New Gaming PC

[Naught91]

Hello all,

Looking at sorting out a new PC. I originally bought one off pcspecialist in 2011 and have given it a few upgrades over the years.

Im currently running a I5 2500k at 4ghz, 970 GTX and 8gb RAM. However, the liquid cooler is on its way out, so i figure its time to start from a solid new CPU/Motherboard base. I have a budget of £1000-1200. Looking to play games on high fps on a single 1920 x 1080 monitor. Been out of the loops in terms of value/whats good/whats not so any advice would be appreciated. I have crafted the build below.


Case
FRACTAL DEFINE S NANO GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-9600K (3.7 GHz) 9 MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® STRIX B360-I GAMING: Mini-ITX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 Ti - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!

FREE Geforce Fortnite bundle w/ select GTX cards
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
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
Corsair H60 2018 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
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
GIGABIT LAN PORT + Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi excluded on H310I-PLUS)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
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
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
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 8 to 10 working days
Price: £1,157.00 including VAT and Delivery

 

[Oussebon]

Intel's i5 CPUs are currently bad value and there's not much to recommend them.

it's not like 2011/2012 where AMD vs Intel could see 100% performance gains with Intel in some titles. The differences are often down to a few % (or less especially at 1080p 60hz). Intel's prices are very high still. AMD's motherboards will support more future gens of CPU.

Also, the "mini" PCs are rarely the right way to go, because they're not actually very mini at all, and they limit upgrade options a lot.

If it's not urgent, I'd suggest waiting 1 month for AMD's Zen 2 CPUs. An R5 3600x and X570 motherboard could be right up your street. Moreover, as well as closing down the performance gap further, the new motherboards are bringing PCIe 4.0. It'd be a shame to upgrade after 8 years and miss out on that by a few weeks.

If it's urgent but purely because of the dying AIO cooler, you could buy a replacement in the form of an H100x for instance, have it tide you over 1 month, and then swap it into your new build. Or even get a cheap Intel stock cooler off ebay (I assume such things are available).

 

[Naught91]

Thank you for the reply! I now have a replacement cooler on its way. Hopefully it can get a a bit longer out of my system.

I'm happy to wait if something big like those new AMD products are around the corner. I see this as a long term investment so I want to get the best possible for my budget.