New PC Build Help (+ some monitor/GPU advice)

[AzurePara]

Hey all,

 

The upgrade bug hit me and as such, I've decided to build a new PC. 

I have a budget of around NZ$3300.

 

I don't need any extra peripherals or an OS. I'll be reusing a 3TB HDD although I wouldn't mind having an extra 1 or 2TB HDD along with an SSD, if it fits within the budget.

The main use for the PC will be gaming although I'll also be programming on it for work and I'll be doing some light rendering.

I'll be running 3 monitors although only one will be used for gaming at any given time.

I would prefer to buy parts from physical stores rather than ordering online. The one's I know of are PB Tech, Computer Lounge and DTC Systems. 

 

Here's what I currently have in mind:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor  ($625.00 @ DTC Systems) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-D15S 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($188.00 @ DTC Systems) 
Motherboard: Asus - Prime Z370-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($299.95 @ Computer Lounge) 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($299.00 @ DTC Systems) 
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($219.95 @ Computer Lounge) 
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB AORUS Video Card  ($1340.00 @ DTC Systems) 
Case: Corsair - 270R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($119.97 @ PB Technologies) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($216.00 @ DTC Systems) 
Total: $3307.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-09 20:32 NZDT+1300

 

Are there any issues with the build? Is there a better build for this kind of budget?

Considering that I will be OC'ing the CPU at some point, will the 270R provide enough airflow once I buy extra fans for it?

 

Regarding the monitors, for the third monitor, I intend to purchase a 1440p 144Hz monitor (outside of this budget of course). Thing is, the G-Sync monitors are way over my budget so I was wondering if it was worth switching to a Vega 64 and pairing it up with a FreeSync monitor instead. 

Another option would be to switch to a 1080 and use the money I saved on the Ti on a G-Sync monitor but I'd rather avoid this because I want to be able to run the newest AAA titles on as high settings as possible for the next four years or so.

 

Thanks for reading all this and for any help you guys can provide!

[GirlFromYonder]

What is worth is finding a vega 56 for the price of a 1070/1070 ti and undervolting, flashing the bios to a vega 64 and overclocking the HBM 2.

Around a 1080 performance with the 1080s power consumption for cheaper with freesync

[TSL]

Just now, DeezNoNos said:

What is worth is finding a vega 56 for the price of a 1070/1070 ti and undervolting, flashing the bios to a vega 64 and overclocking the HBM 2.

Around a 1080 performance with the 1080s power consumption for cheaper with freesync

Flashing the BIOS with vega 64 does not increase it's performance. It doesn't make it a Vega 64

[GirlFromYonder]

Just now, TSL said:

Flashing the BIOS with vega 64 does not increase it's performance. It doesn't make it a Vega 64

No but the extra cores in it does not give extra performance. It vega 56 is locked down in clock speeds. You can not overclock over a specific limit set buy AMD and you can also not overclock the HBM above a specific limit again set by AMD. You can by pass this by bios flashing to a vega 64 bios. The main difference and in most cases the only difference is the difference in clock speeds. Look it up. Gamersnexus, derbauer and Actually hardcore overclocking(i think) have videos.

[TSL]

The build looks good. I agree with not going for a 1080. Pushing more frames is always better. With regards to stores - they're all good. Computer Lounge and DTC Systems tend to have slightly better prices on some components, however, I bought my PC from PBTech and asked them to price match and they did -  so the choice is entirely yours in the end. If you are concerned about the airflow of the 270R, here's a review of it: 

(Much love from a fellow Kiwi! :D)

 

[GirlFromYonder]

If you were wondering about the vega:

But if you choose not too. I would not really change anything. It works. And I have the 750 G2 and I LOVE IT. specially with a 250W gpu the fan will not turn on and if it does it is silent.

