Question Advice on Prebuilt Specs

[random0ne]

Hi,

I'm looking to buy a new pre-built PC for gaming and would like to ask if the specs below seem reasonable or whether there's any improvements I can make.

Budget
Ideally I'd say £3000 at an absolute maximum. I'd like this machine to last a long time so spending this much up front, whilst a lot, seems to make sense to me. I do have some cash set aside to buy a new monitor with so this budget would be for the PC itself.

Use
Primarily gaming with the possibility of streaming in the future should I choose to. I'd like to be able to run the most recent games on the monitor below with no real concerns about frame drops. I've been avoiding "nice looking" games for a while now due to poor performance so I'm quite exited about being able to play them. My November deadline is mainly set to allow me to play the new Call of Duty, Warzone, and everything that comes with it however I’d also be playing games such as Escape from Tarkov, Rust, Battlefield, Football Manager & others.

Monitor
I quite like the look of the following:
Gigabyte 34" M34WQ 3440x1440 IPS 144Hz 1ms FreeSync KVM Widescreen Gaming Monitor
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...-kvm-widescreen-gaming-monitor-mo-00r-gi.html

What I'm thinking
I'm fairly happy I think with this build and it comes in under by maximum budget which is a bonus. There's two main areas I'm still having thoughts about:

1. I don't know too much about the motherboards so can't be sure this one is the best choice. Choices available are:

ASUS PRIME X670-P
ASUS® TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS
ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-F
ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR X670E HERO
GIGABYTE X670 GAMING X AX ATX
GIGABYTE X670E AORUS MASTER ATX

2. I think the 3070Ti will be sufficient for the gaming I want to do however part of me wants to add a 3080 Ti in there to keep it going for years to come. Is this worth the extra money? Or is the 3070 Ti enough for this build?

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X Eight Core CPU (4.5GHz-5.4GHz/40MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, PCIe 5.0) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler

Any advice would be great.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

If you intend to go for the higher pedigree discrete GPU, make sure to up the PSU as well. The brand and model of the unit is reliable but you will also need to up the wattage. If you intend to stick with the RTYX3070, then 1KW or slightly higher will do.

 

[Nighthawk117]

I would go for the 3080 Ti for an Ultrawide display if you can afford it, bare in mind though, the Nvidia 4080 is expected at the end of November. In terms of the motherboards I would go for the ASUS® TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS or GIGABYTE X670 GAMING X AX ATX. None of those boards are bad though, things like the ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR X670E HERO and GIGABYTE X670E AORUS MASTER ATX are hopelessly over the top.

A cheap SATA SSD like the Crucial BX500 wouldn't be a bad choice in place of a hard drive if you are using it for game storage.

 

[logainofhades]

I do not think that card is enough for 3440x1440, long term. I would suggest a 6900xt, unless you really want Nvidia features.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 4.5 GHz 8-Core Processor (£426.27 @ Technextday)
CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£147.22 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X670 AORUS ELITE AX (rev. 1.0) ATX AM5 Motherboard (£293.81 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL40 Memory (£221.62 @ More Computers)
Storage: Crucial P5 Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial P5 Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£189.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive (£47.99 @ AWD-IT)
Video Card: Gigabyte GV-R69XTAORUS M-16GD (Rev 2.0) Radeon RX 6900 XT 16 GB Video Card (£722.73 @ Technextday)
Case: Corsair iCUE 5000X RGB ATX Mid Tower Case (£164.99 @ AWD-IT)
Power Supply: Corsair RM1000x (2021) 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£165.97 @ Novatech)
Monitor: Gigabyte G34WQC 34.0" 3440 x 1440 144 Hz Curved Monitor (£419.00 @ Currys PC World)
Total: £2859.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-10-05 15:35 BST+0100

 

[Nighthawk117]

I do not think that card is enough for 3440x1440, long term. I would suggest a 6900xt, unless you really want Nvidia features.

He will want the Nvidia features

 

[logainofhades]

An ultrawide monitor such as theirs, is going to need that extra V-Ram, going forward, hence my 6900xt suggestion. Really that was my biggest complaint about RTX 3000. The Vram offered is simply too low, on the high end models, other than the 3090. The 3080 12gb would be the only RTX 3000 card, I would consider, for this build. The 3080ti is within margin of error, vs the 3080 12gb, on average, and the 3090 price is just crazy.

 

[Nighthawk117]

It's not a bad suggestion, I agree with the VRAM potentially being an issue that's why I wouldn't go lower than 12GB. The 6900XT is nice but there is a case for DLSS and the specialised RT hardware of the 3080 Ti.

