Old man wakes from 10 yr coma dazed & confused...

Wireforks

Wireforks

Wireforks

Associate
Joined
13 Apr 2018
Posts
18
... and can't play Baldur's Gate anymore :-(

I was a cretin before I got old, and now I'm somewhat demented too. I'd certainly benefit from some guidance if anyone has a few minutes/is bored enough to step in.

I could really do with new a computer for doing everything* on.

* Games, Web, Office, Recreation/Hobbies: I'll do little bits of video editing, occasionally tinker with photo's, and do guitar/music so it's likely I'll be recording/processing some sort of audio files at some point.

Games I'd play would include WoW, GTA5, Kerbal Space Program, Sid Meiers civ games, Total War type games, whatever the modern day equivalent to sim city is (and Baldur's... ). I'd like to think I'll be able to play Star Citizen if I live long enough to see it released. If possible I'd love to be able to play GTR2 with my old logitech FF steering wheel.

I didn't have a budget, but had £1000 or less in mind... this is where I'm at so far (*cough):

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,434.13 (includes shipping: £13.20)​
​

I have a cheap keyboard/mouse that'll do for now and a very old Dell 2405fpw, which maybe useful as a second monitor if not fit to use as primary.

With the threat of next gen Nvidia cards on the horizon, I'm considering the sense in buying a GTX1050 for now, with the intent of buying a 11 series in 6 months/12 months time? (maybe a saving on todays gpu can herald the purchase of a new monitor?)

I could do with a optical disc R/RW, but couldn't figure out the difference between the LG & Asus models.

I do need an OS but I think there maybe considerably cheaper ways to organise that (maybe I could do with a new usb key though? It was all on disk last time I had to install windows).

I'd very much appreciate a bit of input/advice/ideas on this. Apparently there's a soft budget that falls somewhere between £800 & £1500.... ish....

Thank you.
 
The case, its aswesome but do u really need a case with a dvd rom in it? U can install windows via a usb which u get from direct from the microsoft website and then buy a key from a particular auction/car boot site :)
 
Last edited:
Spankme said:
The case, its aswesome but do u really need a case with a dvd rom in it? U can install windows via a usb.
Click to expand...

Yes, mate I need the CDR/RW for CD's/DVD's. Other than the cost of them, I'm not sure there's any reason it couldn't be an external drive.

I wouldn't necessarily have picked a window version of that case tbh; it was on offer cheaper than the solid panel model.

Yep the usb key is for the OS.

TY
 
The case is awesome, its a tempered glass side panel, i have built in it a few times but as time goes on less and less people seem to be using rom drives :)

And i am a massive advocate for BeQuiet! one of the best brands out there right now :)

If you dont need the dvd drive then the world is your oyster... nzxt s340 ELITE, phanteks p300 and the list goes on :)
 
That power supply is overpriced compared to other good units such as the Bitfenix Whisper, Seasonic Focus Gold, Antec HCG Gold and Corsair RMx etc.
 
Here's a slight tweak of your original build:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,351.13 (includes shipping: £13.20)
​

Much cheaper, arguably better PSU in the important areas (but will be slightly louder). Massive 10 year warranty (double the be quiet).
Case with much better airflow - essential for high powered air-cooled components. Lacks sound-dampening material, so it won't 'be quiet'.
SATA SSD - big cost saving here, the differences from NVMe aren't very noticeable in real-world usage (game loads, loading windows, most applications etc)



For the issue of getting windows, if you have windows 10 you can attach your windows key to your Microsoft account - makes it very easy to re-install windows on another PC.


In regards to waiting for Nvidia's next-gen, there isn't any reliable info on when release even is. But there is some speculation on June/July. I'd recommend getting a decent card now, as by the time the new cards release (and are OOS/price-gouged for a few weeks after release) you'd already be enjoying your old card for months. The 1070ti should last you many years of 1080p gaming anyway .
 