[TSL]

3 minutes ago, DeezNoNos said:

No but the extra cores in it does not give extra performance. It vega 56 is locked down in clock speeds. You can not overclock over a specific limit set buy AMD and you can also not overclock the HBM above a specific limit again set by AMD. You can by pass this by bios flashing to a vega 64 bios. The main difference and in most cases the only difference is the difference in clock speeds. Look it up. Gamersnexus, derbauer and Actually hardcore overclocking(i think) have videos.

Ah yes, I see what your are saying now :D. I've seen it all before. This is a good idea, but Vega is difficult to acquire in New Zealand (unless you want to pay an extreme amount of money) and if there's room for a 1080ti in the budget - Why not get the better performing card?

[TSL]

2 minutes ago, DeezNoNos said:

If you were wondering about the vega:

But if you choose not too. I would not really change anything. It works. And I have the 750 G2 and I LOVE IT. specially with a 250W gpu the fan will not turn on and if it does it is silent.

Thanks - already seen stuff on it though ;D

[GirlFromYonder]

Just now, TSL said:

Ah yes, I see what your are saying now :D. I've seen it all before. This is a good idea, but Vega is difficult to acquire in New Zealand (unless you want to pay an extreme amount of money) and if there's room for a 1080ti in the budget - Why not get the better performing card?

:(..... The same problem in Canada BUT......I live right next to the US mainland border.....sooooooo....lucky me I guess

[Tyr of Thoth]

https://nz.pcpartpicker.com/list/L6nD6X
maybe if you want to save some cash. Personally, I'd rather have a bigger SSD over anything else, and most NVME is gonna be more than fast enough for gaming. Also if you aren't going to overclock you don't need to get a K CPU and can probably save some cash there too. I think a 1080 is probably fine for just about anything at 1440p, at least for the next few years.

[TSL]

1 minute ago, DeezNoNos said:

:(..... The same problem in Canada BUT......I live right next to the US mainland border.....sooooooo....lucky me I guess

LUCKY YOU. We're stuck in the corner of the globe with overpriced PC parts and slack availability. Oh well... Maybe I need to move to Canada, it seems like the best place!

[GirlFromYonder]

2 minutes ago, TSL said:

LUCKY YOU. We're stuck in the corner of the globe with overpriced PC parts and slack availability. Oh well... Maybe I need to move to Canada, it seems like the best place!

That was me when I lived in Pakistan. The retailers there would literally ship stuff from Dubai or germany or something. Like you can buy a Rx480 ( this one year ago) for PKR 27k or US$270 or something like that. I think this was a 4gb version. And the 1050ti is $50 too expensive....and so on....the logitech G230s are for $50.........

[TSL]

6 minutes ago, DeezNoNos said:

That was me when I lived in Pakistan. The retailers there would literally ship stuff from Dubai or germany or something. Like you can buy a Rx480 ( this one year ago) for PKR 27k or US$270 or something like that. I think this was a 4gb version. And the 1050ti is $50 too expensive....and so on....the logitech G230s are for $50.........

If only there was PC parts price neutrality

[AzurePara]

7 minutes ago, DeezNoNos said:

If you were wondering about the vega:

But if you choose not too. I would not really change anything. It works. And I have the 750 G2 and I LOVE IT. specially with a 250W gpu the fan will not turn on and if it does it is silent.

Like TSL said, the Vega is really tough to find, i only mentioned it because I happened to see around 5 or so in stock between a few stores but thanks for the suggestion.

 

11 minutes ago, TSL said:

The build looks good. I agree with not going for a 1080. Pushing more frames is always better. With regards to stores - they're all good. Computer Lounge and DTC Systems tend to have slightly better prices on some components, however, I bought my PC from PBTech and asked them to price match and they did -  so the choice is entirely yours in the end. If you are concerned about the airflow of the 270R, here's a review of it: 

(Much love from a fellow Kiwi! :D)

 

A fellow kiwi I appreciate your posting the review, it was pretty informative

 

 

8 minutes ago, Tyr of Thoth said:

https://nz.pcpartpicker.com/list/L6nD6X
maybe if you want to save some cash. Personally, I'd rather have a bigger SSD over anything else, and most NVME is gonna be more than fast enough for gaming. Also if you aren't going to overclock you don't need to get a K CPU and can probably save some cash there too. I think a 1080 is probably fine for just about anything at 1440p, at least for the next few years.

