[SOLVED] [Mid-Range Gaming Build] RTX 2060, Ryzen 5 3600

Jan 8, 2020
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Hi all,

I am planning to build a new mid-range desktop, here is my build.

MOTHERBOARD: MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC AM4 DDR4 ATX - 117 £
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Processor (6C/12T, 35MB Cache, 4.2 GHz Max Boost) - 175 £
GPU: Asus GeForce RTX 2060 DUAL Advanced EVO 6GB Graphics Card - 289 £
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz C16 Memory Kit - 72 £
STORAGE: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro M.2 Gaming Solid State Drive (SSD) - 512GB - 79 £
PSU: EVGA 550w B3 PSU 80+ Bronze Fully Modular Power Supply - 65 £

TOTAL: 796 £ (1043 $)


Can you please take a look at it and give me your opinion and suggestion? Would you change something? In any case I don't want to increase the budget, actually I was thinking to decrease it.

By the way, here I have some specific questions:

- I was wondering between a GTX 1660 Ti and an RTX 2060. I chose an RTX 2060 because for 30 £ more it gives RTX plus a performance increment. I found that particular model for a price under 300£. Is the RTX 2060 model that I selected good?

- Another question was about the motherboard. I read that if you are not interested in PCI 4.0 and SLI a motherboard with a B450 chipset is fine. Is the model that I selected fine or would you suggest something else?




Thanks in advance to whoever will help!

Cheers!
 
Solution
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£169.98 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard (£94.19 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£68.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN500 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB GAMING Video Card (£272.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£85.97 @ Laptops Direct)
Total: £752.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by...

greigm78

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What resolution will you be gaming at? For 1080p up to 144Hz the 1660ti would be more than enough with that CPU and RAM in my opinion.

Casewise, IMO, you want something that isn't a paper thin chassis and with decent airflow.
 
Jan 8, 2020
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What resolution will you be gaming at? For 1080p up to 144Hz the 1660ti would be more than enough with that CPU and RAM in my opinion.

Casewise, IMO, you want something that isn't a paper thin chassis and with decent airflow.

Thanks for the reply!

Actually yes, I have just a monitor which offers 1920x1080 so I will play at that resolution. You are suggesting a 1660 Ti GPU? What about this one: Asus GeForce GTX 1660 Ti PHOENIX 6GB OC Graphics Card for 257 £ ? Or there is also a 1660 at 210 £ Asus GeForce GTX 1660 PHOENIX 6GB OC to save even more money.

Regarding the case I was thinking at this one: Phanteks Eclipse P300 Glass Midi Tower Case.
 

greigm78

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Thanks for the reply!

Actually yes, I have just a monitor which offers 1920x1080 so I will play at that resolution. You are suggesting a 1660 Ti GPU? What about this one: Asus GeForce GTX 1660 Ti PHOENIX 6GB OC Graphics Card for 257 £ ? Or there is also a 1660 at 210 £ Asus GeForce GTX 1660 PHOENIX 6GB OC to save even more money.

Regarding the case I was thinking at this one: Phanteks Eclipse P300 Glass Midi Tower Case.

That's a pretty decent case IMO and one I looked at myself.
As for the GPU, 1660ti or 1660 Super would be my personal choice for good 1080p gaming. I would, however, avoid single fan GPUs as they can get noisy under load.

Maybe something like this:
PCPartPicker Part List

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card (£259.99 @ Box Limited)
Total: £259.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-09 09:11 GMT+0000


Twin fan design means more cooling so less noise.

All of that being said, depending on your budget, ebuyer are doing at Zotac Gaming RTX 2060 for £280 which seems pretty decent deal-wise. RTX is a better card, just how much different at 1080p I'm not 100% sure you will see it.
 
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Jan 8, 2020
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That's a pretty decent case IMO and one I looked at myself.
As for the GPU, 1660ti or 1660 Super would be my personal choice for good 1080p gaming. I would, however, avoid single fan GPUs as they can get noisy under load.

Maybe something like this:
PCPartPicker Part List

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card (£259.99 @ Box Limited)
Total: £259.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-09 09:11 GMT+0000


Twin fan design means more cooling so less noise.

All of that being said, depending on your budget, ebuyer are doing at Zotac Gaming RTX 2060 for £280 which seems pretty decent deal-wise. RTX is a better card, just how much different at 1080p I'm not 100% sure you will see it.

Then I will go for that case! I saw few videos yesterday and I got convinced.

About the GPU, I don't know. We are talking about 20-40 £ difference from the GTX 1660 Ti to one of the RTX2060 GPUs. For just 20 £ I prefer to invest those money in a RTX!

Many thanks for the suggestion!!! Indeed on eBuyer there is this Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 GAMING 6GB Graphics Card at 272 £ which is awesome! I think I will go for it.

The one that I put in my build was Asus GeForce RTX 2060 DUAL Advanced EVO 6GB for 290 £, there is no to much difference with the Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 GAMING 6GB Graphics Card I think, right?
 

greigm78

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Then I will go for that case! I saw few videos yesterday and I got convinced.

About the GPU, I don't know. We are talking about 20-40 £ difference from the GTX 1660 Ti to one of the RTX2060 GPUs. For just 20 £ I prefer to invest those money in a RTX!

Many thanks for the suggestion!!! Indeed on eBuyer there is this Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 GAMING 6GB Graphics Card at 272 £ which is awesome! I think I will go for it.

The one that I put in my build was Asus GeForce RTX 2060 DUAL Advanced EVO 6GB for 290 £, there is no to much difference with the Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 GAMING 6GB Graphics Card I think, right?

There won't be much difference but for that extra £20 over the 1660ti you get much more benefit than the 7 or 8 percent cost.

Sounds like it will be a good build and will last you a while.

On you mobo, do you need it to have the wifi on board or is that just handy?
There are better value boards out there on the B450 platform.
 
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Keep in mind that you may need a bios update, to use that board, and CPU. The MSI B450 Tomahawk max would eliminate that need. The bios may still need updated, for stability improvements, but it has Ryzen 3000 support, right out of the box.

Damn, that's an important thing that I forgot, but I actually took a look at this! The MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX AMD Socket AM4 Motherboard on eBuyer is even cheaper, 91 £, but actually it has no wifi, which I would have liked.

Do you think is better to buy en external wifi adapter or find a motherboard with integrated wifi? Can you suggest me one?
 
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There won't be much difference but for that extra £20 over the 1660ti you get much more benefit than the 7 or 8 percent cost.

Sounds like it will be a good build and will last you a while.

On you mobo, do you need it to have the wifi on board or is that just handy?
There are better value boards out there on the B450 platform.

Thanks for the advice, logainofhades suggested the MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX AMD Socket AM4 Motherboard, but as I told him, I would like to have wifi (actually you asked me this). If I want to have a Ryzen 3 motherboard with the B450 chipset and wifi what would you suggest?
 

greigm78

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Thanks for the advice, logainofhades suggested the MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX AMD Socket AM4 Motherboard, but as I told him, I would like to have wifi (actually you asked me this). If I want to have a Ryzen 3 motherboard with the B450 chipset and wifi what would you suggest?

Question not aimed at me, I know, but there are a few decent 3000 ready boards now on the B450 chipset, for example:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-PRIME...ywords=b450+motherboard&qid=1578606301&sr=8-4

Then add something like https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hommie-AC1...ywords=wifi+pci-e+card&qid=1578606522&sr=8-13

I have one of the Hommie cards in my son's rig and it's pretty good. Reliable connection consistently.

Boards with WiFi are fewer between and expensive with it. Personally, I would go board and WiFi card separate.

I have a spare MSI B450M Mortar board that's 3rd gen BIOS ready that you could have had but it would be no good as the GPU covers all of the spare PCI-e connections so you couldn't get a WiFi card in. Drawback of mATX.
 
