Question £1000 PC build.

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Mar 31, 2023
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Unsure if this is where to post a question like this but here we go.

I’m very new to pc building, and need some guidance, using videos and articles I have come up with this build, I intend to upgrade down the line but is this a good place to begin and is there any changes recommended.

CPU: Intel 13th Gen I5-13400f £210
Cooler: Deepcool AK400 £40
Motherboard: ASRock B660 Pro RS 1700 £140
RAM: 2x 8GB Corsair vengeance 3600mhz £40
Storage: WD_Blue SN570 1TB £53
Power Supply: EVGA W2 600W £80
GPU: RTX 3060 Eagle £343
Case: Undecided

It’s roughly £900 on Amazon but I believe with some searching I could further get the price down.
 
Am I not compromising the rest of the PC by going for the 4070, really unsure that I’ll even need it 😂
You are getting a lower specced CPU for the benefit of the GPU. The thing is that you are planning on using a 4k resolution TV, that requires a lot of GPU power to run at decent settings for 60+ fps. The 4070 ti is the best gpu that can be reasonably fit into the build to do that for as long as possible and with as many games as possible. Down below is an alternative graphics card and CPU.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-13500 2.5 GHz 14-Core Processor (£237.97 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK620 ZERO DARK 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler (£59.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B760M GAMING X DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£130.51 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£69.20 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£64.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: ASRock Phantom Gaming D OC Radeon RX 6800 XT 16 GB Video Card (£554.39 @ Newegg UK)
Case: Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB ATX Mid Tower Case (£68.49 @ Box Limited)
Power Supply: Corsair RM750 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£111.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1297.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-03-31 18:22 BST+0100
 
Mar 31, 2023
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You are getting a lower specced CPU for the benefit of the GPU. The thing is that you are planning on using a 4k resolution TV, that requires a lot of GPU power to run at decent settings for 60+ fps. The 4070 ti is the best gpu that can be reasonably fit into the build to do that for as long as possible and with as many games as possible. Down below is an alternative graphics card and CPU.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-13500 2.5 GHz 14-Core Processor (£237.97 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK620 ZERO DARK 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler (£59.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B760M GAMING X DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£130.51 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£69.20 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£64.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: ASRock Phantom Gaming D OC Radeon RX 6800 XT 16 GB Video Card (£554.39 @ Newegg UK)
Case: Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB ATX Mid Tower Case (£68.49 @ Box Limited)
Power Supply: Corsair RM750 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£111.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1297.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-03-31 18:22 BST+0100

The TV was coming into my thinking, if I sacrifice on the GPU I can spend some money on a monitor.
 
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Personally this is how I would do it. The 970 evo plus SSD imo is better than the WD 770 because it has 1gb of DRAM cache. The rm750 from corsair is a great PSU and leaves room to upgrade later. The 12400 non-f for the iGPU as a backup or quick-syc if you ever use it is nice. The blacked out AK620 is also a cooler that can handle the 13700k for the most part so it allows upgrades down the road for the CPU. These few upgrades over the other builds for just 6 quid over budget... Something to think about.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor (£180.89 @ Box Limited)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK620 ZERO DARK 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler (£59.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B760M GAMING X DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£130.51 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£69.20 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£64.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Zotac GAMING Trinity GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB Video Card (£819.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB ATX Mid Tower Case (£68.49 @ Box Limited)
Power Supply: Corsair RM750 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£111.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1506.03
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-03-31 18:05 BST+0100
If you are spending 1500 Quid on a build you should have more than a 1TB SSD. On top of that the SN770 offers performance closer to the Samsung 980 Pro.

Am I not compromising the rest of the PC by going for the 4070, really unsure that I’ll even need it 😂
Overall IMO it isn't worth the compromises to go with the 4070Ti. You are paying 50% more money for 25% rasterization performance at 4k or 19% better at 1440p compared to the 6800XT. If you are going to use ray-tracing then the nVidia cards are a better choice. DLSS2 and FSR2 are close in quality and performance, however, the 4070 does do DLSS3.
 
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Mar 31, 2023
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If you are spending 1500 Quid on a build you should have more than a 1TB SSD. On top of that the SN770 offers performance closer to the Samsung 980 Pro.


Overall IMO it isn't worth the compromises to go with the 4070Ti. You are paying 50% more money for 25% rasterization performance at 4k or 19% better at 1440p compared to the 6800XT. If you are going to use ray-tracing then the nVidia cards are a better choice. DLSS2 and FSR2 are close in quality and performance, however, the 4070 does do DLSS3.

