Looking for an affordable step up from my current laptop

[samken]

My current laptop is an MSI gp62 7rd, it has a GTX1050 GPU, i7-7700HQ processor and 8gb of DDR4 RAM. My monitor is 1080p and I use my laptop mainly to play simulation games such as X-Plane 11 and Kerbal Space Program, which it manages reasonably well (~23fps on high settings).

I am looking for an affordable (less than £900) desktop PC as a "first step up" from my current laptop. My plan is to overclock the i5-9600k to ~5ghz when gaming and add another 8gb of RAM in the future and upgrade the GPU to one of the RTX series when money allows.

The current spec I'm looking at is:

Case
CIT DARK SOUL BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-9600K (3.7 GHz) 9 MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME Z390-P: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
8GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1650 SUPER - HDMI
1st Storage Drive
512GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 120 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
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

Price: £864.00 including VAT and Delivery

Will this build be suitable for the two upgrades I have planned (GPU and RAM)? Is there anything there which is unnecessary which can lower the cost (given that I use a single 1080p monitor)? The max power requirements are just under 350 watts so is the 450 watt supply necessary?

Thank You

 

[Stephen M]

I would advise looking at an AMD build as they are miles ahead of Intel now and may be cheaper. No need for the more expensive thermal paste in a desk top as you have good cooling with it.

If you plan to upgrade a good power unit is needed as you will get next to nothing trying to sell an old one. Likewise the GPU, get the best you can afford now. RAM is different, just a case of putting more sticks in, providing the mobo allows for it. PCS have an open case policy so any upgrade you do is OK and you will not void the warranty.

 

[samken]

Thank you for that, I've removed the thermal paste and decided to get a slightly better case with more fans. The 1650s is about as much as I can afford right now. I've considered the AMD build, it is cheaper however it would be 4.3 ghz vs 5 ghz and for XP11 it's the number of cycles which counts.

I've changed the spec a bit since my previous post, this is what I'm now considering:

Case
PCS SPECTRUM RGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-9600K (3.7 GHz) 9 MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF Z390-PLUS GAMING: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
8GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1650 SUPER - HDMI
1st Storage Drive
512GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CV SERIES™ CV-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 240 Series RGB High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Price: £891.00 including VAT and Delivery