First build, help appreciated!

[Yggdrass]

Hi guys,

Wonder if I can get some advice on the build bellow. First time getting a desktop and finally moving on from using laptops as I no longer travel as much as I used to so very excited.

The monitor I plan to use for this build is Iiyama 27" 1440p 144hz. I used the very handy guide that was posted to the forum and tried to build around what I read and did a bit of research myself, any opinions and tweeks is much appreciated. I mainly plan to use it for gaming and browsing, no streaming, working etc. Budget is around £1350-ish but will be more because I'll be adding the monitor to it on checkout.

Couple of questions, is the stock cooler enough? Should I bother with the extra thermal paste? The power supply I went for is the 750w for future proofing so hopefully that's alright. Lastly, the m.2 SSD which I plan on installing the OS to, is that enough or should I bump up to a 500gb?

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 220T RGB AIRFLOW MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 5700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 120 2.5" SSD, (up to 560MB/sR | 540MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx 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
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
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
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™
Monitor
IIYAMA G-MASTER GB2760QSU-B1 27"
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 21 to 23 working days
Promotional Item
Get Godfall and/or WoW:Shadowlands w/ select AMD Radeon Graphics
Price: £0.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/wd8FCthBez/

 

[Yggdrass]

Appreciate your help! I was initially tempted to grab the 2070s but noticed people were saying that the 5700xt was just the 'budget 2070' with slightly lesser performance but the tweeks you specified make it much more tempting to grab the 2070s which I will do.

With regards to the monitor I've been hearing FreeSync and GSync. Should I then try and grab a monitor with the same resolution and frequency but with also GSync tech or is it not that much worth it/difference at the moment?

The tweeks to the M2 and HDD make sense, just so I can understand it a bit more and I apologise if perhaps its a 'nooby' question, should I treat the M2 strickly for the OS or should I installing the slightly more demanding games on it (such as Siege being one that takes entirely too long to boot up on my current system) and other less taxing games on the HDD?

 

[Scott]

Appreciate your help! I was initially tempted to grab the 2070s but noticed people were saying that the 5700xt was just the 'budget 2070' with slightly lesser performance but the tweeks you specified make it much more tempting to grab the 2070s which I will do.

With regards to the monitor I've been hearing FreeSync and GSync. Should I then try and grab a monitor with the same resolution and frequency but with also GSync tech or is it not that much worth it/difference at the moment?

The tweeks to the M2 and HDD make sense, just so I can understand it a bit more and I apologise if perhaps its a 'nooby' question, should I treat the M2 strickly for the OS or should I installing the slightly more demanding games on it (such as Siege being one that takes entirely too long to boot up on my current system) and other less taxing games on the HDD?

Any adaptive sync will be compatible with Nvidia. GSync has a better range, but with the 2070S I doubt you would ever see an issue. Technically GSync is better but I don't think many would be too concerned with having it over Freesync.

With the M2 drive. You would want to keep it under 75% full IMO. With a 500GB drive that should be plenty for OS, Programs and a couple of games.

 

[Haywire23z]

Appreciate your help! I was initially tempted to grab the 2070s but noticed people were saying that the 5700xt was just the 'budget 2070' with slightly lesser performance but the tweeks you specified make it much more tempting to grab the 2070s which I will do.

Just a word of advice from a fellow customer - I would recommend reaching out to PCS and asking what model 2070 super you will get. If you ask in the live chat, they should send you a link to whatever they have in stock. You can then go and look at reviews for that model. In case you didn't know, there are lots of different brands that make custom cards based off the reference model from NVIDIA or AMD. The differences between cards include appearance, cooling and clock speeds. Unfortunately, to complicate things, it does mean that a bad custom card could be noisy and have a shorter lifespan due to inefficient cooling.

I found that the model PCS had in stock had very bad reviews on major tech channels so I decided to buy my own one from Amazon. If you do buy the GPU from PCS, you're likely to get a Zotac or Palit model, both are highly reputable brands but are typically budget options. Just thought you might like to know exactly what you're buying.

 

[Yggdrass]

Thank you all for the replies, lots of useful info for me to consider! Really appreciate it!