Build suggestions

[_Tom_]

Hi,

Im looking to get a new pc as my current is getting slightly outdated and unfortunately my motherboard won't allow me to upgrade any components.

I need some help as it's a little overwhelming with all the choices.

Basically I use my pc for;

- gaming.
- recording music
- editing photos/videos
- watching TV/films.

I'm looking to future proof as much as possible so I would like the best graphics card my budget will allow along with the necessary RAM. As well as a more than capable sound card to get the best quality recordings.

My budget is around the £2500 mark.

Any suggestions or help with a build would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tom.

 

[Frank100]

Hi,

In terms of the audio, if you are recording, possibly editing and listening to music then an external Digital Audio Converter (DAC) might be a better option because you can get ones with regular inputs for instruments or a stereo mixer. This isn't something PCS sell because it's not mainstream enough for most customers to want and therefore not worth stocking. An upgraded soundcard inside the PC is an option but for music I think an external device makes more sense.

The other option is to go with the on-board sound and see if you like the sound and features enough. Your budget will stretch to a decent motherboard which will use better quality components and actually, on-board sound on many boards is very good. Taking these two considerations into account you could opt for on-board audio and hold back some money to add an external DAC later on if you want to.

Here is something well within your budget to get the suggestions started: -

Case
CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 460X RGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor i7-8700k (3.7GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs, WIFI - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - GTX VR Ready!
1st Hard Disk
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)
The Crew 2 FREE with select SAMSUNG NVMe SSDs!
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
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet 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 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 9 to 11 working days
Quantity
1

Price £2,169.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-pc/PukD38cm5U/

The case is just one I thought looked nice but I'm not the best person to suggest how good this one is compared to another one. Appearance is an important deciding factor too. This has RGB fans which you might like, or perhaps you prefer something much more discrete.

The choice of motherboard was not made because it also has RGB capability. It has optical connection for audio (and you might add an external device later that will use it), the ROG boards from Asus have good stats when it comes to minimising distortion and hum through jack and USB sockets.

You probably won't need more than 16GB of RAM for any of your tasks. The RGB RAM I put in the suggested build is about £15 more than the non-RGB RAM of the same speed.

I also chose the quieter series of PSUs because better quality components means less hum through USB ports generally. If you use very high end speakers with the PC then hum can become noticeable because they are more sensitive and can output a broader range of frequencies. You'd probably never notice any hum on even a cheaper PC if you didn't use high end speakers.

I didn't know what size secondary disk to put in but you can get bigger or smaller. You could also consider having all your files on an external NAS. That way you can access them from smart devices in your home and the computer doesn't need to be on for you to do that. The slightly better 970 Pro M.2 Sata chip is £48 more, which I thought was quite a lot of money for the extra speed. Perhaps someone will suggest it is worth the extra money for other reasons.

I think the right processor is the Coffee Lake i7 but with your budget you could get an overclocked version of pretty much the same build. Computers professionally overclocked by PCS still come with all the warranty.

You said you wanted gaming and the GTX1080ti is the top dog. There have been rumours that the 1180 will be released on August 30th but I don't know how it will compare. The 1180ti would be a month or more behind. I don't know how substantiated those rumours are.

I do a fair bit of high end processing work including GPU enabled work and I am very much into my audio. I'm not really a gamer though. I'm sure you'll get some other suggestions on build which may well differ from mine, including from some serious gamers.

Frank100

 

[_Tom_]

Thanks for the great reply Frank100!

Getting a DAC definitely sounds like the better option here. Do you have any suggestions on what DAC i should get? Im mainly using normal guitar jacks and XLR cables, but a MIDI input would also be very useful.

Before i even realised there was a forum here, i sent PCS an email with the same question i asked at the start of this thread and they came back with this suggestion..

Case
InWIN 101 MID TOWER GAMING 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)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
11GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE GTX 1080 Ti - DVI, HDMI, DP
1st Hard Disk
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 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 750W 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 Cooler w/ PCS Liquid Series Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
2x 50cm RGB LED Strip
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 11 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price £2,223.00 including VAT and delivery

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

Ive always had Intel pc's and i have no real idea what the main difference between the AMD and Intel proccessors are. Could you tell me why you've picked the intel i7 over the AMD?

Also now taking into consideration what you said about USB ports picking up hum, would the AMD quoted machine be more prone to making noise?

The case is a little flashy for my tastes haha, but easily changed.

Again, thanks for the very detailed suggestion. Very helpful.

Tom

 

[Oussebon]

What monitor are you gaming on? The 1080 ti might well be overkill for that.

Also be aware that a new gen of Nvidia's GPUs is expected to be announced on 20th August, rendering the 1080 ti pretty well obsolete - and it's a very expensive thing to buy so soon to being outdone by a new gen.

And if you could wait until October, Intel are supposed to be launching 8c/16T CPUs which would outperform a 2700x or an 8700k.

 

[Frank100]

Hi,

Just on the external audio interface you might want to look at the Scarlett 2i2. It is more than just a DAC and has two XLR/jack inputs, USB connection to the computer and balanced jack outputs to go to powered speakers. It's about £100 and is the best interface I know of in that price range.

As for the comments from Oussebon and myself, if you don't need to rush on the purchase it might be worth waiting till the details of the GTX1180 come out.

With regard to Intel and AMD, they both make good processors although AMD were lagging behind for a while up till a couple of years ago. The build suggested by PCS is also very capable. There might not be only one right choice.

Try to work out from some on-line research if the programs you would use might perform better on one platform than another. It might be they won't use more than 4 cores, so higher clock speed is a better option over more cores. There might be a lot of opinions from user threads and that's very subjective, but there might be something concrete you can identify. That might be the best way of answering your question.

Frank100

 

[szico_vii]

I agree with the above posters - although you have a very high budget - that doesn't mean you should definitely spend that much.

Provided you don't want 4K gaming at high/ultra settings, you could easily scale back on the GPU and save £300-400 quid, that would be the 1070 or wait for the 1170/80. I reckon the 1170 (2nd behind new 1180) will still plough through pretty much all current titles on maximum settings.

If you cant wait you could perhaps even buy it without a GPU and simply add it in later, just make sure the PSU has room to cover it

Drop the RAM to 16GB for more savings as you will be very unlikely to use more than that.

Its also probably worth upgrading to the better thermal paste as I heard good things about it, especially with high energy components like the 1080/1070, and with such a small price difference.

As a final word - if you are happy installing your own OS, don't buy the PCS versions of Windows 10 as they are expensive OEM versions (~£70) and you can buy a similar OEM version online for a fraction of the cost (£15-30)