Gaming Desktop for £1200 - £1500

[LumpyLenny]

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/K3vmbj

 

Hi everyone,

 

I'm looking to build a PC exclusively for gaming. I'm completely new to this and put together the below build quite quickly (with a lot of help). I'm hoping you can point out any ways I can cut the price, improve performance by switching out parts or generally make this a more coherent/efficient build - if I'm headed in completely the wrong direction, let me know.

 

I'll be playing a lot of Rust and Civ 6 and would like to run more demanding FPS' like Battlefield and CoD on it as well. Being able to play Star Citizen at a good quality would be great.

 

I don't have any set aesthetic or brand requirements. I'm from the UK, so prices in GBP would be good. The build includes peripherals (mouse, keyboard and monitor) - I'd also like the option to have another monitor in the future, and while I probably won't be overclocking initially I think it'd be good to have the option to do it further down the line.

 

Thanks in advance

[just_dave]

Like this?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor  (£188.99 @ Ebuyer) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (£34.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
Motherboard: Asus - Prime Z370-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£152.20 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory 
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£134.95 @ Aria PC) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£53.50 @ Aria PC) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB SC GAMING Video Card  (£239.99 @ Novatech) 
Case: Corsair - SPEC-ALPHA (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£65.70 @ Kustom PCs) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£86.14 @ Amazon UK) 
Monitor: AOC - G2460PF 24.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor  (£216.00 @ Ebuyer) 
Keyboard: Corsair - STRAFE Wired Gaming Keyboard  (£59.99 @ Aria PC) 
Mouse: Logitech - G402 Wired Optical Mouse  (£31.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £1263.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-10-22 17:58 BST+0100

[IziBartek]

Dude I am doing the exact same at the moment. Everything looks perfect, but the power supply, thats way too overkill. try getting a 500W and use the extra money for some LED strips

[IziBartek]

1 minute ago, dave_k said:

Like this?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor  (£188.99 @ Ebuyer) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (£34.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
Motherboard: Asus - Prime Z370-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£152.20 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory 
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£134.95 @ Aria PC) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£53.50 @ Aria PC) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB SC GAMING Video Card  (£239.99 @ Novatech) 
Case: Corsair - SPEC-ALPHA (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£65.70 @ Kustom PCs) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£86.14 @ Amazon UK) 
Monitor: AOC - G2460PF 24.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor  (£216.00 @ Ebuyer) 
Keyboard: Corsair - STRAFE Wired Gaming Keyboard  (£59.99 @ Aria PC) 
Mouse: Logitech - G402 Wired Optical Mouse  (£31.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £1263.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-10-22 17:58 BST+0100

Yeah, way better/newer system for less $ You should go with this

[Whizzp]

Power Supply is super overkill for that system, also bear in mind that water cooling is also overkill for this chip even after overclocking there are some cheaper air coolers that will give you still great performance.

 

3 minutes ago, dave_k said:

Like this?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor  (£188.99 @ Ebuyer) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (£34.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
Motherboard: Asus - Prime Z370-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£152.20 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory 
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£134.95 @ Aria PC) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£53.50 @ Aria PC) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB SC GAMING Video Card  (£239.99 @ Novatech) 
Case: Corsair - SPEC-ALPHA (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£65.70 @ Kustom PCs) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£86.14 @ Amazon UK) 
Monitor: AOC - G2460PF 24.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor  (£216.00 @ Ebuyer) 
Keyboard: Corsair - STRAFE Wired Gaming Keyboard  (£59.99 @ Aria PC) 
Mouse: Logitech - G402 Wired Optical Mouse  (£31.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £1263.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-10-22 17:58 BST+0100

This is a great build, apart from anything else it's newer allowing for a long upgrade path if you want to.

[LumpyLenny]

Yeah, being able to upgrade it further down the line would be great. Glad you all pointed out the power supply was over the top, changing that seems to have shaved a good chunk off the price.

 

What kind of performance difference does the i5 8400 offer vs the i5 7600k? I'm still trying to get my head around CPUs...

[Whizzp]

So the main difference between those 2 processors is that the 7600k allows you to overclock whereas the 8400 doesn't, the 8400 is a 6 core cpu instead of the 4 core 7600k which will help you if you plan to do any productivity.

