When choosing another computer, I'm not really sure what I need when I look at the list of processors, motherboards, graphics cards etc, this is where my computer knowledge is lacking. I use my computer for general web browsing, email, converting video files to DVD, photos, and light gaming, (and games such as SimCity 2013 on the EA app, which to be honest is the most power hungry game I have, and that's over 10 years old). So I only need a basic setup, but with a bit of future proofing in mind aswell. Any advice is much appreciated.
What PC should I go for?
- Thread starter BJC1992
- Start date
SpyderTracks
We love you Ukraine
Hi, I don't really have a budget as such, I can spend whatever is necessary. My current setup cost less than £500, but I realise that's too cheap and I'd probably need to spend a lot more to get something decent.
The monitor I'm using is a Samsung Samtron 75e, an old CRT.
How come you ask about the monitor, would it make any difference to what setup I go for?
Although I will change the monitor anyway when I upgrade the PC.
The monitor I'm using is a Samsung Samtron 75e, an old CRT.
How come you ask about the monitor, would it make any difference to what setup I go for?
Although I will change the monitor anyway when I upgrade the PC.
Ekans2011
VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Without a maximum budget, it would be difficult to recommend an appropriate system.
This is an example of a high-end QHD/Ultrawide 1440p gaming PC.
Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.0GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4070 Ti SUPER - HDMI, DP, LHR
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 P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W RMx SHIFT 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 LINK H115i 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
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™
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 4 to 6 working days
Price: £2,429.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/PKSmT9Dw4Y/
SpyderTracks
We love you Ukraine
That’s right, as you scale up resolution and refresh rate, so does the demand on the pc, so roughly £1500 for 1080p, 2000 for 1440p and 2500+ for 4k, and monitors are the same, roughly 150 - 250 1080p, 300 - 500 1440p, 600 - 2000 high resolutions
What’s your budget for a new monitor when you do get one,
We’d need a fixed budget to work to, even if it’s £10k doesn’t matter, just a ceiling we know we can’t go above
Based on what I've seen on the PC Specialist website I think around £1500 would be the maximum I'm willing to spend, but I expect I may be able to get something around the £1000 mark.
With a monitor I don't need anything fancy, but I see a 24" screen for about £100 that looks like it will do the job, but can spend a bit more on a screen if needed, don't really want to go above £200 for a screen as I don't need nothing too high end.
With a monitor I don't need anything fancy, but I see a 24" screen for about £100 that looks like it will do the job, but can spend a bit more on a screen if needed, don't really want to go above £200 for a screen as I don't need nothing too high end.
Ekans2011
VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
In my opinion, £1500 is a pretty limited budget for a modern, decent PC.
Here's what I'd choose for an entry level 1080p gaming PC.
Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 205 MESH C GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-5.3GHz/40MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
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
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W 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 H100x RGB ELITE 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
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™
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 4 to 6 working days
Price: £1,604.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/qEKmzWHYqb/
Scoped Badger
Well-known member
I can't remember the last time I thought about a CRT monitor, let alone heard about someone actually USING one.
I'm not sure how we went from " I don't really have a budget as such, I can spend whatever is necessary" to a budget of £1,500. That was almost a bigger surprise than the monitor.
I'm not sure how we went from " I don't really have a budget as such, I can spend whatever is necessary" to a budget of £1,500. That was almost a bigger surprise than the monitor.
Martinr36
MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
You just gotta love comments like this
SpyderTracks
We love you Ukraine
Just worth mentioning, excuse the jesting, it's so unusual to find someone still using a CRT. It's not that they're bad, in fact in a lot of ways they remain superior to most modern LCD's.
The area that lets them down is Resolution, obviously they were at a time when general resolution was 1024 x 768 at the high end often, sometimes you'd find higher, but they tended to be very niche monitors specifically for gaming and carried a high price.
BUT, there are people who will hunt down a CRT still these days, especially some hardcore gamers who will play at lower resolutions anyway to boost framerates, and the nature of the CRT method of drawing lines rather than pixels refreshing on and off made it a much smoother experience which benefits competitive gamers.
So I would suggest if you do replace it, make a listing on eBay as you may get an unexpected return for it.
Yeah I wasn't really happy about the jesting, I felt a bit irritated by that, especially as people don't know why I have it, like you say older games display better on an older screen, and I have a lot of old games. Once I get my new PC the CRT will be used on an older PC specifically for older games. And also I don't tend to replace appliances that work perfectly well, as it does the job fine. But I know a new computer won't have a vga port, although I know adapters are available, and a lot of programmes now are designed for a wide screen monitor, so there are a few reasons why I'm upgrading it. As I said I'll be keeping the CRT and using it on another PC.
