Lady needs advice on hardware choices

[DEK]

Hi,
I bought a Win 7 Pro PCS system in 2013 and am still quite happy with it. Its GTX 690 still manages to let me play Fallout 4 and Dishonored 2 on Very High/High settings (DX:Mankind Divided is as yet untried from Steam sale).
I wasn't going to update yet, but my daughter's PC suddenly died and she needs to design for her Etsy business (and play WoW, Skyrim etc). I thought I'd pass on my current PC to her and buy an updated one for myself, but I'm lost with deciding on the best hardware for my needs, which are fairly simple: playing my preferred games - some Battlefield multiplayer, Skyrim, the Deus Exs, Fallout 4, Far Cry 4, KSP, & Dishonored .... and Dishonored 2 is my latest love - but otherwise just general use.

I carefully avoided the plague of the Win 10 upgrade and don't really want it, but is it something I should now embrace and lose a couple of old programs? Or shall I stick with Win 7 Pro?
I use two 24" monitors generally, but only one for gaming.
I will not be overclocking, but want a system that is powerful enough for whatever games come out in the next few years and a graphics card that is up to the job too.
I am also not interested in VR.
My budget is around £2000

Thanks for any help and advice,
Deb



Case
SHARKOON VG4-W GAMING CASE (Green LED)
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)
32GB HyperX SAVAGE DDR4 2666MHz (4 x 8GB Kit)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1080 - DVI, HDMI, 3x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Hard Disk
1TB WD BLACK 3.5" WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD BLACK 3.5" WD2003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W VS SERIES™ VS-650 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212X (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY 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 Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
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)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Quantity
1

 

[Oussebon]

DX:Mankind Divided is as yet untried from Steam sale

Brace yourself before you start playing it if you have any affection for the Deus Ex franchise. Just to warn you.. At least you got it for £13 on sale.

The first thing I'd say is that if you can hold off a few days, Intel are about to launch their Kaby Lake CPUs which are a modest improvement over Skylake and expected to retail for a similar price. There will also be refreshed motherboards. We're not talking a massive improvement, but you might as well get the latest thing and better performance for your cash.

Especially if you like Fallout 4, which is a monster:

(there's a big difference between i5s and i7s, which is fairly uncommon in gaming, and the i5 drops to 52 FPS even at the 1% low)
You want the best and fastest CPU you can get your hands on for that game.

Fallout 4 also benefits significantly from faster DDR4, so with your budget it's worth making the jump to 3000MHz DDR4.
https://youtu.be/ESeoexGLVFU?t=476


It's questionable whether a GTX 1080 is really worth it for 1080p gaming, especially if your monitors are 60hz.

Case
SHARKOON VG4-W GAMING CASE (Green LED)

I would avoid that case, especially with your budget. I have looked for reviews that comment on the cooling performance of that Sharkoon case before and this is the only one I found: https://uk.hardware.info/productreview/4545/sharkoon-vg4-w-blue-by-dvjrickkraft This review points out that the front intake fan is quite obstructed by the HDD(s). That combined with the lack of additional fan mounting points would make it no-go for me at any budget, let alone with £2k's worth of stuff inside it - it only has 2 fans, one of which is quite obstructed, and you can't add any more if that turns out to be an issue.

If you like the green theme (which granted is not common in PC cases, it's usually red or blue, or no lighting at all), you can swap fans in other cases with LED fans, add LED strips and so forth to adjust the style.

1st Hard Disk
1TB WD BLACK 3.5" WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD BLACK 3.5" WD2003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

If it's just general use, you're better off with a regular HDD + SSD. The WD black drives are expensive and nowhere near as fast as an SSD for your OS and programs.

If you're not familiar with SSDs, this is the kind of difference you might see with a decent Sata III SSD:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2048...-upgrades-deliver-huge-performance-gains.html

And there are some M.2 SSDs that are 3-6 times as fast as that SSD (the green bar represents an average desktop HDD, the SM951 at the top is a bit slower than the SM961 that's now available).

http://www.pcgamer.com/hard-drive-vs-ssd-performance/2/

Memory (RAM)
32GB HyperX SAVAGE DDR4 2666MHz (4 x 8GB Kit)

Also for general use and gaming, 32gb RAM is wildly excessive. 16gb is generously enough.

DVD Recovery Media
Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve

I would suggest Windows 10 Home. If you don't need the features of Pro e.g. bitlocker encryption. Windows 7 will stop receiving updates (e.g. security fixes) in 3 years and since gaming is one of your main uses DX12 is only available in Win 10 and is becoming more commonly used in games.

Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W VS SERIES™ VS-650 POWER SUPPLY

Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212X (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler

Since there's the budget I might suggest the RM850x PSU as it's much better build quality (Corsair sell these with 10 years warranties as opposed to the 3 years warranties of the CS series) and has a passive cooling mode where it will not need to use its fan to cool itself below certain temp and load thresholds. In real terms it's unlikely to ever need to use it even during gaming and will therefore be silent.

The Noctua cooler is also even quieter.

I will not be overclocking, but want a system that is powerful enough for whatever games come out in the next few years and a graphics card that is up to the job too.

I'd suggest you get a pre-overclocked system from PCS, because it's only about £10 more expensive than a regular one. They will have done the overclocking and stability testing so you wouldn't need to lift a finger in that regard.

You need high end components for overclocking (Z170 mobo, PSU, cooling, case, etc) but with your budget you're buying all of that already. Also, while one of the major differences between the i7 6700 and i7 6700k is that the -k one is unlocked to enable overclocking, the 6700k has a 600MHz higher base clock speed and so is a fair bit faster out of the box. For a £33 cost difference (or 1.8% of an £1800 build) you might as well get that. Add an overclock onto that and you're looking at upto 1GHz faster when all cores are under load. You can see some performance benches here: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1554?vs=1549 Certainly you won't get returns across all games -e.g. Alien Isolation there's hardly a difference - but for GTA-V for example you see an increase in average frame rates and a decrease in the proportion of fps drops below 60.

You don't have to keep the overclock, you can save the BIOS profile and reset the CPU to its stock settings if you decide you don't like having it - but at least you have a working overclock profile ready set up for you that you can load up any time you want - e.g. when Bethesda's next Elder Scrolls or Fallout game is launched and they're still using the same decrepit engine, or when you upgrade your GPU in a few years and find you're CPU bound in more titles.

For me, the bottom line is that for £10 you might as well.

====

With all that in mind - and bearing in mind you'll want to tweak the spec for the Kaby Lake stuff in a few days, perhaps something like this:

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R5 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-6700k Quad Core (4.00GHz @ upto MAX 4.60GHz)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 3 ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX SAVAGE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB Kit)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SAMSUNG SM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3200MB/R, 1700MB/W)
1[SUP]st[/SUP] DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
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
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY 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 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
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)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,789.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-skylake-overclocked/6Xv4jbSEGD/

 

[DEK]

Thanks Oussebon!

Yes, I am braced for the possibility of disappointment with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but as it was finally cheap enough I thought I'd go for it. I actually liked the Thief (2014) reboot even though it had it's maddening problems too, so I hope I can overlook what may lie ahead with DX.

Good plan to delay for the newer version Kaby Lake CPUs. Thanks for the heads-up
My current i7 is a -k version, so I suppose going with the pre-overclocked kit makes sense as you show that it provides that little extra.
I had no real yen for the green lights case, it was simply a mid price one that looked well-ventilated so I will take your advice on the Fractal one. Lights are not necessary.
I currently have 16GB RAM which is also the recommended amount for Dishonored 2, so I assumed that I might need more over the coming years since games keep demanding ever higher specs?
I do only have two 1080p 60Hz monitors and have no ambitions to go higher res, so I'll change to the GTX 1070. I was trying to decide between it and the 1080 anyway & you have clarified it for me.

Now it is true that I have no experience with SSDs, so that does concern me a little. I usually run the OS on a partition or smaller HDD, then move My Documents and install programs onto a second HDD. My games and OS currently run on a fast, partitioned, Caviar Black HDD so I can see how a faster SSD will benefit me. I'd better do more reading!

Windows 10 (Home version) will be a bitter pill to swallow as I'm not a fan of the we'll-update-even-if-you-don't-want-to regime especially with MS's history of borking programs. I can see the sense of preparing for DX12 but it seems to be such a Big Brother type OS, with not a lot of choice for the user :/ .

Thank you so much for replying so comprehensively. I'll keep checking PCS to see what component changes are available and then bite the bullet. Meanwhile I'll keep poring over these forums to learn more. Thanks again

 

[Oussebon]

I currently have 16GB RAM which is also the recommended amount for Dishonored 2, so I assumed that I might need more over the coming years since games keep demanding ever higher specs?

There isn't a game that's close to needing 16gb RAM at the moment. Not even close.

