£800-£1000 Budget Gaming Pc

[Drism]

Hey,

I've recently decided to look into building a new computer, I don't have much experience with building my own so I've decided to use a website, I'm thinking of using PcSpecialist as they seem relatively cheap plus Uk-based but if anyone has any other websites to suggest please feel free.

Budget: £800-£1000
Resolution: 1920x1200 24"
Games / Settings Desired: Mainly WoW, some other mmo's, maybe Destiny2, Overwatch, LoL.
Country: Uk
Parts that can be reused: Monitor (Dell U2410), Mouse, Keyboard

I'm looking to be able to run Wow on ultra settings (or close to ultra) in raids using addons as my old rig has started to struggle pretty badly.
For comparison my old rig: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Processor 3.30 GHz, 8GB Ram.

New Build:

Processor: Intel Core i5 Six Core processor i5-8600K (3.6GHZ) 9MB Cache
Motherboard: Asus Rog Strix Z370-E Gaming: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.0, Sata 6GBs - RBG Ready
Ram: 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2133 Mhz (1x8GB)
Graphics Card: 4GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050 Ti - Dvd, Hdmi, Dp
Hard Drive: 1Tb Sata-III 3.5"HDD, 6 GB/s, 7200 RPM, 32 MB Cache
SSD Drive: 240 GB Kingston SSDNow M.2 2280 G2 Sata 6Gb/s (550MB/R, 330MB/W)
Dvd Drive: Standard
Power Supply: Corsair 350W Vs Series VS-350 Power Supply
Power Cable: Standard
Processor Cooling: Super Quiet Titan Dragonfly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Sound Card: Standard
USB Options: Standard
OS: Windows 10 Home 64 Bit

This is the build I'm currently thinking of although I'd love some advice on if it looks good, any weak points, anything I could afford to go cheaper on etc.
Current price is £1028.00 using the website PcSpecialist, will this be a sufficient upgrade to my old computer? Thanks for reading & any future replys!

[Netherspark]

Looks ok. One thing I would change though - SATA M.2 drives are kind of pointless. They're no faster than regular SSD's yet cost substantially more money. They're not the same as 'proper' M.2 drives, which are faster. So unless you just want it for the convenience of not needing cables, I'd get a normal SSD instead.

Also, Pricepicker doesn't always have the best prices. You can often find better deals if you look around more.

[Evildeffy]

I will leave the actual build up the UK people with better knowledge of where to find better prices.
That said ... that build can be improved for that budget considerably, some components are simply too low of a quality to fit in that.
For example the SSD brand could be replaced with a Crucial MX300 M.2 instead of the Kingston which is considerably lower quality and performance.
With the 8600K I'd employ a slightly higher class motherboard, either that or drop down to an i5-8400 if you don't intend to overclock (still a VERY good gaming CPU!)
The 1050Ti is fine but in the same budget you should be able to find a 1060 if you go for the i5-8400 f.ex. which should give you a bigger benefit.
Even though a 350W PSU is in general fine for that build, I'd preferably increase it to a 430 - 450W class because of efficiency and degradation, not to mention it'd fit in the budget easily

But like I said ... I'll let someone who has more knowledge of UK stores handle the specifics.

Looks ok. One thing I would change though - SATA M.2 drives are kind of pointless. They're no faster than regular SSD's yet cost substantially more money. They're not the same as 'proper' M.2 drives, which are faster. So unless you just want it for the convenience of not needing cables, I'd get a normal SSD instead.

Also, Pricepicker doesn't always have the best prices. You can often find better deals if you look around more.

However 1 major correction to your statement above:
M.2 is simply a form factor which supports PCIe (also known as NVMe) and SATA communication.

And no M.2 SATA SSDs are the exact same price (or should be) as 2,5" SATA SSDs, if people want a clean build there's no reason NOT to take one.
They aren't pointless as they are cleaner to build, no added SATA nor power cabling and perform identically to 2,5" drives because they ARE the same thing just in an M.2 form factor.

So please do not call M.2 NVMe drives "proper" drives and M.2 SATA drives "improper" or "pointless", it's a form factor which can accommodate PCIe devices (like NVMe SSD) and SATA protocols as it will literally be on a SATA port and take it's place as it's not emulated.

NVMe drives (PCIe card based or M.2 based) for 99,9% of all gamers are completely pointless, it will not present any appreciable performance benefit in games.
If you were a high-speed DB requiring a lot of IOPS for a great deal of users than there's an advantage, otherwise there isn't.

