Spec Opinions

[Greyham]

Hi there,

Can anyone have a quick look at my below spec please and see how it will do as a fairly decent gaming PC? I am hoping to be under £1K excluding Screen, Keyboard etc.

Case
PCS 6003B BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-8600K (3.6 GHz) 9 MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME Z370-P II: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
8GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
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
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
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
Quantity
1

Price £953.00 including VAT and Delivery

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

G

 

[Scott]

I would be more inclined to look at something like this....

Would couple nice with a freesync monitor.

I would seriously consider saving a wee bit extra and going for the 16GB 2933mhz RAM though. Would be another £80 but would complete the system.

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Eight Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.35GHz/20MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
8GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 580 - HDMI, 3 x DP - DX® 12
Up to 2 Games FREE w/ select RADEON RX GPUs!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
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
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
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 [KUK-00001]
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™
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 3 to 5 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,012.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-pc/uaQ2jy8P5B/

 

[Oussebon]

Agreed. You could drop the CPU to the R5 2600x to save a lot of money (~£135?) and it won't really affect gaming performance (i.e. hardly at all), especially with this kind of GPU.

You could get 16gb RAM. Which also lets you get faster RAM. There won't be much of a difference for gaming performance, but for general use you may find 16gb RAM much more of an advantage than an couple of extra cores. That said you can always upgrade the RAM in the future when hopefully prices are more sane (RAM prices are high right now)

Drop the DVD drive unless you have a specific need for it?

A cheaper PSU is fine for this budget level, though a TXm is preferable depending on the price difference.

What is your budget for the monitor / keyboard / mouse? Or if you already own these, what are they?

 

[Greyham]

Hi guys,

Thank you so much for taking the time to have a look and give me your advice. Apologies for taking so long to respond.

That looks like a great setup thanks. I never really considered going AMD over Intel/NVIDIA, is there any specific reason for that?

Is there anything else that you can think of that I have missed off? My last gaming PC was 12 years ago so I am out of touch with it all. I was also hoping to get some aspect of future proofing built in but I know that is tricky with my budget.

My budget for keyboard, mouse and screen is about £300ish. Any recommendations?

I will probably only be able to push the build button in about 3 months when I have the money together, what effect will this have on the price do you think?

Thanks again.

G

 

[Oussebon]

That looks like a great setup thanks. I never really considered going AMD over Intel/NVIDIA, is there any specific reason for that?

AMD spent many years with poor CPUs versus Intel's. And Nvidia have had the GPU performance crown for some time now at the top end. This perception of Intel/Nvidia being the best persists, and seeps through into the mid-range, influencing purchasers.

But while an Nvidia RTX 2080 ti is better than anything AMD can field, that's a £1000+ graphics card. Whereas you need the entire PC within that budget. In the range you're shopping in, AMD simply offer better performance for the price than the competition (at least at PCS's prices). Intel are also hampered by supply shortages, driving up their prices.

AMD's Ryzen CPUs released in 2017 have seen them mount a very strong comeback.

I will probably only be able to push the build button in about 3 months when I have the money together, what effect will this have on the price do you think?

There's 0 point planning the spec at this stage. New hardware is expected to be announced later this month, so by the time you come to order the options on sale could be very different.

 

[Greyham]

Thanks Oussebon.

I guessed it would have something to do with budget.

I do understand with regards to new hardware being announced/released, I was just trying to get any idea with regards to budgets. 3 months will be the max though, I am hoping to order within the next month.

Did you have any advice with regards to anything I have missed or keyboards, screens?

Thanks,

G

 

[Oussebon]

I'd hold off on making recommendations on monitors until later in Jan as what monitor is best depends what graphics card is being used.

And the rumours are Nvidia will unveil the RTX 2060 on 7th Jan to go on sale 15th Jan, while there are also rumours AMD might unveil Navi or Zen 2 at CES this January.

Until we know what hardware is on the table, at what prices, and what performance they offer, it's hard to be specific.

For instance, it might make sense to go with The_Scotster's build, but to drop the CPU to an R5 2600 and the PSU to a VS series to help afford one of the new GPUs and an appropriate monitor.

 

[Greyham]

Makes sense, thanks again.

Probably worth waiting until February anyway if that's the case.

Will be back then.

G,

 

[Greyham]

Hi again,

Things have progressed quicker than I anticipated and I am able to proceed with the build but I would be grateful for some more assistance if that's okay?