In fact mostly you'd see no performance difference with 8gb RAM, even if you then forced your PC to do a load of other things like run 65 browser tabs while running the game that unnecessarily used up system resources:
http://www.techspot.com/article/1043-8gb-vs-16gb-ram/page3.html

16gb is quite future-proof, in as far as anyone can promise you anything about future games' demands. I can't see games needing over 16gb RAM until well after these generations of CPUs are so weak for gaming that you'll have replaced the system anyway.

Windows 10 (Home version) will be a bitter pill to swallow as I'm not a fan of the we'll-update-even-if-you-don't-want-to regime especially with MS's history of borking programs. I can see the sense of preparing for DX12 but it seems to be such a Big Brother type OS, with not a lot of choice for the user :/ .

There are ways you can tweak it. It's certainly sad that one feels one has to, but it's do-able. I use Spybot Anti Beacon, OOSU, and a few registry tweaks. There's also Classic Shell which can revamp (well, de-vamp?) the interface and make it Win 7-like. People who know a lot more than I do about operating systems are on these forums so you can always start a topic asking what tweaks to do for a Win 10 system / what advice people have.

Now it is true that I have no experience with SSDs, so that does concern me a little. I usually run the OS on a partition or smaller HDD, then move My Documents and install programs onto a second HDD. My games and OS currently run on a fast, partitioned, Caviar Black HDD so I can see how a faster SSD will benefit me. I'd better do more reading!

Pretty much the only reason not to buy an SSD these days is money. The general way people arrange systems will be the OS and programs + favourite games on the SSD, and documents on the HDD. This seems to be basically what you describe doing but with an SSD taking the place of the Caviar. Obviously they may also use an external HDD or NAS for backing up important documents too, and/or take system images of the OS / programs SSD depending on whether they can be bothered (I can't).

You sometimes still hear that SSDs aren't as reliable as HDDs. This may have been true 10 years ago, but now it's basically nonsense at the consumer level.

An American PC company published this data on their failure rates:


Google released some data on their findings for SSD reliability in their datacentres, which has been summarised in a number of articles: http://www.zdnet.com/article/ssd-reliability-in-the-real-world-googles-experience/

Techreport managed to write 2.1 Petabytes to a 240gb Kingston HyperX 3k before it died: http://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead/2

 

[Scott]

Techreport managed to write 2.1 Petabytes to a 240gb Kingston HyperX 3k before it died: http://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead/2

Slight hijack here but I'm glad you posted that. That's the information I was trying to recall in a previous thread regarding SSD longevity. It effectively meant that you would have to use the drive for 20 years of heavy use

Oh, and ditto on everything else.

 

[DEK]

Hi,
I'm back again to ask a question about the SSD recommendation M.2 SSD Drive 512GB SAMSUNG SM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3200MB/R, 1700MB/W) .

While I'm hedging my bets by waiting for the newer Kaby Lake arrivals, I've been checking on the current size of my selected games installs, mods and savegames and it totals around 242GB. Of course any backup saves and other files are stored on a separate drive right now, but if I'm going to run my OS + other program installs PLUS my games on an SSD, will it make more sense to go up to a larger sized SSD?
I don't have too many installed at any one time, but there are certain games that I play and/or revisit often enough to keep installed i.e. BFBC2, Dishonored 1 and 2, Fallout 4, Far Cry 4, Skyrim SE, Thief, DX:HR (& DX:MD yet to try :shifty: ), Prison Architect, KSP, Minecraft, The Sims 2 & 3 , plus a couple of others, so I'm quite concerned about running out of usable space what with the fluctuating size of the OS on top of it all.

Also will it still make sense to move My Documents to a separate HDD as I have on my present Win 7 Pro machine as I have yet to figure out Windows 10 and it's possibilities? Hope you will advise me yet again and thanks in advance

 

[Scott]

A normal install of Windows 10 with loads of programs, various documents, etc will normally hit around 100GB, add in some music and images and it's easy to hit 150GB+. Add in your approx. 250GB of usage and that'll be around 400GB which is comfortably within the storage space of the 512GB SM961.

