Please review and alter!

[matbir]

I purchased a laptop from PC Specialist 2 years ago and whilst it is still serving me well today, I'm ready to make the step up to proper PC gaming. Now whilst I have a modest budget of approx. £1000 I would like to think that my limited knowledge of building systems has served me well here. However, if I have made some monumental error please let me know! Similarly, should any suggestions be apparent then feel free to post!

I have sourced a monitor and peripherals externally.

Many thanks


Case
CORSAIR SPEC-04 MID TOWER GAMING CASE - BLACK/RED
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Six Core Processor i5-8400 (2.8GHz) 9MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME Z370-P: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP
1st Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON UV400 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (550MB/R, 490MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD BLACK 3.5" WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
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 300Mbps/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 & Single 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 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,080.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-pc/5XuYMSapTN/

 

[Oussebon]

It's a decent core spec.

The WD Black HDDs have a huge price premium and aren't really worth it vs a regular HDD. The UV400s are slow and not sufficiently cheap to make the savings worth it versus something like the PM961 from the M.2 SSD Menu.

Note that PCS have the Engima Elite spec here: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/configure-review/237/

This has The Spec-04 case, an i5 8400, 16gb 2133MHz RAM, a GTX 1060 6gb, 1TB HDD, 256gb WD Black NVMe SSD, etc for a fixed £999 price.

It lacks wifi but any cheap USB adapter should do the job fine.

While I'd prefer it had 3000MHz RAM, most games won't care a great deal and will be much more interested in it having the GTX 1060 6gb, which offers 10-15% better performance.

 

[matbir]

Many thanks for the reply. I had seen that deal but the lack of wifi and the slower ram made me come up with this spec. The games I'm playing on my laptop are very cpu intensive over the graphics card (cities skylines, planet coaster etc) and I run a lot of mods on some games too so the higher ram spec would perhaps suit me better.

In terms of the hard drive, that's where my limited knowledge ends. I went with WD as that's what I had in the laptop and figured a big name brand may be worth the price. Ill look into this further though. Much the same with the SSD

Thank you for your advice.

 

[Oussebon]

The wifi's a non issue due to being able to add a wifi card or a USB adapter - I've no idea about how performance scales in those games with RAM frequency, but I would share your suspicions that it might have an above average impact.

If you can stretch a bit higher, perhaps something like:


Case
CORSAIR SPEC-04 MID TOWER GAMING CASE - BLACK/RED
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Six Core Processor i5-8400 (2.8GHz) 9MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME Z370-P: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
1TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
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 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Single 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 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,127.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-pc/G3btmHr!9e/

The case only has 1 fan. Adding 2 more should help with airflow. The GTX 1060 6gb is often a lot more expensive than the 3gb, but is currently less than £50 difference. Could be worth it for the extra cores as well as the VRAM.

 

[matbir]

That looks pretty much spot on Oussebon Thank You!

In terms of the case itself, would you suggest any better options in terms of cooling or would the extra fans be ok in the case selected? The machine wont be placed by any windows for extra venting so I want to make sure heat is controlled as much as possible.

 

[Oussebon]

It occurred to me a little while after posting that the Game Max Falcon might be a better bet as a case. It has 2 fans preinstalled, and a few bonus features the Corsair Spec 04 doesn't have. You could order it without any extra fans quite safely. It reviews very well for thermal performance, from what I've seen.

Placing a PC by a window isn't necessary - in fact it's a bad idea if it would mean it gets direct sunlight. Just don't stuff it into a corner where it has no room around it.

 

[matbir]

Yes I hadn't really given it much thought until now. Ill probably go with the Max Falcon case having read some reviews etc. Thanks again Oussebon