New future proof build advice needed.

Cemetary Gates

Cemetary Gates

Cemetary Gates

Associate
Joined
30 Jul 2013
Posts
37
Hello there everyone,

Its been a while, but the folks on here were incredibly helpful a little over four years ago. At that time it was to help me spec a first Gaming PC for my brother and to help me with the actual build. Glad to say that he has had over four years of hard use out of it with zero hassle until now. An issue a few days ago has left it unworkable, at least until the problem is identified.

However, we are also considering a completely new build to bring things up to date a little. The current set up may be sold on to help with the new build, but for now his budget is around 2k. The current set up is as follows and has given fantastic results, but as things have moved on it would be good to get opinions on a new spec......

HIS HD 7970 IceQ X² 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express (x2 Crossfire)
BenQ XL2411T 24" TRUE 144Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor
Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX
Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s
Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case
Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
XFX Pro Series 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache
Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit
Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-S20BK DVD Rewriter - Retail

At present he isn't looking to change out the display, but would be looking to future proof the new set up with a view to using a higher resolution display down the line. If I am correct, the current display is limited at 1080p. The new GTX 1080ti cards have been considered but I am not sure if they are total overkill at 1080p, as I would expect that by the time he moves to a higher res display there will be better options available in the GPU department. Ideally he wants to be able to run his current games and any near future ones to their full potential, at least on his current display. At present I would say his most played titles are BF3 and Overwatch, although BF4 and BF1 do get a look in occaisionally.

The previous set up was ordered and then built by myself; with a little help from the forum! However as I am now in Scotland and he is in Manchester that may not be an option this time defending on schedules. So it may need to be pre built and delivered, or may have to find someone capable and willing around Manchester to do the work. Not sure how to factor that into the budget tbh. I guess its a pretty vague brief this one but any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.
 
Hi,

If you don't want to choose a pre-built available from the OcUK website and would prefer a custom spec, you can put together an example spec and post it in the Customer Service forum and ask for a build quote (this will include the standard warranty). Then you'll have an idea of what to factor into the budget. As long as you don't make very different alterations like custom water-cooling and the like, it should remain pretty close to what you'll originally be quoted.

If you'd like advice from forum members, we'll need an idea of total budget (preferably after you have an idea of the build fee so bang for buck can be maximized).
 
As above but to be honest id just slap a gtx 1070/ 1070 Ti in there and maybe the i7 K version for your mobo - and wait and see next year if Intel gets its act together with an 8 core CPU .
Glad to see your Gigabyte board serving well, if you can't wait, their new Aorus branding z370 look absolute killer, very different

Worth seeing as well how much your mobo/ram and CPU will fetch :)
 
Thanks for the responses, have decided on 2k for the build. Will either take an additional hit on a quote to have it built and shipped or just bide our time and I’ll build it up myself. Going to try and trouble shoot the current system, once the fault is found we’ll decide whether to sell it on or cannibalise any good bits.

Any and all ideas are welcome, as I say we will most likely stick with the current display atm, but any builds that will allow a step up to higher resolutions down the line with good performance would be ideal.

Many thanks again.
 
Cemetary Gates said:
Thanks for the responses, have decided on 2k for the build. Will either take an additional hit on a quote to have it built and shipped or just bide our time and I’ll build it up myself. Going to try and trouble shoot the current system, once the fault is found we’ll decide whether to sell it on or cannibalise any good bits.

Any and all ideas are welcome, as I say we will most likely stick with the current display atm, but any builds that will allow a step up to higher resolutions down the line with good performance would be ideal.

Many thanks again.
Click to expand...

Question is, do you prefer Intel or AMD for CPU choice ?
Like wise graphically , Nvidia or AMD?
 
Thanks for your time orbitalwalsh, the thinking atm is to go for intel and nvidia. The PC will be purely for gaming, of course the usual things as well, such as email and browser but nothing with a high workload. What little I’ve gleaned seems to suggest that intel will be better for purely gaming while AMD may have an advantage in other areas. Although my brother has suggested he would like to be able to record some of the action from his games. Not sure where that would lead in terms of an ideal build though.
 
Cemetary Gates said:
Thanks for your time orbitalwalsh, the thinking atm is to go for intel and nvidia. The PC will be purely for gaming, of course the usual things as well, such as email and browser but nothing with a high workload. What little I’ve gleaned seems to suggest that intel will be better for purely gaming while AMD may have an advantage in other areas. Although my brother has suggested he would like to be able to record some of the action from his games. Not sure where that would lead in terms of an ideal build though.
Click to expand...

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £188.69
(includes shipping: £8.70)



​

Would also be able to record console gaming too

Think there are cheaper versions as well as another brand
 
Thanks for the link orbitalwalsh. Will definitely consider that, although maybe at a later date to keep the budget geared towards the gaming performance. Am I correct in thinking that Nvidia have a facility called Shadow play that is a part of their GPU package which offers a similar solution?


Have been looking at various components and the main difficulty I’m having is the choice of Motherboard. Assuming we go for the i7 7700k 4.2Ghz processor and 16GB of RAM I am a little lost as to the pros and cons of various boards as their appears to be a good deal of variance in price and features. Do different boards only support RAM up to certain speeds and is the main difference due to the input/output configurations which are on offer. I’m obviously not too savvy with much of the technical side of things and am wondering if their is an ideal configuration of CPU/RAM/Motherboard/GPU. Concerned about spending money on something only to find we are not maximising its performance due to a bad choice elsewhere causing a bottleneck as such.


Once again thank you all.
 
