Advice needed please (gaming PC)

[Vinyl Richie]

Hi fellas. I bought a PC from PCS 3 years ago and at the time got a lot of pointers from the forum users on here. Instead of upgrading my current machine I'm planning on selling it to a mate and buying a new one. My budget is 1k and I use my desktop mostly for gaming. I specced the below, but have a few things I wanted to run by the experts. Some answers to these questions would be much appreciated.

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690K (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Case
PCS ALPHA TRION 7622B BLACK CASE
Motherboard
ASUS® Z97-P: ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 - 2 DVI, 1 HDMI, 1 DP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
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
WIRELESS 802.11N 150Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Windows 10 Upgrade
FREE Upgrade to Windows 10 with all Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 Purchases*
DVD Recovery Media
NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS & UK OFFSHORE ISLANDS / N IRELAND
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
£896.

1. Is the case OK and 'future proof' if I wanted to upgrade in a year or two?
2. Likewise with the motherboard... future proof and a good model? (I'm not planning SLI)
3. Am I right in saying that the i5 is fine for gaming and there's no need for an i7?
4. RAM - is it still the case that 8GB is all that's needed for gaming? Because I could probably afford the 16 if it's worth it..
5. As for the PSU, 650W would be more than enough going by what PCS say (max req. 505W), but I picked the 750W as it's only £10 more and with future upgrades in mind. Assume that's OK, although I could drop it to 650 if you think it's unlikely i'll ever need it.
6. My thinking is that the 970 should do fine and the 980 is not worth the £150 extra?

As my budget is 1k I've a bit of room to manoeuvre if anyone has any recommendations like better case, etc.

Cheers!

 

[Spuff]

The only difference between the 4960 k and non-k is that you can overclock the k variant. If you do intend to overclock I would go for a more powerful cooler, and although it might not make much difference I would spend the few pounds on the better paste.
I think the 750w choice is fine. Your motherboard has 2 PCIe x1 slots and 2 PCI x1 sockets, you need to have thoughts about the connections of what you might be adding.
8GB is fine for gaming, but the Samsung EVO range has a facility called RAPID mode and that requires 4GB spare to work at its fullest if you want to utilise that.
The 970 is very good for 1080p and indeed for at least some games at 1440p.

 

[Vinyl Richie]

I don't think I plan on overclocking, I'm a bit of a technical noob so I tend to avoid stuff like that. I dropped the 4960k to a 4960 and upgraded the thermal paste

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690 (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND

As for the RAM I don't see any Samsung EVO option? But I did notice that the BEAST RAM is only £5 more than the FURY, so I guess that's worth it.

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P (1 x 8GB)

Brings it out at £896, same as before. Is that case roomy enough with good airflow etc?

Thanks

 

[Spuff]

As for the RAM I don't see any Samsung EVO option?

Samsung RAPID is done via software that is bundled as standard with the SSD. It allocates part of your system RAM as a cache. If you wanted to use it 16GB would be recommended. You can live without it.

The case is a bit of a budget case, and if you look on the net you will find some info about it. I would spend a little bit more on a nicer case.

 

[Vinyl Richie]

Samsung RAPID is done via software that is bundled as standard with the SSD. It allocates part of your system RAM as a cache. If you wanted to use it 16GB would be recommended. You can live without it.

The case is a bit of a budget case, and if you look on the net you will find some info about it. I would spend a little bit more on a nicer case.

Ah right, thanks for explaining. In that case I've upped the RAM to 16GB. Also I've changed the case to the COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE. So spec now looks like this:

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690 (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Motherboard
ASUS® Z97-P: ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 - 2 DVI, 1 HDMI, 1 DP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel 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
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI CARD
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Windows 10 Upgrade
FREE Upgrade to Windows 10 with all Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 Purchases*
DVD Recovery Media
NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS & UK OFFSHORE ISLANDS / N IRELAND
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

£995

Last question - is that motherboard a decent sort? I'm only asking because it's the cheapest and (I gather) most basic option. In the future I'd definitely want to update the GPU to one of the newest models in a couple of years time. Possibly the CPU at some point if necessary. Would it hold me back in that regard?

Thanks

 

[Spuff]

In terms of quality all the motherboards offered by PCS are fine.
Any motherboard can only accept certain models of CPU. You couldn't for instance put a 6 core Intel CPU in or any AMD CPU in, but you could put a current four core i7 in (although changing CPU is a hassle). Future CPUs are likely to require a different chipset.
I have an i5 and I hope that will last me for several years to come. I'm not expecting it to significantly hold me back.
All the current GPUs require a x16 PCIe socket, and you can put any in your build (including AMD GPUs). It's not clear what GPUs of the future will require. If future GPUs require a different motherboard everybody will be in the same boat.

 

[Vinyl Richie]

You don't reckon it's worth getting a mb capable of handling 6 core cpu's instead of only 4 then? Depending on the reply I'm going to order in the morning

 

[Spuff]

There's more to this subject than I know about, but I would suggest sticking with your z97 motherboard and not worrying about it.

 

[Vinyl Richie]

OK, cheers! Bit of an update here and I'd like some advice. As I said before I planned to buy a new PC and move my current build to a mate. However I'd like to get some opinions on whether people think my current build is worth keeping and upgrading? Something has come up and I could do without parting with 1k right now. I could maybe wangle it if really needed though. Here's my current build:

Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm) (Faulty - needs replaced)
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE

I mainly use the PC for gaming and am not able to run the newest games on high settings with this setup. That's something I'd like to address. Also worth mentioning that the HDD is faulty and needs to be replaced. I think a 1TB would be more than enough. Also the LAN port has stopped working so I've ordered a LAN card. So my own thoughts were:

1. 1 TB HDD
2. 250/500 GB SSD
3. GTX 970 - My PSU should handle it fine I think..
4. Another 8 GB of RAM? - to speed up the machine a bit and also make use of Samsung RAPID which Spuff talked about above.

I suppose there's no point in doing anything with the CPU. Should it be good enough to handle the newest games still? And for reference, here's the new build spec I am considering:

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690 (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Motherboard
ASUS® Z97-P: ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 - 2 DVI, 1 HDMI, 1 DP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel 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
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Windows 10 Upgrade
FREE Upgrade to Windows 10 with all Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 Purchases*
DVD Recovery Media
NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS & UK OFFSHORE ISLANDS / N IRELAND
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days
Promotional Item
FREE METAL GEAR SOLID game with select GTX 9 Series GPUs! -Subject to T&Cs

£991.00

Thanks!

 

[stegor]

You don't really need the cooler or thermal paste as you aren't overclocking.

 

[Spuff]

You don't really need the cooler or thermal paste as you aren't overclocking.

The Super Quiet is more quiet, no?
PCS say '...or playing the latest games, we would recommend you to upgrade to one of the alternative CPU coolers'
The paste is only £9.

 

[stegor]

I suppose it isn't much extra but I've never bought it and never had any problems. Depends if you're on a tight budget or not.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I would go with Spuff on this, the stock coolers are awful, underpowered with tiny fans and extremely loud, avoid at all costs. The super quiet is a good cooler.