Gaming PC Build / Advice

Silver Steeez

Hi Guys, Looking for bit of advice and maybe help with a computer build. Hopefully I won't be shunned as I am tossing up between building a PC and buying a Alienware :rolleyes:

So I am in the market for a Gaming PC I am currently in discussion to purchase a refurbished Alienware Area 51 for 2600. These are the specs.

It also comes with 3YR Dell Warranty.

64Bit Windows 10 Home

1500W PSU

Intel Haswell i7 5930K HexaCore CPU

CPU Liquid Cooling

6GB Gigabyte GTX 980Ti Gaming G1 graphic card-factory overclocked from 1000Mhz to 1190Mhz

256GB Solid State Drive

4000GB 5400rpm Hard Drive

16GB 2133Mhz RAM (4x4GB)

Blu-Ray Rom Drive

Intel 7260 Wireless Card with Bluetooth

9-in-1 Media Card Reader

Dell Mouse&UK QWERTY keyboard.

So my question to a lot more experienced people is does this sound like a good idea or what would i be looking at if i was to build it myself

1. What is your budget? [€2600] - using this as a reference as its what i would pay for the above system

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming/Media

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes/No - I am fine to not include this in the purchase price I am pretty sure I can track down a copy I might have lying around or on the cheap online.

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No - Except i have speakers.

5. Do you need a monitor? No I have 2 of below link.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CFFFGUM?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

5a. If yes, what size do you need. N/A

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? 1920 x 1080 - Would like to upgrade in the future but not important right now for my budget ( Unless someone else thinks it should be ? if the above monitors won't get the best out of my eventual system

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? No

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? Depends on Vendor!

9. When are you purchasing? Yesterday asap but no real rush prepared to do it properly if i end of sourcing parts from different websites ect

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Cork, I am semi-Literate but have not been actively involved with computers in recent times so have fell out of touch

Thanks in Advance to for any Advice !!

Digital Solitude

Are you going to be gaming at 3840x1080 or 1920x1080? i.e. Both screens for gaming or just one

Silver Steeez

To be honest i am not sure I think just one for anything i am playing competitively and ill try use the two for any open world adventure games.

I have never gamed on two monitors before so it will depend on how it feels and I'm not sure how it will look on these monitors don't have the smallest bezels.


In the Future I will most likely be upgrading to a single 27 inch higher quality monitors for gaming.

But for the next 6 month + it will be some combination of the two i have.

Digital Solitude

Well a 980Ti is major league dickswinging at 1080p tbh.

To max every game for the next year or so at 1080p, I'd spec you this

i7 6700k €350
Z170 board €150
2tb WD Red €90
512gb SSD €175
GTX970 €350
Lian Li case €200
600w PSU €80
8gb DDR4 €50
Total €1500 or so

Whatever Windows you want

Compared to the Alienware, it has;
a good quality PSU
weaker i7 won't affect you
weaker GPU which won't make a difference at 1080p
bigger SSD
smaller HDD
less RAM which won't make a difference
whatever case you like
room for any peripherals you want

Next year with the new GPU release cycle, upgrade card if needed, upgrade RAM and HDDs whenever you want to

Get a good mechanical keyboard and mouse with the money saved flom the Alienware build.

Silver Steeez

Ok man thanks for advice I had a feeling the 980 ti was overkill for my monitors.

Gonna start doing some more research tonight, I see you helping out alot of people here thanks again

Any sites in particular you would recommend for parts other than amazon.co.uk which would be my go to site. I see mindfctory.de being used here is that one you would recommend ?

Digital Solitude

I've used mindfactory before with no issue, computeruniverse is another used here.

NorseRunes

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

If so I would go with a stronger PSU, 800W minimum. I really depends though on the make, and how much current is going through the Rails. Most manufactors have specs you can check.

*edit* typo

NorseRunes

Silver Steeez wrote: »

Ok man thanks for advice I had a feeling the 980 ti was overkill for my monitors.

Gonna start doing some more research tonight, I see you helping out alot of people here thanks again

Any sites in particular you would recommend for parts other than amazon.co.uk which would be my go to site. I see mindfctory.de being used here is that one you would recommend ?

alternate.de has excellent prices and selection. customer service is top as well.

Silver Steeez

Hi guys thanks for the input so I decided to go a slightly different way(Balls to the walls in terms of my budget anyway). I know this system is overkill for my current monitors but I will be looking into some nice monitors just after Christmas.

