Dinkleberg

It should be noted that you're going a tier down each generation, the HD 7970 was the flagship, the 280X had the 290 series that was better than it, while the 380X had the Fury's and the 390 series ahead of it.

Holy crap! That's worse than my country. Looks like $750 for a 980 Ti isn't a bad deal after all...

TA DA!(?)

Pretty good build for 350 pounds, 18 pounds overbudget but I'm pretty sure he'll be able to spare 18 pounds more: PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£97.26 @ CCL Computers) Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£44.99 @ Amazon UK) Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£25.98 @ Ebuyer) Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£46.79 @ Novatech) Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270X 4GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£83.59 @ Overclockers.co.uk) Case: BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£42.61 @ More Computers) Total: £368.21 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-04 20:54 BST+0100 If he can't spare 18 more pounds, go with this: PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£88.92 @ Aria PC) Motherboard: ASRock H81M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£37.19 @ Ebuyer) Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£23.98 @ Amazon UK) Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£46.79 @ Novatech) Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270X 4GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£83.59 @ Overclockers.co.uk) Case: BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case (£23.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£42.61 @ More Computers) Total: £347.07 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-04 21:01 BST+0100

I think he means it's a bit thinner than full-sized ATX motherboards, it's not as apparent on this motherboard as on this one, for example: But it's still apparent as the VRM heatsinks is very close to the IO and the chipset heatsink is directly on the edge of the board (there's no room for horizontally-placed SATA ports to its left), Gigabyte only put on heatsink for the VRM above of the socket and used a very small heatsink for the chipset to be able to put the SATA ports horizontally on the edges of the board instead of putting them vertically on either side of the chipset as that might become an issue if you want to put another card as the SATA cables might interfere unless it's something small like the R9 Nano.

In gaming applications, it'll do as slightly better than an i5 6500 in games that don't use all four cores and hyperthreading, in games that do use all four cores and HT, it'll do as well as an i7 4790K, BCLK overclock it and it'll do better than the 6600K and 6700K, respectively. In rendering and stuff like I think it'll do as slightly better than an i7 4790K due to the increase in IPC.

I'm derailing this a bit off-topic but if I can get an RMx for like 5 euros cheaper than a G2 should I go for it or get the G2? (I'm reluctant to get the GQ because it's semi-modular and the GS because it has a 120mm fan and I don't want it to heat up)

The Xeon E3 1230 V5 is the Xeon equivalent to the i7 6700, it's like $60 cheaper, supports ECC memory, is more (ever so slightly) more reliabe, but the motherboards are more expensive, especially if you're willing to go with an H110 board if you get the i7 6700, and the motherboard selection is a bit limited, on average 2-3 motherboards from each manufacturer that are targeted at people who want to get Xeons as a cheaper alternative to i7s. If you want my opinion, go with a 1230 V5, get the cheapest ASRock motherboard you can get that doesn't look like Mr Turner, get a Cryorig H7, search for an older BIOS that allows BCLK overclocking and OC your Xeon to i7 6700K levels while saving about $70.

It is considerably cheaper in some markets and jonnyguru gave it a 10/10, so IMO it is an equally good deal. But I'm pretty sure you know your stuff about PSUs way more than I do.

Not necessarily, the 280X had some 6GB versions.

Because people need their daily dose of creepy selfies?

You can call me Sheldon.

Mechs are worth every penny you pay for them, and if you want silence you can go with a keyboard with MX Browns or Reds if you want even less noise, install some O-rings. I know it's personal preference but why don't you like the clickity-clackity of mechs? A mech that doesn't keep someone two blocks away from you awake all night is a sad excuse for a mech.

I agree it's ridiculous to have to pay $100 for a Windows license but it's the only way you won't get your key deactivated by Microsoft, and I'm not saying you have to get Windows 10, you can still buy Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, the former is still a much better OS than Windows 10, only problem is that if you want DX12 you have to get Windows 10.