Last edited:
Good choice on the drive, but I wonder if 500GB of storage is a bit limiting? It's probably enough but I wonder whether you wouldn't be better with the 250GB version of that disk which can be had for £98 and a second drive - perhaps a Crucial MX500 500GB SATA drive for Steam and videos and so on. That gives you a little more room. I managed just fine for years on that particular combination ~ a 250GB system disk and a 500GB data drive. The two drives are a little cheaper than the one drive you have in you list and give you 50% more space and critically the system is still on a very fast disk indeed. On the other hand you may decide to press ahead with the 500GB 970 and add another disk later for other stuff as you fill up the 970.
I agree with others on the case that the 5.25" bays are somewhat of a waste of space these days. There are some amazing cases around that don't have bays. Without tons of bays it makes it really roomy inside the case around the motherboard which is great for getting your hands in there and great for airflow. The idea of course is that you don't need an optical drive anymore and well if you really want one you can get an external USB drive for £20. That has the advantage that you can use it for any laptop or PC you have. I have one optical drive that I use for all my PC's.
I just buy Windows on disk or USB. Last thing you need when you are building a PC is to have Microsoft tell you that your Windows won't register.
Thing with Windows these days is that it makes the most of data collection and targeted advertising. It collects a huge amount of data about you and tries to sell you software and media. So when you first start up a Windows 10 PC it's a nightmare of rubbish. It doesn't want you to remove all of it either so you need to research the subject. You may want to find out what applications there are, and how to remove the ones you don't want. And how to disable such things as targeted advertising in Windows 10. But the most important thing here is you have to decide how much you want Microsoft to know about you. Going in to Windows 10 naively means they will know where you are and what you doing 24/7. Who you speak to. What websites you use. Everything. So a really important decision is what do you want them to know?
 
@southernorth build will allow more airflow into the case and PSU cover is for longer but unit and case will be louder then all bequiet set up- either way you cant lose !
and personally the Pure 600 should have had that listing price as standard ! also if you grab one, just set the fans on the case controller to full speed, you wont hear it :D

and his listing of standrad sata 3 ssd is the smarter choice as you wont see any difference in gaming speeds unless like me you run a few hours of 3D Mark every week .

would personally push 1TB SSD! for the price of the NVMe drive you were looking at .

memory is a steal of a price but will take some working, another member has that Ultra and 8 Pack ram combo and is running 3200hz CL16 now , I've got the same as well on my doorstop yesterday so will crunch though it

another train of though , in win 101 that has USB C port at the front to connect to the board which other cases dont and allows for 3 bottom fans to be installed for damn good air supply!

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,379.59 (includes shipping: £11.70)​
​


will try and take snapshot of Aorus Ultra in a Pure 600 Case for you tonight to see its looks
 
Thank you, folks.

lee32uk said:
That power supply is overpriced compared to other good units such as the Bitfenix Whisper, Seasonic Focus Gold, Antec HCG Gold and Corsair RMx etc.
Click to expand...

@lee32uk Yes I noticed they are pricey; quite a premium for silent operation. Are the other quality psu's really that much louder than BeQuiet! ones, anyway?

southernorth said:
Much cheaper, arguably better PSU in the important areas (but will be slightly louder). Massive 10 year warranty (double the be quiet).
Case with much better airflow - essential for high powered air-cooled components. Lacks sound-dampening material, so it won't 'be quiet'.

SATA SSD - big cost saving here, the differences from NVMe aren't very noticeable in real-world usage (game loads, loading windows, most applications etc)

For the issue of getting windows, if you have windows 10 you can attach your windows key to your Microsoft account - makes it very easy to re-install windows on another PC.

In regards to waiting for Nvidia's next-gen, there isn't any reliable info on when release even is. But there is some speculation on June/July. I'd recommend getting a decent card now, as by the time the new cards release (and are OOS/price-gouged for a few weeks after release) you'd already be enjoying your old card for months. The 1070ti should last you many years of 1080p gaming anyway .
Click to expand...

@southernorth There's something appealing about having a silent/near-silent PC, particularly if recording & late at night when I generally have the volume right down which is why I went for the BeQuiet! case/psu. I was happy with the plain/understated styling of those cases too.
I'm not really bothered about having a jazzy looking device or being able to see the giblets inside the box, and went for the windowed case just because it was cheaper. That said, your Phanteks and Orbitalwalsh's In-Win cases are both aesthetically pleasing to me. It doesn't have to be totally silent, but it's desirable and something I'd consider paying a bit more to get closer to that aim.

Thanks for the heads up on those NVMe drives. Let's sack the idea of getting one of those then.

I don't have windows 10 yet, useful to know you can attach it to Microsoft account. I was going to use the windows creation tool and purchase a key (unless there's a compelling reason not to). I'm not sure what size/sort pen drive I'd be best off using for it?

With regards to the Graphics card, I know it's just speculation atm but I think I'd read that August was possible for release of next gen Nvidia's. In the past I had a policy of waiting until the new thing had been in the wild for 6 months+ before buying into it, so I'd probably be looking to get into it sometime after March 2019. Of course I don't know exactly what games I'll end up playing on it, but having looked at recommended specs for some of the games I mentioned it seems that a 1050 is above the recommended specs. I'm not too upset if I can't play all the latest titles with all the graphics settings cranked up to 11, so with that in mind how many years would you expect a 1070ti to be useful for? I'm kind of living in the vain hope that we won't be paying over the odds for too much longer for GPU's because of crypto currency mining.

Pocah said:
Good choice on the drive, but I wonder if 500GB of storage is a bit limiting? It's probably enough but I wonder whether you wouldn't be better with the 250GB version of that disk which can be had for £98 and a second drive - perhaps a Crucial MX500 500GB SATA drive for Steam and videos and so on. That gives you a little more room. I managed just fine for years on that particular combination ~ a 250GB system disk and a 500GB data drive. The two drives are a little cheaper than the one drive you have in you list and give you 50% more space and critically the system is still on a very fast disk indeed. On the other hand you may decide to press ahead with the 500GB 970 and add another disk later for other stuff as you fill up the 970.
I agree with others on the case that the 5.25" bays are somewhat of a waste of space these days. There are some amazing cases around that don't have bays. Without tons of bays it makes it really roomy inside the case around the motherboard which is great for getting your hands in there and great for airflow. The idea of course is that you don't need an optical drive anymore and well if you really want one you can get an external USB drive for £20. That has the advantage that you can use it for any laptop or PC you have. I have one optical drive that I use for all my PC's.
I just buy Windows on disk or USB. Last thing you need when you are building a PC is to have Microsoft tell you that your Windows won't register.
Thing with Windows these days is that it makes the most of data collection and targeted advertising. It collects a huge amount of data about you and tries to sell you software and media. So when you first start up a Windows 10 PC it's a nightmare of rubbish. It doesn't want you to remove all of it either so you need to research the subject. You may want to find out what applications there are, and how to remove the ones you don't want. And how to disable such things as targeted advertising in Windows 10. But the most important thing here is you have to decide how much you want Microsoft to know about you. Going in to Windows 10 naively means they will know where you are and what you doing 24/7. Who you speak to. What websites you use. Everything. So a really important decision is what do you want them to know?
Click to expand...

@Pocah We'll dispense with the idea of an NVMe drive for now as it's apparent that I'll be paying for something that won't benefit me. I was thinking that 500GB would be enough to get me going with an OS and a couple of games & then add another drive later, as you say. I have actually got a 2TB external usb drive for dumping stuff/storage that still has some use if need be. Orbitalwalsh suggested a 1TB sata drive that's also an option.

I definitely still need an Optical Drive, but it doesn't matter to me whether it's and internal or external one as long as it does the same thing. Do the external usb drives provide the same functionality and performance as the internal ones?

