£1200 Gaming Pc - need advice

[nitetime]

My current PC is nearly 6 years old now and i'm looking for some new kit.
Mostly interested in WoW, action, FPS types. Budget is around the £1200 mark. Will be using my current monitor(1920 x 1080), keyboard and mouse.

Thinking maybe an i5 or i7, but what gpu, ram, ssd, case would you guys recommend?? Thank you.

 

[keynes]

Might be overkill for 1920x1080 but you could consider upgrading your monitor later on alternatively you could downgrade to the GTX 1060




Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 200R COMPACT GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-7600 (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® H110M-R: Micro-ATX, DDR4, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
8GB Kingston DUAL DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
FREE FOR HONOR or GHOST RECON: WILDLANDS with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!
1st Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,144.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations//yGPraTA4fJ/

 

[Oussebon]

If WoW is one of your main games, you may want to consider a pre-overclocked build instead. A GTX 1060 is more than fine for WoW at 1080p, however the extra frequency on the CPU and the RAM may make a significant difference to your minimum FPS:

Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 200R COMPACT GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i5-7600K Quad Core (3.80GHz @ up to 4.8GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z270H GAMING: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX PREDATOR DDR4 3200MHz X.M.P (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
1TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,209.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z270-overclocked/4jNQxveJPX/

 

[rt1707]

Both the systems above are very nice and will easily play any game you want, but I also agree with the comment above that they are overkill for your needs. Most of the high end graphics cards are aimed at games who want to game at higher than 1080p resolution or VR. If all you want is to game at 1080p then you can get a very good system for under £1k that will play any game on highest settings. Here are my recommendations based on what you said in your post:

i5 or i7? For me, the i5 for gaming. The i7 is more expensive and the main reason for this is the superior multi-core performance most game don't really take advantage of. For the price, the extra performance for gaming is probably not worth it. Avoid the unlocked (K) editions as again there is a premium for this and for 1080p you just don't need this - you also need a more expensive motherboard to make use of the unlocked overclocking features.

RAM 8Gb is all you need currently, but 16Gb is well worth considering and will help a couple years down the line for sure. Don't bother going above 2133Mhz as the additional performance is not worth it.

SSD Definitely worth getting a SSD - the difference to overall desktop experience is immense over a HDD. In gaming it gives a slight speed up to some loading times. I'd probably got for 250Gb plus a decent sized HDD.

GPU It is not worth going above the 1060 (or an RX 480) in my opinion for 1080p gaming. There is a huge jump in price between the 1060 and 1070 and for 1080p resolution there will be little noticeable difference when you are actually playing. If you ever think you might get a higher resolution monitor then I would recommend the 1070 over the 1060.

Case Go for the one you like the look of!

You can spec something like - i5 7500, 8GB RAM, 250Gb SSD, 2TB HDD, 1060 (basically Keynes build with a 1060 not 1070 and 7500 not 7600) - for not much more than £900 on PCS. I would save the £300 then three or four years down the line spend this on upgrading the system with whatever nice new GPUs are available and another 8Gb of RAM - or you have the choice of putting it towards a new system after the current one is outdated. Spending money on a 1070 or unlocked i7 is a bit of a waste in my opinion as you won't really notice the performance improvement in most games.

If you really want to spend £1200 right now go for Keynes build, with the immense 1070.

 

[Oussebon]

Don't bother going above 2133Mhz as the additional performance is not worth it.

That's not actually true. It used to be received wisdom that 1600MHz DDR3 was fine and there was no point going above that five or six years ago, but even then that thinking was wrong. DDR4 frequencies are also so high that the benefits can be very substantial:



Indeed, by switching from 1600MHz DDR3 to 2400MHz DDR4 I personally measured gains of upto 16% in WoW - one of the games on the OP's list. I've also seen benchmarks of WoW showing similar scaling with DDR4.

Certainly it won't be like that in all games, many games may only see a 1-2 FPS gain. But since the OP is specifically interested in one of the games that gains massively from faster RAM, I would strongly suggest they consider it.

SSD Definitely worth getting a SSD - the difference to overall desktop experience is immense over a HDD. In gaming it gives a slight speed up to some loading times. I'd probably got for 250Gb plus a decent sized HDD.

An SSD it nice but it can be added any time. Spending £80 on one at the cost of compromising on CPU, RAM, or GPU performance for WoW isn't necessarily the right thing to do.

Avoid the unlocked (K) editions as again there is a premium for this and for 1080p you just don't need this

That's just bad advice. The -K CPUs are faster out of the box, just like the i5 7600 is faster than the i5 7500, etc. The price jump may make it poor value, but in this case the price jump is also relatively modest.

And frankly for this budget and for World of Warcraft, you really do want to be getting an overclocked build..... which necessitates the -k CPU and the other expensive bits.

