Will this Gaming PC Build give great quality for its price?

[lunarfreakz]

Hello Tom's Hardware Community,

I am soon to order my new pc build but I am worried I might be spending more than I should for a gaming pc. I do game, mostly Steam games, Minecraft, Call of Duty and Fortnite. However, I made a pc build which is amazing for 1300euro although I game like maybe 2 hours per day on average as I am still in school (sometimes not at all sometimes like 10 hours in the weekend, really depends). But I just want a pc which will give me great quality and gameplay speed, not cost too much and last me long (at least 5-6 years, PREFERABLY a lot longer obviously).

This is the PC Build I created with the help of many others in another forum.

PCPartPicker part list: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/M7jBjy
Price breakdown by merchant: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/M7jBjy/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (€286.84 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - H310M S2H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€63.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (€147.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€87.94 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€42.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Mini Video Card (€549.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Corsair - 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (€67.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€79.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Total: €1324.66 (I found cheaper websites that I can order from the Netherlands which is better for me so it gave me a total of 1300euro exactly)

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-05-25 12:42 CEST+0200

Please give me any suggestions of whether this should be a great build for a while or maybe I could tone it down on something?

Also what would be the ideal PSU? These are the PSUs I found:

1. Corsair TX650M for 85.89euro
(https://www.amazon.de/Corsair-TX650M-PC-Netzteil-Voll-M...)
2. Corsair TX550M for 73.95euro
(https://www.megekko.nl/product/0/186192/Corsair-TX550M-...)
3. Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 650W for 90.95euro
(https://www.megekko.nl/product/0/999347/Seasonic-Focus-...)
4. Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 550W for 80.95euro
(https://www.megekko.nl/product/0/999348/Seasonic-Focus-...)

Any suggestions, improvements or builds are VERY welcome and appreciated!

Thank you!

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

That is an amazing PC. You could really play anything on it that you could ever want to. However, if you are concerned about spending too much there are a couple places that you could change some things.

The most drastic price difference is going to be on the video card. If you downgraded to a 1070 you could save some money and not give up too much performance. You could also bring the CPU down to an i5 8600. You might give up a little performance, but you'll save a lot of money. You could also go with the 550W Seasonic. You aren't overclocking an have a reasonably efficient build so you don't NEED 650W, it is more of a "nice to have".

Both those changes are reflected here: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/2bLFsZ

It would be almost as good in every way but total €1141.35 instead of €1324.66. According to UserBenchmark.com you'd lose 5% performance on the CPU and 26% on the video card. That said, if you are playing at 1080p, you won't notice much of a difference. If you want to save some money and not give up that 26% performance, look at the 1070 Ti. It is only 8% slower than the 1080 and is only about €35 more than the 1070.

As far as longevity goes, your PC provides the better performance for later, but either will easily get you through the next 4 years, maybe 6, but you'll probably be upgrading the graphics card after 3-4 years.

Hope that helps.

 

[lunarfreakz]

That is an amazing PC. You could really play anything on it that you could ever want to. However, if you are concerned about spending too much there are a couple places that you could change some things.

The most drastic price difference is going to be on the video card. If you downgraded to a 1070 you could save some money and not give up too much performance. You could also bring the CPU down to an i5 8600. You might give up a little performance, but you'll save a lot of money. You could also go with the 550W Seasonic. You aren't overclocking an have a reasonably efficient build so you don't NEED 650W, it is more of a "nice to have".

Both those changes are reflected here: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/2bLFsZ

It would be almost as good in every way but total €1141.35 instead of €1324.66. According to UserBenchmark.com you'd lose 5% performance on the CPU and 26% on the video card. That said, if you are playing at 1080p, you won't notice much of a difference. If you want to save some money and not give up that 26% performance, look at the 1070 Ti. It is only 8% slower than the 1080 and is only about €35 more than the 1070.

As far as longevity goes, your PC provides the better performance for later, but either will easily get you through the next 4 years, maybe 6, but you'll probably be upgrading the graphics card after 3-4 years.

Hope that helps.

