Is this the best gaming PC I can get for <£2500 for 1440p 144hz (maybe future 4k?) - also looking at a monitor?

[mattPCS]

Howdy all,

Looking at buying a high-end gaming rig to play the modern AAA games at 1440p 144hz at maximum settings (within reason...). I need to be able to connect the PC via wifi as my router is no where near my desk.

My budget for the PC was £2500 so I can then have some money leftover for a monitor, so the total overall is less than £3000.

I'm torn between the ultrawide monitors or just a really good 27" - understand this will impact on the GPU?

The bits I have guessed are the variety of SSDs avaliable, PSU and RAM (should I get 32GB now?)

This is what I have spec'd for the PC. Many thanks to all

Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY 2 LIGHT TEMPERED GLASS
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 12-Core Processor i7-12700K (3.6GHz) 25MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2700MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB 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)
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 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - 3 User, 1 Year
Browser
Google Chrome™
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 12 working days
Price: £2,474.00 including VAT and Delivery

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

 

[SlimCini]

Literally about to order a very similar PC to you.

Could drop the motherboard down to TUF (as I am).

Choose 4Gb of cheap RAM and buy 16Gb cheaper elsewhere that is CL16 and 3600Mhz. Saves you about £20.

Buy 3070ti elsewhere, saves you over £100 and you get a branded ASUS or MSI.

Depends how confident you are installing those two components yourself.

Get rid of Bullguard and use inbuilt definitely though.

I'm going 3440x1440 ultrawide though. It has got 34% more pixels than a regular 1440p monitor so you'll get 34% less fps at the same settings (ie. 66fps on a game that would otherwise get you 100fps on a regular 2560x1440 panel using the exact same graphics settings). But I like the extra width and just turn one or two settings down a notch and you'd probably get it up to 100fps without it looking noticeably different anyway. Standard 1440 looks too fat for me these days.

 

[sck451]

Looks good to me. The only change I'd make is losing Bullguard: it's only a free trial, has ab reputation for causing instability, and is not significantly better than Windows Defender, which is free. The motherboard is overkill, but not in a bad way.

In terms of monitor, I'd suggest the MSI MAG274QRF-QD for somewhere in the region of your £500 budget. There are ultra wide options, though I'm personally not a fan!

Here's a useful roundup of monitor options in this category:

1440p monitor update

Hardware Unboxed recently released a "best 1440p gaming monitors" update video. They're a great summary, so here's what they say with some UK links, along with some of their reviews of individual displays. All prices current at the time of writing (17 February). Mid-range medium refresh This...

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