New gaming rig

[stesta]

I'm a return customer to PCS, I bought a custom machine about 9 years back. Now the only thing that remains of that build is the case, over time various parts have been replaced either to upgrade or they just gave up the ghost. Even the upgraded machine is somewhat out of date. I'm planning on ordering a new machine in April, on finance.

The aim is to go right to the top of my budget per month finance wise, in order to keep the machine as relevant as possible for as long as possible, as it's likely to be a couple of years before I can think about changing or upgrading any part of this machine. As the title suggests - It's primarily a gaming setup. Budget wise I'm pushing to about £2,100 (can go a tad over, but not much), that gives me pretty much the maximum monthly payments I can justify to the Mrs.

So yes, I've gone balls out in general terms, wondered what you guys thought...
Of course, a quote is only good for 5 days so this can't be the quote I'll order, but it's very much along the lines of what I'll be going for I think. I am open to suggestions around if there's ways to make it more efficient or get more bang for my buck so to speak. One thing I had wondered was if the fan controller was going over the top. With no fan controller, I could go for the Corsair Carbide 540 case (case doesn't accept fan controller) which is very neat & potentially pretty from what I've seen.

Case - COOLERMASTER CM690 III ADVANCED CASE (GREEN)
Overclocked CPU - Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-6700k Quad Core (4.00GHz @ upto MAX 4.60GHz)
Motherboard - ASUS® Z170 PRO GAMING: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM) - 32GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2666MHz (4 x 8GB Kit)
Graphics Card - 6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 980 Ti - DVI, HDMI, 3x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Hard Disk - 480GB HyperX SAVAGE 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk - 3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive - 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply - CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling - Corsair H100i GTX Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste - ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Fan Controller - NZXT Sentry 3 Fan Controller with upto 5 Fitted Case Fans
Extra Case Fans - 2x 120mm Apache Black Quiet Fan (fitted to extract from rear/roof)
LED Lighting - 60cm Green LED Strip - To Compliment The Colours of Your Case
Sound Card - Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy™ FX OEM
Wireless/Wired Networking - WIRELESS 802.11 AC1750 1,300Mbps/5GHz, 450Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
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
Monitor - ASUS VC239H 23" IPS Frame-less Monitor
Keyboard & Mouse - Razer® Deathstalker Expert Gaming Keyboard
Mouse - Razer® Deathadder Chroma Gaming Mouse - 10000dpi
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 11 to 13 working days
Promotional Item
FREE TOM CLANCY'S: THE DIVISION with select GTX 9 Series GPUs!
Quantity
1

 

[stesta]

New Gaming Rig - Take 2

ok - so I posted this earlier, since then I edited it once, and it seems to have become a blank post. Apologies for any inconvenience!

[the rest of the post was a duplicate of the above]

 

[Rakk]

ok - so I posted this earlier, since then I edited it once, and it seems to have become a blank post. Apologies for any inconvenience!

[the rest of the post was a duplicate of the above]

When you are new to the forums, your posts will often get auto-moderated - which means you just have to be patient til a moderator see it and approves it - this also applies to edits of previously approved posts, You should be able to see your thread now.

 

[stesta]

Thanks Rakk.
I added a few notes to the 2nd thread I posted, but nothing I can't edit into this one now

 

[Rakk]

Thanks Rakk.
I added a few notes to the 2nd thread I posted, but nothing I can't edit into this one now

Sorry if some of the extra bits got deleted, it looked very similar to me and well it was early and my breakfast had most of my attention

 

[stesta]

Sorry if some of the extra bits got deleted, it looked very similar to me and well it was early and my breakfast had most of my attention

Absolutely fine mate I've edited now to add in what I'd added to the other one. Hope you enjoyed your breakfast!

 

[SpyderTracks]

Absolutely fine mate I've edited now to add in what I'd added to the other one. Hope you enjoyed your breakfast!

Couple of questions, are you going to be overclocking? Are you running any virtualisation/design/coding software?

By the time you order, pascal (new graphics architecture) may well be public in which case it will change your build somewhat. Pascal is going to be a game changer from all the info we have so far, they're very powerful cards.

 

[stesta]

Couple of questions, are you going to be overclocking? Are you running any virtualisation/design/coding software?

By the time you order, pascal (new graphics architecture) may well be public in which case it will change your build somewhat. Pascal is going to be a game changer from all the info we have so far, they're very powerful cards.

