Hi, I wonder if anyone can give me an opinion on this build? I'm also considering just buying a pre-built Vector Pro, which would be a bit more expensive but has a better CPU.
Let's say my absolute maximum budget is £1700. I use two monitors -- a 2560x1440 75 Hz Iiyama 'Silver Crow' and a 15-inch 1920x1080 60 Hz MSI portable, both of which are on HDMI switches shared with my laptop docking station. The most demanding games I play are Townscaper and Microsoft Solitaire, which run fine on my ancient 2GB nvidia card; what drives my desire to have a real video card is my interest in 3d fractal rendering (and if I had the wherewithal I'd probably have another go at Blender). I want enough memory and processing power to run Linux in a VM with decent performance for coding, and it would be nice if the machine was fairly quiet when idle or doing everyday tasks (Excel, mostly).
One constraint is that the case has to fit in the 28-cm wide hutch under my desk, which rules out most of the gaming cases. (I know, I know. But my current tower has done fine for ten years in there, and there is absolutely nowhere else I can put it.) I don't want coloured lights inside the case, and I do like the look of the Fractal North wooden-fronted ones.
I'm slightly frustrated about the need to replace the current machine (16GB, 4th-gen Core i7 and an entry-level gpu from the same era) because it doesn't qualify for Windows 11, but if I have a desktop at all it needs to run Windows and Office with proper security, so I either replace it in the next six months or so or do without. (I have three fairly powerful laptops, so a desktop is a nice-to-have rather than a necessity; doing without is an option if this sort of build isn't viable.)
If I buy a computer now, I would like it to last (in the sense of functioning at the level I need now, not keeping up with the latest and greatest) for 7-10 years.
Case
FRACTAL NORTH TG GAMING CASE (WHITE)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.8GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (AM4, DDR4, PCIe 4.0)
Memory (RAM)
32GB PCS PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB ZOTAC GEFORCE RTX 4060 Ti TWIN EDGE - 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 Storage Drive
2TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
USB 3.0 EXTERNAL SD/MICRO SD CARD READER
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CX SERIES™ CX-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
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
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6E AX210 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 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
Firefox™
Monitor Cables
2m DisplayPort Adapter Cable - DP to HDMI
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 5 to 7 working days
Price: £1,449.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-home-office/YWXPMf3U2s/
Let's say my absolute maximum budget is £1700. I use two monitors -- a 2560x1440 75 Hz Iiyama 'Silver Crow' and a 15-inch 1920x1080 60 Hz MSI portable, both of which are on HDMI switches shared with my laptop docking station. The most demanding games I play are Townscaper and Microsoft Solitaire, which run fine on my ancient 2GB nvidia card; what drives my desire to have a real video card is my interest in 3d fractal rendering (and if I had the wherewithal I'd probably have another go at Blender). I want enough memory and processing power to run Linux in a VM with decent performance for coding, and it would be nice if the machine was fairly quiet when idle or doing everyday tasks (Excel, mostly).
One constraint is that the case has to fit in the 28-cm wide hutch under my desk, which rules out most of the gaming cases. (I know, I know. But my current tower has done fine for ten years in there, and there is absolutely nowhere else I can put it.) I don't want coloured lights inside the case, and I do like the look of the Fractal North wooden-fronted ones.
I'm slightly frustrated about the need to replace the current machine (16GB, 4th-gen Core i7 and an entry-level gpu from the same era) because it doesn't qualify for Windows 11, but if I have a desktop at all it needs to run Windows and Office with proper security, so I either replace it in the next six months or so or do without. (I have three fairly powerful laptops, so a desktop is a nice-to-have rather than a necessity; doing without is an option if this sort of build isn't viable.)
If I buy a computer now, I would like it to last (in the sense of functioning at the level I need now, not keeping up with the latest and greatest) for 7-10 years.
Case
FRACTAL NORTH TG GAMING CASE (WHITE)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.8GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (AM4, DDR4, PCIe 4.0)
Memory (RAM)
32GB PCS PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB ZOTAC GEFORCE RTX 4060 Ti TWIN EDGE - 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 Storage Drive
2TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
USB 3.0 EXTERNAL SD/MICRO SD CARD READER
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CX SERIES™ CX-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
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
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6E AX210 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 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
Firefox™
Monitor Cables
2m DisplayPort Adapter Cable - DP to HDMI
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 5 to 7 working days
Price: £1,449.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-home-office/YWXPMf3U2s/