New Gaming Computer for my Son

Well I am hoping that I have as much luck this time as I did just over 3 years ago when you kind folks helped me spec the computer that has done him proud. This is the spec I have put together for him:
Case
CORSAIR SPEC-04 MID TOWER GAMING CASE - BLACK/RED
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor i7-8700 (3.2GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z390 UD: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Get an AORUS M3 Gaming Mouse w/ select GIGABYTE Motherboards!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
Get Battlefield V -OR- Anthem with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!
1st Storage Drive
500GB Samsung 860 EVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
INTEL STANDARD 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/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 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,471.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-pc/w63wUcZy76/

The most intensive games that he plays are Arma 3 and Kingdom Come Deliverance he tells me, must haves as far as he is concerned are an SSD as the o/s disc, an I7 processor and a Nvidia Graphics card. All help and suggestions gratefully received especially if I am spending to much!

Thanks folks.

What monitor is he pairing the system with? What resolution and refresh rate?

If you don't know can you post the make and model?

The reason I ask is that really anything over the RTX2060 or the GTX1070 is overpowered for 1080p gaming so you may be able to save cash without affecting performance.

Thanks for the reply, the monitor he has is iiyama GB2783QSU-B1 27" G-Master Height Adjustable QHD LED Gaming Monitor with FreeSync and USB - Black which I believe is 2560 x 1440 resolution and 1ms refresh rate

DaveB said:

Thanks for the reply, the monitor he has is iiyama GB2783QSU-B1 27" G-Master Height Adjustable QHD LED Gaming Monitor with FreeSync and USB - Black which I believe is 2560 x 1440 resolution and 1ms refresh rate

Click to expand...

It is indeed, which is much better matched to the stronger graphics cards. It's freesync though and not GSync, which means currently it will only sync refresh rates with AMD graphics cards and not nvidia, which means you may experience some screen tearing.

There's a possibility that NVidia are encompassing freesync into their driver, if only for a few models, but in the future, who knows, they may be able to incorporate a blanket covering of freesync:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/antony...ming-monitors-but-theres-one-massive-problem/

Will follow with my suggested tweaks.

EDIT: I'm really not the best at this, my builds are more expensive every time. I'll allow someone else to suggest something.

Thanks I appreciate your honesty and input

It's 60 / 75hz refresh (1ms is the response time). Freesync range is apparently 48-70 on DP.

An RTX 2060 would be a good match. It's a lot cheaper than the 2070, but almost as powerful.

Intel builds currently are expensive, so you would get more bang for your buck with an AMD Ryzen system.

ARMA III can benefit from stronger CPU performance, but an AMD CPU is still capable of delivery very high framerates.

I'd probably suggest the Fractal Focus G case as it has additional preinstalled fans


Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.25GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
---Tom Clancy's The Division 2 FREE w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs!
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
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP, DVI - VR Ready!
---Get Battlefield V -OR- Anthem with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Storage Drive
500GB Samsung 860 EVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD 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 [KK3-00002]
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 £1,199.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-pc/twc4mdpKVQ/

Pushing on CPU performance in an Intel build would be something like:
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-pc/TP3wXmW85R/ for £1419

However, that's £200 more, for very minimal gains especially at 60/75hz.

And AMD are releasing new CPUs this year that may well offer better performance than Intel's current lineup. So an R5 2600x build would be cheaper now, and you could use the savings to upgrade the CPU to something even better down the line potentially. I'd favour the R5 build rather than spending a load more on a faster Intel CPU that may well go obsolete soon anyway.

Oussebon, thank you that is really useful. I need to make a decision shortly to get it in time for his birthday so I will have a chat to him today and see what he thinks.

Thanks again.

For context:

https://www.techspot.com/review/1655-core-i7-8700k-vs-ryzen-7-2700x/

But I wouldn't recommend an R7 over an R5 either because the differences will be quite small overall.

Keep us posted.

Thanks, much appreciated

Just to update you I finally ordered this spec after much negotiating with my lad:

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor i7-9700K (3.6GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z390 UD: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP, DVI - VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 760p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 3230MB/sR | 1625MB/sW)
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
PCS FrostFlow 100 V2 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
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 - 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™
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
FAST TRACK 5 WORKING DAY DISPATCH
Promotional Item
Get Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 & More w/ select Intel CPUs!
Promotional Item
Get Battlefield V -OR- Anthem with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Quantity
1

Price £1,566.00 including VAT and Delivery

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

You could drop the cooler down to a CM212x or Frostflow 100 happily.

You're certainly not going to be overclocking on a VS series.

450W PSU may be limiting for future upgrades versus 550W.

The WD Black SSD is quite a bit faster for very little more cash; personally I'd have waited for it to be in stock.

I see your son was ultimately lured in by the i7 marketing

Thanks, the spec was a compromise in the finish between what he really wanted and how much I was prepared to spend! His last computer which was spec'ed on these forums lasted 3 years with only a Graphics Card upgrade so if this one lasts the same amount of time I will be very happy.

Demands of future games and random hardware failures notwithstanding you should expect a PC to give 5, maybe more, years of service.

I would definitely suggest going for the 550W PSU as 450W will narrow your range of GPU upgrades. And having to replace the PSU in the future for the sake of £8 today seems not ideal You can amend the order after placing it.

I don't seem to have an option to amend my order ? I will phone them I think

Unless they already shipped it they'll probably be happy to take your money to change it.

It's usually fine to amend orders. Let us know how it goes.