 

[rt1707]

View attachment 9841

That's not actually true. It used to be received wisdom that 1600MHz DDR3 was fine and there was no point going above that five or six years ago, but even then that thinking was wrong. DDR4 frequencies are also so high that the benefits can be very substantial:

View attachment 9842

Indeed, by switching from 1600MHz DDR3 to 2400MHz DDR4 I personally measured gains of upto 16% in WoW - one of the games on the OP's list. I've also seen benchmarks of WoW showing similar scaling with DDR4.

Certainly it won't be like that in all games, many games may only see a 1-2 FPS gain. But since the OP is specifically interested in one of the games that gains massively from faster RAM, I would strongly suggest they consider it.

The performance difference is not 16% unless there is something wrong with your system - it tends a real difference but rather negligible. Like you say, there won't be a difference beyond a frame or two a second if that. Not worth the extra cost. Also, why this obsession with WoW? I was running it quite nicely in 2011 on a 2004 rig. The OP does not need to worry in the slightest about running a 13 year old game on his setup.

An SSD it nice but it can be added any time. Spending £80 on one at the cost of compromising on CPU, RAM, or GPU performance for WoW isn't necessarily the right thing to do.

A SSD represents a huge upgrade in desktop experience, and minor upgrade in gaming experience. It is a no brainer in a modern system now. Again, why the WoW obsession? OP presumably want to run a bunch of games and it would be hard to buy a machine that will not run WoW very nicely.

That's just bad advice. The -K CPUs are faster out of the box, just like the i5 7600 is faster than the i5 7500, etc. The price jump may make it poor value, but in this case the price jump is also relatively modest.

And frankly for this budget and for World of Warcraft, you really do want to be getting an overclocked build..... which necessitates the -k CPU and the other expensive bits.

No, it is not bad advice. There is a big price jump that does not warrant the expenditure. They are nice for overclocking but that also requires purchasing a more expensive mobo just for that. Recommending OP buys a Z270 and 7600k to overclock to give a performance boost for playing WoW is bad advice.

But whatever. My main point to the post is that for 1080p gaming the OP can spend well under £1k and get excellent performance for years to come.

 

[Oussebon]

The performance difference is not 16% unless there is something wrong with your system - it tends a real difference but rather negligible. Like you say, there won't be a difference beyond a frame or two a second if that. Not worth the extra cost. Also, why this obsession with WoW? I was running it quite nicely in 2011 on a 2004 rig. The OP does not need to worry in the slightest about running a 13 year old game on his setup.

The performance difference in WoW was upto 16%. That's a plain fact - I measured it. It's what happens when you're CPU bound in WoW, which it is very easy to be especially with the increased view distances, and increase the RAM frequency. WoW is reliant on the CPU (pretty much single threaded performance) in no small part because it's a 13 year old game. I'm not the only one to have seen this, it was discussed at length on WoW EU Gaming forum (before the forum restructure which saw that section deleted).

These are the results that another user on that forum got in WoW with DDR4:

https://i.gyazo.com/ec455b097e39d1930b42d17c84674095.png

And FO4, which is also quite CPU bound and has a slightly unusual engine, can benefit upto around 20% as per that graph.

Like I say, not all games get more than a few FPS off faster RAM, but WoW is one that really can do.

I was running it quite nicely in 2011 on a 2004 rig.

*sigh* There have been major changes to the game since then. The environment in Draenor (2014) was easily capable of maxing out my GTX 970, while the introduction of Legion introduced further changes that can result in being CPU bound out in the open world even with no other players around due to things like increasing view distances by a factor about 3x iirc.

Raiding, PvP, and world bosses (which are a bigger part of the game for casual players than they used to be in Cata and LK, are also often CPU bound scenarios.

But whatever. My main point to the post is that for 1080p gaming the OP can spend well under £1k and get excellent performance for years to come.

It's very easy even on powerful systems to drop well below 60 fps in WoW quite frequently. Last time I was in Org FPS were down to the high 40s. World boss fights and world events can see similar drops. The overclock and the RAM mitigate against FPS drops.#

And I'm suggesting the best system for WoW because the OP is:

Mostly interested in WoW, action, FPS types

As for this comment

Recommending OP buys a Z270 and 7600k to overclock to give a performance boost for playing WoW is bad advice.

It certainly is possible to get a very nice gaming system for less than £800. But frankly by your logic nobody should ever spend more than ~£900 on a gaming PC. The OC and the RAM will help mitigate against FPS drops in WoW. They can decide whether they want the extra performance in that game or not.

But you have demonstrated that you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about with regards to how WoW runs, and what benefits performance.

