Gaming PC - 4K gaming!

I'm unsure if the specs go together. I had to change the case a few times to fit the coolers in. Also, would you recommend installing the OS on SSD for a predominantly gaming machine?

Looks like a beast, but it could be worth looking at the advice on this thread:

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?60445-%A33000-budget-for-4k

especially re processor etc.

Did you hold off on getting the build here?: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?59081-New-rig-after-7-years!

It looks like your budget has changed from this thread - is it still mainly for music processing?

As above, is it just gaming or do you have uses beyond gaming? What specific software?

What monitor are you using for gaming? Only that 4k one in the spec?

What's your budget and what does the above spec total?

I appreciate the responses here chaps.

Yes, initially I was looking for a new work and gaming machine combo. I'm lucky enough to be able to work from home and due to my schedule I have a couple of days spare each week to indulge in gaming barring of course the obligatory time I need to spend with my wife and kids.

I'll be using it predominantly for gaming, capturing gameplay and rendering video. I'm more interested in the 4K aspect of gaming. I used to be an old school gamer in my teenage years (who wasn't, right?) but I haven't had chance to get back into it as much as I'd like due to a very busy home life. These days, I actually have spare time and I don't want to mess about with consoles. They don't offer the same modding capabilities as a desktop nor the quantity of titles.

One thing, I've heard the 2080 is delayed by a week? Also, I'd appreciate any changes you guys could make to the specs directed towards value for money. Anything I can "tone down" that wouldn't necessarily have a big impact on performance?

Sorry for the double post, I can't find my post to edit.

I've checked the specs from the thread that was kindly linked and I've taken the processor down to an Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor i7-7820X (3.6GHz) 11MB Cache. Will that give me the best performance?

Also, as was suggested on the same thread, I've gone for a 1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe which will give me faster performance.

The adjusted quote:

Case CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 750D FULL TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor i7-7820X (3.6GHz) 11MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® ROG RAMPAGE VI EXTREME: DDR4, 6Gb/s, CrossFireX/SLI, WIFI - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM) 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card 11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - GTX VR Ready!
1st Hard Disk 2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk 1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive 1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3400MB/R, 2500MB/W)
Intel Optane Memory 32GB INTEL® OPTANE MEMORY - USE WITH MECHANICAL HDD
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 16x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW & SOFTWARE
Power Supply CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling Corsair H115i PRO Cooler w/ PCS Liquid Series Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card ASUS Xonar DSX - Bring Hi-Fi spirit to your Music, Movie & Games
Wireless/Wired Networking 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 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 Google Chrome™
Monitor ASUS VP28UQG 28" 4K GAMING MONITOR
Keyboard & Mouse LOGITECH® MK520 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO
Headsets HyperX Cloud Stinger Gaming Headset
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


Pricing Information
Price (excluding VAT) £3,334.17
Price £4,001.00
.

I think you would be better off withthe I7-8700k, found using this menu:

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-z370-pc/

Or this one, if overclocked:

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-z370-overclocked/


Or, hold off for a few more weeks and see what the new coffee lake refresh models to come out.

For the CPU you want to be looking at either the 8700k with an OC or the soon to be released 9700k/9900k (Budget permitting).

32gb RAM is a waste for gaming. 16gb is more than enough and futureproof.
As above the 8700k is a better choice of CPU, being the top gaming CPU currently available. NB new CPUs due to launch, as mentioned above.
I'd get a single HDD as it's cheaper and easier, easier to manage, involves less stuff in the case affecting airflow... etc...
And I don't think I'd bother with the Optane, all your favourite programs and games will be on the SSD anyhow.
Drop the sound card, the mobo's onboard sound is more than fine
There's no point going for the "Extreme" motherboards unless you have a very specific need for what they offer. Performance difference is pretty well 0.
The H100i cooler is way more than enough and also cheaper.
You could get the RMx PSU as it's even better quality.

Don't buy one of PCS's 4k monitors. They're great for productivity uses I'm sure but they lack gsync which for this budget and 4k gaming you will absolutely want. Get a monitor from elsewhere, e.g. Acer 32" XB321HK - anything really, as long as it has gsync.

It's still going to be a lot cheaper overall, and give a better gaming experience to boot.


Case
CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 750D FULL TOWER CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7-8700K Six Core (3.7GHz @ up to 4.8GHz)
---FREE PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Battlefield 1 & More! w/ select Intel CPUs!
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Ultra Gaming: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - GTX VR Ready! ()
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1[SUP]st[/SUP] M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3400MB/R, 2500MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
16x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW & SOFTWARE
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 Cooler w/ PCS Liquid Series Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL 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. 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)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK520 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO
Headsets
HyperX Cloud Stinger Gaming Headset
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 11 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price £2,975.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-overclocked/hG8ax5fTsV/

+ £500-£800 for the monitor depending what you opt for.

