PC gaming build. How did I do?

[Tom1112]

Hi guys, I'm currently in the market for a new gaming pc and have been spending some time researching what to go with.
My budget is around £1600.

It's been about 11 years since I bought my last system and things seem to have changed quite a lot since then!

This PC will be used solely for gaming so if there's any advice/optimizations anyone can come up with i'd be really grateful!
I have about an extra £100 or so to play with if needed.

The monitor i'm using is:

Philips 278E1A - 27 Inch 4K Monitor, 60Hz​

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 220T RGB AIRFLOW MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WiFi (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 SUPER - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
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 iCUE H100i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series 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
10/100/1000 GIGABIT 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
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
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 10 to 12 working days
Price: £1,545.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/mqX06T3MUh/

 

[JUNI0R]

Heya! Looks like a pretty solid attempt honestly! A few areas I would change as noted below. Any questions, ask away!

Edit: quickly concerning the Monitor, is this one you’ve already purchased, or is it one you’ll be looking to purchase once you have the PC?

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 220T RGB AIRFLOW MID TOWER GAMING CASE great case choice, but not the largest which could limit future upgrade
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4) less expensive Ryzen CPU that’ll perform perfectly well for gaming
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WiFi (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB) you won’t see much difference between 3200mhz and 3600mhz with the sticks PCS provides
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP, LHR you’ll need a significantly more powerful GPU for 4K. This 3070 is the ideal choice
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3000MB/sR | 1600MB/sW) Slightly less expensive drive with similar speeds
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2200 MB/R, 1500 MB/W) you really want to be loading games off of an SSD these days
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET Higher quality and wattage PSU for better upgradability
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler Black Edition ample cooling for the 5600X
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT 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 You should be able to transfer your current windows licence over providing you feel confident enough doing so (it’s a real simple process these days)
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
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 - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £1,684.00 including VAT and Delivery

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

 

[Tom1112]

Heya! Looks like a pretty solid attempt honestly! A few areas I would change as noted below. Any questions, ask away!

Edit: quickly concerning the Monitor, is this one you’ve already purchased, or is it one you’ll be looking to purchase once you have the PC?

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 220T RGB AIRFLOW MID TOWER GAMING CASE great case choice, but not the largest which could limit future upgrade
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4) less expensive Ryzen CPU that’ll perform perfectly well for gaming
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WiFi (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB) you won’t see much difference between 3200mhz and 3600mhz with the sticks PCS provides
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP, LHR you’ll need a significantly more powerful GPU for 4K. This 3070 is the ideal choice
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3000MB/sR | 1600MB/sW) Slightly less expensive drive with similar speeds
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2200 MB/R, 1500 MB/W) you really want to be loading games off of an SSD these days
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET Higher quality and wattage PSU for better upgradability
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler Black Edition ample cooling for the 5600X
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT 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 You should be able to transfer your current windows licence over providing you feel confident enough doing so (it’s a real simple process these days)
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
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 - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £1,684.00 including VAT and Delivery

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

Thanks for the response! I really like the changes you've made.
The monitor was sent to me from my work as I work remote but I think the ability to play in 4k would be good in the long run!

I see that graphics card is under preorder only. Any idea how long I could be waiting for that to become available?

Another question, are gamers typically staying away from conventional HDD these days? I've heard SSD is a lot faster but I was under the impression they should be paired with a HDD to store the mass of the system files?

Thanks for your help!

 

[JUNI0R]

Thanks for the response! I really like the changes you've made.
The monitor was sent to me from my work as I work remote but I think the ability to play in 4k would be good in the long run!

I see that graphics card is under preorder only. Any idea how long I could be waiting for that to become available?

Another question, are gamers typically staying away from conventional HDD these days? I've heard SSD is a lot faster but I was under the impression they should be paired with a HDD to store the mass of the system files?

Thanks for your help!

4K is indeed awesome, but 60hz isn't. For gaming you'd ideally be looking at 144hz- I remember when I made the swap, I literally never knew gaming could be so good. Reason I ask is 1440p 144hz monitors are similar prices to 4K 60hz, but if it's a monitor you already own that's totally fine, maybe it's something to save up for in the future.

Honestly I couldn't give you a totally accurate answer. I know wait times aren't terrible for any of the cards (unlike a year ago). Your best bet would be to contact PCS, although it'll likely be before they say as from what I've heard I feel they tend to give pretty safe estimates.

