PC Upgrade - One of first builds

M

mewillhelm

Member
Looking to game on mostly high resolution/FPS and also have sustainability for the future in terms of not upgrading for another 5-10 years. I am a beginner at this kind of thing so any help would be greatly appreciated or tweaks if I have over compensated or am missing something.


Budget: £1,600 - £2,000
Monitor: LG 27GR93U



Case
PCS SPECTRUM II ARGB MID TOWER CASE (PWM)
Promotional Item
Get a discount code for 20% off select peripherals at Corsair.com
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16 Core CPU (4.3GHz-5.7GHz/80MB 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 CL36 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
20GB GIGABYTE RADEON™ RX 7900 XT GAMING OC - 2 x HDMI, 2 x DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ ATX 3.1, MODULAR, CYBENETICS GOLD
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 200 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
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
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
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (6 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book
Logo Branding
PCSpecialist Logo
Packaging
PCS Trade Pack - New 2023
Price: £0.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/gDHEPa086J/
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
You're a little short on the budget to adequately configure the build how I would want to have it. I've made the changes I would recommend as a minimum below.

Unfortunately you've attempted to save money on key components by making very low end choices, this will never work out in the long run and you could even end up with lower than expected performance if the cooling isn't adequate (it wasn't close in your selections above).

There are further changes that I would prefer below, but none of them are performance related.... more belt and braces... so the below is fine as is.

Case
CORSAIR FRAME 4000D RS ARGB MODULAR
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core CPU (Up to 5.2GHz/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 CL36 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
20GB GIGABYTE RADEON™ RX 7900 XT GAMING OC - 2 x HDMI, 2 x DP
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
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ ATX 3.1, MODULAR, CYBENETICS GOLD
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR ICUE LINK TITAN 360 RX RGB 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
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
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
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 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
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 7 to 9 working days
Price: £2,209.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/GnMJfXwwUD/
 
M

mewillhelm

Member
Scott said:
You're a little short on the budget to adequately configure the build how I would want to have it. I've made the changes I would recommend as a minimum below.

Unfortunately you've attempted to save money on key components by making very low end choices, this will never work out in the long run and you could even end up with lower than expected performance if the cooling isn't adequate (it wasn't close in your selections above).

There are further changes that I would prefer below, but none of them are performance related.... more belt and braces... so the below is fine as is.

Case
CORSAIR FRAME 4000D RS ARGB MODULAR
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core CPU (Up to 5.2GHz/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 CL36 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
20GB GIGABYTE RADEON™ RX 7900 XT GAMING OC - 2 x HDMI, 2 x DP
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
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ ATX 3.1, MODULAR, CYBENETICS GOLD
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR ICUE LINK TITAN 360 RX RGB 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
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
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
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 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
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 7 to 9 working days
Price: £2,209.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/GnMJfXwwUD/
Click to expand...
Thanks for your help it is really appreciated, what were the low end choices I made just so I know for future reference? Just trying to wrap my head around it all. Like what sort of performance could I expect from the above?
 
T

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
mewillhelm said:
Thanks for your help it is really appreciated, what were the low end choices I made just so I know for future reference? Just trying to wrap my head around it all. Like what sort of performance could I expect from the above?
Click to expand...
Case, PSU, cooler and storage.

Case and cooler are critical to efficient airflow & cooling.

PSU is critical for the current GPU power requirement, PLUS any GPU upgrade you may want over the next 10 years...and 20% headroom is not enough of you want the PSU to run silently and in its most efficient power curve.

Storage is split to keep stuff you don‘t want to lose on a separate, larger drive (so game installs, user files, etc.). Windows, apps, games launchers should be on smaller, faster drive as this is the one that will be accessed all the time the PC is on with Windows/apps/launchers doing their background tasks.

The only performance change is the CPU going to the 9800X3D, which has specific level 3 v-cache to speed up asset loading into games. It’s also more efficient as it has less cores to power. The fewer cores don’t matter as most games only use a single core (there are exceptions, such as City Skylines 2, but that will just use all 8). The weaker cooling would have slowed both this and the 9950X down as it would have had to throttle its speed to stop from overheating. The bigger cooler allows both CPUs to run at their fastest speeds indefinitely.
 
