New gaming rig.

[Naiphe]

Hi there my new rig, id appreciate some thoughts about it!

Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ AIR 540 GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6700k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache

Motherboard ASUS® MAXIMUS VIII HERO: RoG, PCI-e 3.0, SATA 3.0, LG1151
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DDR4 2666MHz (1 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 - 2 DVI, 1 HDMI, 1 DP - 3D Vision Ready

1st Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE

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

Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i GTX Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler

Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND

Fan Controller
NONE

Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Apache Black Quiet Fan (fitted to extract from rear/roof)

Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy™ FX OEM

Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)

Wireless Router/HomePlugs NONE

USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

Firewire NONE

TV Card NONE

Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)

Operating System Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence

Windows 10 Upgrade FREE Upgrade to Windows 10 with all Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 Purchases*

DVD Recovery Media Windows 10 (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve

Current price £1333 / 40 ish £ a month on finance.


I havnt bought it yet so can change stuff around. I can go a bit more expensive if a certain item or change would noticably improve the setup.

Its set up for gaming of various sorts, especially fallout 4 (I cant wait!) but also for future proofing. I'm by no means any expert: I would especially like somebody to comment on the motherboard as that was quite expensive, is it worth the extra pennies with this cpu/gpu setup? since alot of reviews I read recommended it.

Thanks in advance for your time

 

[SpyderTracks]

Are you going to be overclocking? You're rig is set up for it.

Also will you be sliing in the future? If not, the mobo is wasted.

You could drop the overall price significantly without affecting performance.

 

[SlimCini]

Overpriced for a 970 build. Either spend less for that sort of gaming performance or spend a tiny bit more a far better gaming pc like follows:

Case
COOLERMASTER CM STORM ENFORCER - GAMING ENTHUSIAST 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)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DDR4 2133MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 980 Ti - DVI, HDMI, 3 DP
Free Item
FREE METAL GEAR SOLID game with select GTX 9 Series GPUs! -Subject to T&Cs
1st Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON HYPERX SAVAGE SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD BLACK 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 CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£69)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
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 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Windows 10 Upgrade
FREE Upgrade to Windows 10 with all Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 Purchases*
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,494.00 including VAT and delivery.

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

 

[Naiphe]

The plan was indeed overclocking and adding another 970 in the future for sli yes Although I have to learn how to overclock, as I dont know the first thing about it!

 

[SlimCini]

You don't need to overclock to game. And one 980ti would be preferable to 2x970s.

Though if you do want a 970 build then you should be aiming for about £1k max.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Slims build would perform better than an sli'd 970 build.

Overclocking won't bring any gains for gaming, wasted really.

 

[Naiphe]

hm SlimCini that setup looks appealing. I don't know much about the whole cooling thing, but would that Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler be enough for long gaming sessions with this setup?

 

[SpyderTracks]

hm SlimCini that setup looks appealing. I don't know much about the whole cooling thing, but would that Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler be enough for long gaming sessions with this setup?

It would be ample for a non overclocked chip.

 

[Naiphe]

Thankyou ever so much Guess Ill be going with slims build then!

One more question: Ive read alot about the samsung 850 evo ssd being very speedy. How do you guys rate it vs the KINGSTON HYPERX SAVAGE SSD? and would it make much of a difference gaming wise for the few extra pounds? speaking of loading times etc

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thankyou ever so much Guess Ill be going with slims build then!

One more question: Ive read alot about the samsung 850 evo ssd being very speedy. How do you guys rate it vs the KINGSTON HYPERX SAVAGE SSD? and would it make much of a difference gaming wise for the few extra pounds? speaking of loading times etc

I don't think you'd notice any difference in use but in benchmarks the Samsung are very fast. I would always choose Samsung over others purely out of choice.

 

[Stephen M]

Agree with Spyder about not noticing any difference. I use Kingston Hyper X out of choice but if PC Specialist stopped doing them I would happily have a Samsung in my next machine.

 

[Naiphe]

okay thankyou all loads for your tips and advice! Much appreciated

 

[Naiphe]

Just thought id get one of you experts to cast an eye over my final setup before going ahead if you would'nt mind Also the sound card is it worth buying a dedicated card?

Case
COOLERMASTER CM STORM ENFORCER - GAMING ENTHUSIAST 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)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DDR4 2666MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 980 Ti - DVI, HDMI, 3 DP
2nd Graphics Card
NONE
3rd Graphics Card
NONE
1st Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
3rd Hard Disk
NONE
4th Hard Disk
NONE
M.2 SSD Drive
NONE
1st PCI-E SSD Drive
NONE
2nd PCI-E SSD Drive
NONE
RAID
NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY
Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NONE
Memory Card Reader
NONE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Fan Controller
NONE
Extra Case Fans
NONE
LED Lighting
NONE
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)
Wireless Router/HomePlugs
NONE
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Firewire
NONE
TV Card
NONE
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Windows 10 Upgrade
FREE Upgrade to Windows 10 with all Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 Purchases*
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 10 (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
NONE
2nd Monitor
NONE
3rd Monitor
NONE
4th Monitor
NONE
Monitor Cables
NONE
Eyefinity Adapter / GeForce 3D Vision
NONE
Keyboard & Mouse
NONE
Mouse
NONE
Game Streaming
NONE
Gaming Mouse Pad
NONE
Games Controller
NONE
Speakers
NONE
Webcam
NONE
Headsets
NONE
Surge Protection
NONE
Cable Tidy
NONE
Printer
NONE
External Hard Drive
NONE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Home Installation
NONE
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Promotional Item
FREE METAL GEAR SOLID game with select GTX 9 Series GPUs! -Subject to T&Cs
Pricing Information

Price (excluding VAT) £1,220.83
Price £1,465.00

 

[SpyderTracks]

Build looks spot on to me.

As for soundcard, I would suggest trying the onboard first, they're excellent these days, especially on the Asus boards where they use the Xonar chipset which is in their dedicated sound cards anyway. Dedicated sound cards are only required when you're recording instruments or mics into the pc or for pro gamers with external speaker setups.

 

[Naiphe]

Okay thanks again for all the help

Now I cant wait! :clap:

 

[Naiphe]

I eventually went with the same build but with a gtx 970 over the 980 ti to lower the price a little. I had to swap out my original asus motherboard for the gigabyte one due to this compatibility problem and the associated delivery delays.

Have to ask though because I don't know much about motherboards: will there be any performance difference between my original choice of ASUS® Z170-P: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs in comparison to the Gigabyte Z170-HD3P: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs?