Spec advice

[felhfornow]

just for reference this is the spec with the asus motherboard

PCSPECIALIST - Configure the AMD Am4 Gen3 PC to your ideal requirements.

PCSpecialist is an award-winning manufacturer of high quality custom PCs & Laptops. Configure the AMD Am4 Gen3 PC to your ideal requirements.

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[TonyCarter]

It would rule out some of the issues we've seen around confusing beep codes when troubleshooting...and mean no backdoors into your firmware.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Personally I would avoid gigabytes this generation where possible, it’s a real shame because VRM design is amongst the best of all manufacturers, but the back door issue has lost them a lot of trust, plus the beep code duplications which is just a huge no no

The Tuf Gaming you e selected is a really good board

 

[felhfornow]

more questions (sorry for asking so many but i reckon you can't be too careful with a fancy box worth over a thousand quid)

- How much better is the 5000D airflow compared to the 4000D airflow? I understand that it's larger so better cooling, more 2.5" slots, and more room for future upgrades in general but is the extra cost worth it? i'd have to be a bit smarter about saving money but i don't mind if it makes a noteworthy improvement

- how long should i expect this pc in particular to last me? assume daily use of ~8-12 hours for programming & general work, watching shows/films, and gaming, and upgrading and replacing parts as needed. I keep on seeing anything from three to twenty years as to how long a pc can last, so a more specific idea would be nice

- was looking into upgrading parts and decided to check the motherboard and from what i understand NVMe is just a lot easier and more convenient to add/remove from a motherboard than SATA, but the motherboard i have selected only has 1 m2 port and 6 sata ports? what does that mean for future storage upgrades?

thanks all in advance

 

[felhfornow]

bump

 

[SpyderTracks]

- How much better is the 5000D airflow compared to the 4000D airflow? I understand that it's larger so better cooling, more 2.5" slots, and more room for future upgrades in general but is the extra cost worth it? i'd have to be a bit smarter about saving money but i don't mind if it makes a noteworthy improvement

It does make quite a big difference to airflow, it's better designed say for high mid range to high end builds to accomodate the extra cooling required. I'd say if you were thinking about a substantial GPU upgrade in the future, then it may be worth it, but if you're sticking sort of up to 4070ti levels then perhaps not.

- how long should i expect this pc in particular to last me? assume daily use of ~8-12 hours for programming & general work, watching shows/films, and gaming, and upgrading and replacing parts as needed. I keep on seeing anything from three to twenty years as to how long a pc can last, so a more specific idea would be nice

Any PC we design is with the lifespan of 7 - 10 years and above in mind (with expected GPU upgrades during that time)

- was looking into upgrading parts and decided to check the motherboard and from what i understand NVMe is just a lot easier and more convenient to add/remove from a motherboard than SATA, but the motherboard i have selected only has 1 m2 port and 6 sata ports? what does that mean for future storage upgrades?

NVME is a fast solid state drive connector, it's for fast drives for particular uses like OS of large project storage. But for any data storage, you'd always use an old 7200rpm HDD on SATA as they don't die instantly like an SSD does, so you have time to swap out the drive and transfer the data.

 

[felhfornow]

im so used to bits of technology lasting maybe 2 years before giving up with the exception of my switch - up to a decade for only 1k is absolutely mental!

i'll stick to the 4000D airflow case for now

 

[felhfornow]

read in a different thread about gigabyte motherboards being a bit sketchy (https://shorturl.at/iuKPV), so i was wondering about the asus ones - from what i can see they're a little bit more expensive but not sure how theyd affect anything else. if i swapped out the gigabyte b550 gaming x v2 for the asus tuf gaming b550-plus would that cause me any issues beyond what the configurator says about the usb-c port? the slight difference in price isnt a problem

thanks all

follow up on this - powerline adaptors only work via ethernet from what i understand but i need to boost the wifi for all devices in my room. should i get the powerline adapters anyway just for the computer and get something like this http://tinyurl.com/5kxmxkrp with it?

 

[SpyderTracks]

follow up on this - powerline adaptors only work via ethernet from what i understand but i need to boost the wifi for all devices in my room. should i get the powerline adapters anyway just for the computer and get something like this http://tinyurl.com/5kxmxkrp with it?

You can get power line adapters with built in WiFi, but they have to connect at the router end with LAN.

But I would never recommend power lines, they’re heavily reliant on the electrical design of your particular house plus the walls.

Power lines / repeaters and extenders are all outdated technology that Mesh has replaced, Mesh totally dominates any of them in any circumstance.

A decent Mesh setup would be SUBSTANTIALLY better

But all depends on your budget?

 

[felhfornow]

Since prices have dropped a bit and the 4000D disappeared from the config (I'm assuming its out of stock) I've messed with the spec a little bit to try and make the most out of it, but I'm very aware that I don't really know what should be prioritised so some extra opinions would be appreciated

Current spec (*4000D airflow switched to fractal pop tg silent) |
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/Xh05Q!PfGD/

Spec I've tried to improve |
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/Xh05Q!PfGD/
- went for more RAM because it just seemed obvious. i know 2x8gb would get me by but with how outrageous games are getting with spec requirements and all the computer work ill be doing i figured 2x16 would just ease future headaches
- more storage because it also seemed obvious. smaller faster one is for OS and all that stuff (think its called a boot drive), larger slower one is for everything else. planning on getting another p41+ 1TB ASAP
- thought of going for a better PSU but im already well above the required one and i dont want to push the budget that much, maybe I should focus on upgrading the processor cooler before the PSU and etc?

Thanks for all the help and advice, and sorry for all the questions - trying to most of the questions before I make the biggest purchase of my life so far. I do plan on actually buying at some point, CTF stuff is taking a million business years

 

[Martinr36]

thought of going for a better PSU but im already well above the required one and i dont want to push the budget that much, maybe I should focus on upgrading the processor cooler before the PSU and etc?

These days I wouldn't go under 850W, and would prefer 1000W to give good headroom, better to spend an extra £30 quid or so now than another £200+ in a couple of years, also if you get it done with the new build now, saves you the hassle later

 

[felhfornow]

Hi! After a lot of delay I've finally gotten my ctf transferred to my bank account and should have all the money needed to get the pc soon enough. Would like to do one final check to make sure Im getting the right parts

Budget: £1,400
Uses: School work (coding & research), gaming, watching shows and films, reading/writing, digital art (with an iPad connected to the computer)
Monitor: Samsung C24F390FHR (Planning on getting a nicer 1440p one to use as well as this one)

Current spec I've gone with:
Case | CORSAIR 4000D RGB AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) | AMD Ryzen 7 5700X Eight Core CPU (3.4GHz-4.6GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard | ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (AM4, DDR4, PCIe 4.0)
Memory (RAM) |32GB PCS PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card | 8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6600 - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
Graphics Card Support Bracket | NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
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)
External DVD/BLU-RAY Drive | 8x Slim USB 2.0 External DVD-RW
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 | PCS FrostFlow 200 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
Wireless Network Card | WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6E AX210 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
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
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 | Firefox™
Keyboard & Mouse | ASUS TUF K1 Gaming Keyboard & M3 Gen II Mouse Bundle
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: £1,327.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/!BrrkU73d7/

Any extra opinions would be appreciated!