New computer build spec (Gaming)

[keithbeaks]

This is a slightly confusing thread. Possibly best to cancel the original order, think about the monitor/GPU advice and also consider new GPU's are out in the autumn/winter.

Samsung are also releasing some high quality monitors, although curved which you said you don't like, but might bring down the prices of other monitors which would go well with whatever GPU you go with.

I think you need to cancel your first order first though and get that out of the way. Call pcs today if you can.

 

[Deleted member 17413]

I spoke to them this morning and they are gonna look into it for me, he did say they normally cancel then redo, but he is gonna speak to his supervisors and see if anything is possible. Ive emailed through the full plan and end spec, no reply yet but fingers crossed.

 

[robin h 25]

I may have found a monitor that suites your needs...
27"
1440p
144hz,
Flat panel and IPS,

Whether it's any good or not, i'm not sure, here a link to it...
https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-27gl83a-b-gaming-monitor

The same monitor on Amazon,
https://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-Ultrage...WeCP&pd_rd_wg=ndc1l&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_d

It wont be in stock on amazon until 23th July but its on a Limited time offer right now, at £387 from £439.99.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I may have found a monitor that suites your needs...
27"
1440p
144hz,
Flat panel and IPS,

Whether it's any good or not, i'm not sure, here a link to it...
https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-27gl83a-b-gaming-monitor

The same monitor on Amazon,
https://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-Ultrage...WeCP&pd_rd_wg=ndc1l&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_d

It wont be in stock on amazon until 23th July but its on a Limited time offer right now, at £387 from £439.99.

It’s a decent monitor

 

[Deleted member 17413]

Ive found a couple of reviews for it, it scores really well, https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/lg/27gl83a-b (LG Ultragear 27GL83A-B 27 Inch Gaming Monitor QHD IPS). Its significantly cheaper than the AOC AGON from PCS, but that reviews very well too and has a couple of bonus features and proper G-Sync support.

The LG is a nice find though, thank you.... I guess the question is, if i can get the AOC and im ok with the price, is it a better choice?
G-Sync is better for gaming at higher FPS than Freesync isnt it?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ive found a couple of reviews for it, it scores really well, https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/lg/27gl83a-b (LG Ultragear 27GL83A-B 27 Inch Gaming Monitor QHD IPS). Its significantly cheaper than the AOC AGON from PCS, but that reviews very well too and has a couple of bonus features and proper G-Sync support.

The LG is a nice find though, thank you.... I guess the question is, if i can get the AOC and im ok with the price, is it a better choice?
G-Sync is better for gaming at higher FPS than Freesync isnt it?

GSync and Freesync are very much the same, it's just that AMD don't ask a fee for licensing whereas nVidia do, so you'll see less GSync screens and they're much more expensive. But it's essentially just a different branding on the same technology.

 

[Deleted member 17413]

Ok, the price drop would mean i could squeeze slightly high RAM speeds and prob up the M.2 SSD to the 1Tb model, which is faster too...
The AOC does have 165MHz as a refresh rate along with being QHD/IPS though. Definate food for thought, i'm still waiting on PCS to see if they can switch it or not so will see whats said.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ok, the price drop would mean i could squeeze slightly high RAM speeds and prob up the M.2 SSD to the 1Tb model, which is faster too...
The AOC does have 165MHz as a refresh rate along with being QHD/IPS though. Definate food for thought, i'm still waiting on PCS to see if they can switch it or not so will see whats said.

IPS is worth a higher price if that's important to you.

 

[Deleted member 17413]

I did have another thread with an Intel setup, but after advice from here I have re-worked the build.
I want a system thats going to comfortably run any games currently out there on high setting ( or will be released in next few years )
I will also use if for things like office/multimedia and occational amateur video editing (doesnt need to be high spec for video editing).

Im after a high performance and quality spec, and also focused on a good monitor that is also an investment, the only changes I can see me making to this would be the posible addition of a 1Tb Firecuda M.2 SSD in 6 months to a year, currently have two 480Gb SSD's I will add in myself when I get the system, and I may add a soundcard depending on what the onboard audio is like. Im not expecting to need to change any components already in is for a good few years.