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Question not aimed at me, I know, but there are a few decent 3000 ready boards now on the B450 chipset, for example:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-PRIME...ywords=b450+motherboard&qid=1578606301&sr=8-4

Then add something like https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hommie-AC1...ywords=wifi+pci-e+card&qid=1578606522&sr=8-13

I have one of the Hommie cards in my son's rig and it's pretty good. Reliable connection consistently.

Boards with WiFi are fewer between and expensive with it. Personally, I would go board and WiFi card separate.

I have a spare MSI B450M Mortar board that's 3rd gen BIOS ready that you could have had but it would be no good as the GPU covers all of the spare PCI-e connections so you couldn't get a WiFi card in. Drawback of mATX.

Thank you very much for the reply! Actually I was wondering that probabily have a WiFi board is the best choice, for sure it will be better than the stock wifi of the motherboard. At this point I just need to choose a motherboard. My choices are:

I think the MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX AMD Socket AM4 Motherboard is the most solid choice, but yours suggestion makes me save 20 £ which is not bad. What do you suggest?
 

greigm78

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Guys, sorry to bother you with another request. I have a question about the PSU.

I put a 550W PSU in the build; is it enough? Better to go with a 600-650 one? I have used OuterVision® Power Supply Calculator and it tells me, even putting higher clocks on GPU and CPU, fans and liquid cooler that i need less than 500 W.

To he honest mate, there won't be much between those boards. Although I have read some stuff about the TUF stuff not being up to much, I don't have any experience of them.
I have used MSI boards in most builds I have done and can't really fault them and the Tomahawk is a solid board. But if £20 is £20 then the ASUS Prime won't be a bad punt at that price.
A PCI-e WiFi adapter will probably be better than onboard plus it's one less thing to go tits up when it's not integrated.

PSU wise, as I have found out recently, it's better to have too much than too little.
If you could stretch to a 650W or even a 750W for good measure then I would. Seasonic, EVGA G2/3 range and some Corsair (TX, RM and HX) are good bets IMO.

That being said, I just had to return a 2 month old Corsair TX-650M as it was faulty. Bad luck on my part no doubt but has made me wary of them. Now got a RM850 unit and it's much better. But then I am running a RX5700XT that seems to need more power than an atomic blast.
 

greigm78

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PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£169.98 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard (£94.19 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£68.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN500 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB GAMING Video Card (£272.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£85.97 @ Laptops Direct)
Total: £752.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-10 07:45 GMT+0000


Something along these lines and then with your case (partpicker couldn't find that specific case) so just add that on. Saves a little over your initial build too.
The WD SN500 drives I can say are really good at a really good price. I have 2 in my system.

You may want to think about a 1 or 2 TB HDD for game file storage etc. I have a second 512GB NVMe for games and stuff and it's nearly full. Wildlands and Borderlands 3 take up about 150GB on their own.
 
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What resolution will you be gaming at? For 1080p up to 144Hz the 1660ti would be more than enough with that CPU and RAM in my opinion.

Casewise, IMO, you want something that isn't a paper thin chassis and with decent airflow.

The 1660ti is fine for 60fps, not anything above it where he would be getting as good of fps and frametimes as on the 2060. In fact, I wouldnt get the 2060 I would save about 100$ more and get the 2060 super whcih substantially outperforms the 2060.

For a case.. This case is GREAT for the 40$ it costs. keep in mind you dont want to go TOO cheap on a case because then cable management and any other special things you may add will be more of a pain. https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811553031
 
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greigm78

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The 1660ti is fine for 60fps, not anything above it where he would be getting as good of fps and frametimes as on the 2060. In fact, I wouldnt get the 2060 I would save about 100$ more and get the 2060 super whcih substantially outperforms the 2060.

For a case.. This case is GREAT for the 40$ it costs. keep in mind you dont want to go TOO cheap on a case because then cable management and any other special things you may add will be more of a pain. https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811553031

Sure, but then why not save £150 and get a 2070, or £200 and get a 2070 Super or £300 and get a 2080... and so forth. FPS will surely be determined by the games played, not absolutely and purely by the components.