Cemetary Gates said:
Thanks for the link orbitalwalsh. Will definitely consider that, although maybe at a later date to keep the budget geared towards the gaming performance. Am I correct in thinking that Nvidia have a facility called Shadow play that is a part of their GPU package which offers a similar solution?


Have been looking at various components and the main difficulty I’m having is the choice of Motherboard. Assuming we go for the i7 7700k 4.2Ghz processor and 16GB of RAM I am a little lost as to the pros and cons of various boards as their appears to be a good deal of variance in price and features. Do different boards only support RAM up to certain speeds and is the main difference due to the input/output configurations which are on offer. I’m obviously not too savvy with much of the technical side of things and am wondering if their is an ideal configuration of CPU/RAM/Motherboard/GPU. Concerned about spending money on something only to find we are not maximising its performance due to a bad choice elsewhere causing a bottleneck as such.


Once again thank you all.
Click to expand...

i believe so, just with those capture cards there's no performance hit being applied to CPU/GPU but would be good for a stop gap solution

with the CPU he has- really would recommend going to an i7 8700k to get the extra 2 core and 4 thread increase count, if not as mentioned above, 2nd hand i7 for his generation of chip, that would only be a little slower then the 7700k

that or jump to Ryzen 1700 , which has more cores, great for streaming and a lot cheaper! would perform slightly under the 8700k but again, cheaper.

Boards boils down to price, features, and loyalty - also if he happens to live in Milton Keynes - very highly suggest Gigabyte/Aorus as they are onyl ones to have UK RMA center for the board, can just drop it off haha .
Each vendor fights over features - some are similar and some are quite different. Aorus has the bets on board audio for z370 boards, but ASRock has damn good pricing and easy to use BIOS but lack the killer feel/marketing slick of ASUS ROG Boards .
 
Hello again,

Would anyone be wiling to offer an opinion on the following set-up? Have put this together with the hope of being able to move up to a higher resolution display in the future and a GPU to match, but maximising the performance at 1080p for now. Hopefully by going with the new Coffee Lake processor that should see the set-up viable down the line. Have yet to work out how to post the 'My Basket' as of yet, must be missing something obvious!

CP63RIN_173743_30x30.jpg

1xIntel Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz (Coffee Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail £398.99 *

MB55VGI_172709_30x30.jpg

1xGigabyte Z370 AORUS Ultra Gaming Intel Z370 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard £169.99 *

MY10CGS_167414_30x30.png

1xG.Skill Trident Z RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C14 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit (F4-3200C14D-16GTZR) £218.99 *

GX18AGI_145104_30x30.jpg

1xGigabyte Aorus GeForce GTX 1070 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N1070AORUS-8GD) £409.99 *

HS036CS_121575_30x30.png

1xCorsair Hydro Series H110i Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060026-WW) £119.99 *

HD203SA_154470_30x30.jpg

1xSamsung 850 EVO Series M.2 250GB SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (MZ-N5E250BW) £109.99 *

HD36NSE_152635_30x30.jpg

1xSeagate FireCuda SSHD 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM + Free Assassins Creed (ST2000DX002) £87.95 *

CA05GSS_160334_30x30.jpg

1xSeasonic Prime Platinum 750W 80 Plus Platinum Modular Power Supply £164.99 *

CA207CS_115678_30x30.jpg

1xCorsair Obsidian 750D Airflow Full Tower Case - Black (CC-9011078-WW) £153.95 *

Total = £1849.53

Also considering the following items to leave more scope for the future.

MB55UGI_172701_30x30.jpg

1xGigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 5 Intel Z370 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard £224.99 *

HD204SA_154490_30x30.jpg

1xSamsung 850 EVO Series M.2 500GB SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (MZ-N5E500BW) £169.99 *

As I say, any and all suggestions welcome, particualry if there any obviously bad choices in there.

Thanks.
 
My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,777.13
(includes shipping: £15.30)





So I've altered the build slightly, reducing the PSU by 100w, as even a 1080ti and 8700k only needs 650w.

The 650w PSU I've chosen is reviewed incredibly well, and has a 10 year warranty.

Cheaper RAM, made with Samsung B-die which means lower CL timings and better overclocking. You do lose the RGB though.

Upgraded to a GTX 1080 over a 1070. 1070's are overpriced for their performance, but 1080's are more reasonable. You can reduce the 1080 price by £30 if you sell the free Destiny 2 game you get.

Increased the speed of the NVMe drive substantially.

Altered the motherboard to a slightly cheaper one that offers similar or better overclocking features.

Changed the case to one with noise-dampening. This choice is more subjective and doesn't matter so much.

Changed from the AIO CPU cooler to a Noctua cooler. This reduction in price better allowed for the GTX 1080. Offers basically the same cooling performance, but at lower noise levels and without the risk of liquid leakage. Downsides are the subjective colouring.




**To post your own basket:

When in your basket click 'BBCode', copy everything that appears in the pop-up box, then paste this text into a post**​
 
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Thanks for the response Southernorth! Will definitely consider the 1080 GPU. Have to admit to being pretty unsure as to the power supply requirements on any given set up so thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Will go back and jig things around a little. Thanks again.
 
If your going VR then get Aorus over Gigabyte due to internal HDMI ports, but need a case with 5.3" panel to install a VR port panel .

The Aorus 5/7 have superior sound to the ASRock, the 7 is only.matches by ROG Zenith which is £500... But as pointed above , the cost is greater - do have Rep support on here and UK RMA center to back up Gigabytes customer service :)
 
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