2,5" SATA drives are used ... so why would an M.2 SATA drive be any different? Because it takes up a potential M.2 NVMe drive slot?
For people that have 800 - 1000 GBP budget there will be no NVMe drive and likely not in the future either.
M.2 SATA is perfectly fine as it is "a normal SSD".

[Deleted]

in my opinion, it is a bad time to buy intel UNLESS youre looking for top of the line performance in games.
in your situation, i would argue you have no specific need or use for a unlocked cpu. the i5 8400 would be more than enough to handle games for a long time to come.
but, then you have the problem of motherboards only being available with the z370 chipset atm - and putting a i5 8400 into one of those would also be kinda silly.

another thing; a classic mistake gamers make, is spending a ton on a cpu and neglecting their graphics card... im not saying a 1050ti cant run WoW, LoL, etc. im just saying that if you bought a b350 motherboard and a Ryzen5 1600 cpu then you would have enough money to buy a gtx1060 with 6gb ram instead - maybe even a gtx1070 if you can find a christmas-sale or something like that.....
in any event you could get a better gfx card and 2 ram sticks instead of just one if you chose AMD instead of Intel
also, that cpu-cooler is horrible. an 8600k needs a CM212 or cryorig H7 atleast.. preferably better still

and your psu is not good enough either for that cpu. at 350w and when its rated only "white" you could get problems.. should get atleast bronze and 400-500watt. also what case are you using?

this is your parts-list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/cT29hq

this is my suggestion: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/QPRJvV

In the upper right cornor you can change from US to UK vendors

note that the ryzen cpu comes with a cooler that works just fine for your specific needs. also, the case was just something i threw in there for good measure so if u dont need a new one, the partslist i made is actually slightly cheaper than yours and you get a hell of alot more gaming performance with the gtx1060, almost double actually
http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare...-Ti/3639vs3649

Looks ok. One thing I would change though - SATA M.2 drives are kind of pointless. They're no faster than regular SSD's yet cost substantially more money. They're not the same as 'proper' M.2 drives, which are faster. So unless you just want it for the convenience of not needing cables, I'd get a normal SSD instead.

Also, Pricepicker doesn't always have the best prices. You can often find better deals if you look around more.

m.2 ssd's do not cost more. samsung, crucial and WD have the same listed price for m.2 and regular ssd.

[the boar]

Processor: Intel Core i5 Six Core processor i5-8600K (3.6GHZ) 9MB Cache
Motherboard: Asus Rog Strix Z370-E Gaming: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.0, Sata 6GBs - RBG Ready
Ram: 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2133 Mhz (1x8GB)
Graphics Card: 4GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050 Ti - Dvd, Hdmi, Dp
Hard Drive: 1Tb Sata-III 3.5"HDD, 6 GB/s, 7200 RPM, 32 MB Cache
SSD Drive: 240 GB Kingston SSDNow M.2 2280 G2 Sata 6Gb/s (550MB/R, 330MB/W)
Dvd Drive: Standard
Power Supply: Corsair 350W Vs Series VS-350 Power Supply
Power Cable: Standard
Processor Cooling: Super Quiet Titan Dragonfly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Sound Card: Standard
USB Options: Standard
OS: Windows 10 Home 64 Bit

my concerns with this build are the power supply, 350w seems to be cutting it a bit close, and that cpu cooler seems a bit.. well, thin. i also believe coffee lake loves fast ram, so that 2133mhz makes me feel a bit sad.
that together with the £1000 price tag at the end.. mm. it'll work, though i am not sure how well you'll be OCing it with that cooler and maybe hitting the power limit of your psu.

Also, Pricepicker doesn't always have the best prices. You can often find better deals if you look around more.

this is honestly the most important part for the UK. ppp includes a lot of websites i wouldn't go near ever (eg. more computers, pc world) and even the good websites it does include, the prices are sometimes wildly out of date or inaccurate. gotta pay close attention!

that said, if you are confident building the pc yourself (heck even if you're not, youtube will help!), you can get some better parts and save a bit of money.

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8600K 3.6GHz 6-Core OEM/Tray Processor (£227.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - Shadow Rock 2 51.4 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler (£37.98 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus - Prime Z370-P ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£124.29 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws 4 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£92.92 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 275GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£68.36 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£36.00 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB FTW GAMING ACX 3.0 Video Card (£140.30 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - ECO 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£45.48 @ Ebuyer)

Total: £773.32

(for those wondering: at the time of clicking, 2x4GB ram is £50 cheaper than 1x8GB. m2 SSD is £30 or so cheaper than the SATA version. *shrug*)

i haven't included a case or windows (or dvd drive, do you actually need a dvd drive?), so earmark another £50-100 depending on what you choose for those options.

as always i welcome others to swoop in and make better suggestions, especially if there is anyone here in the uk that has actually built a pc recently - i can only go off quick price checks, product reviews, and anecdotal stories of what people have had success with~

[Deleted]

I currently have a PC with GTX 1050Ti, and I play with custom settings.