And reiterating that new CPUs offering likely a little better performance are out in October, so we believe.

For video rendering you may consider 32gb RAM.

One thing, I've heard the 2080 is delayed by a week?

Click to expand...

The 2080 ti is delayed by a week apparently.

If the OP is looking for professional audio use, is it worth them looking at the the STRIX B350-F Gaming motherboard as this offers optical audio out?(I recall Frank100 pointing it out on another thread.

I think I recall the post you mean, and it's a good observation. That's a motherboard for AMD CPUs (AM4 socket). As it happens the Z370 Ultra Gaming also has optical out though

Thank you very much for the replies and to Oussebon for the tweaks.

It's probably a better option to buy a monitor elsewhere. I've had a quick look and found a 27" ACER Predator: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/27-...c-144hz-180hz-oc-1ms-100m1-250cd-m-hdmi-dp-dv

Seems a decent price and I'm not too bothered about the reduction in size. It's not the size that matters or so my wife tells me.

The only slight adjustment I've made is taking the power supply down to 750W.

Coming back to this shortly.

The RMX series PSU is worth the extra IMO. You should have a look at the TXm vs RMx features to see if you may be better off. Allows for more power headroom & efficiency as well.

It's probably a better option to buy a monitor elsewhere. I've had a quick look and found a 27" ACER Predator: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/27-a...d-m-hdmi-dp-dv

Click to expand...

This isn't 4k, this is 1080p.

1080p 144hz for £450.. :/

For 4k, consider:
28" Acer XB281HK
32" Acer XB321HK IPS 4K

The_Scotster said:

The RMX series PSU is worth the extra IMO. You should have a look at the TXm vs RMx features to see if you may be better off. Allows for more power headroom & efficiency as well.

Click to expand...

Thank you. Not too much price difference between these 2 so I'll probably go with the original choice.

Oussebon said:

This isn't 4k, this is 1080p.

1080p 144hz for £450.. :/

For 4k, consider:
28" Acer XB281HK
32" Acer XB321HK IPS 4K

Click to expand...

I didn't realise monitors were so expensive. I've never actually paid attention to the quality of monitor before. Looking into it deeper and reading reviews, it makes all the difference between a great user experience and a "mind-blown, WTF" moment. The very steep price will probably be worth it in the long run.

These monitors are particularly expensive due to gsync which is a proprietary Nvidia technology that they make you pay through the nose for.

However, you do want this because it going a long way to eliminating stutter and tearing. When you play a game and it can't keep a fluid 60fps, you'll be familiar with stutter which is where frames have to get reused to fill the monitor's 60hz refresh rate. Gsync (and the AMD equivalent Freesync) synchronise the monitor's refresh rate to what your GPU is outputting, which gets rid of that. And there's no point dropping £3000 on a PC for 4k gaming only to have it stutter with FPS drops.

For 1080p monitors you can get 144hz ones with Freesync for just over £200. Gsync ones are £300-£350+... It's a bit of a racket. I'd tell you to buy a 4k freesync monitor if there were an AMD GPU anywhere close in performance to the high end Nvidia GPUs. But there aren't, so Nvidia + gsync + high prices it is unfortunately.

You can get 4k gsync monitors on sale for ~£500 from time to time.

I was looking into getting a similar monitor, then saw Acer re-released it as "V2" of the same monitor and slapped the price back up to ~£750. With V1 no longer available.

#firstworldproblems I suppose.

Crikey, I thought £550 was the going rate for 4k G-Sync, it was the last time I looked. Didn't realise that was a deal. Complete monopoly on high end though. Fingers crossed AMD up their game soon.

It was kind of the going rate for some of the 27/28" ones iirc, with occasional offers down to .. £400 was it? But prices seemed to go up recently. Perhaps not coincidence that it seemed to happen a couple of months before the new GPUs were out.

Ordered :chris:

Any PCS employees reading this, Oussebon (among others) helped me tremendously. I probably wouldn't have ordered without his advice. Thank you, chaps.

marwhi said:

Ordered :chris:

Any PCS employees reading this, Oussebon (among others) helped me tremendously. I probably wouldn't have ordered without his advice. Thank you, chaps.

Click to expand...

Add to Oussebon's reputation then so that others can see how good he is. Click the star icon below his avatar.

FEED ME, SEYMOUR!

And you're very welcome, glad it helped