Help me spec a high end Gaming/Rendering PC please

Middenacht

Middenacht

Middenacht

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Hi guys

I game: Battlefield 1, DarkSouls 3, Doom, you get the drift. Latest stuff.
I edit: Premiere Pro, After Effects
I record gameplay: OBS at 1440p 60fpd (no streaming at moment)

Help me spec me a PC please? i dont have a budget becasue ive no idea how much this will be. Once i have a clue i can start toning it down.

6 or 8 core processor. i know Ryzen is coming. Lets pretend it isnt for now.
32 GB Ram minimum.
Appropriate motherboard. I will OC the chip, but I dont need to spend £700 on the best OC motherboars.
AIO water cooling on the chip
A 3-6 Tb spinner
A 1 TB SSD. My OS and current games will go on this. So will my scratch disks for Adobe work.
GTX 1080
Case (i like roomy cases - surprise me!)

I dont need a monitor or a PSU as Im good with the 1440p 144hz predator and 850W superflower PSU I have

Have at it!!
Happy to answer any queries and will hopefully be heavily involved with the compromises in the spec once i see the bill for the first pass lol
Cheers
 

lee32uk

lee32uk

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Hi

Something like this ?

The board is out of stock at the moment (As are a lot of X99 boards). I would ask customer services when they are expecting stock, as there is no eta listed. You can of course choose a different one that is in stock, but just make sure that it has the latest bios as not all support the i7 6800K out of the box.

The Samsung SM961 is a pretty fast NVMe SSD. The higher read/write speeds will help if you are working with large files. The ugly green pcb should be mostly hidden by the gpu.
If you are not that fussed about the read/write speeds, then you could revert back to a standard SATA such as the 850 EVO.

Phanteks Enthoo Luxe Glass edition is a very nice full tower case. It is also available in black. You get a nice clean build with Phanteks as the drive bays and psu are hidden. It comes with 4 x 140mm fans pre-installed. You will have to remove the top fan though to fit the H110i.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £2,294.22
(includes shipping: £15.30)
​


​
 

Middenacht

Middenacht

Middenacht

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Blimey Lee

Thanks. And also, are you me? ive been trawling around myself on review sites and came up with the same case, same HDD spinner, same CPU and same SSD.

I will admit to being confused by SSD's at the moment. I would love the performance increase the nvme or pcie ones give, but over on another forum with a very similar name to this one, people are seeing almost no improvements in game load or level load speeds. That said, i expect when im throwing around 40-80Gb proxy files in premiere it will be a joy.

What made you choose that motherboard? ive had gigabyte boards in the past and loved em. Im in a Asus Ranger VII at the moment and love that too.

Thanks for the spec and i will look at it more closely tomorrow.

The price seems about right...if i could get it under 2k I would be happier though so I will see where cuts can be made. If any.

Ta
 

Middenacht

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i meant to say....im seeing 1080s down in the 530-550 mark elsewhere. Anyone know why they are dropping in price all of a sudden? The TI about to drop perhaps?
 

lee32uk

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I must be psychic :D

The SSD won't make a huge improvement in game load times, although you might see a bit of a difference if you were running a heavily modded version of a game. Working with large files should see an improvement.

The reason for the board is that it is reasonably priced (By X99 standards) and it gets good reviews. You also have good warranty support with Gigabyte. It also supports the i7 6800K out of the box so no bios update should be needed for it to boot up.

No idea why the prices would be dropping on the 1080's. There are rumours of the GTX 1080 ti being released in March, but there is nothing confirmed anywhere AFAIK.


If you wanted to get closer to £2000 then you would obviously have to make a few sacrifices.

So a slightly cheaper board (Which is in stock). This doesn't support the i7 6800K out of the box though, so you would need to check with ocuk if it has the latest bios installed, or change to the i7 5820K.

Cheaper version of the GTX 1080.

Slower SSD but still 1TB capacity.

A cheaper 240mm AIO.



My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £2,030.14
(includes shipping: £15.30)
​


​
 

Sasahara

Sasahara

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For the SSD have you considered having 2 SSDs? (Not in Raid)

OS & programs on 1, game/proxy files/swap disc on the 2nd?

