Help, I've Never Built PCs Before But I Bought One Anyway!

R

ReiTii

Member
So I've finally decided to upgrade from my 'mid-range' MSI OEM with a 1070 GTX to something... twice the price.


I needed a new PC for some projects that I earn a little bit of extra income on the side, namely using Unreal Engine 4.x, Photoshop, Maya, and all that good stuff that's used to develop games by both professionals and amateurs. At the same time I'd love to enjoy my games at a smooth 60 FPS at all times even on Ultra(Well, preferrably). Currently my monitor supports only 1080p but I am planning to upgrade to 1440p at some point(Not really interested in going higher than that). The games I am interested in are... Elden Ring, the mythical TES6 that has been promised, and of course a heavily modded skyrim with all the bells and whistles that come with the ENBs.

So what I need is a workstation / gaming PC hybrid that can handle both well, gaming and work, but given my budget I did not go for the absolute best parts if prices are anything to go by. So without further ado I'd appreciate it if anyone with some experience could tell me if this seems like a reasonable 'build' for my purposes. Particularly the case choice but I was told that two large fans instead of three smaller ones at the front ought to be a bit better for cooling.


Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERCASE H500 ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre European Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro Series High Performance 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
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/rRx4v3jG4t/

Current price is 2441,0 Eur, I'm willing to spend 2,600 in total. Don't mind going slightly over that if some part would really need replacing for a good reason.

P.S. I was actually aiming for RX 6800 but the website no longer allowed me to place an order for one so I settled for a 6700 XT... still, considering my current PC is supplied with a 1070 it should be a very considerable upgrade if I'm not mistaken, especially if I'll be stuck with a 1080p monitor for a little while yet.
 
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Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Can you let us know what budget is and also post the configuration link for the above spec, you'll find it right at the bottom of the spec
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
It's a pretty solid build. You can upgrade it considerably, though, for only a little bit more. If we downgrade the motherboard to the Tuf X570 and lose the special thermal compound, then upgrade the storage (a 500TB 980 for ultimate boot speed, a 1TB Corsair SSD for game stuff that benefits from speed, and a hard drive for general storage/archive stuff), the WiFi card and the power supply. This is a net €48 increase in cost (I'm guessing you're in the Republic of Ireland for delivery purposes) once we also add a better warranty.

Monitors that would suit this would include the Samsung G5 and the AOC Q27G2U, both under £300.

Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERCASE H500 ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB CORSAIR MP400 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 3480 MB/R, 1880 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre European Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro 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
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
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
2 - 3 DAY DELIVERY TO REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: €2,499.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/JnfH9qKS4N/
 
R

ReiTii

Member
Thank you for the answer!

Does the current motherboard have no particular advantages I'd want to take advantage of? To me its the most obscure main component of them all. All I know is that I'd need it to be able to fit two M.2s but I have no clue as to their performance or temperature regulations etc.
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
ReiTii said:
Thank you for the answer!

Does the current motherboard have no particular advantages I'd want to take advantage of? To me its the most obscure main component of them all. All I know is that I'd need it to be able to fit two M.2s but I have no clue as to their performance or temperature regulations etc.
Click to expand...

It has no performance advantages in and of itself. The main difference is in its power delivery and in the cooling of the power delivery. For the 5800X, the Tuf motherboard is plenty. The extra power that the Strix model can give would be useful for overclocking or for a more powerful CPU such as the 5900X.

What you need from a motherboard is for it to allow your other components to function at their maximum: in your case, the Tuf board will do that just fine.

I believe all the full-size AMD boards you can configure on PCS have two M.2 slots, and X570 means they are both gen 4, so you're absolutely fine on that front.
 
jamiephillips909

jamiephillips909

Godlike
5800x is a very hot chip would highley recommend the cooling series that takes advantage of icue software !

