Advice on a 1440P Gaming PC build please..

[Rob21]

Hello.

Can people offer advice please? £1500 budget. Is this the best I can get for that price?
What are peoples opinions on the liquid coolers? should I get one?
Looking through the cases this looks like the best one for the style and value for money, is it good? So many to choose from!

Case
PCS SPECTRUM RGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-11600K (3.9 GHz) 12 MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B560M-PLUS: mATX, LGA1200, USB 3.2, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 SUPER - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
250GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6400MB/R, 2700MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 RGB V3 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Supplied on USB Drive
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
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 12 to 15 working days
Price: £1,470.00 including VAT and Delivery

Thank you

 

[Steveyg]

There are a number of changes I would make to this build to be honest mate can I ask what it's for?

Also any particular reason for Intel as AMD has them beat in every category at the minute especially the 11th Gen processors

 

[Rob21]

There are a number of changes I would make to this build to be honest mate can I ask what it's for?

Also any particular reason for Intel as AMD has them beat in every category at the minute especially the 11th Gen processors

Hello.

Its for 1440p gaming.

No particular reason for intel. I was thinking of getting the AMD Ryzen 5600x.

 

[Citrus_9]

2060 Super isn't really for 1440p, it's more likely for 1080p only, but it also depends on the games you'll be playing and your budget?

What is your monitor (refresh rate, resolution)? Will you only be playing or also streaming, editing?

 

[AgentCooper]

With prices being at an absolute premium recently, around £1500 is the ballpark area for a good base unit when speccing a 1440p system. The following is what I’d be looking for in a build that would do everything you want it to now and provide a solid platform for upgrades. There’s a bit of a compromise when it comes to the amount/speed of storage but that will be an easy fix in future.

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
12GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
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 12 to 15 working days
Price: £1,594.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/yER42kfjwB/

 

[Rob21]

2060 Super isn't really for 1440p, it's more likely for 1080p only, but it also depends on the games you'll be playing and your budget?

What is your monitor (refresh rate, resolution)? Will you only be playing or also streaming, editing?

In the specs it says the 2060 super is 1440p?

I will be getting a 32 inch 1440p monitor. 144hz, 1ms. Free sync.

I will play 4x games like civ6, humankind. City building games like the anno series, city skylines, planet coaster, parkitect. Racing games like forza horizon 4, Formula 1 etc. Open world games like the witcher.

Budget £1500.

No editing.

 

[Rob21]

With prices being at an absolute premium recently, around £1500 is the ballpark area for a good base unit when speccing a 1440p system. The following is what I’d be looking for in a build that would do everything you want it to now and provide a solid platform for upgrades. There’s a bit of a compromise when it comes to the amount/speed of storage but that will be an easy fix in future.

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
12GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
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 12 to 15 working days
Price: £1,594.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/yER42kfjwB/

I heard there was a lot of crashing with Radeon Graphics cards?

 

[AgentCooper]

The 2060 Super will manage 1440p at around 60Hz on middling settings. If you can dig deep and chuck an extra £100 at the system you’ll have something much more prepared for what the future brings.

The older AMD cards, particularly the 5700 variant, had a bit of a reputation when it came to driver issues. The newer ones appear to be much more stable. Admittedly, Nvidia cards are still a bit better optimised. A 3060Ti would be a fantastic choice to slot into the system I specced up… but availability is a huge problem. It’s currently not even selectable due to demand and order backlog.

 

[Citrus_9]

If you play Cities Skylines with lots of mods and DLCs, 32GB Ram would benefit. I have around 100 mods/assets and a few DLCs, and it eats 20GB of Ram. Just the heads up If you play with less mods 16GB Ram is enough 👍🏾

 

[AgentCooper]

If you play Cities Skylines with lots of mods and DLCs, 32GB Ram would benefit. I have around 100 mods/assets and a few DLCs, and it eats 20GB of Ram. Just the heads up If you play with less mods 16GB Ram is enough 👍🏾

I always forget how much RAM that game eats with mods (sponsored by Google Chrome). Thanks for reminding me yet again 👍👍👍

 

[Scott]

I think there has been a sharp shift in pricing as a few minor tweaks from me has you at £1800.

With regards to the GPU, the 3060 isn't as powerful as the 3060Ti. It's more aimed at professional work that would require the vRAM. It doesn't have the power of the Ti.

The 6700XT is a very powerful card and right on the money for your uses. It's only limitation is RayTracing, which is going to be limited at 1440p anyway with anything less than a 3070.

Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX TD500 MESH ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
250GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6400MB/R, 2700MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
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 12 to 15 working days
Price: £1,800.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/5nneDyQrPt/

 

[Rob21]

Thank you for the reminder on the MODs and DLC's on 4x/city building games. I am a keen a keen modder so will upgrade to 32GB.

Thank you to those taking their time to offer advise and build options.

I am not so keen to go with a radeon graphics card so will up my budget to £1750 to include the 3070. This will help with future growth? Would that be a solid decision? I'm not in a major rush for the PC but does anyone know the wait time for the RTX 3070?

Build:
Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX TD500 MESH ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
250GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6400MB/R, 2700MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 240 Series RGB High Performance Liquid Cooler (AMD)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
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 - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £1,761.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/Q8Feh5r2RB/

Any advise? I notice people are advising the 3200 PRO RAM when I have put 3000 RAM. Will there be much of a big difference?

Can anyone also advise on the liquid cooling? Will the builders install this at the top? Is it best installed at the top so need a case that supports top fan fitting?
Also, is it advisable to have a back fitting fan or ok to go without?

