[SOLVED] [Gaming rig] Please check over this new build!

[shadowlift]

Hello tomshardware ( – 10 years on from my last build as a teen!)

From this build I'm looking for maximum 1080p 144Hz gaming performance for the price, including monitor. I personally tried to shave costs wherever I thought possible, but wanted to pass this over some more experienced eyes. I picked mATX for the cost savings; can't think of why ATX would be necessary here.

I'd be looking to play competetive multiplayer such as MW @ 144 fps (or close), however I really wouldn't mind going down to even 60fps for singleplayer experiences.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/j3mVk6

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  (£158.97 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£74.98 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 CL16 Memory  (£55.18 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (£52.82 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£52.96 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 4 GB Phoenix OC Video Card  (£158.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Deepcool Wave V2 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (£19.99)
Power Supply: Corsair CV 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£44.99)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter  (£11.99 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: AOC 24G2U/BK 24.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor  (£197.98 @ Laptops Direct)
Total: £828.85

• I'd want some longevity out of the system, so am considering spending that £50 more for the 1660 SUPER instead of the 1650 SUPER, to delay the next upgrade. Would that be a sensible idea? Or maybe is an AMD card more appropriate here?
• I also don't know much about monitors and chose the AOC because of its apparent popularity. Anyone know of alternatives at better bang for buck?

Any and all feedback is appreciated, cheers!

 

[maxamillionfeettall]

Ram should be at least 3200Mhz cl16, it will give you a few more fps as well. You will set the ram speed via XMP in the bios.

Skip the corsair CV, it's just a bronze VS. Look for at least a corsair CX, you can get a TX550m for only a bit more.

The ssd you chose is sata not nvme. M.2 drives come in either sata or nvme flavours.

The monitor is ips. Anything that is ips or va is fine in my book.

A 1660S will certainly get you closer to 144fps, maybe 120fps.

 

[julienruc]

I agree that a better GPU is required here in order to achieve your FPS target. Personally I would lean towards a 4-core with a better GPU.

I also second the motion on the PSU upgrade. I feel like this build deserves better.

Also, note that since your CPU is Ryzen 3rd Gen, only certain B450 motherboard models are compatible out-of-the-box.

Here's what that might look like:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3100 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor (£94.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-M2 MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£62.29 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£64.38 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£51.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£52.96 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 5600 XT 6 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card (£259.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£40.88 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: be quiet! System Power 9 600 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£54.26 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £681.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-03 05:10 BST+0100

As for the monitor. I will let you take your pick. In my opinion it's really up to personal taste.

If you're very serious about competitive gaming, then the benefits of a TN panel may be attractive to you as they are faster and more respnsive at a cheaper price. VA and IPS panels have come a long way, but in ordee to compete with a TN panel of "equal" capacity, they will come at a higher price as these two technologies also benefit in other areas. The beautiful colours and vibrant bright screens of IPS panels vs. the very high contrast ratio and deep blacks of VA panels. Both comes with their Pros and Cons, especially at this price point. Though you would be sacrificing these benefits with a TN panel, at this price point the TN panel will ensure a more pleasurable high refresh rate experience by offering lower response times, minimim ghosting, and lesser undesirables when it comes to competitive gaming. All of which are achievable by VA and IPS panels but come with a price ptemium due to the other benefits I stated.

In conclusion to this (at this price point) I would go for the TN if you're serious and looking fir every tiny competitive edge possible. If you'd like to treat your eyes a bit by sacrificing a little speed (rather unnocticeable by most) for a better picture - go for the VA. Of course, this is a generalisation of these panel technologies. Reviews and Youtube videos on specific models should be more than helpful to make your choice.

Let me know what you think about the build!

Edit: Typos

 

[shadowlift]

...

...

Thanks very much guys. I've re-jigged the build to incorporate your comments, namely switching in the NVMe SSD and the 1660 SUPER. Think am getting close to pulling the trigger, with just a few more queries!

PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  (£158.97 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£75.34 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 CL16 Memory  (£55.18 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£61.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£53.00 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB OC Video Card  (£208.99 @ AWD-IT)
Case: Deepcool Wave V2 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (£19.99)
Power Supply: Corsair CV 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£44.99)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter  (£11.99 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: AOC 24G2U/BK 24.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor  (£189.92 @ More Computers)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 - UK Layout Wired Standard Keyboard  (£10.83 @ Aria PC)
Total: £891.18

• Regarding the RAM– so it would be possible to overclock the 2666 Vengeance to ≈3200MHz, right? I'll assume that this wouldn't cause any long-term issues.
   
• A bit confused about the PSU, probably due to the limited availability at the moment. I guessed I'd need 550W minimum for this rig, to also insure against future upgrades too. I picked out the CV550 because of the seemingly good £45 deal. What kind of issues would I run into with this if I used it? I found a couple alternatives anyway, would appreciate it if you could rank them:
   
  • Corsair CXM 450W (2015) for £58 (+13)
  • Corsair CV 650W for £55 (+10)
  • Cooler Master MWE 550W (bronze) for £55 (+10)
  • EVGA 600W for £50 (+5)
     
    That's the ballpark anyway, I can search around more if required.
     
• The 2TB Seagate Barracuda Compute. Particularly worried about this one because I saw some online comments saying its write access times are really bad. I don't have much of an idea though. Would it be alright for non-competetive games and day-to-day computing?

I decided that I'll try out the renowned IPS screen. There's a good chance I'll be keeping this monitor for like 10 years, so it's worth the investment, and I do dabble in graphic design here and there. I've also read that apparently this B450M comes Ryzen 3rd-gen ready, but wouldn't mind fiddling with the BIOS if needed anyway.

Thanks again all.

 

[maxamillionfeettall]

You certainly can oc the ram, but there is no guarantee that it will be able to handle it or the latency may be higher as well.

Many budget psu's are either made with inferior components, have missing protections, straight up lie, and are based on older(10+ yr) designs. Of the ones you looked at, the cxm is the best, it's still an old double forward topology, but at the very least it has dc-dc on both 3.3v and 5v rails. The mwe v2 550w has dc-dc, but only on the 3.3v rail I think, the 650w has it on both rails. The psu is the heart of your system, and cheaping out on it is a common oversight.

 

[Archaic59]

this is how I'd do it-
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/t97Pwh

 

[shadowlift]

...

...

Thanks max & Archaic. These changes really made sense so I took them on board. A lighter CPU was already suggested before, so have taken the advice to change to the 2700X. From the benches, it seems I'll most likely only see the performance hits in AAA-type singleplayer games, which I'm okay with.

Final build: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/vDRJJb. (I switched in the MSI card because of gigabyte's RMA infamy)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£134.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£75.34 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£67.97 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£98.67 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card (£208.07 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Cougar MG120 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£29.73)
Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£69.99 @ Currys PC World)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter (£11.99 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: AOC 24G2U/BK 24.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor (£189.92 @ More Computers)
Total: £885.68

I can't find the G.Skill Flare X on a proper UK site - PCPP links international shipping from newegg, but almost half of that price is delivery, so it feels like I'm wasting money. I've opted for the Vengeance CL16 3200MHz instead, which I hope is comparable quality.

edit: apologies karad, we were typing at the same time!

 

[Karadjgne]

I'm not so worried about hdd write access times. With the ssd, everything is cached there, so anything you run is done at the NVMe speeds. The ssd will really only write to the hdd afterwards, the hdd sees very little writing. Saved games are on NVMe, not hdd. With today's games download times, you start the download and go to bed, so write timrs are even then not an issue. You can always swap it out for another, Hitachi is not bad, nor is Toshiba p300, but the smaller cache means more work needed to be done faster.

This would be more me.
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£158.97 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£71.98 @ AWD-IT)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory (£89.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial P1 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£58.08 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£53.00 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB OC Video Card (£208.99 @ AWD-IT)
Case: Deepcool Wave V2 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£19.99)
Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£69.99 @ Currys PC World)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter (£11.99 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: AOC 24G2U/BK 24.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor (£189.92 @ More Computers)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 - UK Layout Wired Standard Keyboard (£10.83 @ Aria PC)
Total: £943.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-04 03:01 BST+0100

£100 more than your build, but gets the better everything as a result.

 

[julienruc]

Thanks max & Archaic. These changes really made sense so I took them on board. A lighter CPU was already suggested before, so have taken the advice to change to the 2700X. From the benches, it seems I'll most likely only see the performance hits in AAA-type singleplayer games, which I'm okay with.

Final build: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/vDRJJb. (I switched in the MSI card because of gigabyte's RMA infamy)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£134.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£75.34 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£67.97 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£98.67 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card (£208.07 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Cougar MG120 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£29.73)
Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£69.99 @ Currys PC World)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter (£11.99 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: AOC 24G2U/BK 24.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor (£189.92 @ More Computers)
Total: £885.68

I can't find the G.Skill Flare X on a proper UK site - PCPP links international shipping from newegg, but almost half of that price is delivery, so it feels like I'm wasting money. I've opted for the Vengeance CL16 3200MHz instead, which I hope is comparable quality.

edit: apologies karad, we were typing at the same time!

Starting to look real good mate. Can't believe I didn't notice the 3600X was 30quid less. That's a fantastic deal.

Make sure to double check whether that motherboard supports 3rd Gen chips out-of-the-box. It usually mentions it in the webaite.