Gaming PC 4K capable - £3-3.5K

frog61

frog61

frog61

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Hi all
So I am still thinking about a new gaming PC, one that should meet the followings specs:
1: Last a good 3 - 4 Years (Rig wise)
2: Have a good gaming monitor, capable of 4K, now I realise most if not all on the market can achieve 60fps. But, I thought I heard about one coming soon capable of doing 120fps, suspect either not true or costing many ££££s
3: 4K gaming @ 60fps
4: whilst this would be used mostly for gaming, I would also use it for downloading and the odd bit of video storage for various devices around the house.
5: Not fused about pretty light or such, but would like it well ventilated and kept cool / dust free!
6: Ideally £3K would be the max to spend (including VAT), but I could push this to 3.5K, if i promise the wife to the do the washing for a month ;)

any thoughts anyone?
 
Well, honestly, it's not the ideal time to be buying a new system with 4K in mind. It's doable, and you'd get something pretty powerful, but there are a number of new monitors on the horizon that look very interesting and new graphics cards due later this year. You won't be getting 120fps in a couple of years no matter what you spend today! 4K will be limited mostly by the GPU, and there is no single card solution that will get you there today, with the best choice being x2 8GB 290X in Crossfire. But will that last 3-4 years? Highly unlikely, and once the new cards hit you'd almost certainly be looking to upgrade.

Personally, if I were building a system today, I'd leave a chunk of money aside for an upgrade later this year. Obviously there is always something better around the corner, but 4K is a tricky one given how much you need to put in to it to get it running even reasonably well.

However, here's a spec that could work well for 4K today, but as I say, I would not bank on this lasting 3-4 years... I would actually go for a 1440p monitor half this price and maybe a single 980 to tide you over until new GPUs/monitors come out later this year. That would shave nearly £1K off this price...

YOUR BASKET
1 x LG Flatron 31MU97 31" True 4K 60Hz Professional WideScreen LED Monitor - Black £979.99
1 x Asus X99-S - Intel Core i7 5820K Six Core CPU & Motherboard Bundle ***£30 Saving*** £531.98
2 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Vapor-X OC 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11226-11-40G) **OcUK WorldWide Exclusive** £399.95 (£799.90)
1 x TeamGroup Elite 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C16 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (TPKD416GM2400HC16QC01) £179.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Luxe Full Tower Case - Black £119.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H110i GT 280mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060019-WW) £99.95
Total : £2,738.44 (includes shipping : £22.20).



vs cheaper option

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus X99-S - Intel Core i7 5820K Six Core CPU & Motherboard Bundle ***£30 Saving*** £531.98
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 WindForce 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £449.99
1 x Asus PB278QR 27" Professional LED Multimedia Monitor - Black £389.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C16 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (TPKD416GM2400HC16QC01) £179.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Luxe Full Tower Case - Black £119.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H110i GT 280mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060019-WW) £99.95
Total : £1,796.00 (includes shipping : £20.10).



:)
 
I would add, even within a year, it is unknown how accessible 4K will really be. I have a feeling it's 2 years or so before it's actually possible within a reasonable budget. It's still very niche. Your budget is significant, but I would be very hesitant spending all that today, as I do not believe you will obtain the future proofing you hope for. There's always a price to be paid for cutting edge though, as I'm sure you know. ;)
 
Many thanks Legend,
The cheaper option certainly looks an attractive price.
I suppose I am thinking of games like The Witcher 3 coming out shortly, and wanting to play that in the best possible settings, has pushed me towards the 4k area.

The choics you have kindly presented, do seem to show that the monitor and graphic card are the two ones that could be best upgraded in the future.
With that in mind, would it be worthwhile upgrading the motherboard / cpu / RAM and looking at keeping all others euqal on the cheaper option you have shown?
This might last a good 18months or so before I think about going back to the market and seeing what else is about.

Either that or wait till August/September time and see whats about then. sighs....

thanks for your comments!
 
frog61 said:
Many thanks Legend,
The cheaper option certainly looks an attractive price.
I suppose I am thinking of games like The Witcher 3 coming out shortly, and wanting to play that in the best possible settings, has pushed me towards the 4k area.

The choics you have kindly presented, do seem to show that the monitor and graphic card are the two ones that could be best upgraded in the future.
With that in mind, would it be worthwhile upgrading the motherboard / cpu / RAM and looking at keeping all others equal on the cheaper option you have shown?
This might last a good 18months or so before I think about going back to the market and seeing what else is about.

Either that or wait till August/September time and see whats about then. sighs....

thanks for your comments!
Click to expand...
For the likes of Witcher 3, GTAV etc... and pretty much any game that's released over the next year or so, a 980 will handle them very well. And if you went SLI (not that this is a cheap option, but still within your budget) you'd be well covered beyond that. There's a lot of fuss being made over VRAM lately thanks to the 970 fiasco, and although I don't think it's by any means irrelevant, it has been blown out of proportion somewhat... very few games use more than 4GB, and if those are the games you play and want to cover yourself, you literally have ONE new card to choose from, and that's the 8GB 290X in Crossfire (a single 8GB card is pointless), which is older tech anyway. If it were me, I'd opt for 980 SLI.

You could certainly buy in to X99 today (5820K and DDR4 RAM) and this will last you. You won't NEED to upgrade them when Intel get round to releasing Skylake/Broadwell, so you can feel pretty confident buying these today. Many people would argue a 4790K is enough, but X99 would edge it for future proofing. The issue is more GPU/monitor... both of which form the majority of your budget at 4K, and will be the first things you'd want to upgrade!

