Need help building a system for 1440P/1600P gaming please

tamzzy said:
no single gpu can push 4kx60hz reliably yet. 1440p is a better option. (i currently run a 3770k with a 1080ti with a 4k monitor - i game at 1440p resolution)


that is quite true and i agree, but how likely are you to upgrade again in the near future, given that the 8700k will last for a good few years yet. case in point are all the people who bought 2600k in 2012 and are just now upgrading to the 8700k - that's 5 years (and 6 processor generations) in between.


better to get a 1700 and then overclock - more value for money - and yes, can also pair that with a 1080ti, no problems


most high end, current generation motherboards have these. the gigabyte motherboard in my spec certainly does
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Useful to know that nothing really drives 2160P reliably as yet. Sounds like 1440P is best for me.

Good point about whether I will realistically upgrade the CPU or not. In honesty, probably not. Given that I will probably now go with a more sensibly priced monitor it does free up budget for a better build spec.
 
@tamzzy youre right. I upgraded my GPU at the start of the year from GT320 :o to a GTX750 but haven’t touched the CPU or motherboard.

I’ll take a look at the YT link, thanks.

I appreciate the difference in processing power needed too, when you work it out into pixels/sec. Thanks for pointing that out.
 
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Makes sense. I can lose the RGB but do like that glass cube case though.

Are the AIO really noisy compared to a cooler like the Noctua, above?

Also is that Noctua considerably better than the Alpenfohn that’s been suggested earlier in the thread?
 
@tamzzy @southernorth

Ok guys I'm pretty convinced as far as the box of components goes...

I've excluded the monitor (but will likely go with the AOC or something similar) and still a bit undecided on the case (but that's only £60-110 depending on what I choose). But as far as this little lot appears, does it look good? It's essentially the list of components posted by @southernorth above, but with a slightly cheaper 370 motherboard.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,527.83 (includes shipping: £0.00)​
​



As far as the case goes I might just spend a bit less on something like the InWin 503, https://www.overclockers.co.uk/in-win-503-midi-tower-case-black-red-ca-061-iw.html unless you're going to tell me it will be horrifically loud? It's attractive due to 1. height (440mm, probably 15-20mm less with the feet swapped over or removed) and 2. price. The reason I am attracted to cubes is that they don't sit as high as towers. Ideally I'd like something around 400mm high (can go quite wide if needed). I am not sure that's achieveable with cases that will accommodate an ATX?

In terms of cases quiet would be nice; what I mean by that is not really loud, and not massively louder than my current PC (an off the shelf 2010 Acer with dual fan GTX750Ti, Corsair CX550 PSU and Acer's own CPU fan) in an enclosed steel case. Low height is important (current is c. 370mm but its not a full ATX). As for the internal DVD drive bay I can really live without that so ignore that criteria, but if it has a bay it needs to be behind a door panel or sliding panel so it's hidden. I like the simple glass/mesh/metal front cases. Please feel free to throw your case suggestions at me, up to say £120...!
 
No problem, thanks for the advice. Southernorth suggested above, in reference to AIOs "high quality dual tower coolers are quieter than most AIO's as they use better fans and have no pump noise. They also of course can't ever leak fluid in your PC."
 
They do look nice, and I can get a little RGB fix too as the fans/rads tend to sit at the front of the case. However, that's also 8" away from my ear! I never hear the fans on the GTX750, but then it doesn't get pushed hard that much either.
 
southernorth said:
The dark rock is currently out of stock at overclockers, just incase you didn't realise before ordering.

And yeah, decent 240mm+ AIOs are an alternative, just they often cost more and have the issues I mentioned.
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Yep, I'd notice the stock status already but thanks for pointing it out. My concern with an AIO would be the risk of a fluid leak, however small the risk is.

Completely off topic but I'm definitely CPU and RAM limited at the moment, according to GTA VI benchmarking I tried last night at 1080p. Interesting result - 19% GPU use, 90-odd % RAM and CPU use. 50 FPS. Didn't even realise games had built-in benchmarking. Civ 6 though, about 5 minutes to load (it's not on the SSD) and then 32FPS lol. I think I'll go back to playing Civ 4 until the new PC turns up :D
 
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Quite tempted by the little Raijintek cubes or the Corsair cube (although it’s a bit busy design wise, it’s a nice size) but I think I’ll stick with the larger cases. There are only a couple of motherboards to choose from in 8th gen/370/SPDIF and neither are cheap. I suppose I could look at the next level down of chipset, but it feels like a shame to do that if going for the i7 and 1080.

I’ve been looking at the Iiyama 40” screen however I concluded that it’s way too big vertically for a desktop screen and its 60hz. I could only find reviews of it in German or Dutch on YouTube, for some reason.

As for coolers, the Cryorig looks to be very quiet at 24 dB max. I’d probably go for that. It appears that Cryorig do offer an RGB version but it’s a lesser spec 120mm item for a lot more money!
 
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Folks,

Just to update the thread. I ordered the 32" AOC monitor, and nothing else so far. I will post back in due course once I've decided to press the go button on the rest of the system, going to wait until after Christmas to order.

