Looking to create a gaming build

marcbrophy

Hi Folks,

I told a friend in work who builds his own PC's that I was planning to build a new gaming rig at a budget of about €1k. He sent me a skylake build with an AMD card that he threw together on overclockers. It ran at around €1350, so I put it into pcpartpicker and the same parts ran about €1200. Still, slightly more than I want to pay.

The parts are here in the site:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/GLdvpg

Few things about the build I am weary about:

Cooler: Haven't a clue about them, just picked one as the site said I needed it.
Ram: It's 3Ghz 8GB, I was kinda hoping to get 16GB and the speed of 2666 Mhz would be fine.
GPU: It's a sweet card, the 390 Nitro, but any other thoughts?
Case: It was not the one recommended, but a close version that was on pcpartpicker. In reality, this will be tucked in beside a TV stand, so I don't really need a case that can be peered into

The whole of the above was just one suggestion and to be honest, the only thing that I'm set on, is the CPU, the rest can be anything else.

Further details, if needed:

1. What is your budget? €1000 (roughly)

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming mainly with modern to classic games. GTA V, Arkham Series, AC Series, Tropico Series, SIM City types. You get the idea, a variety of games

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes, technically. I was thinking of getting Win 7 on adverts and upgrading to 10.

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? I have a 120GB SSD lying around, Kingston I believe, that I can use as Windows drive. I have a lot of 2.5" HDDs around from 500GB to 2TB that I can use in drive, perhaps with adaptor. Basically, I don't need to buy storage.

5. Do you need a monitor? No

5a. If yes, what size do you need. [19'/20'/22'/24'/etc.]

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? 4K UHD TV to be used as a monitor and no plans to upgrade.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Have plenty of keyboards and mice around, wired or wireless. I might look to get an AC wireless card as PC will not be in the same room as modem.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? In 2 minds, but I kind of want the k version chip anyway, as it has a higher base clock speed.

8. How can you pay? Debit Card/PayPal/Credit Card at a push.

9. When are you purchasing? In the next 3 to 10 days, I reckon.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Limerick, but I should be fine putting it together.

Thanks,
Marc

TerrorFirmer

Very unbalanced overall - that much of a 1K budget, and considering your uses, on a high end motherboard and i7-K are a waste.

They're both geared towards serious overclocking. If you want to overclock, get the i5-6600K and a cheaper Z170 board. If not, an i5-6400/i5-6500 is a solid buy with a H170 board. Unless you're overclocking the K is a pointless buy, 100-200mhz will make zero difference in games. But the cash difference will make a massive difference in other areas of your build eg. GPU.

The card, cooler, ram and case in your link are fine, the PSU is also but is somewhat overkill, a good 600w is more than enough.

If you're gaming at 4K the R9 390 is going to struggle badly. A GTX980Ti or R9 Fury/Fury X is really what you should be looking at, otherwise the R9 390 will be 4k medium settings with an average framerate at best.

marcbrophy

Hi Terror, thanks for replying pal

I made some tweaks, based on your suggestions.
I threw in an AC card also.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/swRf6h

I'm still arriving at about £950 or €1200, so I'm guessing that's the going rate for the kind of machine I'm trying to build?

Xenoronin

Mocked up a build that I'm thinking of suggesting to a friend. The PSU is probably overkill, and I haven't got a case in there. Might help you anyway. Went with the Z170 board simply because the H170 doesn't support anything but ddr4-2133 RAM.
a_build.png

Didn't see the 4K requirement. If you don't mind taking a slight knock on the resolution front, i really would suggest just not running games at 4k. Nothing runs it "well" right now. A lot of the games you mention are controller games so I assume you will be sitting back a bit? If so drop to 1440p or 1080p for games. Won't really notice a difference tbh...

marcbrophy

Thanks Xenoronin, the pricing is much better on MF alright.
Is the wait long for shipping, do you know?

The case is a real annoyance for me too, honestly don't give a flying what it looks like and at most I'd only like 1 optical drive bay, possibly zero and use an external dvd rewriter that I have about the place.

Must look into it a little more

Xenoronin

The reason i've dropped the case out of that build is because mindfactory (and computeruniverse) count the case as a separate parcel and kill you on shipping. Get the case off amazon. Look up a few reviews to make sure it is easy to build in. Might be worth looking into an ITX or M-ATX build to chop down the space.
Takes about a full working week to arrive from Germany if everything is in stock. Up to 2 working weeks if things are delayed a bit. Not too shabby.

marcbrophy

Ah yes, I've seen posts on here telling others to get the case from elsewhere and save on shipping, makes sense now!

That's not too bad a wait, I can live with it.

Regarding the 4k thing, I should have maybe been a bit more detailed on that.
I'll be connecting the PC to my main TV, this is a 4k TV, but I'm not necessarily banking on gaming in 4k. Might be nice to view 4k video content on, but I understand 4k gaming is prohibitively expensive for now.

Also, I should probably go for an Nvidia GPU, as I've a shield android TV in the bedroom and might look to use the game streaming features of that.

Digital Solitude

Xenos build should fit a Fury Nano and a case to the budget if you drop to 8gb RAM and cheap out on a case, which I normally don't recommend.

Short of that get a 390 or 970 and use 1080p, or run 4k at Medium settings until Pascal/Polaris come out

marcbrophy

Thanks guys, had a nose around mindfactory earlier and came up with a pretty good price for the below build.

Is a 980 overkill?

Are there any incompatible items in there?

I think the carbide air case in white is pretty nice!

