Meandering towards a new PC

smallkube

smallkube

Silver Level Poster
Hi there,

Long time lurker, occasional poster.I'm a big fan of the forum so i hope i don't make any schoolboy errors.

The PC is my signature has done me great service over the last 6 years but the old girl's getting increasingly creaky and quirky in her behaviours. My feeling is that it's time to start the search for a replacement. It's not yet a desperate situation though so if there's anything in the pipeline worth hanging on for, i currently can in spite of my itchy trigger finger.

I connect to a 4K tv, currently a 60Hz panasonic but that too is due to be replaced within the next 6 months. I'll be looking to get something that will do 120hz 4K when that time comes.

The main use is gaming. I share with my son so the games are varied but i'm certainly looking to play some aaa titles (starfield, baldurs gate and jedi survivor are all on my list, along with minecraft, wobbly life and lego starwars for the boy). Might look to VR if it gets a little more reasonably priced.

Budget is around £2.5k.

The below is my first effort, with an eye on longevity and upgradability, and a few laymans notes that i'm happy to be put straight on.

Thanks in advance.

Case
FRACTAL NORTH TG GAMING CASE (WHITE) - it's in the living room and my wife would prefer something pretty (and it is lovely) but it's not a dealbreaker if this case has issues with this build
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.0GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5) - the current gaming standard by all accounts
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X670E-A GAMING WIFI (WIFI 6E, DDR5, PCIe 5.0) - seems to have the most potential for upgrades compared to the lower tiers though i may just be believing the hype (sorry flavor flav)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB) - again current standard
Graphics Card
20GB AMD RADEON™ RX 7900 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12 - again, it feels like the extra GB will come into play over the next couple of years so worth a bit of extra spend
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W 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 AK620 ZERO DARK High-Performance Dual Tower CPU Cooler - is this enough for the set up?
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
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 12 working days
Price: £2,534.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/2jgGJxQ0BU/
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Yeah it's a good build mate

Only note I have really is that for gaming I'd just go with the TUF motherboard, the TUF B650's are made to such a high standard that there's not a lot in it between that and the "higher" end Mobo's other than specific features. So unless you need a specific feature the X670 offers there really isn't a need to go there

All in all great build
 
smallkube

smallkube

Silver Level Poster
Steveyg said:
Yeah it's a good build mate

Only note I have really is that for gaming I'd just go with the TUF motherboard, the TUF B650's are made to such a high standard that there's not a lot in it between that and the "higher" end Mobo's other than specific features. So unless you need a specific feature the X670 offers there really isn't a need to go there

All in all great build
Click to expand...
Thanks for getting back tio me. The only thing i saw that gave me pause with the motherboard was that the X670's have more PCIe 5 capacity with both an expansion slot and M2 port, which i thought might come into play over the next few years if upgrading.
With the motherboard being the hardest thing to replace but knowing very little about the difference it might make, do you think it is worth an extra £90 for that capacity now? Thanks again.
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
smallkube said:
Thanks for getting back tio me. The only thing i saw that gave me pause with the motherboard was that the X670's have more PCIe 5 capacity with both an expansion slot and M2 port, which i thought might come into play over the next few years if upgrading.
With the motherboard being the hardest thing to replace but knowing very little about the difference it might make, do you think it is worth an extra £90 for that capacity now? Thanks again.
Click to expand...
For me personally no, but only you can make that decision mate. If it'll cost £90 to give you peace of mind then you can make that call, I can tell you you're not getting £90 worth of motherboard. I still think the DDR5 Mobo's in general are very heavily priced but they have been getting normalised
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Solid build. You could lower the primary drive to the 500GB offering, would help you keep the finger on the pulse with tidying the drive as you want to keep it as minimal as possible. If you're happy with the extra outlay on the faster drive without worrying so much about the storage/performance aspect of it then it's a fair shout.

