PC Build advise

[Mattyh]

Hi people,

i was looking at getting the new Alienware Aurora R5 but im also looking at parts and having a think of building my own, although it doesnt really seem to be much cheaper at all, maybe £100 or so, anyway im looking at Graphics card and the 1080 is tempting, but its a bit cheaper to get x2 1070's, would this be better than a 1080? from what i can see it seems to be more powerful on some tests but im not sure if there are any restrictions on have SLI over 1 GPU

Thanks

 

[Mjolnir]

Please advise:

Your location (and where you plan to buy most parts)
Budget
Requirements
Screen size/resolution
What you're actually doing with the computer
Future upgrade plans, if any.

However to answer so far, single GPU > multi in most scenarios. Always pick a single powerful GPU over multiple less powerful ones, unless it makes sense per the scenario.

 

[Mattyh]

im in the UK so was going to get them online, places like Scan etc, PC will be used for gaming, id like to run the latest stuff on as good as possible and try 4k too as it will be linked up to my 4k tv, butdget is around £1000 give or take, id like it to last a good few years, but i could start off with 1 GPU and always add another later on

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also id like a good quality fancy looking case perhaps wiht some leds, ive always had alienware laptops and imo they look the business and solid build, is there anything similar? ive seen the nzxt razer case which looks cool, also just seen a EVGA case, are they any good?

 

[Blaylock]

From all the reviews I've read the 1080 will outperform 2x1070 SLI. Mjolnir is correct that in most cases a single card is better than 2 lesser cards in SLI. There are exceptions naturally but it seems this is true even with the new Pascal chips. Something to keep in mind if you do decide to go SLI 1070's is that must use a high bandwidth SLI bridge for anything above 1440(60Hz).

For a good quality fancy case take a look at the link in my Sig. There's a nice collection of great cases there. Some very pricey and some budget. If you list your system specs and what you're looking for in a case I may be able to offer some suggestions as well.

EDIT: I generally don't recommend Laptops for gaming as they are not nearly as upgradable as a desktop. If it's portability that you're looking for than a nice compact LAN box might serve better.

 

[mackerel]

Check the latency on the 4k TV before you plan too far ahead, especially for gaming. The lag on mine is too great for gaming.

Cases: too much choice. Try to shortlist some you like the look of then look up reviews.

Agree with others, a single 1080 would generally be better than SLI 1070, but with £1k budget that wont leave much for anything else. Actually, how do you get two 1070s for less than a 1080? Last time I looked 1070s start sub £400, but a 1080 starts £600 ball park, unless you're after a particularly high end one?

Looking on Dell UK site, the 1080 model seems to be £1729 and I think you'd have a good chance of beating that with a self build. The ~£1000 models comes with a 950 - really Dell?

If £1000 is a hard limit, you're likely going to have to compromise on 4k quality.

 

[Mattyh]

yeah i have an alienware laptop and its already out of date so im going to sell it and get a PC, so ive been looking and so far i think im going to stick with a EVGA 1070, this should be good enough, im nto sure i can really stretch to a 1080 to be honest, i can always swap them when they come down in price

so kit list so far
EVGA DG86 case, £186!! but they look awsome
EVGA 1070, seen one on ebay for £360 not bad
16gb Ram
15 6600k, seen some overclocked bundles that include cpu, motherboard and ram for around £400, i dont really know anything about mother boards, but i think it comes with an ASUS pro gamer
128 ssd for the OS
2tb sata
PSU EVGA 600w
CPU cooler, not sure, any advise was thining a water cooler one? seem some for about £50

this should come to around 1200 ish

i think thats all i need right? thanks!

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i did speak to dell chat as you can always haggle them down, can get an i5 6600k, 8gb ram and 1070 for around 1200, but because its the k CPU it needs the 850w liquid cooler which is an extra 160

 

[mackerel]

Motherboard, as long as it is a Z170 chipset you can overclock with it.

I think a small stretch to a 240GB class SSD is worth it as the price isn't that much different from a 128.

