Spec me

Scotteh · 9 Aug 2015 at 14:12

Spec me - 1100ish

£1100-ish, tower only

I was going to buy a new computer a few months ago, but with Skylake and the new AMD GPU's around the corner I was convinced to wait.. and here we are.

My thoughts was something around the i7 6700k, Gigabyte Gaming 5, 16GB DDR4 3000Mhz Corsair Vengeance, 650w PSU, Lamptron FC5, 2x SP120 Twin Sets with a 980.

I currently have a Xigmatek Elysium which I'd probably keep (due to handy HDD/SSD Dock and massiveness) but feel free to suggest another. I have a 650w Corsair PSU currently but it's about 5 years old.

Scotteh · 9 Aug 2015 at 20:52

Skylake:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £379.99
1 x Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail £319.99
1 x Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard £175.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (CMK16GX4M4B3000C15) £139.99
1 x Corsair CS650M 650W Semi-Modular 80+ GOLD Certified Power Supply (CP-9020077-UK) £74.99
1 x Seagate SSHD 7200RPM 3.5" 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DX001) SSHD Hybrid Drive £56.99
2 x Seagate 2TB SATA-6Gb 7200rpm 64MB (1 Year Warranty) £53.99 (£107.98)
1 x Lamptron FC5 V2 5.25" Bay Fan Controller - Black £34.99
2 x Corsair SP120 Twin Pack Red LED Fans (CO-9050029-WW) £16.99 (£33.98)
Total : £1,334.50 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).

or Haswell-E:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte X99-SLI - Intel Core i7 5820K Six Core CPU & Motherboard Bundle ***£50 Saving*** £393.98
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £379.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (CMK16GX4M4B3000C15) £139.99
1 x Corsair CS650M 650W Semi-Modular 80+ GOLD Certified Power Supply (CP-9020077-UK) £74.99
1 x Seagate SSHD 7200RPM 3.5" 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DX001) SSHD Hybrid Drive £56.99
2 x Seagate 2TB SATA-6Gb 7200rpm 64MB (1 Year Warranty) £53.99 (£107.98)
1 x Lamptron FC5 V2 5.25" Bay Fan Controller - Black £34.99
2 x Corsair SP120 Twin Pack Red LED Fans (CO-9050029-WW) £16.99 (£33.98)
Total : £1,232.50 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).

any suggestions or alternatives?

Danny75 · 9 Aug 2015 at 21:04

Got an SSD already? Otherwise I'd swap the SSHD for one. How about a CPU cooler?

Better PSU and cheaper RAM (latter if you need to free up some budget for SSD or cooler or something):

YOUR BASKET
1 x Kingston Fury Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-21300C15 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (HX426C15FBK2/16) £99.95
1 x EVGA Supernova G2 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £74.99
Total : £184.54 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).

The Asus Strix 980 could also save a bit of money.

Scotteh · 9 Aug 2015 at 21:07

Danny75 said:
Got an SSD already? Otherwise I'd swap the SSHD for one. How about a CPU cooler?

Better PSU and cheaper RAM (latter if you need to free up some budget for SSD or cooler or something):

The Asus Strix 980 could also save a bit of money.

Got a 840 Pro I'd be using, SSHD is purely for Steam games (WoW, GTA, etc would be on SSD, but rest of less played games on SSHD).

What difference is there between the PSUs? I just remember years ago Corsair was the go-to PSU (although seems superflower is the go-to psu now)

Danny75 · 9 Aug 2015 at 21:21

Scotteh said:
Got a 840 Pro I'd be using, SSHD is purely for Steam games (WoW, GTA, etc would be on SSD, but rest of less played games on SSHD).

What difference is there between the PSUs? I just remember years ago Corsair was the go-to PSU (although seems superflower is the go-to psu now)

SuperFlower and Seasonic/SuperFlower built EVGA's are top dogs, other than Seasonic's own which are expensive. Corsair's top range PSUs (which don't include CX, CS or RM) come close but not for the money. They need to do some work to get back in the PSU race.

Without going into specifics (I'll let you look reviews up) the EVGA G2 (built by SuperFlower) is substantially superior to the Corsair CS in terms of capacitors, ripple, soldering, "everything". So is the EVGA GS (built by Seasonic). I've had a look at both and prefer the G2's cables to the ribbon ones on the GS. Other than that, some reviews had the G2 come out very slightly on top of the GS. But you can't go wrong with either, or a SuperFlower Leadex.

Last build I did my fave component was the G2 650W. Just screams quality, and has ECO button so fan doesn't spin till 50% load.

Also, the warranty on the CS650M is three years only. The others mentioned have five or more.

Guessing you have a cooler already, then?

Scotteh · 9 Aug 2015 at 21:23

Ah okay, will sub that in.

Any opinion on Skylake vs Haswell-E/X99?

Watlinguk · 9 Aug 2015 at 21:28

Hi Scotteh im in the same boat as you as for upgrades and everyone is screaming X99 as its a very similiar price point.

I can also recommend SuperFlower Leadex Gold for quality, the EVGA do look nice though

Danny75 · 9 Aug 2015 at 21:31

Scotteh said:
Ah okay, will sub that in.

Any opinion on Skylake vs Haswell-E/X99?

Yeah - the majority consensus (it seems) opinion makes sense to me:

If it's mostly for gaming and you'd add a second card later on, then X99.

If it's mostly for gaming and will just have the one card, then Skylake i5.

If you're going to be doing plenty of other things with the system, rendering etc, then X99.

The Skylake i7 doesn't really seem to have a place right now.

Scotteh · 9 Aug 2015 at 21:44

Ah, I'd be mainly playing games but would like ability to stream (to a few friends, not that viewer count makes a difference), so seems like X99 i7 should be the route I take.

Scotteh · 10 Aug 2015 at 20:09

Just final checks before I hit go..

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £419.99
1 x Gigabyte X99-SLI - Intel Core i7 5820K Six Core CPU & Motherboard Bundle ***£50 Saving*** £393.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (CMK16GX4M4B3000C15) £139.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i GTX 240mm High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060021-WW) £101.99
1 x EVGA Supernova G2 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £74.99
1 x Seagate SSHD 7200RPM 3.5" 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DX001) SSHD Hybrid Drive £56.99
2 x Seagate 2TB SATA-6Gb 7200rpm 64MB (1 Year Warranty) £53.99 (£107.98)
2 x Lamptron FC5 V2 5.25" Bay Fan Controller - Black £34.99 (£69.98)
2 x Corsair SP120 Twin Pack Red LED Fans (CO-9050029-WW) £16.99 (£33.98)
Total : £1,409.47 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).

As for the 980, how does it compare to the 390X? Bear in mind I have 3 monitors, but typically only play games on the center monitor (1080p) borderless windowed mode.

Any suggestions/alternatives on the above, any any suggestions for new keyboard/mouse/headset?