Wow! This is amazing, thank you so much! I will for sure consider your new build, I might get the 1070Ti instead of 1070 to not lose that 26% performance but just 8%. Do you think that your build would also get me through the next 4-6 years?

How much of a difference would your build have on the quality and speed of the games I mentioned compared to the build I made?

Also, do you think it would be worth getting my build or your build with the price difference of 200euro as for longevity (or would it not be that much of a difference because of the average game play that I would be doing with the PC - because if this is the case then I would much rather go for the cheaper one.)

However, if you say that on the long term it is much better to just pay that extra 200euro and go for my build then I'll do that!

 

[King Dranzer]

As you are not going to upgrade in a long time stick with GTX1080. There is good 35% improvement over GTX1070 and 15-20% improvement over GTX1070Ti. GTX1080 is completely worth it. It will give you smoother gameplay over longer period of time.

New GPU lineup coming soon from NVIDIA wait for it. It will be reasonably priced and if it seems to a bit high for you. There is a good possibility of prices on the GTX1080 to go down.

If you wan't to get the build done i7-8700 and GTX1080 combo is best recommendation for your budget.

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

That is an amazing PC. You could really play anything on it that you could ever want to. However, if you are concerned about spending too much there are a couple places that you could change some things.

The most drastic price difference is going to be on the video card. If you downgraded to a 1070 you could save some money and not give up too much performance. You could also bring the CPU down to an i5 8600. You might give up a little performance, but you'll save a lot of money. You could also go with the 550W Seasonic. You aren't overclocking an have a reasonably efficient build so you don't NEED 650W, it is more of a "nice to have".

Both those changes are reflected here: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/2bLFsZ

It would be almost as good in every way but total €1141.35 instead of €1324.66. According to UserBenchmark.com you'd lose 5% performance on the CPU and 26% on the video card. That said, if you are playing at 1080p, you won't notice much of a difference. If you want to save some money and not give up that 26% performance, look at the 1070 Ti. It is only 8% slower than the 1080 and is only about €35 more than the 1070.

As far as longevity goes, your PC provides the better performance for later, but either will easily get you through the next 4 years, maybe 6, but you'll probably be upgrading the graphics card after 3-4 years.

Hope that helps.

Wow! This is amazing, thank you so much! I will for sure consider your new build, I might get the 1070Ti instead of 1070 to not lose that 26% performance but just 8%. Do you think that your build would also get me through the next 4-6 years?

How much of a difference would your build have on the quality and speed of the games I mentioned compared to the build I made?

Also, do you think it would be worth getting my build or your build with the price difference of 200euro as for longevity (or would it not be that much of a difference because of the average game play that I would be doing with the PC - because if this is the case then I would much rather go for the cheaper one.)

However, if you say that on the long term it is much better to just pay that extra 200euro and go for my build then I'll do that!

Either build will get you through the next 4-6 years. I'm currently running a 4 year old i5 and am still not having any problems. There are people playing modern games on 7-8 year old CPUs and all they have done is add more RAM and upgrade the video card.

Between the two systems, you are probably not going to notice a difference in the vast majority of games. Gaming isn't all about the frame rates and frame times. It is how they feel to you. It doesn't matter if you get 200 FPS in Counter Strike if it is indistinguishable from someone who gets 120 FPS.

Don't get me wrong, your original system will perform better and last longer, but you are paying for that. My philosophy, which is just how I build all my PCs is to get something solidly mid-range, put the saved money towards games, and upgrade every 5 years or so, with video card upgrades halfway through the life of the system. I save money and don't miss out on games. All I give up is FPS, but not quality game play. I'm the guy that gets 120 FPS while people who spend more get the 200 FPS. I just don't get a high number in the corner of the screen that I can point to and go "WHOAH! LOOK AT THAT!", but my games are still smooth and I enjoy them.

Where was I going with this?...