Texture Resolution: High
Filtering: 8x
Projected Textures: Enabled

View Distance: 4
Environment Detail: 5
Ground Clutter: 10

Shadow Quality: Fine
Liquid Detail: Good
Sunshafts: Low
Particle Density: High
SSAO: Low
Depth Effects: Good
Lightning Quality: High
Outline Mode: Good

No anti-aliasing and 100% render scale. With this, I'm getting up to 100 FPS in Draenor, and a little lower than that in Legion zones. If you have a 60hz monitor though, you don't need more than 60 FPS. I'm sure you can have settings higher than me and still be at 60 FPS. I've just lowered settings because I don't notice huge differences between good-high settings except for some such as textures, particle density, view distance and etc. Shadow Quality isn't that necessary tbh, so I just rather keep it at Fine, having that at ultra will just eat your fps, I'd assume.

I can also play Overwatch with Epic settings (which is the highest) and range at 60+ FPS. League of Legends, highest settings, I get around 140+ FPS, maybe more or less, I can't remember, but again, having more than 60fps shouldn't matter unless you have a monitor with higher refresh rate than 60.

So overall, the 1050 Ti is a very good card, I'd say. Though, if you want to have ultra settings when raiding.. I'm not sure if even 1080 Ti can handle that, idk. I haven't raided yet since I've just bought this PC, but I'm pretty sure I'd be able to have the most important settings at ultra, while having the other settings at low such as environmental details (view dist, ground clutter etc) and other settings as they don't need to be at ultra when you're raiding.

[Deleted]

my concerns with this build are the power supply, 350w seems to be cutting it a bit close, and that cpu cooler seems a bit.. well, thin. i also believe coffee lake loves fast ram, so that 2133mhz makes me feel a bit sad.

when it comes to RAM, Coffee Lake doesnt benefit more than Kaby Lake or Sky Lake did.. and its because of the architecture. you will always have scaling ofcourse. but not in the same way as you see with ryzen because of that "glue" amd calls infinity fabric which is the internal bus that interconnects each ryzen core. this bus is running at the same speed as your RAM so fast RAM means more cpu-power which is different from just regular RAM speed scaling

[Drism]

Thanks for all the feedback, will be taking it into consideration

my concerns with this build are the power supply, 350w seems to be cutting it a bit close, and that cpu cooler seems a bit.. well, thin. i also believe coffee lake loves fast ram, so that 2133mhz makes me feel a bit sad.
that together with the £1000 price tag at the end.. mm. it'll work, though i am not sure how well you'll be OCing it with that cooler and maybe hitting the power limit of your psu.



this is honestly the most important part for the UK. ppp includes a lot of websites i wouldn't go near ever (eg. more computers, pc world) and even the good websites it does include, the prices are sometimes wildly out of date or inaccurate. gotta pay close attention!

that said, if you are confident building the pc yourself (heck even if you're not, youtube will help!), you can get some better parts and save a bit of money.

Total: £773.32

(for those wondering: at the time of clicking, 2x4GB ram is £50 cheaper than 1x8GB. m2 SSD is £30 or so cheaper than the SATA version. *shrug*)

i haven't included a case or windows (or dvd drive, do you actually need a dvd drive?), so earmark another £50-100 depending on what you choose for those options.

as always i welcome others to swoop in and make better suggestions, especially if there is anyone here in the uk that has actually built a pc recently - i can only go off quick price checks, product reviews, and anecdotal stories of what people have had success with~

I've never built my own computer and have no idea how but with how much cheaper it seems to be I've been very tempted to learn and save some money, great advice thanks!

[Varvara Spiros Gelashvili]

Off topic but what's the best brand for z370 boards customer service wise?

[Drism]

Bump -

I've changed my build around a little, opinions?

Case: GAME MAX FALCON BLACK GAMING CASE (RGB LED)
Processor: (CPU)Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-8600K (3,6 GHz), 9 MB Cache Motherboard: ASUS® ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM): 8GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card: 4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1050 Ti - DVI, HDMI, DP
1st Hard Disk: 500GB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 16MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive: 500GB WD Blue™ 3D NAND M.2 SSD (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive: 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply: CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable: 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling: PCS FrostFlow 100 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Sound Card: ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Operating System: Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Windows Recovery Media: Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online account
Warranty: 3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)