£1700 budget, gaming/modding - Advice appreciated

[rum_ham]

Hi guys,

My current desktop is really old (2013 i think), has a Intel Core i7 4790 @ 3.60GHz, 16gb ddr3 RAM, 4gb 1050 Ti, old ass SSD. I'm experiencing crashes and insane wait times for the tasks I want to do so pretty much anything would be an upgrade at this point.

Budget: £1700

Monitors: I currently only have 1080p monitors. Want to upgrade to 1440p but don't mind doing that in a couple of months if that allows me to get a more powerful desktop now.

Use case:

• Modding DayZ. - This involves (basically) a bit of everything;
  
  • editing HUGE satellite/mask images in Gimp (currently takes forever to export and often crashes)
  • Navmesh generation (this is massively hardware intensive and expected to take a good while, currently takes a good 8 hours and has my cpu and ram at or near 100%)
  • 3d model editing
  • Coding
  • In game editing (seems about as hardware intensive as just playing the game but takes way longer to load).
• Gaming - Obviously a lot of DayZ which is pretty easy to run, but I would like to be able to play new games with high settings if possible.
• Music production - I have an audio interface/sound card I'm happy with so not fussed about that, but I think it's quite cpu intensive.

I know I would need a bigger budget to get maximum efficiency on the above tasks, but it is what it is. As I said pretty much anything would be an upgrade at this point. Wondering what you guys reckon would be a good build for my use case.
I've done a ton of research and feel even more confused than when I started lol, really appreciate any advice you can offer.

Cheers

 

[sck451]

I think this is pretty achievable. You have to compromise somewhere (RAM in particular...) but otherwise this is a very powerful setup for what you're planning. It definitely wants a 1440p monitor upgrade pretty soon-ish, though. I'd be looking at £300-350 as a decent starting point -- and you only need to upgrade one: you can carry on using 1080p monitors as secondary or tertiary displays...

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS 2 ARGB GAMING CASE (BLACK) Good case at a good price
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7900 12 Core CPU (4.0GHz-5.4GHz/76MB CACHE/AM5) Good for gaming, albeit not the absolute top-end, but very strong in multicore stuff that will help with those big exports
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB) 64GB might be ideal, but it's not cheap and PCS doesn't stock it in the 6000MHz option...
Graphics Card
16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 7800 XT GAMING - HDMI, DP - DX® 12 Great 1440p gaming card
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW) Boot drive
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW) Games drive (maybe a hard drive would be good too if you have massive files?)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET Good solid power supply: more than you need but not absurd, and gives you upgrade options
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
DeepCool AG400 Performance ARGB CPU Cooler Enough for the 7900
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 Presuming you can transfer Windows off that old machine
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 6 to 8 working days
Price: £1,699.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/fNTUbZ2rbG/

 

[rum_ham]

I think this is pretty achievable. You have to compromise somewhere (RAM in particular...) but otherwise this is a very powerful setup for what you're planning. It definitely wants a 1440p monitor upgrade pretty soon-ish, though. I'd be looking at £300-350 as a decent starting point -- and you only need to upgrade one: you can carry on using 1080p monitors as secondary or tertiary displays...

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS 2 ARGB GAMING CASE (BLACK) Good case at a good price
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7900 12 Core CPU (4.0GHz-5.4GHz/76MB CACHE/AM5) Good for gaming, albeit not the absolute top-end, but very strong in multicore stuff that will help with those big exports
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB) 64GB might be ideal, but it's not cheap and PCS doesn't stock it in the 6000MHz option...
Graphics Card
16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 7800 XT GAMING - HDMI, DP - DX® 12 Great 1440p gaming card
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW) Boot drive
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW) Games drive (maybe a hard drive would be good too if you have massive files?)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET Good solid power supply: more than you need but not absurd, and gives you upgrade options
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
DeepCool AG400 Performance ARGB CPU Cooler Enough for the 7900
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 Presuming you can transfer Windows off that old machine
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 6 to 8 working days
Price: £1,699.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/fNTUbZ2rbG/

