It's time for a new machine :)

[Rakk]

So it's about that time where I get myself a present of a new PC - my current machine still works fine, but I want new stuff

Anyways, this is the spec I've got so far:
Case
CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 570X RGB GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7-9700K Eight Core (3.60GHz @ up to 5.0GHz)
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
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
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 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
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
Price: £1,137.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-overclocked/uer6HnGeVY/

So points to note:

1. 1. I need clockspeed - the game I normally play (Everquest2 - it's an old MMORPG) relies heavily on clockspeed - doesn't care one bit about multiple cores or anything else - it entirely needs clockspeed - my current machines is OC'd to 4.5, the i7-9700k can hopefully get to 5Ghz which should show a nice improvement - apparently its runs really nicely at 5Ghz according to what I read on either their forums, the general chat channel or guild chat in game.
2. 2. I'll be transferring my GTX1070 over from my current machine as I don't think the 2070 is worth 500quid over the 1070 - may wait til the next generation of GPU's
3. 3. I also use the Rift VR headset for VR gaming, so need many many USB ports - I have a PCI USB expansion card in my current machine, that will move over as well, though I might need to replace it as it was being a bit weird - though to be honest the Rift has many USB related issues so it may have just been that.
4. 4. Given point 3 I need enough ummph for VR games (I also need a bigger house but that will have to wait)
5. 5. The review I was reading for the case is here: https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/7...-rgb-tempered-glass-chassis-review/index.html, and I think this is the case I've decided on, but not 100% sure yet.
6. 6. The Corsair H115i water cooler doesn't seem to fit in many cases (at least not ones that aren't humungous that I haven't got space for), so hopefully the H100X will be fine.
7. 7. I have 2 mechanical HDD's that will be being moved over, and maybe one SSD (depends what I decide to do with the old PC)
8. 8. I have an MSDN subscription so will be using Win 10 Pro
9. 9. Motherboard: um, no idea - any advice on this is definitely welcome.
10. 10. Budget - around this amount, give or take.
11. 11. Am using 2 monitors (one is 1440p 60Hz, the other is 1080p 60 Hz) or my VR headset. I would use 3 monitors but that would require my house to be about 2 foot longer which isn't really an option!

So yeah, any comments would be much appreciated - I've become a little out of the loop with hardware over the last year so I may be behind the times with some choices

 

[polycrac]

I have the h100x but with the super quiet fans, It's almost silent and I'd certainly recommend those fans.

 

[Rakk]

I have the h100x but with the super quiet fans, It's almost silent and I'd certainly recommend those fans.

I was wondering about that, though my current machine has the older Corsair H100i V2 Hydro Series without quiet fans and it doesn't generally bother me, so am debating it.

 

[Greavous]

im not massivly up to date myself on pc stuff but:

- do you need 16gb fastest ram for playing old games? (you didnt mention any new ones and only quoted the CPU)
- again with old games do you need the M2 drive if you have an SSD already?
- i think the mobo is fine, the one below has too few slots especially for VR.
- maybe upgrade to the 1080? or TI? if your going VR.

just some thoughts =]

 

[Rakk]

- do you need 16gb fastest ram for playing old games? (you didnt mention any new ones and only quoted the CPU)

An old game that has always had a bit of a memory leak
But yes I do need more than 8GB, most of the time when I check I'm using about 7-9GB of RAM.
Whilst gaming with said memory leaking game I also run ACT (Advanced Combat Tracker) for tracking DPS, and as far as I know reads the game log files into memory as its being written and on raid evenings it can be writing 400-500 lines a second to said log files - this sucks up some of the RAM

- again with old games do you need the M2 drive if you have an SSD already?

Possibly not, but the SSD may end up staying in the old machine anyways or being donated to a friend who doesn't have an SSD

- maybe upgrade to the 1080? or TI? if your going VR.

Unfortunately they can be tricky to get hold of now given they're not made anymore, and if they are available (new) are £500+
So far my 1070 has managed with the VR (archery games, some shooting type games, Skyrim VR)

Thanks for your thoughts though

 

[Flo]

Looks pretty good. I really like this case too and have read some good things about it. Depending on what GPU you are planning to upgrade to in the future, there may be a case of upping the PSU. For example, you get a warning notification if trying to pair an overclocked 9700k, with the rtx 2080 using a 650w PSU, on PCS's website.

 

[Oussebon]

IT'S TIME FOR A NEW MACHINE

The question is, is it really time for a new machine?

While with PCs there's always something new on the horizon, with 7nm Zen 2 likely being revealed at Computex (starting 28 May), along with 500-series motherboards sporting PCIe 4.0 (the extra bandwidth already being useful for NVMe SSDs + GPUs, if not GPUs alone), would it not make sense to hold off for a month or two and see what they have to offer?

If it's not better, the 9700k will still be on the table, and it's not long to wait.

Bearing in mind that a 9700k is almost exactly the same architecture as what your 6600k is. It's still based on Skylake; same IPC or near enough as makes no difference.

