PC upgrade advice

[Sanzaburo]

Price: £1,698.00

Thanks! And if I need to spend a bit extra that's fine too. I just want to use Space Marine 2 as my benchmark to build towards, as 99% of my time is spent playing older games that my current PC runs great.

That's only 1080p so could do with upgrading to tie in with the game specs you quoted

How important would a new monitor be?
Because in all honesty, I really doubt I can tell the difference looking at a 1080p and 1440p 😅 I never see/hear subtle visual/audio quality improvements, so unless my FPS is affected I'm fine looking at fewer pixels.

 

[Scott]

A few tweaks would get you the 7800X3D, I think that would help tbh. If you're sticking with the 7800XT that would fare very well at 1080p. I don't think there are any value Nvidia options around that level, you would be looking at more than £100 to get the 4070 Super (next up).

If you wanted a slight increase over the 7800XT though, the 7900GRE is decent value.

Case
CORSAIR 4000D RGB AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.0GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 7800 XT GAMING - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ - MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR H100x RGB ELITE 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
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe 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
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 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 4 to 6 working days
Price: £1,697.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/mrwDRvN0aQ/

 

[Sanzaburo]

Thanks Scott! I've also asked PCspecialist customer support for a suggestion, so curious if what they come back with would be much different to yours.

Out of curiosity - is it always better to configure everything from scratch (I did this the last time around too) or does it ever make sense to pick one of the builds available (this is what I have in mind) and tweak it?

 

[Sanzaburo]

Additional question on the GPU - I've realized that there are always a few brands making the same part, so for RADEON RX 7800 XT I see people mentioning Gigabyte, Sapphire, Asus etc... but on PCspecialist it doesn't specify this? AMD is the manufacturer here and Radeon is a product line?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Additional question on the GPU - I've realized that there are always a few brands making the same part, so for RADEON RX 7800 XT I see people mentioning Gigabyte, Sapphire, Asus etc... but on PCspecialist it doesn't specify this? AMD is the manufacturer here and Radeon is a product line?

AMD makes the actual GPU (graphics processor, just like a cpu, just a chip) then board partners assemble that into a graphics card which includes the board, power design and cooling setup.

On PCS the basic selection is just a pot puck of whatever stocks they currently have, could be from any board partner.

But the GPU is the same on any 7800xt, it’s all using the same AMD chip so performance doesn’t change past minor variations between different manufacturer cards.

Id you wanted a specific model, then you’d scroll down the list to one of the specific manufacturer models which will likely be at a premium

 

[Sanzaburo]

Can anyone please share their thoughts on this pre-build: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers-for-next-day-delivery/1653/
It's what PCspecialist recommended for me. Is it worth considering?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Can anyone please share their thoughts on this pre-build: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers-for-next-day-delivery/1653/
It's what PCspecialist recommended for me. Is it worth considering?

It would be replicating the same mistakes you made on the first system, I wouldn’t recommend it, no

 

[TonyCarter]

Can anyone please share their thoughts on this pre-build: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers-for-next-day-delivery/1653/
It's what PCspecialist recommended for me. Is it worth considering?

In that pre-built option, all the money has gone into the headline-grabbing 4070 Super GPU.

But to do so, it's been given a budget motherboard, sub-optimal CPU (i.e. you either want the gaming 7800X3D, or the more efficient 7700 non-X), sub-optimal PSU (you want an RM version at a minimum), budget cooler (would prefer a non-PCS air-cooler to a PCS liquid cooler, but there aren't any currently on the configurator), single 1TB SSD (optimal set-up is 500GB for Windows/Apps/Launchers + 1-2TB for games).

 

[Sanzaburo]

Thanks! That tracks with what I read on reddit where pre-builds are known to have cut corners on some parts to make the whole thing look more affordable.