 

[Steveyg]

3200Mhz is really the minimum we would recommend for the Ryzen CPU's they really benefit from faster RAM so you could be hamstringing it's performance by going for slower RAM. Hence the recommendations of the 3200Mhz

As for the liquid cooler it doesn't have to roof mounted, the idea is that the pump should be lower than the highest point in the loop. If is lower than the highest point then everything should be ok. In the case selected I'm not entirely 100% sure as I don't have much experience with it but I believe there is enough room to properly fit it on the roof and front panels without issue.

I don't like the PCS Frostflows and would not recommend them, the 5600x could use the stock AMD which is actually a very solid air cooler. If I wasn't going for liquid cooling I'd stick with the Standard AMD cooler or maybe just maybe the Coolermaster 212. If I was to spend money on a cooler though I'd personally go with the Liquid Lite 240, I have one it's great

If you can afford to go for the 3070 then hell yeah go for it

 

[Steveyg]

Something like this

Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX TD500 MESH ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
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 - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £1,836.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/YqdQhG5UAN/

 

[Rob21]

3200Mhz is really the minimum we would recommend for the Ryzen CPU's they really benefit from faster RAM so you could be hamstringing it's performance by going for slower RAM. Hence the recommendations of the 3200Mhz

As for the liquid cooler it doesn't have to roof mounted, the idea is that the pump should be lower than the highest point in the loop. If is lower than the highest point then everything should be ok. In the case selected I'm not entirely 100% sure as I don't have much experience with it but I believe there is enough room to properly fit it on the roof and front panels without issue.

I don't like the PCS Frostflows and would not recommend them, the 5600x could use the stock AMD which is actually a very solid air cooler. If I wasn't going for liquid cooling I'd stick with the Standard AMD cooler or maybe just maybe the Coolermaster 212. If I was to spend money on a cooler though I'd personally go with the Liquid Lite 240, I have one it's great

If you can afford to go for the 3070 then hell yeah go for it

Thank you for the recommendations. I have noticed a few threads on the site complaining about the CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 being noisy or having issues? Is this something to be concerned about?

I see you have swapped out the 1st M.2 drive with a slower 512GB, 2000mb/r drive rather then the 250 Samsung 980 6400/r I was considering. Save £1 and get a slower 512GB drive or get a faster 250GB drive for £1 extra? This will be the boot drive. The second 1TB drive will be for the games.

You have changed the wireless card from the standard. I will be using a LAN cable. Is this because there is no BT with the standard card?

 

[VirtualDevil]

Thank you for the recommendations. I have noticed a few threads on the site complaining about the CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 being noisy or having issues? Is this something to be concerned about?

I see you have swapped out the 1st M.2 drive with a slower 512GB, 2000mb/r drive rather then the 250 Samsung 980 6400/r I was considering. Save £1 and get a slower 512GB drive or get a faster 250GB drive for £1 extra? This will be the boot drive. The second 1TB drive will be for the games.

You have changed the wireless card from the standard. I will be using a LAN cable. Is this because there is no BT with the standard card?

The CoolerMaster isn't particularly noisy, I mean any system is going to generate a bit of noise when keeping the components cool under load unless you're spending thousands. You probably saw a few posts where air bubbles are trapped, causing the pump to be considerably loud which is a risk for any liquid cooler but one that's generally quick and easy to identify and resolve.

I have the CM 240 Lite, it's a nice cooler and does a sterling job at keeping the 5600x at bay.

 

[Steveyg]

Yeah I have the CM240 as well compared to my older Corsair Liquid cooler is honestly considerably louder. I don't mind it though I can't hear it as soon as I have sound playing so it doesn't bother me and it does an excellent job at keeping my CPU cool so I freely recommend it. It's also priced very competitively

I went for the larger the 500GB drive to give you more space but extremely fast drives but hey at the end of the day it's your call.

 

[Rob21]

Thanks for the recommendations again. A couple more questions please:

I am undecided on the best case to purchase. Some come with a back fan and others don't. Is it advisable to have a back fan? The one in that spec has 3 at the front and no back fan but there is another option (Coolmaster masterbox k50) that has 2 at the front and 1 at the back. What is your advise on the back fan and what case would you go for if you was buying that spec (not out of the two but your own choice).

Is there a big difference having an OS on an m2 card that is 2000/r rather then the faster 6400/r? If it's seconds faster I can live with the slower. I have an SSD at the moment in my current setup so will probably notice a big difference anyway.

 

[Steveyg]

Thanks for the recommendations again. A couple more questions please:

I am undecided on the best case to purchase. Some come with a back fan and others don't. Is it advisable to have a back fan? The one in that spec has 3 at the front and no back fan but there is another option (Coolmaster masterbox k50) that has 2 at the front and 1 at the back. What is your advise on the back fan and what case would you go for if you was buying that spec (not out of the two but your own choice).

Is there a big difference having an OS on an m2 card that is 2000/r rather then the faster 6400/r? If it's seconds faster I can live with the slower. I have an SSD at the moment in my current setup so will probably notice a big difference anyway.

Yeah it'll literally be seconds, all the M.2 drives are insanely fast, you're probably talking roughly 7-10 second boot time with the 980 Pro and maybe around 15 seconds with the PCS M.2.

As for the case I'd recommend the Corsair 4000D or 5000D but unfortunately they aren't currently available, the case I've selected above is adequate too though. As for an exhaust fan it really depends on which cooler you choose, if you go for the CM240 for example that will likely be set up as the exhaust on the roof with the 3 fans in front as intake. So you wont need a rear fan, if you go for the standard AMD cooler I would also add an extra exhaust fan

 

[sck451]

Of the "restrained" cases in stock right now, I'd choose the Fractal Meshify C.