Prospective Gaming PC Spec

[rbrownlie91]

So I've been wanting to get in to PC Gaming for some time, but never quite had the budget - until now. What I've chosen so far is near the top of my budget (which is £1800, though I won't quibble if someone proposes something that comes in a little over that) - I'm not buying any peripherals as these are already in place, so this is just about the PC itself. I've not included an OS with this, as I have a spare license for Windows 10.

Since I suspect there will be a question about it, I've gone for 2x 3TB HDDs as I've got a need for a lot of storage, and it was a little cheaper than going for one 6TB HDD.

Build so far is listed below.

Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY C BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Get 3 Months of XBOX Game Pass for PC w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs
Motherboard
Gigabyte X570 GAMING X: ATX (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2933MHz ~ (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
Get Control & Wolfenstein: Young Blood w/ select GeForce RTX GPUs!
1st Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
2nd Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 660p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 1800MB/sR | 1800MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 120 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 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 3 to 5 working days

Price: £1,709.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/S0gVb5p0gR/

Constructive feedback appreciated.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Is it just for gaming?

What monitor are you pairing it with, what resolution and refresh or make and model if you're unsure?

 

[rbrownlie91]

Is it just for gaming?

What monitor are you pairing it with, what resolution and refresh or make and model if you're unsure?

It won't be exclusively for gaming, I do watch a lot of stuff on Netflix and have a large anime collection as well.

As for monitor, I've currently got a ASUS VG248QE on the way from Amazon, it's only 1080p, but it's 144Hz so it'll do me for now. I do realise that the above spec is a little overkill for 1080, however I am thinking about going 1440p next year and there are a number of games that I would like to play coming out in the next wee while that might require something a bit more beefy to get a good performace

I am a bit of a noob though when it comes to this sort of thing, so if you think I can get the same performance for less, I'm more than willing to listen.

 

[Scott]

If you have no specific requirement for 3.2 USB or 32GB of RAM then there are some savings that can be made. No point in overspending with a view to upgrade your monitor next year....... just pocket the savings and upgrade the GPU next year at the same time.

With all that in mind this is a decent build. Depending on the games you wish to play, and the frequency utilisation of them, you may wish to compare a 9700k intel build.

Some notes:

There's no point in the 3700x at all for this sort of use. The 3600X is more than enough, in fact there was a thread update posted today that showed very little between the 3600 and the 3600X so even more savings could be made. I just like the idea of 4.4>4.2.

Motherboard, no point in going OTT with features you aren't going to use.

Ram... as above, save the cash.

GPU.... 2060 will get you into 1440p if you wish. You're saving a ton over your original selection though that can be put to next years GPU/Monitor upgrade. Go for it then. The 2060 more than smashes 1080p.

Storage - I selected a far better M2 drive. The rest is up to yourself. WD used to be the go-to but for £1 the Evo snips it for me. You can save money and go with the lesser options here. I just splurged because it was well within budget.

PSU - Do it once and do it right. The RMx series is the go-to for any serious build. Unfortunately I think they have ran out of stock of the 750, as everyone continually recommends it, so the next in line is the 850.

Cooling - It's overkill, no doubt. You could save money and go with the stock cooler. It's a great bit of kit and will look after your CPU for years to come.

Overall it's still significantly cheaper and for 1080p gaming it will absolutely smash it.

Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY C BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Six Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)

Get 3 Months of XBOX Game Pass for PC w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X470-PLUS GAMING (DDR4, 6Gb/s, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!

Get Control & Wolfenstein: Young Blood w/ select GeForce RTX GPUs!
1st Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
2nd Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x 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)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 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 3 to 5 working days
Price: £1,489.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/Zd!4x4WrZn/

 

[rbrownlie91]

If you have no specific requirement for 3.2 USB or 32GB of RAM then there are some savings that can be made. No point in overspending with a view to upgrade your monitor next year....... just pocket the savings and upgrade the GPU next year at the same time.

With all that in mind this is a decent build. Depending on the games you wish to play, and the frequency utilisation of them, you may wish to compare a 9700k intel build.

Some notes:

There's no point in the 3700x at all for this sort of use. The 3600X is more than enough, in fact there was a thread update posted today that showed very little between the 3600 and the 3600X so even more savings could be made. I just like the idea of 4.4>4.2.

Motherboard, no point in going OTT with features you aren't going to use.

Ram... as above, save the cash.

GPU.... 2060 will get you into 1440p if you wish. You're saving a ton over your original selection though that can be put to next years GPU/Monitor upgrade. Go for it then. The 2060 more than smashes 1080p.

Storage - I selected a far better M2 drive. The rest is up to yourself. WD used to be the go-to but for £1 the Evo snips it for me. You can save money and go with the lesser options here. I just splurged because it was well within budget.

PSU - Do it once and do it right. The RMx series is the go-to for any serious build. Unfortunately I think they have ran out of stock of the 750, as everyone continually recommends it, so the next in line is the 850.

Cooling - It's overkill, no doubt. You could save money and go with the stock cooler. It's a great bit of kit and will look after your CPU for years to come.

Overall it's still significantly cheaper and for 1080p gaming it will absolutely smash it.

Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY C BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Six Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)

Get 3 Months of XBOX Game Pass for PC w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X470-PLUS GAMING (DDR4, 6Gb/s, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!

Get Control & Wolfenstein: Young Blood w/ select GeForce RTX GPUs!
1st Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
2nd Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x 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)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 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 3 to 5 working days
Price: £1,489.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/Zd!4x4WrZn/

Thanks for this The_Scotster - your input is greatly appreciated by someone who has absolutely zero knowledge of PC Building

I took a look at this again, and there were a few things that I wondered about.

Firstly the PSU, this build has an 850W PSU, which is very beefy for this build (when clicking to proceed with that spec, the advisory message tells me that I need only 450W, so I've got nearly double what I require)), and while this does leave room for future improvement, even with a 2080Ti and 3900X I'm still told that 650W should do me just fine, effectively giving me 25% extra power that's not being used, obviously if I wanted to overclock the CPU/GPU then that extra power would probably get squeezed, but I don't see myself building/buying a monster like that any time soon.

However I will once again reiterate that I know nothing about PC Builds, so all of the above could be a load of rubbish.

The second was graphics cards, I'm hearing a lot about the new SUPER cards from Nvidia, and I have heard that the SUPER Cards are effectively the next tier non-SUPER card up but cheaper - though again, that could be rubbish, so I shall defer to you and others on that one - if it's not rubbish though I'd probably look to swap the 2060 in that build for the 2060 SUPER.

I've also been hearing about AMD's 5700 and 5700XT which from what I have read they offer similar performance levels to 2070/2070 SUPER cards but for quite a bit less, I also heard they are PCIe 4 cards, are they compatible with previous gen MBs or do I need to go for a 570?

Thanks in advance

 

[Scott]

The PSU is selected purely because of how good it is. The RMx PSUs are a very high level PSU with premium components in them. This allows it to run cool and without any fan noise through most tasks, only coming on when the power is pushed.

Regardless of PSU size the system will only consume the power it requires. 850w is merely the limit that it will top out at. It'll happily sit outputting 200w to your system as required, in silence. I always choose RMx PSUs where the budget allows. The only reason for the 850w selection is because the configurator doesn't allow selection of the 750w anymore. However, a forum member called up and managed to get a 650w RMx PSU added to their build. You could call and see if you can get the same unit.

My reasoning for the 2060 selection is that, for your needs, you could easily get away with the 1660ti. Just to make DOUBLY sure that you were covered for the next year or so of gaming at a very good level I selected the 2060. This offers a fair bit of headroom given your utilisation. You could get the 2060 Super which will be far more than you require, and comes with a price tag to boot, with a view to playing 1440p next year..... but by the time next year rolls around my guess is the 2060 Super won't quite cut what the 1440p games are asking for by then..... as the next step up will have been released and the 2060 Super will be old hat. Ergo...... buy something that more than covers your base right now and pocket the savings to go towards the next big upgrade when the time suits. The 1660Ti would fit your needs just fine btw.