I definitely will overclock hence the D15s. Also since there aren't any non-Z370 boards at the moment, I figure it's a waste if I don't overclock. With regards to the SSD, 250GB should be enough for anything non-gaming, the biggest thing going on there aside from the OS will be Visual Studio along with Azure and stuff which will make for around 30-60GB. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

Since this build seems to be fine, I'll stick with it. I'm still kinda iffy about a 1080ti with a non-G-Sync monitor but I can't really spare $1000 for the monitor....
Sadly we aren't close enough to the US to get lower prices

[AzurePara]

Any better/cheaper suggestions for the case? My only requirement is that it has decent airflow for when I eventually OC

[TSL]

1 minute ago, AzurePara said:

Any better/cheaper suggestions for the case? My only requirement is that it has decent airflow for when I eventually OC

The best case you can buy for airflow is the Silverstone RL06. It's well priced and has subjectively good looks. It's airflow is head and shoulders above the rest but it comes at a slight noise cost - reducing fan RPM really helps it though. Another good airflow one is the Fractal Design Meshify C. That has very good airflow as well, but comes in around NZ$ 180. The 270R is good value for money - but definitely will not have the best airflow. if you're adding high quality fans to it however, it will make a big difference.

[AzurePara]

I will be adding fans to it before overclocking but that probably won't be for a couple months hence why it's not in this budget. And yeah, noise is kinda a big thing for me. I am currently running a 7970Ghz and it's super loud on load... it's annoying for others when I'm gaming at night and others are trying to sleep so the quieter the better. Say I had an extra NZ$100-$150 to spend, do you think I'd be better off spending it on something other than the case?

[TSL]

20 minutes ago, AzurePara said:

I will be adding fans to it before overclocking but that probably won't be for a couple months hence why it's not in this budget. And yeah, noise is kinda a big thing for me. I am currently running a 7970Ghz and it's super loud on load... it's annoying for others when I'm gaming at night and others are trying to sleep so the quieter the better. Say I had an extra NZ$100-$150 to spend, do you think I'd be better off spending it on something other than the case?

The only place I could see where more money would be worth spending would be on a better RAM kit. Something around speeds of 3000Mhz. Your build is pretty much as good as it gets otherwise. You could get a liquid cooler, but that won't necessarily reduce noise (if anything increase it). It would get a better overclock, but the NH-D15 is so quiet and an extremely good cooler. Your 1080ti will be nowhere near as loud as the 7970GHz. Given your not looking for the highest overclcok. I think the 270R is good to stick with as long as you get a couple of nice intake fans.

[AzurePara]

Sweet, thank you for all your help!

[TSL]

Just now, AzurePara said:

Sweet, thank you for all your help!

No problem! Good luck with the build!

[Tyr of Thoth]

12 hours ago, AzurePara said:

Like TSL said, the Vega is really tough to find, i only mentioned it because I happened to see around 5 or so in stock between a few stores but thanks for the suggestion.

 

A fellow kiwi I appreciate your posting the review, it was pretty informative

 

 

I definitely will overclock hence the D15s. Also since there aren't any non-Z370 boards at the moment, I figure it's a waste if I don't overclock. With regards to the SSD, 250GB should be enough for anything non-gaming, the biggest thing going on there aside from the OS will be Visual Studio along with Azure and stuff which will make for around 30-60GB. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

Since this build seems to be fine, I'll stick with it. I'm still kinda iffy about a 1080ti with a non-G-Sync monitor but I can't really spare $1000 for the monitor....
Sadly we aren't close enough to the US to get lower prices

Yeah I think if you're gonna do overclocking your build is probably pretty solid then. You can always get a better monitor later on down the line too.