1080/60 Gaming Rig - Few Questions/Opinion Welcome

[Pokkai]

Hi All,

Looking at getting my third PC through PCS and wondered if I can get some feedback on a 1080/60 gaming rig, would you lot tweak anything here, thought I'd go overclocked for the first time and have an existing copy of Win 10/Office.

Case
InWIN 703 MID TOWER GAMING CASE (BLACK/RED)
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 Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB EVGA GEFORCE GTX 1070 FTW GAMING - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP
FREE FOR HONOR or GHOST RECON: WILDLANDS with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!
1st Hard Disk
4TB WD BLACK 3.5" WD4004FZWX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3000MB/R, 1700MB/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
Corsair H60 Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Liquid Series Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
LED Lighting
50cm RGB LED Strip
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster Z 5.1 PCI-E Soundcard - OEM
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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
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 9 to 11 working days
Quantity
1

Price £2,102.00 including VAT and delivery

What's the easiest way to Bluetooth on the PC w/o having an antenna protruding out of the case?
Any preference between a WD or Seagate drive, I've heard Seagate have a much higher failure rate?
I also have an Intel 520 SSD and 2TB Mechanical drive I want to add into the PC, would this be easy enough to just seat and attached to this motherboard?

All feedback is welcome, appreciate the 1070 maybe overkill, but I have the cash so thought why not.

Thanks,

Paul.

 

[keynes]

If it is 1920x1080 resolution the GTX 1070 is going to be overkill but considering your budget you could probably get a GTX 1080 if you are planning to use a higher resolution monitor. The FTW version of the GTX 1070 is overpriced and I would suggest getting the standard version or sourcing it elsewhere. You can get a standard HDD rather than the caviar black which is significantly cheaper and the motherboard will be blutooth enable so there is no need to add anything extra. I wouldn't suggest adding a sound card before trying onboard audio first.

 

[Oussebon]

What's your budget?

Any preference between a WD or Seagate drive, I've heard Seagate have a much higher failure rate?

The regular HDDs are fine. The WD Black drives cost about £100 more and it's just not remotely worth it for a gaming PC.

What's the easiest way to Bluetooth on the PC w/o having an antenna protruding out of the case?

The Z270E has onboard Bluetooth. I believe this will involve an antenna:

The alternatives would involve a USB dongle, which still involves something sticking out of your PC. Also buying a USB dongle when you already have a £200 mobo that includes wifi and BT 4.1 would be weird.

That antenna looks like it can just sit on top of the case happily.

I also have an Intel 520 SSD and 2TB Mechanical drive I want to add into the PC, would this be easy enough to just seat and attached to this motherboard?

Yes, as long as your PC case has the requisite drive bays.

Processor Cooling
Corsair H60 Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Liquid Series Ultra Quiet Fans

This isn't a very good AIO water cooler. I'd suggest the Noctua air cooler which is better but it may not fit in your case. Otherwise the H80i or H100I.

Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster Z 5.1 PCI-E Soundcard - OEM

The motherboard already has 7.1 onboard sound with a relatively upmarket chip. I'd suggest auditioning that first, and if you want something better it may be worth looking into a USB DAC.

Graphics Card
8GB EVGA GEFORCE GTX 1070 FTW GAMING - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP

This GPU is terrible, terrible value.

Its performance is not much better than a regular GTX 1070 but it costs £100 more. It's only about £10 cheaper than a GTX 1080. You might as well just buy a GTX 1080. Or save £100 and stick to a regular 1070. And I say that as someone who owns and likes a lot of EVGA GPUs. At this price it's madness.

 

[Pokkai]

Thanks Keynes, on your points, I will be using a 1080p monitor for the foreseeable future, and just want to be able to max all settings and go, with no impact to a 60 fps experience, the 1070 seemed the ideal card.

I've looked at the specs of the Motherboard and cannot see Bluetooth 4.X support listed, should I drop PCS a line to confirm? The HDD is a concern after reading horror stories on the internet in truth, I assume with Seagate/WD you are paying for the brand and in reality they have as much chance at failing as the default option?

Are the vanilla PCS 1070's quiet?