 

[rt1707]

I really can't be bothered reading that. My point stands to the OP - if 1080p gaming is all you need then I would go for Keynes build but with a GTX 1060 and i5 7500 for well under £1k.

 

[Scott]

i5 7500 will see the end of its life FAR sooner than a 7700k or 7600k. Locked CPUs at this price point is a bonkers choice for me as you're effectively cutting years off useful lifespan of the system. Saving £200 now is going to cost you £500 down the line.... and that's only counting the big 3. It'll likely be a full new system and into 4 digits.

Always, always, maximise the CPU/Mboard/RAM(spec, not amount).... absolutely everything else is stand alone plugin. Those 3 rarely are unless you go through systems like nobodys business.

An overclocked i5 7600k will last literally years past the 7500 which will be bottlenecked in NO time.

1080p now is going to be 4k next year. That's just the way of the world. Build a system for next year and the years following, not for right now. Choose the GPU for right now as that can be upgraded at literally anytime with a simple swap.

 

[Scott]

I've just blown your budget and then some but I would seriously consider making peace with your system for a few more months and saving up with a view to getting this. As it stands it will absolutely decimate 1080p. Next year if you wanted 4k, this system is completely ready other than a GPU swap. It's something to keep in mind.

Now, this is pretty much no compromise (other than the GPU). I've not held back with anything so there are savings to be made. Think about how long you want the system to last though and keep in mind what future arisings there are for games (Much higher multi-core usage as well as hyperthreading etc).

So, complete drastic other end of the scale from a sub 1k build....

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R5 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-7700k Quad Core (4.20GHz @ up to 4.8GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z270E GAMING: LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GB, Wi-Fi - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX PREDATOR DDR4 3200MHz X.M.P (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Hard Disk
NOT REQUIRED
M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG SM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3100MB/R, 1400MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,474.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z270-overclocked/9jQwQEqKxy/


You could drop the price to £1276 by dropping the processor to an i5 and dropping the RAM to 8GB 3000mhz.

With the i7 and 16GB of RAM you can literally forget about the system for another 5 years at 1080p. If you want more, you need to spend more on a GPU in the future. I think you would be upping the ram in the next 12-18 months regardless. The i5-i7 is debatable, for the spec of the system I would just do it right the first time. Anything else, literally, that you use the system for other than gaming you are set with the above.

 

[nitetime]

Thanks to everyone for their replies-some very interesting and informative information.
Question for The_Scotster - the only storage i can see is 256GB SAMSUNG, should i just go for a standard HD for now?

 

[Scott]

I forgot to mention that. I chose that option as I assumed you would have potential storage transfer from your current machine? If you are relying on this machine to be completely stand alone then the ideal solution is a fast M2 drive for your primary and a 1tb+drive for your storage/games/etc. If the budget is an issue then the conventional drive should be first choice with a view to add an SSD later (M2 would definitely be my choice).

 

[Oussebon]

The Scotster's suggestion is a good one if you're prepared to extend your budget.

I have an i7 3770k (which is overclocked) and there are some games where the CPU's performance is an issue (WoW, and Fallout 4 among them). I'm definitely glad of having that rather than a locked i5 - while a locked i5 would obviously still run the games, the issues would be more pronounced.

If you need to bring the cost down, you could:
- go for a 1 TB HDD and no SSD (as suggested above) since you can always add an SSD in the future. Storage speed affects loading times but not game FPS (£70 savings)
- get a cheaper case, e.g. the Zalman Z11 (~£50 savings)
- ditch the DVD drive if most of your games are downloaded anyway or if you can swap in your existing DVD drive (£15 savings)
- get the RX 480 4gb graphics card (£50 savings)

The RX 480 is on average about as powerful as the GTX 1060, although WoW is one of those games that performs a fair bit better on Nvidia cards to AMD ones. But the RX 480 is still quite adequate. And in other games like BF1, for example, the difference is pretty negligible:


If you're upgrading the GPU in a couple of years anyway, it's an option.

All that would slice near £200 off, if needed.

 

[nitetime]

Defo going for an overclocked i5 or i7.

Quick question about motherboards. I'm not really interested in a m/b with all the bells and whistles, just one that will do the job and is of good quality, so is the ASUS® PRIME Z270-P: ATX (cheapest option) a good choice over say the ASUS® ROG STRIX Z270E GAMING: LG1151? There is a £70 difference. Thanks.

 

[Oussebon]

I might suggest going for the Z270H at least over the Z270P, for the USB 3.1 if nothing else. It also has bonuses like better onboard sound and so forth, but is at least only ~£24 over the -P, unlike the -E which is ~£65 more as you say.

The -E has wifi, which if you were buying a similar wifi card plus the -H mobo would make it cost about the same to just buy the -E anyway. But you didn't seem to be going for wifi.