Any advice appreciated

Hi all,

This is for gaming workloads only. I would like to be able to use it for VR and 4K (when I can afford those extras).

Main things I'm wondering about:
Do I need the 8600K over the 8600?
Do I need 3000MHz RAM?

Case
CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 570X RGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor i7-8700k (3.7GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z390-E GAMING: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs, WIFI - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2700MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W VS SERIES™ VS-650 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy Rx
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

Many thanks in advance
 

Frank100

Rising Star
Hi,

A few tweaks perhaps. The 9700K processor will be the better option as more tasks will use the extra two real cores than would use the hyper-threaded cores of the 8700K.

Buying 32GB of RAM is quite a big cost and you probably won't need that for gaming for quite some time. You can always add more later on. Faster RAM does aid gaming performance though. As you've chosen a RGB case and a RGB motherboard, you could spend a few £s more on RGB RAM.

A 1TB M.2 SATA chip is quite expensive. You probably could save a little here and get a 500GB one, which should be plenty for your OS and games. The other option is to stick with 1TB but get the EVO rather than the PRO version. There's a fair price difference.

You might be perfectly happy with the on-board audio and so could save on the sound card. Unless you have high end speakers or headphones you might not be able to tell the two apart. These days on-board sound is pretty decent.

The Noctua CPU cooler is very good but it is quite large, so it might obscure RGB RAM if you chose that.

Frank100
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
So what monitor are you using at the moment for gaming exactly?

And when do you expect to be able to afford VR and 4k (and in what order)?

Do you need the build to have wifi and bluetooth, just wifi, or are you using a wired connection?
 
Just a standard asus 27inch monitor at the moment.

Will be getting a 4K screen in a couple of months. VR I dunno, probably not til the end of the year.
I'm also interested in the high-refresh rate monitors, I'm unsure if that requires anything special in the build other than a beefy GFX card?

Wired connection only is fine.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Well there's an argument, quite a strong one, for not buying the PC for a couple of months until you're also ready to buy the monitor. That way you can buy a GPU and monitor together that are suited to each other.

AMD are releasing the "Radeon VII" on 7th Feb which is expected to offer similar performance to the RTX 2080. It could be a bit better, or not, and it could drop prices... and it could affect what monitor to buy because of gsync/freesync.

I'm also interested in the high-refresh rate monitors, I'm unsure if that requires anything special in the build other than a beefy GFX card?
If you mean the 4k 144hz monitors you'll want an RTX 2080 ti, possibly two of them. And those monitors cost ~£1500-2000. If you mean 1440p 144hz / 1440p ultrawide 100hz then an RTX 2080 (or Radeon VII presumably) is good.

I'd also agree with what Frank said, i.e. 32gb RAM's pointless, the Pro is pointless vs the Evo, a cheap sound card is pointless, the 8700k isn't the best choice for gaming.

Also the Z370-E is a bit of a waste of money versus the AORUS Pro as you're paying for extra features you won't be using (e.g. onboard wifi you're not using, USB 3.1 Gen 2 type C at the front the case doesn't support)

Also for gaming at 4k and overall for VR too, you're not actually getting much/any more from an Intel system versus an AMD Ryzen system.

And to answer your question, faster RAM is always worth getting at this kind of budget level - since it's a long-term investment for the system (you won't be replacing it for an upgrade) and it can help especially in some games.

I'd also suggest a better quality PSU, and a pre-overclocked build.

e.g. something like:


Case
CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 570X RGB GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7-9700K Eight Core (3.60GHz @ up to 5.0GHz)
---Get Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 & More w/ select Intel CPUs!
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 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
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-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
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/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 - 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 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 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,489.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-overclocked/6QzDvfTV38/

Depending on the graphics card / monitor combo.
I'd also suggest the WD Black as it's currently a lot cheaper than the Evo despite being pretty much as good - but that's out of stock right now.
 
Cool, thanks Oussebon.

Is there any downside to getting an overclocked + water cooled system? I'm definitely looking for a low-effort low-maintenance build, I've never had overclocking or water-cooling before so unsure if there's extra work needed for them.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Not really.

The water cooler is an all-in-one / closed loop unit. So it requires no maintenance beyond what an air cooler would i.e. dusting the radiator/heatsink and fan(s). You don't need to top up or flush out the unit as you would with an open loop system (i.e. those systems with lots of tubing and multicoloured liquid).

The downside to overclocking is that it in theory reduces component/ CPU lifespan. I say in theory because in real terms you're much more likely to get rid of the PC due to old age rather than because of an issue with the CPU. The companies that make these components (Intel with the -k CPU, the motherboard, case, PSU, CPU coolers, etc manufacturers) sell the components with the understanding that they will in fact be overclocked. Three's no hard data on OCing and lifespan since everyone's uses are different, everyone's OC is different, and everyone's chip is different, but when looking for such data all I've found is threads full of people saying their OCed CPU from X years ago is still running with the OC fine etc.

PC'S overclock is also quite tame. 5GHz is the single core boost frequency for that CPU, so they're simply making the CPU run at that on all cores.

Edit:

That said, my recommendation was based on the assumption that the price difference between stock clocked and overclocked PCs was about £10, which is what it used to be. Seems it's actually about £40.
example stock: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-pc/fUUtAdFKwn/
example OC: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-overclocked/QQD!xA4kz2/

For £40 you might as well buy non-overclocked, and you can OC yourself in a few years if you want....
 
Awesome, thanks for all the info. I think I'll go for the overclocked one anyway, for me its worth the extra money to not have to worry about screwing it up.
 
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