Any advice for a gaming machine?

[markdienekes]

Hello, I'm wondering if anyone has any good advice on a gaming pc with a budget of around £1500? My PCSPECIALIST PC was purchased in 2015, has had a couple of upgrades and still serves me well, but I think it is time to move on. I've no idea what is good at the moment for processor or gpu, motherboard, ram, etc. Any help or suggestions would be great. Is intel processors and nvidia cards still the best, or is amd worth considering? I won't need it for 4k gaming, as I don't have a monitor for that. Thank you for your time, it is appreciated.

This was something I've put together, have no idea if it is any good.

Case
FRACTAL POP SILENT CASE SOLID (BLACK)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 14-Core Processor i5-14600KF (Up to 5.3GHz) 24MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME Z790-P (LGA1700, DDR5, PCIe 5.0)
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 5200MHz CL40 (2 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
16GB GIGABYTE RADEON™ RX 7600 XT GAMING OC - 2 x HDMI, 2 x DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (3500 MB/R, 3100 MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CX SERIES™ CX-650 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 200 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (6 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Price: £1,420.00 including VAT and Delivery

 

[Ekans2011]

Is intel processors and nvidia cards still the best, or is amd worth considering?

Not at all, INTEL is DOA.

Intel 13th and 14th Gen confirmed defective

So there's been a lot of upset gathering steam on the inter webs with intermittent games crashes on Intel 13th and 14th gen. Workarounds range from underclocking to disabling ecores. BUT, there are a lot of people finding that simply disabling hyperthreading is a proper solution. The findings...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

I'm wondering if anyone has any good advice on a gaming pc with a budget of around £1500?

At this price point, you can get a basic 1080p non-gaming system; what monitor are you currently using? What's your max budget?

This was something I've put together, have no idea if it is any good.

Frankly, it's a poorly designed build with no room for future upgrades, which is critical in a custom PC.

 

[markdienekes]

Not at all, INTEL is DOA.

Intel 13th and 14th Gen confirmed defective

So there's been a lot of upset gathering steam on the inter webs with intermittent games crashes on Intel 13th and 14th gen. Workarounds range from underclocking to disabling ecores. BUT, there are a lot of people finding that simply disabling hyperthreading is a proper solution. The findings...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

At this price point, you can get a basic 1080p non-gaming system; what monitor are you currently using? What's your max budget?


Frankly, it's a poorly designed build with no room for future upgrades, which is critical in a custom PC.

Cheers.

So you would recommend amd processor?

For a monitor, I'm using a ve228 asus one, 1080p, 60hz. I probably will get a 4k gaming monitor in the next couple of years, but this will have to do until then.

My max budget is £1500.

What would you suggest for room to grow?

 

[Ekans2011]

For a monitor, I'm using a ve228 asus one, 1080p, 60hz.

This monitor is not suitable for gaming at any level; it's pointless to spec anything unless it's paired with a proper monitor, as it will bottleneck any modern computer. What's your budget for an appropriate monitor?

 

[markdienekes]

This monitor is not suitable for gaming at any level; it's pointless to spec anything unless it's paired with a proper monitor, as it will bottleneck any modern computer. What's your budget for an appropriate monitor? I could probably go for about £100 monitor at a stretch.

I could probably stretch to £150-160 for a monitor.

With the finance I could push the budget up a bit higher actually. About £1700

 

[Ekans2011]

I could probably stretch to £150-160 for a monitor.

With the finance I could push the budget up a bit higher actually. About £1700

This is the best you can get within your budget.

Regarding the monitor, I believe this AOC would be a decent entry-level display.

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/aoc-24g4x-full-hd-24-ips-lcd-gaming-monitor-black-10260337.html

Case
CORSAIR FRAME 4000D RS ARGB MODULAR
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.0GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B850-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, M.2 PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz CL30 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB INTEL ARC B580 LIMITED EDITION - HDMI, 3 x DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB CORSAIR ELITE MP600 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 7000 MB/R, 6200 MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB CORSAIR CORE XT MP600 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 5000 MB/R, 4400 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ ATX 3.1, MODULAR, CYBENETICS GOLD
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR NAUTILUS 240 RS ARGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 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
Microsoft® Edge
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 7 to 9 working days
Price: £1,664.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/Jp46QyvsSS/

 

[markdienekes]

Thanks for your time mate

 

[Ekans2011]

Be aware that, whilst the PSU in the above spec is fine for 1080p, it is probably going to be inadequate for a 4k GPU down the road (the current recommended minimum for a 5080 is 850w...and GPUs have been steadily increasing power needs for some time). At current prices a 4k GPU is going to be well over £1,000 and a decent monitor is possibly going to be £700+

Thank you for pointing this up; I thought I had put a 1000W.

@markdienekes build updated. 🙏

 

[SpyderTracks]

For some context, since the RTX2000 series, we’ve seen GPU power requirements double, that’s just in 4 generations since September 2018

It’s completely unprecedented.

One hopes it will plateau and perhaps even eventually reduce as architectural designs become more efficient, but we’ve been hoping this would happen for a few years now and they just keep going up

 

[Ekans2011]

To be honest, I thought you had aimed to put it at 850w given the limited budget

No, as you correctly point out, my purpose was to place the 1000W properly for a future upgrade, but I must have been confused between the Italian forum and this one.

The difference in price between the two PSUs is negligible (£20-25).

 

[markdienekes]

Thank you for pointing this up; I thought I had put a 1000W.

@markdienekes build updated. 🙏

Cheers guys, I really appreciate the help!