Thanks for the advice on Windows, I didn't know about any of that. I want Microsoft to have as little information about me as possible, the nosey, cheeky sods lol.
I think it's too expensive as a retail product, why not get a key and use the creation tool? (I don't see how it's any less legitimate or less "in the spirit" as buying an oem version with a piece of hardware - like a cheap mouse/usb drive, like we used to in the good old days).

orbitalwalsh said:
@southernorth build will allow more airflow into the case and PSU cover is for longer but unit and case will be louder then all bequiet set up- either way you cant lose !
and personally the Pure 600 should have had that listing price as standard ! also if you grab one, just set the fans on the case controller to full speed, you wont hear it :D

and his listing of standrad sata 3 ssd is the smarter choice as you wont see any difference in gaming speeds unless like me you run a few hours of 3D Mark every week .

would personally push 1TB SSD! for the price of the NVMe drive you were looking at .

memory is a steal of a price but will take some working, another member has that Ultra and 8 Pack ram combo and is running 3200hz CL16 now , I've got the same as well on my doorstop yesterday so will crunch though it

another train of though , in win 101 that has USB C port at the front to connect to the board which other cases dont and allows for 3 bottom fans to be installed for damn good air supply!

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,379.59 (includes shipping: £11.70)
​


will try and take snapshot of Aorus Ultra in a Pure 600 Case for you tonight to see its looks
Click to expand...

@orbitalwalsh With the extra airflow/fans in the In-Win case, could I not just run them slower and achieve the same level of quietness as the BeQuiet!?

I dare say I won't be able to resist a bit of benchmarking at some point, but I'm not bothered about paying more money so I can get a better score. Let's leave the NVMe for now.

That memory seemed like an offer too good to miss, as long as it can be made to work at equal or better performance than 16GB of 3200MHz plug & play RAM. In all honesty I'm not sure what the point of it is if motherboards don't support that speed, unless a future BIOS update will support it?

What are your thoughts on buying a GTX1050 for now with a view to buying a next gen card once they've been out a while?
 
indeed you could run them at a slower rate to keep noise down :) and in turn less airflow into the case but since its coming from the bottom up shouldn't be a problem. Not that im discouraging the Pure 600 since i've done many builds in them

ArtC5cw.jpg

Intel COU/Boards can take that speed so ram kits have to suit both parties so to speak. also there will be 4 generation on the AM4 platform, currently on 2nd. That x470 board will be able to handle Zen2 and 2+ refresh that hopefully again will support higher ram speed . so in a few years time will be able to slap in a ryzen 4*** and hopefully use the 4000hz speed (fingers crossed)
 
orbitalwalsh said:
Yep, nice case, wouldn't pay full price for it, as should be around the £70-85 mark personally .
Being modular does help though
Click to expand...

Looks like there's not masses of space left inside a midi by the time you're done. I take the point above about the drive bays, especially having looked at your image. It's been a looong time since I've looked at any of this stuff.
I'll be comparing prices elsewhere before I hand over any coin. I think they'll be able to see me right tbh. If they do, I'll definitely be looking towards adding a new monitor into the fun.
 
Wireforks said:
Looks like there's not masses of space left inside a midi by the time you're done. I take the point above about the drive bays, especially having looked at your image. It's been a looong time since I've looked at any of this stuff.
I'll be comparing prices elsewhere before I hand over any coin. I think they'll be able to see me right tbh. If they do, I'll definitely be looking towards adding a new monitor into the fun.
Click to expand...

In the Pure 600... Loads of space ! Stretching the Midi class personally , lot of cases are.
To me midi cases are the s340, phanteks meshy C and p300 , in win 101 etc that you struggle to get a 330mm GPU in etc
 
orbitalwalsh said:
In the Pure 600... Loads of space ! Stretching the Midi class personally , lot of cases are.
To me midi cases are the s340, phanteks meshy C and p300 , in win 101 etc that you struggle to get a 330mm GPU in etc
Click to expand...

I think what had before must have been a full tower then. I remember it was a coolermaster, built like an oil rig & you could have parked a car inside it :-)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom