looking for PC build+builder suggestions

[Mr_Fanciestofpants]

So it’s time for me to get a new PC. What I need your assistance with is not just the specs, I’m also looking for a good and reliable PC builder in any Eurozone country which speaks English, German or Dutch, i.e. Belgium, Holland or Germany (maybe Ireland?). A friend of mine suggested pcspecialist.co.uk, but I’m not sure if I’m getting max value for money from the UK right now, given the exchange rate.

I’d like to go for a futureproof motherboard (ASUS!) and CPU (Intel!) and a max or near-max graphics card (nvidia!).

I have to admit that I’ve been completely out of the loop recently as far as hardware is concerned, so feel free to explain your suggestions.


My budget is: ca. 2300 EUR

I live in: Belgium

Operating system: any x64 Windows they give me is fine, it’s going to be 10 at some point anyway

Monitor: none

Gaming resolution : 1920x1080, but obviously with higher capabilities

Peripherals?: none

Will you do overclocking?: no plans

What are you planning to do with the pc?: pure gaming PC


Thanks in advance!

[H3ll0J3ll0]

you have alot of money to spend so my question to you is what monitor do you currently have and what games do you want to play, second could you consider buiding yourself as it would be easier(shipping and so on),give you more options and is really fun. And thirdly what are your reasons behind your brand preferenses(intel is obviously best so no meaning there)

[Mr_Fanciestofpants]

Thanks for you input. I currently have a 27inch full HD screen, but might upgrade to a 4k in the nearest future.
As far as games are concerned, I need it to be able to run GTA5 and Witcher 3 in good quality.
I have never built a system from scratch, so haven't really considered this option.
And for brands - I love ASUS, that's it. Especially for MOBOs.

[H3ll0J3ll0]

well here is if you can build yourself which i highly recommend.
Intel Core i7-4790K (4.0 GHz)
G.Skill Ares Red Series 16 Go (2 x 8 Go) DDR3 1600 MHz CL9
ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Edition 6GB
Cooler Master V850 80PLUS Gold
NZXT Noctis 450 (noir)
2X Crucial BX100 250 Go
WD Black 2 To SATA 6Gb/s
Corsair Hydro Series H100i GTX
this totaled at 2243 euros at ldlc.com . the 980ti is a capable card however i dont know if it can run gta v 4k High/maximum settings but if you somehow got the money for another it could defenetly do it.

[Mr_Fanciestofpants]

h3ll0j3ll0, you're a boss
Thanks for all the effort. You might have motivated me to try and build it myself after all.
I might go for just one 250GB SSD instead of 2 (If I did get two, what would your RAID suggestion be? RAID-1?). I also might bump the CPU up a notch without that second SSD.

One more thing, as I have not looked at components online yet. Is ldlc good value for money?

Thanks again, man!

[H3ll0J3ll0]

i looked around and for beligan shops and that was the recommended one, as you might understand it takes pretty long time for me to browse the belgian web(waiting on google translate) but i checked on another site and ldlc was the cheaper + they have all the components.

i would suggest raid0 for them speeds, when it comes to bumping upp the cpu a notch that might be hard since 4790k is as far as it goes on the "consumer" platform z97 after that its 5820k on the "enthusiast platform" x99 but then you need more money for the cpu+more for motherboard + more money for ram(x99 requires ddr4). but now that i looked at it it wasnt bad with "only" 1 ssd you got quite a bit headroom and with it the x99 version got 100 euros over budget. here you have the list but with better cpu - 1 ssd
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Edition 6GB
Cooler Master V850 80PLUS Gold
NZXT Noctis 450 (noir)
Crucial BX100 250 Go
WD Black 2 To SATA 6Gb/s
Corsair Hydro Series H100i GTX
Intel Core i7-5820K (3.3 GHz)
MSI X99S SLI PLUS
G.Skill Ripjaws Series 4 Black 16GB (4x 4GB) DDR4 2400 MHz CL14

nice to be of help

[Mr_Fanciestofpants]

h3ll0j3ll0, thanks again. I have to postpone the build to September/October, and then maybe the Broadwell CPUs will be available and we might be looking at a whole new picture. But you've been super helpful and I might have to use your superior knowledge again

[H3ll0J3ll0]

well happy i could help, looking forward to september then

[Mr_Fanciestofpants]

So it seems that I shall go with the first build suggestion from h3ll0j3ll0 after all, albeit with slight tweaks, some due to brand loyalty, some due to other reasons:
http://www.ldlc.be/fiche/PB00168843.html
http://www.ldlc.be/fiche/PB00166673.html
http://www.ldlc.be/fiche/PB00189167.html
http://www.ldlc.be/fiche/PB00189715.html
http://www.ldlc.be/fiche/PB00183617.html
http://www.ldlc.be/fiche/PB00181790.html (2x)
http://www.ldlc.be/fiche/PB00126129.html
http://www.ldlc.be/fiche/PB00180793.html
http://www.ldlc.be/fiche/PB00146924.html
http://www.ldlc.be/fiche/PB00187534.html

The whole shopping cart: http://www.ldlc.be/b-d85b4bb47d253ab2.html

MOBO: going for this one instead of the ASRock Fatal1ty because it's ASUS and because of SLI in case I decide to add a second GPU. h3ll0j3ll0, what was the reason for your original suggestion?

