£2000-£2500 on a spectacular monitor set-up and powerful PC

BioBiro

BioBiro

BioBiro

Associate
Joined
19 Apr 2010
Posts
23
Hi, hi~!

Then:
You guys did an amazing job all~ the way back in April 2010 spec-ing my current PC: i7 920 & Corsair H50 / 6GB DDR3 / ATI 5850 1GB / 1TB 7200RPM HDD / BenQ 24" 1080p 60Hz

Well~, to cut a long story short, the H50 failed and they kindly replaced it with a H55, the 920 overheated and I replaced it with one off eBay that's overheating again, 6GB of RAM became too limiting and I added another 6GB, I added a pair of 4TB hard disks when I filled up the 1TB disk, the 5850 won't run any new games properly, my FireWire soundcard keeps disconnecting itself due to a bug (which requires shutting the whole PC down), my keyboard (which was manufactured sometime before 2000...) and mouse are covered with filth, and I wish I had nice bigger and nicer screens than 3840x1080 @ 60Hz.


Now:
What a great PC it's been for the last seven years. I've been putting off getting a new one over-and-over (I almost bought the 5K iMac when I came out...), and now it's time to take the plunge.

I like to have lots of tabs open in my web browsers, develop with recent versions of Visual Studio, play games like Fallout 4 (which my current PC can't run over about 10FPS) and sim-racing titles like Asseto Corsa and Project Cars (so resource-hungry I can barely run it), do a little audio multi-tracking, etc.

I am comfortable spending £2000 to £2500. I'm hoping for a really great PC experience!

I'd like the computer to be reasonably quiet (no louder than my current one, anyway). It doesn't need to be silent or anything, just no whir-whir-whir~ turbo loud fans like a jet engine.

I don't want to perform any overclocking, unless absolutely necessary, due to previous experiences with overheating because of the hot environment where I live.


I've got:
A Coolermaster ATCS 840 that I'm hoping I can re-use. It's a really nice, big case, that I'm assuming still fits modern motherboards.

An Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Bronze PSU. It's 7 years old, I'm not so confident this can be re-used on a new build?

Two 4TB SATA drives to re-use from my old PC.

An optical drive to re-use.

Some Arctic Silver 5 laying around to use.

A legal copy of Windows 10.


I want:
Most of all, I absolutely, definitely want to invest in one or more lovely monitors. I'd like to go 4K, but I also like the sound of these new high-refresh rate monitors that they've invented. Apparently, I can compromise with a 1440p 144Hz monitor, although that's not 4K. There's also these 120Hz and 165Hz monitors.

If I get 4K, I can run it at 200% DPI on a smaller screen, or regular scale on one of these really huge (43") monitors that companies like Philips make. Having run dual 24"s, going back to one monitor seems weird, but having dual or triple 40" screens sounds gigantic!

If I get one 4K 60Hz monitor, and one 1440p 144Hz monitor, I guess that would cover all bases, but having two different monitors next to each other would be really strange, don't you think?

The 'ASUS' company seem to have branded themselves as manufacturing 'gamer-friendly' monitors, but I've heard they suffer from lacklustre quality control?

And I've got to take these new G-Sync and FreeSync technologies into account, even though I don't really understand them. I've heard that these technologies only work with specific brands of graphics cards?

Heck, I just don't know what I want. Can anyone help spend my money on a monitor set-up I'll really like?

Anyway, onto the computer itself:

I'd like a really quick CPU. I've heard that AMD CPUs tend to run quite hot, so if possible, I'd like to avoid those, unless you're sure they run as cool as the Intel equivalent.

A motherboard for it.

All-in-one water cooling units are fine, but otherwise air cooling, please! Stock coolers are usually a bit rubbish, so I was assuming I'd need something aftermarket?

I'd like a super-dooper fast SSD as my system drive. At least 512GB, if not 1TB. No further hard disks are wanted.

At least 32GB of RAM. 16GB will not be enough!

Mega awesome graphics card(s)! I'm under the impression it's better to buy one good card, than two (or more) not-so-good cards in combo?

I would like a mechanical keyboard that is also quiet. A friend at work has one, and it feels lovely, but it's too loud (tappy-tap-tap-tap), so I'd like a quiet mechanical keyboard, please!

My current mouse is a rather ancient Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical; I think it's OK. I don't think I need any of those fancy new gaming mice, but if there's a nice mouse out there you think I'd like, feel free to include it.

I think that's it, unless you can think of any other gear I'll need (cables?).

Thank you, and all suggestions are welcome~! :)
 
Hi,

The case and PSU should still be ok to use, 7years may seem awhile but the PSU is a seasonic inside so decent internal parts. I had one of those cases and yeah its huge and will take anything.

Do you still have the radiator adaptors for it that replace the roof fans?


