questions about the 32" devcon build!

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republicj

Member
So the HMRC was kind enough to give me unexpected some tax refund, and I am treating myself to this. (Been using a macbook for the last 7 years... help)

This setup is within my budget, but my main questions are

1. It says it is upgradeable (using desktop parts than god), but it is obviously limited by the encasing of the system (the back lid of the display). Sorry if this is an obvious question, but are the 'sizes' of the hardware components usually the same across the industry? for example, if I was to switch out the GTX 970 for the Titan sometime later, or lets say the motherboard in the years to come, would that be a feasible process? Or are they talking about just minor upgrades like RAM?

2. I read from the OC3D reviews and all seems sweet, but I wonder how the Noctua NH-L9i Low Profile, Super Quiet CPU Cooler is? Unfortunately there is no water cooling option and I'm not about to dip my feet into that without experience (pardon the PUNNNNNN). Do you think the single fan will actually be effective in cooling this system setup? Not cooling it enough to barely make it function, but enough to have it perform at its designed capacity. If not, are there other parts I can pick up, give the size restrictions? Should I resort to being ghetto and placing a real fan next to the computer?

Lastly, before I throw my cash at this, what do you guys think of the setup? I know individually the parts are really good, but I wonder if putting them in a AIO is a bit of a 'gimmick'? As I said before, I would like to 'maybe' upgrade graphic card in the future, and I think the Asus maximum hero can handle that (from what I could research), as well as the 32gb ram being actually used, rather than just chilling on the side not being used.

I'm mostly going to use the AIO for gaming, fallout 4, gta v, witcher 3, and I dont even have the desire to play it at ultra max or whatever setting, I just want a smooth gaming experience. (you can tell that I'm a mac user). no video editing, movie making or nothing like that.

Thanks guys!


Chassis & Display
Devcon Series: 32" Non-Touch Full HD Screen (1920 x 1080)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6700k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® MAXIMUS VIII HERO: RoG, PCI-e 3.0, SATA 3.0

Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3000 MHz X.M.P (4 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 - 2 x DVI, HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!

1st Hard Disk
500GB Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)

Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-L9i Low Profile, Super Quiet CPU Cooler (£29)
 
J

jerpers

Master
Different brands of graphics cards come in different sizes. It might be worth checking with PCS the maximum card length and width then comparing with manufacturers out there. Also, with Pascal release on the horizon, more powerful cards could potentially be more compact, I don't know. The motherboard is probably overboard, I would go for any with USB 3.1. The noctua cooler is awesome, plenty of great reviews out there. My experience with the 6700k chip is that you can get away with reducing the voltage anyway to reduce temps. Mine is clocked to 4.5Ghz and I have set up an adaptive voltage profile and it never goes over 1.28v during heavy loads (the stock voltage is 1.298v)
I think the system looks great, a nice medium between laptop and desktop. 32Gb RAM is massive overkill. For gaming, 16Gb at 2666Mhz is still more than enough. The extra speed would only be noticeable for heavy editing applications.
 
R

republicj

Member
Hey Jerpers,

Thanks for the reply!

I will contact them regarding the size. You said the motherboard is overboard but the asus maximum viii hero only has USB 3.0?

Theasus z170 pro gaming: atx lg1151, usb 3.1, Sata 6gb (and the gigabyte versions of the board) are all 3.1 but they are slightly cheaper. (I know more expensive doesn't always mean better, but just going by a rule of thumb here). Should I get the cheaper ones that are usb 3.1? I don't mind spending the difference if the motherboard is better, for longevity of the computer etc.

I'm not sure about changing voltage and overclocking so I will set that aside for now, hoping that the 'stock' configuration is easily manageable by the noctua cooler....

As for the RAM, I wanted to 'future' proof the computer against games for at least couple of years (again, not hellbent on playing latest games on ultra 4K
 
J

jerpers

Master
The hero does have USB 3.1, both A + C sockets. I have the ranger which has the same! The Rog boards are really for enthusiasts for overclocking and hence the premium price. The cheaper priced ones are just as good for top gaming. With the RAM, most games these days don't even max out 8Gb. 16Gb is plenty for future proofing and it is so easy to add more.
 
S

Snapfoot

Member
You can check out the reviews section of the PCS website and can buy a preconfigured version of the devcon for £1099, which is nearly £40 cheaper than configuring an identical one yourself. In my opinion the 6700k is a bit of an overkill for the gtx 970. The preconfigured version I mentioned comes with the 6600k. It also comes with 16GB ram which I personally would struggle to fill, but I don't know what you use it for.
Anyways you should definitely check out the review page and see if that setup would suit you. I ordered one and it just got dispatched a few minutes ago. The whole process took 3 working days. Last time I ordered my order was in preproduction after 8 days so I am more than pleased with their current speed of service.
 