5600x - 67 degree Celsius

5800x - 80 +/- degree Celsius range

5900x - around the 70 +/- degree Celsius range

Source LTT videos
 
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jamiephillips909

jamiephillips909

Godlike
sck451 said:
Which cooler is that for, @jamiephillips909?
Click to expand...
240mm AIO does not specify brand but I have a 5800x and cannot stress enough that it needs a decent aio cooler more so then a 5900x it throws of some seriouse heat at full load and im one of the lucky ones with a chip on the lower end of the thermals for 5800x some pepole with air cooling have reported idle temps of 70 its a seriouse beast ! Before I owned the 5800x I would recommend h100 series now I think the the cappelex should be the standard the 5800x is designed for high thermals but was shocked at how hot it can actually get !
 
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R

ReiTii

Member
Overheating issues do scare me and are a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I've actually been using 'gaming' laptops for the longest of time and they'd always bottleneck due to heat causing stuttering no matter what settings I was playing at.

Ofc another goal is to buy a PC that will be upgrade proof for the next 5-6 years at least so I was wondering if itd be worth keeping the more expensive motherboard in case I will upgrade to ryzen 9 5950 for example? And will this particular case allow for graphics card updates(the most important part, of course :D) and fit something as big as a 3090 in it?

@Ash_

What are your temps at under load and how much do you overclock? Just curious. :D It does seem like 5800x has a bad rep for overheating but pricewise and such it does feel like its a good fit for me right now.
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
ReiTii said:
Ofc another goal is to buy a PC that will be upgrade proof for the next 5-6 years at least so I was wondering if itd be worth keeping the more expensive motherboard in case I will upgrade to ryzen 9 5950 for example? And will this particular case allow for graphics card updates(the most important part, of course :D) and fit something as big as a 3090 in it?.
Click to expand...

The case is fine for the 3090/6800XT/any of the big massive graphics cards around today.

The motherboard you'd want for the 5950X is the Crosshair one (or maybe the Strix if you're feeling optimistic/don't mind losing a bit of performance at the top end). That's an extra €170 for what is probably an unlikely upgrade. The Tuf X570 is ideal for the 5800X, and probably OK for the 5900X, which is a more likely upgrade unless you're getting into heavy content creation.

Your build is ideal for future upgrades.
 
A

Ash_

Master Poster
ReiTii said:
Overheating issues do scare me and are a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I've actually been using 'gaming' laptops for the longest of time and they'd always bottleneck due to heat causing stuttering no matter what settings I was playing at.

Ofc another goal is to buy a PC that will be upgrade proof for the next 5-6 years at least so I was wondering if itd be worth keeping the more expensive motherboard in case I will upgrade to ryzen 9 5950 for example? And will this particular case allow for graphics card updates(the most important part, of course :D) and fit something as big as a 3090 in it?

@Ash_

What are your temps at under load and how much do you overclock? Just curious. :D It does seem like 5800x has a bad rep for overheating but pricewise and such it does feel like its a good fit for me right now.
Click to expand...
A H150i keeps a 5800X nice and cool, never seen temps over 65 and when i play games like football manager, i think it sits below 50. I don’t overclock the CPU, as AMD have done a wonderful job of optimising the CPU, so it will boost as much as it can - providing the adequate cooling is there
 
D

Deleted member 17413

Guest
The strix also offers better cooling for the board as a whole compared to the Tuf, and I think part of that is heat syncs for both M.2 drives, it is a higher quality board in general but M.2 temps themselves tend to be pretty stable, and I only saw a couple of degrees difference when I swapped one of mine across to another computer.

I think the only downside to a H150 is the obvious size of it, and likely to be front mounting as well with the cases that can take it.
Good news in they've got a lot fo their range back at the moment, and its listed as £133 on overclocked builds, if you contact PCS I would imagine they would do it as a custom amendment for you assuming it fits in the case. (Edit - just seen its on normal builds as well)

When you mentioned upgrading the cpu, the current boards are looking likely to support a couple of new series releases yet, so def worth sticking with the 570 board as it should be more capable of supporting whatever you upgrade to. But you wouldnt increase it to a 5950 or equivelent in whichever series it is that you end up with

CPU's are almost banded by what use ( Building Guide explains well about parts when specing) so you would pick up the best one in that tier for your use. For example, 3600X is replaced by the 5600X in the current series, so the current 5800X might be a 6800X or 7800X etc.
When you eventually get to a time when it needs it, just find the highest equivelent that you can replace it with (which is normally gonna be a few years old and cost less by then) Holding onto the Strix would probably be handy if thats your plan.... but i'd factor in the idea of completely new motherboards etc when DDR5 eventually comes round and whether youre likely to then jump ship or carry on with it for a few more years still.
 
