Not sure what advice to give

The_Valeyard

My mate is upgrading his PC.

He does not have time to build a new one but has limited his options to two types around the same price. Id just wonder what ye think of the options, as I am quite unsure myself of the value of it.

Alienware Aurora R6
i7-7700, overclocked 4.4
16gb HyperX Ram (1x16)
256 ssd +2TB hdd
8x dvd
intel® 3165 1x1 802.11ac Wi-Fi Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.2
850W PSU Liquid Cooled W/Odd
Regulatory Label 850W
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX™ 1080 with 8GB GDDR5X

cost: 2100


Or...

Pczone.ie

Intel i7 PC Builder (starting 1,050)
Case: Aerocool P7CI, Black 8, Colour LED +85
Corsair Hydro Series H75 +95
ASUS ROG STRIX Z270-E Intel Kaby Lake = 152
Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB +190
240GB Kingston SSD HyperX +90
24X Internal DVD Re-writer
Geforce GTX 1080 TI 11GB +655
Corsair CS750M CS Modular +95
Total cost 2,357


They both seem resonable to me, but im just not sure if its good value or better looking elsewhere.

Serephucus

Well, this is a rough idea of what you'd pay if you built it:

Item|Price
Intel Core i7 7700K 4x 4.20GHz So.1151 WOF|€354.85
ASRock H270M Pro4 Intel H270 So.1151 Dual Channel DDR mATX Retail|€89.08
Fractal Design Define Mini C insulated Minitower without power supply black|€76.85
16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport LT gray DDR4-2400 DIMM CL16 Dual Kit|€109.85
250GB Samsung 850 Evo 2.5 "(6.4cm) SATA 6Gb / s TLC Toggle (MZ-75E250B / EU)|€93.85
2000GB WD Red WD20EFRX 64MB 3.5 "(8.9cm) SATA 6Gb / s|€122.34
550 watt Seasonic G Series Modular 80+ Gold|€71.85
8GB Palit GeForce GTX 1080 GameRock Active PCIe 3.0 x16 (Retail)|€540.95
Shipping|€29.99
Total|€1,619.47

So either way you're paying quite a premium. Just so you're aware, there are people here who will happily put it together for him for nothing (including me).

If you get your friend to answer these questions, it would help us out. The spec will depend mostly on what types of games he's playing (and anything else he wants to do with the machine) as well as the resolution he'll be using.

To be honest, the 7700K isn't a great value proposition at the moment, except in pretty specific circumstances, and with Vega potentially landing soon (End of this month is the current likely point) that could really shake up the GPU choices too.

The_Valeyard

Serephucus wrote: »

Well, this is a rough idea of what you'd pay if you built it:

Item|Price
Intel Core i7 7700K 4x 4.20GHz So.1151 WOF|€354.85
ASRock H270M Pro4 Intel H270 So.1151 Dual Channel DDR mATX Retail|€89.08
Fractal Design Define Mini C insulated Minitower without power supply black|€76.85
16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport LT gray DDR4-2400 DIMM CL16 Dual Kit|€109.85
250GB Samsung 850 Evo 2.5 "(6.4cm) SATA 6Gb / s TLC Toggle (MZ-75E250B / EU)|€93.85
2000GB WD Red WD20EFRX 64MB 3.5 "(8.9cm) SATA 6Gb / s|€122.34
550 watt Seasonic G Series Modular 80+ Gold|€71.85
8GB Palit GeForce GTX 1080 GameRock Active PCIe 3.0 x16 (Retail)|€540.95
Shipping|€29.99
Total|€1,619.47

So either way you're paying quite a premium. Just so you're aware, there are people here who will happily put it together for him for nothing (including me).

If you get your friend to answer these questions, it would help us out. The spec will depend mostly on what types of games he's playing (and anything else he wants to do with the machine) as well as the resolution he'll be using.

To be honest, the 7700K isn't a great value proposition at the moment, except in pretty specific circumstances, and with Vega potentially landing soon (End of this month is the current likely point) that could really shake up the GPU choices too.

Thanks very much, that is a great help

He wants to future proof and play VR and max out games.


