Gaming PC - First Build

D

DarkSky

Member
Hey folks,

Wanted to check if there was any glaring issues with my proposed build. (I'm currently building a workstation CAD pc which has different specs, fancier and faster).

Does the below look ok? (I know PSU is a bit overkill, but for another £8 seemed daft seemed daft not to. I'll source 1 or 2, 144hz 1440p Monitor through work. (recommendations welcome)

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WiFi (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx 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
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card
Asus Xonar AE 7.1-Channel Gaming Audio Card
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
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 10/11 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
Firefox™
Keyboard & Mouse
ASUS TUF K1 Gaming Keyboard & M3 Mouse Bundle
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 - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £1,633.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/AHX9A7KaFe/


Thanks,

DS
 
Last edited:
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
DarkSky said:
Hey folks,

Wanted to check if there was any glaring issues with my proposed build. (I'm currently building a workstation CAD pc which has different specs, fancier and faster).

Does the below look ok? (I know PSU is a bit overkill, but for another £8 seemed daft seemed daft not to. I'll source 1 or 2, 144hz 1440p Monitor through work. (recommendations welcome)

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WiFi (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx 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
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card
Asus Xonar AE 7.1-Channel Gaming Audio Card
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
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 10/11 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
Firefox™
Keyboard & Mouse
ASUS TUF K1 Gaming Keyboard & M3 Mouse Bundle
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 - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £1,633.00 including VAT and Delivery


Thanks,

DS
Click to expand...
Hi mate,

Can you include the configurable link, its the green link at the bottom of the page you took your spec from. It helps us make changes, this is really really solid start but you definitely wont need the sound card, soundcards on motherboards these days are really really good and I'd change the storage set up to have a dedicated boot drive and storage drive as opposed to one.

Very minor tweaks but just little optimisations
 
D

DarkSky

Member
Steveyg said:
Hi mate,

Can you include the configurable link, its the green link at the bottom of the page you took your spec from. It helps us make changes, this is really really solid start but you definitely wont need the sound card, soundcards on motherboards these days are really really good and I'd change the storage set up to have a dedicated boot drive and storage drive as opposed to one.

Very minor tweaks but just little optimisations
Click to expand...
Hey,

I've edited the posted and added the link, had a quick look at some posts and didn't see the links at the bottom so I left it out... in hindsight I have no idea why lol.
Ah cool. wasn't sure about the Sound card. Same with the storage, I take it keep the boot drive for applications and put any dross on the second drive?

Thanks!
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
DarkSky said:
Hey,

I've edited the posted and added the link, had a quick look at some posts and didn't see the links at the bottom so I left it out... in hindsight I have no idea why lol.
Ah cool. wasn't sure about the Sound card. Same with the storage, I take it keep the boot drive for applications and put any dross on the second drive?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Saved you £1 and got a better CPU cooler too!

The basic thought process in the boot drive is to have an extremely fast drive for the OS and key programs, you want the boot drive to stay under 50% capacity so that the OS runs at it's optimal speeds at all times. I basically install anything that launches on start up or anything I need to work quickly on the boot drive. Everything else goes on the second drive, you can fill this up as much as you want

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WiFi (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 3000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler Black Edition
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
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 10/11 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
Firefox™
Keyboard & Mouse
ASUS TUF K1 Gaming Keyboard & M3 Mouse Bundle
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 - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £1,632.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/60UrsXGYt4/
 
Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Ok this is with the tweaks that @Steveyg suggested (type of)

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WiFi (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 3000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx 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
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
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 [KUK-00003]
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
Firefox™
Keyboard & Mouse
ASUS TUF K1 Gaming Keyboard & M3 Mouse Bundle
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 - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £1,636.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/fWaYPHDVM7/
 
D

DarkSky

Member
Steveyg said:
Saved you £1 and got a better CPU cooler too!

The basic thought process in the boot drive is to have an extremely fast drive for the OS and key programs, you want the boot drive to stay under 50% capacity so that the OS runs at it's optimal speeds at all times. I basically install anything that launches on start up or anything I need to work quickly on the boot drive. Everything else goes on the second drive, you can fill this up as much as you want

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WiFi (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 3000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler Black Edition
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
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 10/11 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
Firefox™
Keyboard & Mouse
ASUS TUF K1 Gaming Keyboard & M3 Mouse Bundle
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 - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £1,632.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/60UrsXGYt4/
Click to expand...