Cooler - I wouldn't bother with the smaller/cheaper all in one watercoolers as for the same money you can get better with an air cooler. Dunno what Dell are offering but less than £160 could get you a relatively large all in one watercooling system, but would fall short of a custom loop.

 

[Mattyh]

so would a fan CPU cooler be good enough for the 15 6600k?

the water cooler dell offer is one that sits over the CPU then has a couple of tubes

Also if i wanted to add some LED lights inside the case is this easy enough? i saw the asus boards have an rgb connector

 

[mackerel]

An air cooler can be both good and quiet. On the more extreme end, look up the Noctua D15 as an example, which is a monster. Smaller ones are available! Double check it will actually fit in your case choice if you go this route. I use a S14 on my 6600k at 4.2 GHz, 1.25v build and that does fine.

The All-in-one watercoolers are available from various sources. Before upgrading I used a Corsair H110i GTX which has a 280x140 radiator. Hint: it can be a pain finding cases that will take ones based on 140mm fans, and 120mm fan versions (e.g. 240x120 or 360x120) are generally more widely accepted, so check compatibility with the case if you go there. You'll have to do research on performance, noise and cost to decide between them.

LED lighting again is available from various suppliers with various functions. They tend to be stuck to the case with either double-sided tape or magnets, and the controller can change colour or possibly various patterns depending on what you want.

 

[Mattyh]

that looks a beast! lol its my first time building a pc so i might get one of the ones that comes as a bundle and includes an overclocked cpu, cooler and motherboard as its easy and im not sure id be confident to fit a cooler and cpu seperate

 

[mackerel]

The 6600k doesn't come with a cooler as standard, so if you buy a bundle they will choose one for you. You still need to fit it at some point, unless they pre-assemble it, but that wouldn't be safe to ship for anything other than a tiny cooler.

 

[Mattyh]

do motherboards come with wifi adaptors or is that something you need to add? also a soundcard?

 

[Blaylock]

Almost all motherboards come with on-board sound but most do not have Wi-Fi. There are a growing number but that is something you will need to look for if it's what you want.

 

[Mattyh]

ok cool i can add wifi easy enough, are CPUs easy to overclock or is it easier to buy one already done?

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and ive decided on the Asus pro gamer motherboard as it also has cool LEDs

 

[Mattyh]

also how do i know what type of fan cooler i need for the CPU or does it not matter?

 

[Blaylock]

Well, CPU's don't come overclocked from the factory. If you get the k series from intel or any AMD then they are overclockable by you. the non-k versions are locked so it's pretty difficult to OC. There are quite a few guides and plenty of ppl here that will help with that too if you run into issues.

Your best bet is to start a build log and list what you NEED in a system and budget (i.e. gaming for minecraft, fps, mmorpg, or if it;s for video rendering, etc) and go from there you will get tons of advice and suggestions to help you build the best system within your budget.

Also, for what it's worth it would be best to wait a few months if you can as AMD and Intel will be releasing their new chips soon (Zen and Kabylake) Prices will be adjusting accordingly so you can save some money.

 

[Mattyh]

yeah im just doing a build list now, ive covered most of it i think and it comes to around £1200, i didnt realise the new chips were coming out soon, i was hoping to build it before xmas as i have quite a lot of time off, but i thought there might be some good deals on black friday on most of those parts, that EVGA case is massive though and might be to big for where i want it, but it looks awsome, so may have to go for a smaller one

 

[Blaylock]

Definitely wait for Black Friday sales. I wasn't sure if you had those in the UK.

 

[Mattyh]

yeah it got pretty big a couple of years back, was pretty funny seeing all the chavs fighting over cheap TV's in Tescos

 

[Mjolnir]

6700k, Asus Z170-AR, NZXT X31 cooler, 16GB any RAM, GTX 1070, EVGA 650W G2/G3 PSU. Phanteks tempered glass case. #done?
+ Some storage solution.

Do you have phanteks available? I feel like they'd suit your build. http://www.phanteks.com/Eclipse-p400s.html for example.