suggestions?

[Ashley Long]

Hi all,

looking to upgrade my gaming rig (mostly playing Destiny 2 at the moment, some CSGO). Currently running I7-3770k, Asus P8Z77-V Z-77 with an MSI Radeon R9 290X gfx card. I'll be looking at 1440p screen (either 27 Inch 165Hz with G-Sync or 32 Inch 144Hz without sync).

I'm planning on saving my current PSU (SuperFlower Leadex Platinum 1200W) and my sound card (Sound Blaster Zx), plus the below...


My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Team Group Dark Pro 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (TDPRD416G32= £188.99
• 1 x Asus ROG Maximus X Hero Intel Z370 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £239.99
• 1 x Intel Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz (Coffee Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £349.99
• 1 x be quiet! Dark Base 900 Full Tower Gaming Case - Silver= £179.99
• 1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 WindfForce 8192MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N1080WF3OC-8GD)= £529.99
• 1 x Samsung SM961 Polaris 512GB M.2-2280 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive= £199.99
• 1 x be quiet! Silent Loop Superior Liquid CPU Cooler - 280mm= £139.99

Total: £1,828.93 (includes shipping: £0.00)​

​

 

[Ashley Long]

In all honesty I'd be tempted to OC the 3770k, get an SSD if you don't have one (or a bigger one if you do), upgrade to 16GB Ram if you haven't already and go for a 1080 or 1080ti. Your CPU will still be very capable with an overclock and most games are still GPU limited. I doubt you'd notice a huge difference for your £1500+ compared to what you already have. I'd certainly recommend a graphics upgrade anyway so pick up said 1080/ti and slap it in and see how you go? You'll double your FPS according to Anandtech GPU bench and that's just with a 1080. A 1080ti is almost triple your current performance.

Already have a SSD (Samsung 840 EVO) and 16gb of RAM, the 1080ti is tempting (for either a new build or upgrade to current) if i can find it on a good deal. (currently running a 3 x 24inch 1080p eyefinity setup, however i will cut down to a single larger screen)

Another method is grab gtx 1080ti now and see what Ryzen + brings out next year . Not too long
If they can hit 3600hz ram speed and 4.4/5ghz overclock - should be interesting

Does AMD have much on the horizon? I believe the next generation of Ryzen are out in Feb next year(?) however i think it might be all hot air and lack the performance kick that it needs once the dust settles. Are they really going to launch an all out attack on the high performance end of the market?

 

[Ashley Long]

Thought about using the Strix board ?
For the above price can get an Aorus 7 with better on board audio , along with £40 steam voucher .

***Just saw you had blaster Z which is roughly the same snr output but should have the edge

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Asus ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming Intel Z370 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £197.99
• 1 x Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 Intel Z370 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £254.99

Total: £464.08 (includes shipping: £11.10)
​

Also, can get an Aorus gtx 1080 11gbps forb£520 odd . 11gbps are worth it due to overclocking to 12gbps and pulling clearly head of newly released gtx 1070 Ti

Since you like bequiet case , have you seen the Base 700 case ?
Basically smaller version of 900 but with subtle RGB

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x be quiet! Dark Base 700 RGB Midi Tower Case - Black Tempered Glass= £176.99

Total: £188.69 (includes shipping: £11.70)


If you can push to the Silent Loop 360, do it. More room to cool the i7 K which can be hot when overclocked . Also run it at 100% in bios, doesn't make a sound like Asetek AIO units other brands use​

thinking about the Asus MoBo's, i will need to do a little bit more research on the features they both come with. i suspect that downgrading the MoBo to save some money (maybe 1080ti gfx upgrade) might be wise.

I can squeeze in the silent loop 360 for the improved cooling, i have read some nice reviews of the Dark Base 900 and like the little sound proofing details they add (not to mention the modular nature of the case and cooling options). I'm not massively sold on glass panels and lights etc (my PC sits under my desk currently, i would rather go for quiet then show off.

 

[Ashley Long]

In all honesty I'd be tempted to OC the 3770k, get an SSD if you don't have one (or a bigger one if you do), upgrade to 16GB Ram if you haven't already and go for a 1080 or 1080ti. Your CPU will still be very capable with an overclock and most games are still GPU limited. I doubt you'd notice a huge difference for your £1500+ compared to what you already have. I'd certainly recommend a graphics upgrade anyway so pick up said 1080/ti and slap it in and see how you go? You'll double your FPS according to Anandtech GPU bench and that's just with a 1080. A 1080ti is almost triple your current performance.

TBH its more of an itch then a need, i have the resources to upgrade and the last overhaul was in 2012. I have a friend who could do with a gaming PC so i have a good use for the old parts after i upgrade (partly why i'm going for a full system with case rather then partial upgrade).

 

[Ashley Long]

Ok so i'm about to hit order on this...

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x be quiet! Silent Loop Superior Liquid CPU Cooler - 360mm= £149.99
• 1 x be quiet! Dark Base 700 RGB Midi Tower Case - Black Tempered Glass= £176.99
• 1 x Asus ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming Intel Z370 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £197.99
• 1 x Team Group Dark Pro 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (TDPRD416G32= £188.99
• 1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080Ti Gaming OC BLACK 11264MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card= £698.99
• 1 x Samsung SM961 Polaris 512GB M.2-2280 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive= £199.99
• 1 x Intel Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz (Coffee Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £409.99

Total: £2,022.93 (includes shipping: £0.00)​

​

figured i could expand the budget a little bit as it's x-mas...

 

[Ashley Long]

damn the price of the I7 keeps changing, when you click add to basket it shows the deal price, then it changes back to full price...

 

[Ashley Long]

Spoke to there customer support guy who was very helpful, it seems like there was some issues, hitting refresh a few times would randomly change the price from standard to deal price. in the end i hit order when it was at the deal price and it went through ok.

It brings it down to under the 2k mark which is good news!

 

[Ashley Long]

no build log yet, i have some pictures (mostly early on, i got distracted and forgot to take pic's once i started).

I am having a few issues, i'm failing to get a POST. When i plug it in, i get lights on the MoBo, and the standby power LED is orange, however when i press the power switch on the front of the case the fans spin up for 1-2 seconds then the whole system powers down. It won't do anything if i press the power switch again, however if i switch the power supply off and on again i can repeat the above process. Also if i leave the system long enough (30 seconds or so) the MoBo led's will turn off and the power switch will become unresponsive again.

none of the "POST State LEDs" which indicate a problem are alight (Boot, VGA, DRAM, CPU) and there are no bleep codes (no speaker attached so no surprise).

I have checked the connections, Jumpers and reseated the GPU and RAM (in different slots), i have tried replacing the kettle lead. I have no reason to believe the PSU is faulty, I bought it in Feb 2014, but RMA'd in Feb 2017 (Asus Surge Protection on my old PC). However it's been unused since sent to me (by the time the RMA was returning i had replaced it with a spare and didn't get around to swapping it back).

Any suggestions? Faulty MoBo or PSU?

 

[Ashley Long]

Confirmed its a duff PSU. I pulled my old power supply (850w XFX) from my old rig and installed it and everything is operating as expected now.

What kind of power will this thing draw? i had no worries with a 1200w superflower PSU, however with a smaller XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply...