The right gaming rig?

[chrisrowe15]

Hey everyone,

I'm a novice looking to get into PC gaming, (upgrading from a 5-year old I5 laptop). I've tried to configure a PC within the £2,000 — £2,500 range that will be able to play the latest games, (possibly including VR), be upgradeable over time and hopefully, won't become obsolete for at least 3 or 4 years. The case chosen is particularly large because I want something that looks truly impressive when friends visit.

The spec below doesn't include a GPU as I'm getting a 1080 from a friend who is upgrading. Pointing out anything I've missed, mistakes I've made, improvements or indeed any thoughts at all would be greatly appreciated!

Case
COOLERMASTER COSMOS C700M TOWER GAMING CASE (Pre-Order Only)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 Eight Core Processor i9-9900K (3.6GHz) 16MB Cache

FREE Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 & More w/ select Intel CPUs!

Motherboard
Gigabyte Z390 AORUS Master: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready

Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 16GB)

Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)

1st Hard Disk
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE

1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3400MB/R, 2300MB/W)

FREE Assassin's Creed: Odyssey with select SAMSUNG NVMe SSDs!

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED

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
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND

LED Lighting
2x 50cm RGB LED Strip

Extra Case Fans
3x CoolerMaster MasterFan Pro 120 RGB + Controller Kit

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. Single Licence [KUK-00001]

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® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Browser
Firefox™

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 5 to 7 working days

 

[Oussebon]

What monitor are you going to be gaming on exactly? resolution and refresh rate?

And what does the above cost?

There are pretty large cases with RGB lighting that don't cost £400, also. e.g. https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/form/includes/case_images.php?view=12263

 

[chrisrowe15]

Hi Oussebon,

Thanks for the help, it's appreciated!

This configuration came to £2,168.00, but that's with the expensive new case & without a GPU.

Honestly, I'd completely forgotten about the monitor, any suggestions on this front would be most welcome, (I know less than nothing about them).

Cheers for the case recommendation, I'll have a proper look at that one, I did see a similar one to this, think it was in white, that looked pretty cool & was probably better value than the one I have configured.


P.S. I've read some of the support & advice you've given out to help others and I'm impressed.

 

[Oussebon]

Thanks, I hope it helps What is your budget for the monitor or is that £2-2.5k including a monitor?

Knowing can help guide how to balance the system

 

[chrisrowe15]

Yes, keeping it in that sort of range of under £2,500 in total I do think is perhaps reasonable, I'm sure it's possible to get carried away and spend a stratospheric amount but I guess you have to draw a line somewhere. This, of course, being said, I have no idea what a reasonable amount is to spend on a monitor or indeed quite what percentage of a new build should be apportioned for buying one. Choosing the other components seemed somewhat easier, by comparison, especially the CPU, when so many people recently appeared to have been discussing it.

 

[Oussebon]

That's good.

In terms of the spec above:
-32gb RAM for gaming is pointless
- you don't need such an expensive mobo. All the Z370/390 mobos are already expensive
- the 9900k just isn't worth it.

Focusing on the CPU:

1440p benchmarks because with a system of this budget you're going to be playing 1440p high refresh or 4k.

Intel's CPU prices are currently through the roof because they messed up supply versus demand, so stock is short.
These were the relative prices earlier today: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...e-lake-refresh&p=424800&viewfull=1#post424800

Bringing this all together - you can get an R7 2700x, which at 1440p gives you within about 4% the same performance as the 9900k, for £250-300 less. Sometimes we're talking the difference between 80 and 81 frames per second, that sort of thing...

And unlike the 9900k it won't set your house on fire.

It doesn't really make sense to buy Intel for gaming at the moment. Or for much of anything. Maybe if you make your living in Photoshop.

But if you must go for Intel, then the 9700k makes more sense as it's functionally the same as the 9900k in games
(even if you game at 720p to deliberately try and produce a CPU bottleneck, it's the same: https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Core_i7_9700K/12.html )

And buy the system pre-overclocked for the 9700k because as you can see in that post it's cheaper than stock for.. reasons ..

==
GTX 2080 ti

It's worth bearing in mind that you can buy a system with an R7 2700x, 16gb RAM, 512gb NVMe SSD, and a GTX 2080 ti for £2100 here: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/configure-review/277/

It won't look quite as impressive. But it has a 2080 ti. For less money than your spec above.

==

Monitors:
You will want a gsync monitor to go with your GTX 1080 or other Nvidia GPU
1440p 144hz - These start at about £450 and run to maybe £700. The Dell S2716DG has been very popular on these forums.
1440p ultrawide (21:9 aspect ratio) ~100hz - £750-£1000 e.g. Acer Predator Z35P ~£800
Not to be confused with the Z35 (without the P)

The GTX 1080 is a bit too borderline for 4k, at least for very high settings in all games and going forward a few years. But if going for the GTX 2080 ti build above, you can get 4k 60hz monitors from £500, sometimes £400 on sale upto around £800.

===

If we're doing a swish-looking build, on Intel, to host the 1080, however, something like:


Case
CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 500D SE CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7-9700K Eight Core (3.60GHz @ up to 5.0GHz)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
1[SUP]st[/SUP] M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3400MB/R, 2300MB/W)
---FREE Assassin's Creed: Odyssey with select SAMSUNG NVMe SSDs!
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
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
Corsair H100x Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
2x 50cm RGB LED Strip
Extra Case Fans
3x Corsair LL120 RGB LED Fan + Controller Kit
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. 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® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
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 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,548.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-overclocked/Gb9FUuX6gN/

Which would let you get one of those 1440p ultrawides if you so wished.

 

[Oussebon]

Or the same thing with AMD:

Case
CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 500D SE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Eight Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.35GHz/20MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
Gigabyte X470 AORUS Ultra Gaming: ATX, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2933MHz ~ (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
...etc

Price £1,422.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-pc/V2fzuBnG73/

Performance being indistinguishable from the 9700k or 9900k.

 

[chrisrowe15]

Cheers Oussebon,

You've clearly put some real effort into helping me. I'm super impressed and ever so slightly annoyed, (given that I like what you've configured better than what I actually managed to come up with, that CORSAIR OBSIDIAN case does certainly look extremely smart & classy).

What you've explained about the CPU makes sense and would be saving money, I think initially I picked the 9900k because there were so many recent reviews and because of all the hype suggesting it was the best one for gaming, but now I see this appears to be more just about bragging rights than any massive actual, real-world functionality advantages.

Equally, this system you've configured with the 2080 ti graphics card seems somewhat rather impressive, not to mention great value, I'm not entirely 100% on the case, but the rest of the spec looks very good.

The help with monitors is also very much appreciated, would not have known where to even begin with that one.

So again, many thanks Oussebon, some great advice & very useful suggestions that I can take forward.

 

[Oussebon]

Equally, this system you've configured with the 2080 ti graphics card seems somewhat rather impressive, not to mention great value, I'm not entirely 100% on the case, but the rest of the spec looks very good.

Just to be clear, I didn't configure that one.

This is a 'review build' which is a special promotional spec that PCS puts together, ships to an external company for review, and then sells X numbers of them at a fixed price which is usually heavily discounted. i.e. it's a special offer where the trade in for not being able to amend the spec is that it's a lot cheaper.

Manually configured the spec is just shy of £2.4k so it's about £275 off
Spec for review build with discount £2105: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/configure-review/277/
Manually configured £2380: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-pc/hB86kuZ2mS/

I think I recreated the spec accurately there anyway...

The review specs are listed here: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/reviews/ and there's a youtube review video if you want to see it a bit more like what it will be like in the flesh.

What you've explained about the CPU makes sense and would be saving money, I think initially I picked the 9900k because there were so many recent reviews and because of all the hype suggesting it was the best one for gaming, but now I see this appears to be more just about bragging rights than any massive actual, real-world functionality advantages.

Pretty much this. Certainly for gaming.

Best is a bit of a dangerous term. It's the 'best', but if you don't notice the difference or derive any substantive benefit, was it worth £100 more than a 9700k? Or £300 more than an R7 2700x? When that's money you can spend differently for something where you will notice the benefit (whether PC related or not).

I named a few more monitors here: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...irst-gaming-PC&p=409091&viewfull=1#post409091 though it's by no means comprehensive or up to date

Glad it was useful, keep us posted

 

[Oussebon]

If you are interested in the Z35P it's up for £650 on a particular site, fyi.

 

[chrisrowe15]

I looked at the Z35P, it's a monster! It would certainly be a step up from a 17 inch laptop screen.

Maybe though with the computer specification I will take a while longer to think it through before making a final decision & possibly read up a little bit more.

Again though, cheers for the help & advice Oussebon.

 

[chrisrowe15]

OK, so quick update, after a couple weeks of looking into monitors, considering alternative specs & vacillating between cases (got kind of hung up for a while on the Corsair Obsidian 1000D and then spotted the Phanteks enthoo elite which appears rather smart), have ended up coming around full circle back to my original favourite, the Cosmos C700M. Finally chosen a monitor, well pretty much, in this case Dell's Alienware AW3418DW, although expensive & quite large, it is a 120hz panel, runs at a 1440 resolution and has G-SYNC. So with this in mind the budget has been increased to accommodate both the monitor & RTX 2080 graphics card to run it with (of which still to ascertain whether it can be mounted vertically as other examples in this configuration due appear aesthetically pleasing). The updated specification is listed below.

Case
COOLERMASTER COSMOS C700M TOWER GAMING CASE ()
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i9-9900K Eight Core (3.60GHz @ up to 4.9GHz)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z390 AORUS Master: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
2nd Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3400MB/R, 2300MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
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
Corsair H115i PRO Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
LED Lighting
2x 50cm UV LED Strip
Extra Case Fans
5x Corsair LL120 RGB LED Fan + Controller Kit
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/Thunderbolt 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. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
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® Office® 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 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price £3,080.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-overclocked/CkHumNEAJ7/

 

[Oussebon]

If for gaming, 32gb RAM is a waste. It's not futureproof, it's not 'squeezing every last drop of performance', it's just a waste.

The i9 is also a waste of money versus the 9700k or the AMD r7 2700x. The savings from the RAM and CPU will let you afford the 2080 ti which will be a much better match for the monitor especially for pushing some higher framerates.

The extra fans are a waste. The case supports 3 front, 3 top, 1 rear fan. It ships with 3 front and 1 rear fan. Also the CPU cooler will occupy 2 of the top fan slots. It also uses 140mm fans, so swapping those with 120mm fans doesn't seem smart.

So you're buying 5 RGB fans for 1 vacant fan mount slot.

 

[chrisrowe15]

My real issue with the Ryzen 7 2700X after watching various different benchmarks from multiple sources is that it doesn't appear 'consistently' close to the 9900K in terms of performance. Indeed some of the benchmarks even suggested it was being outperformed by the lesser 9600K, 9700K, 8700K & 8086K processors. In some games the Ryzen CPU offered great performance to within only a few frames of the I9, however in certain other games the indicated difference exceeds over 45%! Quite shocking! & Rather put me off going down the AMD route irrespective of the future potential compatibility for the AM4 slot motherboard being upgradeable to the make use of the lastest model of Ryzen CPU.

When it comes to the RAM I am perhaps being a little wasteful, possibly a reaction to currently having to make do with only 4gb, but you may very well have a good point with this one.

Thanks for pointing out the fan sizes, I had just thought they would simply swap out the plain fans which come with the case for the new RGB's instead. I'll have to have a word when I submit my order as to whether the 120LL fans can be upgraded to the 140LL versions instead.

Not sure or not now whether to choose the 2080ti instead of the 2080 non ti version, it was always less about the financial aspect and more initially that I felt it may have been a little bit overkill for 1440 gaming, anyway certainly pause for thought.

Finally cheers again for the help, especially regarding monitors, I do really quite like the Z35P you suggested, great specs - Just slightly prefer the aesthetics of the Dell version, which appears to have a nearly identical specification.

 

[Oussebon]

My real issue with the Ryzen 7 2700X after watching various different benchmarks from multiple sources is that it doesn't appear 'consistently' close to the 9900K in terms of performance. Indeed some of the benchmarks even suggested it was being outperformed by the lesser 9600K, 9700K, 8700K & 8086K processors. In some games the Ryzen CPU offered great performance to within only a few frames of the I9, however in certain other games the indicated difference exceeds over 45%! Quite shocking! & Rather put me off going down the AMD route irrespective of the future potential compatibility for the AM4 slot motherboard being upgradeable to the make use of the lastest model of Ryzen CPU.

What were the 45% frame rate differences? You don't mean that garbage paid for by Intel that was reported on prior to launch and cut apart so brutally by the tech community that the company actually re-did the benchmarks to try to salvage their good name do you..? Principled Technologies.

The initial test they did involved things like turning off half the cores on the 2700x........ no, really, they did that.

I'd love to see the benchmark that puts a 45% difference between a 2700x and an i9 9900k, especially at Ultrawide WQHD...

Thanks for pointing out the fan sizes, I had just thought they would simply swap out the plain fans which come with the case for the new RGB's instead.

According to Cooler Master's site the stock front fans are aRGB

Edit: According to the PCS page for the case, they are RGB too: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/form/includes/case_images.php?view=12558

Not sure or not now whether to choose the 2080ti instead of the 2080 non ti version, it was always less about the financial aspect and more initially that I felt it may have been a little bit overkill for 1440 gaming, anyway certainly pause for thought.

It's 1440p ultrawide, so higher resolution than 1440p anyway. 3440x1440 as opposed to 2560x1440, which is 1440p. And if you're buying an i9 9900k over a 9700k and buying a £400 case, overkill was left behind a long time ago.

Just buy a beefy GPU that will give you significant benefits, as opposed to 32gb RAM and an i9 (versus an i7) that will give you 0 and very, very, very slim benefits respectively.

Finally cheers again for the help, especially regarding monitors, I do really quite like the Z35P you suggested, great specs - Just slightly prefer the aesthetics of the Dell version, which appears to have a nearly identical specification.

No worries, I only suggest the Acer one as it's the only one I can ever remember the existence of. Always forget what the Asus one is, and that an Alienware one exists. I think AOC launched one but I cba to look it up. The Predator's a good starting point, great you found a model you're set on

 

[Oussebon]

Just dropping the RAM down, switching to the i7, and swapping the GPU to a 2080 ti will give you ~25% more gaming performance for a £15 overall cost increase.


Case
COOLERMASTER COSMOS C700M TOWER GAMING CASE ()
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7-9700K Eight Core (3.60GHz @ up to 5.0GHz)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z390 AORUS Master: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
---Get Battlefield V with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1[SUP]st[/SUP] M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3400MB/R, 2300MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
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
Corsair H115i PRO Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
LED Lighting
2x 50cm UV LED Strip
Extra Case Fans
5x Corsair LL120 RGB LED Fan + Controller Kit
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/Thunderbolt 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. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
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® Office® 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 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price £3,095.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-overclocked/MycvNNm3RB/

I didn't even ditch the excess fans. Literally just those 3 changes drastically improve the build. Plus any savings you get from dropping the fans you don't need.

 

[Oussebon]

Also drop the wifi card, the AORUS Master has built in wifi that's much faster

 

[chrisrowe15]

Thanks Oussebon, I think my build still needs some work, thought I'd cracked it - Back to the drawing board! But I'd rather find out now than spend 3k+ then find out! So cheers, do appreciate the support & help.

 

[Oussebon]

Well, hardly the drawing board, the spec you've got is fine if you wanna spend the money on it, I'd just suggest rebalancing CPU, RAM, GPU, and dropping the fans (and the wifi card).