2) sound plan

3) Out of interest do you need to use the expansion slot or could you use USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 (to use the old names) as they have different controllers?

5) it's a very good case. NB for software control of the RGB lighting I think you'll need a corsair controller like a Commander Pro, essentially buying into their ecosystem, rather than some other cases where the fans will work with Asus Aura Sync, Gigabyte Fusion, etc. It's not something I've looked at in detail, but worth you doing so if it might be an issue.

6) It's apparently more effective than the H115, the trade off being noise.

9) AORUS Pro probably offers the best balance of features vs price, and has decent VRMs for overclocking.

 

[Rakk]

The question is, is it really time for a new machine?

While with PCs there's always something new on the horizon, with 7nm Zen 2 likely being revealed at Computex (starting 28 May), along with 500-series motherboards sporting PCIe 4.0 (the extra bandwidth already being useful for NVMe SSDs + GPUs, if not GPUs alone), would it not make sense to hold off for a month or two and see what they have to offer?

But but but .....
But yeah, I can hold off til then, didn't realise the new stuff was coming that soon.

3) Out of interest do you need to use the expansion slot or could you use USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 (to use the old names) as they have different controllers?

Well the Rift and the two sensors in essence can use up all the bandwidth of one controller, so if the USB 3.0's and USB 3.1's are separate controllers that may work, though I do have the 'too many things that have USB ports' problem
Keyboard - 2 ports - though I get away with using one, Mouse - 1, Webcam (I use it as a mic) - 1, Rift - 3, port for charging/connecting my phone - 1
And things that get used but not all the time - XBox controller (for some games for the Rift), External harddrive, various different USB connectors (cos everything seems to use different connectors....), an IR thing for a medical device and possibly other stuff I've forgotten about

6) It's apparently more effective than the H115, the trade off being noise.

I'm fine with noise

9) AORUS Pro probably offers the best balance of features vs price, and has decent VRMs for overclocking.

Ok, it does have more USB ports as well
Only thing thing it doesn't have is PS/2 port - my backup mechanical keyboard has USB and PS/2 not sure whether you need the PS/2 port though, and my normal backup keyboard is ancient and doesn't know what a USB port is , I'm sure I can get a different backup if the backup mechanical one wont work without PS/2 though

 

[Oussebon]

Computex reveal isn't guaranteed ofc, but nobody seriously expects it not to appear then Likely with a launch date.

Couldn't you use a PS2 to USB adapter for the backup KB?

As for the extra USB card, I'm not saying you shouldn't transfer it over (especially if you have a lot of devices), more that it'd just be interesting to know if the USB bandwidth issues can be avoided through using the USB 3/3.1 ports, which afaik have different controllers.

Also, just googling this a bit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/9wlpxf

Which I guess makes sense, at least as far as my limited understanding of these things goes!

 

[Rakk]

Computex reveal isn't guaranteed ofc, but nobody seriously expects it not to appear then Likely with a launch date.

Will have to see what they look like at the end of the month, see if the clock speed is better that AMD's other offerings

Couldn't you use a PS2 to USB adapter for the backup KB?

Looks like they're dirt cheap as well So yes, hopefully. And ahem yes I hadn't thought of that - d'oh!

As for the extra USB card, I'm not saying you shouldn't transfer it over (especially if you have a lot of devices), more that it'd just be interesting to know if the USB bandwidth issues can be avoided through using the USB 3/3.1 ports, which afaik have different controllers.

That would be useful, being able to use a hub (as mentioned in that article) would also help deal with the 'two many USB things' problem as well.

 

[neewhom]

I'm sure a lot of it is just down to personal preference, but I got the corsair 500d SE RGB - fairly similar to the 570x but i think the RGB fans just look cooler as they have an outer RGB element too, also the 500d comes with CORSAIR Commander PRO.

What are your thoughts Rakk?

 

[Rakk]

I'm sure a lot of it is just down to personal preference, but I got the corsair 500d SE RGB - fairly similar to the 570x but i think the RGB fans just look cooler as they have an outer RGB element too, also the 500d comes with CORSAIR Commander PRO.

What are your thoughts Rakk?

Well from reviews is very similar to the 570x, its slightly bigger, has it's sides on hinges (which would be very useful) and has better RGB lighting, but I didn't think it was worth another 70quid for those upgrades (though of course I may change my mind - again)

 

[neewhom]

Good point, that is a noticeable difference in price. I'd definitely give it my vote though, slickest case I've come across so far.

 

[Oussebon]

The 500D also has USB type C at the front, though the AORUS Pro mobo only has USB 3.1 Gen1 type C for the front panel. Having 10gbps USb at the front with that case would require an upgrade (an further expense) to the Z390-E or Aorus Master.

 

[Rakk]

Having 10gbps USb at the front with that case would require an upgrade (an further expense) to the Z390-E or Aorus Master.

Hehe, maybe we'll not do that