In the long term it is better to get your system, but it isn't much better. You are spending a premium for a questionable extension on system relevance. No one knows what is going to happen in 4-6 years in the computer industry. CPUs could explode with a new Intel architecture and Zen 2, ARM could completely take over, x128 could replace x64, quantum computing could creep into the mainstream, or any number of other things that render PCs obsolete overnight. My recommendation is that you spend less, and get more games, but ultimately it is up to you.

 

[lunarfreakz]

That is an amazing PC. You could really play anything on it that you could ever want to. However, if you are concerned about spending too much there are a couple places that you could change some things.

The most drastic price difference is going to be on the video card. If you downgraded to a 1070 you could save some money and not give up too much performance. You could also bring the CPU down to an i5 8600. You might give up a little performance, but you'll save a lot of money. You could also go with the 550W Seasonic. You aren't overclocking an have a reasonably efficient build so you don't NEED 650W, it is more of a "nice to have".

Both those changes are reflected here: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/2bLFsZ

It would be almost as good in every way but total €1141.35 instead of €1324.66. According to UserBenchmark.com you'd lose 5% performance on the CPU and 26% on the video card. That said, if you are playing at 1080p, you won't notice much of a difference. If you want to save some money and not give up that 26% performance, look at the 1070 Ti. It is only 8% slower than the 1080 and is only about €35 more than the 1070.

As far as longevity goes, your PC provides the better performance for later, but either will easily get you through the next 4 years, maybe 6, but you'll probably be upgrading the graphics card after 3-4 years.

Hope that helps.

Wow! This is amazing, thank you so much! I will for sure consider your new build, I might get the 1070Ti instead of 1070 to not lose that 26% performance but just 8%. Do you think that your build would also get me through the next 4-6 years?

How much of a difference would your build have on the quality and speed of the games I mentioned compared to the build I made?

Also, do you think it would be worth getting my build or your build with the price difference of 200euro as for longevity (or would it not be that much of a difference because of the average game play that I would be doing with the PC - because if this is the case then I would much rather go for the cheaper one.)

However, if you say that on the long term it is much better to just pay that extra 200euro and go for my build then I'll do that!

Either build will get you through the next 4-6 years. I'm currently running a 4 year old i5 and am still not having any problems. There are people playing modern games on 7-8 year old CPUs and all they have done is add more RAM and upgrade the video card.

Between the two systems, you are probably not going to notice a difference in the vast majority of games. Gaming isn't all about the frame rates and frame times. It is how they feel to you. It doesn't matter if you get 200 FPS in Counter Strike if it is indistinguishable from someone who gets 120 FPS.

Don't get me wrong, your original system will perform better and last longer, but you are paying for that. My philosophy, which is just how I build all my PCs is to get something solidly mid-range, put the saved money towards games, and upgrade every 5 years or so, with video card upgrades halfway through the life of the system. I save money and don't miss out on games. All I give up is FPS, but not quality game play. I'm the guy that gets 120 FPS while people who spend more get the 200 FPS. I just don't get a high number in the corner of the screen that I can point to and go "WHOAH! LOOK AT THAT!", but my games are still smooth and I enjoy them.

Where was I going with this?...

In the long term it is better to get your system, but it isn't much better. You are spending a premium for a questionable extension on system relevance. No one knows what is going to happen in 4-6 years in the computer industry. CPUs could explode with a new Intel architecture and Zen 2, ARM could completely take over, x128 could replace x64, quantum computing could creep into the mainstream, or any number of other things that render PCs obsolete overnight. My recommendation is that you spend less, and get more games, but ultimately it is up to you.

This is great and is exactly what I wanted to hear, now I understand where my choices lie.

I think for the sake of having better performance for a longer period of time without having to upgrade too often (or too early) I think I will go with my build then. I do not buy games often and even if I think I would still somehow manage to buy the game either way. So I would prefer to have a 100% quality PC rather than one in mid-range which might just wear out sooner than the 100% quality PC if that makes sense!

Thank you so much for your advice and it made me certain of my decision! I would for sure recommend anyone who just wants a Gaming PC for a few years and would not mind upgrading it in 3 years to go for the 1100euro build instead of my 1300euro build!