New PC for 5-Man: Hardware Advice Needed

Hi guys

First of all, apologies in advance for the wall of text and if some of my questions seem as if I was not prepared to do my homework but I am not too savvy when it comes to PC hardware.

I need to buy a new desktop as I want to start multiboxing 5-man teams for the first time (I did 3-man in the past to boost teams through RAF in MoP and that was ok) but I have little confidence in selecting the right setup. Let me say that I have read the hardware forums and watched a number of movies on PC builds for multiboxing but not many exist that are recent and directly relate to what I would like to do (ie 5-man).

Ideally, my budget is £2,000 (USD 2,900) but I could stretch this if necessary. In that case, I would like to upgrade my 22 inch LCD as a second priority (not sure I need 4K for example and in any case afraid the CPU and GPU I can buy for my budget might not be powerful enough to handle 4K Legion in any event so I would like to take that into consideration).

I know I have to calibrate CPU / GPU and RAM to deliver a solid say 60+ fps for my main (I am happy to keep the fps of the 4 followers low) but I am not feeling very confident in putting a set of hardware together that will work for a smooth 5-man experience.

Would you please help me on that based on your experience with setups that deliver well? I understand that Legion’s requirements will have an impact on this of course but your guess is definitely better than mine at this point.

Please allow me to ask some additional more specific questions:

• Power supply: can you explain why these are so advisable?
• Cooling: many people seem to use water cooling or fancy ventilation setups in own builds, what would you advise given I am not going to build by myself but instructing a decent hardware store to do it for me?
• OS: Windows 7, 8 or 10?
• Generations: obviously new generations of CPU/Mobo etc get released constantly. Whilst I want to start playing as soon as possible (not wait til Legion), I can probably wait 1-2 months if that means I can get better hardware / cheaper prices. Worth it based on what you know gets released in due course?
• GPU: I read that some people use 2 GPU for 5-man teams, is that really necessary or cheaper than buying one higher end GPU that can deal with 5 instances?
• Monitor: Should I be thinking about using 2 monitors with Displayport instead of just 1 or how do you guys like to play 5-man teams?
• FPS: based on your hardware recommendation, what resolution and fps do you think I can run on my main (I am not too concerned with the 4 followers)?
• SSD: can you please explain to me what the ideal setup is here? 1 SSD and 1 HDD or 2 SSD? Or simply 1 large SSD? Of course price will be the determining factor here but I guess having OS and games on different disks will slow things down?

Sorry for all these questions!!

And thanks so much for your answers!!

A few threads that may give you some ideas.

http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/5...liciting-input!
http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/5...-like-upgrades

There was a thread where someone referenced a build shop that makes gaming PCs that looked pretty good around the $2500US mark. Lemme see if I can find it.

[edit] Found it. Note that I don't have any experience with these guys, but the basic build looks solid. http://www.falcon-nw.com/desktops/overview

First thing's first. Welcome to the forums and the world of boxing. Secondly, there's no need to apologize for asking questions, it's how we learn. And we can all learn something. In addition to what Ugh has already posted, I'd like to add some further thoughts for you. Specifically, I'd like to address your questions.

Power Supply: can you explain why these are so advisable?
The PSU is arguably the most critical component of the build, it supplies the power to all of the components. So, if you cheap out here you're asking for trouble as the thing is plugged in to every single part of your machine. If a cheap PSU fails, it can and often will take everything else with it. For myself, I only use EVGA Power Supplies, as they have a very long warranty (the one I use has a ten year warranty for example). They're efficient, quiet, and generally considered to be some of the best in the business.

