Blackwater Improvements ?

H

Hood815

Active member
I’m thinking about picking up the blackwater ultra. Has anyone got one already ? Is there anything anyone would recommend adding or changing ? Anything to make it more “future proof” ?
 
Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
For that type of money, you could probably get a lot better bang for your buck by getting a customised spec on here, as with most pre-builts there's lots of shortcomings to the blackwater, for those interested here's the spec

PCSPECIALIST - Configure the Blackwater Ultra to your ideal requirements.

PCSpecialist is an award-winning manufacturer of high quality custom PCs & Laptops. Configure the Blackwater Ultra to your ideal requirements.
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk

@Hood815 I suggest you give this a read and answer the questions it raises on uses and monitor etc, I'm guessing the budget is about £2.5K

Please read before posting:- Collaboration of Helpful Hints

NB: These forums are not an official support channel. None of us work for PCS, we're all either customers or techies who just like to help out where possible. For any official support, you need to contact PCS directly either through your PCS account, or via the contact details on the main...
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk
 
H

Hood815

Active member
Hi thanks for the reply :)

Basically my wife treating me to a new pc. But she’s not very technical when it comes to all this. Same if I’m honest.

I love red dead and I pointed out the pre built systems.

we are looking at spending up to £2.5k yes ! Want something that’s going last a good number of years as this is going to be my last present as we want to start a family soon.
 
H

Hood815

Active member
Monitor - i currently have a 4k screen with 120 refresh rate. But it’s a bit old will upgrade it.

Uses - gaming ! Love total war and big open world like red dead and Skyrim. Want to play at 4k at silly fps 😂
Would like it to be future proof somewhat. Or stuff that won’t go as out of date and easy to upgrade.
Budget - up to £2.5k
 
MrWilson

MrWilson

Godlike
Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE Both the 5000D and 5000X are back in the configurator (yay!). This is a great airflow case with lots of RGB goodness; the 5000D is a good alternative if you’re not bothered about flashy lights.
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 14-Core Processor i5-13600K (3.5GHz) 24MB Cache Strong gaming CPU, won’t have any issues at 4K
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS WIFI D4 (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 - HDMI, DP, LHR The prebuilt had a 4080, but it also cut back on a few other areas. The 3080 is still a fantastic card for 4K gaming, and is £500 cheaper than the 4080. The GPU is almost always the first component you’ll upgrade anyway.
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W) Fast primary drive for OS and programs.
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW) 2tb of fast storage to put lots of games on.
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W HX SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM, ULTRA QUIET Beefy PSU to handle transient spikes and give you some headroom for upgrades down the line.
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler Powerful cooler to look after your CPU.
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) Silver warranty for a fiver is a no brainer.
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £2,356.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/z04jcwg3YC/
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Hood815 said:
Thanks for the reply I shall check it out :)
Do you think 3080ti would be worth the extra cost ?
Click to expand...
I would get the 4080 if you want a high end GPU.

Edit, just had a look at prices, and yeah, 4000 series are just a joke quite frankly :)

3080ti is probably going to be worth it, if you can squeeze the budget a little.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
The other option is to go with a 7900XTX but see they're sold out too, although do be aware you're able to select (already have a graphics card) in the configurator and you can then source your own from elsewhere if you needed to
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
H

Hood815

Active member
MrWilson said:
Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE Both the 5000D and 5000X are back in the configurator (yay!). This is a great airflow case with lots of RGB goodness; the 5000D is a good alternative if you’re not bothered about flashy lights.
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 14-Core Processor i5-13600K (3.5GHz) 24MB Cache Strong gaming CPU, won’t have any issues at 4K
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS WIFI D4 (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 - HDMI, DP, LHR The prebuilt had a 4080, but it also cut back on a few other areas. The 3080 is still a fantastic card for 4K gaming, and is £500 cheaper than the 4080. The GPU is almost always the first component you’ll upgrade anyway.
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W) Fast primary drive for OS and programs.
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW) 2tb of fast storage to put lots of games on.
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W HX SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM, ULTRA QUIET Beefy PSU to handle transient spikes and give you some headroom for upgrades down the line.
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler Powerful cooler to look after your CPU.
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) Silver warranty for a fiver is a no brainer.
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £2,356.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/z04jcwg3YC/
Click to expand...
Do you think I should wait for the 3080ti or 3090 to come back into stock ?? Really want to get the most out of it :)
 
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