Digital Solitude

Defintely a Fury for 4k if you're pushing the budget

Eoinmc97

Don't pare the 6600K with that board. The VRMs lack a lot of cooling, so this would bottleneck your overclock. Maybe bump the 6600K down to a 6500?
Now you have the dilemmaof dropping €500 on a card now, or wait until June/July to see the next line of GPUs come out, which should be more powerful and efficient.
As DS said, if you want to game on 4K, get a Fury. Or just turn the resolution on your screen down to something like 1440p, which is the sweetspot for the Fury.

marcbrophy

Thanks guys!

Eoin, what about a better board to handle CPU, rather than a worse CPU? Any ideas?

I don't think there's any point in the 4k gaming right at this point in time, I'm thinking about a GTX 970 or 980 card for now and looking into the 4k side when the new cards come out.

Ok, so am I right in saying that the current cards only have a HDMI 1.4 output, like the 980Ti or Fury (x), meaning a max output of 30fps, or is that just mis information?

grindle

marcbrophy wrote: »

I don't think there's any point in the 4k gaming right at this point in time, I'm thinking about a GTX 970 or 980 card for now and looking into the 4k side when the new cards come out.

Ok, so am I right in saying that the current cards only have a HDMI 1.4 output, like the 980Ti or Fury (x), meaning a max output of 30fps, or is that just mis information?

The 980ti has HDMI 2.0
Buy a 390 or 970 for the time being. A Fury or 980[ti] is a waste of cash with Polaris and Pascal so close.

marcbrophy

Thanks grindle!

Any idea on a mobo, and I get this thing finalised and ordered?

Eoinmc97

The closest mobo that offers any decent VRM cooling is the MSI Z170 G-43 for €118. But check around. The easiest way to tell, is to look at the CPU area, and see if there are any heatsinks near small, grey boxes. 2 heatsinks are good as the overclock becomes more stable and cooling the VRMs is easier. Good luck with the build!

marcbrophy

Thanks Eoin, I'm gonna have to take some time out and look into this mobo situation before I order, cos I just don't seem to have a fcuking clue :pac:

marcbrophy

Hi again Folks,

I realised that I need an mATX mobo for the case I was buying.
Also liquid cooler to fit inside it.

I've put together another build.
Would someone mind telling me if it looks okay?

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/YJqrzy

Thanks,
Marc

PeteSco

marcbrophy wrote: »

Hi again Folks,

I realised that I need an mATX mobo for the case I was buying.
Also liquid cooler to fit inside it.

I've put together another build.
Would someone mind telling me if it looks okay?

Thanks,
Marc

I was gonna suggest you getting at least 16Gb of RAM but I see you already thought of that.
Personally I'd spend less on the case, mobo and cooler, to get a better GPU, but if people suggested you otherwise maybe they're right.

Good luck either way!

grindle

PeteSco wrote: »

Personally I'd spend less on the case, mobo and cooler, to get a better GPU, but if people suggested you otherwise maybe they're right.

He's gonna end up selling the 970 and splurging on whatever the best 4K option is in a few months. Nothing is up to the task right now apart from Xfire/SLi top-tier card at the mo', which would be money very badly spent this close to an update.

marcbrophy

Thanks Pete, yes I went with 16gb RAM over 8gb just to have it really.

As for the GPU, as grindle says, I'm banking on a competent 1080p / QHD card at the moment until 4k cards are a bit more up to task

With regards the cpu, case and cooler, tbh I'm sick to death of thinking about them, and if these 3 go together at this stage, I'm buying them :pac:

Eoinmc97

Solid build there! Just make sure you can fit the Air 240, as it is surprisingly large for an mATX case.
Good luck with the build!

marcbrophy

Thanks Eoin, I hope it goes well!

Now to find the best place to order them.
I was just going to go Amazon UK route, for peace of mind, but somehow £828 turned into €1170 after VAT & P&P
Also, they wouldn't give me the free game with the graphics card as it wasn't going to a UK address :rolleyes:

The bargain hunt begins

PeteSco

grindle wrote: »

He's gonna end up selling the 970 and splurging on whatever the best 4K option is in a few months. Nothing is up to the task right now apart from Xfire/SLi top-tier card at the mo', which would be money very badly spent this close to an update.

Yeah, I get it!

@marcbrophy I guess that's it then. Good luck!

marcbrophy

Just a little update on the progress here.

Ordered all items on Friday 4th.

The case, from Amazon, is in Limerick for delivery already even though they estimated the 11th - 12th for delivery

The others from Mindfactory shipped about an hour ago. The cooler was out of stock, and they estimated shipping wouldn't be until the 10th.
With it shipping on a Tuesday, would I have them before the weekend, I wonder?

Thanks again to anyone who helped me with my build.

Digital Solitude

marcbrophy wrote: »

With it shipping on a Tuesday, would I have them before the weekend, I wonder?
.

It takes about 6-8 days to get stuff from Germany in my own experience, so unless you get lucky I wouldn't be hopeful

marcbrophy

Digital Solitude wrote: »

It takes about 6-8 days to get stuff from Germany in my own experience, so unless you get lucky I wouldn't be hopeful

No worries so, I can just stare at the case for a week, waiting for the innards to be delivered

Digital Solitude

marcbrophy wrote: »

No worries so, I can just stare at the case for a week, waiting for the innards to be delivered

Sit it beside the TV, and lean forward making woosh and bang sounds :pac:

marcbrophy

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Sit it beside the TV, and lean forward making woosh and bang sounds :pac:

Exactly what I had planned to do!

I'm also going to print out this image and glue it to the side of the casing :pac:

Eoinmc97

Excellent. That will get you an extra 69 FPS in every game out there. Good job XD

PeteSco

marcbrophy wrote: »

Exactly what I had planned to do!

I'm also going to print out this image and glue it to the side of the casing :pac:

God, for a second I thought that was your PC

marcbrophy

PeteSco wrote: »

God, for a second I thought that was your PC

It is the case that I bought alright, but I somehow think my build won't look like that when it's finished