New Gaming PC?

[The1Meteor]

Thinking about getting a new gaming PC and selling my current one, what do you guys think about this build? anything you would change or improve on? let me know, thanks guys!


Case
InWIN GT1 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6700k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z170 PRO GAMING/AURA: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs, RGB Lighting
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Hard Disk
1TB WD BLACK 3.5" WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st PCI-E SSD Drive
400GB INTEL® 750 SERIES PCIe SSD (up to 2200MB/sR | 900MB/sW)
1st 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
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 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 2 to 4 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,510.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-skylake-pc/WwJNa3yCdk/

 

[keynes]

For £1500 I would expect a gtx 1070 or 1080. Is it mainly gaming? Planning to over clock your cpu? Regardless of your choice you should get at least silver warranty for £5

 

[Freeley]

Agreed.
With my currently evolving spec I've gone from a 1060 to 1070.
I've also gone for the gaming 3 mobo and faster 3000mhz memory.
Unfortunately my spec currently stands at £1800!

 

[The1Meteor]

Keynes it's going to be used for mainly gaming mate, I don't know much about overclocking so wouldn't know how to do it and wouldn't know the risks etc..however would be nice to have the option to OC if I wanna do it in the future, what would you suggest I do to this. Build to keep it around the 1500 mark but have a gtx 1070 in there? I will defiantly get silver warranty too

 

[keynes]

If you are not planning to overclock or you don't need to you could get a cheaper cpu cooler and a non-k cpu as for gaming overclocking the cpu is not essential. You have an expensive PCIe SSD when a cheaper one could also do the job.
Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 200R COMPACT GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6700k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z170-P: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Hard Disk
1TB WD BLACK 3.5" WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG SM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3100MB/R, 1400MB/W)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS 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 2 to 4 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,559.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-skylake-pc/R4CaSh3!cW/

 

[The1Meteor]

Thank you mate this looks great, is this mother board pretty much the same as my original one but without the RGB lights? Also I'm kinda hooked on my original case, I love it! So I would defiantly want to keep that, however the cooler doesn't fit inside, what other cooling would you recommend instead that fits in the case?

 

[Oussebon]

The Inwin GT1 is a budget case. It handles itself capable for a case of that price, but if you want the option to OC in the future and will be using high end hardware, I wouldn't ideally recommend it.

As for an alternative cooler, there isn't one really. Neither the H80i or H100i fit either, and in that case I probably wouldn't want a CM212 Evo to cool an OCed i7.

I'd also recommend getting a pre-overclocked PC from PCS, even if you don't want to OC now but if you may want to OC in the future. The price is almost identical (there's ~£8-10 difference or something) and the OC will be guaranteed under the warranty. So you'll get a PC that you know will at least support 4.6GHz, shielding you from the worst luck in the silicon lottery. If you didn't want to use the OC right away you could save the OC profile and just restore the system to its defaults.

You can also ditch the SSD for a better case, mobo, and faster RAM. It's more cost-effective to add an SSD in the future than it is to have to replace the other bits, and also SSDs don't actually have any effect on FPS: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/12/10/hdd_vs_ssd_real_world_gaming_performance/5#.WCieG-Ro2Hs The WD Blacks have a pretty huge price premium attached - for a gaming build I'd spend that elsewhere.

e.g.


Case
CORSAIR SPEC-ALPHA MID TOWER GAMING CASE - BLACK/RED
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
1TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
1[SUP]st[/SUP] DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS 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 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 2 to 4 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,491.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-skylake-overclocked/k0AuS5Jr!t/

 

[The1Meteor]

That's some great info thank you!, quick question, what benefits does OCing even give you? and is it even worth it?

 

[Oussebon]

There's no simple answer to that question.

The precise benefits you'll get will vary from game to game. Some may see little benefit if you're GPU bound, but others do see some improvement:
http://www.ocaholic.co.uk/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=3884&page=3 (e.g. BF4, Grid, FO4, Overwatch, or a Total War title



But that's a different question to whether it's worth it. Overclocking requires decent components - a -k CPU, a Z170 motherboard, a decent case, a decent PSU, decent cooling, etc etc. But for your kind of budget you probably ought to be buying all of these things anyway, as they all have their own merits. E.g. the M.2 slot and fast DDR4 support on the high end mobo, the better cooling for high end GPUs in better cases, your PSU will be powering £1.5k's worth of stuff so you probably want it to be decent quality, and so on.

So if you're buying all of these things anyway, the actual cost difference between an overclocked build and a non-overclocked build is only about a tenner (last time I looked).

Also, while performance currently in many games may not be affected, you'll be keeping your PC for a good few years - so while the GPU will be the limit to performance in many cases now (as is quite normal) the overclock could potentially extend the time before the CPU becomes the bottleneck. You want to extend the time before the CPU is the bottleneck because that's quite a major upgrade, to the point that many people just buy a whole new system.

Overclocking does have drawbacks - increased power consumption, temperatures, and theoretically reducing the lifespan of the PC. But the extra power consumption isn't huge (~20W more at full load, and your CPU will not be at full load in most gaming scenarios: http://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/luke-hill/intel-core-i7-6700k-i5-6600k-skylake-cpu-review/9/ ), the temps are managed by the cooling, and you'll be more likely to throw the PC in the bin due to extreme old age before finding out whether the lifespan of the CPU was affected.

 

[The1Meteor]

There's no simple answer to that question.

