First PC build (~£2k)

[Ice1]

Hi all,

Hope this finds you well!

I have finally decided to get some upgrades going (quite overdue to be honest as I’m still using my 10-year old laptop that has a 740m as a GPU)…

General usage:

The following is the build I have come up with. It’s going to be used mainly for variety gaming and prefer to have above 120 fps on average at both single and online games (on decent graphics and depending on game of course) using 1440p monitors. Current examples of games would be Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, World of Warcraft, Apex Legends. Possibly some VR games in the future but not the main focus currently.

I do not care much about Ray Tracing and won’t be needing much productivity work (hence deciding on going with AMD instead of Nvidia). RBG is not a priority, and would prefer if WiFi was available. Lastly, knowing me, I probably won’t be planning on upgrading any time soon after this so will not be making any immediate upgrades after this (ie. Swapping to the 6000 memory as some people seem to advise after the issues with it are sorted, and would be staying with the 5600 instead).

Monitor(s):

I am currently looking at the MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD 27in (1440p IPS – 165Hz) as my main monitor of choice at this point of time. Another consideration would have been the LG (1440p IPS – 165Hz) 27GP850-B 27in instead (depending on availability when buying). With that in-mind, I was considering having a 2nd 27in monitor which allows pivoting in order to use as a 2nd monitor. Any recommendations on this front?

Budget:
Would like to keep the budget around this amount if possible (£1,857.00 inc VAT at the moment), but can be flexible if required (by let’s say ~£150 to add a figure). This amount is separate from the one for the monitors.

Main build queries:

• Seen builds and comments which use 2 storage units (I believe one for system booting and one for actual storage). Should this be a consideration when using M.2 NVME SSDs or is this more for HDDs? If 2 storage units are better, would a faster boot with less storage SSD and a slower one with larger storage SSD be an optimal setup (hope this makes sense)?
• A bit unsure about the motherboard and if I should go with another B650 version or not. So long as it has enough ports, allows for a two-monitor setup and possibly already include WiFi.
• Do you believe cooling of this case and the system as a whole is sufficient or shall I replace / add additional fans? (ie. I think this case allows to add another 2x 120mm or 2x 140mm fans at the top)
• Is the PSU at 850W sufficient or would 1000W version be a better / safer pick?

Re-configure URL:
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/d8DszzP0PY/

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 4000X RGB TEMPERED GLASS MID-TOWER ATX CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core CPU (4.7GHz-5.3GHz/38MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
GIGABYTE B650 AORUS ELITE AX: (WIFI 6E, DDR5, USB 3.2) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 5600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6950 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
DeepCool AG620 ARGB High-Performance Dual Tower 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
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
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 7 to 10 working days
Price: £1,857.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/d8DszzP0PY/


Please let me know of any issues or queries to the above and apologies for the large wall of text! Any and all advice / comments on the build are appreciated. Thank you in advance for your time and reading through all this!

Kind regards,
Ice1

 

[TonyCarter]

Can give you the 2 x m.2 option (including a faster 2TB m.2), and save a little cash by just changing the motherboard to an Asus TUF version (and avoiding the poorly-regarded on here Gigabyte boards)...

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 4000X RGB TEMPERED GLASS MID-TOWER ATX CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core CPU (4.7GHz-5.3GHz/38MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 5600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6950 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB CORSAIR CORE XT MP600 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 5000 MB/R, 4400 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
DeepCool AG620 ARGB High-Performance Dual Tower 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
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 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
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 7 to 10 working days
Price: £1,837.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/tTqtCRQSyb/

 

[Steveyg]

I mean for VR you really want an Nvidia card, AMD just aren't there yet and can't compete in that space for now. Performance just doesn't translate right now

I will say the 7600 and the 7600X are very very close in benchmarks with the 7600 running cooler and a little cheaper I'd always pick that over the X variant just for value

 

[TonyCarter]

I mean for VR you really want an Nvidia card, AMD just aren't there yet and can't compete in that space for now. Performance just doesn't translate right now

I will say the 7600 and the 7600X are very very close in benchmarks with the 7600 running cooler and a little cheaper I'd always pick that over the X variant just for value

Considered the GPU, but the only Nvidia GPUs available within this budget would be the 8GB 3070Ti or the 12GB 4070 - both about £50 cheaper than the 6950XT...the 3080 is £150 extra, the 4070Ti is £250 extra and the 4080 is £600 extra.

