AMD Build looking for any improvements

J

JamesDL

Member
Not very experienced at building PCs but I tried to do as much online research as I could. I didn’t know whether the M.2 SSD made a big enough difference and also whether my GPU is too much for the rest of the build and I wouldn’t be benefiting from it.

Thanks for any help!

Case
CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 570X RGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Six Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (1 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 SUPER - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
1TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W CV SERIES™ CV-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
2x 50cm Red LED Strip
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
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
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
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 18 to 20 working days
Price: £1,339.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/P0g7yBRtqW/
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Which monitor are you pairing the build with? It's the monitor that the GPU matters for.

What is your budget and do you have any other uses other than gaming?

You're around 1440p gaming budget here, it would be wasted on a 1080p monitor
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Do you already have a Windows license? Just asking as you could transfer this to the new build and allow for hardware spend :D
 
J

JamesDL

Member
No I don’t think so I think mine ran out, I haven’t looked in to any alternatives or cheaper packages if there is any money to be saved there.
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
There are 2 routes that you can go down. Once is expensive and offers a next level gaming experience, the other is cheaper but limited by the 1080p monitor you currently have.

It all hangs on when you are looking to buy the monitor. Considering your budget of £1500 the build below saves you £120 towards a monitor right now. If you could add an additional £150 right now you could get the below monitor (it's an excellent buy) which would pair perfectly.


Case
CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 570X RGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-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
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
2x 50cm Red LED Strip
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
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
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
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 18 to 20 working days
Price: £1,379.00 including VAT and Delivery

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

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
If you would rather not, there's no point in over-spending with the GPU right now. Hold off till you can upgrade both the GPU and the monitor at the same time. Post back and we can give advice.

The only limitation of the first build was I scrimped on the storage slightly. This one has more mass storage available. Storage can be added anytime though so it should be the last consideration of budget.

Case
CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 570X RGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1650 SUPER - HDMI
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 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-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
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
2x 50cm Red LED Strip
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
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 [KK3-00002]
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
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 18 to 20 working days
Price: £1,097.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/Tuym6Tq7BD/
 
J

JamesDL

Member
Thanks for your help, just wondering about some of the changes you made. I assume the CPU and motherboard changes are relative sidegrades for a better value for money and same for the GPU in the more expensive one.
From you’re changes I’m guessing the M.2 SSD is a noticeable upgrade on the standard SSD but I was worried 512gb as in the first option wouldn’t be enough. And for RAM is 2x8gb just straight up better than 16gb.

Again thanks, I’m sure your builds will be a lot better than mine but I just wanted to understand the changes not oppose them.
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
The 3600X isn't really any better than the 3600. There IS a difference, but not enough to warrant the very heavy price on the chips just now. All you are really paying for is the X.

With the motherboard, the X570 is a higher class than the B550, but it's aimed at the high end CPUs (3900X, 3950X) and will be the same going forward. The B550 is the latest standard of motherboard and more than enough for any gaming CPU, even going forward it will support the next generation. No point in spending the money as there's nothing gained.
M2 is significantly faster than any SSD. You can get into really fast models, such as the Samsung 970 or the Firecuda range, but these are outwith budget. Like I alluded to above, better to get enough storage for your needs with room to grow. You can easily add storage at any point. The CPU and GPU is a bit more restricted (especially with cost).
2x8GB is better than 1x16. It's DDR RAM, double data rate and uses 2 channels. The best way to manage that is in pairs. It's also SIGNIFICANTLY faster RAM that I've selected which will again make a big difference.

With the above changes the build is much more balanced. The only shortcoming is the storage, but that's easy as said. If you paired the first build with the Iiyama monitor, I think you would be blown away.
 
J

JamesDL

Member
Thanks so much for all your help I’ll likely go for the more expensive and upgrade the monitor later as that’s easy. Just one last thing with upgrading storage is that easy to do inside the tower or am I better off using external storage.
I’m a bit afraid to actually go fiddling around inside hence why I’m using PC specialist but if it’s pretty straight forward I’ll give it a go.
 
K

keithbeaks

Enthusiast
JamesDL said:
Thanks for your help, just wondering about some of the changes you made. I assume the CPU and motherboard changes are relative sidegrades for a better value for money and same for the GPU in the more expensive one.
From you’re changes I’m guessing the M.2 SSD is a noticeable upgrade on the standard SSD but I was worried 512gb as in the first option wouldn’t be enough. And for RAM is 2x8gb just straight up better than 16gb.

Again thanks, I’m sure your builds will be a lot better than mine but I just wanted to understand the changes not oppose them.
Click to expand...

I read this and it really helped me understand my build and also when I look at other people's now I can see what's good, what might not be and sometimes what's unnecessary. I still can't build a whole system, but I liked being able to know why I've got what I have in my system. And also why I'm buying a certain monitor.

Desktop Building Guide - April 2023

A "quick" reference guide to building the perfect system. This is the sort of logic I go through when suggesting systems, so thought I would jot it down on the page. Clearly this is an ever changing suite of options but I'll update periodically as my default go-to's change... I'm noticing the...
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk
 
Last edited:
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
JamesDL said:
Thanks so much for all your help I’ll likely go for the more expensive and upgrade the monitor later as that’s easy. Just one last thing with upgrading storage is that easy to do inside the tower or am I better off using external storage.
I’m a bit afraid to actually go fiddling around inside hence why I’m using PC specialist but if it’s pretty straight forward I’ll give it a go.
Click to expand...

Depending how long you plan to wait, you might be better with the cheaper 1080p system. The expensive one only makes sense if you upgrade the monitor very soon. Otherwise, you're as well holding off till Winter when the new GPUs come out and purchase a new GPU and monitor at the same time.

Fitting storage is an absolute doddle. You can weigh it up yourself, if you wanted a 1TB primary drive then the Firecuda would be my choice. It's expensive though.

Another option is to stick with the 500GB PCS option and add a 2TB Conventional SATA drive.

When funds allow, simply plug in a 1TB M2 drive for games.... down the line.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top