Sorry for all the questions not built a PC in 5 years.

 

[Oussebon]

I posted saying much of the same as Keynes but as I included images the spam filter flipping ate it. It will appear in due course.

should I drop PCS a line to confirm?

It has Bluetooth. https://www.asus.com/uk/ROG-Republic-Of-Gamers/ROG-STRIX-Z270E-GAMING/

The HDD is a concern after reading horror stories on the internet in truth, I assume with Seagate/WD you are paying for the brand and in reality they have as much chance at failing as the default option?

You should obviously back up data anyway. The price difference is so large you can pretty well buy an external 4TB HDD + a 4TB regular HDD for the same price as just a WD Black 4tb.

Are the vanilla PCS 1070's quiet?

They often use Zotac Amp!, Palit Jetstream, or Palit Dual, which means that they'll be as quiet as the FTW on idle and any GPU is going to be somewhat loud under gaming load - EVGA ones being no exception.

 

[keynes]

If you go to the manufacturers website it indicates that it supports blutooth. An air cooled gpu is going to be noisy at full load even with the FTW version. You could consider a GTX 1070 with an hydro cooler for quiet performance but it would have to be source elsewhere.

 

[Pokkai]

Thanks both, incredibly helpful, I've tweaked the setup based on your input, not sure I fancy adding water cooling to the GPU so the vanilla 1070 will suffice.

Great that the board has BT, can live with the antenna on the case top, thanks!.

Sadly none of the Noctua/H80/H100 will fit in the case, can you elaborate on why the H60 isn't great, I love the case .

Changed the drive to a standard model and also gone for a vanilla 1070 as well, now under 2k which is a result. those Fallout 4 numbers look almost the same.

Finally, any recommendation on a circa £150 23/24" HD Monitor, along with Keyboard and Mouse combo?

 

[keynes]

If you haven't bought the monitor yet I would suggest spending a bit more on it (gsync) or push for a 1440p resolution monitor. If you still want to stick to £150 you could check reviews online on amazon as there are plenty of options.

 

[Oussebon]

can you elaborate on why the H60 isn't great,

Well, it's just a fair bit less effective as the Noctua despite the price being the same. The 7700k can get quite hot with an overclock, and personally I wouldn't feel comfortable with anything less than the Noctua on that CPU.


https://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/11/24/corsair_h60_aio_cpu_cooling_system_update_review/3

You could always ditch the overclock (and get a cheaper cooler like the CM212x). A lot of games won't have their performance affected very much by the OC anyway.

Finally, any recommendation on a circa £150 23/24" HD Monitor

If you wanted to stretch the budget you could look at a 144hz 1080p screen, which tend to start around ~£200-£230.

Or for the same kind of price a 1440p 60hz IPS screen like the Q2577PWQ

If you're looking for it to be quite budget, you can get can budget IPS panel monitor like the Asus VC239H at around £130. But given what you're spending on the box, it might be nice to have a higher res or refresh monitor to go with it.

 

[PCUser1990]

Just to clear something up the antenna is what you need for both wifi and bluetooth, I got one with my Rampage V. It needs to be plugged into the back of your motherboard to allow you to connect to the PC with bluetooth or connect the PC to wifi. It also has a magnetic base, personally I have my antenna on a metal desk leg. You need the antenna for wifi as well as bluetooth, but the magnetic base should make "hiding" it a bit easier.

 

[Pokkai]

Thanks Oussebon, just a little bit gutted I can't get a H80i in the 703 case, would prefer to keep the OC as some games I play, WoW, etc, benefit from primarily single thread performance and no point getting a k model if not going to OC.

I'll have a look and post a final build for signoff .

 

[Pokkai]

Just to clear something up the antenna is what you need for both wifi and bluetooth, I got one with my Rampage V. It needs to be plugged into the back of your motherboard to allow you to connect to the PC with bluetooth or connect the PC to wifi. It also has a magnetic base, personally I have my antenna on a metal desk leg. You need the antenna for wifi as well as bluetooth, but the magnetic base should make "hiding" it a bit easier.

Glad it has a mask of some kind, i'll attach it to the top of the case in that case .