As I said at the very beginning this is my jump on point, I’m looking to get performance similar to that of the modern consoles and I alway opt for performance modes on console anyway, Ray tracing is beautiful don’t get me wrong but is it gonna kill me at this current moment, nah.
 
As I said at the very beginning this is my jump on point, I’m looking to get performance similar to that of the modern consoles and I alway opt for performance modes on console anyway, Ray tracing is beautiful don’t get me wrong but is it gonna kill me at this current moment, nah.
The 6700XT builds will be far more performant than the consoles from a pure rasterization standpoint. Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X have GPUs that are around a 5700XT in terms of performance. At 1440p Ultra Settings the 6700XT is about 30% faster and the 6800XT is about 70% faster than what the consoles offer. From a CPU perspective we are looking at another big jump in performance. The consoles have a Zen 2 8c/16t CPU with a max 3.5GHz clock. The Zen 4 7600X is a 6c/12t CPU that per clock is probably 30% faster but the clock speed is also much higher. Per core the 7600X is probably 50% or more faster than the consoles CPU. Intel Raptor Lake (13th Gen) would be the same increase in performance.
 
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The 6700XT builds will be far more performant than the consoles from a pure rasterization standpoint. Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X have GPUs that are around a 5700XT in terms of performance. At 1440p Ultra Settings the 6700XT is about 30% faster and the 6800XT is about 70% faster than what the consoles offer. From a CPU perspective we are looking at another big jump in performance. The consoles have a Zen 2 8c/16t CPU with a max 3.5GHz clock. The Zen 4 7600X is a 6c/12t CPU that per clock is probably 30% faster but the clock speed is also much higher. Per core the 7600X is probably 50% or more faster than the consoles CPU. Intel Raptor Lake (13th Gen) would be the same increase in performance.
Well then that is more than sufficient for me, with the option to upgrade etc in the future. Would you mind sending through what you’d deem the best build.
 
If you are spending 1500 Quid on a build you should have more than a 1TB SSD. On top of that the SN770 offers performance closer to the Samsung 980 Pro.
The real world performance on the 970 evo plus is the same or so close you wouldn't be able to tell, and transferring large files will also be similar because the 770 is a dramless drive. . I could be wrong here, but I would much rather have the 970 evo plus for the DRAM.
 
Well then that is more than sufficient for me, with the option to upgrade etc in the future. Would you mind sending through what you’d deem the best build.
A nice AMD based build would be like so;

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 4.5 GHz 8-Core Processor (£320.29 @ NeoComputers)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK620 ZERO DARK 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler (£59.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 GAMING X AX ATX AM5 Motherboard (£199.92 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory (£119.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£64.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: ASRock Phantom Gaming D OC Radeon RX 6800 XT 16 GB Video Card (£569.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB ATX Mid Tower Case (£68.49 @ Box Limited)
Power Supply: Corsair RM750 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£111.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1515.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-03-31 19:53 BST+0100
 
The real world performance on the 970 evo plus is the same or so close you wouldn't be able to tell, and transferring large files will also be similar because the 770 is a dramless drive. . I could be wrong here, but I would much rather have the 970 evo plus for the DRAM.
The SK Hynix Gold P31 is equal to the 970 Evo Plus in terms of performance. The SN770 review includes the SK Hynix Gold P31 the SN770 almost always come out ahead of the P31. The only time it doesn't is during extended writes at 10+ minutes. Therefore the SN770 is faster than the 970 Evo Plus most of the time. Not to mention if you are spending $1500 on a gaming desktop why would you limit yourself to only a single 1TB SSD?
 
To fit in more better parts, thats why. If they need more storage they can add in anther ssd when they can afford it, most likely way before they fill up 1 tb.
In the grand scheme of things our 1500 builds aren't that different. You went with the bigger CPU and faster RAM. My AMD build could add the faster RAM as well and still be under budget. Cases are of equal quality, the Focus GX is better than a vanilla RM, your HSF is bigger but unneeded as the AG400 is already very good and able to cool like a Shadow Rock 3, the motherboards are the same as well. Basically we you went with more CPU and I went more storage.
 
In the grand scheme of things our 1500 builds aren't that different. You went with the bigger CPU and faster RAM. My AMD build could add the faster RAM as well and still be under budget. Cases are of equal quality, the Focus GX is better than a vanilla RM, your HSF is bigger but unneeded as the AG400 is already very good and able to cool like a Shadow Rock 3, the motherboards are the same as well. Basically we you went with more CPU and I went more storage.
We just have a difference of opinion on the CPU cooler. 170w CPUs can make use of a cooler that is nearly twice as good as the AG400, especially since AMD CPUs boost higher at lower temperatures. The focus GX is not outright "better" than the RM from corsair. They are much closer to each other than say a Seasonic Prime (better) vs the RM.
 
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We just have a difference of opinion on the CPU cooler. 170w CPUs can make use of a cooler that is nearly twice as good as the AG400, especially since AMD CPUs boost higher at lower temperatures. The focus GX is not outright "better" than the RM from corsair. They are much closer to each other than say a Seasonic Prime (better) vs the RM.
The 7600X and 7700X are 105W TDP so 142W PPT. The AG400 was able to cool the 13900k at 250W, it was a bit loud but able to handle it. Drop that by more than 100W and that will make it quieter.

The Focus GX line competes with the RMx line NOT the RM line. JonnyGuru, the head of R&D for Corsair, said relative quality goes RM, TXM, RMx from lower to upper. Therefore saying the GX is better than the RM is true and reviews support this. The Focus Core is the competition for the RM line.
 
The 7600X and 7700X are 105W TDP so 142W PPT. The AG400 was able to cool the 13900k at 250W, it was a bit loud but able to handle it. Drop that by more than 100W and that will make it quieter.

The Focus GX line competes with the RMx line NOT the RM line. JonnyGuru, the head of R&D for Corsair, said relative quality goes RM, TXM, RMx from lower to upper. Therefore saying the GX is better than the RM is true and reviews support this. The Focus Core is the competition for the RM line.
Can I see the source for the PSU statements by Jonny? My understanding was CX, TX, RM, RMx, HX in order of lower to higher end units. Either way the RM 750 vs the Seasonic GX is reflected in their pricing. The GX is about 30 quid more than the RM and both are great units that will last years. That small cost savings makes a difference in my build.

RM:
  1. 10 year warranty
  2. 135mm rifle bearing fan
  3. Zero RPM mode
  4. ATX12V Version v2.52
  5. Fully Modular
  6. Continuous output rated temperature 50C
  7. EPS12V Connector 2
  8. PCIe Connector: 3

vs.

TX-M:
  1. 7 year warranty
  2. 120mm rifle bearing fan
  3. No Zero RPM mode
  4. ATX12V Version v2.4
  5. Semi-Modular
  6. Continuous output rated temperature 50C
  7. EPS12V Connector: 1
  8. PCIe Connector: 2

The 7700x will pull around 200w of peak power. The ak620 is significantly more equipped than the AG400 to handle higher wattage loads and can be used to upgrade to even the best CPUs later. Would you put a 7900x or 7950x on an AG400? I would gladly take an RM PSU from Corsair vs the GX from Seasonic to have an AK620 cooler over the AG400. The PSUs are very comparable.
 
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Mar 31, 2023
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Just an added thought, any preferences on mouses and keyboards. Just need some reliable gear for general use and some games, as I mainly use controller anyway.
 

Firestone

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Sounds fine to me but some general guidelines i try to go by;

  • 80+ Gold rated fully modular PSU ideally
  • try for 32GB memory if possible
  • make sure you get Pro version of Windows if that's what you're using
  • make sure your motherboard has built-in wifi and Bluetooth
  • GPU with >8GB memory is a good idea
  • GPU selection depends a lot on your monitor resolution and refresh rate
  • Fractal Design cases are really good
 
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Sounds fine to me but some general guidelines i try to go by;

  • 80+ Gold rated fully modular PSU ideally
  • try for 32GB memory if possible
  • make sure you get Pro version of Windows if that's what you're using
  • make sure your motherboard has built-in wifi and Bluetooth
  • GPU with >8GB memory is a good idea
  • GPU selection depends a lot on your monitor resolution and refresh rate
  • Fractal Design cases are really good
I believe the build spoken about ticks a lot of those boxes. Any particular reason to buy pro windows wasn’t considering it.
 

Firestone

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The RTX 3060 is fine if you're not trying to do 4K or super high frame rates, it should be plenty good for stuff at like 1440p and 60fps+

Just try to get the version with 12GB memory
 

Firestone

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I believe the build spoken about ticks a lot of those boxes. Any particular reason to buy pro windows wasn’t considering it.
Home version of Windows is basically adware, at least in Pro you have some more control over stuff like the forced updates, etc . It's only like $20 more there's not much reason to not get it.
 
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Home version of Windows is basically adware, at least in Pro you have some more control over stuff like the forced updates, etc . It's only like $20 more there's not much reason to not get it.
Okay interesting, certainly something I’ll look into. Btw this is the build that I’m likely to go with nos it’s a lot different from the one with the 3060. https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/r98wd9
 
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Just thought I’d return to let it be know all parts have been purchased and are scheduled to arrive between now and Sunday so not long now. Will likely update this when I successfully build a computer or fry £1500 worth of components.
 
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