Thank you for your advice, it's been fantastic. Much appreciated.
 
orbitalwalsh said:
hopefully 3rd party evga 56 and 64 are out by then to drive that screen. 32" Freesync and 75hz could make it perfect to upscale games to 4k. I know cables currently support 4k@60hz native but wondering how it would work with less streeful games that can hit over 60hz with 4k ... :D
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Yes, hope so.

When I order my system build I might also get a new low-end mATX, CPU and 8gigs of RAM to upgrade the old acer. It’s a bit like triggers broom already having had a SSD, PSU and GPU in the last year. With a GTX750Ti it is very much CPU limited according to some benchmarks I ran (2010 i5 650) on Civ6 and GTAIV.

In the meantime I’m sure it will happily drive that AOC at 1440P for internet and general Windows tasks.
 
@orbitalwalsh
@southernorth

I finally placed an order! Only took 6 months lol. My Acer i5-650 of 2009 vintage did finally die this week. I already bought that AOC 32" 1440 monitor back around Christmas time.

Anyway, here is the build (and I decided to stick with air cooling). Probably overkill for my needs but should last me a few years :D :

OcUK Tech Labs Coffee Lake Pro Gaming Configurator

Your selected configuration:
Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Ultra Gaming Intel Z370 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard
Intel Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz (Coffee Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - OEM
Gigabyte Aorus ATC700 CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm
Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD416G30
Samsung 250GB 860 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 64 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-76E250B/EU)
Seagate BarraCuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD
Super Flower Leadex Platinum 850W Fully Modular "80 Plus Platinum" Power Supply - Black
BitFenix Alchemy 2.0 Magnetic Connect 15 LED-Strip 30cm - Purple
Microsoft Windows 10 64-Bit DVD - OEM (MS-KW9-00139)
Bullguard Anti-Virus 2017 - 1 PC 1 Year **Offer Price**
FAST TRACK SYSTEMS - Dispatched within 4 working days!
Lian-Li Alpha 550X Midi Tower RGB Tempered Glass Case - Black
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 G1 Gaming RGB 8192MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N1080G1 GAMING-8

Corsair Keyboard and Mouse Legendary Bundle - Glaive Mouse and K95 RGB Platinum Keyboard

Requested a couple of changes, case changed to a Corsair 460X RGB, memory changed to Nighthawk RGB, and the lighting strip also RGB. I'll post up a few pics once it arrives...

I think the PSU might be a little too powerful for the build but the configurator didn't seem to have anything lower than 850W.

Anyway, if there's anything totally horrific about the build please shout, but otherwise I will leave it as it is and eagerly await the delivery!!

Thanks for all your help in this thread everyone.
 
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That does look a bit tight. I changed the cooler to a H60 at the last minute...

Haven't really used the PC in earnest as yet because I've been copying over media and business files, installing Office etc. However most of my time has been spent trying to get the RGB on the GPU to work properly. There seems to be an issue with the GPU RGB, in that it doesn't seem to want to be any colour other than red. I've tried various iterations of Aorus and Gigabyte GPU RGB and RGB Fusion software which all recognise the LED capability of the card but the sliders do nothing. Used disc that came with the MB and GPU, latest versions online.

I will ask @GIGA-Man for some advice, but if it can't be resolved then I will ask OC to swap it for a different card. If the card won't change colour as it should then I'd have saved some money and gone with the regular Windforce which was quite a bit cheaper.

From looking online, a lot of people with the G1 1070 and 1080 cards seem to have issues with the RGB lighting setting at default and not changing.

Anyway, not to moan as otherwise I am over the moon with it. I loaded Civ6 up (my old PC barely loaded it) and see it ran very fast and smoothly.
 
orbitalwalsh said:
I use the mobo software or its RGB to set GPU RGB , normally don't card vendors software for their cards - another reason why I match cards to boards

Set in Giga app, restart pc
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply on this matter...

When the PC was delivered it came with RAM and mobo configurable in RGB Fusion but the GPU greyed out.

After I started to try and fix it by uninstalling/ reinstalling things I got to a point where I used the DVD that came with the mobo rather than dloading SW from web...The mobo SW installed from the DVD (Giga App Center, RGB Fusion) recognised the GPU, but the GPU didn't want to react to any colour changes. I didn't get as far as a restart because RGB Fusion wanted to update itself, so I let it. Then,, after RGB Fusion did its update, the app didn't recognise the GPU but did start to see the RAM. So I could adjust mobo and RAM but the GPU is greyed out again (this is how it was on delivery, basically).

None of the Giga or Aorus card specific apps work at all (they 'see' the GPU but the sliders have no effect on it). Not even the one on DVD that came in the GPU carton.

I matched the card to the board to try and minimise the chance of issues. Should have gone ASUS ROG 370F and ROG Strix 1080 maybe lol

I will try the Giga app again and shut down, power off AC, then restart...but not let it update itself.

Or I might play some games instead :D
 
I decided to ignore it and tried out Pillars of Eternity.

Random nice surprise:

This morning I came down and switched on the PC, and the RGB on the GPU is all working properly, controlling nicely through RGB Fusion. I'm using Blitz to control the DDR, I daren't change anything. RGB Fusion is asking for an update, no chance!

 
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