£2000 Gaming Build with Peripherals

lumpylenny

Prominent
Oct 24, 2017
2
0
510
Hi there,

I'm looking to put together a first time build, exclusively for 1440p gaming. I'm leaning towards Intel and nVidia for slightly better performance (complemented by a Gsync monitor), but am completely open to AMD builds which cut down on costs with freesync monitors etc. The ability to overclock would be great.

I'm aiming for longevity, a build that will competently tackle games at high FPS for several years. I will be playing some AAA titles like the new Wolfenstein, and in particular Star Citizen once that's been developed a bit more, and less demanding games like Rust.

I have no preference in terms of colour schemes and aesthetics. Prices in GBP would be preferable please.

Thanks!

NOTE I'd previously put the below build together, but would like to have another build to compare it to, hence this post.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/cdZdsJ
 
Solution
At 1080 rez Intel is noticeably quicker, but at 1440 there's virtually no difference, at this resolution you should be aiming at the strongest graphics card your budget can reasonably support along with a good CPU.
You may encounter difficulties securing a Coffee Lake CPU.

An alternative from AMD:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£254.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock - Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard (£92.94 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£135.51 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 525GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£118.00 @...
Good build. I can offer some options:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8600K 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor (£269.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright - Macho Rev.B 73.6 CFM CPU Cooler (£43.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - Z370 AORUS Gaming K3 (rev. 1.0) ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£129.99 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£135.51 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 525GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£118.00 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB GAMING X+ 8G Video Card (£489.98 @ Novatech)
Case: Fractal Design - Define R5 (Titanium) ATX Mid Tower Case (£79.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£79.99 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: Dell - S2417DG 23.8" 2560x1440 165Hz Monitor (£455.99 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard: Corsair - STRAFE Wired Gaming Keyboard (£75.46 @ Amazon UK)
Mouse: Logitech - G402 Wired Optical Mouse (£31.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1909.37
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-19 09:45 GMT+0000

Personally I'd go with the Seasonic PSU. Superb unit. But the Corsair RMx is good as well.

Switched the case. People I have read of who bought the Meshify C were pretty underwhelmed by it. Sound dampened cases are a personal preference of mine.

The 1080 you chose was pretty overpriced. It's not only the weakest 1080 by MSI, it's also horribly priced. I'd urge you to buy the Gaming X+ for that money.

Switched the RAM for something with higher clocks.

Switched the board for something fancier that will let you actually overclock and comes with state of the art chips for audio & network.

Provided a decent air cooler in case you want to go with air cooling.
 
At 1080 rez Intel is noticeably quicker, but at 1440 there's virtually no difference, at this resolution you should be aiming at the strongest graphics card your budget can reasonably support along with a good CPU.
You may encounter difficulties securing a Coffee Lake CPU.

An alternative from AMD:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£254.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock - Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard (£92.94 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£135.51 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 525GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£118.00 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC2 HYBRID GAMING Video Card (£612.36 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design - Define R5 (Titanium) ATX Mid Tower Case (£79.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£79.99 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: Asus - MG279Q 27.0" 2560x1440 144Hz Monitor (£499.99 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard: Corsair - STRAFE Wired Gaming Keyboard (£75.46 @ Amazon UK)
Mouse: Logitech - G402 Wired Optical Mouse (£31.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1980.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-19 10:36 GMT+0000

Apart from the obvious switch to an R7 1700, I've moved up to a GTX1080Ti and changed the monitor to a larger 27" IPS display.
 
Solution