A good 1440p monitor and a 980 SLI setup would definitely last 18 months. I'd recommend the Reference cards for SLI though. As for monitor choice, there are a few options out there (with more on the way)... depends if you want a high refresh screen or not, something like the ROG Swift, which is quite expensive. It's personal preference really, as some people find 60Hz perfectly fine (as I do), while others only want to game at 120Hz+. There are some interesting ultra wide monitors on the horizon too which could be worth considering... none of the current crop quite cut it though, in my opinion. GPU/monitor tech seems to be moving quicker than anything else right now though, so I think whatever you go with is going to be superseded within a much shorter time frame than any other component. That's just the way it is. This year should be interesting though. :)
 
I have to say the jump from 1080 to 1440 is more significant than it sounds, at about 78% more screen area. I would find it hard to go back to 1080 now but like Legend says 4k is too new to be able to future proof at all, the monitors are coming out the but GPUs need to catch up.

With my two 4GB 680s I get about 40-70ish FPS in new games on ultra (once they've been patched to hell in the case of Ubisoft) and think I would struggle if I had got the 2GB version. I know they're not new but they're still powerful cards so these higher resolutions can take more power to handle than you sometimes may think.
 
YOUR BASKET
2 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 980 "Hall of Fame V2 Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (98NQH6DND2UZ) £539.99 (£1,079.98)
1 x Asus X99-S - Intel Core i7 5820K Six Core CPU & Motherboard Bundle ***£30 Saving*** £531.98
1 x Panram Ninja-V 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C15 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit (PUD42400C154G4NJW) £199.99
1 x SK Hynix 512GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (HFS512G32MNB-2202A) £164.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Luxe Full Tower Case - White £129.95
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £114.95
1 x CableMod E-Series G2 & P2 Cable Kit - White £69.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £66.98
1 x Phanteks PH-TC12DX CPU Cooler - Black £44.98
Total : £2,421.44 (includes shipping : £14.75).




Then add a screen.
 
Cat_J said:
I have to say the jump from 1080 to 1440 is more significant than it sounds, at about 78% more screen area. I would find it hard to go back to 1080 now but like Legend says 4k is too new to be able to future proof at all, the monitors are coming out the but GPUs need to catch up.
Click to expand...
I definitely agree on the 1080 to 1440... best upgrade I've ever chosen, and made the biggest noticeable difference to EVERYTHING I use my computer for. Likewise I could NEVER go back to 1080 now... onwards and upwards, but 4K isn't there yet, definitely in its infancy. It can be done, but at a hefty price, and the pace of GPU/monitor tech will date your rig very fast indeed. 1440p is the sweet spot right now I'd say. I would definitely consider ultra wide, but I'm waiting on some faster panels to appear... the 60hz ones are all a bit on the costly side, not to mention beset with BLB issues. The Samsung curved 34" VA seems a happy medium, but at over £800 it needs to be a 120Hz panel IMO.
 
Went with the 1440p ROG Swift, but you could go with a 4K screen if you prefer.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus PG278Q ROG Swift 27" G-Sync 144Hz Gaming Widescreen LED Slim Bezel Monitor - Black/Red £611.99
2 x Inno3D GeForce GTX 980 "Herculez X3 Ultra" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (N98V-1SDN-M5DNX) £439.99 (£879.98)
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£15 Saving + Gigabyte Free Upgrade ** £409.98
1 x SK Hynix 512GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (HFS512G32MNB-2202A) £164.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black (CC-9011030-WW) £114.95
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX321C11T3K2/16) £103.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H110i GT 280mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060019-WW) £99.95
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 750W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £94.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £66.98
1 x Samsung SE-208GB/RSBD External Slimline 8x DVD-RW (TV Connect) - Black £21.98
Total : £2,569.79 (includes shipping : ).

 
Last edited:
If you go 4k mon, get a 32 incher, with a 28 to get the most out of it, it needs to be a foot away from your face and your eyes need to be perfect!
 
Many thanks all for your comments, certainly lots to consider. Strongly leaning towards the 1440 monitor now.
With respect to the ROG swift which seems to be lauded quite well, can anyone suggest how to connect a ps4 to this monitor? Would the 1440 skew the picture at all?

thanks
 
Games on PS4 vary resolution to achieve frame rates.

The Max the PS4 is 1080P I thought with lower resolutions being more common.

The lower resolutions will look horrid I believe.

Also the rog swift has just a single display port input like all gsync monitors so you are out of luck hooking it to a ps4
 
Random gfx card related question:
Isn't the "8GB" 290x just 2 4GB cards Crossfired? I saw someone's rig pic from speccy and they said they had the 8GB model and it was showing as 2 4GB cards... If so, wouldn't the 8GB be a theoretical lie?
 
stulid said:
Games on PS4 vary resolution to achieve frame rates.

The Max the PS4 is 1080P I thought with lower resolutions being more common.

The lower resolutions will look horrid I believe.

Also the rog swift has just a single display port input like all gsync monitors so you are out of luck hooking it to a ps4
Click to expand...



Rats....
 
DR_Pingu said:
Random gfx card related question:
Isn't the "8GB" 290x just 2 4GB cards Crossfired? I saw someone's rig pic from speccy and they said they had the 8GB model and it was showing as 2 4GB cards... If so, wouldn't the 8GB be a theoretical lie?
Click to expand...

It is a full 8GB.

With Crossfire you do not double up the Vram so 2 4GB cards is still just 4GB and two 8GB cards is 8GB.

But there is a news story about how Mantle will allow the Vram on multiple cards to be used independently.
 
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