What do you think of these parts? - First Custom PC

M

mjhcon

Member
Hey everyone!
I'm in the process of researching parts to create my new PC, this is my first time doing this. I am planning to let PCSpecialist complete my build, due to warranty and knowing that it will be done properly.
This is the list of parts which I have chosen.

Case
NZXT H500 MID-TOWER GAMING CASE (BLACK)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE: DDR4, USB 3.1 - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - 2 x HDMI, 2 x DP
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 2.5" SSD, (upto 560MB/sR | 540MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
128GB ADATA SX6000 LITE M.2 2280 (1800 MB/R, 1200 MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W VS SERIES™ VS-650 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i RGB PLATINUM Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Extra Case Fans
5x Corsair LL120 RGB LED Fan + Controller Kit
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 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
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
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 7 to 9 working days
Price: £1,626.00 including VAT and Delivery

  1. I chose the Ryzen 7 3700X because of its high performance at a low price (compared to Intel), it seems to be reliable and has great benchmarks for the games and simulations I plan to put it through.

  3. I plan to cool it with the Corsair H115i RGB as it does a good job and can handle OC - and it looks awesome.

  5. The Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite seems to be a good choice at a lower price and although not future proof, by the time I plan to upgrade the socket should have changed. Also - I heard that to get this MOBO running, the BIOS must be updated using a lower generation Ryzen Chip, which is something I hope PCS can do?

  7. The RAM was chosen at 3600Mhz because apparently Gen 2 CPU's perform better with higher frequency RAM and Corsair matches my other equipment for ICUE.

  9. Although lots of models to choose from I went with the ASUS 2070 Super due to the triple fan, to reduce noise. I believe ROG is reliable??

  11. PSU is at 650W which should give me plenty of headroom.

  13. I have selected 5 extra case fans to help provide a negative air pressure (or so I believe?) and it should also look mega cool. But is this practical?



I just want to check that there is no apparent incompatabilities and of course any changes in equipment - I would love your opinion!
Thank you very much for your time and help everyone!
Morgan
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
mjhcon said:
Also - I heard that to get this MOBO running, the BIOS must be updated using a lower generation Ryzen Chip, which is something I hope PCS can do?
Click to expand...
Yeah, they will build and test the PC before shipping it. And if they didn't make sure it had a BIOS that supports Zen 2 CPUs it wouldn't even post, so.... yeah, they'll handle it :)

I wouldn't bother at all with the 3600MHz RAm. It has a very high price premium for actually very, very small gains over 3200MHz, if any.

If you were spending extra for those kinds of gains, you'd be buying an Intel CPU instead. 3200MHz at least on PCS's pricing is the sweet spot.

Get a better quality PSU - TXM, or even RMx if you wanted to splash out. Better quality, which you'd want for overclocking, as well as more efficient, quieter, and modular.

That case has 4 fan mount points - 2 front, 1 top, 1 rear. The front 2 will be occupied by the CPU cooler. So you're buying 5 fans for 2 slots. Moreover, rather than buying a mid-range case and stuffing it with fans to try to improve airflow, usually better to just buy a case that already has better airflow by design and comes with better fans included. The Corsair 570X perhaps.

Also, you want to avoid negative pressure.

mjhcon said:
Although lots of models to choose from I went with the ASUS 2070 Super due to the triple fan, to reduce noise. I believe ROG is reliable??
Click to expand...
No more reliable than anything else. ROG is Asus Language for "We have tipped a shedload of marketing money on this, people will buy it thinking it's special, and we'll rip them off". It's known as the Asus Tax.

If you want a specific model of GPU, buy and fit it yourself. Hopwever, it's not worth buying the "expensive" versions of a given graphics card,
It's been increasingly the case that there's little to set these apart from the more budget versions, as long as they have a half decent cooler.
Why would anyone buy an RTX 2070 Super FTW for ~£570 when they could buy:
An RTX 2070 Super (e.g. Gigabyte tri fan) for £470 (giving them near enough the same performance for £100 less)
An RTX 2080 (MSI Gaming Tri) for ~£600
an RTX 2080 Super (various models) for ~£630
Thanks to the cards being reasonably efficient, they don't need monster coolers. And thanks to Nvidia locking down the cards for overclocking and implementing a very effective GPU self-boosting feature, they all end up going to similar frequencies anyhow. Also because they're fairly efficient given what they are, they tend not to be as loud as GPUs from some older generations.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Oussebon said:
What's the thinking behind the 128gb SSD?

VenatoS said:
I'm guessing its a tiny fast SSD for just the system.
Not really worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Actually it is worth it, even just for Windows - assuming that 128GB is big enough, which it is for Windows and for many application programs. Having only one big drive, even if it's an SSD, is a mistake - even if you partition it. There can be only one I/O (input/output) operation per drive, so a single drive (partitioned or not) will suffer a longish queue length resulting in poor performance. It is generally wise to put Windows and application programs on a separate drive so that its performance isn't compromised by other (user data) activity.

In any system where you have lots of active files it's wise (if you can) to put them on separate drives. A decent compromise is an NVMe SSD for Windows and application programs (how large depends on how many applications and how much space they need), a SATA SSD for high-performance data (high-res images, large databases or spreadsheets for example) and a 7200rpm HDD for music, videos and non-high-performance data.

As the price of SSDs comes down a larger SATA SSD can be substituted for the HDD even though a lot of user data (videos and music for example) gain no benefit.
 
VenatoS

VenatoS

Well-known member
ubuysa said:
Actually it is worth it, even just for Windows - assuming that 128GB is big enough, which it is for Windows and for many application programs. Having only one big drive, even if it's an SSD, is a mistake - even if you partition it. There can be only one I/O (input/output) operation per drive, so a single drive (partitioned or not) will suffer a longish queue length resulting in poor performance. It is generally wise to put Windows and application programs on a separate drive so that its performance isn't compromised by other (user data) activity.

In any system where you have lots of active files it's wise (if you can) to put them on separate drives. A decent compromise is an NVMe SSD for Windows and application programs (how large depends on how many applications and how much space they need), a SATA SSD for high-performance data (high-res images, large databases or spreadsheets for example) and a 7200rpm HDD for music, videos and non-high-performance data.

As the price of SSDs comes down a larger SATA SSD can be substituted for the HDD even though a lot of user data (videos and music for example) gain no benefit.
Click to expand...

128GB SSD's cost too close to larger capacity drives, in my better spend the few extra pounds and get a higher capacity SSD.
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
For a Gaming PC I'd tend to agree a 128gb SSD isn't worth buying. Because a larger SSD will go a lot further and costs little more.

If it was a scenario where every last penny had been allocated and there wasn't the money left for a 256gb / 512gb SSD, I'd actually argue for buying the system without an SSD versus wasting the M.2 slot on a small and slow 128gb drive. And then adding an SSD as a DIY upgrade as soon as money allows :)
 
M

mjhcon

Member
Oussebon said:
Yeah, they will build and test the PC before shipping it. And if they didn't make sure it had a BIOS that supports Zen 2 CPUs it wouldn't even post, so.... yeah, they'll handle it :)

I wouldn't bother at all with the 3600MHz RAm. It has a very high price premium for actually very, very small gains over 3200MHz, if any.

If you were spending extra for those kinds of gains, you'd be buying an Intel CPU instead. 3200MHz at least on PCS's pricing is the sweet spot.

Get a better quality PSU - TXM, or even RMx if you wanted to splash out. Better quality, which you'd want for overclocking, as well as more efficient, quieter, and modular.

That case has 4 fan mount points - 2 front, 1 top, 1 rear. The front 2 will be occupied by the CPU cooler. So you're buying 5 fans for 2 slots. Moreover, rather than buying a mid-range case and stuffing it with fans to try to improve airflow, usually better to just buy a case that already has better airflow by design and comes with better fans included. The Corsair 570X perhaps.

Also, you want to avoid negative pressure.

