Thoughts on new high-end Gaming Build

[MrYiff]

So I've been getting the itch to get a new PC but I'm too busy with work lately to spend a day or so assembling and testing things myself so I've been playing around with the OCUK custom setups (and working with the helpful Damien in sales to see if some things can be tweaked around!).

It's been a few years since I did my last build so I'm open to any suggested changes, things will probably be kept at stock speeds initially but then OC'ed once I get a few days off to tinker further,

• In-Win 509 Design Full Tower Tempered Glass Case - Black/Red
• Processor Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz (Kaby Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail
• CPU Cooler be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 CPU Cooler
• 2 x Team Group Xtreem 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-31200C18 3866MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black
• Graphics Card Asus GeForce GTX 1080 DirectCU III Strix Advanced Gaming Aura RGB 8192MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics
• M.2 Solid State Drive **For Operating System If Selected** Samsung PM961 Polaris 512GB M.2-2880 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive
• Solid State Drive 1 Kingston 480GB SSDNow UV400 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SUV400S37/4
• Power Supply EVGA SuperNova P2 850W '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply
• Motherboard Asus ROG Maximus IX Code Intel Z270 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard
• 2 x be quiet! Silent Wings 2 PWM, 140mm

 

[MrYiff]

I'm hoping it should be ok, the cooler is part of the default build and some of the other available ram sticks look just as tall (and no one mentioned any issues).

I was looking for 8GB sticks but that would mean dropping the speeds down and I was hoping to try out the faster speed sticks since the asus mobo supports them, from the few bits I've there isn't massive difference between dual and quad channel setups I thought but I guess if there are RAM clearance issues when they put the build together I could switch down to slower 2x8GB sticks.

Not too fussed bout the kingston ssd, its really just gonna be for basic steam games so if I save a couple of quid I'm happy, nothing critical is on it so if it dies early for whatever reason so be it.

I might have a check on other PSU's, it's one of those things where my brain always says I don't need 1000W since im not powering a 3rd world country but then another part says "but what about when you run that quad SLI setup...." and then even though I never really plan to do it I end up erring on the side of caution and getting a bigger psu than needed "just in case"

 

[MrYiff]

The only thing I'm a little sad about with this build is the case, I was hoping to get one with USB-C just for future proofing (now the corresponding sockets are standard on most z270 boards), and for a while I had the In Win 909 in my basket but in the end I think I had to face reality and save the £200 extra for other things

That InWin 909 is so pretty though (although I'm not 100% sold on the ports + power being on the bottom side of the case).

 

[MrYiff]

Hummed and harrrr'ed a but more today and in the end decided to play it safe on the RAM clearance (some comments on the amazon review for the cooler suggested there wasn't as much clearance as I first thought), so I've switched back to the be quiet AIO cooler.

I don't think I'm trading in much cooling performance as the be quiet! AIO seems to not be that far off a Noctua NH D15 which in turn is pretty much on par with the original Be Quiet Dark Rock 3:

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cooling/97741-quiet-silent-loop-240mm/?page=2