As for the budget I know I initially said I didn't have a budget, but I understand a figure was needed, so I came up with £1500 as a price I expect to pay, as I don't really think I'd need to spend much more than that. I also don't need a gaming PC, although it definitely helps to see what's out there, so I appreciate the info. Looking on the website, the office computers will do the job fine, as only light gaming will be done on the computer. Hope that clears up a few points.
As for the budget I know I initially said I didn't have a budget, but I understand a figure was needed, so I came up with £1500 as a price I expect to pay, as I don't really think I'd need to spend much more than that. I also don't need a gaming PC, although it definitely helps to see what's out there, so I appreciate the info. Looking on the website, the office computers will do the job fine, as only light gaming will be done on the computer. Hope that clears up a few points.
With the understanding that the gaming will be very light (no AAA titles or anything like that) and general office use, I would probably pull things right back to the below. There are a number of quality of life improvements still in place and it's a fully modernised system.
Oh, I included a reasonable monitor in the below as well.
Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 205 MESH C GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 8600G Six Core CPU (4.35GHz-5.0GHz/22MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
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
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMe SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR H100x RGB ELITE 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
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™
Monitor
ASUS VA27EHF 27" - 1920 x 1080, IPS, 100Hz
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 4 to 6 working days
Price: £1,160.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/kgyMJs0Bvk/
Oh, I included a reasonable monitor in the below as well.
Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 205 MESH C GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 8600G Six Core CPU (4.35GHz-5.0GHz/22MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
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
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMe SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR H100x RGB ELITE 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
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™
Monitor
ASUS VA27EHF 27" - 1920 x 1080, IPS, 100Hz
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 4 to 6 working days
Price: £1,160.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/kgyMJs0Bvk/
Many thanks for that, it looks like the sort of system I have in mind. I'll look into it.
I notice it has 2 SSD's. I've seen before where there is 1 SSD, usually with the operating system on, and then a conventional HDD. So I wondered what is the advantages of having 1 SSD and 1 HDD, or having 2 SSD's. Or another question could be why not just have 1 SSD, such as the 1TB.
I notice it has 2 SSD's. I've seen before where there is 1 SSD, usually with the operating system on, and then a conventional HDD. So I wondered what is the advantages of having 1 SSD and 1 HDD, or having 2 SSD's. Or another question could be why not just have 1 SSD, such as the 1TB.
Martinr36
MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
All explained in this post
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...
Why selecting a liquid cooler for such a PC? To me it looks overkill and is prone to more issues than an air cooler.
For a basic setup as requested, I'm unsure I would select the Solidigm P44.
Also, 16 GB at 5200 MHz may be sufficient, especially if the selected motherboard has room for 2 more modules to upgrade if necessary.
@BJC1992: how much RAM do you currently have and how much is used at most when using your computer?
There are no branded air coolers, or any other lesser coolers that I would recommend. Prone to issues is a thing of the past or a branding issue. Never known of any outlying issues with any of the Corsair coolers. Even lesser ones such as the coolermasters have had good success. These statements are made often and seem regurgitated rather than through experience. There are many benefits to having an AIO over an air cooler, however if one of the premium options were available there could be £20 saved.
P44 for £20 extra is well worth it for a primary, the secondary isn't worth the extra though hence I stuck with the P41. The P44 is a cracking drive.
5200 is a waste of money on a new system, it's hampering its performance significantly. Unfortunately DDR5 kind of forces the hand as 2x8GB would be ideal but it's not a good configuration with DDR5 in mind.
The thought behind each of these suggestions that you are critiquing is simply to be one and done, put it in and forget without second guessing performance choices. They're optimum for the build and the savings to be had to hamper them simply isn't worth it. Future proof was a pre-requisite.
Saving itro of £40 on a £1100+ purchase while dropping the performance, in some cases significantly, doesn't make sense to me in the slightest. The recommendation is sound, the choice is always up to the buyer though.
Thanks for the info @Scott , again it helps me to make a choice of what system to go for, and it all helps increase my computer knowledge.
To answer the question from @THMC the most amount of RAM I've seen the computer use, (whilst I've been on it today) is 61%, which was when playing SimCity.
But I have noticed when converting a video file to burn to a DVD it uses between 70-100% of the CPU.
To answer the question from @THMC the most amount of RAM I've seen the computer use, (whilst I've been on it today) is 61%, which was when playing SimCity.
But I have noticed when converting a video file to burn to a DVD it uses between 70-100% of the CPU.