They are, HDD's are just so incredibly slow even compared to a SATA SSD for loading times and Gen 3 NVME SSD's are very good value these days so seems like a solid move. I tend to spec a 500GB SSD for Windows and applications then a 1TB SSD for games- this means if you need to re-install Windows, you don't also need to re-install your game library. That said, if you will also be using the PC for work, I would recommend adding a HDD as well as for file storage as there's no real benefits for files being on SSD's. If you do go for that route, you might want to consider a larger case, the 220T isn't very long front to back so space for PSU and HDD will be very limited. I'd look into the Lian Li 215 then Corsair 4000D and 465X as other options.

 

[Tom1112]

4K is indeed awesome, but 60hz isn't. For gaming you'd ideally be looking at 144hz- I remember when I made the swap, I literally never knew gaming could be so good. Reason I ask is 1440p 144hz monitors are similar prices to 4K 60hz, but if it's a monitor you already own that's totally fine, maybe it's something to save up for in the future.

Honestly I couldn't give you a totally accurate answer. I know wait times aren't terrible for any of the cards (unlike a year ago). Your best bet would be to contact PCS, although it'll likely be before they say as from what I've heard I feel they tend to give pretty safe estimates.

They are, HDD's are just so incredibly slow even compared to a SATA SSD for loading times and Gen 3 NVME SSD's are very good value these days so seems like a solid move. I tend to spec a 500GB SSD for Windows and applications then a 1TB SSD for games- this means if you need to re-install Windows, you don't also need to re-install your game library. That said, if you will also be using the PC for work, I would recommend adding a HDD as well as for file storage as there's no real benefits for files being on SSD's. If you do go for that route, you might want to consider a larger case, the 220T isn't very long front to back so space for PSU and HDD will be very limited. I'd look into the Lian Li 215 then Corsair 4000D and 465X as other options.

Thanks man this was really helpful!

 

[Storm.rl]

Thanks for the response! I really like the changes you've made.
The monitor was sent to me from my work as I work remote but I think the ability to play in 4k would be good in the long run!

I see that graphics card is under preorder only. Any idea how long I could be waiting for that to become available?

Another question, are gamers typically staying away from conventional HDD these days? I've heard SSD is a lot faster but I was under the impression they should be paired with a HDD to store the mass of the system files?

Thanks for your help!

Unsure if this has been answered but don’t be afraid to switch to a normal cheaper GPU when it says pre-order.

I ordered a pc with a 3060, which was pre-order at the time and received an email saying I was like 400 in queue! This was on the Friday and by Wednesday my pc was built and tested! So I would say go for the pre-order, save some money and waste a little time if none!

- Storm

 

[SpyderTracks]

Unsure if this has been answered but don’t be afraid to switch to a normal cheaper GPU when it says pre-order.

I ordered a pc with a 3060, which was pre-order at the time and received an email saying I was like 400 in queue! This was on the Friday and by Wednesday my pc was built and tested! So I would say go for the pre-order, save some money and waste a little time if none!

- Storm

Absolutely agree with this

 

[Tom1112]

Unsure if this has been answered but don’t be afraid to switch to a normal cheaper GPU when it says pre-order.

I ordered a pc with a 3060, which was pre-order at the time and received an email saying I was like 400 in queue! This was on the Friday and by Wednesday my pc was built and tested! So I would say go for the pre-order, save some money and waste a little time if none!

- Storm

I ended up going with the 3070 in the end and got an email on monday saying I was in position 166, which I thought was a lot until I read yours! So just to be clear you're recommending I switch to something cheaper or stick with preorder? Sorry i'm a bit confused about which one you're saying you did.

Support told me they're getting new 3070s in this week and gave me an overall estimate of about 10-12 days

 

[SpyderTracks]

I ended up going with the 3070 in the end and got an email on monday saying I was in position 166, which I thought was a lot until I read yours! So just to be clear you're recommending I switch to something cheaper or stick with preorder? Sorry i'm a bit confused about which one you're saying you did.

Support told me they're getting new 3070s in this week and gave me an overall estimate of about 10-12 days

3070 would suit a 1440p 144Hz monitor, in fact it's the perfect fit for it, and finding a bargain, you could probably find a decent monitor around the £250 to £300 mark.

I realise you may not have that available now, but that will give a far greater gaming experience in the long term.

The 3070 at 4k 60Hz is not going to be great, you'll have to reduce settings quite a bit. But as a stop gap, it's certainly doable.

We can offer advice on some good 1440p 144Hz monitors if you're interested?

 

[Tom1112]

3070 would suit a 1440p 144Hz monitor, in fact it's the perfect fit for it, and finding a bargain, you could probably find a decent monitor around the £250 to £300 mark.

