Can you help with reviewing my mid-range PC gaming rig proposal?

jimbobjeff85

jimbobjeff85

jimbobjeff85

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Hey guys!

I've been out of the PC building game for 10 years and wanted some help sanity checking my currently proposed rig below. My budget is £1500, which the proposal approximately fits.

My main aim (currently) is to play FPS such as Player Unknown's BattleGrounds to a fairly high (but not top level) standard.

I have four main questions about the below rig:
1) Have I chosen anything that is technically incompatible with any other component?
2) Can I make significant savings on any component by downgrading to something marginally worse?
3) Is there a better alternative to any component?
4) Have a missed anything out (deliberately omitted DVD Drive, so Windows will be installed by USB Pen)

The Rig:

Peripherals
Monitor - Asus VG248QE - £232.98
Keyboard - Cooler Master MasterKeys Pro L White - £77.00
Mouse - Cooler Master Xornet II - £14
Headset - HyperX Cloud Revolver - £58

Core
Case - Fractal Design Define R5 - £89
Motherboard - Asus Strix Z270F Gaming - £170
CPU - Intel Core i7-770K - £323
Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GB - £272
RAM - 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000 MHZ DDR4 (2x8GB) - £130
SSD - Crucial MX300 275GB x 2 - £172
Cooling Unit - ARCTIC Liquid Freezer 120 - £63
PSU - EVGA SuperNova GS 550W - £80
OS - Windows 10 32/64-Bit - USB Pen Drive - Retail (KW9-00017) - £104
Case Fans - 2x Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition - £30

Total £1,512.98

Any thoughts on the above very gratefully received.

James
 

Plec

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Note: Your total doesn't add up - if that's for the full build it should total £1815 - with peripherals. If it's for the Core build it's ~£80 over.

If you're building around INTEL you ideally would wait for Coffee Lake - it's supposedly a month away from release.

If you can't wait that long have you considered a Ryzen build? If you're not familiar with the format i suggest you Google recent reviews of the Ryzen 1600 and Ryzen 1700 - AMD have come back in a big way.

I'll put a Ryzen build together purley as a price comparison - but not a suggestion to buy - as i recommend that you wait for Coffee Lake's release as it may well affect prices again, for Ryzen too. CPU prices could fall...
 
Last edited:

Plec

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This is just a build for comparison purposes with the i7700K - suggest you watch some YouTube reviews for the 1600 with games (recent reviews)

A core Ryzen build to compare to your Core i7700K build:

As it's primary use is for gaming i used the Ryzen 1600 (6 cores/12threads) it's the sweetspot for gaming. All Ryzen CPUs are unlocked and with a decent cooler can hit up to 3.9GHz (not guaranteed) - but 3.7/3.8GHz is the more realistic clock for speed and stability.

Added 3200MHZ A4 approved memory as Ryzen loves fast memory - but you could drop to 3000MHz to save money as there's only a 2%/3% performance gain.

I've upped the GFX card to a GTX 1070 as it was within budget with a Ryzen build - and would compliment a 144HZ monitor even at 1080p. Or you could consider a 1080p Gsync - or even bumping up to 1440p

I'm guessing relative silence is key given your case choice (they're excellent) - so have swapped the AIO for a Noctua as you wont see it. It will still keep things very chilly, with a decent clock and be considerably quieter than the AIO - plus less points of failure and will last you a few builds. But feel free to ignore if you want an AIO as it's a personal preference.

The Bitfenix is a quality PSU - 7 year warranty and the price difference between the 550W and 650W makes no difference - so added 650W.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,321.44
(includes shipping: £14.10)






The i7 core build total:

Core
Case - Fractal Design Define R5 - £89
Motherboard - Asus Strix Z270F Gaming - £170
CPU - Intel Core i7-770K - £323
Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GB - £272
RAM - 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000 MHZ DDR4 (2x8GB) - £130
SSD - Crucial MX300 275GB x 2 - £172
Cooling Unit - ARCTIC Liquid Freezer 120 - £63
PSU - EVGA SuperNova GS 550W - £80
OS - Windows 10 32/64-Bit - USB Pen Drive - Retail (KW9-00017) - £104
Case Fans - 2x Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition - £30

Total £1433


EDIT: If your total is over budget (£1815 with peripherals) - there are savings you could make across the board. 3000Mhz memory, GTX 1060, use the supplied stock CPU cooler - it's excellent. Get a 550W super Flower and even save £17 on the motherboard. This would save approx another ~£285
​
 
Last edited:

mistersprinkles

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As was said if you want to go intel wait for 8700k. It's a 6 core, not a 4 core. Same price.

BTW Ryzen is good but it's not as fast as an i7 in gaming, and the overclockability of Ryzen tops out around 4Ghz with the Intel chips often hitting 5Ghz with appropriate cooling.

As far as cooling goes, a 120mm liquid cooler is pointless. You want a 240 or 280 and I would really look at the NZXT Kraken. You don't actually need it, as liquid cooling introduces 2 additional fault points- leaks and pump failure, vs 1 failure point on air coolers- the fan. Fans can be replaced easily and cheaply. A failed pump means a brand new AIO cooler $$.

Look at the Noctua NH-U12S, NH-U14S, NH-D14 and NH-D15
 

jimbobjeff85

jimbobjeff85

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Plec said:
This is just a build for comparison purposes with the i7700K - suggest you watch some YouTube reviews for the 1600 with games (recent reviews)

A core Ryzen build to compare to your Core i7700K build:

As it's primary use is for gaming i used the Ryzen 1600 (6 cores/12threads) it's the sweetspot for gaming. All Ryzen CPUs are unlocked and with a decent cooler can hit up to 3.9GHz (not guaranteed) - but 3.7/3.8GHz is the more realistic clock for speed and stability.

Added 3200MHZ A4 approved memory as Ryzen loves fast memory - but you could drop to 3000MHz to save money as there's only a 2%/3% performance gain.

I've upped the GFX card to a GTX 1070 as it was within budget with a Ryzen build - and would compliment a 144HZ monitor even at 1080p. Or you could consider a 1080p Gsync - or even bumping up to 1440p

I'm guessing relative silence is key given your case choice (they're excellent) - so have swapped the AIO for a Noctua as you wont see it. It will still keep things very chilly, with a decent clock and be considerably quieter than the AIO - plus less points of failure and will last you a few builds. But feel free to ignore if you want an AIO as it's a personal preference.

The Bitfenix is a quality PSU - 7 year warranty and the price difference between the 550W and 650W makes no difference - so added 650W.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,321.44
(includes shipping: £14.10)






The i7 core build total:

Core
Case - Fractal Design Define R5 - £89
Motherboard - Asus Strix Z270F Gaming - £170
CPU - Intel Core i7-770K - £323
Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GB - £272
RAM - 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000 MHZ DDR4 (2x8GB) - £130
SSD - Crucial MX300 275GB x 2 - £172
Cooling Unit - ARCTIC Liquid Freezer 120 - £63
PSU - EVGA SuperNova GS 550W - £80
OS - Windows 10 32/64-Bit - USB Pen Drive - Retail (KW9-00017) - £104
Case Fans - 2x Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition - £30

Total £1433


EDIT: If your total is over budget (£1815 with peripherals) - there are savings you could make across the board. 3000Mhz memory, GTX 1060, use the supplied stock CPU cooler - it's excellent. Get a 550W super Flower and even save £17 on the motherboard. This would save approx another ~£285
​
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for the time and effort to put together such a detailed and helpful reply!

I should have mentioned that I've only ever gone with Intel builds (from days of the Pentium 3!) so would like to stick with them. I think I'll take your advice and wait for Coffee Lake. I assume there will be some good value mid-range CPUs on offer for this generation?

However, I will keep hold of that Ryzen build and may opt to switch depending on cost. Thanks for your thoughts on the savings for the other components too, I'll bear that in mind also.
 

jimbobjeff85

jimbobjeff85

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mistersprinkles said:
As was said if you want to go intel wait for 8700k. It's a 6 core, not a 4 core. Same price.

BTW Ryzen is good but it's not as fast as an i7 in gaming, and the overclockability of Ryzen tops out around 4Ghz with the Intel chips often hitting 5Ghz with appropriate cooling.

As far as cooling goes, a 120mm liquid cooler is pointless. You want a 240 or 280 and I would really look at the NZXT Kraken. You don't actually need it, as liquid cooling introduces 2 additional fault points- leaks and pump failure, vs 1 failure point on air coolers- the fan. Fans can be replaced easily and cheaply. A failed pump means a brand new AIO cooler $$.

Look at the Noctua NH-U12S, NH-U14S, NH-D14 and NH-D15
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for the cooling fan info! I actually had always gone with quiet air coolers in the past. A friend suggested liquid cooling but as you say, seems like extra risk for not a huge amount of gain. I'll look at those Noctua CPU fans for sure!
 

orbitalwalsh

orbitalwalsh

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coffee lake will be a tad more but not hugely different but as mentioned you'll get the extra core. Whats more note worthy is that skylake bundles will come out if you wanted pure CPU power and Intel. Think OCUK did a hero build that was £250 cheaper then kabylake version then asus did a promo on top .

worth waiting and seeing but have a it'll be either more cores out then boards or more boards out then cores . Coffee lake was a bit rushed - then have z390 next year lol
 
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