What level gaming would I be able to do with The_Scotster's build recommendation and what sort of longevity would it have in terms of gaming going forward. From what I have seen in your posts this would be more to do with the GPU than anything else so I would be happy to drop the CPU to an R5 if it meant being able to get more life out of it by spending some extra money on a better GPU.

Also, I have seen quite a few things advising on having a second storage device?

Thanks,

Graham

 

[Oussebon]

May I suggest again waiting just a little bit?

Buying an RX 580 today when the RTX 2060 is apparently going on sale in a week or so doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

The 2nd storage device thing is that you'd ideally have an SSD for OS, programs, favourite games, and an HDD for the rest. But The_Scotster's build only includes the HDD, which I assume is because of the budget and because you an add an SSD yourself any time you like yourself very easily. So better to spend the money that's available now on things like a decent case and PSU, which are more hassle and less cost effective to upgrade down the line.

CES is a major tech conference where Nvidia and AMD are giving keynotes and are expected to launch new products https://www.ces.tech/ I highly recommend waiting for that to be over before making decisions about what to buy.

 

[Greyham]

Thanks Oussebon,

That does make sense, will see what comes from CES.

Graham,

 

[Greyham]

Hi again,

Right, so I have swapped out the RX 580 for the RTX 2060, increased the RAM to 16GB 2933MHz, dropped the R7 to the R5 2600X and gone for the standard VS 550 Power Supply which brings the build to £1,120.00. What are the thoughts on that?

Also interesting to read about Nvidia supporting some Adaptive Sync monitors.

Graham,

 

[Oussebon]

Just to point out the R5 2600 is £75 cheaper than the R5 2600x. The 2600x isn't really worth it for that money especially with Zen 2 coming out later in the year.

Would let you squeeze in an SSD too:

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six Core CPU (3.4GHz-3.9GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
---Tom Clancy's The Division 2 FREE w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs!
Motherboard
Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE: DDR4, USB 3.1 - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2933MHz ~ (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Storage Drive
250GB Samsung 860 EVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
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
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
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
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™
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 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price £759.00 including VAT and Delivery

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


£1120 with an RTX 2060

I'd probably go with the X470 Ultra Gaming personally

 

[Greyham]

Thanks again, looks good.

Now I just have to wait for the 2060 to come in stock...going to feel like forever.

Any suggestions on a Screen?

Graham,

 

[Oussebon]

What's the budget for the monitor and what sorts of games are you most into?

 

[Greyham]

About £200 - £300.

I mostly play FPS or RPG.

 

[Greyham]

Hi again,

Any suggestions on the monitor?

Thanks,

 

[DST23]

For shooters/eSports titles, you'd definitely appreciate a 144hz monitor. If you're going with the 2060, Nvidia have announced they will begin supporting VESA adaptive sync/FreeSync monitors with their cards, which means being able to get variable refresh rate to prevent/minimise screen tearing without paying a premium for proprietary GSync.

They listed an initial 12 FreeSync monitors (image below) which have passed their certification and will work with 10-series and newer cards, and have said that non-certified monitors may also work. I believe they plan to release the drivers for this mid-February. They've said you will also be able to turn on adaptive sync on monitors not on this list which haven't been validated but performance may vary.

 

[Scott]

VG278Q would be a decent buy from that list I think.

 

[Oussebon]

Except it's 27" and 1080p and £300.

You might as well buy an actual gsync monitor for that money (you can get 1080p 144hz ones for £300 quite often).

I suppose the VG278Q would keep freesync open as an option for future AMD GPU upgrades. But by the time AMD have a GPU that's a massive upgrade over a 2060 for a price that's worth buying, you'll probably replace the monitor to a higher resolution one anyhow.

Also 1440p 144hz monitors can easily be had for £300.

I think we need to wait for more details before shopping off that Nvidia monitor list. It's possible many more monitors work fine with adaptive sync and nvidia GPU, but just don't meet the technical gsync criteria. Also some monitors have slightly different regional naming (same monitors but different names depending on the country they're being sold in). So will be interesting to see whether that effectively opens up more models.

I've been trying to work out the differences between the XV273K and the XV273KP for instance...

I'd suggest looking at the "Element" gaming monitor. It's 144hz, 1440p, and £230. And nuts to gsync in this price range.

https://bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/monitors/element-gaming-27-qhd-144hz-1ms-gaming-monitor-review/7/