Cooling: many people seem to use water cooling or fancy ventilation setups in own builds, what would you advise given I am not going to build by myself but instructing a decent hardware store to do it for me?
There are a lot of good cooling solutions out there, all in one water coolers like the Corsair H series are actually really easy to install and generally speaking trouble free.I would not go for a "cheap" water cooler though, my rule of thumb is anything under $100 for a water cooler is likely going to be very loud and of questionable build quality.Additionally, the cheaper water coolers may not perform any better than an air cooler of half the price. Higher priced air coolers like those by Noctua and beQuiet! are actually comparable in performance to the all in one water coolers like the Corsair and NZXT varieties, but they tend to be a hassle to install and take up a lot of space. Worse, they can interfere with the ram. So, if you decide to add more ram later you may have trouble. Whereas with the water cooler you should be perfectly fine.
OS: Windows 7, 8 or 10?
Personally, though I liked the layout of 7, I prefer the power of 8. When I built this machine a few months ago I opted for 8 Professional, and upgraded to 10. There are a variety of tweaks, regardless of which OS you choose to make it run faster and to give you a better overall experience. I've included my favorites for optimizing Windows 10 below, a little snooping on those channels will reveal appropriate videos for other versions of Windows.

Tek Sydicate Secure Your Privacy & Stop the Spying | The Basics - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x2VTN4jjIE
Tech Yes City How to Optimize Windows 10 for Gaming & Power Users - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwiHog2leMM

Generations: obviously new generations of CPU/Mobo etc get released constantly. Whilst I want to start playing as soon as possible (not wait til Legion), I can probably wait 1-2 months if that means I can get better hardware / cheaper prices. Worth it based on what you know gets released in due course?
Intel just released the Z170 chipset, it will be a while before there's a refresh on the 6700k processor. You can save a few dollars by going with the previous generation, but if you're building for scratch and have a decent budget (which it appears you do) I would stick with the Z170. For the higher end, X99 is a thing, and it's great for someone doing more than five boxing, but Intel is refreshing X99 this year so I can't in good conscience recommend that for a build right now.

GPU: I read that some people use 2 GPU for 5-man teams, is that really necessary or cheaper than buying one higher end GPU that can deal with 5 instances?
I'm actually using a single 980 TI currently, I think for five boxing though I could definitely have gotten away with running a 970 or preferably a 390 (I like that VRAM, since I do play Skyrim at 4k with lots of mods as well as boxing wow). Still, having went the single, more powerful route means I don't have to deal with SLI problems that come up occasionally, some games don't support SLI at all and you have to do some weird work around mumbo jumbo just to get the game to work properly. For WoW though, currently there's not much need for more for me. I value performance over the eye candy there, if I added a second card I could turn all of the sliders up higher while maintaining the fps. And I'm sure I'll add a second card sooner or later, but for now it's fine for me. This is always my advice to people, see how you like it with one card before you take the plunge on a second.

Monitor: Should I be thinking about using 2 monitors with Displayport instead of just 1 or how do you guys like to play 5-man teams?
When I built this machine I knew I was going to be 5 or even 10 boxing, when I boxed before (BC/Wrath era) I was using 3 19 inch screens. Which worked, but introduced it's own problems. There's been some very nice developments with 4k panels the past year, and I picked up an AMH A409U 40 Inch screen. It was the choice between a second TI or the screen, I went with the screen and I'd do it again honestly. There are a variety of other good monitors being released in Korea regularly, such as the Wasabi Mango that Mirai uses (and comes very highly recommended as well). These screens allow you to run all of your characters on a single screen, with the main window at a very playable size. When five boxing my main window is at 3840 x 1696 running 60fps consistently.

FPS: based on your hardware recommendation, what resolution and fps do you think I can run on my main (I am not too concerned with the 4 followers)?
I touched on this a bit above, it's really going to depend on a lot of factors. Depending on what you're running in terms of hardware and software, you will absolutely be able to run your main window at 60 FPS. You'll just have to tinker with your graphical settings, you're not going to run 5 instances of wow at 4k ultra. However, ISBoxer is really good at tuning the virtual instances of the game so that the main window is running at an optimal speed/resolution while the minions are running a bit slower and smaller. I highly recomend ISBoxer at this point, personally. I used Keyclone way back, and it was perfectly usable but ISBoxer is far and away a much more powerful piece of software for boxing.

SSD: can you please explain to me what the ideal setup is here? 1 SSD and 1 HDD or 2 SSD? Or simply 1 large SSD? Of course price will be the determining factor here but I guess having OS and games on different disks will slow things down?
I tend to recommend a single fast SSD and a large HD to start, SSDs and Hard drives are some of the easiest components to add on later. So, having your OS and most played games/software on the fast SSD reduces loading times and increases responsiveness. Having a large HD (1-2 TB) means you've got plenty of bulk storage for a steam library, movies, files, etc.I hope I've answered your questions satisfactorily, now as for parts. I put together a list using PCPartpicker using your stated budget of $2900 USD and I was pleasantly surprised with what I was able to fit in.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HzvkCJ

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($369.95 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($112.99 @ Best Buy)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($142.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($87.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.95 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($609.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case ($145.44 @ Mac Mall)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Other: Wasabi Mango 40" UHD400 4K Monitor + Remote ($632.90)
Total: $2339.07
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-22 12:03 EDT-0400

I wanted to put together something under budget rather than right on the line, however there's room here for a legit Windows license, good peripherals, some games, etc with your budget. Or you could just blow your load adding some more power in terms of a second video card, which this power supply is absolutely capable of running (this is the exact PSU I use). One thing of note, there is some concern about getting a high end video card right now, because of the impending release of Pascal. This is precisely why I chose the EVGA variety, not only are these a bit cheaper than competing models (my MSI one is about $50 more expensive as an example) but they also have a step up program, that lets you trade in your current card for the new hotness when it's released. There's some limitations of course, but it offers you the opportunity to get going now, and have the peace of mind that you can upgrade relatively hassle free.

Seeing as you said ££'s, I'll assume you are in the UK. An equivalent setup to that suggested from UK sources is linked http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/C6dYyc (although I chose a slightly cheaper, but reasonably decent case).
Including a 40 inch Philips BDM4065UC 4K monitor, rather than the Wasabi (I have one of these :)). This comes to just over your budget, but only because I had to add in an OS.

http://scan.co.uk also have an Iiyama X4071UHSU-B1 40" 4K coming out shortly which looks to be comparable (although I've not read any reviews), and it is priced at £450, which would put you under budget.

The issue with a system builder is that you need to pay them to put it together too. After looking at what you can get from the builders, this will probably add another £150 - £250.

Unfortunately, if you are looking at paying £££'s then you are going to be hit with the UK Technology Tax, which adds 15-20% over any US pricing.

Other than that, the previous advice is all good and should be put in a book.

Yep, concerns about VAT tax, etc are what really made me hesitate to pull the trigger on fully building out my example PC.

Guys, thank you very much for taking the time to respond, really appreciated!

I realise I now need to take some time to read up on your numerous pointers and review the parts lists to see what questions remain before I go ahead and buy parts. Thanks again, this is really helpful stuff!

Thank you again for all the input, I really appreciated those detailed responses! I hope I have done enough reading in the meantime to reply with meaningful further questions on your list:

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($369.95 @ B&H)
I have read on these forums that people suggest a minimum of 1 physical core per instance. You are saying that the Skylake quad-core is still preferable over a say 6 core such as the 5820K?

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($112.99 @ Best Buy)
Given the cost for the builder is somewhere around 250£, I think I have warmed up to the challenge of putting a PC together myself. While I have no trouble with simple plugging, I am a bit more worried about installing a cooling system but you suggest it is quite straightforward. Can you recommend some sources on the web where I can start reading up on putting PCs together?

Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($142.98 @ Newegg)
MBox_Bob suggested Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 over your suggestion, what are the differences?

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Is there a big difference between using 4*4 vs. 2*8 sticks?

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($87.89 @ OutletPC)
Is it worth going with M.2 storage instead of 2.5”? For example, Samsung 950 Pro 512GB is just double the price. I am saying this because some programmes won’t go on the second HDD such as dropbox for example (I don’t have much on there, maybe 30GB but still)

Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.95 @ Amazon)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($609.99 @ NCIX US)
I read that the Step-Up programme is for 90 days post purchase only so Pascal might be released after such time anyway. Let’s say I upgrade, would I need to upgrade any other part of your hardware setup as a consequence? Also, you say you might have gotten away with a Radeon 390 for 5-boxing and are saying that the 8GB over the 6GB from the 980TI were worth it? Considering the 390 is £270 (USD 380) and the 390x is 350£ (USD 500), could it be worth a try or is it too big a risk for a few 100-200 hundred USD?

Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case ($145.44 @ Mac Mall)
MBox_Bob suggested a mid-sized case at a lower price. Does it make sense to save the money here? Does the size of the tower have implications for ventilation and heat build-up? Possible more difficult for me to put everything together in a smaller tower as a beginner?

Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Your build suggests 500W usage on PCPartPicker, do I need to go as far as 850W? I guess it doesn’t make much difference in terms of energy costs and hardware price so reducing to say 650W has little sense?

Other: Wasabi Mango 40" UHD400 4K Monitor + Remote ($632.90)
MBox_Bob suggests the Philips BDM4065UC 4K which is slightly more expensive. Any strong views here? I am reading the Korean can come with some pixel issues? You are saying you are running your main at 3840*1696. Just to ask a stupid question: I would need a 4K panel for that resolution correct? Judging by the videos that I watched on how to configure ISBoxer to have the 4 slaves at low resolution etc I guess it is nice to have a 4K main and not settle for anything less if I am investing in a good CPU and GPU

Total: $2339.07
Your setup in the UK equals around 2800USD (on my budget of £2k) which comes with a nice monitor upgrade so I guess that is fine

MBox_Bob, thanks also for the link to the UK prices and your additional suggestions!

Having gone back and looked at MBox_Bob's build, it's funny how similar the two are.

I have read on these forums that people suggest a minimum of 1 physical core per instance. You are saying that the Skylake quad-core is still preferable over a say 6 core such as the 5820K?
The 5820K is more than capable, I just don't feel right suggesting it currently as X99 is on the verge of a refresh. The motherboards that support it are either missing features compared to Z170 or are very expensive (ASUS RAMPAGE and MSI GODLIKE for example). If you were seriously interested in going more than 5, I'd say go X99. If you were also talking about things like needing a workstation in addition to boxing, I'd also recommend X99. But, I'd also suggest waiting in that case. And then you're looking at more money into the base system that could be spent elsewhere, like the Video card for example.

Furthermore, I can tell you that I and several others are currently five boxing on the 6700k (Ugh if memory serves has a very similar setup to mine, I think we have the same motherboard in fact). The 6700K is going to perform better on single threaded applications, so if you're just running say GTA or some other non boxing game, it'll outperform the 5820K. Additionally, you can push the overclock further on the 6700K compared to the 5820K with fewer heat issues, primarily because of the smaller number of cores. Either will work perfectly well, and be capable of boxing, streaming, etc. But the 6700K builds will offer a little more in terms of "new features" and longevity, whereas I could see someone feeling a bit of buyers remorse picking up a 5820K now, and finding in say six months they can get the same chip used or the refreshed chip with better stats all around.

Given the cost for the builder is somewhere around 250£, I think I have warmed up to the challenge of putting a PC together myself. While I have no trouble with simple plugging, I am a bit more worried about installing a cooling system but you suggest it is quite straightforward. Can you recommend some sources on the web where I can start reading up on putting PCs together?
Absolutely understandable, my advice is to look around Google. I've added a few suggested videos below, Joanne Tech Lover does a great job of getting good quality video and thoroughly explaining the parts. Linus is pretty popular, and also has some good build videos you can find. This video in particular will give you some good information about boosting the processors, which is likely where you'll see the most gains for your boxing needs.

Additionally, I would say that building a PC is definitely daunting the first time. But ultimately it's lot like Legos for adults, the parts generally only fit together one way. And as long as you take your time and don't force anything together, you should be perfectly fine.

Joanne Tech Lover Skylake Build - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzJoF4aGYws
Joanne Tech Lover - How to Clean Install Windows 10 + Drivers: Skylake Build - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzr16pxybnI
Linus Tech Tips Intel "Skylake" Core i7 6700K Overclocking Guide - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjIweExETlI

MBox_Bob suggested Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 over your suggestion, what are the differences?
They're both great boards, I chose the non gaming variant as I ended up with a build that was pretty low key in terms of appearance. Though I personally like black and red, I know not everyone does. Additionally, there are some nice features on the one I suggested, like the PWM pump control that should smooth things out with the corsair cooler. And several other features that make it excellent for overclocking, but mainly I picked it because it was maybe $5 cheaper when I looked at it, had slightly better overall reviews, and looks nice.

Is there a big difference between using 4*4 vs. 2*8 sticks?
For memory, the first thing to consider if you decide you want to go 4x4 is stick with DDR4-2133. Brand isn't as important, just as long as it's a reputable dealer that you like the look of. Corsair, G Skill, and Kingston are all solid choices.I can't speak for MBox_Bob, but I imagine we both chose 2x8 for basically the same reasons. First, when you're boxing you're going to want 16 gigs of ram. Secondly, by going with 2x8 sticks you're giving yourself room to add more later if you so desire. And thirdly, if all you want is 16 gigs, I would still suggest 2x8 as it will likely allow you to have more stable overclocks. I mentioned earlier with regards to the 5820K that it's not going to overclock as fast as a 6700K, part of that is due to it being an older architecture. But also, it's because there are more cores to overclock. Ram factors into your overclocking as well, more ram is more points of failure for your overclocking. If however you find a great deal on 4x4 sticks of DDR4-2133 ram, I certainly wouldn't think less of you for picking it up.

Is it worth going with M.2 storage instead of 2.5”? For example, Samsung 950 Pro 512GB is just double the price. I am saying this because some programmes won’t go on the second HDD such as dropbox for example (I don’t have much on there, maybe 30GB but still)
I honestly don't have any experience with M.2 yet, eventually my goal is go full solid state storage on this system and reserve the old platter HDs for my NAS box, but that's going to take some more time and money. It really depends on how much you want it frankly, for the price of the 512GB M.2 chip you could just about get a 1TB SSD and a 2TB HDD. I'm just not sure if the M.2 chips are fast enough to warrant the price right now.

I read that the Step-Up programme is for 90 days post purchase only so Pascal might be released after such time anyway. Let’s say I upgrade, would I need to upgrade any other part of your hardware setup as a consequence? Also, you say you might have gotten away with a Radeon 390 for 5-boxing and are saying that the 8GB over the 6GB from the 980TI were worth it? Considering the 390 is £270 (USD 380) and the 390x is 350£ (USD 500), could it be worth a try or is it too big a risk for a few 100-200 hundred USD?
The 390 is a very good card, I really like MSIs 390X myself. It's not going to be as fast a TI, but it also doesn't claim to be. I know some people are boxing 970s now. I'd say if you're concerned about buyers remorse when Pascal drops, I'd probably get a 970 or 390. As for the question of 390 or 390X there's plenty of debate on that topic, but the short of it is if you want something out of the box that's faster it's the 390X. You're not going to have a whole lot of room to overclock it though, unless you add a water cooler. In which case, it's become as expensive as a TI.

So, I think if I were going in that range it would be between the 970 and the standard 390 personally. Both are phenomenal, if you're using a 4K monitor though you'll almost certainly want to Crossfire or SLI. In the case of the AMD cards, you're going to need to upgrade the PSU as the recomended wattage is 1000w for those in Crossfire. For the 970s and the 980TI the 850W PSU will be fine in SLI.

MBox_Bob suggested a mid-sized case at a lower price. Does it make sense to save the money here? Does the size of the tower have implications for ventilation and heat build-up? Possible more difficult for me to put everything together in a smaller tower as a beginner?
Honestly, that is a good place to save a few dollars, there's a variety of good midrange cases that I'm sure would suit your needs. The NZXT S340 for example is a simply gorgeous case that's actually pretty easy to build in. Phanteks Enthoo Pro and Pro M are both quite nice. There will be some differences in air circulation and noise, depending on which case you go with. I think the main thing though is how easy is it to build in, and how does it looks on your desk? Otherwise, it's just a box with your parts in it. So, a lot of that is going to come down to personal taste.

Your build suggests 500W usage on PCPartPicker, do I need to go as far as 850W? I guess it doesn’t make much difference in terms of energy costs and hardware price so reducing to say 650W has little sense?
Regardless of the power rating, the machine is only going to draw the amount of power it needs. So having more power just means that your PSU isn't running at full capacity. Running at half capacity just means it's not heating up as much, and will theoretically increase it's lifespan, and of course it means less noise since the PSU isn't ramping up the fan to keep it cool. It also means you've got enough power to run a second video card should you decide to add one at a later date. Additionally, choosing a PSU with a smaller wattage sometimes means it's a less effecient PSU, or it may be missing some features like the modular cables (a lifesaver for building a rig). Less efficient PSU means higher electric bills, and more heat output generally.

Continued below...

MBox_Bob suggests the Philips BDM4065UC 4K which is slightly more expensive. Any strong views here? I am reading the Korean can come with some pixel issues? You are saying you are running your main at 3840*1696. Just to ask a stupid question: I would need a 4K panel for that resolution correct? Judging by the videos that I watched on how to configure ISBoxer to have the 4 slaves at low resolution etc I guess it is nice to have a 4K main and not settle for anything less if I am investing in a good CPU and GPU
I really have no strong feelings either way, though if you get a Korean monitor you want to be sure you have the correct power adapter as well. Mirai could tell you more about the Wasabi, as I believe that is what he uses. I use an AMH myself and haven't had any problems. I do know that the Wasabi comes highly recomended from various sources such as PCPerspective, Tek Syndicate, etc. I imagine there's got to be some comparison of the two online somewhere.

As for resolution, yeah you would. ISBoxer does a good job with setting up a custom resolution that runs well on your current setup, so yours may end up being different depending on your final build. Just remember, you always can (and should) tweak your video settings to get the best experience with your new setup.

Your setup in the UK equals around 2800USD (on my budget of £2k) which comes with a nice monitor upgrade so I guess that is fine.
Glad I could help, just remember it's always daunting the first time. But, there's always people on the forums happy to offer help and advice. I'm sure we're all looking forward to hearing more about your experiences in the weeks/months to come.

Hor, thanks again for the comprehensive answers! I have a good idea now what I could do with my 2k budget.

On another note, I have this older desktop from Nov-2010 which was built by a local shop. I dont have an OS installed and cant open the case at the moment, so on some components I dont know the exact details. I used to triple-box on this one for a bit during MoP and recall that it was relatively smooth:

CPU: Intel i5-760
CPU Cooler: Contac29
Motherboard: Asus P7H55-M
Memory: 8GB DDR2(?)
Storage: 1TB HDD
Video Card: GTX460
Case: Piano Black Mid-sized
Power Supply: T/Take 550W

Out of curiosity, I guess there is no way I would be able to triple-box or five-box WoD with this machine, not even with a few upgrades? I have a spare i5-4430S Quad-Core 2.7GHz but no idea whether it is compatible?

I know it is a very remote possibility but I thought I just checked before going ahead with my £2k project...

Thanks again for taking the time to respond!

I didn't disagree with the original parts list that Hor put together. I put the list up using the UK partpicker site, which would give you a price estimate in £££ which it seemed you were spending from your first post, mainly to show the difference in UK pricing vs US pricing (which may still have other taxes but you don't see). Unfortunately the UK partpicker site is missing a few decent retailers, like scan.co.uk and dabs.com for example, so you don't get as wider variety of parts, so in order to get the parts priced, I chose as close as possible. I guess I should have said up front that it was more of a £££ price comparison for a pretty much par for par build.

As for the case. This is always an easy place to save a little cash. On the other hand, I have 3 Fractal Design cases, so I might be a little biased, but I do setup my machines for silence, and have never had an airflow or build problem with them (well, except for a mini ITX that I did once). If you plan on a full water cooling setup, then case will become more important to you, especially when trying to fit in £600 odd of water cooling gear (not including the computer). When using any non-standard cooling setup, you also need to be aware of what the case will fit, and from experience, it is really annoying finding out that you need an extra 2cm. I was careful to select a case which has a lot of potential and configuration options, although it may not suit everyone.


The monitor I suggested for several reasons.
1. I have one and it's pretty decent. I don't know of any 40" 4k <3ms 144Hz@4K monitors out there, so this was my second choice. I read some reviews on it. It was delivered the next day. It Is not a professional colour monitor (which is sad), but I couldn't afford a 40" 4k one of those either.
2. The Wasabi that MiRai has is not quite 4k. It is something like 3802x2138, although I believe the newer refresh is actual 4k.
3. Warranty issues, if you happen to have one, are much easier to sort out when the seller is in your country (although the Wasabi guy is usually pretty good too from all accounts).
4. You can get it cheaper if you shop around.
5. I provided an alternative which is £100 cheaper, although I know little about it, but Iiyama are usually quite decent.


For your existing machine, to upgrade it would almost be a complete replacement of everything in it, because to change the CPU you'd need to change the motherboard, which would require changing the ram, and a new CPU cooler is probably needed (I doubt you have the brackets). You'll want a new graphics card, and you should probably change the 5 year old PSU too, and depending on the vintage of the case, you may find the motherboard cutouts for the back of the motherboard are in the wrong place (happened to me a few years ago when I thought I reuse an Antec Sonata "Piano Black" case). Nothing a angle grinder wouldn't sort of course. Only really leaves putting in an SSD and you've pretty much got what was suggested.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kazzakistani

CPU: Intel i5-760
CPU Cooler: Contac29
Motherboard: Asus P7H55-M
Memory: 8GB DDR2(?)
Storage: 1TB HDD
Video Card: GTX460
Case: Piano Black Mid-sized
Power Supply: T/Take 550W

Out of curiosity, I guess there is no way I would be able to triple-box or five-box WoD with this machine, not even with a few upgrades?

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If you could, I don't think you would get very desirable results since the game has moved to being more heavy on the GPU after they changed the engine, and, in my opinion, that GTX 460 with the fairly gimped IPC of the older i5-760 is just not going to do all that well.

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Originally Posted by mbox_bob

2. The Wasabi that MiRai has is not quite 4k. It is something like 3802x2138, although I believe the newer refresh is actual 4k.

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It's definitely 3840x2160, but there is a weird issue along the edges of the display which only affect maybe 10 pixels or so, and I found that by changing the resolution to 3802x2138 through nVidia's scaling in the driver control panel, fixes the issue entirely. However, because the size of my e-peen may be at risk I switched back to 3840x2160 full time sometime last year, and honestly, I no longer even notice the issue at all.

Also, for anyone reading, I have the UHD420 which is now EOL, and the two new models, in the same range of size, are the UHD430 AH-IPS and the UHD400 PVA.

Hi gents, hope everybody is doing fine!

Since soliciting your greatly appreciated help at the beginning of the year I had to postpone my multiboxing adventure for work reasons. More recently things have been quiet and I want to get to it now that I have a chance.

Would you please do me the favour and look over the build we discussed at the time and highlight any changes that you think are in order given new developments? My main question is around GPU and Monitor:

1) 10-series GPU
- I guess it makes sense to go with a 10-series. 1070 or 1080? And then which of the 40 models??
2) Monitor resolution
- For cost and space reasons on my desk I am leaning away from a 4K 40’’ monitor now
- I understand that refresh rate (60Hz or more) and resolution (1080 or 1440) are the main factors in addition to the size of the monitor but I am not sure what I should go for. I guess above 27’’ I am fine with a 1440p and wow would look beautiful enough?
- Let’s say I am looking at a 27’’ or 32’’, should I go for a monitor that can do more than 60Hz at say 1440p? Would I be benefitting from that (in wow or other games)?
- Also Ultrawide would work well for my work-related stuff but I understand they are usually 60Hz, although some seem to deliver 75Hz at 1440p. Does wow support Ultrawide and what is your opinion on that in general?
3) Z170 vs X99
- Do I need to consider an X99 setup at all?

Here is the build we discussed at the time:

1) CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($369.95 @ B&H)
2) CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($112.99 @ Best Buy)
3) Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($142.98 @ Newegg) – Same as #1
4) Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
5) Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($87.89 @ OutletPC)
6) Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.95 @ Amazon)
7) Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($609.99 @ NCIX US)
8) Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case ($145.44 @ Mac Mall)
9) Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ Newegg)
10) Monitor: Wasabi Mango 40" UHD400 4K Monitor + Remote ($632.90)

Thanks again for taking the time to read and think this through!!

1070 is roughly equivalent to a 980Ti according to my benchmarks when building my Mom's gaming rig.

I have an Asus PB278Q 1440p monitor and honestly, since I'm getting to the point where I'll need reading glasses in the next year or three, I'd have really preferred to be at 36-40" at 1440p. My friend has 4k monitors and honestly, I don't see the point unless you're at 65" or higher. Again, sharper/younger eyes might be more picky about that. As for how WoW looks, I still run my clients at 1080p so I can tile them on my 1440p desktop. 1440p WoW at full-screen(windowed) should be right lovely.

As for components, I have the H80i on my 6700K CPUs with a single Noctua NF-F12 fan (The NF-S12A is case, F12 is radiator; I do NOT use the Corsair fans that come with it due to noise issues) and the fan/pump almost never spin up out of "low" speed. The only thing I can hear is the GPU fans. Unless you're wanting to OC the CPU to like 4.6GHz, I would think the H100 might be overkill.

I have the Z170A Gaming 7 motherboards from MSI and have no complaints aside from some minor I/O issues with PCI-E M.2 RAID setups. If you're using SATA EVO SSDs, you're golden.

The Samsung 850 EVO 250GB were down to under $60US on Amazon last week.

I have a Thermaltake Core V71 and Core V31 cases and I like them. Very light and good airflow, with plenty of room for component layout and cabling. Has bays for 4x HDD, 2x ODD and 1 (or 2) SSDs backplane-mounted. Not a really super-sturdy carry-around LAN-party portable case but it works well for us as they just sit under the desk.



Shorter version of the components I regularly use in my family builds over the last 5 years and have had stellar reliability and performance with:

* GPU = EVGA
* Case = Thermaltake
* CPU Cooler = Corsair H80i for water, Noctua for air
* Memory = Corsair Vengeance (via the motherboard MFG's compatibility list)
* PSU = EVGA Gold Modular (SuperNova if available)
* Fans = Noctua
* SSDs = Samsung EVO or Pro

Hey, thanks a lot for your help!!

Completely see your point on the monitor...I would love to go bigger but my desk is so narrow that I am dangerously close to the monitor.
I like your cooler setup and thanks for your thoughts on the other components!

Anybody around that uses an Ultrawide by any chance?

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Originally Posted by kazzakistani

Anybody around that uses an Ultrawide by any chance?

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i use the Acer Predator 3440x1440 , ( 5 boxed stacked ) I get 30fps in cities and up to 70ish in less populated areas. I cant run on max setting while boxed.. The main screen slider is on 7 and the slaves on 1.

1080gtx. I got the monitor for the other games i play.. i play all those on max settings and get max FPS ( BF1, Witcher3. ESO, The Division.)