First time build advice for parts already selected

Arnie Petrie · 7 Oct 2018 at 18:46

Hi all, ive made a wish list of parts for a first time build for gaming that is fairly up to date and has some future proofing and potential for overclocking since i am interested to learn. I was going to order a pre built but it seems you get better value for money if you get your own parts and build it yourself anyway so quids in.

I have had a good look at compatibility and am pretty sure im on the right track but thought it wise to ask for some advice before i go ahead and spend a ton of money and end up needing to change parts straight away etc.

Im going to be using an NZXT Phantom 410 case i picked up.

At its core it will be either:
Ryzen 7 2700x with a Noctua nhd15s and ROG Crosshair VII Hero. Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB 3200mhz RAM. GPU would be a GTX 1070ti.

OR

Intel i7 8700k with a Noctua nhd15s and Z370 MAXIMUS X HERO. Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB 3200mhz RAM. GPU GTX 1070ti.

One thing im not getting my head around is what ports motherboards have and what goes in them but ive read a lot and hope that each motherboard i have chosen pairs well with its cpu and the 1070ti. Also whether the three hard drives ive listed below will be ok with each the maximus x hero and crosshair VII hero on the intel or amd build respectively.

Generally speaking though im wondering whether ill have any trouble fitting it all into the case ive got? The Noctua d15s is offset to allow more room for high profile RAM but the LPX looks pretty slim anyway. The case specs say it has options to remove drive space for a bigger gpu but the cooler seems pretty big.

I will be getting 3x120mm and 2x200mm case fans to fill extra spaces the case provides and have chosen the Noctua cooler because i have read AMD runs hotter in general and if i want to moderately overclock the i7 8700k without liquid cooling, it is a good alternative.

Ive selected a potential of three hard drives with a view to get two of them at least but id like advice on which ones and whether all three together will ultimately reduce performance.

First one is Samsung 970 Pro m.2 ultra fast ssd 512GB for operating system
Second is Samsung 860 EVO ssd 500GB for operating system
Last is Seagate Firecuda sshd 1TB for other storage.

Im under the impression that its better to put your operating system onto an ssd rather than anything else so wanted to have that but the m.2 offers a lot more speed for double the price of the 860 evo.

I have selected a 550w psu for the whole thing and am not sure if that will be sufficient. Also i would like to install a 16x 4k rewriter and need to know if the components will allow me to have it. At the moment i am not thinking about a sound card or networking card.

I have priced the builds at about £1600-1800 without accessories which is a lot to spend on a punt so if anyone has any advice at all regarding these two builds i would greatly appreciate your reply.

Many thanks

orbitalwalsh · 7 Oct 2018 at 19:21

@Arnie Petrie

Might save a few pop with bundle for i7 ?

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Promo Bundle - Intel Core i7 8086K, Gigabyte Z370 Ultra Gaming Wifi, 16GB RGB RAM **FREE 512GB SSD**= £799.99

Total: £810.49 (includes shipping: £10.50)

Going all in and within budget, 1080ti over 1070ti

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Promo Bundle - Intel Core i7 8086K, Gigabyte Z370 Ultra Gaming Wifi, 16GB RGB RAM **FREE 512GB SSD**= £799.99
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080Ti Gaming OC BLACK 11264MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card= £578.99
1 x Antec EarthWatts Gold Pro 650W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply= £79.99
1 x Toshiba 1TB P300 7200RPM Performance Hard Drive (HDWD110UZSVA)= £36.95
1 x be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 CPU Cooler= £68.99

Total: £1,564.91 (includes shipping: £0.00)

Arnie Petrie · 7 Oct 2018 at 20:15

Thats not a bad deal at all. Allows for an upgrade to the 1080ti which i like the sound of it. Probably would go more expensive on the hard drive though. The 8700k and a 1070ti still seems better to me though, but ill have a good read and learn about each component.
Thanks dude

ExoMale · 7 Oct 2018 at 22:01

while orbital suggested a 650w psu, what is the 550w you initially chose in case its a good one?

Arnie Petrie · 7 Oct 2018 at 22:48

Hey, thanks for the reply.
To be honest it was nothing special, i did a build your own pc thing and it said id need approx 490w and said 550w would provide a bit of leeway.
I have set aside about fifty pounds for the PSU and havent selected one definatively so if you have any other suggestions i am open to them. Thanks again

lee32uk · 8 Oct 2018 at 11:53

The i7 8700K/i7 8086K are both massively overpriced at the minute by at least £100. Unless you have money to burn I would go Ryzen, or wait for Z390 and the i9 9900K/i7 9700K and see if it affects current prices.

