Opinions on my build please?

[aletho]

Hi all, first build, any advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

Case
CORSAIR SPEC-04 TEMPERED GLASS MID TOWER GAMING CASE - BLACK/RED
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor i7-8700 (3.2GHz) 12MB 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
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 Ti - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
240GB ADATA SU630 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid 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 802.11 AC1200 867Mbps/5GHz, 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
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Monitor
ASUS VA229H 21.6" IPS MONITOR
2nd Monitor
ASUS VA229H 21.6" IPS MONITOR
Monitor Cables
1 x 2m DisplayPort Adapter Cable - DP to HDMI
Surge Protection
6 Socket 2m Surge Protector
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Looking for any major errors etc.

Is the case too budget for upgrades?
Is the MOBO outdated and useless?
Do I actually need 3200mhz RAM?

I plan to play undemanding games (Overwatch, World of Warcraft and various others. Nothing taxing on the system) on high settings, and potentially streaming them too.
This is the reason for the dual monitor setup, for streaming software/chat on one, and the game on the other.

Thank you.

 

[Oussebon]

What's the budget?

I'd very strongly suggest revisiting the spec on 7th July when AMD launch new CPUs. These could be better suited for streaming and gaming than the above.

You'll probably also want a better primary monitor.

But it's hard to suggest a revised spec without the budget and before we've seen reviews and pricing on the new CPUs on 7th July.

 

[aletho]

Thank you Oussebon.
Budget is around £1000 without monitors. £1200 with monitors.
Monitor wise, all I literally need is 1080p. Don't care for 4K or OLED, refresh rate or any other popular abbreviations.
I was leaning towards Intel as (at least in my head) they always appear to be slightly ahead of AMD for the same price.
I also never intend on playing/streaming any demanding games, so don't really need to play it safe.

 

[Oussebon]

I was leaning towards Intel as (at least in my head) they always appear to be slightly ahead of AMD for the same price.

That stopped being the case some time ago. AMD are competitive in performance, and generally have some much better value offerings. Intel's prices have inflated due to supply shortages too, though these might be easing.

Obviously we need to wait for independent reviews and benchmarks, but an AMD R5 3600x could very possibly match an 8700 for less money.

I'd say it's worth a couple of days' wait if spending over a grand on the system

 

[aletho]

Ok, i've updated the specs.

I rather like the new AMD chips, and the 3600x seems to be performing very nicely.
Budget around £1000 without monitors, £1200 with monitors. I need two monitors, one for gaming, one for streaming software/chat/admin type things.

Plan to play and live-stream non-demanding games such as World of Warcraft and Overwatch at 1080p, with a webcam recording. No interest in going any higher resolution wise. Would prefer high/ultra settings.

Any obvious errors I'm going to have here? I see most people opting for this case, so I went for the same, however don't know much about it. Plan to stick the two extra fans to the roof inside.
Also heard that the stock cooler on the 3600/x is only marginally worse than the 240mm liquid cooler by Cooler Master, so I went with stock.

Even though I'd probably only need a 300W power supply, I went for the 550w to cover any future upgrades (hopefully for a while).

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Six Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2933MHz ~ (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 Ti - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
240GB ADATA SU630 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
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
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11 AC1200 867Mbps/5GHz, 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
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Monitor
ASUS VA229H 21.6" IPS MONITOR
2nd Monitor
ASUS VA229H 21.6" IPS MONITOR
Monitor Cables
1 x 2m DisplayPort Adapter Cable - DP to HDMI
Surge Protection
6 Socket 2m Surge Protector
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

 

[Potatoguru]

1st Storage Drive
240GB ADATA SU630 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/

You could replace this SSD with an M.2 NVMe SSD instead, the ADATA brand aren't super expensive and the speed increase is meant to be quite good, they're especially useful to install your OS on.

 

[aletho]

1st Storage Drive
240GB ADATA SU630 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/

You could replace this SSD with an M.2 NVMe SSD instead, the ADATA brand aren't super expensive and the speed increase is meant to be quite good, they're especially useful to install your OS on.

