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.

But you didn't include it in the pricelist, and you added a case while OP said his friend already has a case. And as I said before, OEM keys from Kinguin, G2A or /r/MicrosoftSoftwareSwap are a violation of Microsoft's ToS and they might be deactivated, better pay $100 now than pay $25 now and then have to pay $100 at a later date. Just my 2 cents.

@STRMfrmXMN gave the new CX series (the units with white and grey branding) a green light.

The best looking case (IMO at least) just got sexier. Damn! I need to get my hands on one.

There you go: PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£197.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£26.49 @ Ebuyer) Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£111.30 @ Amazon UK) Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£31.98 @ Ebuyer) Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£69.00 @ Amazon UK) Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.95 @ Amazon UK) Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 Fury 4GB Triple Dissipation Video Card (£379.11 @ Ebuyer) Power Supply: Corsair RMx 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£82.09 @ CCL Computers) Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) (£65.99 @ Amazon UK) Total: £1003.90 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-29 21:52 BST+0100 I've added a legit version of Windows, you might want to go with an OEM key from Kinguin or /r/MicrosoftSoftwareSwap, but be warned, that violated Microsoft's ToS and the key might be deactivated.

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't notice that. Back to PCPP!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£197.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£26.49 @ Ebuyer) Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£111.30 @ Amazon UK) Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£31.98 @ Ebuyer) Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£69.00 @ Amazon UK) Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.95 @ Amazon UK) Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 Fury 4GB Triple Dissipation Video Card (£379.11 @ Ebuyer) Case: Phanteks ECLIPSE P400S ATX Mid Tower Case (£62.70 @ Amazon UK) Power Supply: Corsair RMx 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£82.09 @ CCL Computers) Total: £1000.61 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-29 21:34 BST+0100

Generally speaking, AMD and Nvidia trade blows with each other at all pricepoints, but there's always a card that's slightly better and you should go for that if the difference in price is less than $20. Currently the field is like this: 970 < 390 < 390X < 980 < Fury < Fury X = 980 Ti, looking at the prices in your country, AMD is the way to go, it all depends on how much you're willing to spend, personally I'd go with the 390 and upgrade to the next sweetspot card when Polaris and Pascal come out, but that's just me, if you want the best thing now, go with the Fury X as the $100 price increase for the 980 Ti is not worth it, what's hard is choosing between the 390X and Fury, the 390X is on average 5FPS slower than the 980 while the Fury is ahead of the 980 by slightly more, so it's your choice, you can go with a two year old chip with more VRAM or go with the newest card that has less VRAM but you get the bragging rights of having an HBM video card.

If you don't mind buying used you can get an HD 7970 or an R9 280X for cheaper than the R9 380 and you may be able to find an i5 2500K or i7 2600K with a Z77 board for cheap. Look for deals on eBay and Craigslist.

Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ATX, Fractal Design Define S, NZXT Noctis 450 or H440.