 

[random0ne]

Unfortunately the 3080 Ti is out of stock until late November so wouldn't be available in time for my build 🙁 There is a 10GB RTX 3080 that I could get instead though.

When you say it's not enough long term, how long do you mean?

I'm not completely attached to the ultrawide monitor, it's just been suggested by others that it's an awesome monitor to game on. What would you guys recommend for monitors? I've been using a 27" BENQ for the past 4-5 years so it'll be quite different using an ultrawide if I go for it!

 

[Inthrutheoutdoor]

"pre-built" and "long term" do not belong in the same sentence IMHO....

For 1-2 years longevity, maybe, but not beyond that. This is because somewhere in the build are gonna be some bottom-of-the-barrel parts, even if they are just cables, connectors or control chips, but they WILL fail prematurely, meaning that you will have to go & buy or build it's replacement sooner rather than later, all the while hoping that the failures don't take out all the other parts and/or burn your house down....

Plus the money that is being paid to someone else to do the building for you can be saved and/or put towards getting higher-end parts to begin with

@random0ne
Based on your choice of parts, you appear to be a reasonably well-informed person, with at least some of the knowledge & skills needed to build you own machine, so why are you so set on a pre-built one ?

Just curious....

 

[Nighthawk117]

"pre-built" and "long term" do not belong in the same sentence IMHO....

For 1-2 years longevity, maybe, but not beyond that. This is because somewhere in the build are gonna be some bottom-of-the-barrel parts, even if they are just cables, connectors or control chips, but they WILL fail prematurely, meaning that you will have to go & buy or build it's replacement sooner rather than later, all the while hoping that the failures don't take out all the other parts and/or burn your house down....

Plus the money that is being paid to someone else to do the building for you can be saved and/or put towards getting higher-end parts to begin with

@random0ne
Based on your choice of parts, you appear to be a reasonably well-informed person, with at least some of the knowledge & skills needed to build you own machine, so why are you so set on a pre-built one ?

Just curious....

He looked like he was using a custom PC builder given the retail parts so looks like a decent machine. I think you being overly pessimistic, I'm not condoning it but even a pre-built from one of the big PC manufacturers will last 2 years.

 

[random0ne]

Yeah I can't take much credit for the parts I've picked out given they are from a selection of choices for each component although I have done my best to research what works best with each other etc.

I prefer a pre-build because I'm not too confident at putting it all together. CPU, GPU, RAM I'm fine with but the harder stuff like motherboard and cooling I'd be a little worried of damaging them during the build, especially when the total cost is as high as this. I also get some peace of mind that the system has been setup properly and tested before being shipped. I can understand why you'd suggest building, especially as someone giving advice on such forums but I don't think I'm confident enough to do so (yet).

My previous two systems have been pre-builds and I've never had any issues with their parts failing. Not saying that it won't happen but I do have confidence in the quality of the build being there.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

You are opposite of me lol. To a point anyway. They might be getting better but in some home use machines I’ve seen some things I wasn’t impressed with. I’m a pc/Helpdesk tech and have worked on quite a few systems and prefer getting my own. Plus it’s sort of fun, kind of like someone who soups up a car I suppose.

 

[Inthrutheoutdoor]

My previous two systems have been pre-builds and I've never had any issues with their parts failing. Not saying that it won't happen but I do have confidence in the quality of the build being there.

Yea well, your past 2 systems probably weren't built under the threat of constant parts shortages, restructuring of supply chains, and the race to the bottom-of-the barrel, quality-be-damned component pricing in order to maximize the pandemic-induced profit mongering of the last 2.5 years by just about every electronics company on the planet...

So good luck with whatever you decide to buy 😀

 

[Why_Me]

Unfortunately the 3080 Ti is out of stock until late November so wouldn't be available in time for my build 🙁 There is a 10GB RTX 3080 that I could get instead though.

When you say it's not enough long term, how long do you mean?

I'm not completely attached to the ultrawide monitor, it's just been suggested by others that it's an awesome monitor to game on. What would you guys recommend for monitors? I've been using a 27" BENQ for the past 4-5 years so it'll be quite different using an ultrawide if I go for it!

For the games you play I'd be looking at something such as this monitor. btw do you have a link to the site you are purchasing from?

https://business.currys.co.uk/catal...d-hd-27-ips-lcd-gaming-monitor-black/N328167W
ASUS TUF Gaming 27" 2K HDR Monitor (VG27AQ1A) - QHD (2560x1440), IPS, 170Hz, 1ms, Extreme Low Motion Blur, G-SYNC Compatible Gaming Monitor £298.99 inc VAT

https://www.asus.com/us/Displays-Desktops/Monitors/TUF-Gaming/TUF-GAMING-VG27AQ1A/