Nice one! Thanks.

Ah ok cool that makes sense. So Games and Applications on the Fast drive, and any videos, music etc on the second drive.
The PC will mainly be used for gaming Warzone FPS games, and possibly Sim Racing in the future along with some basic music production and some video editing, in car track work, guitar videos, nothing too crazy.

Thanks for the info and the build update! The tweaks and changes now will save hassle in the future :)
 
D

DarkSky

Member
Martinr36 said:
Ok this is with the tweaks that @Steveyg suggested (type of)

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WiFi (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 3000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx 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
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
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 [KUK-00003]
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
Firefox™
Keyboard & Mouse
ASUS TUF K1 Gaming Keyboard & M3 Mouse Bundle
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 - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £1,636.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/fWaYPHDVM7/
Click to expand...

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the build update, another great combination! Hit the budge on the nose again also.
I'll have a look over it tonight and look to get either of the two build updates ordered. The longer I wait the more change somethings going to end up out of stock or on a massive lead time.
Hoping this should be fine for 3 or so years without needing an upgrade, well apart from maybe the GPU..?

Cheers
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
DarkSky said:
Nice one! Thanks.

Ah ok cool that makes sense. So Games and Applications on the Fast drive, and any videos, music etc on the second drive.
The PC will mainly be used for gaming Warzone FPS games, and possibly Sim Racing in the future along with some basic music production and some video editing, in car track work, guitar videos, nothing too crazy.

Thanks for the info and the build update! The tweaks and changes now will save hassle in the future :)
Click to expand...
Nah not quite mate, don't get me wrong that second drive I selected is also extremely quick. Basically OS, start up programs, or important programs on drive 1

Games on Drive 2. the slower M.2 is still ridiculously fast, for photos and videos and stuff you're still better with a HDD. They are cheap for large amount of storage and load times don't affect videos or photos really

As for both these builds from me and Martin, no reason they shouldn't last 5-7 years or more with proper maintenance and upgrades in the GPU department. The build I suggested is very similar to my own build and I'm currently using it for 1440p @ 144Hz fairly comfortably
 
Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
with the drives i put in the HDD would be general storage (videos, photos etc), the really fast M.2 as Stevey said would be OS and programs, then the slower M.2 for the games
 
D

DarkSky

Member
Steveyg said:
Nah not quite mate, don't get me wrong that second drive I selected is also extremely quick. Basically OS, start up programs, or important programs on drive 1

Games on Drive 2. the slower M.2 is still ridiculously fast, for photos and videos and stuff you're still better with a HDD. They are cheap for large amount of storage and load times don't affect videos or photos really

As for both these builds from me and Martin, no reason they shouldn't last 5-7 years or more with proper maintenance and upgrades in the GPU department. The build I suggested is very similar to my own build and I'm currently using it for 1440p @ 144Hz fairly comfortably
Click to expand...
Ah right I see, hence 500gb being plenty for that drive. Magic thanks for clearing that up :)

That sounds ideal then, be nice to get away from the Xbox ones S!

I have a HP Elitebook 8770w (general use, no gaming, fitted a Samsung SSD which made a nice difference, surprisingly quick for the age of it now, with this pc I can use that more sparingly now.
 
D

DarkSky

Member
Martinr36 said:
with the drives i put in the HDD would be general storage (videos, photos etc), the really fast M.2 as Stevey said would be OS and programs, then the slower M.2 for the games
Click to expand...
Thanks, I think I've been underestimating how fast the "slow" drives actually are for the likes of games etc
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Martinr36 said:
the slow M.2's that we've both specced are 7 times faster than the fastest SSD
Click to expand...
I think you mean 7 times faster than the fastest HDD?

And that's just using the raw data transfer rate. SSDs do not suffer from data fragmentation resulting in increased (and multiple) seeks. Every byte in an SSD can be accessed in the same time, that's definitely not true of an HDD......
 
B

Bigfoot

Grand Master
ubuysa said:
I think you mean 7 times faster than the fastest HDD?

And that's just using the raw data transfer rate. SSDs do not suffer from data fragmentation resulting in increased (and multiple) seeks. Every byte in an SSD can be accessed in the same time, that's definitely not true of an HDD......
Click to expand...
The slower m.2 SSD has a read speed of 3500 against a SATA SSD of about 560, so probably 6.5x the speed of the SSD and 20x a fast HDD.
 
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