Help with deciding what to get for a New PC

Dan_23

Dan_23

Dan_23

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4 Apr 2018
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3
Hey, hoping I could get some advice.
I'm building a PC for the first time since 2013, whilst I know what I'm doing, I haven't paid attention to advancements since I quit working in IT (and DDR3 Ram was a new big thing).

I'm using the PC primarily for rendering through Nvidea Iray, and some gaming, although nothing taxing (League, Pubg etc) and it's occasional.

I was thinking of getting this collection:

Motherboard: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...cket-1151-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-32f-ms.html
CPU: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/inte...ocket-lga1151-processor-retail-cp-63r-in.html
CPU Cooler: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/be-quiet-dark-rock-3-cpu-cooler-hs-008-bq.html
RAM: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...3200mhz-dual-channel-kit-black-my-08l-tg.html
GPU: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/inno...graphics-card-c108t3-1sdn-q6mn-gx-06q-in.html
PSU: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cougar-gx-f-750w-80-plus-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-02u-cu.html

I already have several SSDs, and I was planning to use my current MSI Lightning GTX 780 additionally to help boost renders.

Finally the case:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/aerocool-aero-500-midi-tower-case-black-ca-155-ae.html

(I don't want it to look flashy incase somebody breaks in so then hopefully they'll nick my TV instead)

My budget is about £1600

Any thoughts or recommended upgrades?

Thanks in advance.
 
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My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,641.89 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​


  • Case has decent airflow, is quiet, has loads of storage space for SSD/HDD and is well built. If you wanted an AIO watercooler instead of the Noctua, this case is great for that too.
  • Better PSU - longer warranty and higher quality internals. Would go higher wattage if were actually using the 780 alongside 1080ti.
  • Better motherboard - Very good VRM (which will be needed if you overclock the 8700k heavily)
  • Due to the expensive case, have reduced RAM speed slightly. Although, there are diminishing returns past 3000mhz anyway. 32GB could also be an option if your rendering benefited in a large way.
  • Not much stock of 1080ti's for low prices, but the Palit has a great cooler. Main concerns are warranty length and a Hong Kong RMA base.
  • Fantastic air cooler - competes and often beats decent 240/280mm AIOs. RAM clearance isn't the best, but low profile set currently chosen should mean no issues.


But, if you were rarely gaming and your main priority was rendering speeds, I would recommend waiting 2 weeks for the upcoming Ryzen+ release and get a 2700x instead of 8700k. You would save quite a lot of money. Prices hinted at in this thread - Ryzen "2" ?
 
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Well, from 2013 to 2017 much nothing changed, except Intel's CPU sockets...
But then year ago AMD released new Zen architechture CPUs giving lots of very well performing high energy efficiency CPU cores affordably for desktop...
After Intel having been stuck in four cores for decade.

If you're doing various works involving multithreaded loads Ryzens give lot bang per buck.
And would be actually good to wait for few weeks to see how Zen+/Ryzen "2" with improvements in cache/memory system does.
With some clock speed increase from tweaked manufacturing process, those latency improvements and better core boost clock control it might nicely decrease Intel's lead in single core/thread performance.


If wanting to shave some budget there would be also cheaper well capable for stock CPUs heatsinks.

And that Cougar is cheap component PSU so scratch that.
But if you're intending to use both GTX1080 Ti and GTX 780 then I would be pretty much looking for 850W PSU.
GTX 780 goes past 200W consumption and factory overclocked GTX1080 Tis are nearing 300W consumption cards.
While rendering might not use all parts of GPU it will be constanty high load.
In fact that MSI Lightning GTX780 can go pretty far in power hogging:
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_780_Lightning/24.html
 
Okay thanks guys.
Is there any benefit to going to the X Series of the 7th Generation? If the extra cores are important?

Something like this:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,676.06 (includes shipping: £11.10)​
​

I'm reluctant to go AMD since everything I've had AMD (RAM and GPUs) have broken, although my current PC uses an FX8350 and that's fine.
 
I would wait for the very shortly to be released second generation of ryzen so you can make an informed comparison for your intended use. If you want an 8700k running at around 5.0ghz make sure to have a very good cooling solution.
 
ExoMale said:
the amd i specced should render very well with its 8 core 12 threads aside from that high powered xenons or threadripper.
Click to expand...

It didn't include a GPU and adding a 1080 TI to that is going to take me £300-£400 over budget. I render in iray so it needs to be Nvidea really I think
 
lee32uk said:
Stick with the i7 8700K.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/NVIDIA-Iray-CPU-Scaling-786/
Click to expand...

Moving up from GTX 970 video cards to GTX Titan X cards, we see a similar trend in performance. The only real difference here is that the amount of performance gain per core is much smaller. Instead of seeing a 4.5%, 4%, and .9% gain in performance with the first CPU, we are only seeing a gain of 3%, 1%, and .45% for one, two, and four GTX Titan X cards. Once we started using the second CPU, this dropped even further to only 2%, .8%, and .35% respectively.
Click to expand...

Depends on outlook, new GPU a non K 8700 or 8400 would be fine due to very high deminising returns , guessing cheaper ryzen would give the same effect .
If keep the GPU then yeah, worth going for i7 8700k and OC

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,444.13 (includes shipping: £13.20)​
​

Palits are nice price but 2 year warranty for a very expensive item :/
Blower cards would start to throttle speeds after a while
 
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