Pc Spec, a few questions.

C

CarRos

Member
Hi all, being somewhat tech illiterate I was looking for some advice.

Will the motherboard on this spec be able to support a faster CPU? I.e. does the motherboard bottom out at a lower speed than the faster i9s. I've gone for the 10cores but might upgrade to 12 or 14 with a higher speed at a later date.

Also, will the case I've chosen support an additional or larger graphics card. I've gone for the 3070 now but might go 3080 when they come down in price.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

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Last edited:
MrWilson

MrWilson

Godlike
I would strongly suggest opting for an AMD build over Intel. AMD are currently ahead of Intel in all areas.

AMD Vs Intel

So some of you aren't aware of the reasons why so many people are heading away from Intel to AMD, so thought it would be important to lay that out for people to refer back to. A lot of you will go to cpubenchmark or userbenchmark to find performance metrics for CPU's. These sites are complete...
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk
What is your total budget?
What will you be using the PC for? Gaming, Streaming, Editing, Music Production etc
What monitor do you have? Make/model or resolution/refresh rate would be handy to know. We pair the GPU to the monitor, no point getting a 3080 if you're pairing it with a 1080p 60hz display!
 
C

CarRos

Member
Thanks man.
MrWilson said:
I would strongly suggest opting for an AMD build over Intel. AMD are currently ahead of Intel in all areas.

AMD Vs Intel

So some of you aren't aware of the reasons why so many people are heading away from Intel to AMD, so thought it would be important to lay that out for people to refer back to. A lot of you will go to cpubenchmark or userbenchmark to find performance metrics for CPU's. These sites are complete...
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk
What is your total budget?
What will you be using the PC for? Gaming, Streaming, Editing, Music Production etc
What monitor do you have? Make/model or resolution/refresh rate would be handy to know. We pair the GPU to the monitor, no point getting a 3080 if you're pairing it with a 1080p 60hz display!
Click to expand...
Budget is around 2k. Purpose is gaming and some 3d modelling. Monitor will be 144mhz 1ms or 165mhz. 2560x1440
 
MrWilson

MrWilson

Godlike
CarRos said:
Thanks man.

Budget is around 2k. Purpose is gaming and some 3d modelling. Monitor will be 144mhz 1ms or 165mhz. 2560x1440
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. Is the monitor budget included in the 2k or do you have a separate budget for the monitor? A decent 1440p 144hz monitor will set you back anywhere from £300-800, but the monitors I normally recommend come in the 300-500 range.
 
C

CarRos

Member
Yeah. I'm looking at an Asus or lg 27". This is not part of the pc budget.

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Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Given your uses I would suggest stretching the budget to the below spec if you can. It's still not perfect as the storage could be a little faster, but the budget isn't there for it.

PC prices are through the roof at the moment unfortunately, it's purely supply vs demand.

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i RGB PLATINUM 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 (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 [KUK-00001]
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
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
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 22 to 24 working days
Price: £2,153.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/HrZv3!8wYD/
 
MrWilson

MrWilson

Godlike
CarRos said:
Yeah. I'm looking at an Asus or lg 27". This is not part of the pc budget.
Click to expand...
Those are really solid monitor picks, they would have been what I would have recommended.

@Scott has given you a really solid build. I appreciate it is a bit over budget, but as a long term investment it will last you 7-10 years and the only component that would need upgrading is the GPU.
 
C

CarRos

Member
Scott said:
Given your uses I would suggest stretching the budget to the below spec if you can. It's still not perfect as the storage could be a little faster, but the budget isn't there for it.

PC prices are through the roof at the moment unfortunately, it's purely supply vs demand.

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i RGB PLATINUM 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 (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 [KUK-00001]
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
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
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 22 to 24 working days
Price: £2,153.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/HrZv3!8wYD/
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice.That's ok budget wise. I can stretch it a bit. I'd probably go for a larger SSD as well. What's the main difference between the 3070 and 3060? Just processor speed? Memory the same. Also with that card would it have display out as I've noticed hdmi doesn't support a high refresh rate above 1080p.
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
CarRos said:
Thanks for the advice.That's ok budget wise. I can stretch it a bit. I'd probably go for a larger SSD as well. What's the main difference between the 3070 and 3060? Just processor speed? Memory the same. Also with that card would it have display out as I've noticed hdmi doesn't support a high refresh rate above 1080p.
Click to expand...

3060Ti is for 1440p up to and including 144hz.
3070 is for high end 1440p into 4k (including Ultrawide etc)

It's just more powerful. If you can stretch, it may be worth it for your uses.

I wouldn't recommend a larger primary SSD, the more space you have.... the more space you use, which becomes a pain when you want to reformat/backup/etc. Having a better organisation to begin with is often far more beneficial. With that in mind it's normally best to have a fast secondary drive (another M2 drive) which is what I would have suggested if there was a bigger budget. Like I said, everything is crazy money right now so your money isn't going very far.

Foregoing the 2k limitation on the budget, this would be the ideal spec for your uses. You can see the difference faster storage, additional storage and the 3070 makes to the costs.

The second drive will be beneficial with rendering as you can have it as a cache/scratch/fast storage drive. If there was more budget again, you could opt for yet another SSD for game storage. The Primary storage will take your software and one or 2 games, but you want to limit the capacity you fill it to as it will reduce performance.

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i RGB PLATINUM 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 (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 [KUK-00001]
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
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
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 22 to 24 working days
Price: £2,528.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/gXmY2NZKp4/
 
C

CarRos

Member
Thanks for that. Is there any thought about when prices might come down a bit? Is it all covid related because everyone's stuck at home playing on their PC's?
 
C

CarRos

Member
One more question. Do they install your OS on the 1st storage drive or can you specify? I'd want it on an SSD of course.
 
JUNI0R

JUNI0R

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
CarRos said:
One more question. Do they install your OS on the 1st storage drive or can you specify? I'd want it on an SSD of course.
Click to expand...
They'll install it on the fastest drive, this being the Samsung 980 Pro in @Scott 's most recent spec. That said, as the spec is from quite a while ago, I'd recommend looking through and making sure all the selections are still correct. For example I know the 3070 is currently unselectable (due to stock issues) so you'd have to go for the 60TI or 70TI. And the H100i RGB platinum isn't made anymore so you'd have to go for the H100i Capellix
 
C

CarRos

Member
Case
COOLERMASTER SILENCIO S600 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.6GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® STRIX B550-F GAMING (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 520 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 5000MB/R, 4400MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CV SERIES™ CV-650 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 200 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
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
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
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 13 to 16 working days
Price: £1,985.00 including VAT and Delivery
 
T

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
It would help if you could list the expected usage scenarios for this PC (competitive gaming, casual gaming, video editing, general office work, global thermonuclear war, etc.) and what monotor(s) it's being paired with.
 
C

CarRos

Member
I'm not super fussed about 4k tbh. So a 3080 is not a requirement. 3060 seems capable of handling most of what I'd need at 1440p. Also, I had to change the motherboard from the previous spec I priced up due to stock availability. Wasn't sure of what I'd chosen as a replacement. This is hte previous choice - ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready
 
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