Feedback

[SlipperyBrick]

Can I get some feedback on this rig. Will it give me high performance?

Case	CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 680X RGB GAMING CASE
Custom Liquid Cooling Kit	Liquid Series Mid Kit - EK
Tubing	Clear Flexible Tubing - 10/16mm (Nickel Fittings)
Graphics Card Cooling	EK FC Nickel & Backplate - For One Graphics Card!
Coolant Colour	Mayhems X1 UV Green
LED Lighting	2x 50cm UV LED Strip
Overclocked CPU	Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7-9700K Eight Core (3.60GHz @ up to 5.0GHz)
Motherboard	ASUS® ROG STRIX Z390-E GAMING: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs, WIFI - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)	16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card	11GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive	250GB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 2.5" SSD, (upto 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive	1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
Power Supply	CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable	1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Thermal Paste	COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
Extra Case Fans	2x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
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

 

[SlipperyBrick]

Is the cooling sufficient and also would I need to change the liquid or clean the system, I've never had a liquid cooling system I hope they aren't high maintenance.

 

[Oussebon]

High performance for what uses?

Gaming? Any non-gaming uses? Any specific software?

If gaming, what monitor are you using?

What's your budget for the system (and any monitor if you are buying one too)?

 

[SlipperyBrick]

Yeah for gaming. The monitor I got was a 144Hz AOC one

 

[neewhom]

RAM speed will probably be your bottleneck there if anything. I would advise a minimum of 3000Mhz

 

[Rakk]

Is the cooling sufficient and also would I need to change the liquid or clean the system, I've never had a liquid cooling system I hope they aren't high maintenance.

The 'Liquid Series' cooling systems do need maintenance, I think it is suggested that you send it to PCS for maintenance after 2 years - to presumably take the cooling systems apart, clean it, replace the liquid, and do what ever is needed for it.
Personally I just went for the normal AIO water coolers as it requires no maintenance

 

[Oussebon]

The monitor I got was a 144Hz AOC one

Do you mean a 1080p one?

 

[SlipperyBrick]

Regarding the liquid cooling is the maintenance easy? Are you given some instructions on what to do for cleaning and replacing the coolant, etc?

Yeah the 1080p one is the monitor I've gone for

 

[Oussebon]

You can pay PCS to do it for you (it involves shipping the PC to them) or you can DIY - and there are plenty of guides online. I expect JayzTwocents on youtube has some How-Tos.

1) Are you sure you want to spend this much on a liquid series system?

Performance will be essentially the same as a regular system, and you're paying hundreds of pounds extra for the setup, which also requires additional and relatively elaborate maintenance.

It is also more complex and expensive to upgrade as you'd need new waterblocks for future GPUs and so forth.

2) A system of this budget, and a GTX 2080 ti specifically, are utterly wasted on 1080p gaming. You're buying all this expensive stuff and then getting a low end monitor that won't really let you enjoy the performance you're paying for. You should be looking at 1440p 144hz gsync at a minimum, more likely 1440p 100hz ultrawide or 4k. With gsync.

I'd suggest going with a regular spec - which has an All-In-One liquid cooler for the CPU and a regular air-cooled GPU, and investing what you save into a monitor worthy of the system.

As well as other tweaks like more storage, a better SSD, and faster RAM, as well as probably a different motherboard,

Depends what the budget is for the total system inc monitor; hard to be specific without that

 

[SlipperyBrick]

I have already purchased the system (I should have mentioned). RAM and hard drives and monitor I'm not too concerned about as they are easily upgradable. I am more concerned with the liquid cooling system I was impressed with the temperature results and the GPU (I've wanted an RTX since they were announced).

 

[jerpers]

If it is still in pre-production, it can be easily cancelled/modified. As mentioned above, it is much more cost effective and almost as good thermally to go for an AIO cooler for the CPU. You can purchase your GPU separately (as I did) and select one with an AIO for cooler temps.

With the water cooled system, there is maintenance plus risks of failures (leaks, coolant colour degrading and clogging blocks) and it will be significantly heavier. That being said, I am building one with water myself but am fully prepared (and looking forward to) tearing it down for maintenance probably every 6 months.

 

[SlipperyBrick]

I'd rather not mess about and change it. It seems a good spec with decent parts I think I'll be happy with it and it will probably perform very well gaming wise. I'm not too bothered about saving money or overspending, my main concern was with maintenance but if YouTube videos are available and information about how the system works and what coolant I need to buy for refilling it etc then I'm ok with that. I just need to educate myself on how to look after a system like this, I'm sure PCS will provide some literature on it that I can learn from

 

[Oussebon]

:/

It's not really about saving money or overspending, it's about getting the best possible for your money. Which I assume you're interested in doing or else you wouldn't be spending ~£3k or whatever this costs on a gaming PC to begin with

As for this:

RAM and hard drives and monitor I'm not too concerned about as they are easily upgradable

Why on earth would anyone buy 16gb of 2400MHz RAM, only to upgrade to 16gb 3000MHz RAM, when they could have just bought 3000MHz RAM anyway.

Just because you can physically upgrade things doesn't mean replacing things is a better option that just making a sensible purchase in the first place.

Likewise the monitor, £200 for a 1080p 144hz monitor (or whatever, you never said the model) when you could get just a 1440p 144hz monitor for £400 and be done with it.

It's your money, but you're spending a lot on pretty tubes instead of actual gaming experience, and spending inefficiently elsewhere too.

If you don't care about the extra performance from the RAM, why did you buy an i7 over an i5, or an AMD R7. Or a 2080 ti. There's no logic here.

Surely it's best to get the most out of your money that you can, unless you buy £3k PCs all the time.

 

[Pokkai]

Not to elaborate on Oussebon's comments, but the specification of this PC is a dogs dinner, no logical cohesion between the decision making on parts and just streaming money into the wind.

But, pays money, takes choice.

Better spec, and one of the best gaming monitors included, for just over £3k:

Case
CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 460X RGB GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i9-9900K Eight Core (3.60GHz @ up to 4.9GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z390-E GAMING: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs, WIFI - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
NOT REQUIRED
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)

The Division 2 FREE with select SAMSUNG NVMe SSDs!
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
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 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/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)
Monitor
ASUS 27" ROG Swift PG278QR GAMING MONITOR
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 6 to 8 working days

 

[Oussebon]

That looks like a good spec. Much better balanced with the monitor

If wifi's not required, the AORUS Pro saves some £ that could be used on.. more storage, or whatever.

The Dell S2716DG is not available at PCS, but is a solid 1440p 144hz gsync monitor available for less than the Asus PG278QR if money is an issue.

One could of course drop to the i7 9700k like the original spec too

Just to suggest some options, Pokkai's spec's fine as it stands too