Last edited:
M

mewillhelm

Member
TonyCarter said:
Case, PSU, cooler and storage.

Case and cooler are critical to efficient airflow & cooling.

PSU is critical for the current GPU power requirement, PLUS any GPU upgrade you may want over the next 10 years...and 20% headroom is not enough of you want the PSU to run silently and in its most efficient power curve.

Storage is split to keep stuff you don‘t want to lose on a separate, larger drive (so game installs, user files, etc.). Windows, apps, games launchers should be on smaller, faster drive as this is the one that will be accessed all the time the PC is on with Windows/apps/launchers doing their background tasks.

The only performance change is the CPU going to the 9800X3D, which has specific level 3 v-cache to speed up asset loading into games. It’s also more efficient as it has less cores to power. The fewer cores don’t matter as most games only use a single core (there are exceptions, such as City Skylines 2, but that will just use all 8). The weaker cooling would have slowed both this and the 9950X down as it would have had to throttle its speed to stop from overheating. The bigger cooler allows both CPUs to run at their fastest speeds indefinitely.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your help again it is really appreciated, that does make a lot of sense. So with this then I could expect to run the large majority of games at a good level of FPS without performance drop? With the monitor I have I am hoping to be able to enjoy the quality of it without worrying about power and such
 
Nursemorph

Nursemorph

Silver Level Poster
mewillhelm said:
Thank you for your help again it is really appreciated, that does make a lot of sense. So with this then I could expect to run the large majority of games at a good level of FPS without performance drop? With the monitor I have I am hoping to be able to enjoy the quality of it without worrying about power and such
Click to expand...

There's a review of one of the 7900XT cards here with some gaming performance figures:

www.tomshardware.com

Sapphire RX 7900 XT Pulse Review: Quiet a Performance

A $120 price drop makes this card more enticing.
www.tomshardware.com www.tomshardware.com

The card you get will likely be a different brand to that but all of them are fairly similar in performance so gives a general idea
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Ideally you would want the XTX or a comparable Nvidia card but the budget wasn't available to get to this level.

The build is ready for a GPU upgrade though so if you get to the point where it's not enough or you just want more, it's just going to be a card swap to get you to where you want to be.
 
M

mewillhelm

Member
Scott said:
Ideally you would want the XTX or a comparable Nvidia card but the budget wasn't available to get to this level.

The build is ready for a GPU upgrade though so if you get to the point where it's not enough or you just want more, it's just going to be a card swap to get you to where you want to be.
Click to expand...
Thank you, that is good to know, with a GPU upgrade in the future could I change to an Nvidia or would I need to change other parts as well?

I am seriously considering going ahead with the spec you made, is there anything you would suggest doing on setting up/when first loading up?
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Makes no odds which brand of GPU you want to go with. The main consideration is the power supply, to ensure that it supports the highest power cards (such as the 5090). With that regard you may want to opt for the 1200w PSU but I think 1000w should be OK for your uses. You would need to be aiming at the top level GPU for this to even come into consideration, the 5090 is £2k at the moment so the power supply is a small price to pay by comparison.

Nothing springs to mind that would be required. There are always personal preferences. If i received a build the first thing I would do is bench it and then wipe it and start from scratch. That's just so that I know what's on there and I can attempt to avoid any bloat software :)
 
M

mewillhelm

Member
Scott said:
Makes no odds which brand of GPU you want to go with. The main consideration is the power supply, to ensure that it supports the highest power cards (such as the 5090). With that regard you may want to opt for the 1200w PSU but I think 1000w should be OK for your uses. You would need to be aiming at the top level GPU for this to even come into consideration, the 5090 is £2k at the moment so the power supply is a small price to pay by comparison.

Nothing springs to mind that would be required. There are always personal preferences. If i received a build the first thing I would do is bench it and then wipe it and start from scratch. That's just so that I know what's on there and I can attempt to avoid any bloat software :)
Click to expand...
I see, so some years down the line I could look to replace both the GPU and PSU with relative ease if I was after some improvements?

Thank you again for all your help it is so helpful. When you say bench sorry, what do you mean by that? Then wipe the entire system and install what I want?
 
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