Old Dad specs gaming PC for Son - have I made a hash of it?

M

mdroyle

Member
Advice / pointers welcome - I tried to ensure the components will work together to produce a good performance without over-specifying... and have some room to add capacity when needed..

Case PCS 6003B BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
MotherboardGIGABYTE X570 GAMING X: ATX (USB 3.2 Gen 1, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st Storage DriveNOT REQUIRED
1st M.2 SSD Drive1TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 520 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 5000MB/R, 4400MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY DriveNOT REQUIRED
Power SupplyCORSAIR 650W CV SERIES™ CV-650 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor CoolingPCS FrostFlow 100 V3 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (AMD)
Thermal PasteARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound CardONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network CardWIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt OptionsMIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating SystemWindows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
It could use some work mate but it isn't a terrible effort. Can you let us know the budget and what monitor you plan to use?

We can help balance this out for you and get more longevity
 
M

mdroyle

Member
Many thanks Steveyg.
.
The budget is £1600 and the monitor is an Acer KG271 - but may upgrade at a later date.
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
I'll throw something together here mate but I'd strongly recommend upgrading the monitor, it's 1080p 75Hz and a TN panel which isn't great.

The 3060Ti is a 1440p GPU ideally you want a 27" 1440p 144Hz IPS monitor to make use of it. It'll be wasted on your current monitor.
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
For your budget I'd go with this. It's a very very solid high end 1440p build, no reason you shouldn't get a good 5-7 years or more out of a build like this with proper maintenance and upgrades

Highly recommend getting a new monitor asap though. It's mostly wasted on your current monitor, like having a Ferrari with wooden wheels

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WiFi (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 3000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler Black Edition
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 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
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
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 14 to 17 working days
Price: £1,597.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/syqrSj0BHa/
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
mdroyle said:
Thanks for the rapid reply - what do you see as the main advantages of the revised spec please?
Click to expand...
Better balance for longevity

Better case, better cooling, better PSU to guarantee lower temps and enough power to make upgrades. The CV model power supplies are basically for office computers not gaming machines

Complete Storage set up with room for more and a motherboard that includes the same Wifi card you added as an extra

The 5800x is one of the hottest running CPU's out there at the minute, it really requires the top end of cooling to keep it under wraps. It'll turn that case into an oven and the Frostflow CPU's coolers aren't tested or proven enough for me to recommend them. I can put together a 5800x build to show you the difference
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
This would be a 5800x build. There are savings I can make here though by rejigging the storage

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING WIFI (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 3000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i RGB PRO XT 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
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
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
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
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 14 to 17 working days
Price: £1,828.00 including VAT and Delivery

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

mdroyle

Member
Sounds very sensible Steveyg - one question about the storage please - why split across 2 drives and use different specs although I note the 500Gb drive is v fast - what will that mean in practice, say compared to sticking with 1Tb now and adding 1Tb at a later date.

Great point re motherboard and wifi I assume that can use 2.4 and 5 bands? Also, in my research I thought the m/b would need to be PCIe Gen 4 ideally - have I got that wrong?



Thank you for your patience, Mike
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
mdroyle said:
Sounds very sensible Steveyg - one question about the storage please - why split across 2 drives and use different specs although I note the 500Gb drive is v fast - what will that mean in practice, say compared to sticking with 1Tb now and adding 1Tb at a later date.

Great point re motherboard and wifi I assume that can use 2.4 and 5 bands? Also, in my research I thought the m/b would need to be PCIe Gen 4 ideally - have I got that wrong?



Thank you for your patience, Mike
Click to expand...
The B550 does have two PCIe 4.0 slot I believe, the Firecuda 530 would be taking one slot and the Intel which isn't technically Gen 4 but can be moved at a later time will probably take up the other when you receive it. Upside of the X570 M/B is that it has all PCIe slots are 4.0 but on the B550 they are limited. Just depends on how much you think you'll need these?

As for two M.2's SSD's one the 500GB faster drive is your OS/Boot drive. The idea is that this drives holds the operating system and any key programs. Essentially anything that runs at start up, the goal is to keep this drive under 50% capacity to ensure that the OS can run at it's optimal speeds at all times.

The second drive then is for anything that can benefit from fast load times like games. You can fill this up to your hearts content as they say; this will essentially be the main storage drive. Now this is the slower M.2 but don't underestimate it, it's still lightening quick especially compared to SATA drives

Having two drives lets you keep Windows separate from everything else letting you make updates, changes to or even completely reinstalling the OS without affecting your other files. Trust me it's a set up that once you get used to it you'll wonder why you ever did it any other way

And no worries at all mate, fire away with the questions

EDIT: oh yeah the Wifi card supports 2.4 & 5.0 bands. It also has Bluetooth 5.0
 
M

mdroyle

Member
Appreciated. I will have a think!

But a question abut the R5 re R7 - surely the R5 will constrain performance v R7?

And I did this the wrong way round as I only saw the forums after placing an order yesterday - so hope I can tweak my order...
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
mdroyle said:
Appreciated. I will have a think!

But a question abut the R5 re R7 - surely the R5 will constrain performance v R7?

And I did this the wrong way round as I only saw the forums after placing an order yesterday - so hope I can tweak my order...
Click to expand...
Yeah you can amend the order any time until it goes into the build state.

The R7 5800 is undoubtedly the stronger CPU but the R5 5600x is also extremely good.

I've posted the two builds above and the 5600x fits your budget better, you can go for an including the frills build with a 5600x and still get a top end experience at 1440p with no trouble

To get a 5800x build into that budget it would take serious compromises and would affect the integrity of the build in my opinion. The compromises would affect longevity and it just wouldn't be a well balanced system which I suspect wouldn't perform as well as it should
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
This is close as I can get with a 5800x build that should still work, but I personally wouldn't want to go this route

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING WIFI (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK 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
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
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
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
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 14 to 17 working days
Price: £1,655.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/ZMhC!4vnxu/
 
M

mdroyle

Member
I think I will most likely take up your initial recommended spec using the R5 but just to check with you.. it's the B550 m/b that has dual band wifi and bluetooth 5 yes?

Re a monitor can you recommend a couple of options? Pref ones where a deal is on offer! Current monitor is HDMI. Assume DisplayPort is the best way to connect these days?

Ta.
 
Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
mdroyle said:
I think I will most likely take up your initial recommended spec using the R5 but just to check with you.. it's the B550 m/b that has dual band wifi and bluetooth 5 yes?

Re a monitor can you recommend a couple of options? Pref ones where a deal is on offer! Current monitor is HDMI. Assume DisplayPort is the best way to connect these days?

Ta.
Click to expand...
Yeah the motherboard in that spec is the wifi version
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Asus Wifi boards are either AX200 or AX201, both are Dual band and both have Bluetooth on board. The only real difference is that the 201 is Intel specific.

If you want a monitor from PCS I would probably opt for the PCS branded 1440p one right now. It's a bargain, spec wise, but it is a little of an unknown until a regular contributor purchases one and tells us all about it :D

A more standard offering in the config is the IIYAMA G-MASTER GB2760QSU-B1 27".

Outwith the site there are a ton of options around the £250-£300 mark. Samsung G5 is always a favourite as is the ASUS TUF model.
 
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