Gaming Build €2000-2200. [No peripherals required] C&C welcome.

Dave_The_Sheep

1. What is your budget? Around €2000, but can stretch up a few hundred quid if needs be.

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming, all types.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No.

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No, going for a brand new build.

5. Do you need a monitor? No.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Nope.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Sure, if needs be.

8. How can you pay? [Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser] Any.

9. When are you purchasing? In the next 30 days.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? I'm alright. Going to attempt to lego it together myself for the first time. I had HWversand build my last one, but taking the plunge.

Some might recall I had the same request back in March 2016, but i decided to hold off on buying until the new cards came out (partly due to advice received here). I know I don't need to spend this much on a rig, but it's something I've wanted to do for a few years and now I'm in a position to do so. So f*ck it, going to push my budget a bit. And with sterling plunging against the Euro, it's not a bad time to do so.

Here's what I've picked so far:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£308.28 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9S 46.4 CFM CPU Cooler (£54.46 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£187.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill TridentZ Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£92.99 @ Novatech)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£287.99 @ Novatech)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£41.99 @ Novatech)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card (£654.61 @ BT Shop)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX Glass ATX Mid Tower Case (£162.15 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£139.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1930.45

So, so a few things about it:
- I was recommended the M.2 SSDs by a friend who is into this stuff. Is it overkill?

- Following on from this, I notice that the M.2 SSD will block two of the 6GB/s ports, which is why I went for a motherboard with 4 of those ports.

- I have two monitors (BenQ XL2420Ts) and plan to get a third at some point. Would I have any problems down the line?

- Anything that I can improve on there? Or maybe get similar quality for a bit less price wise? Any comments or criticism welcome, as it's my first go from scratch.

- I've read a few guides (linked in the FAQ) about building but are there any noob mistakes that I should be aware of? The equivalent of everyone stalling their car the first time out kind of thing, so I can maybe avoid them?

Thanks in advance folks for any help.

K.O.Kiki

DDR4-3000 is £18 cheaper for 98% same performance.

I would avoid Seagate HDDs in favour of Western Digital, or Hitachi (HGST).
2Tb & 3Tb drives not only give you better price/Gb, but also better performance.

IMHO you are going overboard on the motherboard; Z170 models in the £100-130 range will give you the exact same performance in games & overclocks.

Palit GameRock / Super Jetstream have better coolers than EVGA & are significantly cheaper.
Warranty on EVGA is better though.
Your choice.

Corsair RMx PSUs would be my first choice for super builds due to 10 year warranty.

Buying from this many vendors will push up the shipping & total cost.

JoyPad

Having recently researched and purchased a similar spec gaming PC, here are a few notes:

1. That SSD is awesome. Expensive, but very fast.
2. You can do better than Seagate for your HDD, and 1TB is so 2014.
3. If you want to save a few bob, you can look at a cheaper PSU. For example, the Corsair RMx 750W is about £110 and a solid choice.
4. There's no significant advantage with DDR4-3200 vs DDR4-3000, and you can save some cash there too.
5. I got the Noctua NH-D15S and it's very very quiet. Doesn't cost a lot more than the one you selected, which could also be a good choice.
6. There are cheaper cases you could go for. I got the Fractal Design Define S and it's less than half the price of your selection. The layout is awesome for custom liquid cooling, and can easily hide cables from view.

Finally, the GTX1080 is wasted on 1080p gaming. You may want to invest in a 1440p panel and experience the awesome power of this card. On advice from this forum, I bought the Dell S2716DG monitor, which is absolutely fabulous.

Woden

I received my machine from Scan recently and its a very similar build/spec to what you have there.

Agree with avoiding Seagates. I went for a 3T WD Black mostly due to the warranty. So far so good with the Samsung 950 pro also but I was coming from a 128Gb Crucial drive that was 4 years old so saw a big difference

K.O.Kiki

Oh yeah, forgot to add:

950 Pro M2 SSD is total overkill for a gaming build.

Get a regular 850 Evo or 850 Pro.
More storage for the same money, same real-world performance (game loading times 0.3-0.8s diff)

wotzgoingon

JoyPad wrote: »

Finally, the GTX1080 is wasted on 1080p gaming.

He is not 1080p gaming he has two monitors at the minute and looking for a third, so he said in his post anyway.

Metric Tensor

Would you consider a liquid (AIO) cooler for the processor?

I think the "Big Air" fan processors provide just as much cooling (possibly better in some cases) but in my opinion in a windowed case the AIO ones look better.

Dave_The_Sheep

wotzgoingon wrote: »

He is not 1080p gaming he has two monitors at the minute and looking for a third, so he said in his post anyway.

True that.

Metric Tensor wrote:

Would you consider a liquid (AIO) cooler for the processor?

I think the "Big Air" fan processors provide just as much cooling (possibly better in some cases) but in my opinion in a windowed case the AIO ones look better.
Today 16:24

I don't really mind what it looks like (without it being totally minging). That being said, I'm open to most ideas if it's not massively expensive and/or has a good reason for it.

Skerries

Woden wrote: »

Agree with avoiding Seagates. I went for a 3T WD Black mostly due to the warranty.

I have a 2TB WD Black for nearly six years with no problems

.G.

Agree with others regarding WD drives even though I've had two drives fail on me, however both were greens. The blue or black's are great and they've never let me down. I've read numerous reports of seagate having much higher failure rates.

justsomebloke

I'm going to go the other end and say WD drives aren't as good as it's reputation would let you believe. I've had a few die on me in both red and black and wouldn't be pushed about getting more