I've not looked at the 5700 or the 5700XT in any detail to be honest. If they have the same performance for less cash then go for it. Apologies, I never realised I even selected the 470. I would most definitely select a 570 board, no doubt..... regardless of your GPU selection

 

[Oussebon]

Agreed with a lot of the above. 32GB RAM is 100% a waste versus 16gb for the uses you've described.

And a 2070 Super is terrible value for 1080p gaming even with the high refresh rate monitor. In fact the 2060 non-super is more than fine for 1440p gaming.

I have read they offer similar performance levels to 2070/2070 SUPER cards but for quite a bit less,

1) that's not true from what I've seen 2) remember these are PCS's prices which may not be the same as shelf prices in the USA, or even in the UK, 3) they have blower coolers that undermine the cards sufficiently to make them worth avoiding altogether. If you are desperate to give AMD GPUs a shot, wait for the AIB models with 2-3 fan cooling solutions in.. August.. or whenever they actually appear.

I also heard they are PCIe 4 cards, are they compatible with previous gen MBs or do I need to go for a 570?

Apologies, I never realised I even selected the 470. I would most definitely select a 570 board, no doubt..... regardless of your GPU selection

PCIe 4.0 absolutely does not matter even if you did buy an RX 5700 XT. Current gen GPUs, even the mighty 2080 ti, simply don't need the bandwidth over PCIe 3.0.

You have 3 motherboards to pick from before you start spending silly money for no real point.
1) X470-PLUS (PCIe 3.0 - and note, this does have USB 3.2 Gen 2)
2) X570 Gaming X (PCIe 4.0 - but no USB 3.2 Gen 2, unlike what PCS are listing it as having...)
3) X570-PLUS (PCIe 4.0 and USB 3.2 Gen 2 inc type C

The X570 Gaming X is only £13 less than the X570 Plus so we can just discount that altogether. So X470-PLUS vs X570 PLUS is probably mostly down to whether you want PCIe 4.0 for ~£50 price premium. Current gen GPUs don't care. Hardly any PCIe 4.0 SSDs exist as it's very, very early days. And you don't seem to care much for fast SSDs anyway having originally opted for a 660p.

For the PSU you could switch to TXm 650W. It's gold rated, semi modular, and fine. I'd prefer an RMx, having been very happy with my RMi (a very slightly better sister model). But I'd also like an i9 9900k and 2080 ti and a 4k high refresh screen so as with everything it depends what you want to spend

Since I suspect there will be a question about it, I've gone for 2x 3TB HDDs as I've got a need for a lot of storage, and it was a little cheaper than going for one 6TB HDD.

Get the 6TB HDD. It's so much less hassle if you can avoid having to balance how you spread things between two drives. £10 for the reduction in hassle over several years is easily worth it.

 

[Oussebon]

USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS

What's this doing here? (leftover from the OP's spec I assume)

 

[Scott]

Ooft, yes definitely. Bin that

 

[rbrownlie91]

Thank you everyone once again, your advice is greatly appreciated. I've updated the build following the feedback, moved to 1x 6TB HDD and a 650W PSU. Changed the case to a slightly cheaper one with RGB fans and added a few more RGB Fans

All in for £1500

Case
THERMALTAKE V200 TEMPERED GLASS RGB EDITION GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Six Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)

Get 3 Months of XBOX Game Pass for PC w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X470-PLUS GAMING (DDR4, 6Gb/s, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!

Get Control & Wolfenstein: Young Blood w/ select GeForce RTX GPUs!
1st Storage Drive
6TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
3x Corsair LL120 RGB LED Fan + Controller Kit
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 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
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days

Price: £1,500.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/j30ykCQceK/

 

[Oussebon]

I'd avoid the V200 at all costs. The front air intakes look a bit thin. The Corsair 460X would be better for airflow, if you want RGB and tempered glass.

Drop the 3600x to the 3600. There's virtually no performance difference, and certainly not anywhere near to £40's worth: