[SOLVED] Looking for advice on a pre-built rig

[Yeldur]

Hi all,

A friend of mine contacted me and asked me to stick together a pre-built rig for him as he doesn't have any interest or knowledge in building computers, the keys specified are as follows:

• Must be under £2000
• Must have a keyboard and monitor included within the price
• Is built around playing RTS games and FPS games, examples include Europa Universalis IV, Stellaris, CK3 and games like Call of Duty (Warzone) and Halo.
• Must be Wi-Fi based as it will need to be used wirelessly.

Here's what I've come up with so far, any advice on changes etc etc?

£1,596.00
inc VAT and Delivery


Case
PCS PRISM-X RGB MID TOWER CASE

Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4) (Pre-Order Only)

Motherboard
ASUS® STRIX B550-F GAMING (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!

Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP (Pre-Order Only)

1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE

1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)

Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)

Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler

Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)

Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0

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

 

[DSzymborski]

What is the place you're ordering from? There's nothing bad here, but there are some points of concern; the 3800X is in an extremely awkward pricing spot right now and very slow RAM is a giant mistake on a Ryzen build.

 

[dotas1]

It's a nice combo but it has one issue. Ryzen and slow RAM is a big NO. You need at least 3200MHz for proper performance, or ideal would be 3600MHz. With 2400MHz there would be games that you will lose up to 50% in performance.

The other thing I can think of, is if you are able to choose a RYZEN 5000 series CPU instead. The slowest 5600X outperforms 3800X. Although 5800X would be better due to more cores/ threads.

 

[Yeldur]

What is the place you're ordering from? There's nothing bad here, but there are some points of concern; the 3800X is in an extremely awkward pricing spot right now and very slow RAM is a giant mistake on a Ryzen build.

It's a nice combo but it has one issue. Ryzen and slow RAM is a big NO. You need at least 3200MHz for proper performance, or ideal would be 3600MHz. With 2400MHz there would be games that you will lose up to 50% in performance.

The other thing I can think of, is if you are able to choose a RYZEN 5000 series CPU instead. The slowest 5600X outperforms 3800X. Although 5800X would be better due to more cores/ threads.

Thanks guys, I definitely should have noticed the RAM speed before posting. Oops!

And, fair point, the 5600X is likely to be better, ironically enough, it even DECREASES the price down to even lower levels. I guess we see that awkward pricing point mentioned hahahaha.

 

[Why_Me]

Hi all,

A friend of mine contacted me and asked me to stick together a pre-built rig for him as he doesn't have any interest or knowledge in building computers, the keys specified are as follows:

• Must be under £2000
• Must have a keyboard and monitor included within the price
• Is built around playing RTS games and FPS games, examples include Europa Universalis IV, Stellaris, CK3 and games like Call of Duty (Warzone) and Halo.
• Must be Wi-Fi based as it will need to be used wirelessly.

Here's what I've come up with so far, any advice on changes etc etc?

£1,639.00
inc VAT and Delivery

Case
PCS PRISM-X RGB MID TOWER CASE

Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)

Motherboard
ASUS® STRIX B550-F GAMING (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!

Memory (RAM)
8GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (2 x 4GB)

Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP (Pre-Order Only)

1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE

1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)

Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)

Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler

Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)

Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0

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 [KUK-00001]

There's no local computer shops in the UK that would build it for him for a small fee if he ordered the parts because that build is way over priced for a gaming build.

 

[Yeldur]

There's no local computer shops in the UK that would build it for him for a small fee if he ordered the parts because that build is way over priced for a gaming build.

Computer shops in the UK are mostly a thing of the past to be honest, they're very few and far between. I don't actually know of any shops that would do such a thing around my local area (He lives in my area, for clarification); I've used PCSpecialist before and whilst yes, definitely overpriced, the job definitely gets done right.

My previous build came from them as, at the time, I couldn't afford to pay for it in one go (I opted for a finance plan whereby I split the payments across X period of time) and the setup was very well done and put together. The only thing that does suck, is, yeah, the price.

 

[Why_Me]

Computer shops in the UK are mostly a thing of the past to be honest, they're very few and far between. I don't actually know of any shops that would do such a thing around my local area (He lives in my area, for clarification); I've used PCSpecialist before and whilst yes, definitely overpriced, the job definitely gets done right.

My previous build came from them as, at the time, I couldn't afford to pay for it in one go (I opted for a finance plan whereby I split the payments across X period of time) and the setup was very well done and put together. The only thing that does suck, is, yeah, the price.

https://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/custom/gaming/form-factors

3XS Gamer 1660 SUPER £1,376.35
3XS Gamer 3060 Ti £1,740.35
3XS Gamer 3070 £1,885.33
3XS Gamer 3080 £2,184.83

 

[Yeldur]

https://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/custom/gaming/form-factors

3XS Gamer 1660 SUPER £1,376.35
3XS Gamer 3060 Ti £1,740.35
3XS Gamer 3070 £1,885.33
3XS Gamer 3080 £2,184.83

How specifically do these differ from the build I have above, they appear to be more expensive but I'm working off the presumption that those builds are more "bang for buck" as it were; would my presumption be correct here?

 

[Why_Me]

How specifically do these differ from the build I have above, they appear to be more expensive but I'm working off the presumption that those builds are more "bang for buck" as it were; would my presumption be correct here?

My mistake ... I didn't see the 3070 gpu in your build the first time. Ignore that previous post of mine.

 

[DSzymborski]

Thanks guys, I definitely should have noticed the RAM speed before posting. Oops!

And, fair point, the 5600X is likely to be better, ironically enough, it even DECREASES the price down to even lower levels. I guess we see that awkward pricing point mentioned hahahaha.

Yup, 3000 is the bare minimum I-have-no-budget RAM I'd recommend for a Ryzen. 3600 is kinda the sweet spot if it's an option and not priced weird by the shop. But definitely not 2400!

Because of the problems with getting Zen 3 CPUs, you've seen prices for the higher-end of Zen 2 CPUs not fall down to the comparable Zen 3 CPUs. So the 3950X and 3900X are generally only going for the $50 less in most places (or whatever it is in the UK) despite them being considerably slower. I'd actually get the 5600X over the 3800X even if they were the same price!

Also awkward was that AMD had a lot of Zen 2 SKUs and there frequently wasn't enough of a value proposition for certain chips. Even with fewer SKUs right now, you kind of see that with the 5800X; there are very few situations when it doesn't make sense (if you can wait) to either spend more for a 5900X or less for a 5600X.

 

[Yeldur]

Yup, 3000 is the bare minimum I-have-no-budget RAM I'd recommend for a Ryzen. 3600 is kinda the sweet spot if it's an option and not priced weird by the shop. But definitely not 2400!

Because of the problems with getting Zen 3 CPUs, you've seen prices for the higher-end of Zen 2 CPUs not fall down to the comparable Zen 3 CPUs. So the 3950X and 3900X are generally only going for the $50 less in most places (or whatever it is in the UK) despite them being considerably slower. I'd actually get the 5600X over the 3800X even if they were the same price!

Also awkward was that AMD had a lot of Zen 2 SKUs and there frequently wasn't enough of a value proposition for certain chips. Even with fewer SKUs right now, you kind of see that with the 5800X; there are very few situations when it doesn't make sense (if you can wait) to either spend more for a 5900X or less for a 5600X.

Yeah, definitely noticeable on that line of things. One thing to query, if I remember right, with RAM that goes above... I think it was 2666Mhz needs to be configured in BIOS, or else you'll only be making use of the standard set, right?

This is going to a person with little/no knowledge of computers so I'm trying to be mindful of their lack of knowledge on the subject. Worst case scenario I can always guide them through how to sort that <Mod Edit> out. Would Intel be the more "friendly" CPU to go for here keeping that in mind?

 

[Yeldur]

Second question actually.. Do we know whether this CPU/MOBO config is going to require a flash update? I recall with the rig I'm building for myself currently that it mentions that the BIOS may require an update, and that the MOBO having flash updates is basically essential other than if you have an old CPU (which we do not)

 

[dotas1]

Any 5000 series CPU will need BIOS update to work in any compatible motherboard.

 

[Yeldur]

Any 5000 series CPU will need BIOS update to work in any compatible motherboard.

Understood, thanks for that. Looks like the MOBO has a BIOS Flashback update so it'll be possible to update the firmware without an old CPU to work it from. Thanks 😛