Depending on what tasks you are doing in premier you can have multiple sources on different SSDs, which if the CPU doesn't bottleneck can increase performance.

Example.

600P 256GB M.2-2880 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe 3D NAND Solid State Drive (SSDPEKKW256G7X1) £89.99.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/inte...id-state-drive-ssdpekkw256g7x1-hd-087-in.html

MX300 750GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 3D Nand 7mm Solid State Drive (CT750MX300SSD1)
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cruc...lid-state-drive-ct750mx300ssd1-hd-064-cr.html £179.99

Total £269.98

So same amount of space as the single 1TB at the same price, but some considerable performance benefit, if you do something that can use it. :)
 
Last edited:

Middenacht

Middenacht

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Sasahara, thanks for the suggestion.

Im my current build I have a 250GB Sata SSD for the OS, a 128GB SSD which i basically currently throw my current Premiere / After Effects project onto and a 500 GB SSD for games. They are all SATA though.

I could choose to keep 1 (or even all) of these into the new build. i was just hoping having a single 1TB NVMe based SSD would see such a significant increase in throughput that i wouldnt need to bother separating applications such as Adobe, Games and OS.

I do however bow down to those who know more about this stuff than I.

I think I have landed on the Phantex Enthoo Evolv for my build.

Does anyone think this is a terrible idea and if so why? I know it has some shortcomings but basically seems to review pretty well. How does it compare to the Phantex Luxe glass?

Also im thinking of using the NZXT Kraken X62 for the AIO cooling. How do people feel about that particular cooler. I can see that Lee specced the Hydro H110i initially and then the AntecH1200 to save cash.

Would i have problems mounting the X62 in the top of the Evolv?

Aside from that, pros and cons of the Evolv and pros and cons of the X62?

cheers guys...Im researching my ass off and REALLY appreciate the posts in here.
 

lee32uk

lee32uk

lee32uk

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Middenacht said:
Sasahara, thanks for the suggestion.

Im my current build I have a 250GB Sata SSD for the OS, a 128GB SSD which i basically currently throw my current Premiere / After Effects project onto and a 500 GB SSD for games. They are all SATA though.

I could choose to keep 1 (or even all) of these into the new build. i was just hoping having a single 1TB NVMe based SSD would see such a significant increase in throughput that i wouldnt need to bother separating applications such as Adobe, Games and OS.

I do however bow down to those who know more about this stuff than I.

I think I have landed on the Phantex Enthoo Evolv for my build.

Does anyone think this is a terrible idea and if so why? I know it has some shortcomings but basically seems to review pretty well. How does it compare to the Phantex Luxe glass?

Also im thinking of using the NZXT Kraken X62 for the AIO cooling. How do people feel about that particular cooler. I can see that Lee specced the Hydro H110i initially and then the AntecH1200 to save cash.

Would i have problems mounting the X62 in the top of the Evolv?

Aside from that, pros and cons of the Evolv and pros and cons of the X62?

cheers guys...Im researching my ass off and REALLY appreciate the posts in here.
Click to expand...

The Evolv ATX is a nice case as well. You shouldn't have any issues fitting a 280mm AIO cooler in it.
 

Middenacht

Middenacht

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When looking at reviews of the Corsair Crystals...

The 460 seems high quality but too small ultimately once you start fitting kit in there, especially rads.

The 570, as so many reviewers say, seems rushed to market and missing quality of life items (like good PSU shrouds) and other issues. Despite being bigger, it seems to hold less than the 460!
 

Sasahara

Sasahara

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Middenacht said:
Sasahara, thanks for the suggestion.

Im my current build I have a 250GB Sata SSD for the OS, a 128GB SSD which i basically currently throw my current Premiere / After Effects project onto and a 500 GB SSD for games. They are all SATA though.

I could choose to keep 1 (or even all) of these into the new build. i was just hoping having a single 1TB NVMe based SSD would see such a significant increase in throughput that i wouldnt need to bother separating applications such as Adobe, Games and OS.
Click to expand...

That looks like a good idea, a 1TB NVMe would be great for al you programs/games & OS. And keep both you old SSDs for temporary work project files.

As lee32uk said, the Samsung range is good. My Intel suggestion as just the cheapest as a guide. :)
 
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