No more reliable than anything else. ROG is Asus Language for "We have tipped a shedload of marketing money on this, people will buy it thinking it's special, and we'll rip them off". It's known as the Asus Tax.

If you want a specific model of GPU, buy and fit it yourself. Hopwever, it's not worth buying the "expensive" versions of a given graphics card,
It's been increasingly the case that there's little to set these apart from the more budget versions, as long as they have a half decent cooler.
Why would anyone buy an RTX 2070 Super FTW for ~£570 when they could buy:
An RTX 2070 Super (e.g. Gigabyte tri fan) for £470 (giving them near enough the same performance for £100 less)
An RTX 2080 (MSI Gaming Tri) for ~£600
an RTX 2080 Super (various models) for ~£630
Thanks to the cards being reasonably efficient, they don't need monster coolers. And thanks to Nvidia locking down the cards for overclocking and implementing a very effective GPU self-boosting feature, they all end up going to similar frequencies anyhow. Also because they're fairly efficient given what they are, they tend not to be as loud as GPUs from some older generations.
Click to expand...

Oh my. What an awesome response - thank you so much for explaining all of this to me in so much detail.

Appreciate you clearing up the mobo situation - do you think it's a suitable motherboard? Would you recommend any others?

When it comes to the RAM the price differences don't seem to be higher then £10 when upgrading to 3600 Mhz but I'll take your word for it and 100% consider staying at 3200 Mhz.

Perfect, I will go for the 650W TXm Series - this shows to be semi-modular, but the next TXm series which is modular is 750W and I don't believe I need anywhere near that, but if modular has more features (doesn't it mean you can switch cables etc.) then I will switch to it.

I realised what a stupid mistake I made there haha! I will probably end up going with the Corsair Carbide 275R, just because I'm not a massive fan of the 570X, although I understand airflow may not be as good, due to it being a cheaper case. I have also taken into consideration that I should go with a positive airflow instead, so how do you think this setup would work (diagram below). Is there too many intake fans, I want there to be a direct path but not completely sure (will mean I buy 3x ll120 fans as the H115i Plat comes with 2 already?)

View attachment 14699

Lastly thanks for informing me about the graphics. I guess I will buy the 2070 Super (gigabyte tri) instead as its £100 cheaper as you mentioned and the performance difference is negligible, but this is not an option in PCS so I will buy it seperately as the reference card does not look nice in my opinion.

Again, thank you so so much for showing and helping me understand all of this - appreciated more than you can imagine.

Morgan
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
mjhcon said:
It was to put my system on, but after reading the discussion/debate I will reconsider the m.2, but I would like to have 2 drives - so it may be worth spending the few extra quid.
Click to expand...
I would agree and with the comments earlier. If you can afford a larger M.2 drive it does make much better sense but if a 128GB M.2 is all you can afford that makes more sense than not buying one and relying on a single drive. [emoji3]

Sent using Tapatalk
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Again the 275R isn't very good for airflow. If you don't like any of the cases PCS have on offer with decent airflow for a high end system like yours, perhaps send in your own. How does the Fractal Meshify C grab you?

mjhcon said:
When it comes to the RAM the price differences don't seem to be higher then £10 when upgrading to 3600 Mhz but I'll take your word for it and 100% consider staying at 3200 Mhz.
Click to expand...
If it's that little then go for it, last I checked the difference was about £40 but it can change over time, even day to day.

The RMx PSUs are excellent quality units, and are semi passive unlike the other models, so they can cool themselves under many conditions without needing to use the fan. That said the TXm is more than fine if you prefer to spend a bit less there.
 
M

mjhcon

Member
ubuysa said:
I would agree and with the comments earlier. If you can afford a larger M.2 drive it does make much better sense but if a 128GB M.2 is all you can afford that makes more sense than not buying one and relying on a single drive. [emoji3]

Sent using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, I don't want to rely on a single drive, but I will shop around to see what is the best value
 
M

mjhcon

Member
Oussebon said:
Again the 275R isn't very good for airflow. If you don't like any of the cases PCS have on offer with decent airflow for a high end system like yours, perhaps send in your own. How does the Fractal Meshify C grab you?

