PC Build Advice

[colbs2411]

Hello,

I am looking to buy a new Gaming/Editing PC and went to CCL to help me build one - as I have never tried building one myself - but have found that by shopping around its a load cheaper to build myself.

Therefore, I have created a list of parts - based on those that CCL used in the build they configured for me - and wanted to ask for advise. My budget is £1500, and I have managed to find the parts below for £1277:

CPU: Intel I7 8700K
GPU: EVGA GTX 1080
M/B: Gigabyte Z370P D3
RAM: Hyper X Fury 16GB
SSD: Adata 24GB SSD
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2GB
POWER: Cooler Master 600
COOLING:Be Quiet! Dark Rock 4
WiFi: Edimax EW-7612PIn

Could anyone please advise me on whether there are any improvements I can make to this without pushing the costs up too much?

I'm happy with the CPU, GPU and RAM - I know new GPUs are coming but I need the PC asap and this looks more than okay - but everything else I have no idea if its good or not as, compared to you lot on here, I have very little idea what I am doing.

I have also not chosen a case - the CCL build used a game master onyx, which looks terrible for cooling - so any advise here would also be great.

Thank you all in advance; I started a thread a couple of days ago and you were really helpful.

 

[colbs2411]

I've bitten the bullet and bought the ASROCK Extreme 4 - here's hoping it all goes well (fingers crossed)

 

[Darkbreeze]

In that price range, this is a very good board and it would be hard to find a better one without finding a killer sale or paying a bit more.

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Intel+Socket/Socket+1151+-+Z370+Coffee+Lake/ASUS+PRIME+Z370-A+-+Intel+Coffee+Lake+DDR4+ATX+Motherboard+?productId=68627


The ASUS A series boards have been historically good for users who want good quality, features and overclocking capabilities but don't necessarily require all of the higher end features found on the high end boards like Hero and higher.

 

[colbs2411]

Oh okay, that's a shame - I had a good deal on an I7 that was quickly selling out so I had to order earlier and I was stuck between the ASUS Prime and the ASROCK, but went with the latter. I've only heard good things about both though so I'll try not to worry too much.

Thank you for getting back though, and for all your help. Just need to order the monitor now.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Extreme 4 series have generally been pretty reliable boards too. I'll give you another bit of advice, that most people NEVER think about.

If you have a few bucks spare at some point, buy a second motherboard. The reason being, if you plan to use the system for as long as possible, we almost always see the boards give out before anything else does and after about two years the availability of motherboards gets down to either twice the price if you want a new replacement or settle for an already used board that has miles on it and likely won't last that long.

Having a brand new replacement already in the box eliminates the need to worry about it later. I realize this sounds corny, but if you look around at the prices of Kaby lake and Skylake motherboards, not to mention Haswell or AM3+ boards, you'll realize that most of those systems are still fully capable of continuing to be used because CPUs practically last forever if they aren't abused, but motherboards consistently begin crapping out after about four or five years. Sometimes even sooner than that. When that happens you'll be hard pressed to find another board at anything like a reasonable price if you decide the system is otherwise still doing what you need it to do or even decide to continue using it as a secondary system. No board, and the rest of that hardware might as well be packing peanuts.

 

[colbs2411]

Phew, OK thank you for the reassurance. Also it has a VGA which means if I can't choose a screen I can at least use my TV to test the setup.

Thanks for the tip too - I can't really budget that now, but in a few months or a year that would be a good idea.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yeah, I didn't mean immediately. I just meant maybe sometime over the next year or two, sooner probably being better, before the platform becomes EOL and they stop manufacturing them. Because at that point any board you might want is going to get expensive or be a crapshoot.