 

I would go for the 8400 simply because it's newer and is on a newer chipset (z370) which offers the upgrade path.

[LumpyLenny]

6 hours ago, Whizzp said:

So the main difference between those 2 processors is that the 7600k allows you to overclock whereas the 8400 doesn't, the 8400 is a 6 core cpu instead of the 4 core 7600k which will help you if you plan to do any productivity.

 

I would go for the 8400 simply because it's newer and is on a newer chipset (z370) which offers the upgrade path.

Thanks for the explanation. I'm not too concerned about the 8400 not being able to overclock, as long as it's able to run relatively demanding games at high quality. Do you think the graphics card in the suggested build is well suited to the 8400? 

[Whizzp]

39 minutes ago, LumpyLenny said:

Thanks for the explanation. I'm not too concerned about the 8400 not being able to overclock, as long as it's able to run relatively demanding games at high quality. Do you think the graphics card in the suggested build is well suited to the 8400? 

If a 1070 is completely out of your budget then yes, the 6gb 1060 will allow you to play games at decent setting with 1080p resoultion. Welcome to the world of pc building, hope you enjoy your stay

[LumpyLenny]

On 22/10/2017 at 7:34 PM, Whizzp said:

If a 1070 is completely out of your budget then yes, the 6gb 1060 will allow you to play games at decent setting with 1080p resoultion. Welcome to the world of pc building, hope you enjoy your stay

Hi whizz, just thought I'd get your opinion on the latest changes to the build: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/DhVT2R

 

I've gone for the 1070 (considering the 1070ti, depending on how it performs when it's released) and chosen the 8600k. What's your take on the overall build? Aiming for good performance at 1440p and high performance at 1080p

[LumpyLenny]

On 22/10/2017 at 5:59 PM, dave_k said:

Like this?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor  (£188.99 @ Ebuyer) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (£34.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
Motherboard: Asus - Prime Z370-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£152.20 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory 
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£134.95 @ Aria PC) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£53.50 @ Aria PC) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB SC GAMING Video Card  (£239.99 @ Novatech) 
Case: Corsair - SPEC-ALPHA (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£65.70 @ Kustom PCs) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£86.14 @ Amazon UK) 
Monitor: AOC - G2460PF 24.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor  (£216.00 @ Ebuyer) 
Keyboard: Corsair - STRAFE Wired Gaming Keyboard  (£59.99 @ Aria PC) 
Mouse: Logitech - G402 Wired Optical Mouse  (£31.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £1263.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-10-22 17:58 BST+0100

Hi Dave, thanks for this build, it was very instinctive. Here's the build as it stands: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/DhVT2R

 

I've decided to go for a better CPU and GPU to improve the longevity of the PC - whats your take on the CPU/GPU/MOBO combination? I'm aiming for good performance at 1440p for AAA games and high performance at 1080p. Any advice is appreciated!

[Whizzp]

8 hours ago, LumpyLenny said:

Hi whizz, just thought I'd get your opinion on the latest changes to the build: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/DhVT2R

 

I've gone for the 1070 (considering the 1070ti, depending on how it performs when it's released) and chosen the 8600k. What's your take on the overall build? Aiming for good performance at 1440p and high performance at 1080p

Hi Lenny, this machine should crush 1080p and perform well at 1440p. I like the changes you made but please don't get blue RAM. It offends my eyes XD.

 

An upgrade you could consider in the future would be an m.2 SSD which give great performance for booting and loading times etc.

 

As for the 1070ti we don't really know anything yet but chances are it will still be good performance/$

[LumpyLenny]

On 24/10/2017 at 3:54 PM, Whizzp said:

Hi Lenny, this machine should crush 1080p and perform well at 1440p. I like the changes you made but please don't get blue RAM. It offends my eyes XD.

 

An upgrade you could consider in the future would be an m.2 SSD which give great performance for booting and loading times etc.

 

As for the 1070ti we don't really know anything yet but chances are it will still be good performance/$

Hah the blue is gone, not sure how I OK'd that in the first place. I'm keen to see how the 1070ti performs but I may even shell out for the 1080 to really nail the 1440p performance. Thanks for the input by the way.