Build Advice Gaming PC - Custom Build guidance request

[damian.kowalski]

Hi there [helpful poster's name], thanks for reading this post!

I'm looking for some advice and guidance on components and compatibility for a custom DIY gaming PC. I've always wanted to build my own PC from scratch but never previously had the opportunity. I've got a budget of up to £1300, and my primary driver for the build (other than being able to prove to myself I'm capable of clicking pieces together) is to play Witcher 3 and a few other titles with no lag (video or audio). I'd like to end up with a system where there is no performance waste (like buying a mobo with a bus capacity that is insufficient for the CPU), is fairly quiet while running and offers decent value (i.e. using slightly dated or 2nd-tier components).

I've done a little research, and here are the key base components that seem to I'd like expert opinion on - from both a performance and more importantly a compatibility perspective:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X £270

GPU: Nvidia RTX 2080 £341

SSD: Samsung 870 EVO 2TB £50

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x16GB £98

MBD: MSI MPG B550 GAMING EDGE WIFI (MS-7C91) £160

Monitor: Gigabyte G32QC £270

I know that I haven't mentioned case, cooler, and probably a few other key bits, so please feel free to call out any such omissions, and please make recommendations where possible! Also any general advice for building a PC from scratch would be greatly welcomed.

Many thanks in advance for any help you give...

Damian

 

[Lutfij]

Swap the memory out for a dual channel DDR4-3600MHz kit. Make and model of the PSU in your build? Outside of the missing power delivery unit, your build looks set although you could look into an aftermarket cooler for that processor.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

I'd go with something like this.

Little overbudget, but your getting twice the ram, a better GPU, and overall a better experience. PSU included.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor (£259.79 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H100i ELITE CAPELLIX 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£114.99 @ AWD-IT)
Motherboard: MSI MPG B550 GAMING EDGE WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard (£172.98 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory (£118.49 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£149.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti LHR 8 GB VENTUS 2X OCV1 Video Card (£459.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2021) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£80.93 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1357.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-09-04 13:22 BST+0100


This with an aircooler:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor (£266.46 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler (£72.26 @ Technextday)
Motherboard: MSI MPG B550 GAMING EDGE WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard (£172.98 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory (£118.49 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£149.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti LHR 8 GB VENTUS 2X OCV1 Video Card (£459.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2021) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£80.93 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1321.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-09-04 13:24 BST+0100

 

[damian.kowalski]

Swap the memory out for a dual channel DDR4-3600MHz kit. Make and model of the PSU in your build? Outside of the missing power delivery unit, your build looks set although you could look into an aftermarket cooler for that processor.

Thanks for your advice on the RAM, could you share the reason behind this recommendation? Is it purely because of the higher frequency?

SNAP on the PSU. Knew I'd forgotten something vital! Guessing I'm going to need something updwards of 600W....

And with regards to the cooler, what CPU speeds demand additional cooling? Do I need a water type or is heat sink ok?

 

[Lutfij]

Ryzen likes faster ram...actually DDR4-3200Mhz was the wall on Ryzen prior to the 5000 series and B450 chipset boards. If you're set on a 3060Ti, get an 850W reliably built unit.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Thanks for your advice on the RAM, could you share the reason behind this recommendation? Is it purely because of the higher frequency?

SNAP on the PSU. Knew I'd forgotten something vital! Guessing I'm going to need something updwards of 600W....

And with regards to the cooler, what CPU speeds demand additional cooling? Do I need a water type or is heat sink ok?

3600mhz is the sweetspot with ram for Zen 3. It's because the Infinity Fabric clock can run at a 1:1 ratio with the memclock. It works out 1800:1800 (half of 3600 DDR). This gives lowest latency and faster response times. With higher clocked mem, the ratio shifts to 2:1 (or others) and mem latency can increase by up to 20ms.

Regarding the cooler and recommended, well that's a bit confusing now. It used to be relatively easy. A CPU had a certain TDP, and you choose a cooler that gives more coverage to ensure cool quiet operation.

So for example a 65w CPU might get away with a 65w cooler, but chances are the noise and fan speed to keep the CPU in step and not always so hot, will be very annoying. So the idea being you get a cooler rated for 120w or more (CPU depending) to give plenty of clearance for certain chips that have a lower TDP.