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A

Ash_

Master Poster
Corsair 5000 series cases can mount the H150 on the top and have fantastic cooling. The 5000X is a lot more expensive than the 5000D Airflow now also, i’d certainly say a 5000D airflow + 3 LL120’s + H150i EC is a fantastic setup
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
While you're not wrong, @sibun1, I think there is something you're potentially missing, which is the potential for second-hand components that could be a significant upgrade. I have an X570 board and a 5600X at the moment. I expect that, when the new generation of CPUs comes out with DDR5 etc. and when the current silicon shortage has ended, there will be a lot of second-hand Ryzen 5000 chips available at very decent prices, probably along with DDR4 memory. It's definitely in my mind that, at some point a couple of years down the line, my 5600X might be replaced by a 5900X.

Obviously this depends on exactly what happens in terms of future sockets and whether there's another generation of AM4/DDR4 Ryzen processors before the big upgrade, but it's certainly conceivable.
 
D

Deleted member 17413

Guest
sck451 said:
While you're not wrong, @sibun1, I think there is something you're potentially missing, which is the potential for second-hand components that could be a significant upgrade. I have an X570 board and a 5600X at the moment. I expect that, when the new generation of CPUs comes out with DDR5 etc. and when the current silicon shortage has ended, there will be a lot of second-hand Ryzen 5000 chips available at very decent prices, probably along with DDR4 memory. It's definitely in my mind that, at some point a couple of years down the line, my 5600X might be replaced by a 5900X.

Obviously this depends on exactly what happens in terms of future sockets and whether there's another generation of AM4/DDR4 Ryzen processors before the big upgrade, but it's certainly conceivable.
Click to expand...
I get that, for example I have a 3800XT and things like a 5800X (or pushing it for a 5900X) would be a good leap to make if I found a bargain. But I wouldnt want to go as far as a 5950X, it wouldnt really be as much as a gain that way.
(I was also trying to put it in a clean way showing the comparisons)

I think when DDR5 does come round, I agree theres a likely shower of secondhand that will come, but i'm thinking theres going to be at least another round from AMD before that happens. Im a little suspicious that Intel may have partly dropped the ball on the 11th gen to focus more on 12th... which I think i've seen stuff showing it runs DDR5?
 
A

Ash_

Master Poster
The CAS latency on DDR5 i have seen, would make it wholly unsuitable for gaming right now. Anything over CAS 18 is poor and gaming benefits from higher mhz over 3600 are almost 0 and actually starts getting worse as the CAS goes up. 3600CL18 out does 4400CL20 and DDR5 is meant to be like 6000CL80 🤣
 
R

ReiTii

Member
Okay so based on -all- the advice so far what if I'd downgrade the motherboard to the TUF in exchange for the H150i elite capellix cooler?

Also what's the real difference between the power supplies? CORSAIR 850W RM vs CORSAIR 850W RMx. The latter is a tad more expensive but if it makes sense to upgrade to that it wouldnt be a huge deal. I don't really need hard drives since i can scavenge my current PC for them and I also have an external SSD(Samsung T7, 1 TB) that should perform better than any HDD as well. I just need to make sure the M.2 would fit some games and ue4 on it along with some projects.

Also I have to say that aesthetically I think Coolermaster Masterbox TD500 looks a bit more appealing than the one I have selected but I've been told that COOLERMASTER MASTERCASE H500 might be slightly better for keeping the system cool due to two large fans rather than three smaller ones etc would anyone know if that's true :D
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
RM is a good model PSU but the RMx is brilliant. It has better fans and components making it much quieter and it also runs much cooler.

It'll last many many years due to excellent build quality.

The RM is fine but I'd always recommend the RMx for the sake of a few £ you're getting a much much better piece of kit
 
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