.

Memory: the price difference between 3000MHz and lower seemed to be marginal

No OS as I can get hold of my own.

Intended use:
a) light/medium gaming (1080p is fine, don't need to go into the dizzy heights of 4K with a GTX1080Ti)
b) Some programming/development work.

Case
PCS GENESIS G1B CASE + SD CARD READER
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Six Core Processor i5-8400 (2.8GHz) 9MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1050 Ti - DVI, HDMI, DP
1st Hard Disk
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3200MB/R, 1900MB/W)
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
INTEL STANDARD 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 802.11 AC1200 867Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Firewire
2 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI-E Card (2 x 6 pin)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,115.00 including VAT and delivery

 

[Stephen M]

It will be fine. When you configure your system then click on proceed if there are any problems with parts not compatible there will be a warning.

 

[rtho]

I think for just a bit more you could spec a far better system.

eg

Case PCS GENESIS G1B CASE + SD CARD READER
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core-Prozessor i5-8600K (3,6 GHz), 9 MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM) 16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card 6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Hard Disk 1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive 256GB WD Black™ M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 2050MB/s R | 700MB/s W)
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
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
Operating System NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser Firefox™
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 7 to 9 working days
Quantity 1

Price £1,201.00 including VAT and delivery

Better cpu, mother board(with wifi, bluetooth), graphics card, cooling etc

What is your max budget.

 

[sebthi]

Thanks for your suggestion, rtho - very interesting!

I see what you've done there: saved £188 by cutting back on the very expensive Samsung SSD, reducing the HDD from 2TB to 1TB, and losing the separate Wifi card (not needed if I go for the ROG mobo). Then spent that on a better mobo, one step up in CPU, one step up in GPU (or two, if you count the 3Gb GTX1060, which doesn't tempt me), and a simple cooling improvement. Nice!

I'm reading the Guru3d reviews of the mobos to see if I really want the ROG STRIX for an extra £85. 4x M2 slots and 2x reinforced GPU slots may be a bit overkill for my needs.

Stepping down the SSD from the pricy Samsung makes perfect sense now you suggest it. Interestingly, I can get the Samsung PM961 (often recommended in this forum) for the same price and capacity as the WD Black you suggested.

My original budget was £1000 - so I've already been affected by the spec creep that happens when you can play around with specs on a good site like this! I'd say that £1200 is really the hard upper limit. By playing around based on your suggestions I might be able to get the better CPU/GPU combo and stay closer to £1000.

Two things which confuse me, if you or anyone can help:

1. SSDS: NVMe is the latest awesome thing. But mobo specs always seem to talk about 4x PCIe. Are these the same thing from two different POVs?
2. Power and future-proofing. If the 1050Ti or 1060 ends up annoying me in a few years' time, the obvious upgrade would be to slot in a new GPU - e.g. a 1080Ti, once all the bitcoiners have moved on to some other card. How much extra power (cheap upgrade) should I build into this build to make this possible?

thanks again!


Seb

 

[Oussebon]

(or two, if you count the 3Gb GTX1060, which doesn't tempt me

It should. It's far more powerful than the GTX 1050 ti, and the lower VRAM is a non-factor. And it's £70 cheaper than the 6gb one that only performs 10-15% better than it (down almost entirely to the difference in cores, not the VRAM)

I'm reading the Guru3d reviews of the mobos to see if I really want the ROG STRIX for an extra £85. 4x M2 slots and 2x reinforced GPU slots may be a bit overkill for my needs.

It doesn't have 4 M.2 slots. Are you looking at the right motherboard? It is very expensive, however. I'd have advocated just sticking with the Z370-P.

Edit: Oh, if you mean 2 M.2 slots capable of supporting x4 PCIe NVMe SSDs, even the Z370-P has those.

Stepping down the SSD from the pricy Samsung makes perfect sense now you suggest it. Interestingly, I can get the Samsung PM961 (often recommended in this forum) for the same price and capacity as the WD Black you suggested.

You should, the PM961 is faster.

1. SSDS: NVMe is the latest awesome thing. But mobo specs always seem to talk about 4x PCIe. Are these the same thing from two different POVs?

They're the same thing. They're PCIe NVMe SSDs.

2. Power and future-proofing. If the 1050Ti or 1060 ends up annoying me in a few years' time, the obvious upgrade would be to slot in a new GPU - e.g. a 1080Ti, once all the bitcoiners have moved on to some other card. How much extra power (cheap upgrade) should I build into this build to make this possible?

550W PSU is barely any more than the 450W one, but gives you extra headroom and is capable of feeding pretty much all of the hungriest modern GPUs.

I would definitely suggest a better case, however.

Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core-Prozessor i5-8600K (3,6 GHz), 9 MB Cache

This is actually only about 300MHz faster than the i5 8400 in real terms, thanks to how turbo boost works. When the CPUs need the extra performance they boost themselves quite high, and unlike the turbo burst features of some laptops the desktop CPUs seem to boost indefinitely.

