£1100 to spend on the "one forever-ish" system

Right i have the case already nzxt s340 elite

Currently its rocking
AMD 3.4ghz black edition something or other
FM2A55M motherboard which i pulled from my htpc
8gb of xms low profile 1333mhz ram which again butchered from htpc

gigabyte 750ti 2gb card which for £117 is fair reasonable at gaming

a 256gb SSD which i had laying around

Now I've been shopping around for awhile in search of the perfect system always adding things to basket then before i hit the buy button i have a change of heart.

I'm sadly one of those that likes the herpes of gaming the RGB lighting

I checked out the asus motherboard with RGBs at £500 and said sod that

Any other alternative? I will be adding the nzxt hue lighting so maybe this will suffice?

Thinking of an i5 6600k build and ramp it up to 4.8ghz or should i just negate that and skip right to an i7 as i do own a canon 70d and I'm always chaffing about with videos in premiere pro and Photoshop.... This is occasionally though.

Going for a 1070 founders edition card which I've ordered already and will return the 750ti whilst i still can.

With that information any further recommendations? This is the 5th PC I've built all the others I've gotten bored with and sold on but the mrs point blank refuses to let me spend again only to sell so this must be the leave it alone build.....

Something like this?

The ram has great LED's, the GPU is RGB and the Motherboard is also RGB
I assume you need a new PSU.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-6600K 3.9GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £239.99
• 1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020047-UK)= £53.99
• 1 x Avexir Tesla ROG Series 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-21300C15 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit - Red Light= £179.99
• 1 x Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Designare Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £193.99

You want a better psu than the Corsair CX.

terley said:

Something like this?

The ram has great LED's, the GPU is RGB and the Motherboard is also RGB
I assume you need a new PSU.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-6600K 3.9GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £239.99
• 1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020047-UK)= £53.99
• 1 x Avexir Tesla ROG Series 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-21300C15 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit - Red Light= £179.99
• 1 x Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Designare Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £193.99

Total: £679.06
(includes shipping: £11.10)
​

​

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I had never seen that motherboard thank you i might never of found it so cheers

What are peoples thoughts on i5 or i7 I've had the i7 4790k devils canyon previously as i was told that it would be better for gaming than the i5 but after reading a lot of posts and watching a few youtube videos i am still as unsure as ever.

i7 for productivity
i5 for gaming

Does that still apply these days?

I have the ceiling to push for an i7 but if its overkill then i will stick to an i5

Also do OCuk do any offers codes as i can find these cheaper elsewhere but i like to support good companies and DPD are a great courier service i have found when it comes to receiving items

i5 is perfectly suited for gaming and productivity, there are a hand-full of games that you will see a 5-10fps increase and they are primarily RTS and very heavy AI games.

i7 is great for multi-tasking, i.e. streaming game-play. I would recommend anyone who is building a gaming pc save the extra £100 and go for an i5.

phrases said:

Also do OCuk do any offers codes as i can find these cheaper elsewhere but i like to support good companies and DPD are a great courier service i have found when it comes to receiving items

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Not trying to be an ad or anything but i would honestly get everything from OCUK even if it costs a little more. They have a good community, a solid shipping company, and a very good customer support team. As with others that spec builds for people, i'm certain we wouldn't do it if we didn't have full trust in OCUK.

On the topic of the build itself. I use an i5 system for all gaming and Solidworks 3D modelling (its entirely single thread). I have had i7 systems in the past but unless you have a specific and constant need for hyper threading it just isn't worth it.

That avexir RAM costs a tonne for what it is. While RGB is all the rage at the moment i bet most people find a colour they like and stick with it. I would recommend doing that. Buy and LED strip of colour or colours you want, or even an RGB strip(if you don't want a perfect white) RAM really isn't worth lighting in my opinion. Especially when you consider that the cost of 16GB 2400mhz ram, which is plenty, is like £80.

For psu you can find plenty that are under 500W and 80 plus gold efficiency, pick up one of those you like.

terley said:

i5 is perfectly suited for gaming and productivity, there are a hand-full of games that you will see a 5-10fps increase and they are primarily RTS and very heavy AI games.

i7 is great for multi-tasking, i.e. streaming game-play. I would recommend anyone who is building a gaming pc save the extra £100 and go for an i5.

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+1 to this. Things might change when the next batch of CPUs come out, but for now I don't see it as a worthwhile upgrade.

well as I've done a few extra hours at work this week i pushed the boat out and ordered an i7 as i do the odd adobe software from time to time and while an i5 would have cut it I'm just a snob i guess!

On a subnote has anyone noticed the prices of components sky rocket lately? The 1070 i had my eye on last week has shot up £70 brexit to blame?

phrases said:

well as I've done a few extra hours at work this week i pushed the boat out and ordered an i7 as i do the odd adobe software from time to time and while an i5 would have cut it I'm just a snob i guess!

On a subnote has anyone noticed the prices of components sky rocket lately? The 1070 i had my eye on last week has shot up £70 brexit to blame?

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You won't regret the i7, especially if you're building for the logn term.

Prices are crazy at the moment. I worked out that a £900 system that I built in March this year would now cost £1200. So that's a 33% increase in just 6 months. Crazy.