The precise benefits you'll get will vary from game to game. Some may see little benefit if you're GPU bound, but others do see some improvement:
http://www.ocaholic.co.uk/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=3884&page=3 (e.g. BF4, Grid, FO4, Overwatch, or a Total War title

View attachment 9379 View attachment 9380 View attachment 9381

But that's a different question to whether it's worth it. Overclocking requires decent components - a -k CPU, a Z170 motherboard, a decent case, a decent PSU, decent cooling, etc etc. But for your kind of budget you probably ought to be buying all of these things anyway, as they all have their own merits. E.g. the M.2 slot and fast DDR4 support on the high end mobo, the better cooling for high end GPUs in better cases, your PSU will be powering £1.5k's worth of stuff so you probably want it to be decent quality, and so on.

So if you're buying all of these things anyway, the actual cost difference between an overclocked build and a non-overclocked build is only about a tenner (last time I looked).

Also, while performance currently in many games may not be affected, you'll be keeping your PC for a good few years - so while the GPU will be the limit to performance in many cases now (as is quite normal) the overclock could potentially extend the time before the CPU becomes the bottleneck. You want to extend the time before the CPU is the bottleneck because that's quite a major upgrade, to the point that many people just buy a whole new system.

Overclocking does have drawbacks - increased power consumption, temperatures, and theoretically reducing the lifespan of the PC. But the extra power consumption isn't huge (~20W more at full load, and your CPU will not be at full load in most gaming scenarios: http://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/luke-hill/intel-core-i7-6700k-i5-6600k-skylake-cpu-review/9/ ), the temps are managed by the cooling, and you'll be more likely to throw the PC in the bin due to extreme old age before finding out whether the lifespan of the CPU was affected.

Cant thank you enough for all the help you have given me! thanks a lot mate, I quite like the case you suggested in your build suggestion too however it doesn't have a cd/dvd drive which I would like to have. I was thinking...am I best to wait for the new CPU's to be released in January before purchasing my PC as ill be able to get the new CPU out for around the same price I would be paying for this one?.....Also thank you to everyone else that has helped me with this thread too I really appreciate it guys!

 

[Oussebon]

You can always check the other cases out and see what looks good. If the Spec Alpha seems like a decent choice but for the DVD issue (it's becoming more common for PC cases, and even more common for laptops, to lack space for optical drives) then you could use a USB external one. They cost about the same and work just fine.

I'd probably wait until January. I would expect the new CPUs to be about the same price, as they have the same IPC, they're just clocked higher and are a bit more power efficient, though it's always possible Intel will set the prices sky high and try to milk people. And there's always the possibility of further GBP-related price increases.

 

[The1Meteor]

ohhh I didn't even think of that! good idea! will the corsair H60 Hydro cooler w/ PCS liquid series ultra quiet fans (75 pound) be good enough cooling for a an OCed i7 in my orginal case? because that one can fit in I think

 

[Oussebon]

The H80i is about as good as the Noctua air cooler. The H100i V2 is better. Anything else is not as good, and I wouldn't recommend them under most circumstances.

And even if the H60 was great, you want a case with decent airflow or else your GPU might end up not reaching its highest boost clocks due to hitting the ~82-83 degrees target too easily (unless you set a more aggressive GPU fan profile, which obviously equals more noise).

I wouldn't stuff a £1500 system, overclocked or otherwise, into an Inwin GT1, as nice a budget case as it is.

 

[The1Meteor]

okay thank you very much for the suggestions mate, I will just have to go with a different case then out of all the cooling systems which do you think is the best? providing the case can fit it in

 

[keynes]

The h80i is a decent cooler and less bulky than the noctua.

 

[Oussebon]

The Noctua is cheaper, may be slightly more effective, and will be quieter than the H80i, however, so if you can fit the Noctua in the case and don't mind the aesthetic I'd stick with that. It will fit into quite a lot of the cases.
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Noctua/NH-U14S/6.html
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/noctua_nh_u12s_u14s_review,9.html

If it doesn't, the H80i is a decent alternative, however if you're spending £89 on an H80i with the quiet fans, you might as well spend £109 on the H100i V2 with the quiet fans, as that's the most effective cooler on offer (even moreso than the Noctua). It is bigger though and the case may not support it.

 

[The1Meteor]

Great! thank you guys!

 

[The1Meteor]

aye lads..what do you think about the coolmaster mastercase maker 5t case? is it a good case in your opinion? or too expensive? whats your thoughts?

 

[Oussebon]

It's very new, and has a stylish look. There are some reviews of it:
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/chassis/100171-cooler-master-mastercase-maker-5t/?page=3
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2016/12/12/cooler-master-mastercase-maker-5t-review/4
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/cooler-master-mastercase-maker-5t-modular-atx-case,review-33724-2.html

There's a bit of divergence in the reviews, but themes that come out are that the stock fans aren't great and CPU temps aren't ideal, which for me would be a shame in a case costing almost £200. Some of the reviewers feel not quite able to recommend it for the price.

If you like the aesthetic of the Maker 5t there's always its smaller brother the Masterbox 5t. It seems to acquit itself in reviews
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2016/12/08/cooler-master-masterbox-5t-review/3
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/chassis/100078-cooler-master-masterbox-5t/?page=4
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/-cooler-master-masterbox-5-eatx-mid-tower-case,review-33604-2.html
While being a lot cheaper. Tom's and bit-tech give it their recommendations. If going for that I'd probably buy an extra case fan with it, one of the quiet PCS ones.

You could check out the Carbide Air 540 (at £119). It's an excellent case in terms of cooling, and with the large side panel and vents at the top you can get a colour theme going with some LEDs pretty easily e.g.

 

[The1Meteor]

thank you buddy, that carbide is too chunky for liking but looks really nice with the LED's. if I was to get the maker 5t you recommend I put another case fan in? if so, where about would this be installed?