New PC Build

[Robbo]

So back in 2011 I bought this:

COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H67-M LX SI: MICRO ATX MAINBOARD, LG 1155, SATA 6.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD6950 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DirectX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD6402AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TX SERIES (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£78)

Which I am now looking to replace. My budget is about £650. Other then general use it will be used for light PC gaming (e.g Civilization - as I use my PS4 most of the time) and the odd bit of Photoshop. I don't have a 1080p monitor at the moment but would like the option to use one in the future.

So I have come up with this at £662:

Case
PCS 6003B BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-8400 (2.8GHz) 9MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF H310M-PLUS GAMING: Micro-ATX, DDR4, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
8GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ RX 550 - HDMI, DP, DVI - DX® 12
1st Storage Drive
250GB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 2.5" SSD, (upto 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
USB 3.0 EXTERNAL SD/MICRO SD CARD READER
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY

Or with AMD this is £636:

Case
PCS 6003B BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 2500X Quad Core CPU (3.6GHz-4GHz/10MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME A320M-K: Micro-ATX, AM4, USB 3.0, 6GB/s
Memory (RAM)
8GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB AMD RADEON™ RX 570 - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st Storage Drive
250GB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 2.5" SSD, (upto 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
USB 3.0 EXTERNAL SD/MICRO SD CARD READER
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY

I'd be grateful for any thoughts as to which build is better (read faster) and any suggested tweaks to the spec. Many thanks.

 

[Oussebon]

Don't buy either.

£650 isn't nearly enough to get a decent, balanced system that would give you a modern upgrade over what you currently have.

Your Intel build has a pretty rubbish GPU, while your AMD build has a below-par CPU, both have slow, single channel RAM, and budget end motherboards with painfully limited upgrade options.

Upgrade your existing system instead.

Buy a new graphics card for your existing PC (RX570 should do nicely). You can get these for ~£115, maybe less even.

Get an SSD. You can pick up very decent 1TB ones for ~£100 e.g. Crucial MX500 / WD Blue (3D Nand version), and smaller ones for less of course.

And 2x4gb / 2x8gb RAM for your current system, depending on the pricing.

Edit: The first place I looked was selling 16gb (2x8gb) DDR3 for under £50, so 16gb RAM should be entirely doable.

So that's ~£265.

 

[Robbo]

Thanks. I was going to buy an SSD and not upgrade but didn’t think about the graphics card/ RAM as well. I’ll look into doing that - or find a bigger budget

 

[Robbo]

So I've been thinking this over and would still prefer to upgrade to a new PC. I've upped my budget a bit and wonder if these are a bit more balanced:

Intel version £956

Case
PCS 6003B BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-9500 (3.0GHz) 9MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING II: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB AMD RADEON™ RX 570 - 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 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
USB 3.0 EXTERNAL SD/MICRO SD CARD READER
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
STANDARD 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 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 PORT (1 x TYPE A, 1 x TYPE C) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS

Or AMD for £942:

Case
PCS 6003B BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X470-PLUS GAMING (DDR4, 6Gb/s, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB AMD RADEON™ RX 570 - 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 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 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)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 PORT (1 x TYPE A, 1 x TYPE C) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS

Again, grateful for any views.

 

[Oussebon]

The R5 3600 build. Similar performance, more futureproof CPU and platform, better platform and features.

Get a better case, though. e.g. Fractal Focus G. The above case is not very good for airflow, or upgrade options.

2 PORT (1 x TYPE A, 1 x TYPE C) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS

The motherboard and case provide a lot of USB ports already. Why this? You should probably drop it.

You could also get the Intel 660p SSD if you needed to save a bit more so as to afford the better case.

 

[Robbo]

Thanks again.

Yeah the motherboard has a usb c port so I can happily drop the card. I have also been playing about with various storage configurations (like dropping the M.2 for a normal SSD) so I’ll factor in your case recommendation and see what I come up with.

 

[Robbo]

Actually using the intel m.2 ssd, with the case you suggested and a 2TB hdd is the same cost as the spec I’d outlined above (less the usb card as well). So I think I’ll be going with that

Thanks again.

 

[Oussebon]

None of the "normal" SSDs seem worth buying, because the Intel 660p is generally faster while being a similar sort of price.

Edit: Which I see you may have just noticed!

 

[Robbo]

So this is now in building hopefully see it next week! I’m now looking at monitors so any suggestions on a monitor that would match up well with this spec? Ideally no more than £200.

 

[Oussebon]

any favourite games or genres of games?

 

[Robbo]

Anything FPS or RPG (Borderlands, Fallout, POE, Skyrim) tends to be on PS4. So generally games that you really need a mouse to play (in my view anyway) like Civilisation. I may head back into Eve Online at some point as well - but I used to play that with the settings dialled down anyway.

I was looking at some of the Samsung curved monitors with Freesync but not sure if I need 144hz refresh rate.

 

[Oussebon]

Sorry for the V delayed reply. If you're still looking for monitors, and it's mostly for strategy games especially thing that aren't super fast paced competitive RTS ones, and shopping with a £200 budget there's a strong argument for a 1440p 75hz screen.

e.g. AOC Q3279VWFD8 31.5 which also has freesync

 

[Robbo]

Lol. No problem.