Legend. Thanks a lot for taking the time to have a look and help. This looks great to me.
Regarding the RAM, am I correct in thinking I could add 2 more 16gb sticks at a later date as the motherboard allows for 4?
Also, this might be a dumb question, but my office gets absurdly hot in summer, would it be worth adding improved cooling? The other options don't seem too much more expensive. Could perhaps stretch the budget a little bit...
Thanks again for all your help 🤝

 

[SpyderTracks]

Legend. Thanks a lot for taking the time to have a look and help. This looks great to me.
Regarding the RAM, am I correct in thinking I could add 2 more 16gb sticks at a later date as the motherboard allows for 4?
Also, this might be a dumb question, but my office gets absurdly hot in summer, would it be worth adding improved cooling? The other options don't seem too much more expensive. Could perhaps stretch the budget a little bit...
Thanks again for all your help 🤝

I would say absolutely, on any modern processor, I'd say you want an AIO as a minimum, you'll miss out on boost clocks under air. The H100i is the one for the 7900

 

[rum_ham]

I would say absolutely, on any modern processor, I'd say you want an AIO as a minimum, you'll miss out on boost clocks under air. The H100i is the one for the 7900

Thank you. This puts me a bit over budget but I'm willing to make that sacrifice. Won't be buying for a few days if anyone has any more input to give it's always appreciated. Super excited to get this bad boy ordered! Will post pics when it turns up

 

[sck451]

I would say absolutely, on any modern processor, I'd say you want an AIO as a minimum, you'll miss out on boost clocks under air. The H100i is the one for the 7900

Or the H115i if it's cheaper. It's not a hot chip but it won't complain about having more cooling. As for memory, you may be able to add more, but DDR5 is quite finicky... You may be better off getting a whole new kit.

 

[Bhuna50]

The H100x is slightly cheaper than the i

 

[SpyderTracks]

Be aware though the H100x isn't software addressable, so no control of fans speeds, pumps speeds or RGB, for the price difference, on a modern AIO, I would say it's imperative it's software addressable.

 

[Bhuna50]

Be aware though the H100x isn't software addressable, so no control of fans speeds, pumps speeds or RGB, for the price difference, on a modern AIO, I would say it's imperative it's software addressable.

I had the H100x elite in my spec - I can change the RGB on the fans and the pump via ArmouryCrate but not via the icue controller.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I had the H100x elite in my spec - I can change the RGB on the fans and the pump via ArmouryCrate but not via the icue controller.

God you're absolutely right, my bad! I'm going on old info as always! So they're just not addressable in iCue.

 

[Bhuna50]

God you're absolutely right, my bad! I'm going on old info as always! So they're just not addressable in iCue.

I haven’t looked re changing fan speed andpump speed though so you might be right there

 

[rum_ham]

Thanks for all of your input.
The H115i apparently doesn't fit in the case selected so it seems a toss up between the H100x and H100i. Quite a significant price difference with the H100x at £84 and the H100i at £143. Leaning towards the H100x at the moment as it's much cheaper, but will go for the H100i if I can spare the cash as would like to be able to change fan speed etc. (waiting to see how much my yearly bonus from work is).

Side note; does anyone know if when ordering with no operating system, will I need a boot drive to install windows, or will it come with windows installed and I just need to transfer my licence? I've checked and my current windows licence is transferrable so definitely worth doing that as I plan to install linux on my old pc anyway.

Thanks again for all your help

 

[SpyderTracks]

Side note; does anyone know if when ordering with no operating system, will I need a boot drive to install windows, or will it come with windows installed and I just need to transfer my licence?

You'd have to clean install from scratch, it will come with a test windows installation, but it's not configured and can't be used.

 

[sck451]

You can control the fans on the H100x. But you have to do it through motherboard software (either the Armoury Crate Asus software or something separate like the excellent Fan Control app) not iCue.