Case: I like the Noctis, and I guess it's compatible with the H100i. The question is, will I need more fans for the case than the 4 included by default? In general, I want to go for less noise, not necessarily for looks.

RAM: I guess I have a bit of wiggle room on that one, and I will go for something faster than 1600. If I wanted to go for DDRAMs by Corsair, which series would you recommend?

The total on ldlc.be is 2257 EUR excluding Windows, which I shall get somewhere offering it in a civilized language. Unless I'm wrong and Windows 10 lets you select the install language, but I guess it doesn't. Funny thing is, the same setup totals at 2214 EUR on amazon.fr, but I'd have to replace the RAM with something else for delivery reasons (G.Skill isn't sold or shipped by amazon, and I need it to be).

Thanks in advance for any comments.

PS. How the heck do you post links the way they were posted before? Lots of copy-pasting titles and urls?

[H3ll0J3ll0]

well my reasoning behind the fatality is that it was one "tier" higher than the, it looked good with the theme and it does support sli.
well if you want to go for silence in the case you can always take som fans out or replace them with noctuas(they are around 15-20 euro apiece)
when it come to ram i almost alway go for the cheapest / best looking any corsair black/red ram will do fine, i dont really know about windows 10 i think you can install it with a diffrent language or atleast english. Anyhow if you dont want to pay for your os you can always join the windows insider program and youll get windows 10 pro with the only limitation being that you have to use beta updates, im doing it on my computer and so far no problem

EDIT: heres a link https://insider.windows.com/

[Thaustar]

If you can wait I'll take a look at this, and give some feedback + my own build for the budget.

I will edit this comment tonight

[Mr_Fanciestofpants]

[QUOTE="Thaustar, post: 28317, member: 57981"]If you can wait I'll take a look at this, and give some feedback + my own build for the budget.

I will edit this comment tonight [/QUOTE]
Thanks, man. I'm not in a huge rush, so I'll appreciate any input.

Also, I realized that the Noctis will not allow me to have an optical drive at all, so I'll have to look around for a different case, no need for bling.

h3ll0j3ll0, thanks again, also for the Windows insider tip. The whole thing of thinking in color schemes for a PC is just new for me, I'm old school and just used to simple cases without any glass sides

[Mr_Fanciestofpants]

[QUOTE="h3ll0j3ll0, post: 28314, member: 11587"]well my reasoning behind the fatality is that it was one "tier" higher than the, it looked good with the theme and it does support sli.
well if you want to go for silence in the case you can always take som fans out or replace them with noctuas(they are around 15-20 euro apiece)
when it come to ram i almost alway go for the cheapest / best looking any corsair black/red ram will do fine, i dont really know about windows 10 i think you can install it with a diffrent language or atleast english. Anyhow if you dont want to pay for your os you can always join the windows insider program and youll get windows 10 pro with the only limitation being that you have to use beta updates, im doing it on my computer and so far no problem

EDIT: heres a link https://insider.windows.com/[/QUOTE]
Oh, and BTW, it seems that the Fatal1ty does not have SLI support, just CrossFire

[H3ll0J3ll0]

[QUOTE="mr_fanciestofpants, post: 28319, member: 26076"]Oh, and BTW, it seems that the Fatal1ty does not have SLI support, just CrossFire [/QUOTE]
oh srry mb, the fatality series in the past has been a highend motherboard but apparently its budget a mb now. however i have to ask you what you are going to do with a optical drive?

[Mr_Fanciestofpants]

Yeah, I've reconsidered the ODD issue, so I'm probably going to stick to the Noctis after all. Do you have any other suggestions for a nice black&red Z97 mobo?

Plus, do you already know anything about the Skylake i7 6700K? At my budget, wouldn't it be better to go for the latest CPU?

[H3ll0J3ll0]

http://www.ldlc.be/fiche/PB00177651.html its basicly a z97-a with "better" audio and black and red

when it comes to the skylake cpus i dont recommend them at all, i've only seen the swedish pricing but if that pricing is inline with the international pricing they are way to expensive.

[Mr_Fanciestofpants]

Oh yes, the ASUS looks fine

The 6700K is 27 EUR more expensive than the 4790K http://www.ldlc.be/fiche/PB00192586.html

[H3ll0J3ll0]

yeah, apparently the 4790k is more expensive in belgium and the 6700k is cheaper

[Mr_Fanciestofpants]

How about this one: http://www.ldlc.be/fiche/PB00166674.html ?

I'm starting to get into this whole "the insides of my comp should look good" thing

[H3ll0J3ll0]

thats also real good looking i will take a look at skylake tommorow