If it's that little then go for it, last I checked the difference was about £40 but it can change over time, even day to day.

The RMx PSUs are excellent quality units, and are semi passive unlike the other models, so they can cool themselves under many conditions without needing to use the fan. That said the TXm is more than fine if you prefer to spend a bit less there.
Click to expand...

Hey Oussebon,

Apart from the 275R and the H500, there are no other cases that catch my eye - I want something that is simple, clean and minimalistic. The 570X so almost does this for me. The fractal meshify does look very nice but I'd rather choose from the cases PCS has already, do you think the 275R could suffice with my displayed fan setup, or is the airflow in the case just really really bad, I've attempted to create positive pressure.

I will look into the RMx as I like the idea of a modular system. Did you see my question regarding the motherboard?
 
M

mjhcon

Member
Oussebon said:
Again the 275R isn't very good for airflow. If you don't like any of the cases PCS have on offer with decent airflow for a high end system like yours, perhaps send in your own. How does the Fractal Meshify C grab you?

If it's that little then go for it, last I checked the difference was about £40 but it can change over time, even day to day.

The RMx PSUs are excellent quality units, and are semi passive unlike the other models, so they can cool themselves under many conditions without needing to use the fan. That said the TXm is more than fine if you prefer to spend a bit less there.
Click to expand...
Just had a call with PCS - I found out that they will be getting the 680X back in stock next week (my absolute dream case), so I really want to go with that! Here's a PCPartPicker list (to show my case, which PCS currently doesn't show). Dead set on this, apart from the motherboard (which I am still unsure on) and would love to hear your thoughts! Again, thank you for your expertise and time!!
 
Last edited:
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
680X is a good choice.

Go with that and if they don't get it back in, just send it in :)

The TXM is modular. The RMx is semi-modular. But Semi modular is more or less as good as fully modular for your purposes as you're never not going to have the mobo and CPU cable attached...

The motherboard is fine.
 
M

mjhcon

Member
Oussebon said:
Just to say, PCS seem to be stocking the Fractal Meshify C right now.
Click to expand...

Oh my god! So sorry, I didn't get an email telling me you replied - hope you had a fantastic New Year. I will go with the modular PSU and the benefits are worth the extra few quid. I will find out tomorrow if I can get the 680X, if not the Meshify C.

I plan to use this PC for flight simming, hence my questions about the motherboard. I know it is at a lower end of the price range - but unsure of the benefits of a slightly better model.

Thanks!
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Thanks, you too :)

For gaming including flight sims, none.

The motherboards are mostly about features, so unless there's a feature you need that it doesn't offer, you're fine. VRMs are an important consideration for overclocking or beastly powerful CPUs, but that's not an issue here. X570 motherboards offer PCIe 4.0 but tbh by the time you really have much call for that you'll be buying a new motherboard, CPU, and RAM as we'll be on DDR5, PCIe 5.0, and so on. For your uses, system, and budget level, an X570 board is not really worth it. And nor is the single X470 PCS offer.

A B450 board is all you need. There's certainly no performance advantage to spending more on a motherboard.
 
M

mjhcon

Member
Oussebon said:
Thanks, you too :)

For gaming including flight sims, none.

The motherboards are mostly about features, so unless there's a feature you need that it doesn't offer, you're fine. VRMs are an important consideration for overclocking or beastly powerful CPUs, but that's not an issue here. X570 motherboards offer PCIe 4.0 but tbh by the time you really have much call for that you'll be buying a new motherboard, CPU, and RAM as we'll be on DDR5, PCIe 5.0, and so on. For your uses, system, and budget level, an X570 board is not really worth it. And nor is the single X470 PCS offer.

A B450 board is all you need. There's certainly no performance advantage to spending more on a motherboard.
Click to expand...

That's perfect then! I don't believe I need any other features? So I believe I should be set. I don't plan to upgrade, so like you say I don't need to worry about a futureproof motherboard as everything will have changed by my next purchase.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top