Check/help please!

[TF]

Hi all,

about 6 years ago I and a friend put together a gaming PC. This worked fantastically until a water related accident killed it...

I've put together the specs below to replace it. What are people's thoughts? Is there adequate cooling?

I have two 4TB 3.5 inch NAS SATA III 6Gb/s, 5400rpm, 64MB Cache hard drives taken from the old machine I will put in the new PC. Is there a reason this wouldn't work?

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor i7-10700K (3.8GHz) 16MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z490-F GAMING (LGA1200, USB 3.2, CrossFireX/SLI) - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
1TB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 470MB/W)
2nd Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H60 2018 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
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

 

[Grinty]

Sorry to hear about your last PC's untimely demise.

Could you tell us what monitor you're planning to use this with (resolution and refresh rate or make and model), and what your maximum budget is?

Some straightforward recommendations without knowing the above:
- You'll probably get better value for money with an AMD processor. Intel just aren't competitive at the moment.
- Going to 2x16GB RAM sticks will give as good or better performance than 4x8GB. Most consumer CPUs only have two RAM controllers, these are switched to talk to more slots but means the memory bandwidth isn't improved by having more than two sticks. Also, for some reason the 2x16GB@3200MHz sticks were cheaper than 2x16GB@3000MHz a week or two ago - worth checking if that's still the case.
- If you can, replace the SSD with an M.2 drive. The SATA interface on standard SSDs is a big bottleneck. M.2 drives using PCIe are much faster, so you get faster boot and program load times.
- 5400rpm HDDs are slow and not much cheaper than 7200rpm ones.
- If you need Wi-Fi, get the £18 card and if you don't need it remove the card entirely to save £8.
- I can't see what warranty option you've gone for, but at least get the Silver one if you live in the UK. It extends the collect and return period out for an entire year.

 

[TF]

Sorry to hear about your last PC's untimely demise.
Could you tell us what monitor you're planning to use this with (resolution and refresh rate or make and model), and what your maximum budget is?

Thanks for your response! My budget is max £2,000. I'm not sure about the screens, they are also ~6 years old, so I'm suspecting they may also need replacement.

I appreciate all your suggestions. My plan is to plug it into the router direct (about 3 feet away), so no router required. Good shout on warranty and RAM, thanks.
What sort of AMD processor do you recommend?

 

[keithbeaks]

Give this a read, because if anything it will give you a better understanding of the latest components. There are so many good people on here who will help you.

Desktop Building Guide - April 2023

A "quick" reference guide to building the perfect system. This is the sort of logic I go through when suggesting systems, so thought I would jot it down on the page. Clearly this is an ever changing suite of options but I'll update periodically as my default go-to's change... I'm noticing the...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[Grinty]

This is a slightly modified version of the "High-level 1440p" system from the guide @keithbeaks linked to.

I'm working on the assumption that gaming is the heaviest workload you'll be putting on this system since you haven't mentioned video editing, CAD or enormous software projects. If that assumption is correct then the 3600 is a perfectly good CPU for your uses (the smaller 3300X is often considered the best value for money for gaming but is out of stock at the moment).

Unfortunately PCS doesn't have a monitor in stock at the moment that does this build justice, so it's worth seeing if you can find a 1440p 144Hz monitor elsewhere (for ideas on what to get, check out this guide).

I've added an external DVD drive because I noticed you had a DVD drive in your original build. Going for an external USB one frees up some space inside the case, which can help improve airflow to keep things cool/quiet, but if you hate the aesthetic and would rather have it built-in then feel free to change it back.

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 520 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 5000MB/R, 2500MB/W)
External DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x Slim USB 2.0 External DVD-RW
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RM SERIES™ 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
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 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
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 18 to 20 working days
Price: £1,471.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/H4nFu0vcqs/