I don't see much of a need to go over 512GB to be honest but if the funds allow then more space would never hurt. I'm currently running with a 512GB SM951 (older sibling) another 512GB M2 drive and a 1TB storage drive. The second M2 drive stores all my games including my ridiculous 240GB+ FSX install. The SM951 is using around 80GB at the moment which is a bit of a waste but I like it that way

 

[Oussebon]

There's no harm to more SSD space. You can just buy however much you want/need and have the cash for. The only time I recommend people against more SSD space in a gaming rig is when they have to sacrifice something else in order to afford it (or when it's just a blatant waste). But that doesn't seem to be an issue here since you have a very solid base spec and this is a question of whether to add more rather than what to trade-in.

I keep my photos, documents, and videos on my HDD, but generally keep games and saved games on the SSD for faster loading.

The SSD makes no difference to FPS in gameplay, only loading time, so many people will choose to have favourite games / games with the most loading screens on the SSD and other games they dabble in occasionally on the HDD.

I have very heavily modded vanilla and SE Skyrim (multiple installs) and FO4 which I run through Mod Organiser so in my case having those games and the mod files on SSD is basically essential (I have a 500gb SSD just for Skyrim).

You only get 1 NVMe SSD slot so getting a nice big one makes sense. However you can always add more sata SSDs in the future, and while not as fast as the SM961, they're still orders of magnitude faster than HDDs. So up to you.

 

[DEK]

@ Oussebon and The_Scotster Thanks again

Hmmm I now have even more to consider now that you both have told me that you run certain games on a separate SSD.
I quite like that idea as I could put the OS + important programs & Steam games on the M.2 SSD and stick Origin and Ubisoft Uplay games on a second sata SSD . Would that work for me too? Luckily my FO4, vanilla Skyrim (and SE version) are not really enormous files yet even after 100s of hours, but I'm going to try more mods at some point.
It was so much simpler when all you needed was to install the CD/DVD inch:

Then I'll put the usual My Docs, backups, general crap, photos & music etc onto a HDD. Maybe a smaller sized HDD than I first chose, as my music collection is pretty small.
I'll experiment with the configuration to see roughly what the prices do before re-posting a spec for comment.

Another question: When imaging my OS from the SSD for backup, is storing the image on an HDD still viable?

This is possibly my last hurrah with such a well-specced PC as a life-change later this year or next will mean I won't be able to afford this luxury habit again for quite some time, so it has to be right. Luckily games are my only vice, so as long as I can play them, then it's all roses!

 

[Oussebon]

I only run modded Skyrim off a separate SSD because I ran out of room on my main one and it was easier to just buy another SSD and keep it purely for Skyrim. There's no performance reason for me doing so.
I'm no screen archer, but I do like what mods can bring: https://imgur.com/a/MtewB

You can always partition the SSD if you like to do so for organisational reasons, or for having a smaller section to system image the OS off (without also imaging all your games etc).

If you want more than 512gb SSD space I'd probably just get a single 1TB SM961.

Costs:
512gb sm961 £214
512gb sm961 + 500gb 850 evo £377
1TB SM961 £422

If you're already paying the premium for an SM961 SSD over a regular sata SSD you might as well spend that £45 extra for doubling it vs having a 512gb SM961 and a 500 Sata SSD.

Plus other notional advantages like fewer drives in the case meaning better airflow, etc.

Another question: When imaging my OS from the SSD for backup, is storing the image on an HDD still viable?

It's fine, yeah.

 

[DEK]

Ah ok...that makes sense along with the better airflow reason. Back to the drawing board then.

It all gets a bit kid-in-a-sweet-shop after a while with all the options that are presented.

Nice Skyrim screenshots

 

[DEK]

After seeing some of the reports about the new Kaby Lake, I'm thinking I should just go with the Skylake CPU that I originally specced.
A comparison I saw online (can't remember which site now) suggested that there wasn't enough of a performance boost for people like me to bother with. I also saw Oussebon and The_Scotster discussing possible heat problems too?

 

[SpyderTracks]

After seeing some of the reports about the new Kaby Lake, I'm thinking I should just go with the Skylake CPU that I originally specced.
A comparison I saw online (can't remember which site now) suggested that there wasn't enough of a performance boost for people like me to bother with. I also saw Oussebon and The_Scotster discussing possible heat problems too?

Heat problems do seem an issue, especially if overclocking. From what I've read, there's very little benefit of Kabylake over Skylake, even the mobo designs are a tiny improvement, the only real feature that appeals to me is multiple nvme, but that such a small improvement.

 

[DEK]

I notice that the option for the Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-6700k Quad Core (4.00GHz @ up to 4.60GHz) has now disappeared from the drop-down list. Does that mean they are no longer available, or because I have a saved quote I can still have one?