Thank you, good idea. Never really looked into M.2 (or even what they were), but for £10 more I can get a 256GB one in place of that one ^.

 

[Oussebon]

The 3600x is £55 more than the 3600 non-X, which rather sucks as a value proposition.

If you're not bothered about USB 10gbps (now known as USB 3.2 Gen 2 ... ) and are happy with what you probably know as "USB 3.0" then Gigabyte X570 Gaming X saves you a further £50.

Or even the X470-PLUS which is a further £40 cheaper, but does have USB 3.2 Gen 2. Performance will be near identical, and PCIe 4.0 doesn't seem necessary for you.

I'd suggest getting a 24" monitor as it's more of a sweet spot for 1080p gaming. And since Overwatch is one of your main titles, ideally 144hz. A monitor with Freesync will also help smooth out the gaming experience too. There's not a great deal of point buying a gaming system only to hamstring what it's capable of by getting a lower spec monitor than it can drive.

You don't need the extra fans

A 512gb SSD is only £20 more.

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)

Get 3 Months of XBOX Game Pass for PC w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X470-PLUS GAMING (DDR4, 6Gb/s, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2933MHz ~ (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 Ti - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB ADATA SX6000 Pro PCIe M.2 2280 (2100 MB/R, 1500 MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
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 802.11 AC1200 867Mbps/5GHz, 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
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
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® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Monitor
AOC G2590PX 24.5" 144Hz Gaming Monitor
2nd Monitor
ASUS VP228HE 21.5" GAMING MONITOR
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Price: £1,408.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/K4ryc!ezHx/

 

[aletho]

Thank you @Oussebon . I'll go with the cheaper CPU/MOBO.

I suppose I should have a decent monitor, but can't help thinking that past about £120, I should buy a pre-owned 40" TV and mount it to a wall.
Just seems a bit crazy the prices to me at least. I mean that AOC monitor is ~£220. I can get two 1080p LG monitors on a popular auction site for £50!

I mean does 144hz/Freesync really make a noticeable difference to someone who isn't running Tomb Raider/Crysis 3 in 4k on ultra settings?

I'm not complaining at all here, I'm genuinely curious. I really appreciate your help and have taken tips from you and adjusted my build in accordance.
If it turns out that 144hz/Freesync actually does make a difference, then it's certainly something I'll need to look in to.

 

[Oussebon]

There are two main specs for monitors - resolution and refresh rate.

Resolution is the number of pixels you get. Refresh rate is the number of frames per second the monitor can display. Higher resolution means a sharper image as the detail can be finer thanks to the extra pixels, while higher refresh rate can give visibly smoother gameplay. High refresh rate monitors are extremely popular for people who play competitive shooters because of that smoothness / fluidity of motion. Also the monitor refreshing faster means less input latency, as it's responding faster to your input.

Factors Affecting PC Monitor Responsiveness | PC Monitors

A detailed look at factors such as input lag, pixel response time and our perception and how this affects the responsiveness of a monitor.

pcmonitors.info

A PC like the above should be able to push very high framerates in a game like Overwatch.

For more demanding games where you're not getting super high framerates, freesync can be be a very nice quality of life improvement, as it synchronises the monitor's refresh rate to the GPU's framerate to help get rid of stutter and tearing. So when you encounter a monster of a game / poorly optimised game that seems lower framerates, you still get a smoother experience than with a regular 60hz no-freesync monitor.

Your 60hz monitor would end up tearing or stuttering, e.g. sometimes having to show duplicate frames.

NB: it's not about elite ultra-settings 4k gaming. You're not gonna do Assassin's Creed Odyssey on Ultra at 4k at 144hz even with a lot more money. It's about complimenting your PC and letting you get the most out of it.

A high refresh rate monitor with adaptive sync can help unlock your PC's performance in some titles (letting you get the benefit of all those frames it can produce in Overwatch) or compensate for your PC / games' limitations with adaptive sync.

It can make a huge difference.