New Gaming PC spec

[philwil]

Hi All,
I'm putting together some preliminary specs for a new PC. It's a workhorse but with some high end single player gaming intended, such as: Endless Space 2, Elite Dangerous, Mass Effect Andromeda, and a few years of hopeful future-proofness. How do these specs look?

No video card included as I have a GTX 970 I can transfer. Similarly with audio, I have a SoundBlaster SBX 5.1 system. Might possibly upgrade both but at the moment these specs are the max I can afford.

Any advice greatly appreciated as I'm pretty out of touch with PC tech advances since buying my last PCS machine 6 years ago. It's still going strong but creaking a bit with some newer games.

Thanks in advance:

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE S BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-7700k (4.2GHz) 8MB Cache


FREE Halo Wars 2 with select INTEL® CPUs!
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z270X-Ultra Gaming: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st Hard Disk
500GB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 16MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD BLACK 3.5" WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
Intel Optane Memory
16GB INTEL® OPTANE MEMORY
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
External DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x Slim USB 2.0 External DVD-RW
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H55 Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Liquid Series Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11 AC1300 867Mbps/5GHz, 400Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB 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
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month 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 £1,236.00 including VAT and delivery

 

[keynes]

you could get a cheaper motherboard, a regular HDD and try to fit in an M2 SSD. Are you planning to overclock your cpu?

 

[philwil]

you could get a cheaper motherboard, a regular HDD and try to fit in an M2 SSD. Are you planning to overclock your cpu?

Thanks for the response.
What motherboard would you recommend that'll be compatible and powerful enough for my present and future needs?
Regular HDD? I want the SSD mostly for system/OS etc. Aren't they faster and more reliable longterm than HDDs? Not sure what the purpose/benefits are of an M2 SSD. They didn't exist when I last bought.

I don't currently overclock and probably won't in future as I'm not too
tech-savvy.

 

[keynes]

an M2 SSD is faster than the SATA SSD
Case
FRACTAL DEFINE C BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
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 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st Hard Disk
2TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG SM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3100MB/R, 1400MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
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 9 to 11 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,248.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z270-overclocked/Cq27RDCnGF/

 

[Oussebon]

Not sure what the purpose/benefits are of an M2 SSD.

In real terms as far as this spec is concerned, The M.2 NVMe SSDs are a lot faster than the sata ones. You can see an indication of that from the speeds next to the M.2 NVMe SSD in Keynes' spec.

The above spec looks good and better value, trimming down some of the bits that don't add much (e.g. that USB card - the mobo already has 2 USB 3.1 ports). It also has onboard wifi.

Afaik the Define S has a bit better cooling performance than the Define C. Since there's only a £2 difference if you don't mind the Define S being a bit bigger than the C you could stick to that.