Mixed gaming/work machine

A

Aiddar

Active member
Hi all.

Looking for suggestions on the below, and where the main pinch points are (e.g. wasted money going for "x" or "by spending just £20-00 more you can get a 30% improvement" sort of thing). Budget will need to be around £1,400 - £1,500 or so.
Thanks for any suggestions!

Case
PCS GENESIS G1B CASE + SD CARD READER
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor i7-10700K (3.8GHz) 16MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z490-F GAMING (LGA1200, USB 3.2, CrossFireX/SLI) - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 SUPER - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
1TB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 470MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W CV SERIES™ CV-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 V2 Series High 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
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
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 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Google Chrome™
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 15 to 18 working days
Price: £1,563.00 including VAT and Delivery
 
G

Grinty

Bronze Level Poster
I think this is probably another situation where the Inferno is a good option, although obviously can't be certain until @Nursemorph 's questions have been answered.

You can't modify the internals but to make up for that there's a £300-400 discount on the cost compared to putting the same spec together yourself, so it's really hard to beat unless you want to play 4K games (need a bigger graphics card) or do lots of video/photo editing (need more RAM).

I wonder if it's worth getting a sticky thread along the lines of "Is your budget at least £1504? If so, have a good hard think about whether you can do better than the Inferno, and remember to add the Silver warranty!"
 
A

Aiddar

Active member
Thanks for the replies!

The monitor is 2560*1440 BENQ (about 2 year old now - not got the specific model details to hand).

As regards usage, the bulk of work will be simple Office stuff, but just to confuse matters, there will sometimes be some image manipulation (photo level stuff, not dramatic CAD-level stuff).

The emphasis for the power will probably be the games I suspect. I have always through that one of the better ways of future proofing is to push the RAM to as high as is reasonable (in this case 32), but happy to be told that 16 is fine if that is the case...

Not looked at the Inferno - I will head off and have a look now :)

Cheers

Paul
 
G

Grinty

Bronze Level Poster
Aiddar said:
The emphasis for the power will probably be the games I suspect. I have always through that one of the better ways of future proofing is to push the RAM to as high as is reasonable (in this case 32), but happy to be told that 16 is fine if that is the case...
Click to expand...

16GB is plenty for most cases. If you're running with that much or less at the moment and you haven't run out of RAM while editing photos then you should be fine. RAM is pretty straightforward to upgrade, so it's not worth spending money on parts you don't need right now.

I've got an Inferno on order and am pretty happy with where I am for future proofing. It should run great out of the box, and when it's time for a mid-life refresh I can:
- Upgrade the CPU to a Ryzen 4000 series (supported by the X570 chipset on the motherboard)
- Upgrade the graphics card and monitor (the power supply has a good amount of headroom to allow this)
- Upgrade the RAM - maybe to 2x16GB sticks but definitely to a higher speed grade
- Upgrade the SSD to something even faster (taking full advantage of the PCIe 4.0 on the motherboard)
It'll then run like a brand new system, but won't *quite* cost as much as one, and I can spread the cost over a few years if I want.
 
Dan79

Dan79

Bronze Level Poster
I also have to say the inferno. Now that its back in stock my wallet and wife are sweating (Just waiting to find out if i have a job to go back too)
 
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