An example would be my own CPU. 5600x 65w CPU. I've an AIO that's rated up to 180w, and the CPU rarely goes beyond 80w at stress, so it keeps the CPU nice and cool whilst at full load. Temps at stress would be about 75-80c, gaming at about 60-65c, and idle at about 28-32c ( I live in Ireland, we have very mild summers and winters, so ambient rarely gets above 20c )

 

[damian.kowalski]

Hey there,

I'd go with something like this.

Little overbudget, but your getting twice the ram, a better GPU, and overall a better experience. PSU included.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor (£259.79 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H100i ELITE CAPELLIX 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£114.99 @ AWD-IT)
Motherboard: MSI MPG B550 GAMING EDGE WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard (£172.98 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory (£118.49 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£149.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti LHR 8 GB VENTUS 2X OCV1 Video Card (£459.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2021) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£80.93 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1357.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-09-04 13:22 BST+0100


This with an aircooler:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor (£266.46 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler (£72.26 @ Technextday)
Motherboard: MSI MPG B550 GAMING EDGE WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard (£172.98 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory (£118.49 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£149.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti LHR 8 GB VENTUS 2X OCV1 Video Card (£459.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2021) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£80.93 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1321.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-09-04 13:24 BST+0100

This is an excellent recommendation, thanks for pulling it together!

Could I ask what prompts the recommended GPU upgrade to a 3060 Ti? I ask as it's more than £100 extra than the 2080, and I wasn't sure it offered much more perf wise ?

Also, as I'm trying to be environmentally conscious and energy is now a premium commodity , is the Gold certified PSU a good enough standard if I'm running this machine nearly daily?

 

[damian.kowalski]

3600mhz is the sweetspot with ram for Zen 3. It's because the Infinity Fabric clock can run at a 1:1 ratio with the memclock. It works out 1800:1800 (half of 3600 DDR). This gives lowest latency and faster response times. With higher clocked mem, the ratio shifts to 2:1 (or others) and mem latency can increase by up to 20ms.

Regarding the cooler and recommended, well that's a bit confusing now. It used to be relatively easy. A CPU had a certain TDP, and you choose a cooler that gives more coverage to ensure cool quiet operation.

So for example a 65w CPU might get away with a 65w cooler, but chances are the noise and fan speed to keep the CPU in step and not always so hot, will be very annoying. So the idea being you get a cooler rated for 120w or more (CPU depending) to give plenty of clearance for certain chips that have a lower TDP.

An example would be my own CPU. 5600x 65w CPU. I've an AIO that's rated up to 180w, and the CPU rarely goes beyond 80w at stress, so it keeps the CPU nice and cool whilst at full load. Temps at stress would be about 75-80c, gaming at about 60-65c, and idle at about 28-32c ( I live in Ireland, we have very mild summers and winters, so ambient rarely gets above 20c )

Cheers Gilead for the supporting detail, good to factor in to things, will choose my RAM accordingly!

Can you offer any advice in terms of a case (ATX?) to keep things quiet?

 

[Vic 40]

Something else under your budget, think i only give less storage, but it has a nice nvme drive for the OS and still has a 1tb ssd for games,

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor (£266.46 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK620 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler (£55.00 @ Computer Orbit)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard (£146.95 @ Box Limited)
Memory: ADATA XPG GAMMIX D45 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory (£109.27 @ Box Limited)
Storage: PNY CS2140 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£45.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£69.99 @ Box Limited)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB PULSE Video Card (£438.89 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case (£59.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2021) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£104.99 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £1297.53
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-09-04 21:33 BST+0100

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

This is an excellent recommendation, thanks for pulling it together!

Could I ask what prompts the recommended GPU upgrade to a 3060 Ti? I ask as it's more than £100 extra than the 2080, and I wasn't sure it offered much more perf wise ?

Also, as I'm trying to be environmentally conscious and energy is now a premium commodity , is the Gold certified PSU a good enough standard if I'm running this machine nearly daily?

No probs, you're welcome

The 3060ti is the better GPU, with mostly better FPS in nearly all games. It also brings with it the next gen ray tracing if you like all the graphical goodness that brings. You could argue that for the price difference it's not worth the increase in performance though. There's a big boost in some games, but not all.

