Moving from console to PC (PC NOOB)

[nonnybigears]

Hi Everyone,

I've been thinking about making the jump from console to PC for a while now and have started to research into it.

I would be using the PC with a 55" UHD 4K TV as the screen and want something that would output 4k without issue and be ready for VR if I ever decided to get it.

I have a budget of around £1700 and have been quoted the following PC. Would anyone be able to give me any advice?

Also if people can recommend a case that would be great too!

Thanks in advance!

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-7700 (3.6GHz) 8MB Cache
FREE Halo Wars 2 with select INTEL® CPUs!
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z270E GAMING: LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GB, Wi-Fi - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1080 - DVI, HDMI, 3x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
Get Destiny 2 & Early Access with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!
1st Hard Disk
2TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 3.5" SSHD - UP TO 5X FASTER THAN HDD!
M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG SM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3100MB/R, 1400MB/W)
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
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid 120 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11 AC1900 1,300Mbps/5GHz, 600Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
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 DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
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 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,732.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z270-pc/cjq7gEA2hW/

 

[jerpers]

A few points

For 4k with a GTX 1080 you will need to drop down the quality in many games to get a decent refresh rate. The 1080 ti struggles with some games on max settings.
If you have an NVMe drive, there is no point at all with the SSHD, you might as well get a standard HDD.
VR favours better with faster clock speeds so the k series procesor might be worth considering.
I would go for the CS series or even the RMx series of PSU as they are built better and give you more overhead for upgrades in the future.

 

[Oussebon]

In addition to the above the mobo has onboard wifi so you might want to ditch the extra wifi card at least until you've tested out the mobo's wifi and decided whether it meets your needs or not.

Also the Noctua cooler tends to outperform the cheaper AIO liquid coolers.

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE S BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-7700k Quad Core (4.20GHz @ up to 4.8GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z270E GAMING: LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GB, Wi-Fi - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1080 - DVI, HDMI, 3x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!

Get Destiny 2 & Early Access with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
2TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ 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
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY 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 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 DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
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 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,753.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z270-overclocked/A6VAHjEyJC/

A 1080 ti would up the cost by about £200. However, for 4k gaming you may find that beneficial if you can afford it or save up until it's a possibility.

 

[nonnybigears]

Hi Jerpers,

Thanks for your quick reply, what graphics card would you suggest as an alternative?

 

[nonnybigears]

Thanks for the quick reply Oussebon!

The whole point for me looking into this computer is so that I could run games in 4k and wanted to move to PC instead of XB1X. (I know its probably sacrilege to mention that here haha).

What benefits would a machine like this give me over the the £450 Xbox One X when it is released?

 

[Oussebon]

Hi Jerpers,

Thanks for your quick reply, what graphics card would you suggest as an alternative?

I think Jerpers was suggesting a GTX 1080 ti as a better idea than a GTX 1080, the point being that while the 1080 ti struggles a bit with some games at the very highest settings, the 1080 being ~30% less powerful at that resolution will struggle quite a lot more and need a lot more settings turned down.

What benefits would a machine like this give me over the the £450 Xbox One X when it is released?

This might be of interest: http://www.wired.co.uk/article/xbox-one-x-vs-ps4-pro-vs-pc-4k-gaming-guide

Many advantages will be the same as the usual console vs PC things. e.g.
- PC games can present a lot of options to adjust quality and file-tune visual fidelity vs performance to maintain a fluid framerate
- Modding and other customisation (which can do anything from fix bugs the developer ignores to vastly extending gameplay).
- More raw power = better looking game due to turning the settings up. Occasional woeful PC ports notwithstanding.
- Console games need to explicitly support 4k. Pretty well all modern PC games you just run them at whatever resolution you want. And even very old games can often be modded / patched for high and widescreen resolutions.
- More storage, choice of storage, component upgrades, etc.
- SSDs for faster game loading
- VR capability (XB1X doesn't do VR).
- features like g-sync / freesync with dedicated gaming monitors. And high refresh rate gaming (144hz monitors etc).

Obviously the XB1X is a lot cheaper, has a 4k Blu-ray player, and just sits there without needing you to pick components.

I don't game on console these days but Xbox doesn't seem to have a terribly exciting range of exclusives. At a complete guess, MS feels it gets more cash by making the games available on Windows PCs than trying to hog them for Xbox - since MS also sell Windows and gaming is one area where Windows has a very clear lead over Linux. Vs Sony who seem to feel that keeping some games as exclusives will sell more consoles. There are quite a few PS4 games (Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us, maybe Uncharted 4) that I wish were on PC to the point I'd consider buying the console for those games, but not so for Xbox.

And some games of course are PC 'exclusives' e.g. the Total War franchise, the Civ franchise, certain MMOs, etc..

 

[seagate_surfer]

Hi nonnybigears,

since you are looking at a new gaming PC, we would like to give you some additional info in regards to the FireCuda you are considering:

SSHD drives like the listed FireCuda have an 8GB SSD cache which the drive firmware determines files/data that is accessed frequently and puts them on the SSD cache portion so they load faster, and then utilizes the rest of the storage, which is spinning disk, for any other data, so it just depends on how much space you feel you will need right off the bat as far as storage goes.

If you'd like a little more information on how these drives stack up performance-wise, here are a couple of charts we would like to share:

The first one compares startup times across several popular games across a traditional spinning 7200 RPM HDD, our SSHD, and an M.2 SSD (128GB). The white is for SSD, the orange for our SSHD, and the grey for the 7200 spinning HDD.

Startup Times

The next one compares the first 3 days of gaming storage utilization across several popular titles, and SYSmark ratings from various drive types and combinations. First of the grays is 7200 RPM 1TB spinning HDD, second (lightest gray) is our SSHD, third (darkest gray) is an SSD + 7200 RPM HDD combo, purple is SSD + our SSHD combo, and lastly blue is SSD.

First 3 Days Gaming Storage Utilization

Thank you for considering Seagate!