I looked at a LG screen that was recommended and it looks great, but I settled on the AOC as it also has excellent reviews, higher refresh rate and more built in features. Its about another £170 in price, but I think its worth it. I went for the Strix motherboard as it gives plenty of options to upgrade/add if I want to, and the visuals with it being a glass sided case and other RGB features like the cooler.

I want it to look good, have excellent performance and be flexible enough to upgrade in a few years too, I know im paying a premium on things like the motherboard to do this, but i'm ok with that.

Case
CORSAIR 275R AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i RGB PLATINUM 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)
Wireless/Wired Networking
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 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
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
Firefox™
Monitor
AOC AGON AG271QG 27" Gsync Gaming Monitor
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 18 to 20 working days

With the reconfigure link, please note the case i have and the power unit is not available, I had a previous order which has the case I want and that will be switched over to the new build, and the 750w RMx is due in on the 7th July, this adds £1 in total to the quoted price as the case is £2 less, the PSU is £3 more.

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/C6vmBEQMRK/

 

[Scott]

I've moved your post over as there was no need/reason to start a new thread. Always best to keep all the background discussion complete so that anyone viewing the thread can get an idea of the whole picture and how you arrived at your decision. This helps others understand reasoning

 

[Scott]

The build looks spot on. I think your motherboard choice is completely misguided as it doesn't offer you anything that the B550 doesn't. That being said, you've not cut corners anywhere else to make way for it so everything is spot on.

The drive selection is perfect too, with what you have in mind for the future. One thing to note, 500GB SSDs (the one's you are going to add) aren't that big for storage so it may be worth just selling them on and purchasing a conventional storage drive in their place, with the Firecuda taking the place of fast storage.

 

[Deleted member 17413]

The two SSDS are a Kingston 480GB HyperX SAVAGE SSD (upto 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW) & SanDisk 480GB Ultra II SSD (upto 550MB/sR | 500MB/sW) so give a total 1.5Tb space.

The M.2 will have the operating system on and games for now, with the two regular SSD's being storage, after 6 months or so (so hopefully price will come down a bit and I can save a little) I would get a 1Tb firecuda M.2.

Could easily leave those older SSD's in as just extra storage, but then have the 500Gb Samsung M.2 with the operating system, and the 1Tb Firecuda M.2 for all other games and programs. (or as you say drop the two SSD's and just add one bulk storage). I can see myself using more of what the motherboard offers as I go along, so upgrade with a new M.2, possible soundcard, should I ever switch to twin graphics cards for example. Its got the capacity to do it all comfortably and I do want something that looks polished, with that case and the cost i want to be able to feel its premium too if that makes sense.
I know thats a bit of a luxury/self-indulgent.

Want to really thank you guys for all the help, i really do feel much more confident/excited about this build and i feel the components all support eachother, no bottlenecking going on.

I really, really should of come here first! Might recommend PCS make it a requirement to check the spec before allowing you to press send lol

 

[Scott]

I'm not against the choice of motherboard, just your reasoning that's flawed if you know what I mean. I too would choose the STRIX if I was building, purely because I like it though.

The B550 allows for any addition of a sound card (which is unlikely to ever be required nowadays as all motherboards cover high level audio processing), the B550 allows a 2nd M2 drive without any issues at all.

Regarding dual GPUs, noone goes down that route anymore. SLI is a thing of the past that often costs performance in games rather than add to it. You would need to be a heavy Octane user (or some sort of data processing) to make use of stacked GPUs, even then I'm not sure SLI is even required.

 

[Deleted member 17413]

Ah I see.

I did look at the TUF B550, I just didnt like it (if that helps lol)
I guess GPU's really have come along in the past decade...been on a laptop for all that but everyone I know who was building a desktop would rave about twin cards. As you can see from how i started, i'm not exactly up to speed on all these bits!

I shall remember that, thank you.

Part of the reason i havent ordered a soundcard with it is to check out the onboard first.
I do get picky with sound, and having been on laptops the onboard's not really that good with what ive had before, so wasnt sure what to expect but the reviews on the SupremeFX are all promising.

