New gaming machine - large budget

h0neybadger

Hi all,

Have a nice budget available for a new build.

My current PC has the following

Core i5
32gb ddr3
Gtx 970
MSI Z170 (I think)
2 x 120gb SSD
1 x 250gb SSD
2 x 2tb HDD


What I will re-use
Keyboard
Mouse
Hard drives

What I need.
Top spec multi monitor gaming machine.

Usage: multi screen is a must. I’d like 1 large screen for gaming. 2 side screens for everything else. Portrait or landscape. Either or.
A nice desk frame to mount them.

Visually appealing case
My keyboard and mouse are Logitech range. Blue themed if possible.

All suggestions welcome.

Budget is 2-3k all in.

Blazer

Take a look at the phanteks evolve atx tempered glass. Fantastic looking chassis.

https://goo.gl/images/xqqp5X

After that well you can go either AMD or Intel route.

TerrorFirmer

Z170 would be Skylake so there'd be no point swapping out that platform really. If it's an older chipset, starting new would be either Ryzen or Intel Coffee Lake and a GTX1080Ti on that budget, with a 1440p 144hz screen.

I would probably sell your current PC with 1 SSD and 1 2TB HDD, then carry over the 250GB SSD, 2nd 120GB SSD + 2TB HDD. You'd still get a pretty good price for that PC as a unit.

Xenoronin

Surprised you need to upgrade at all tbh. Throwing an i7 and a new graphics card in whatever you have, would probably be a significant upgrade.

Here is my attempt at a nice looking upgrade anyway.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/92bFBP

Some cheaper side monitors and a desk frame should be easy enough to source.

h0neybadger

I’m upgrading as my current rig is going to my kid for Christmas

Blazer

h0neybadger wrote: »

I’m upgrading as my current rig is going to my kid for Christmas

hehe..we know all the excuses by now

Lu Tze

Blazer wrote: »

hehe..we know all the excuses by now

∆∆ TV licence inspector!

h0neybadger

The funny reality is, I am! I build him a gaming PC 3 years ago, and the GPU packed in, so I’m giving him mine as I have an unscratcable new Rig itch that just won’t go away

h0neybadger

Blazer wrote: »

Take a look at the phanteks evolve atx tempered glass. Fantastic looking chassis.

https://goo.gl/images/xqqp5X

After that well you can go either AMD or Intel route.

That’s a gorgeous case! And yeah I’ll go with that!

h0neybadger

Xenoronin wrote: »

Surprised you need to upgrade at all tbh. Throwing an i7 and a new graphics card in whatever you have, would probably be a significant upgrade.

Here is my attempt at a nice looking upgrade anyway.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/92bFBP

Some cheaper side monitors and a desk frame should be easy enough to source.

Cheers mate.

All looks good, but is there any reason not to go with Rizen compared to Intel?

Or wait for Rizen 2 in Feb?

Xenoronin

Ryzen2 will probably be minimal availability until at least Q3. Ryzen is of course, a fully viable alternative. Just swap in a X370 motherboard and a 1700X. 3200MHz RAM works best with Ryzen from what I can tell. Any higher is harder to achieve. The only thing I would say for the Intel option is that it works a little better for gaming in some titles. Though looking at the benchmarks, it is kinda flipfloppy between games, and Ryzen has garnered a lot of support recently, resulting in some better optimisations and tweaks in games such as Rise of the Tomb Raider.
https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2047?vs=2015

Note that I have prioritised aesthetics more highly than I would normally in that build, and if you want to cut some of the fluff (there is a lot) you could probably shave a few hundred off that build.
Monitor is glorious, but extravagant. You could swap to a Vega 56/64 GPU and get a FreeSync2 monitor a lot cheaper. FreeSync/GSync both sync your screen refresh rate, to the framerate from the GPU. This prevents screentearing and generally gets you smoother camera movement.

Blazer

h0neybadger wrote: »

That’s a gorgeous case! And yeah I’ll go with that!

You can get a better idea of it from this thread..I think there's at least two of us with it.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=100440345

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=100440345&postcount=3084


Just be aware that it cannot take DVD drives..but who the hell uses them now

h0neybadger

Hi,

Just to update.

I bought one of these monitors.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01BFH1FL4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Love it. Seriously, love it.
I'm still planning on getting 2 side monitors, but I realized I'll need a bigger desk.

So, as for the PC.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Fs32qk

I decided to increase my budget.

I want extra ram, as I use a number of hyper-V instances and need the extra ability to add more if required. for work.

Storage, I went with the 500gb M2 drive as my primary drive.
Used for steam, Windows, etc.
I've 2 x 2TB drives in RAID that I'll also move over, along with 1-2 of the SSD's from my current rig.

Any areas I can improve on, for performance / and or obvious issues with the build?

K.O.Kiki

h0neybadger wrote: »

Hi,

Just to update.

I bought one of these monitors.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01BFH1FL4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Love it. Seriously, love it.
I'm still planning on getting 2 side monitors, but I realized I'll need a bigger desk.

So, as for the PC.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Fs32qk

I decided to increase my budget.

I want extra ram, as I use a number of hyper-V instances and need the extra ability to add more if required. for work.

Storage, I went with the 500gb M2 drive as my primary drive.
Used for steam, Windows, etc.
I've 2 x 2TB drives in RAID that I'll also move over, along with 1-2 of the SSD's from my current rig.

Any areas I can improve on, for performance / and or obvious issues with the build?