 

[Bhuna50]

Thanks for all of your input.
The H115i apparently doesn't fit in the case selected so it seems a toss up between the H100x and H100i. Quite a significant price difference with the H100x at £84 and the H100i at £143. Leaning towards the H100x at the moment as it's much cheaper, but will go for the H100i if I can spare the cash as would like to be able to change fan speed etc. (waiting to see how much my yearly bonus from work is).

Side note; does anyone know if when ordering with no operating system, will I need a boot drive to install windows, or will it come with windows installed and I just need to transfer my licence? I've checked and my current windows licence is transferrable so definitely worth doing that as I plan to install linux on my old pc anyway.

Thanks again for all your help

As its of interest to your decision possibly, I will give you a preview of some benchmarks I just took ready for me to write my review this week on my desktop.

My set up is:
CORSAIR 4000D RGB Airflow Tempered Glass - White ¦ AMD Ryzen™ 9 7900 12 Core ¦ Corsair H100x RGB Elite
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2x16) ¦ 12GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
1TB SOLIDIGM P44 Pro Gen 4 M.2 SSD ¦ 2TB SOLIDIGM P44 Pro Gen 4 M.2 SSD ¦ 2 x 2TB Seagate Barracuda 3.5" HDD (RAID 1)

1440p monitor and settings.

In addition to the H100x (with 2 fans on exhaust), I have 3 front fans that came with the case (set to intake) and 1 exhaust fan (exactly same as front fans) at rear.

No changes to stock settings - as basically I dont mess with whats provided. Only changes are done in game. Here are two sets of two screen shots.

1. Cyberpunk and 2. F1 22 - first is the screen shot of the benchmark in program and settings used (basically all settings Ultra and Ray tracing on Ultra too), second is the HWMonitor showing CPU and GPU temperatures (I allowed time to cool in between and did a full reset of PC in between each test to avoid any memory leakage issues).

Hope this helps you - the reading on HWMonitor on the right hand side is the highest temperature the items reached during the test:

 

[rum_ham]

Thanks Bhuna, 2 games I'd like to check out so thats good to know.

Unfortunately due to unforeseen expenses this month I've got way less of a budget to work with.. £1100. I would wait to buy the build suggested above but my current pc has all but died on me and I need something that will do for now.

I'm hoping to get something that will be decent for 1080p gaming and hopefully improve my export/rendering times etc.
Ideally would give me some options to upgrade in the future.

Here's what I've come up with;

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS 2 ARGB GAMING CASE (BLACK)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core CPU (4.0GHz-5.2GHz/38MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B650-PLUS (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6600 - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
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 750W RMe SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
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
Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
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 5 to 7 working days
Price: £1,138.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/r2PeA99sun/

Any suggestions to improve this? Appreciate the feedback

 

[sck451]

I'd get a slightly better motherboard (the Tuf) and a slightly worse cooler (the DeepCool one) because that's all the cooling the 7600 needs: better to give yourself the solid platform of a motherboard that will take more upgrades.

Otherwise I think you have about as good a system as you can get for that budget.

 

[rum_ham]

I'd get a slightly better motherboard (the Tuf) and a slightly worse cooler (the DeepCool one) because that's all the cooling the 7600 needs: better to give yourself the solid platform of a motherboard that will take more upgrades.

Otherwise I think you have about as good a system as you can get for that budget.

Thanks mate. Would you go for the DeepCool over the pcs frostflow 120? Only a few quid difference

 

[sck451]

Thanks mate. Would you go for the DeepCool over the pcs frostflow 120? Only a few quid difference

Yes. Probably the cooling will be similar but I'd expect the DeepCool fan to be better/quieter.

 

[Bhuna50]

Unfortunately due to unforeseen expenses this month I've got way less of a budget to work with.. £1100. I would wait to buy the build suggested above but my current pc has all but died on me and I need something that will do for now.

Dont forget there is the option to put some on the finance - and then pay that off in 12 months interest fee (with a small admin fee for settling early).