For the PSU, although gold certification is important, it's really more about the components. Those ones listed are top quality and will last from one build to the next. They also come with long warranties. But, yes, those PSU's are Gold rated and perform as such in terms of efficiency.

I'm not terribly au fait on cases. I use a Lian Li 215, which I really like. Great airflow for a budget case, with plenty of drive bays and fan placements for additional cooling. Other than that, I often think the case purchase is very much a personal choice (RGB or not RGB!?)

 

[damian.kowalski]

Thanks all for your help and advice thus far.

Having a look at the total cost of everything, I've had to trim back on some components and remind myself I'm really not looking too far beyond a build that allows me to play Witcher3 smoothly at max resolution.

As such, here's the revised list of components I've trimmed back to:

CPU	Intel Core i7-11700KF	£200
GPU	Nvidia GTX 1080	£256
SSD	Samsung 870 EVO 2TB	£180
RAM	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3600 C18 2x16GB	£106
MBD	MSI MPG Z590 GAMING CARBON WIFI (MS-7D06)	​ £179
CLR	be quiet! Shadow Rock Slim 2	£40​
PSU	Corsair RM (2021) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	£81​
CTX	Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case	£60
MTR	Gigabyte G32QC	£270

Can you kindly call out if you spot any compatibility issues here? Or if there any obvious swaps for components that won't increase cost of that component by more than 10%?

Thanks again for all your help with this! Once this list has been vetted, I'm planning on waiting for black friday/cyber monday then buying the lot then.... feel free to share any advice on which sites I should scan for the best bargains!

 

[logainofhades]

DDR4 3600 CL18 is no different, in performance, than DDR4 3200 CL16. 3600 CL16 is the performance sweet spot, though 3200 cl16 isn't a huge difference. Zen 3 is a bit less ram speed sensitive than previous Zen chips.

Thanks all for your help and advice thus far.

Having a look at the total cost of everything, I've had to trim back on some components and remind myself I'm really not looking too far beyond a build that allows me to play Witcher3 smoothly at max resolution.

As such, here's the revised list of components I've trimmed back to:

CPU	Intel Core i7-11700KF	£200
GPU	Nvidia GTX 1080	£256
SSD	Samsung 870 EVO 2TB	£180
RAM	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3600 C18 2x16GB	£106
MBD	MSI MPG Z590 GAMING CARBON WIFI (MS-7D06)	​ £179
CLR	be quiet! Shadow Rock Slim 2	£40​
PSU	Corsair RM (2021) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	£81​
CTX	Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case	£60
MTR	Gigabyte G32QC	£270

Can you kindly call out if you spot any compatibility issues here? Or if there any obvious swaps for components that won't increase cost of that component by more than 10%?

Thanks again for all your help with this! Once this list has been vetted, I'm planning on waiting for black friday/cyber monday then buying the lot then.... feel free to share any advice on which sites I should scan for the best bargains!

I would recommend against going with an 11700k. An i5 12400/12500 would game faster than that chip.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12500 3 GHz 6-Core Processor (£199.50 @ Technextday)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK400 66.47 CFM CPU Cooler (£30.00 @ Computer Orbit)
Motherboard: MSI PRO B660-A DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£146.49 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£93.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: TEAMGROUP MP33 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£73.70 @ Technextday)
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB MECH 2X OC Video Card (£393.44 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cougar MX410 MESH-G RGB ATX Mid Tower Case (£53.09 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair RM750 (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£69.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Monitor: ViewSonic XG2705-2K OMNI 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor (£199.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1260.18
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-09-08 21:37 BST+0100

 

[damian.kowalski]

Thanks for the advice @logainofhades !

Can I just ask for a bit more info on the GPU? WHat advantage is there for choosing an RX6700XT over say the RTX2080? The site userbenchmark seems to say the 2080 is faster (as well as being cheaper).

Also would you say the XG2705-2k monitor is stronger than the G32QC? I was only going with the latter because it came up favourably in a few review articles, and it approximates a 34" monitor that I've been using recently...

 

[logainofhades]

Userbenchmark is a trash website. The 6700xt is faster than an RTX 2080. From the techspot 6700xt review.

Monitor I would say just choose the one you like more. I personally am still using 1440p 60hz Lenovo monitors, myself, so high refresh isn't something I am overly knowledgeable about.