You're throwing money away in so many areas that don't need them; especially for gaming.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor (£347.94 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool - CAPTAIN 240EX RGB 153.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£100.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z370 Extreme4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£149.94 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£348.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Crucial - BX300 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£121.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£205.00 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB AORUS Video Card (£709.95 @ Aria PC)
Case: Silverstone - Redline RL06WS-PRO ATX Mid Tower Case (£72.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£99.97 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £2156.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-27 03:11 GMT+0000

h0neybadger

Appreciate the input, but why change the case, and add another SSD?

The reason I chose the RGB range is I like the look of them. the GPU, RAM and Mobo don't have these. Yes, I know it's not necessary, but I think it'll work well

Is there that little performance between 3000 and 4266 for memory?

And it's not mainly gaming. I do several other intensive tasks that run a lot of vm's, but gaming would be one of the main aspects.

wotzgoingon

Well tbh there is small benefits from faster RAM but you also need tight timings and the faster you go the looser the timings. 3200MHz with CL14 is the sweet spot.

I'm not really up to date on coffee lake RAM support. So I do not know if they will run at the rated 4266MHz. Maybe they do as intel have support for higher speed compared to Ryzen but as I mentioned above you also need tight timings which you don't get with faster speed.

K.O.Kiki

h0neybadger wrote: »

Appreciate the input, but why change the case, and add another SSD?

The reason I chose the RGB range is I like the look of them. the GPU, RAM and Mobo don't have these. Yes, I know it's not necessary, but I think it'll work well

Is there that little performance between 3000 and 4266 for memory?

And it's not mainly gaming. I do several other intensive tasks that run a lot of vm's, but gaming would be one of the main aspects.

Silverstone RL06 is a solid case with great thermals, and tbh paying €200 for an ATX mid-tower is overkill (that's EATX full-size price!)
https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3120-best-gaming-pc-cases-of-2017
Case choice is buy-as-you-like; my recommendation is simply something like the RL06.

RAM: You see a big drop-off in perf/€ after 3000MHz (or even 2666/CL-14)
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Core_i7_8700K_Coffee_Lake_Memory_Performance_Benchmark_Analysis/9.html
Games/applications generally just don't need faster than this.
Also, try to buy your RAM in properly matched kits (e.g. 1 kit of 2x16Gb or 4x8Gb instead of 2 kits of 2x8Gb).

GPU: Gigabyte AORUS has RGB https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N108TAORUS-11GD#kf
Nothing Asus do is worth the price premium IMHO

Motherboard: ASRock Z370 Extreme 4 does RGB too https://www.asrock.com/MB/Intel/Z370%20Extreme4/index.asp
They're well known for great VRM designs.
Again, paying a premium for Asus name.

SSD: forgot that I added that BX300. However, for games you don't need to load them onto a 960 Evo, they simply will not benefit from its speeds.
Get a cheapo 480-1000Gb SSD (Samsung 850, WD Blue, Sandisk Ultra 3D, Crucial BX300) for games.

PSU: Your build will likely never exceed 460W, and Corsair RMx are the quietest units around.

Blazer

Cases are very subjective.
Some want large with huge airflow and others want smaller.
If you plan on overclocking the phanteks one apparently isn’t great unless you take the top lid off. It never bothered me since I can’t be arsed over locking.
But there is a huge difference between a €70 case and a €200 case and it’s well worth it in my opinion to get the best case you can afford.
Better materials, better airflow, better cable management, better disk placement etc are all features of the higher end chassis.
I love the Corsair chassis as well but you’re paying for the name.

K.O.Kiki

Blazer wrote: »

Cases are very subjective.
Some want large with huge airflow and others want smaller.
If you plan on overclocking the phanteks one apparently isn’t great unless you take the top lid off. It never bothered me since I can’t be arsed over locking.
But there is a huge difference between a €70 case and a €200 case and it’s well worth it in my opinion to get the best case you can afford.
Better materials, better airflow, better cable management, better disk placement etc are all features of the higher end chassis.
I love the Corsair chassis as well but you’re paying for the name.

Price isn't an indicator of quality.
e.g. the €149 Cooler Master H500P.

Blazer

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Price isn't an indicator of quality.
e.g. the €149 Cooler Master H500P.

as a BMW driver I can tell you that

Praetorian

Do you need someone to build it? I've built 50 over the years.

I built a flashy pc recently for a lady at work (for her teenage son). It's been a huge success.

I also recently built myself a nice new rig. No set budget. Near silence and a plane dark look was the goal.

8600k delidded and now running at 5.2 ghz 24/7 (never a single crash even at 5.3 / 5.4 ghz, but I didn't like the volts)

16 gig 3200 MHz ram

Fractal Windowless R5 case. Got it for next to nothing as the R6 was just about to come out.

Aorus 1080ti

512 gb nvme Samsung (can't remember model) over 2000meg a second anyway

another sata 512 ssd,

Huge noctua cooler. Only two case fans and actually they are sufficient for this time of year, even playing Player unknown there is nearly no noise. But I have ordered another two fractal fans as I know summer temperatures will change the equation.

I wouldn't bother with the 8700k unless your doing very heavy multi tasking / rendering / video editing. 8600k is better value.

Some internal photos attached.

challengemaster

Considering the OP has built his own crypto mining farm, I doubt he needs help building a PC :pac:

Fair play to you dude, if you have the money get what you want. Case/RGB are totally preference and you'll only regret not buying what you wanted or buying it later anyway.