Close to purchase - final components opinions?

joeyjojo said:
FYI a 15 m cat5e ethernet cable is about £5.60.

Sounds like you need to get the requirements straight then before anything else happens. Maybe ask a mod to lock your various threads so people (like me) don't keep chipping in. :)

Final comment - I can't see anywhere in your threads any description of the actual games etc. you're interested in. Next time definitely share this information as it might be you don't need a high-end machine at all.
Click to expand...

Just to pick up on this a little. I think part of the issue is that I was undecided on whether to get a laptop or a desktop for a long time. My usage points to a laptop, although when I started looking around I was not happy with the price/performance ratio. So I made room in my living room for a desktop instead, but could still do with something that I can relax on the sofa with.

I did in one of my original threads talk about the games I wanted to play. Planet Coaster is one, Cities skylines is another. Planet Coaster has quite high demands to get reasonable performance by all accounts, although the game is not out yet.

The biggest issue in all of this I think is the tendency to keep incrementing the spec of the build. Its always little amounts here and there until you kind of get to i7 level for which there is a big jump. That's what's happened, Ive up-specced and up-specced until the jump became too big. In my mind this means I have obtained the maximum price/performance ratio that I can. However I have no idea what actual CPU i really need.


With all due respect to joeyjojo who posted the build a few pages up, its only dropped about £95 off my original build yet at the expense of 8GB ram, a poorer case, a worse cooler and the wifi card. If its a choice between £95 then my original build is fine. I need to save £200 on it to make it worth while, which I can do if I sacrifice things like the CPU and Z170 board - but I don't know if that is a bad decision or not.



Here is a substantially cheaper build for example.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £433.87
(includes shipping: £0.00)
​


​


And all ive really changed is to drop the 6600k for a cheaper Athlon and drop ram down to 8GB. If ram was like for like 16GB in both builds the difference would be £210. Is an Intel i5-6600K really worth a £210 price increase?
 
Last edited:
Planet Coaster and Cities Skylines are both CPU-heavy titles (note Planet Coaster isn't released yet, but early testers point to great CPU usage) so my suspicion would be the Athlon won't cut it.

The thing is, "worth it" varies from person to person. Somebody might be completely fine with games dipping into the low 20s FPS-wise every now and then, whereas it could irritate somebody else no end.

The Athlon is very much a budget set up; since you are on a strict budget, it could be perfect for you. Having said that, you also get what you pay for and I wouldn't anticipate it getting anywhere near to the 6600k in performance. Whether it will be "good enough" or not only you can decide.

If it were me personally making the decision, I would cut costs by: getting any old cheap/free second-hand monitor (or use TV), getting cheapest case possible (or no case at all), scavenge cheap/free keyboard/mouse, drop the wireless adaptor, buy second hand GPU/PSU/other parts. This way I have a solid base system I can actually use, and replace/upgrade the low-value parts that annoy me the most as budget allows.
 
Last edited:
I've jumped quite a bit in going from the 6600k down to the Athlon, saving over £200. But I could save £100 by dropping to a dual core /4 thread i3 and keeping everything else the same. The i3-6100 still runs at 3.7GHz.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £574.86
(includes shipping: £0.00)
​
 
Last edited:
Im going for this build.

Is there any reason I should not buy this now? Will some offers/price reductions come on in the future on these components? Am I being naive buying without the GPU not knowing exactly what will come at the end of the month?

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £681.90
(includes shipping: £0.00)
​


​
 
Well I just tried to order it and twice my order failed at the secure code stage of payment.

Triple checked all the card details 2nd time round. Ive emailed customer services, but I guess I won't be getting this by Friday now.
 
could be your card provider blocking a high value purchase.

Ive had it a few times, then I get a txt from my bank asking if it was me, I reply yes, then a reply from them wait a minute and try again.
 
danlightbulb said:
Well I just tried to order it and twice my order failed at the secure code stage of payment.

Triple checked all the card details 2nd time round. Ive emailed customer services, but I guess I won't be getting this by Friday now.
Click to expand...

If you can sort it out tomorrow morning then next day delivery should be able to get it to you by Friday.

As Stulid suggests, have you checked your phone for a text message? Often banks will ask you to confirm large purchases with a text.
 
Yeah, no text message, no phone call, no email, no message in online banking. Ive messaged my bank too.

I wondered if it had something to do with the delivery address I was putting in being different to my billing address. I did notice when selecting the payment card that both addresses default to the billing address and I then had to enter them separately again.

Gonna struggle sorting it out in the morning, am away with work all day. Oh well.
 
Last edited:
There are cashback offers on the i5 6600k and asus/msi motherboards, so you may find better value there (around £17-32 with the 6600k and z170 mobo)
 
Last edited:
Didn't know about this, thanks. The Gigabyte k3 + i5-6600k combo is on the site too with cashback of £24. I just buy it from here, then apply for the cashback is that right?

This is odd though. When I click on the claim form I get this message:

The claim form is currently closed, the online form will be available after 30 days from your date of purchase. Please note that claims must be submitted no sooner than 30 days and no later than 60 days from your invoice date. Please return to the online claim form after 30 days from your purchase date in order to submit your claim.
Click to expand...

So how does it know when to open the claim form if I have purchased from a site such as this one?
 
Last edited:
Yeah check the T+C page to be certain but it looks like as long as you buy both items from the same place in the same order then you're good to go.

If not then I'm going to lose out on mine!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom