Now given that we are 18 months on from that original quote I thought with having more funds saved I could up the spec a bit. So went back on to the PC Specialist website and played around with various combinations of the options.Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690K (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Case STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Motherboard ASUS® Z97-P: ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM) 16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card 4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 960 - 2 x DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Hard Disk 500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) 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 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
PRICE QUOTED £698.00
This is the new setup:
Case = COOLERMASTER ELITE 311 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU) = Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-7700k (4.2GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard = ASUS® PRIME Z270-P: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM) = 32GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2133MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card = 8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Hard Disk = 500GB Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk = 1TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
1st DVD Drive = 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply = CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling = Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste = ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card = ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Networking = 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB = 4 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System = Genuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Warranty = 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Yr Collect & Return, 1 Yr Parts, 3 Yr Labour)
Delivery = PCS EXTRA-CARE DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND - MON-FRI, PRE-NOON
Build Time = FAST TRACK 3 WORKING DAY DISPATCH
inc VAT and Delivery £1,697.00
18 months on and spending a grand more was it worth it? Hell yes. Ok I could have spent even more moving further up to the top top end parts but as being a canny Scotsman only spending as much as you need to get what you need.
So far a week on since it arrived I have just about got all my programs installed and finally got Trainz 12 ported over yesterday (copied the whole Trainz folder from my program files on the old PC to an external HDD before then copying to new PC). It didn't work right away as it was looking for d3dx9_42.dll so a quick download of the directx redist pack and install then bingo. Only had a brief look at it with all the in game graphic settings to max. So far so good. Even the train sim from the darkside is running at almost max settings with good frame rates.
Fun times ahead