If I get one 4K 60Hz monitor, and one 1440p 144Hz monitor, I guess that would cover all bases, but having two different monitors next to each other would be really strange, don't you think?
Click to expand...

I have two very different monitor s next to each other and find it ok, one is a 24" 144Hz for games the other is a 34" 21:9 3440x1440p for watching films etc.
 
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Personally I wouldn't get 4K, demands on GPU(s) mean you need a very high end GPU, or even going dual. I'd stick to 1440p.
Freesync will be cheaper (reason why I went for ATI GPU)

You don't need to spend massive amounts of money on a PC to get a good one. Be sensible, but get decent components. But don't spend £300 on a motherboard just because, nor get the biggest SSD & HD because you're paying a premium. Same for the fastest CPU, it'll be several times more expensive than a slightly slower CPU.
 
stulid said:
Do you still have the radiator adaptors for it that replace the roof fans?
Click to expand...
Er~, probably... somewhere. Why - do you want them?

Thank you for your advice on the PSU and displays :).


hornetstinger said:
You don't need to spend massive amounts of money on a PC to get a good one. Be sensible, but get decent components. But don't spend £300 on a motherboard just because, nor get the biggest SSD & HD because you're paying a premium. Same for the fastest CPU, it'll be several times more expensive than a slightly slower CPU.
Click to expand...
I didn't realise the large price difference between CPUs had such small performance differences, thanks! I knocked-up a few quick attempts at choosing components within budget, and I was surprised how expensive a lot of parts (RAM, SDD, CPUs) are, these days, so I thought I'd need advice on how to get the best bang-for-my-buck, even within a larger budget.



Perhaps it would be better if I were assemble a list of my own choosing, and post it so improvements could be suggested?
 
BioBiro said:
Er~, probably... somewhere. Why - do you want them?

Thank you for your advice on the PSU and displays :).
Click to expand...

No, for you so I could possibly suggest/spec a 240mm AIO cooler instead of a regular one, unless you want air cooling only?


For example I have this so far for you,

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,383.93
(includes shipping: £0.00)



​

But! the GTX1080ti is released next week so figure an extra £100-150 ontop roughly, maybe more.

That should leave roughly upto £1K to spend on an epic screen.
 
A top notch 1440p screen I think would be the way to go, freesync or gsync depending.

Also don't underestimate a decent sound system, you don't need to spend a fortune on sound, but it is a major sensory input when gaming.
 
mattyfez said:
A top notch 1440p screen I think would be the way to go, freesync or gsync depending.

Also don't underestimate a decent sound system, you don't need to spend a fortune on sound, but it is a major sensory input when gaming.
Click to expand...

Yup. It was quite fun playing games on the full on home theatre...3kW of audio power RMS.

Can't understand why someone would spend thousands of PC gear, and then buy £20 speakers cheap as possible.
 
Yeh a £50-80 quid set of active speakers will really add to the experience, or a set of quality headphones depending on preference.

If you have a decent hifi system you can plug it into, even better.

I don't even know why they bother building speakers into monitors, as they are universally crap. They just about function if you just have a work machine, but if you're spending a lot on a gaming machine, and don't have an existing hifi, it's worth budgeting in some T20's at a minimum.
 
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stulid said:
No, for you so I could possibly suggest/spec a 240mm AIO cooler instead of a regular one, unless you want air cooling only?


For example I have this so far for you,

[...]
​

But! the GTX1080ti is released next week so figure an extra £100-150 ontop roughly, maybe more.

That should leave roughly upto £1K to spend on an epic screen.
Click to expand...
Oooh~, that looks very nice, although it'll need to have 32GB of RAM - but this wouldn't be a problem, especially since you left me a little budget-bounce room! :)

I've no idea where those radiator brackets or whatever they were called are, so probably best to pick an AIO cooler that'll just screw-in as normal.

Will I be much better-off if I wait for this 'GTX 1080Ti' product to be released, or are current market conditions acceptable to purchase in?

Also, following suggestions from one or two others that 1440p @ 144Hz is the way to go for gaming, I'll go that route. Of course, it'll only be one (27?") monitor I'd be getting for that (I can't afford three as a super-surround set-up), so I'd end up with less screen real estate and monitors that I currently have. So, getting one 144Hz monitor and one 4K monitor together now sounds really, really~ tempting! If it's good enough for you, it's good enough for me :D.


mattyfez said:
Yeh a £50-80 quid set of active speakers will really add to the experience, or a set of quality headphones depending on preference.
Click to expand...
This is excellent advice for all, although I've got audio covered - I use Sennheiser headphones, and have budgeted to purchase a dedicated soundcard w/ DSP and multiple IO a little later on.
 
I dont think a normal 240/280mm AIO will fit in the case without those two brackets as I seem to remember the two fans in the roof being bloody massive.

