New spec and overclocking

S

stemeg

Member
Hi all,

I'm looking to buy a new gaming PC and I wonder what you think of this spec. I'm looking for something powerful that will ideally last a long time.

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 III ADVANCED CASE (GREEN)
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Eight Core i7-5960X (3.0GHz @ MAX of 4.4GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® SABERTOOTH X99: ATX, USB 3.1, SATA 6 GB/s
Memory (RAM)
32GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2133MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 980 Ti - DVI, HDMI, 3 DP
Free Item
FREE RAINBOW SIX OR ASSASSINS CREED with select GTX 9 Series GPUs!
1st Hard Disk
240GB HyperX SAVAGE SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
16x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW & SOFTWARE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£69)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H60 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£59)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Have I missed anything glaring? Or have I gone over the top unnecessarily in one area?

My other question is about buying an over-clocked machine - are there any drawbacks? I ask because they seem the same price (or even cheaper?!) that the standard machines on PC Specialist, so what gives? Do they have shorter lifespans or something? Is it worth it?

Thanks all so much
Steve
 
S

stemeg

Member
Ok thank you! I leaned towards more powerful because I want it to run new games for as long as possible. What sort of level do you think I should be looking at if I want to run new games (for example, Fallout 4) on max settings for a good few years? Not interested in 3D I don't think.

Excuse my lack of knowledge, it's been years since I've done a lot of gaming and I've never been in a financial position to afford another above mid-level before.

thanks again,
Steve
 
Stephen M

Stephen M

Author Level
An i5 CPU and 8GB RAM covers all games so you can certainly save some money. As you can afford it, 16GB RAM is not total overkill and may be needed in the future and an i7 will widen your usage options but the new Skylake 6700 will be fine. Unless you really want an overclocked machine it is not really worth it, more cooling needed and potential warranty issues. The other main change to your spec I would make is the HDD, go for the WD Black 7200rpm which is a better drive.
 
S

stemeg

Member
Thank you, much appreciated. Keeping it future proof is important to me so I'd lean towards i7 and 16GB in this case. Thanks also for the HDD suggestion, that helps a lot.

Steve
 
Stephen M

Stephen M

Author Level
Future proofing is almost impossible but an i7 Skylake and the GPU you have chosen is about the best you can do. Also those are the two most expensive components, therefore the most costly to upgrade as - even if you can sell the old ones you will still lose a lot if you change so it is well worth getting the best CPU and GPU you can afford. I have 16GB RAM but do a lot of music, audio and graphic work, so it is needed but RAM is not as costly these days and does give you a nice bit of leeway, especially if you start doing other things.
I doubt you will need more than 16GB RAM in the next few years but if it does happen it is an easy upgrade. I use two 750GB WD Blacks and they are a great storage drives, I have noticed vastly improved speeds moving my music and videos about and they comp0liment my m2 SSD well.
If you decide not to overclock it would be worth getting advice on cooling and cases. I am a laptop user so unable to give good advice on that but there may be a bit of money to save which could be put towards another game or, in my case, more beer :)
 
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