[SOLVED] Advice for first PC

[Fewson]

Hello,

I'm looking to buy my first ever desktop and I would really appreciate some advice please

I have looked online and I have come up with the following specs as an idea. I have an initial budget of £1,000 for the tower incl. monitor and would ideally go for a pre-built as I'm not very experienced. I'm looking to play games like Halo & COD:Warzone. Ideally it would be a bit future proofed so can play future CODs and stuff like that.

Initial idea for specs:

- Z390 Aorus Pro Intel Z390 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard
-Core i5-9600KF 3.7GHz w/ Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler
-Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz
-Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER Twin Fan 6144MB GDDR6
-Samsung 250GB 860 EVO SSD 2.5"
-Seagate BarraCuda 2TB 7200RPM
-Seasonic Focus GX-850 850W 80+ Gold Modular Power Supply

This takes me to £1,300 or so on Overclockers so a bit above budget; would be interested to hear how we can bring the price down if you have any suggestions.

WRT the screen, I'm interested in 1080p or 1440p and would be further interested to hear what you guys think about these options considering my budget.

Any comments or advice appreciated. Thanks!

 

[WildCard999]

Change the PSU to the 550W, even with that you'd be able to run a more powerful GPU.

Change the CPU, MB, RAM to the 3600, B450 board (most are fine) & a 2x8gb DDR4 kit @3200mhz. Doing this should put you closer to your budget and performs excellent with the 1660S. Plus the extra threads on it will probably give you longer life with it over the 9600K.

As for the screen it comes down to budget and the types of games you play.

 

[Fewson]

Change the PSU to the 550W, even with that you'd be able to run a more powerful GPU.

Change the CPU, MB, RAM to the 3600, B450 board (most are fine) & a 2x8gb DDR4 kit @3200mhz. Doing this should put you closer to your budget and performs excellent with the 1660S. Plus the extra threads on it will probably give you longer life with it over the 9600K.

As for the screen it comes down to budget and the types of games you play.

Hi

Thank you for your quick response. I have had a look on chillblast with using your recommendations and came up with the following specs for £990.00 with a 5 year warranty. Does this look reasonable? Also what are your thoughts on refresh rate vs resolution for a monitor?

Thanks

• PROCESSOR: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, 6 Cores, 4.2GHz
• Power Supply: EVGA 80 PLUS White 600W PSU - no 550W available
• GRAPHICS CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super 6GB Graphics Card
• CASE: CiT Raider Tempered Glass Case - Black
• MOTHERBOARD: Asus ROG STRIX B450-F Motherboard
• COOLER: AMD Wraith Spire Stock CPU Cooler
• Thermal Paste: Standard Thermal Paste
• Memory: 16GB DDR4 3000MHz Memory (2 x 8GB Sticks) - 3200MHz was £40 more - is this a big issue?
• Case Cooling: Not selected
• M.2 PCIe SSD: Not selected
• Solid State Drives: 250GB Seagate BarraCuda Solid State Drive
• Hard Drives: Seagate 2TB BarraCuda 7200RPM Hard Disk
• Optical Drive: Not selected
• Sound Card: Onboard High Definition Audio
• VR Headsets: Not selected
• Case Lighting: Blue LED Case Lighting
• PSU Silencing: Not selected
• Networking Upgrades: Not selected

• Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit

• Power Cables: Chillblast Power Cable

• Cable Management: Standard Chillblast Cable Management
• Warranty: 5 Year Warranty, 2 Years Collect and Return UK only*

 

[WildCard999]

Looks ok except for the PSU, the EVGA white versions aren't really good quality. If anything I'd get a cheaper motherboard and use that for a better PSU. The memory is fine.

 

[Fewson]

Looks ok except for the PSU, the EVGA white versions aren't really good quality. If anything I'd get a cheaper motherboard and use that for a better PSU. The memory is fine.

Looks ok except for the PSU, the EVGA white versions aren't really good quality. If anything I'd get a cheaper motherboard and use that for a better PSU. The memory is fine.

Cool thanks - I think I am leaning towards these specs I found on PC specialist as it appears to be quite a lot cheaper. £829.00 for the following:

Case
PCS P209 RGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B450-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 SUPER - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
256GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (500MB/R, 400MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CV SERIES™ CV-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 80 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (AMD)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
50cm RGB LED Strip
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
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

 

[WildCard999]

What's available for PSUs?

 

[Fewson]

What's available for PSUs?

Here are the PSU options:

Corsair 350W VS Series VS-350 Power Supply
Corsair 450W VS Series VS-450 Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CV SERIES™ CV-550 POWER SUPPLY
CORSAIR 650W VS SERIES™ VS-650 POWER SUPPLY

and then some more expensive ones:

CORSAIR 550W TXM SERIES™ SEMI MODULAR 80-PLUS GOLD ULTRA QUIET - goes up to 750W but costs £73 more than one listed above

 

[WildCard999]

If possible get the TXM 550W, it's plenty for the build and far better quality then the VS PSU's.

 

[PCguy12345]

Hello,

I'm looking to buy my first ever desktop and I would really appreciate some advice please

I have looked online and I have come up with the following specs as an idea. I have an initial budget of £1,000 for the tower incl. monitor and would ideally go for a pre-built as I'm not very experienced. I'm looking to play games like Halo & COD:Warzone. Ideally it would be a bit future proofed so can play future CODs and stuff like that.

Initial idea for specs:

- Z390 Aorus Pro Intel Z390 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard
-Core i5-9600KF 3.7GHz w/ Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler
-Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz
-Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER Twin Fan 6144MB GDDR6
-Samsung 250GB 860 EVO SSD 2.5"
-Seagate BarraCuda 2TB 7200RPM
-Seasonic Focus GX-850 850W 80+ Gold Modular Power Supply

This takes me to £1,300 or so on Overclockers so a bit above budget; would be interested to hear how we can bring the price down if you have any suggestions.

WRT the screen, I'm interested in 1080p or 1440p and would be further interested to hear what you guys think about these options considering my budget.

Any comments or advice appreciated. Thanks!

I would recommend having a look at benchmark comparisons between the 1660 and the RX 580 or 590 because you could have better value if you're trying to save money. The PSU is a bit overkill. You could switch to AMD (Ryzen) but that is up to you. 1440p is going to be expensive and you should priorities refresh rate over resolution. Otherwise, your selection is quite good. Do you want to use ethernet? I don't think that motherboard has wifi.

 

[Fewson]

Thanks for the advice guys