High-end, high budget gaming PC, would appreciate a second opinion.

[Nenro]

1. Budget & Location

I'm based in the UK, and I have a budget of around £3500 I'd like to keep to, but it's not an absolute limit.  If something offers a significant upgrade, I am happy to spend a bit more.

2. Aim

I'm wanting to create a top-of-the-line Gaming PC that will handle anything I can throw at it for a good number of years, as well as give me the capability to run a VR system in future.  I have no plans to use it for anything outside of gaming and web browsing.

3. Monitors

I'm planning on buying a 1440p 144Hz IPS monitor, and want to create a PC capable of taking full advantage of that potential.

4. Peripherals

I have a functioning mouse, keyboard, speaker system, and headphones that I will be migrating across from my current set up.

5. Why are you upgrading?

My current PC is now around 9 years old and is very much showing its age.  It also no longer possesses a functioning GPU due to an accident involving water, gravity, and a much admonished pet cat.  As Black Friday offers the opportunity to get some good deals on tech, it seemed an opportune time to upgrade.

 

This is what I have come up with thus far, and I'd love your opinions on my choices:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  (£449.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H150i PRO 47.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£129.97 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 AORUS MASTER ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£251.48 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  (£124.96 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£99.96 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£248.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card  (£1249.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify S2 ATX Mid Tower Case  (£109.99 @ Box Limited)
Power Supply: be quiet! DARK POWER PRO 11 850 W 80+ Platinum Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  (£175.44 @ CCL Computers)
Monitor: Gigabyte AORUS AD27QD-SA 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor  (£434.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Total: £3275.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-25 22:46 GMT+0000

 

Here's my thinking on my choices:

Spoiler

CPU: Despite AMDs amazing advancements of late with their Zen2 line up, the 9900K still seems to offer the best performance for purely gaming workloads.  I was planning on overclocking my system anyway, so outside of the security updates, the 9900KS seems somewhat redundant.  However, I'm not sure if Intel's binning of chips means I'm unlikely to get a good overclocker if I just buy a 9900K.  I would appreciate some insight on this.

 

CPU Cooler:  I wanted a good AIO cooler, and the H150i seemed to give me enough capacity to comfortably overclock whatever processor I choose, as well as currently being reasonably priced.

 

Motherboard:  From what I've read the Gigabyte Aorus Master has strong VRMs, which should let me comfortably overclock my CPU.

 

Memory:  I struggled to make a choice here.  I chose to get 32 GB to give myself future overhead in whatever I choose to do.  DDR4-3200 with good timings, at a good price seemed like a good choice, but if anyone knows better, I would love to know.

 

Storage:  ADATA seem to offer a really good deal on it's NVME drive; comparable speeds to Samsung's 970 Evo Plus, whilst being noticeably cheaper.  Samsung's 870 Evo SSD offers great speeds and reliability.

 

Video Card:  Whilst it feels like great excess spending as much on a graphics card as many people do on their entire systems, I want to get the most out of the hardware I have chosen.  With that in mind, if I want to get 144Hz at 1440p and the highest graphics settings, it looks like it's necessary to get a 2080 Ti.  I chose EVGA over other options purely for the reasons that their customer service is purportedly very good; if I'm going to spend so much on one part, being sure I can return it if something goes wrong would provide me with a great deal of peace of mind.  Other options I looked at for similar performance at a slightly lower price include the Gigabyte 2080 Ti AORUS XTREME or the Asus 2080 Ti ROG Strix Gaming OC.

 

Case:  I don't like RGB effects, so I wanted to minimise the amount of tempered glass whilst still having reasonable airflow.  Fractal Design offer the Meshify S2 without tempered glass panels, and seems to do reasonably well in performance tests.

 

Power Supply:  850W should give me plenty of power to work with when overclocking, and I'm informed that be quiet! make good PSUs.

 

Monitor:  I knew I wanted a 1440p 144Hz IPS panel, and the Gigabyte panel seems to perform well, despite it's gamer ascetics.  As it is currently on a heavy discount for Black Friday, it was an easy choice.

 

So, any advice or perspective you can provide would be much appreciated.  I would love to hear your thoughts!

[dizmo]

Looks...fine?

Personally I'd spend significantly less and get 90% of the performance, but that's just me.

If you're spending that much money, you really should be buying a monitor with GSync, not FreeSync.

[Meganter]

6 hours ago, dizmo said:

Looks...fine?

Personally I'd spend significantly less and get 90% of the performance, but that's just me.

If you're spending that much money, you really should be buying a monitor with GSync, not FreeSync.

It is G-Sync  

https://www.aorus.com/AD27QD

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/g-sync-monitors/specs/

 

7 hours ago, Nenro said:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  (£449.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H150i PRO 47.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£129.97 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 AORUS MASTER ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£251.48 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  (£124.96 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£99.96 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£248.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card  (£1249.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify S2 ATX Mid Tower Case  (£109.99 @ Box Limited)
Power Supply: be quiet! DARK POWER PRO 11 850 W 80+ Platinum Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  (£175.44 @ CCL Computers)
Monitor: Gigabyte AORUS AD27QD-SA 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor  (£434.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Total: £3275.72

Nothing wrong in that build to be honest, just really expensive  Why not air cooling instead ? 

[dizmo]

13 minutes ago, Plouffe said:

It is G-Sync  

https://www.aorus.com/AD27QD

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/g-sync-monitors/specs/

GSync Compatible is not the same as GSync.

[Meganter]

7 minutes ago, dizmo said:

GSync Compatible is not the same as GSync.

What's the difference between them ? 

[dizmo]

4 minutes ago, Plouffe said:

What's the difference between them ? 

FreeSync has a lower range of iirc 44hz, GSync goes all the way down to 1.

[Meganter]

Just now, dizmo said:

FreeSync has a lower range of iirc 44hz, GSync goes all the way down to 1.

And G-Sync compatible is like Free Sync ?

[dizmo]

3 minutes ago, Plouffe said:

And G-Sync compatible is like Free Sync ?

GSync Compatible is FreeSync. Just one that's been verified to work with GSync modules.