Active Cores	Base Frequency	1	2	4	6
Intel Core i5-8600K	3.6 GHz	4.3 GHz	4.2 GHz	4.2 GHz	4.1 GHz
Intel Core i5-8400	2.8 GHz	4.0 GHz	3.9 GHz	3.9 GHz	3.8 GHz
Intel Core i5-7400	3.0 GHz	3.5 GHz	3.4 GHz	3.3 GHz	-

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/intel-coffee-lake-core-i5-8400-cpu,review-34073.html

I'm not really sure 300MHz is really worth another £60+, especially at this budget level.

This puts you back to around £1000 as it happens.



Case
GAME MAX FALCON BLACK GAMING CASE (RGB LED)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Six Core Processor i5-8400 (2.8GHz) 9MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME Z370-P: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1[SUP]st[/SUP] M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel 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 802.11 AC1200 867Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB 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
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)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,016.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-pc/mbEd0cVq0D/

 

[Oussebon]

Worth noting PCE's review spec, the Engima Elite: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/configure-review/237/

Review specs are fixed configurations with a discounted price - in the case of the Engima Elite it has about £1130's worth of hardware for a fixed £1000 price - or £910 if ordered without windows.
Offering an i5 8400, 16gb 2133MHz RAM (most games will not care), GTX 1060 6gb, 256gb WD Black SSD, 1TB HDD, 550W PSU, etc

 

[rtho]

Hi sebthi,

I think Oussebon has given you 2 very good choices now we see your budget.

Just a quick comment on the Engima Elite, you can add a 1 year collect and return for £5.00 extra.

Thanks for your suggestion, rtho - very interesting!
My original budget was £1000 - so I've already been affected by the spec creep that happens when you can play around with specs on a good site like this! I'd say that £1200 is really the hard upper limit. By playing around based on your suggestions I might be able to get the better CPU/GPU combo and stay closer to £1000.

lol - We all need to win the lottery - Hope you get your new system soon.

 

[sebthi]

Oussebon and ortho - really excellent advice from both of you, thank you!

Those figures for the 3Gb 1060 vs the 1050Ti really speak for themselves. Reading further into that review and others, it seems that the 3Gb 1060 does hit its memory limit and start dropping FPS: but only in certain very VRAM-hungry games. And that's with Ultra graphics settings, which I can live without as I'm not a hardcore gamer. One review concluded that the 3Gb 1060 is a fantastic card, but worried that the 3Gb isn't "future-proof". That's fine with me: even a 1050 would be an enormous step up from my current laptop, and a few years down the line I can drop in a 1080Ti or whatever, if I feel I need to.

The Elite is so close to what I'm looking for. Pity it's not configurable (I need wifi and Firewire as well).

I'm much closer to a final build now thanks to your input.

 

[Oussebon]

(I need wifi and Firewire as well).

You can always buy and add in your own cards, or see if PCS will add the cards in for the regular extra fee without it eliminating the discount.

They might say yes since it's just adding an 'optional extra' and not changing one of the preset components

 

[Stephen M]

Good idea from Oussebon and I expect you may already know this Sebthi but it is worth repeating for those who do not, PCS allow us to open up and work on our machines without voiding the warranty, unlike many other retailers, so the option to upgrade is always there and without penalty.

 

[sebthi]

Thanks, everyone, for your advice!

I've come up with a better spec based on it.

1. Spent more on a better case. From the reviews, the Fractal Define R5 seems to be beautifully built, and is quiet. I didn't realise until Oussebon got me thinking about it that a quiet PC is important to me. Style - I'm not really into the flashing-LEDs gamer-style cases;
2. Stuck with the TUF Z370 mobo, as the ROG STRIX doesn't seem worth the extra money, for me;
3. Upgraded from the 1050Ti to the 6Gb 1060;
4. Dropped the very expensive Samsung 960 EVO SSD, in favour of the PM961;
5. Added the Titan Dragonfly cooler;
6. Added Silver Warranty.

Only £65 more than my original spec!

One question: this case has 2x USB 3.0 and 2x USB 2.0 sockets on the front (actually, top). Would PCS automatically wire these up to the mobo? What happens to the mobo's own (back) USB ports? Extra, or deactivated?

thanks!

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R5 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Six Core Processor i5-8400 (2.8GHz) 9MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Hard Disk
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel 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 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Firewire
2 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI-E Card (2 x 6 pin)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
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 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,180.00 including VAT and delivery

 

[Oussebon]

Would PCS automatically wire these up to the mobo?

Yes.

I think mine had actually come loose in transit but notwithstanding the tiny chance of things like that, they'll work out of the box.

What happens to the mobo's own (back) USB ports? Extra, or deactivated?

Still there and still work.

 

[sebthi]

Finally ordered it! Added a Win10 installation. And had to replace the Titan Dragonfly with the Coolermaster Hyper 212X, as the Dragonfly is out of stock.

Thanks for everyone's help!

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R5 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Six Core Processor i5-8400 (2.8GHz) 9MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Hard Disk
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212X (120mm) Fan 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 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Firewire
2 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI-E Card (2 x 6 pin)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Professional 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
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Insurance
Simplesurance Purchase Protection inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,344.95 including VAT and delivery