 

[Scott]

To be honest I would hold off and see how PCS fair with the temps etc. Wait for a review machine or another person to post a review on their findings.

I find it really strange to be honest as the 6700k in a decent tower runs VERY well, even overclocked. Most people hit stability issues before they hit temperature issues (5ghz).

 

[DEK]

I don't think I can hold off ordering for too much longer, as the whole point of this is to pass on my 3.5yrs old PCS system to my daughter who needs one for her Etsy online business after her PC died suddenly. She will already be behind on her designing work now, so unfortunately time is not on our side.
I'm also worried that the new relatively untried Kaby Lake components might cause problems for me if I just dive in.

In case there is a little more advice to be given before my quote expires on 10th, I'll post my chosen spec in the next day or two for a final critique and then order ....unless the Skylake bits are no longer available here

Thanks for all responses so far

 

[Oussebon]

In your position I would just order the overclocked Kaby Lake build. If it's true that there are thermal issues with the overclocked Kaby you can just remove the overclock and all you'll have lost is £10. It's not going to overheat at stock. Kitguru were one of the websites that reported overclocked thermal issues and this is what they said about stock temps

The stock-clocked i7-7700K would generally idle at around 30°C and ran at around 70°C when loaded. Load temperature readings were generally consistent throughout the Prime 95 test run when the chips were at stock-clocked levels.
http://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/luke-hill/intel-core-i7-7700k-i5-7600k-kaby-lake-cpu-review/9/

It's also possible that any overheating issues experienced will be fixed with BIOS updates (the heat problems experienced by Kitguru for example were very spiky and inconsistent, rather than the CPU just hitting a high temp and and staying there). Furthermore, the overheating issues may be mostly to do with Prime95.. Kitguru found temps and the OC to be stable under AIDA, which is a brutal stress test.

So in summary:
- The overclock is only £10 and can be removed/ reapplied at will (just save and reload the BIOS profile as appropriate)
- There are no temp issues at stock speeds
- You may not experience heat issues outside of Prime95
- Any such heat issues as do exist may be resolved by future updates e.g. BIOS

You could buy the spec without the overclock, but then if you do ever want that extra performance you're going outside the warranty to get it.

 

[DEK]

Er.....Help! :surrender:

Ok I've been trying to configure a system using the i7-7700k, but the Noctua Ultra Quiet CPU cooler clashes with most of the motherboards shown as available, so I am at sea with which mobo I should choose. I don't think I really want to go liquid-cooling. I had almost got it sorted (even with having to consider Win 10) before the Kaby Lake upgrade .....sigh :wacko:

I'm leaning more towards buying the build that Oussebon suggested originally

 

[Oussebon]

For me, the new motherboards are one of the best things about Kaby Lake (sad, I know..)

This based off my original spec with the new CPU and mobo. I haven't made any of the changes discussed since then (e.g. larger or additional SSD) just so that you get a like-for-like vision of it.

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R5 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-7700k Quad Core (4.20GHz @ up to 4.8GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z270E GAMING: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX PREDATOR DDR4 3200MHz X.M.P (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SAMSUNG SM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3200MB/R, 1700MB/W)
1[SUP]st[/SUP] DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
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
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY 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 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
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)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,814.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-z270-overclocked/Zzn00H0c63/

So it's £25 more. For that you get:
- 200MHz more on the CPU
- 200MHz faster RAM
Motherboard features including:
- better onboard audio
- USB 3.1 front panel connector (your case doesn't have usb 3.1 but I'm sure there's an adapter you could install into a 5.25" drive bay if you ever want that)
- Apparently supports 2 NVMe drives (which is a nice bonus when your SM961 runs out of space).
- Optane memory compatible (err, yay?)
- has onboard AC wifi with MU-MIMO, and Bluetooth 4.1

It also has RBG lighting built in though since the Fractal doesn't have a window I guess you'll switch that off.

 

[DEK]

Wow! that was quick

OK I see the RAM has changed as well as the mobo. Is this the spec that YOU would personally be happy with, given the same budget? If you are certain that this is the config now as opposed to the earlier Skylake config, then I will trust your judgement in this as you obviously know about this stuff in depth.

It's so difficult to choose well if you're not an expert and reading reviews and forums online gives conflicting pros and cons about hardware, software etc.

Oh and yes, I'd turn off the lights, if I can see how. Also will the Fractal R5 case have enough ventilation? I keep the tower under the table (on a hard surface) right now.