What monitor are you going to be using ?

Arnie Petrie · 8 Oct 2018 at 12:11

To be honest ive noticed the big difference in price. I wanted to go ryzen but thought id try to learn about overclocking and amd setups tend to need water cooling from what ive read and i really want to stick to air cooling anyway. I am purchasing parts bit by bit so am not in any rush, ill have a look see as to when the 9700k comes out and possibly hold off.
Im going to be buying an asus 28" 4k monitor for about £350 if i cant find anythin better for the price.
Cheers

orbitalwalsh · 8 Oct 2018 at 12:27

lee32uk said:
The i7 8700K/i7 8086K are both massively overpriced at the minute by at least £100. Unless you have money to burn I would go Ryzen, or wait for Z390 and the i9 9900K/i7 9700K and see if it affects current prices.

What monitor are you going to be using ?

Arnie Petrie said:
To be honest ive noticed the big difference in price. I wanted to go ryzen but thought id try to learn about overclocking and amd setups tend to need water cooling from what ive read and i really want to stick to air cooling anyway. I am purchasing parts bit by bit so am not in any rush, ill have a look see as to when the 9700k comes out and possibly hold off.
Im going to be buying an asus 28" 4k monitor for about £350 if i cant find anythin better for the price.
Cheers

if you see them, get ordering fast ! normally first batch of stock will be around recommended retail price, soon after first batch is sold... retailers can sell on at high prices, only distributors are bound by price fixes normally . same happened with Coffeelake, first 1000 were normalish price and then shot up by £100

KungFuSpaghetti · 8 Oct 2018 at 12:28

That bundle on the face of it looks okay, but I'd not be spending that kind of money know that the i7 8700k has gone up nearly £200 since launch. Whilst it comes in budget, it's overpriced imo.

For a little more I'd probably also look at the RTX 2080 over a 1080ti, just because as drivers mature and DLSS becomes a thing it will almost certainly age better and for the sake of £50-100ish more I'd say it's a no brainer.

My mate recently just bought the AMD 2700x (with RAM, board etc etc) with the RTX 2080 from here and it's astonishingly fast.

Arnie Petrie · 8 Oct 2018 at 12:34

All great advice, thanks. Ive definately got some more research to do now!

lee32uk · 8 Oct 2018 at 15:08

Arnie Petrie said:
To be honest ive noticed the big difference in price. I wanted to go ryzen but thought id try to learn about overclocking and amd setups tend to need water cooling from what ive read and i really want to stick to air cooling anyway. I am purchasing parts bit by bit so am not in any rush, ill have a look see as to when the 9700k comes out and possibly hold off.
Im going to be buying an asus 28" 4k monitor for about £350 if i cant find anythin better for the price.
Cheers

The Ryzen cpu's actually run cooler than the i7 8700K and i7 8086K unless they have been delidded. So for Ryzen a good £40 air cooler will be fine for overclocking i.e Something like an Alpenfohn Brocken 3 or similar.

Also if gaming at 4K then ideally you want a 1080 ti. The 1070 ti is better suited to 1440p/1080p.

And last of all don't buy things bit by bit. You have no way of testing the parts that way. Much better to save up and buy everything at once. Your best bet would be to post back on here when you are ready to buy, then you can make sure your list is still ok.

orbitalwalsh · 8 Oct 2018 at 15:11

^^^^ bigger hit the better ! as as mentioned, £580 for gtx 1080ti - dropping to ryzen 2600/1700 will allow this if the above is not appealing and saves more cash!

Arnie Petrie · 8 Oct 2018 at 16:17

Fair point, as i said im still new but im steadily learning thanks to all you lovely people!
I was going to buy the cpu, gpu and mothercard together after i had amassed everything else bit by bit but ill take the advice and do it all at once.
With regards to delidding and all if that its a step too far at the moment so i will probably choose to go amd and save some cash and still be able to overclock with air cooling. Checked out that cooler too and it looks fine, great advice, cheers!

orbitalwalsh · 8 Oct 2018 at 16:19

8086k takes less volts then 8700k so runs a little cooler but 9600/9700 is soldered so doesn't need a delid

Arnie Petrie · 8 Oct 2018 at 16:19

With regards to 4k i didnt even know the 1070ti wouldnt hang so will definately seek to upgrade to 1080ti now and save elsewhere

orbitalwalsh · 8 Oct 2018 at 16:23

Arnie Petrie said:
With regards to 4k i didnt even know the 1070ti wouldnt hang so will definately seek to upgrade to 1080ti now and save elsewhere

Also takes a little pressure of CPU

So ryzen isn't such a bad choice for it with gaming