I have always wanted a Nice Computer and can finally afford it so want to get it while I have the chance. I am currently on a laptop that doesn't have a battery and overheats every half hour and has to be closed down so it cools off. Looking forward to the upgrade.

So I would appreciate some feedback on this system. If you could treat it as your own what would you change .. ect

And also most importantly like I said I haven't been keeping up to date with the hardware side of things too much lately so if you can see any compatibility issues if you can let me know so the whole thing doesn't explode.

I am still very much open in terms of changing everything but here go's this is what i came up with.

Evga z170 classafied
http://www.newegg.com/global/ie/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188177 - 374

i7-6700k
http://www.newegg.com/global/ie/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117559 - 351

corsair cpu water cooler
http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Corsair-Hydro-Series-H110i-GT-Komplett-Wasserkuehlung_992085.html - 125

samsung 850 evo 500gb ssd
http://www.newegg.com/global/ie/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147373 - 150

WD Black 2.0 Gb - 110

Evga 850w PSU
http://www.newegg.com/global/ie/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438018 - 122

980 ti hybrid
http://www.newegg.com/global/ie/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487144 - 664

G.skill ripjaw v 32Gb
http://www.newegg.com/global/ie/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231903 - 243

Total - 2142


Price is without a case and shipping so when I add in those costs I expect it to go up towards the 2500 Mark.


Thanks again for any input/advice

Silver Steeez

In regards to my above motherboard choice i was also looking at the evga z170 FTW
http://www.newegg.com/global/ie/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188178&cm_re=evga_z170-_-13-188-178-_-Product

Which is alot cheaper - 178

One of the case's I was looking at has usb 3.1 and the more expensive mother board from the above post has 3.1, does the motherboard have to have usb 3.1 for it to work on the case ?

The only other noticeable thing to me that i am paying for is a better built in Sound Card which I would pay more for but maybe not twice the price which this motherboard is. Other than that i have no idea why the motherboard is twice the price.

Digital Solitude

Drop the cooler and the RAM, 32gb is ridiculous.

If you want water cooling, use a full loop, just CPU ones arent great.

As per the USB 3.1, you want be able to use the cases front USBs if the board doesn't have a connector on the board. I'd say the cheaper one won't have you winning out on much

NorseRunes

Silver Steeez wrote: »

In regards to my above motherboard choice i was also looking at the evga z170 FTW

Which is alot cheaper - 178

One of the case's I was looking at has usb 3.1 and the more expensive mother board from the above post has 3.1, does the motherboard have to have usb 3.1 for it to work on the case ?

The only other noticeable thing to me that i am paying for is a better built in Sound Card which I would pay more for but maybe not twice the price which this motherboard is. Other than that i have no idea why the motherboard is twice the price.

About the USB, well some cases have extra hookups for inputs, so essentially your connecting those ports to the usb connectors on your board. EVGA is an excellent choice have had many over the years, the classified edition has a lot of extra features 4way sli and a lot more layers went into manufactoring the pcb, 8 phase pbm etc etc. If your not needing 4 way sli go for the less expensive version, as chipset is the same, and put that money towards bigger cpu or graphic card. If it were me Id go for a X99 System, i7 2011-3.

Luck100

I don't think those NewEgg prices include any taxes (VAT, import duty) that you will pay when shipping to Ireland.

Silver Steeez

Luck100 wrote: »

I don't think those NewEgg prices include any taxes (VAT, import duty) that you will pay when shipping to Ireland.

Your right man when i go through to checkout there is about 450 added onto those prices not including shipping for import customs. It was NewEgg Ireland so i figured it was coming from somewhere in Europe. Those original prices were the best I had seen anywhere. Guess ill look elsewhere.

Thanks guys for the input, looking into some x99 motherboards atm. Im planning to order in a couple days time so ill come back here with another build with a couple of refinements see what you guys think.

NorseRunes

cool , its always a blast with a new build!

since you've decided to look into x99, here the last board I recently built for one of my boxes, went with asrock as the evga board wasnt available at the time and I was very impatient. All in all really happy thus far, few months in, no issues whatsoever. Play around in shops and configs to get the prices down on board cpu and mem combo.

Asrock X99 Extreme6 X99
asrock.com/mb/Intel/X99 Extreme6/