 

[Scott]

Ah I see.

I did look at the TUF B550, I just didnt like it (if that helps lol)

That's as good a reason as any

 

[Deleted member 17413]

Well im now just waiting on the confirmation email and a bill for £30 (difference in total price between what I had and what ive switched it to)
Ive been very lucky (possibly because i've been a customer for a long time) and they agreed to switching the spec, just asked for me to confirm the final configuration before his supervisor changes it for me.

I have a couple of last questions;
I have an active licence for Bitdefender (used to be Bulldog but fed up with the tactics and spam they start up everytime renew period came round). It covers up to 3 PC's so I can easily install onto the new one.
I know defender comes built in, but BitDefender came highly recommended out of a choice of various programs, although ive seen some posts saying that defender is more than capable.
As I already have it, it only really matters if using it is worse than defender....but how good is defender?
When it expires, is it worth me actually buying any security suite? (virus/malware etc)

I do occationally use things like Tor (bitdefender has a VPN built in which I use with Tor) and I use streaming sites etc so I do benefit from having something to help protect me.

I have Win 10 Pro already on my existing laptop (Octane one from PCS), but no software (laptop came with recovery drive partition).
I have a microsoft account which has the licence registered, and I can download from there, but I dont know if i can load it onto the new one?
Wanted to check if I am right in thinking the licence is locked to part of a configuration (like cpu/motherboard)?
I do have a new one on the AMD build, im assuming i need one but wanted to confirm.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Well im now just waiting on the confirmation email and a bill for £30 (difference in total price between what I had and what ive switched it to)
Ive been very lucky (possibly because i've been a customer for a long time) and they agreed to switching the spec, just asked for me to confirm the final configuration before his supervisor changes it for me.

I have a couple of last questions;
I have an active licence for Bitdefender (used to be Bulldog but fed up with the tactics and spam they start up everytime renew period came round). It covers up to 3 PC's so I can easily install onto the new one.
I know defender comes built in, but BitDefender came highly recommended out of a choice of various programs, although ive seen some posts saying that defender is more than capable.
As I already have it, it only really matters if using it is worse than defender....but how good is defender?
When it expires, is it worth me actually buying any security suite? (virus/malware etc)

I do occationally use things like Tor (bitdefender has a VPN built in which I use with Tor) and I use streaming sites etc so I do benefit from having something to help protect me.

I have Win 10 Pro already on my existing laptop (Octane one from PCS), but no software (laptop came with recovery drive partition).
I have a microsoft account which has the licence registered, and I can download from there, but I dont know if i can load it onto the new one?
Wanted to check if I am right in thinking the licence is locked to part of a configuration (like cpu/motherboard)?
I do have a new one on the AMD build, im assuming i need one but wanted to confirm.

If you're no longer going to be using your Octane then you can transfer the license to the new build, the license will be tied to your microsoft account. You can only use a license on one PC though concurrently, so you can't have one license and use it on multiple PC's.

If bitdefender has an included VPN, then it's worth utilising that until your license expires. If it were me, I wouldn't renew though, then just use defender which is excellent and buy a dedicated VPN which would be much more secure anyway.

 

[Deleted member 17413]

So on the online account, I remove the laptop to free up the licence, and then I will be able to use a boot USB on the new build to instal windows? Wont be using the laptop again is quite literally dying.

Whats your view on defender vs BitDefender and the antivirus/mal/adware packages?

(edit - sorry, didnt spot you had answered about that above, also emailed them about removing Win 10, saves £140 I think, should be fairly straightfoward putting Win 10 on myself and then I'll use the license from the laptop)

 

[SpyderTracks]

So on the online account, I remove the laptop to free up the licence, and then I will be able to use a boot USB on the new build to instal windows? Wont be using the laptop again is quite literally dying.

No, all you need to do is install windows onto the new computer and log in with your microsoft account, that will automatically tie it to the new PC.

As above for defender vs bitdefender.

 

[Scott]

If you aren't going to use the laptop then you can transfer the license. You just link it to your M$ account and then deregister your laptop. Then when you boot up the desktop, sign in, you will be good to go