First Gaming PC Help

Tigress · 23 Jul 2017 at 22:16

After console gaming and looking enviously at all the games and deals I'm finally going for my own set up. I have no knowledge when it comes to building but any videos/links to help would be appreciated.

I have a budget of £1000 (I am willing to up it a wee bit more if it's more worthwhile - up to £200). The sort of games I'm looking to play will be stuff like The Witcher, Battlefield, Overwatch...etc on high settings. I already have a 1080p monitor and stuff like keyboard/mouse so I'm set in that department. I will be using the PC for work but nothing too major as I will primarily be using this for gaming.

I've tried to do my own research but I'm a bit bamboozled when looking at the variety of options. Thanks

mistersprinkles · 23 Jul 2017 at 22:18

Why don't you have a look at some OCUK pre-built systems in the 1000 pound range?
Since you're only playing at 1080P, an RX480/580 or GTX 1060 is the highest spec graphics card you should be looking at.

If you want to build your own have a look at some of Carey Holzman's videos on his own channel and on Newegg's channel on youtube.

Tigress · 23 Jul 2017 at 22:35

I've been looking at the pre-builts and the systems with a 1060 6GB graphics card are the ones I've been looking at the most. Would this one https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk...0k-4.6ghz-geforce-gtx-1060-6gb-fs-1b6-og.html be good?

Danny75 · 23 Jul 2017 at 22:56

Tigress said:
I've been looking at the pre-builts and the systems with a 1060 6GB graphics card are the ones I've been looking at the most. Would this one https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk...0k-4.6ghz-geforce-gtx-1060-6gb-fs-1b6-og.html be good?

The price is very good right now. You can make modifications to the spec, so if you want to spend your full £1000, you could change the 8GB 2400MHz RAM to 16GB 3000/3200MHz, and get a better power supply. You don't have to worry as the system is covered for three years but with a better power supply it should last even longer.

For example, take this out:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Kolink Core Series 600W 80 Plus Certified Power Supply= £34.99
1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C14 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD48G2400= £69.95

And stick this in:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Team Group Dark T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TDGED416G300= £119.99
1 x Corsair TX550M 550W 80 Plus Gold Semi Modular Power Supply (CP-9020133-UK)= £77.99

The specifications don't say which GTX 1060 it brings, so that's something else you could check with them. Usually a video card with an aftermarket cooler is preferable to a reference/blower-style card.

ic1male · 23 Jul 2017 at 23:04

Danny75 said:
Usually a video card with an aftermarket cooler is preferable to a reference/blower-style card.

That's gobbledegook to me. What does that mean?

Danny75 · 23 Jul 2017 at 23:19

ic1male said:
That's gobbledegook to me. What does that mean?

First card is a reference/blower-style card. Second card is one with an aftermarket cooler (bigger fan, or two or three sometimes):

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 1060 "Reference Design" 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £239.99
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 Windforce OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N1060WF2OC-3GD)= £239.99

Total: £479.98
(includes shipping: £0.00)

Blower-style cards tend to be louder and get hotter, sometimes leading to a bit more speed throttling. But they exhaust out their rear without affecting overall case temperatures as much. Aftermarket cooler cards tend to run quieter and cooler, although a lot of their heat is dispersed into the case.

In scenarios with very small chassis, or in some SLI/CrossFire configurations with very little space between both cards, the blower-style can be preferable as the important thing is to keep overall case temps down (or not have one card affect the other card so much), in such a confined space. But in usual scenarios with chassis that have more room and decent cooling to cope with that heat, then an aftermarket cooler card is better as the temps and noise on the video card itself will be cooler and quieter, respectively.

mistersprinkles · 23 Jul 2017 at 23:36

I like the build you linked, Tigress. Bump it to 16GB of RAM, get a better powersupply. Good to go.

Basically, really cheap powersupplies are likely to die on you after being used heavily for 3 years or so. Sometimes less. Which would be ok because of warranty. But if the PSU dies on the 37th month, you're out of luck, and must purchase a new PSU and do the swap yourself or pay somebody to do it.

Sure, a better powersupply costs more money, and it's an investment you won't FEEL the same way you'd feel a faster graphics card, but think of it as insurance, for not only itself, but the rest of your parts. A dying powersupply can cause damage to other system components.

The superflower HX Golden Green is one of the better cheap supplies available in the UK from OCUK. If you want to step it up look at an EVGA G2/GQ/P2/T2 or a Seasonic SSR-G in the appropriate wattage. Corsair also makes many excellent powersupplies (or rather rebrands them from other OEM's) but these are always 10 pounds more expensive than they should be... or 20.

Tigress · 14 Aug 2017 at 17:05

Thanks guys/gals for the help. I've decided to opt for the pc that I linked along with the power supply and RAM upgrades so thanks again. Quite excited!

mistersprinkles · 14 Aug 2017 at 22:44

I wish I'd been following this thread more closely. Can you get a refund? Don't buy an i5 in 2017 bro. It's a disaster of a chip by modern standards. You can get a 6 core Ryzen with 3x as many threads for the same price and in a LOT of games the Ryzen mops the floor with the i5.

i5 and i7's are bad purchases now. Ryzen is superior price to performance. When Coffee Lake comes out in a few weeks with it's 6 core i7 we'll see what happens price wise and if it's competitive but for now a Ryzen 1600 would be the CPU for you for sure.

You can probably get a B350 board and the Ryzen 1600 swapped into the build and not end up paying any more, and end up with a superior CPU.