Great Deals for Building a Custom Gaming PC in March - PC Tech - Part 36.
Online deals are everywhere, so finding the best deals to build a Gaming PC is more important now than ever before.
Although there are pricing issues with RAM and graphics cards at present, those people wanting to build a new Gaming PC or upgrade there current PC have a difficult job finding the right components they want at a reasonable price.
I have posted up a couple of times about budget PC builds and how to build a gaming PC for under £500, so with that in mind, I decided to post up a virtual build each month, highlighting some of the best deals I can find on various websites for those of you thinking about buying some new hardware.
Today I chose Newegg to find a system to build as they always seem to have very good deals on most hardware. The system I chose is an Intel based system. Not only because they are marginally better for gaming performance, but since AMD released the Ryzen line, Intel's prices have come down to a reasonable amount.
CPU – Intel Core i5 7600K - £169.99 - $234.99
Even though this is Intel's last gen CPU, the Kaby Lake line up is still considered one of the best for price to performance. The Quad Core processor is used with the LGA 1151 socket, which opens up a wide selection of motherboards to choose from. It comes as a stock speed of 3.8Ghz with a max boost of 4.2Ghz. However, this particular processor has vast overclocking abilities. With the correct cooling solution, the speed can be pushed up to the 4.8Ghz range, maybe more. It is low power too at only a tad over 90watts stock. Not too overpriced, but a lot of bang for your buck.
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Motherboard – ASUS ROG STRIX Z270I mITX - £130.99 - $299.00
For top of the line performance only usually found on a full ATX, on an ITX is something that can not be passed up for those looking for that same performance but in a more compact form factor.
Aside from it coming from one of the best gaming hardware manufacturers in the PC industry, this board is jam packed full of features that is not found all together on cheaper boards.
For overclocking abilities, the ASUS Bios can not be beat, especially since it makes overclocking accessible to those without much computer knowledge with its Auto Tuning options.
The board also come complete with dual M.2 slots, Wifi and Bluetooth built in, onboard HDMI and DP ports, DDR4 compatible with a max of 32Gb, 10Gb Lan, USB type C header for modern cases, an RGB header and the board is fully compatible with ASUS Aura Sync for those that like a touch of colour inside there cases, and a whole whack of other features found both on the board and in the Bios for the ultimate in connectivity and customization.
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RAM – GeIL Super Luce RGB DDR4 3000 White - £134.99 - $185.99
I am not a huge fan of the GeIL RAM line up, but when it comes to RAM, with prices as they are at present, we can't be overly choosy in what we get. Regardless, I think I found the best looking ones from GeIL at a very good price.
Continuing with good looks inside the case, I specifically found a set of modules that are both RGB, but are fully compatible with the ASUS Aura Sync software.
I don't like the huge ass sticker on the side of the modules, but that can be peeled off, then again, I do love the white heatsinks.
This set includes 2 8Gb modules that are 3000Mhz. So not overly cheep where it will impede performance, but not too fast to the point the price would be far too much.
The timing isn't fantastic, but with the easy tune facility in the Motherboard Bios, those timings could be tightened up to improve overall performance.
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GPU – EVGA GTX 1060 ACX2.0 6Gb - £254.99 - $449.98
When it comes to prices of GPU's, its more of a question of how much money you can spend to get performance, rather than how much performance you can get for the amount of money you want to spend.
Instead of going way over the top and selecting a powerful card for the lowest possible price. I decided to go to a mid tier card that is good on performance in games and has enough memory to cope with all the modern games with a touch of workload too.
This particular card is a single fan design that is a cross between a blower and standard type cooling solution, so if you were to overclock the GPU, it may run slightly hotter than what you may be comfortable with. That said, it is only a low powered card requiring only a single 6 pin PCIe power cable with a low TDP, so I wouldn't worry about thermals all too much.
It is fully capable of running 4K displays, and has all the modern bells and whistles you would expect from a modern GPU.
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PSU – Corsair CX650M 650W - £46.99 - $64.99
When it comes to power supplies I tend to stick with what I know. Unfortunately, newegg don't sell the brand I am currently using in all 3 of the PC's in this house, so I chose something that is comparable to what I like to use, and that is the Corsair CX-M series.
This build so far is a very low power build, so you don't need an overly powerful power supply, yet I still like a little head room for future use and upgrades. So I decided to add the 650W unit to the basket.
This particular PSU is Semi Modular, with the 24 pin and 8pin ESP cables already attached with the rest being modular to use as you wish.
Although it does eliminate the ability to use custom cables, you can still use custom cable extensions if you want a particular look inside your case.
It is 80+ certified and uses a single rail, but the best part is the standard 3 year warranty corsair place on all there PSU's. Which is longer than most others. And its a very good price too.
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Cooling – Raijintek Orcu 240 AiO - £83.99 - $114.99
Because the main interest of this build has been about overclocking performance and some good looks to go with that performance, I decided to get an AiO that will allow you to give the CPU a good overclock and keep it nice and cool.
So I almost chose a Kraken AiO, but then I spotted this at a much lower price. It is fully compatible with just about every CPU socket there is, including the LGA 1151.
it looks very good with those awesome 120mm fans and even the block/pump with it own RGB lighting. It is also fully serviceable with its own drainage and fill caps with mini inline reservoir which is something you do not see on most AiO's so that is a big plus for me, as most AiOs will die after about 3+ years of constant use. The down side is it is not compatible with the Aura Sync software, however it does include its own RGB hub and remote so you can change the colours and effects as you wish, plus there is room in the hub to add more RGB elements like case fans and LED strips if you so wish.
So good, I even ordered one for myself.
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Storage – Samsung 860 Evo 1Tb - £210.99 - $289.99
When it comes to SSD storage, I have very limited hands on experience with the various manufactures, but a friend of mine has recently picked up 2 of these at this price as he says there is no better SSD on the current market unless you choose an NVME option. Where as I have only used Crucial, WD and Sandisk in the past. But I can attest to the NVME solution, but that is a little bit more than I would be willing to spend in a build like this.
However, this SSD is both large enough to be used as an OS drive, quick access storage, scratch disk or used as a cache drive for much larger HDD's in the 10+Tb range. It has multiple uses and if I get recommended by my friends, I tend to believe them as they are Hardcore Gamers who have the best of the best when possible.
But there is also room for the 2 M.2 drives on the board if you choose to go the NVME route which will cost 50% more than this solution, which is more than fast enough for a gaming rig.
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Case – Phanteks Enthoo Evolve ITX White - £50.99 - $69.99
For such a good looking component line up, you will want a case that will be able to show off that hardware. And this case not only looks good itself, it is also a very small size making your system more mobile to move anywhere you want considering you have the wireless motherboard.
Don't mistake this case for being a cheap one, because the looks are matched by its features too.
The front I/O has 2 USB 3 sockets with the audio jacks, reset/power switches. The side panels are held in place with captive thumb screws for easy removal and instillation. One having a large window that is acrylic, but there is a glass version available for an extra £30 - $40 for those that want to go full pimp.
Inside the face and top has room for 2 240mm radiators and the usual rear 120mm, so the cooling solution I selected will fit with no issues. And finally the case also has good cable management options with tie points and rubber grommets where you would expect to see them.
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So the totals work out at £1036.93 GBP and for the Americans it is $2008.92 but the US Newegg gets a free FarCry 5 Steam Key. Grrrr.
Regardless, for the money spent, you are getting a very powerful system that has room for upgrading the CPU, memory, GPU, and storage in the future with better components and it looks fucking awesome. It is almost a mini version of the PC I am in the middle of putting together.
There are a few good deals to be found among these options. If you are building a new PC, Upgrading one or have any questions, you can usually find my Team hanging about in our Discord Channel HERE, but there are plenty of ways to get in touch if you don't want to use discord.
Thanks for reading.
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Great post @techmojo, I can't wait for build my gaming pc in the future.
Oooh I do like this set up alot, not so far removed from my green machine but some good specs here and pricing is keen as well. Excellent coverage of the specs and where to locate the parts.
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