 

[Steveyg]

Considered the GPU, but the only Nvidia GPUs available within this budget would be the 8GB 3070Ti or the 12GB 4070 - both about £50 cheaper than the 6950XT...the 3080 is £150 extra, the 4070Ti is £250 extra and the 4080 is £600 extra.

Yeah honestly I'd be leaning towards the 3080 but it's such a large gap, Nvidia in the stupid gouging prices

 

[Ice1]

Can give you the 2 x m.2 option (including a faster 2TB m.2), and save a little cash by just changing the motherboard to an Asus TUF version (and avoiding the poorly-regarded on here Gigabyte boards)...

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 4000X RGB TEMPERED GLASS MID-TOWER ATX CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core CPU (4.7GHz-5.3GHz/38MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 5600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6950 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB CORSAIR CORE XT MP600 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 5000 MB/R, 4400 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
DeepCool AG620 ARGB High-Performance Dual Tower 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
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 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
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 7 to 10 working days
Price: £1,837.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/tTqtCRQSyb/

Thank you very much for the recommendation. Those m.2 options seem to fit quite nicely! Just to understand more on this; when using 2 SSD drives, will I need to do any additional setting-up to 'set' them up for booting/storing? (will of course look this up when the time comes, but thought I would ask for general knowledge as well). Or is it more of store stuff on the big drive, keep the other one empty?

Will look a bit more on the motherboard you mentioned but on a quick look it looks to fit what I need it to do. And from my understanding, WiFi 6E (that this Gigabyte card uses) and the WiFi 6 the Asus TUF one uses, are both backward compatible with all WiFi versions correct?

Lastly, any particular reason the Gigabyte boards are poorly-regarded in general?

 

[Ice1]

I mean for VR you really want an Nvidia card, AMD just aren't there yet and can't compete in that space for now. Performance just doesn't translate right now

I will say the 7600 and the 7600X are very very close in benchmarks with the 7600 running cooler and a little cheaper I'd always pick that over the X variant just for value

Thank you! Will consider switching to the 7600 if benchmarks are pretty much the same and runs a bit cooler.

From what I can see, the power draw is less as well, therefore making using an 850W PSU a easy choice?

 

[Ice1]

Considered the GPU, but the only Nvidia GPUs available within this budget would be the 8GB 3070Ti or the 12GB 4070 - both about £50 cheaper than the 6950XT...the 3080 is £150 extra, the 4070Ti is £250 extra and the 4080 is £600 extra.

Yeah honestly I'd be leaning towards the 3080 but it's such a large gap, Nvidia in the stupid gouging prices

Can the 6950 XT do some/have some basic VR support?

At the moment VR is not high on my priority list, so if that's the only stopgap for going AMD I can live without. Besides, I do believe VR will all but keep improving from what it is right now, so in 5+ years time it might be more of a reason to pursue better support for it.

 

[TonyCarter]

Thank you very much for the recommendation. Those m.2 options seem to fit quite nicely! Just to understand more on this; when using 2 SSD drives, will I need to do any additional setting-up to 'set' them up for booting/storing? (will of course look this up when the time comes, but thought I would ask for general knowledge as well). Or is it more of store stuff on the big drive, keep the other one empty?

Will look a bit more on the motherboard you mentioned but on a quick look it looks to fit what I need it to do. And from my understanding, WiFi 6E (that this Gigabyte card uses) and the WiFi 6 the Asus TUF one uses, are both backward compatible with all WiFi versions correct?

Lastly, any particular reason the Gigabyte boards are poorly-regarded in general?

The smaller, faster m.2 is for the OS and app installations.

Game install locations (not the launchers) should be directed/defaulted to the bigger m.2

If you find you're running our of space on the 2nd m.2, you can move documents/files/movies/music to a slower/cheaper SATA SSD/HDD (internal or external).

The reason to keep the OS and the game on different drives, is so that they both have their own IO 'channel' to operate in and to reduce the effects of disk access requests from the system (of which there are a lot running all the time) delaying/conflicting with disk access requests from the games.