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New Personal gaming PC build

jedmondson

By jedmondson
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jedmondson

jedmondson

Posted
Posted

So my current setup is a bit long in the tooth for most games now. I have spent the last few days trying to put together a new machine with some help.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-7600K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor (£228.00 @ Amazon UK)

CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Water 3.0 Performer C + LNC 81.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£48.48 @ Amazon UK)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170-Gaming K3-EU ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£117.24 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£191.97 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Plextor M7V 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£63.99 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£74.66 @ Amazon UK)

Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 470 4GB Gaming X Video Card (£185.99 @ Amazon UK)

Case: Aerocool Aero-500 ATX Mid Tower Case

Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Platinum 750W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£128.00 @ Amazon UK)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Full 32/64-bit

Total: £1038.33

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-14 22:25 GMT+0000

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/LTCyZ8

Any thoughts ? Also thanks @bald_pig

ZeroHour

ZeroHour

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How flexible are you on that total price?

There are a few things I would consider spending a little more on personally. Also fyi you can save a smidgen on Windows 10 if you buy 64bit only (£10 on scan approx: https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/microsoft-windows/microsoft-windows-10-pro)

It certainly not a bad spec but I would also recommend either buying a Samsung SSD or Intel with the preference being Samsung even though they are more pricey they are very very reliable.

Arthur

Arthur

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I would also make a few changes (in addition to what @ZeroHour suggested above).

 

  1. Pair your 7th gen Core i5 with a Z270 motherboard rather than Z170. The difference in price between the Gigabyte GA-Z170-Gaming K3 and GA-Z270-Gaming K3 isn't that much (an extra £12.75 on Amazon). The USB-C port (USB 3.1 gen 2) will be useful in the near future.
     
     
  2. Swap the Silverstone PSU with an EVGA SuperNova G3 750W. Not only does it come with a much longer warranty (7 years vs 3), but it's cheaper too at £122.62 and gets very good reviews...
     
    www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=500
     
     
  3. There are some really great deals on RX480 graphics cards at the moment (including the models with 8GB VRAM). e.g.
     
    MSI Radeon RX480 Armor OC 8GB - £199.98
    (via www.hotukdeals.com/search?action=search&keywords=rx480)
     
     
  4. Several Edugeek members have used the following website to buy cheap Windows licenses in the past. You could easily save over £100 here.
     
    https://softwaregeeks.co.uk/product/windows-10-pro (£24.99)

  • Thanks 1
3s-gtech

3s-gtech

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Arthur's recommendations make good sense at this price point - the small step-up in price will yield significant benefits. Going from a RX 470 to 1050 Ti may save a few quid, but won't give you near the same performance - you're comparing against the RX 460 (which does get beaten, but can be soft modded to increase its ability).
  • Thanks 1
bald_pig

bald_pig

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Arthur's recommendations make good sense at this price point - the small step-up in price will yield significant benefits. Going from a RX 470 to 1050 Ti may save a few quid, but won't give you near the same performance - you're comparing against the RX 460 (which does get beaten, but can be soft modded to increase its ability).

 

I was going by some bad benchmarking, looking elsewhere I can see the difference :doh:

PotNoodleTech

PotNoodleTech

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Agree with above.

 

Few things I will say.

 

1. Don't bother with platinum/titanium power supplies, they are a total waste of money, they cost so much more and yet you'll save about £2 per year in electricity. As Arthur said the EVGA Supernova G3's are absolutely outstanding power supplies and great value for money.

 

2. You'll need a bigger boat! er I mean SSD. You want all your games to be on the SSD for superfast loading, 256GB won't last long, I'd get a cheaper HDD and a bigger SSD, 512GB.

 

3. AMD's RX line are not great in terms of outright gaming power, very efficient, decent value, but no faster than the outgoing R290/R290X line and significantly slower than the outgoing R9 Fury line. I would get a 480 rather than a 470 as the price difference is minimal.

 

Other than that, go for it and have fun!!!

  • Thanks 1
jedmondson

jedmondson

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  • Author
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After playing about a bit more i have come up with this

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-7600K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor (£217.94 @ Aria PC)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£91.97 @ Ebuyer)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z270-Gaming K3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£125.14 @ CCL Computers)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£191.97 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£91.93 @ Novatech)

Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£70.33 @ Aria PC)

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 480 4GB G1 Gaming Video Card (£181.08 @ More Computers)

Case: Aerocool Aero-500 ATX Mid Tower Case (£41.30 @ Kustom PCs)

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£78.96 @ Aria PC)

Total: £1090.62

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-15 19:10 GMT+0000

3s-gtech

3s-gtech

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I should also check - what resolution are you looking to game at? If it's 1080p, the 4GB RX480 should be a great match. Any more, then look at the 8GB version or the 6GB GTX 1060 (and up).
ICTDirect_Dave

ICTDirect_Dave

Posted
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I've done a couple of tweaks. Still think a 1060 would be a better bet than a 480.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-7600K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor (£217.94 @ Aria PC)

CPU Cooler: Corsair H75 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£73.97 @ Amazon UK)

Motherboard: MSI Z270-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£108.83 @ More Computers)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£191.97 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£85.13 @ Ebuyer)

Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£70.33 @ Aria PC)

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB Dual Video Card (£259.94 @ More Computers)

Case: Aerocool Aero-500 ATX Mid Tower Case (£41.30 @ Kustom PCs)

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£78.96 @ Aria PC)

 

Total: £1128.37

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

 

Edited by ICTDirect_Dave
  • Thanks 1
DalekSec

DalekSec

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Also - I think 32GB RAM is a waste of money for gaming, I've had 16GB for like 4 years and I've never got anywhere close to using it in daily gaming use. Spend the £100 on beer/more SSD space?

 

Agreed, i have 32GB and i never go above 10GB! (I do use all 32GB for playing with VMs!)

ICTDirect_Dave

ICTDirect_Dave

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Also - I think 32GB RAM is a waste of money for gaming, I've had 16GB for like 4 years and I've never got anywhere close to using it in daily gaming use. Spend the £100 on beer/more SSD space?

 

I have to agree, 16GB will be fine for the time being. Also RAM is expensive right now. If you need another 16GB, get it in 18 months when prices have stabilised.

  • Thanks 1
BeardedTech

BeardedTech

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Are you settled on a AMD GPU? The GTX 1060 is pretty decent for the price

 

Edit: Dammit @ICTDirect_Dave got there before me!

 

Totally agree with this. I've recently installed a GTX 1060 OC into my gaming machine and I wish I had upgraded so much sooner. Playing The Witcher 3 max graphics settings and still getting 60fps (even when raining!), cant find any faults with the card so far.

For a price tag just under £200, its well worth getting.

 

Asus GeForce GTX 1060 Dual 3GB GDDR5 Dual-link DVI-D HDMI 2x DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer

3s-gtech

3s-gtech

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Totally agree with this. I've recently installed a GTX 1060 OC into my gaming machine and I wish I had upgraded so much sooner. Playing The Witcher 3 max graphics settings and still getting 60fps (even when raining!), cant find any faults with the card so far.

For a price tag just under £200, its well worth getting.

 

Asus GeForce GTX 1060 Dual 3GB GDDR5 Dual-link DVI-D HDMI 2x DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer

 

Beware of comparing the 6GB and 3GB models - the 3GB model can quite easily hit its limit and then it suffers badly. AMD's cards are extremely competitive against both versions of the GTX 1060 - check the reviews and see how they both fare in games you play.

  • Thanks 1
  • 1 month later...
jedmondson

jedmondson

Posted
  • Author
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so - life got in the way as it tends to do. My budget has dropped and i have come up with the following.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£180.00 @ Aria PC)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120V VER.2 76.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£42.80 @ Alza)

Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£128.99 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£121.79 @ Aria PC)

Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For £68.00)

Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (Purchased For £50.00)

Case: Aerocool Aero-800 ATX Mid Tower Case (£48.00 @ Kustom PCs)

Power Supply: Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£65.47 @ Scan.co.uk)

Total: £705.05

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-01 20:40 BST+0100

DalekSec

DalekSec

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Do you need the CPU cooler when you don't have an overclockable CPU?

 

If you had a K range cpu i would understand but i think a stock would be fine (Never thought i would say that sentence)

 

Could save yourself £43 and put it towards a HDD instead of just the SSD

 

Also depending on how much you are future proofing, could go with a cheaper Mobo and have DDR3 instead of DDR4 (DDR4 is hella expensive compared to DDR3 atm)

jedmondson

jedmondson

Posted
  • Author
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Do you need the CPU cooler when you don't have an overclockable CPU?

 

If you had a K range cpu i would understand but i think a stock would be fine (Never thought i would say that sentence)

 

Could save yourself £43 and put it towards a HDD instead of just the SSD

 

Also depending on how much you are future proofing, could go with a cheaper Mobo and have DDR3 instead of DDR4 (DDR4 is hella expensive compared to DDR3 atm)

If I can find a k range cpu I might get one. Also some online reviews have said there might be a clearance issue. I have a 2tb hdd that's forgot to put in there.

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