Sadly it's unlikely to stop there if the value of the Pound keeps falling.

Cern said:

You won't regret the i7, especially if you're building for the logn term.

Prices are crazy at the moment. I worked out that a £900 system that I built in March this year would now cost £1200. So that's a 33% increase in just 6 months. Crazy.

Sadly it's unlikely to stop there if the value of the Pound keeps falling.

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Glad its not just me seeing the difference then i managed to order a 1070 and the i7 before the price hike which I've noticed the world is going mad i tell ya!

On a side note i forgot to mention that i need a monitor also as I'm currently using a 42 inch tv I'm sat close to it and its whilst its not bad i do find i get a sun tan off it

I'm lusting after the X35 ultra wide curved monitor but it retails at £1000 almost thats a serious investment for something that may well drop in price in a year or so then again with the trend in prices the ROG 27" monitor hasn't really budged in price neither

Also as I'm still saving for stuff i wanted to use the DDR3 ram i have but I've noticed that the board i will need supports DDR4 i guess that means DDR3 wont work in the board?

lee32uk said:

You want a better psu than the Corsair CX.

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Funny as I've had one for over 4 years. It's fine. Typical OCUK hype about certain products.

phrases said:

On a subnote has anyone noticed the prices of components sky rocket lately? The 1070 i had my eye on last week has shot up £70 brexit to blame?

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Just noticed this too! i5 6600k was £204.99 in May this year, now £239.99 Definitely EU leaving related. I'm glad I got my big upgrade done earlier this year in May.

MSTRBKR said:

Funny as I've had one for over 4 years. It's fine. Typical OCUK hype about certain products.

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Ah so that makes it good then ?

lee32uk said:

Ah so that makes it good then ?

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Your comment didn't give details to help the OP choose "something better" so I assumed you're talking about its ability to provide power, therefore implying it's bad since that's it's primary function. In my book a PSU that runs for 4 years is a decent product.

I'm not defending my buying choices here, I don't like it when I see advice that gives no details and no help. It's just a random line chucked in to the thread because super flower is the popular PSU. The CX is absolutely fine if you don't mind that it isn't modular.

I've just built this, and loving it. Every game runs so smooth @ 1440p in ultra (where available). It's not even overclocked, just running stock.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Team Group Dark 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (TDKED416G3000HC16AD= £89.99
• 1 x Intel Core i5-6600K 3.9GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - OEM= £229.99
• 1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler= £29.99
• 1 x Asus Z170-A Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £127.99
• 1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 1070 EX OC 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £389.99
• 1 x Phanteks Eclipse P400S Midi Tower Case - Noise Dampened Gun Metal= £69.95
• 1 x Super Flower Golden Green HX 750W "80 Plus Gold" Semi-Modular Power Supply - Black= £86.99

MSTRBKR said:

Your comment didn't give details to help the OP choose "something better" so I assumed you're talking about its ability to provide power, therefore implying it's bad since that's it's primary function. In my book a PSU that runs for 4 years is a decent product.

I'm not defending my buying choices here, I don't like it when I see advice that gives no details and no help. It's just a random line chucked in to the thread because super flower is the popular PSU. The CX is absolutely fine if you don't mind that it isn't modular.

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If you're interested in learning what makes a good PSU or a bad one a reasonable place to start is http://www.jonnyguru.com/ - they do decent reviews of how accurate the voltage tolerances are, if it hits the efficiency targets (note: they're starting from US voltages so they'll get lower efficiency numbers than we will in the UK), how much ripple there is in the supply, if power-on spikes are out of spec etc etc along with teardowns to look at build quality, components and design.

As with any review using a single sample* it's still far from perfect, but gives more information than most places.
* sometimes they get multiple if there is a problem with one or whatever.#

These kinds of reviews tend to be what cause people to rate Seasonic, Superflower etc highly (along with advertising and other less qualitative things like mob-mentality on a forum!!). The CX series for it's price at the time actually didn't do terribly in these reviews if viewed as a lower wattage model though it wasn't a stand-out option as it was overpriced for what it delivered while the successor did better but still was overpriced

How long is forever'ish?

You may get better longevity by purchasing considerably cheaper mid-range systems and renewing every 3-5 years than paying a premium against the laws of diminishing returns on a bad boy system today.

ov_sjo said:

How long is forever'ish?

You may get better longevity by purchasing considerably cheaper mid-range systems and renewing every 3-5 years than paying a premium against the laws of diminishing returns on a bad boy system today.

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Roughly what you stated 3-5 years I've not used a gaming pc in about a year or so since selling my last unit which had sli 970s and I'm wishing i had of kept that now as this build will be for BF1 and running a HTC vive if the prices ever fall first

I'm fooling myself at the moment as i have a kids party and Christmas to pay for so its the wrong time of year for me anything i do buy now such as the i7 and 1070 will just sit waiting till i get a motherboard and a couple of other parts but I'm halfway there.

I had intended to keep running with the A8 6600k and put the 1070 together and i still might but playing BF1 2 feet away from a 42" tv is a rough task on the eyeballs!