£2000 budget, what would YOU build?

liamjrobertson

liamjrobertson

liamjrobertson

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Ok, first off I haven't built a rig in over 4 years and my last one is amd build so I'm still learning the intel ropes. Basically I'm looking now (and saving hard) to pinpoint the parts needed for my next rig which will be intel/nvidia based, and looking to have the build finished by jan/feb at the latest 2015. My budget will be around the 2k mark, and I'm hoping for this I can again build a rig that will last another 4 years (my current rig is still good to play most games on high settings but is oviously well behind the times now).
New rig is likely to consist of:
haswell e based: 6 core, mainboard & ram obviously compatable
cooler: something along the lines of a Kraken or similar
gpu: undecided, waiting for spec/price of 9**'s. Right now I would go 780ti (and at least another 1 in a year or so when prices come down)
storage: when released, pcie ssd (NVMn), 2x sata in raid1, 1x external for backups
case: already own phantom 820
psu: already own ocz 1000w gold
OS:win8.1
Will be looking into watercooling in a lot more detail but at present I havent budgeted for it.
This rig is intended for gaming, nothing else apart from casual internet surfing, watching movies etc.

Dont think I've missed anything there but please correct me if I have!

So as per my OP, what would you build??
Any info/help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance :D
 
I'm sure someone here will suggest going for a Z79 motherboard and a 4970k CPU rather than X99 if all you're doing is gaming. That way you can put the money saved into a Geforce 980 video card (or maybe even 2 in SLI would be an option given a £2k budget?). 6 cores would be wasted on just gaming as you wont see any performance benefit.
 
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Originally that was my exact thought, however I changed my mind after a little research to x99- 40 lanes, NVMe compatable and much better future proofed. Games over the next 4 years WILL become optimised for more cores (some already are) so just makes more sence to spend a little more now. As for 980, now its been released, I can firmly commit to that over a 780ti. Better bang for buck and in a year I can get a second and have no probs with sli as x99 rig is optimised for sli.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus X99-S - Intel Core i7 5820K Six Core CPU & Motherboard Bundle ***£30 Saving*** £505.98
2 x OcUK GeForce GTX 980 "Reference Design" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £439.99 (£879.98)
1 x Crucial Ballistix Elite 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-21300C15 2666MHz Quad Channel Kit £239.99
2 x Crucial MX100 512GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter CT512MX100SSD1) £154.99 (£309.98)
1 x Corsair Hydro H105 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060016-WW ) £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
Total : £2,113.51 (includes shipping : £8.00).



To reiterate, it's overkill for gaming by far, and probably won't be worth it at this point in time. Something like this would be excellent, but it's up to you :)

YOUR BASKET
2 x OcUK GeForce GTX 980 "Reference Design" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £439.99 (£879.98)
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 - Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£43 Saving** £351.98
2 x Crucial MX100 512GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter CT512MX100SSD1) £154.99 (£309.98)
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD316G2666HC11CDC01) £113.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H105 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060016-WW ) £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
Total : £1,833.52 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
 
Just to add I'm planning this build for myself next month:-

Intel Core i7 5820K
Corsair Hydro H100 Cooler
Asus X99-Deluxe Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix Sport 2400Hmz DDR4 32GB (4x8Gb)
Geforce GTX 980 4GB
750W Corsair RM, Modular, Silent, 80PLUS Gold
1TB Samsung 840 EVO SSD
4TB Western Digital Green, IntelliPower, 64MB Cache
Corsair Carbide 540 Air 540 Case
Pioneer BDC-207DBK - 8x Blu-ray Reader

Came to just over £2100

I'm going for X99 because I use VMware a lot for network/OS testing. I've never been a fan of SLI hence planning on going for a 5802k with a single GeForce 980 for gaming.

I still reckon if you're purely gaming you should be going down the Z97/4970k and a 980SLI setup or saving the money for a GPU upgrade in a year or two's time though.........
 
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Thanks for the feedback everyone! My main reason as I think I've said already for the x99 build is helping to futureproof for 4 years, I know its difficult to speculate what will be happening in the games industry over this time period but its my best guess based on what I have researched. Would, in your opinions (and I would like to state the z79/4970k build WAS my first thoughts when I decided I was giong to build a new rig) the z79/4970k system still be a credible 4 year rig compared to the new x99/5930k which I'm almost settled on? Bearing in mind, in the grand scheme of things, gpu aside for a minute, there is only a few hundred quid difference in rig cost...
Thanks again guys, just wanna know if I'm spending my hard earned cash on the right stuff and your opinions are worth a great deal to me :-)
 
Any high end solution is going to last a good few years, no problem.

But If you have a budget, you have a budget, and after those few years are up you have a resale value.

If your budget is 2k, then get the best performance you can with the best resale value for afters.

In this case going x99/5930k with SLI that will take care of games for many years to come is totally possible and you will end up with a good few years worth out of it, if not more.


But! If your budget is hundreds less than £2k then yes, of course, don't go for the X99. Either way, you can still whack SLI 980s in there so wahoo! :)

You just lose potential future performance, and resale value that's all.
 
The other thing I've noticed is that there's a pretty large gulf in pricing (around £180) between the Geforce 970 and 980. In fact for the price of a Geforce 980 plus about £60-70 you can get 2 Geforce 970 SLI'd which pretty much destroys any other card out there.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_970_SLI/6.html

Granted 2x980s would be quicker but that would cost closer to a £1000 vs the £500 for 2 x 970's. Possibly something worth contemplating in a £2k gaming build.
 
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