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R

republicj

Member
Thanks Jerpers, I think I will go with 16gb for now, and see if I need more in the years to come :)


Snapfoot said:
You can check out the reviews section of the PCS website and can buy a preconfigured version of the devcon for £1099, which is nearly £40 cheaper than configuring an identical one yourself. In my opinion the 6700k is a bit of an overkill for the gtx 970. The preconfigured version I mentioned comes with the 6600k. It also comes with 16GB ram which I personally would struggle to fill, but I don't know what you use it for.
Anyways you should definitely check out the review page and see if that setup would suit you. I ordered one and it just got dispatched a few minutes ago. The whole process took 3 working days. Last time I ordered my order was in preproduction after 8 days so I am more than pleased with their current speed of service.
Click to expand...


Hey, glad you took the plunge! I'm about to do the same. I saw the preconfigured one, but want the sixth gen i7... again, just to consider the 'future' as it were (while I have some cash to spend). the 6700k is probably overkill but I am looking to upgrade the gtx to maybe a titan (depending on size etc) in the future, so again, 'future' proofing... My main concern is with the cooling aspect and future upgrade. I'm not too fussy about 4k gaming so I'm sure the display will serve me fine for a long time.

Will the parts be delivered separately or already installed? if installed, won't they get jumbled around in the box while in transit??
 
R

republicj

Member
Another question, I saw an earlier post about the devcon that was offered with the gtx 980. but now it is capped at 970, does that mean that the physical limitations of the AIO computer is limited to the size? As in, I cannot upgrade the card? I should ask the people at PCspecialist this, but thought I'd give it a shot here.
 
J

jerpers

Master
It will come fully assembled. The Desktops are shipped with an inflatable bag inside to hold all the components secure so may be the case with the Devcon. PCS get whatever Graphics cards they can get their hands on. Sometimes they can only get 2.5 and 3x width cards that will not fit. This is most likely why they cannot offer the 980 presently. The Devcon as I see it will take any double width card depending on the length of it. Cooling for the GPU should be fine as it is right by the vents at the back.
 
S

Snapfoot

Member
The thing is, getting the devcon means 1080p gaming. With 1080p gaming, in my humble opinion, even the 980 ti is overkill, let alone the Titan. If you check out the benchmarks on a 6600k with a gtx970, it runs pretty much every game at max or near max settings with stable 60fps. There's no point (again, in my humble opinion) in upgrading the other specs when you're playing on a 60hz 1080p screen. Getting a desktop with a 144hz/1440p resolution monitor, or with gsync/freesync technology would warrant better specs, but otherwise you're fine.
Also worth noting is that many of those display monitors can be quite expensive, going as high as £5-600.
 
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republicj

Member
Snapfoot said:
The thing is, getting the devcon means 1080p gaming. With 1080p gaming, in my humble opinion, even the 980 ti is overkill, let alone the Titan. If you check out the benchmarks on a 6600k with a gtx970, it runs pretty much every game at max or near max settings with stable 60fps. There's no point (again, in my humble opinion) in upgrading the other specs when you're playing on a 60hz 1080p screen. Getting a desktop with a 144hz/1440p resolution monitor, or with gsync/freesync technology would warrant better specs, but otherwise you're fine.
Also worth noting is that many of those display monitors can be quite expensive, going as high as £5-600.
Click to expand...

I see what you mean. this set up saves me quite a bit of cash, but now that i've looked around, being limited to 1080p might be ****ty in the long run, as I'm forced to replace the system to a desktop configuration if I want to upgrade the display anyway (in addition to cards possibly not fitting due to different sizes, etc).

is 1080p gaming that bad? 1440p and 4k is absolutely necessary for the latest trend in games?
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
republicj said:
I see what you mean. this set up saves me quite a bit of cash, but now that i've looked around, being limited to 1080p might be ****ty in the long run, as I'm forced to replace the system to a desktop configuration if I want to upgrade the display anyway (in addition to cards possibly not fitting due to different sizes, etc).

is 1080p gaming that bad? 1440p and 4k is absolutely necessary for the latest trend in games?
Click to expand...

I'd say 1440p is currently the absolute best for performance vs cost. 4k gaming isn't really viable without an extremely expensive setup with sli'd 980 ti's.

That being said, pascal's imminent release of next gen graphics may well make 4k gaming a reality with a single gpu, all the hype points to that, they're talking 10 times the power of current high end cards.

1080p certainly isn't bad, but 1440p makes a difference.
 
S

Snapfoot

Member
republicj said:
I see what you mean. this set up saves me quite a bit of cash, but now that i've looked around, being limited to 1080p might be ****ty in the long run, as I'm forced to replace the system to a desktop configuration if I want to upgrade the display anyway (in addition to cards possibly not fitting due to different sizes, etc).

is 1080p gaming that bad? 1440p and 4k is absolutely necessary for the latest trend in games?
Click to expand...

1080p is not bad at all, in fact it probably still is the resolution most people play games at.
I'm not really in a rush to upgrade, and will do so only when 1440p (or 4k) becomes the standard and is priced as 1080p is nowadays.
 
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