And you dont want another small 120mm/140mm AIO fitted again at the rear fan mount do you.
 
I still don't think 4k is worth it, I'd sooner buy a a matching pair of 1440 screens for a dual monitor set up.

Unless one is for gaming (1440) and you have a 4k one for movies.
 
stulid said:
I dont think a normal 240/280mm AIO will fit in the case without those two brackets as I seem to remember the two fans in the roof being bloody massive.

And you dont want another small 120mm/140mm AIO fitted again at the rear fan mount do you.
Click to expand...
You call that small!?

I'm starting to understand what you mean, now. The top fans are 230mm(?). They are indeed huge! I've got them both installed. In fact, I've got my hand above them right now. They are very gentle and low speed, but provide a refreshing cool breeze, similar to a desk fan or air conditioning-type experience.

I'll stick with an AIO that mounts at the back like the H55, or regular heatsink/fan on the CPU.


mattyfez said:
I still don't think 4k is worth it, I'd sooner buy a a matching pair of 1440 screens for a dual monitor set up.

Unless one is for gaming (1440) and you have a 4k one for movies.
Click to expand...
Having matching screens is nice, but for me it doesn't seem cost-effective.

I have two 24"s at the moment - one in the centre, and one to the left. I game on the centre one, and the left-hand one just does whatever it wants (YouTube or something).

I'd still have the same desk set-up with whatever I buy, so I don't feel it would make sense to have the left-handed 144Hz monitor never utilising it's 144Hz-iness.

Having a 1440p for gaming, and a 4K for really nice big screen real estate doing work, is what I was thinking?


MassiveJim said:
personally if I was spending £2.5k I would definitely include a 500GB Samsung M2 960 Pro. :)
Click to expand...
Absolutely, yes. I need one of those things!


I'll stop with my yackity-yack-yack and piece together a set-up based on stulid's. That is what I would go to the checkout with:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £2,738.90
(includes shipping: £0.00)



​
Is there any point in buying another CPU cooler if I've already got a H55 in my current PC? I could just re-use it, since it supports socket 2011-V3? And if not, presumably the new CPU will come with a stock cooler for the meantime.

I've swapped the RAM out for the 32GB variant.

I've also swapped the '750 EVO SSD' for the '960 EVO Polaris', because it apparently has read/write speeds and more FLOPS by about four-times? The 750 says it has a read speed of 540Mbps, while the 960 says it has a read speed of 3200MB/s! That sounds like a huge difference - having stuff load-up four times as quickly :)!

I added a nice mouse. I forgot to mention that the side buttons for going forward-and-back within a web browser are knackered on my IntelliMouse, so I really could do with a new one.

The Dell 1440p monitor looks like a very delicious unit, and supports G-Sync for the NVidia card.

I picked a 4K monitor that's so big I can run it at 100% DPI scaling to enjoy all that screen space natively.

Admittedly, I'm slightly over-budget, but it might be another seven years before I buy another PC, so what's £200 extra...
 
The CPU does not include a stock cooler.

One slight flaw with the SOC Champion baord is that the m.2 slot is not full speed, were as others maybe 32GB/S I think its more like 20GB/S on that one.
 
stulid said:
The CPU does not include a stock cooler.

One slight flaw with the SOC Champion baord is that the m.2 slot is not full speed, were as others maybe 32GB/S I think its more like 20GB/S on that one.
Click to expand...
Ah right, thanks. I'll include a decent CPU air cooler, as I've not always been that comfortable with the AIO Corsair solutions I've used. This one is very highly-rated and compatible, so in the basket it goes.

Is the speed of the m.2 slot something I should worry about? Would I be better off going with the 750 EVO SSD rather than the 960 EVO Polaris?
 
The m.2 IOPS should not be affected bit the read/write speeds will not be at maximum, still better than SATAIII though.

Coolers,

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £119.80
(includes shipping: £9.90)



​


Both these are 100% compatible with all RAM modules no matter how tall they are, I have personally used the U12S and it was the quietest cooler I have ever experienced and so I figure the U14S will be too and its the same price as the U12S

Plus they are an absolute doodle to fit.
 
Excellent! Thank you. It's kind of funny how you spec-ced my PC back in 2010, and now you're doing it again :)!

Everything's in stock. I think all the cabling is sorted. Well~, I guess this is it; holy Jesus, that's a lot of money:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £2,793.85
(includes shipping: £0.00)



​
 
You just saved me sixty quid, thanks~!

OK, time to pull the trigger, right after... after... after this cup of tea, and then I'll definitely do it... :)
 
This story has a happy ending~! It works~, and I didn't break anything~! It's really good, too~!

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Thanks~, thanks~, stulid! I'll be back in another five-seven years for my next build, OK? :)
 
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