I realise you may not have that available now, but that will give a far greater gaming experience in the long term.

The 3070 at 4k 60Hz is not going to be great, you'll have to reduce settings quite a bit. But as a stop gap, it's certainly doable.

We can offer advice on some good 1440p 144Hz monitors if you're interested?

Oh interesting! So is it the fact that it's 4k or that it's 60Hz that would cause it to not perform well?

I'd definitely be into the idea of getting a 1440p 144Hz monitor if I could find one around that price range. This 4k 60Hz monitor I have is a free one I'm borrowing from my work so ideally i'll have to replace it at some point anyways.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Oh interesting! So is it the fact that it's 4k or that it's 60Hz that would cause it to not perform well?

4k takes quite a bit to drive. It will be ok at 60Hz, but you'll have to reduce some settings, certainly on newer games. As we move forwards that will more become the case.

60Hz though is poor for gaming these days. Once you've experienced over 100Hz, you'll realise just what a huge difference it makes.

The difference between 4k and 1440p isn't that huge in resolution terms, but the difference between 60Hz and 144Hz is rather large.

It's also not a gaming monitor and has no variable refresh rate which is kind of essential these days. Without it you'll likely get screen tearing.

I'd definitely be into the idea of getting a 1440p 144Hz monitor if I could find one around that price range.

There are some really great options without breaking the budget.

A firm favorite and rated as one of the best deals at 1440p gaming monitor is the Dell S2721DGFA which is currently around £280 on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-S2721DGFA-Compatible-DisplayPort-Adjustable/dp/B08NFBKNMY?th=1

There's a great roundup of last years monitors here:

 

[JUNI0R]

The difference between 4k and 1440p isn't that huge in resolution terms, but the difference between 60Hz and 144Hz is rather large.

I'm pretty certain I've said this before although I feel its worth saying again. I went from 1080p 60hz to 1440p 144hz last year and my god, what a transformation. The swap from 1080p to 1440p wasn't actually as big as I was expecting, but from 60hz to 144hz 🤯🤯 Even 60FPS to 80FPS was huge, it felt buttery smooth and again, I literally never knew gaming could be so good, let alone all the way up to 144hz.

@Tom1112 I know you're in a slightly different boat coming down from 4K, but I'd 100% say it's worth the trade off, it seems you notice the refresh change more than the resolution change anyway

 

[SpyderTracks]

I'm pretty certain I've said this before although I feel its worth saying again. I went from 1080p 60hz to 1440p 144hz last year and my god, what a transformation. The swap from 1080p to 1440p wasn't actually as big as I was expecting, but from 60hz to 144hz 🤯🤯 Even 60FPS to 80FPS was huge, it felt buttery smooth and again, I literally never knew gaming could be so good, let alone all the way up to 144hz.

@Tom1112 I know you're in a slightly different boat coming down from 4K, but I'd 100% say it's worth the trade off, it seems you notice the refresh change more than the resolution change anyway

Just additionally, I have a 4k 60Hz panel and a 1440p 144Hz (the earlier version of that Dell) and I far preferred the experience at 1440p, that was even with Variable Refresh Rate on the 4k panel. 1440p is not that much of a step down from 4k visually, it really isn't, but the smoothness of the experience at high refresh just makes gaming so much more enjoyable.

I've just upgraded my monitor and chose to stick at 1440 although superwide over a 4k 144hz panel which would have cost around the same. 4K just really wasn't as profound experience as I expected it to be.

And with mini LED on the Dell above, that experience is just going to be far more pronounced and impactful. To get that same level of performance at 4k, you'd be looking much nearer around £800 for the monitor.

 

[Storm.rl]

I ended up going with the 3070 in the end and got an email on monday saying I was in position 166, which I thought was a lot until I read yours! So just to be clear you're recommending I switch to something cheaper or stick with preorder? Sorry i'm a bit confused about which one you're saying you did.

Support told me they're getting new 3070s in this week and gave me an overall estimate of about 10-12 days

Relating to when I said something cheaper is that the default 3070 is cheaper than the other brand 3070s with not much difference. I think so if you wanted a branded 3070 for looks you’d pay a little extra for not much difference. So stay with the 3070 and pair it up with a 1440p 144hertz monitor the dell one suggested looks amazing!

And I didn’t call support for an update on timings, however both times I’ve ordered a 3060 it was placed on the Friday and on the Wednesday being delivered.

Yes the 3060 I got with my pc was defective however I got a replacement coming today! And 3060 are in pre order as well so it’s worth the wait for a normal 3070