New build advice

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chrroc308

Member
Hi guys,

what do you think of the following gaming PC configuration for an 11-year old little guy, he's currently playing on a PS4 but wants a PC to play games like Rust. The monitor is an AOC 27G2U/BK 27" Full HD IPS 144Hz. Budget in around £1100.

Case
PCS SPECTRUM RGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
256GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 150 Series High Performance CPU Cooler

Thanks for any help!
Chris
 
D

DarTon

Well-known member
The budget is actually fairly tight given the very high current price of discrete GPUs. So we have to make compromises. I think a nicely balanced, fully upgradeable system is probably around £125-150 more than this

This is probably as low as we can go without making too many sacrifices

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window) - Good case with 3 fans. For £3 the Lian Li Lancool 215 is excellent.
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-12400F (2.5GHz) 18MB Cache - Excellent 12th Gen CPU which is as fast as AMD Ryzen 5600X
Motherboard
GIGABYTE B660M DS3H DDR4 (rev. 1.0) : LGA1700, DDR4, USB 3.2 - This board is fine but doesn't have PCIe5 support. Ideal board is the TUF B660 but that is more expensive
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB) - 16GB of fast RAM is plenty
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 SUPER - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready! - Very solid GPU for 1080p gaming
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2200 MB/R, 1500 MB/W) - Ideally want 2 drives, 500GB for OS/programs and 1TB for games but this is the compromise to fit close to £1,100
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET - PSU gives some room for upgrades of GPU later
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 RGB V3 Series High Performance CPU Cooler - Simple tower cooler is fine for relatively cool CPU
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 - Wifi 6 card; delete to save £19 if don't need
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 [KK3-00027]
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™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) - £5 for better warranty
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Price: £1,112.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/dtZCeCZxXV/
 
Last edited:
C

chrroc308

Member
Hi DarTon,

thanks a lot for the detailed comments. I've updated the original spec with a slightly higher budget, trying to allow for some capacity for upgrades in the future (especially CPU ang GPU). This is what I'm coming to:

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 SUPER - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3000MB/sR | 1600MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 RGB V3 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (AMD)
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 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™
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 8 to 10 working days
Price: £1,229.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/TaG3xC!RZq/

A couple questions if you don't mind:
- I've stuck to an AMD processor, to be honest the Desktop Building Guide is pretty damning regarding Intel :) Is it still true in 2022?
- Would it make sense to pick the 5600G CPU for £20 more? Wouldn't the integrated graphics processor be essentially unused?
- You mention PCIe5 support for the motherboard but none of the AMD-based ones seem to support it at that time. Is it going to be a limitation in the future?

Thanks a lot for your help!
Chris
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
The 3600 is very old now and is vastly out performed by the 12400f

Darton put together a very solid spec mate, with a slightly higher budget you're better going with his build and putting the extra money into the ASUS B660 TUF motherboard and a better PSU. Ideally you want 750W Txm as a minimum
 
D

DarTon

Well-known member
That Desktop Building Guide has been rendered obsolete by Intel 12th gen CPUs. The 3600 is Zen 2 so also not even most recent gen AMD.
The iGPU would be unused in the 5600G. Moreover, the 5600G has some disadvantages vs. the 5600X, albeit it's better than the 3600.

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X or Intel 12400F are the two CPUs you want. Both are very good, and of comparable performance but the Intel is cheaper. PCIe5 is a nice to have, mainly for an eventual GPU upgrade but right now it's not useful.

This is what I would consider a perfectly solid 1080p gaming system. Longer term this will happily become a 1440p gaming system with just a GPU upgrade. If this is too expensive we can slice a bit off.

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE - Best case really for the price and can accomodate bigger CPUs and GPUs
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-12400F (2.5GHz) 18MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B660-PLUS WIFI D4: ATX, LGA1700, USB 3.2, SATA 6GBs - ARGB Ready - Integrated wifi and can take a decent CPU upgrade
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 SUPER - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3000MB/sR | 1600MB/sW) - Faster M2 SSD for OS/main programs
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2200 MB/R, 1500 MB/W) - Fast M2 SSD for games/data
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET - Modular PSU, 750W gives some upgrade room for GPU
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 RGB V3 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
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™
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 8 to 10 working days
Price: £1,268.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/MbKENvbP5G/
 
C

chrroc308

Member
Hi guys,

thanks for the valuable advice, this looks like a nice config indeed, and I'm thinking it's probably worth shelling out a little bit more for something that will last and be upgradable in the future.

Last question from me, I can see that for £12 more I could go to liquid cooling, does it make any sense, or would it only be unnecessary additional complexity with this case?

Thanks!
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
chrroc308 said:
Hi guys,

thanks for the valuable advice, this looks like a nice config indeed, and I'm thinking it's probably worth shelling out a little bit more for something that will last and be upgradable in the future.

Last question from me, I can see that for £12 more I could go to liquid cooling, does it make any sense, or would it only be unnecessary additional complexity with this case?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
You can go for budget liquid cooling. That would be a bad choice. Budget air cooling is a better bet than budget liquid cooling, for reliability and noise reasons. At a higher budget, liquid cooling becomes more attractive.
 
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