Fresh Build

[iSaff]

Hello all, I'm a Mac user for work, living in London UK, planning my first ever PC Microsoft/Linux build as a project for when i visit my parents in Leicester every second or third weekend, where I have few friends and lots of free time. I want something I can play games on at 1440p and a 100+hz, learn to code, play with Linux, edit photos, and edit little vids, and learning to overclock.

Sadly, a recent trip to Paris, turned into hopping over to Hamburg, Helsinki, and Madrid which was lovely, but resulted in my blowing my computer budget. :/

Rethinking things, i came up with the following, ideally i'd like to keep things around £2500. i could potentially stretch to around £3000 eventually (incl. monitor and graphics card).

• Acer XF270HUA (or Acer Predator XB271HA)

• Ryzen 1700
• Aorus X370 K7
• G.Skill Trident Z RGB 3600 CL16
• 2 X Samsung 850 Evo
• WD 3TB
• EVGA G3 750w
• Rx 560 (temp. till Vega) or GTX 1080 (temp till Volta)

• Define C
• 2 X Noctua NF-F12 Industrial

Peripherals (I've already purchased):
• Input Club's K-Type keyboard (to be delivered in December!)
• Zowie EC2-A White Special Edition
•Temporary cheap mech. keyboard
•Steel Series Qck+ mouse mat

Things I'm not sure about:

Is a TLC drive type in the Samsung 850 Evo suitable as a boot drive? Should I invest in an MLC SSD as a boot drive?

I chose an RX 560 to tide me over until Vega is released. Alternatively, I could go Nvidia and get a 1080, and an Acer Predator XB271hu.

Finally, i'm torn between the Aorus K7 and ROG Crosshair. The Aorus has the hardware that appeals more and while the bios is not great it is improving, the Crosshair has an aesthetic that appeals more and a far better bios.

Any criticisms or suggestions are welcome. Please pardon any errors and poor legibility, writing this on my phone.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Korreborg]

As for the monitor. You need to decide Green team or red team Freesync/G-sync is the new
I personally vent Green, and a 1080Ti. Now that i have a G-sync monitor, i'm "locked" to Nvidia.
Personally i think that Vega will be disappointing card/cards. As everybody got hyped by Ryzen being awesome, so the kind of expect Vega to do the same. And i'm not so sure. I really hope it will be awesome, as its best for us consumers that there is a bit of fighting.

As for the rest, go with one NVME SSD = for example Samsung 960 PRO M.2 i'm not sure of UK prices. But as big as you can afford
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-M-2-2280-512GB-Express-Solid/dp/B01M21311Z?th=1
M.2 drives can be pretty fast = Read speed: 3500 MB/s vs 550 MB/s of a normal SATA drive

 

[AlienALX]

Ryzen is awesome it just has some teething troubles. Since when was "Pretty much the same performance as a £1000 Intel CPU for £290" bad?

Vega will only be disappointing if you expect too much. And you own an 1080ti, so you will be expecting too much.

I would not buy a 1080 now. Either wait for Vega and buy a 1080Ti, or buy a 1080Ti. At least Nvidia DO drop their prices when they really ought to, unlike Intel. Even if Vega is not as fast as the 1080Ti it will drop the prices of pretty much everything else (especially the 1080). Hence the price of the 1080 will plummet.

The best thing to do with computers is buy the best you can afford. If you can't afford the 1080Ti then I would save until you can. It's in a different league to the 1080 and will last longer going into the future because it's the big card.

Obviously the absolute best thing to do would be to wait for Volta, but that could be a ways off. Always try to buy the newest tech you can pretty much, as it takes longer to age. If you buy something that is ageing already or almost venerable like the 1080 you will find it far less satisfying.

 

[Korreborg]

Ryzen same performance for ½ the price = Awesome
Most people dont buy 1080ti. They get the 70ish cards.
So if Vega core is 5-10% better than a 1070 at the same price.
And Vega Eclipse is 5-10% better than a 1080 at the same price.
That to me would mean a fail in my book. The Nvidia cards have been out for a year.
And if the TDP really is 275W, then they are up against 150W and 180W cards.
Then there is a new risk of AMD again being hot as hell.

But we will just have to wait and see

 

[Tolemac]

I just bought a 1080 last week and i'm very happy with it for 1440p over my R9 290X so I wouldnt call them a bad card for the price you can buy one for

 

[iSaff]

As for the monitor. You need to decide Green team or red team Freesync/G-sync is the new
I personally vent Green, and a 1080Ti. Now that i have a G-sync monitor, i'm "locked" to Nvidia.

See that's what annoys me. Being locked to a brand because of the monitor I choose to buy. Yes, you're right I need to choose.

Vega will only be disappointing if you expect too much. And you own an 1080ti, so you will be expecting too much.

I would not buy a 1080 now. Either wait for Vega and buy a 1080Ti, or buy a 1080Ti. At least Nvidia DO drop their prices when they really ought to, unlike Intel. Even if Vega is not as fast as the 1080Ti it will drop the prices of pretty much everything else (especially the 1080). Hence the price of the 1080 will plummet.

The best thing to do with computers is buy the best you can afford. If you can't afford the 1080Ti then I would save until you can. It's in a different league to the 1080 and will last longer going into the future because it's the big card.

I don't expect a great deal from Vega, but I feel I ought to at least wait another week, and see what is revealed. That said, I appear to be spending all my time waiting. Waiting for Ryzen, waiting for Vega, waiting for the Acers X34P, and now that I have started ordering parts: Computex.

I think your advice on buying the best one can afford clarifies things for me. Thank you. Perhaps, if Vega is not delayed too much, I can at least get my PC built in the next couple of weeks, and invest in either Vega or 1080ti once prices drop, in other words more waiting

Thanks for the advice. You've both been very helpful!

 

[NeverBackDown]

Why are you waiting for Ryzen? It's already out?

 

[AlienALX]

I think your advice on buying the best one can afford clarifies things for me. Thank you.

NP. As with all technology it will age but if you bought the best you could you will save money in the long run. I bought about ten pairs of headphones that slowly progressed in price until finally dropping my nuts on a £500 set. I should have bought the £500 set in the first place as the rest just sit gathering dust now.

 

[iSaff]

Why are you waiting for Ryzen? It's already out?

I meant earlier in the year. I stumbled on Asus's website looking for a monitor, and saw they sold motherboards, i thought that was intriguing. It ended up with me Googling and watching Youtube videos, and product reviews.

I waited for Kaby Lake, but when i saw Dr. Su reveal Ryzen i thought that was a better fit, when it dropped there was still no Vega, and the X34P never materialised as Acer's twitter feed promised.

I'm finally receiving parts, but i fear with Computex this may be the worst time to have bought hardware.

NP. As with all technology it will age but if you bought the best you could you will save money in the long run. I bought about ten pairs of headphones that slowly progressed in price until finally dropping my nuts on a £500 set. I should have bought the £500 set in the first place as the rest just sit gathering dust now.

The second most expensive part of my build will probably end up being the keyboard and several sets of key sets I purchased while waiting, its not far off a lower priced 1080 Ti at this point. I'm told the keysets retain their value because they are made in limited runs. We'll see.

What headphones did you get in the end, do you use them for gaming? Headphones is probably an area I have covered. Although I have an eye on a cheaper set of Stax.

 

[AlienALX]

I bought a pair of Grado RS2E. The fully hand made mahogany ones. They don't cover everything as they concentrate on detail and accuracy at the expense of some low end but for music they are fantastic unless I want to go clubbing. Then I strap on my Hifimans which have huge great planar drivers and can deliver low end in bucket loads.