Advice needed for first gaming PC build (£1300ish)

[VinceCaramel]

Evening internet user,

I've been attempting to build a PC for my partner (and myself) that would need to be capable of both gaming and streaming. In terms of resolution we'd prefer 1440p but would happily switch to 1080p to improve frame rates. I imagine our monitor would be around 21-27 inches (really not sure!)

Having been a console gamers for many a year, it's all rather new to us. The main thing we want to achieve (as most do I imagine) is to have the best value possible, yet still be decently future proofed.

*my partner is dead set on the case... sadly but if you have an suggestions (especially efficiency etc wise) please dear to change it!

Thanks for taking your time to read this and I look forward to learning all the mistakes I've made!

Here's what I have mustered up so far:

Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERCASE H500 ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CV SERIES™ CV-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 RGB V3 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (AMD)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
TIMED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND - MON-FRI (BEFORE 2PM)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 21 to 23 working days
Price: £1,308.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/hVZYwuDct8/

 

[Ash_]

If you can stretch... the changes made will be well worth it. Streaming you’d ideally want a Ryzen 7 5800X, but it is a lot more expensive currently and you’d need to up the cooling.

Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERCASE H500 ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
TIMED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND - MON-FRI (BEFORE 2PM)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 21 to 23 working days
Price: £1,386.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/7X5EmT!cH4/

 

[VinceCaramel]

If you can stretch... the changes made will be well worth it. Streaming you’d ideally want a Ryzen 7 5800X, but it is a lot more expensive currently and you’d need to up the cooling.

Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERCASE H500 ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
TIMED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND - MON-FRI (BEFORE 2PM)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 21 to 23 working days
Price: £1,386.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/7X5EmT!cH4/

Thanks for the quick reply Ash!

These will seem like stupid questions because otherwise why would you have selected the above but...
1. Would you say the Ryzen 5600x is worth the £110 difference over the 3600?
2. Same applies to the, and I quote... 'CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET'... being £40+ more than any of the CORSAIR SV series.
3. Almost the same again... do you think 16gb of ram would be sufficient? I guess this is one of the easier and more reasonably priced areas to upgrade in the future.

Thanks YET AGAIN. It's greatly appreciated after a week of manic research...

 

[Martinr36]

Thanks for the quick reply Ash!

These will seem like stupid questions because otherwise why would you have selected the above but...
1. Would you say the Ryzen 5600x is worth the £110 difference over the 3600?
2. Same applies to the, and I quote... 'CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET'... being £40+ more than any of the CORSAIR SV series.
3. Almost the same again... do you think 16gb of ram would be sufficient? I guess this is one of the easier and more reasonably priced areas to upgrade in the future.

Thanks YET AGAIN. It's greatly appreciated after a week of manic research...

Answers to 2 & 3:

The advantage that rm series has over the SV series is that it's modular which means you only have the cables coming out of it that you need to use, this makes for better cable management ant also better airflow, also with these unit the cooling fans only cut in oncew theyu reach about 80% of the full load rating so are a lot quieter.

16GB is ample for the majority of games, one of the few games that would want more is MSFS

 

[Ash_]

Thanks for the quick reply Ash!

These will seem like stupid questions because otherwise why would you have selected the above but...
1. Would you say the Ryzen 5600x is worth the £110 difference over the 3600?
2. Same applies to the, and I quote... 'CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET'... being £40+ more than any of the CORSAIR SV series.
3. Almost the same again... do you think 16gb of ram would be sufficient? I guess this is one of the easier and more reasonably priced areas to upgrade in the future.

Thanks YET AGAIN. It's greatly appreciated after a week of manic research...

For me Zen3 is such an improvement over Zen2, that i would 100% go for a 5600 over a 3600. You’d want the 3700 from zen2 anyway, which is more expensive than the 5600.

PSU is the easiest place to save long term, as that 850w should last the life, of the entire build. Should you decide in 3 years, you want the 4080, a 550w is out and an 850 is coming in. Also... a computer full of nice shiny, expensive parts... the psu is last thing you want to go cheap on.

16GB of Ram should be enough, unless you’re playing MSFS2020. But overall Ram is nowhere near as important, as a CPU and GPU in this type of build. 16gb should be fine and if not... it’s potentially the easiest upgrade for a pc.

And they aren’t stupid questions. It’s what we are here for

 

[Scott]

Suggested build is exactly what I would go for as well

 

[VinceCaramel]

Magnifico. Thanks everyone!

Final two questions.. hopefully.

Do you consider any of the cases available substantially better performance wise (if possible) than the COOLERMASTER MASTERCASE H500 ARGB? *any cases that are cheaper than it 🤑

Would it be worth spending the £12+ on a non-stock processor cooler?

 

[Scott]

Magnifico. Thanks everyone!

Final two questions.. hopefully.

Do you consider any of the cases available substantially better performance wise (if possible) than the COOLERMASTER MASTERCASE H500 ARGB? *any cases that are cheaper than it 🤑

Would it be worth spending the £12+ on a non-stock processor cooler?

The H500 ARGB is the cheapest case I would recommend right now. There's not a great deal of budget choice at the moment so the expensive options are all that remain. The H500 is a great case though, it does everything REALLY well.

With regards to the cooler.... no. You may even end up with a less effective cooler when aiming for budget. If purchasing a cooler, I would get one that will be suitable for an upgrade, rather than just for the 5600. With that in mind, if you want a cooler on there, the 240 Coolermaster Lite would be the best option for value/performance. It'll barely need to kick in to keep the chip cool and it means you can upgrade the CPU down the line without having the fork out for a cooler too (granted you will be spending it now, but that's kind of my point about it not being worth it).