I've never dabbled with OC, but it's not out of the question. VR down the line is a strong possibility, but not looking to use any design or coding software, no.
I'll have a little read about Pascal I think!

 

[SpyderTracks]

I've never dabbled with OC, but it's not out of the question. VR down the line is a strong possibility, but not looking to use any design or coding software, no.
I'll have a little read about Pascal I think!

So for gaming and VR 16GB RAM is going to be plenty, no need for more, literally just throwing money down the drain as it will never be used.

If you're not going to be overclocking, you can drop down to the non-k variety of PCU (k denotes overclockable). If you are intending to overclock, then you'll need watercooling, a minimum of the h80i i'd suggest.

No need for fan controller or extra case fans for operational value, they're just a gimmick, but I understand some people like them. That case would offer ample cooling by itself.

Do you need the external soundcard? On board sound is excellent these days.

I'd get at least silver warranty on a build like that.

 

[stesta]

So for gaming and VR 16GB RAM is going to be plenty, no need for more, literally just throwing money down the drain as it will never be used.

If you're not going to be overclocking, you can drop down to the non-k variety of PCU (k denotes overclockable). If you are intending to overclock, then you'll need watercooling, a minimum of the h80i i'd suggest.

No need for fan controller or extra case fans for operational value, they're just a gimmick, but I understand some people like them. That case would offer ample cooling by itself.

Do you need the external soundcard? On board sound is excellent these days.

I'd get at least silver warranty on a build like that.

Thanks for your input Spyder. I'd seen the silver warranty mentioned on a few other threads & have made a note that I'll add it when I eventually do order. I'll likely step the PCU down to non-K.
RAM-wise... With the 'future proofing' element in mind, is it still not worth going for 32GB? or is 16GB likely to be the standard for a few years yet? If 16GB is more advisable, then I'd probably go for the Corsair vengeance rather than the Hyper (I'm by no means an expert, but it's better, no?)

I get the fan controller thing, I suspected it may be overkill, going for the larger case is probably the way forward.
Sound card... I'd added one in on the recommendation of a friend, is there a discernable difference against the latest Motherboard on-board options?

 

[danonwheels]

I'm not a specialist but is a 650W power supply enough for that GPU and motherboard config enough? great machine though like me
I tried to future proof mine VR Oculus Rift is the future....check out the machine i just bought

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks for your input Spyder. I'd seen the silver warranty mentioned on a few other threads & have made a note that I'll add it when I eventually do order. I'll likely step the PCU down to non-K.
RAM-wise... With the 'future proofing' element in mind, is it still not worth going for 32GB? or is 16GB likely to be the standard for a few years yet? If 16GB is more advisable, then I'd probably go for the Corsair vengeance rather than the Hyper (I'm by no means an expert, but it's better, no?)

I get the fan controller thing, I suspected it may be overkill, going for the larger case is probably the way forward.
Sound card... I'd added one in on the recommendation of a friend, is there a discernable difference against the latest Motherboard on-board options?

RAM Wise, up to 16gb is only just about being used by 1 or 2 games, and these are generally poorly optimised ones. 16Gb will be fine for a while yet. If it does become necessary to add more it's a simple job to do yourself, just plug and play. Either model will be fine, no real difference.

Sound card wise, on board is excellent. A dedicated sound card is only really required when setting up a 7.1 speaker arrangement or high end DAC amped headphones, really for audiophiles and pro gamers. The on board audio will do well for most uses. I'd suggest trying out on board first, if you're not happy it's an easy upgrade through PCS.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I'm not a specialist but is a 650W power supply enough for that GPU and motherboard config enough? great machine though like me
I tried to future proof mine VR Oculus Rift is the future....check out the machine i just bought

650W will be fine for that rig.

 

[stesta]

RAM Wise, up to 16gb is only just about being used by 1 or 2 games, and these are generally poorly optimised ones. 16Gb will be fine for a while yet. If it does become necessary to add more it's a simple job to do yourself, just plug and play. Either model will be fine, no real difference.

Sound card wise, on board is excellent. A dedicated sound card is only really required when setting up a 7.1 speaker arrangement or high end DAC amped headphones, really for audiophiles and pro gamers. The on board audio will do well for most uses. I'd suggest trying out on board first, if you're not happy it's an easy upgrade through PCS.

Thanks for your advice Spyder. Rep has been applied
I'll look at a revised build and see what I can come up with bearing your comments in mind.