1. What is your budget? [€2500]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Gaming, all and any, max setting]
3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [No]

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [no]

5. Do you need a monitor? [No]


5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1920x1080/1440x900/etc.] [1920x1080, but possible 4k at later date]

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [no]

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [Yes]

8. How can you pay? [Credit Card]

9. When are you purchasing? [In 3 days]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [unable to build, no time]




Ill actually be keeping an eye on responses myself as im thinking of upgrading within the next few months also. My gaming rig is 6 years old and has been great up until recently, could be time to change soon!.

TerrorFirmer

Well in fairness 'pretty specific circumstances' refers to Gaming PC's, so unless there's a productivity element as well for work, the 7700K is the best processor to go for, for games and VR.

The GTX1080 is somewhat wasted on a 1080p monitor compared to the considerably cheaper but still extremely fast GTX1070, though it will be very beneficial for VR so I'm inclined to say go for it.

The budget would also cover a 1440P 144hz monitor (or a 4k panel) on top of the 7700K/GTX1080 build, or else a HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. It would be a shame to have a 7700K/GTX1080 build running on a standard 60hz 1080p monitor though, as a huge amount of the PC's power would go unrealised.

Serephucus

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Well in fairness 'pretty specific circumstances' refers to Gaming PC's, so unless there's a productivity element as well for work, the 7700K is the best processor to go for, for games and VR.

The budget would also cover a 1440P 144hz monitor (or a 4k panel) on top of the 7700K/GTX1080 build, or else a HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. It would be a shame to have a 7700K/GTX1080 build running on a standard 60hz 1080p monitor though, as a huge amount of the PC's power would go unrealised.

Well, having a 144Hz monitor, or a 4K one, is also "pretty specific" in terms of PC gaming. To be fair, look where you are. 90% of stuff here is going to be "I want a PC for gaming" so I wouldn't call that pretty specific in this context.

Thanks for the answers, OP. Is he completely, dead-set, on having it pre-built? Because you could almost buy a bloody Vive with the money saved.

I'd also consider swapping in an R5 1600 CPU, with a B350 board. Once overclocked it gives you a six-core CPU that doesn't quite keep up with the 7700K in some instances, but will probably serve him better down the line. The 7700K performs better in games at the moment though, so it depends where his focus is.

He certainly doesn't need 32GB of RAM for games. 16GB will be completely fine.

The_Valeyard

He already has a Vive and reason for not building is kids. Just would not have the time to put the thing together.

TerrorFirmer

You should look at desktops also on laptopsdirect, PC Specialist, OCUK and a few other places. Buying pre-built doesn't have to be a rip-off, especially when there are offers going (eg Dell someones have 100/200 off certain systems, same for OCUK, etc)

With a budget of 2.5K I'd recommend getting a 1440p monitor as well (144hz if he'd like but it does drive up cost quite a bit, but I'd say 1440p or 4K are essential for a PC of this calibre when the budget does allow for it)

Keep an eye out for GTX1070 based PC's as well, if good deals are going.

BloodBath

Screw 4k. Get a good 27" 1440p/144Hz G-Sync panel.

Tar.Aldarion

Have a 27" 1440p 120hs PLS monitor nad it's so good.

OP, you could build it for him for 500 euro lol...

K.O.Kiki

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (€221.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI - B350 GAMING PRO CARBON ATX AM4 Motherboard (€93.56 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (€139.93 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 1.1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€281.83 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Gaming OC 11G Video Card (€779.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - PRIME Gold 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€112.84 @ Mindfactory)
Optical Drive: LG - BH16NS55.AUAR10B Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer (€69.22 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Other: Silverstone Grandia GD09 HTPC (€85.19)
Total: €1783.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-09 19:43 CEST+0200

For way under budget, your mate can have a Ryzen 5 1600 (OC to 4GHz) and a 1080Ti, in a living room HTPC & silent running (large SSD)

The_Valeyard

Cheers for all the advice, I'll show him this when I see him later tonight.

The_Valeyard

Well, little update.


Thanks for all help everyone.

He went ahead and bought the Alienware Aurora. But had a coupon from previous buy and some other discount so paid in total 1700 for the machine.

Serephucus

Decent build for the price, and the case is certainly way different than most anything you'll find in the custom space (except for this thing).

Alienware are nice too in that they don't really bundle any crap with the system. IIRC, you get a utility to control the lights and stuff, and a few Alienware wallpapers. Other than that it's stock Windows, which is really nice.