Being in the livingroom I would probably up the AIO to an H115i. Should help with airflow through the case without being noisy. It'll smash the CPU cooling requirements at a snails pace too (next to no fan noise).
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Some drive info/thoughts below. More applies to the performance/tidy/backup bullet points than the "why dual drives", as you already have 2.

Why more than one storage drive?

I've been meaning to put something like this together for a while. In recent weeks I've found myself writing this more and more so thought I would just post my thoughts in a thread that I could link to. So the reason for this thread is to try and give insight as to the reasoning behind having...
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk
 
smallkube

smallkube

Silver Level Poster
Scott said:
Solid build. You could lower the primary drive to the 500GB offering, would help you keep the finger on the pulse with tidying the drive as you want to keep it as minimal as possible. If you're happy with the extra outlay on the faster drive without worrying so much about the storage/performance aspect of it then it's a fair shout.

Being in the livingroom I would probably up the AIO to an H115i. Should help with airflow through the case without being noisy. It'll smash the CPU cooling requirements at a snails pace too (next to no fan noise).
Click to expand...
Thanks Scott. I've reduced the primary drive and upped the cooler as recommended.
 
AccidentalDenz

AccidentalDenz

Lord of Steam
Sorry to butt in, but I see you're considering VR. I think Nvidia GPUs are a better bet for VR, but obviously lack the VRAM that is typically better for general gaming which is where AMD do better. @Scott's the VR man on here so would know more!
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
ActuallyDenz said:
Sorry to butt in, but I see you're considering VR. I think Nvidia GPUs are a better bet for VR, but obviously lack the VRAM that is typically better for general gaming which is where AMD do better. @Scott's the VR man on here so would know more!
Click to expand...

Good catch on the VR, I never even noticed.

AMD is still significantly behind on the VR front unfortunately. If it's an outlier then that's fair enough, it'll still do fine, it just won't perform as well as NVidia will (or close to it).

With that being said, it's not because the performance isn't available, it's just not unlocked with the drivers yet. Not sure how much they are working on it though as it's been the same for years now.
 
smallkube

smallkube

Silver Level Poster
Hello again,

so, after taking all the suggestions on board and much deliberation, i think I'm finally ready to push the button. The below is my tweaked setup. I've made most of the recomended changes and also added a HD for storing music/pictures etc after reading a guide on here about usable space and drive failures. Please could someone give it a final once over to make sure i haven't accidentally picked a wrong bit of kit while fiddling with it. thanks in advance.

Case
FRACTAL NORTH TG GAMING CASE (WHITE)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.0GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
20GB AMD RADEON™ RX 7900 XT - 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
2TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W 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
CORSAIR iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX XT RGB 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
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
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
SUNDAY DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (BEFORE 2PM)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £2,417.00 including VAT and Delivery

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

smallkube

Silver Level Poster
The new PC has arrived and so far so very good indeed. I ended up with the uneccesary mobo upgrade, basically due to staring at the 'processing' message too long for my magpie brain to handle, and had to change the cooler per the guys at PCS for an extra £8.

I spent Saturday evening testing, running updates and installing apps and games on the dining table before setting it all up under the telly for Sunday gaming night. I'm still getting my head round all the AMD tech, having always had Nvidia before, but it's running everything gloriously so far.

Thanks again to all those who contributed and this forum in general for being so friendly and knowledgable.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
smallkube said:
The new PC has arrived and so far so very good indeed. I ended up with the uneccesary mobo upgrade, basically due to staring at the 'processing' message too long for my magpie brain to handle, and had to change the cooler per the guys at PCS for an extra £8.

I spent Saturday evening testing, running updates and installing apps and games on the dining table before setting it all up under the telly for Sunday gaming night. I'm still getting my head round all the AMD tech, having always had Nvidia before, but it's running everything gloriously so far.

Thanks again to all those who contributed and this forum in general for being so friendly and knowledgable.
Click to expand...
Congratulations, if you get the chance, upload some photos to this forum https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/forums/show-off-your-new-computer-laptop.15/
 
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