At some point, people need to draw a line in the sand at their budget or you could, literally, sink everything in to a build to squeeze out a few extra FPS that you probably won't really notice.

OP is in the UK not the US BTW so a $40 case isn't much good.
 
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Sure, but then why not save £150 and get a 2070, or £200 and get a 2070 Super or £300 and get a 2080... and so forth. FPS will surely be determined by the games played, not absolutely and purely by the components.

At some point, people need to draw a line in the sand at their budget or you could, literally, sink everything in to a build to squeeze out a few extra FPS that you probably won't really notice.

OP is in the UK not the US BTW so a $40 case isn't much good.

If he is fine with 60-80 fps with drops to 30-40, sure thats fine. But most people wont be and when he realizes he should have just saved 100 more to get the superior card, he will be wishing he would have spent 100$ instead of then having to spend 400$ to upgrade it completely.
 
Jan 8, 2020
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PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£169.98 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard (£94.19 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£68.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN500 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB GAMING Video Card (£272.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£85.97 @ Laptops Direct)
Total: £752.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-10 07:45 GMT+0000


Something along these lines and then with your case (partpicker couldn't find that specific case) so just add that on. Saves a little over your initial build too.
The WD SN500 drives I can say are really good at a really good price. I have 2 in my system.

You may want to think about a 1 or 2 TB HDD for game file storage etc. I have a second 512GB NVMe for games and stuff and it's nearly full. Wildlands and Borderlands 3 take up about 150GB on their own.

greigm78 , I am grateful for all your suggestions! They helped me a lot! I think I arrived at a final decision. In the end my build will be probabily the following:

MOTHERBOARD: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX AMD Socket AM4 Motherboard - 95 £ (eBuyer)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Processor (6C/12T, 35MB Cache, 4.2 GHz Max Boost) - 174 £ (Amazon UK)
GPU: Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 GAMING 6GB Graphics Card - 273 £ (eBuyer)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz C16 Memory Kit - Black - 71 £ (eBuyer)
STORAGE: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro M.2 Gaming Solid State Drive (SSD) - 512GB - 74 £ (eBuyer)
PSU: EVGA 750 BQ Power Supply - 75 £ (eBuyer)
CASE: Phanteks Eclipse P300 Glass Midi Tower Case - Black - 50 £ (eBuyer)
WIFI ADAPTER: Hommie AC1200Mbps Bluetooth 4.2 WiFi Card 5GHz/2.4GHz Dual-Band WiFi Adapter - 22 £ (Amazon UK)

TOTAL: 834 £


If he is fine with 60-80 fps with drops to 30-40, sure thats fine. But most people wont be and when he realizes he should have just saved 100 more to get the superior card, he will be wishing he would have spent 100$ instead of then having to spend 400$ to upgrade it completely.

Many thnaks for your opinion Jason H. , but I think I will stick with my choice. I don't plan to play very demanding game I am most a RPG -RTS player and even if I will, I will just decrease graphic settings. I am already spending too much, and I agree with greigm78 when he says this:

Sure, but then why not save £150 and get a 2070, or £200 and get a 2070 Super or £300 and get a 2080... and so forth. FPS will surely be determined by the games played, not absolutely and purely by the components.

At some point, people need to draw a line in the sand at their budget or you could, literally, sink everything in to a build to squeeze out a few extra FPS that you probably won't really notice.
 
Jan 8, 2020
11
0
10
The WD SN500 drives I can say are really good at a really good price. I have 2 in my system.

About this, I read about the Western Digital Blue SN500 M.2 NVME 500GB SSD (54 £ on eBuyer), it is not the fastest, but among the best when it comes to reliability and dollar per giga. But I actually opted for the Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB M.2 Gaming Solid State Drive (SSD), black (74 £ on eBuyer) because of the speed. What do you think about this?

Moreover, now that I am thinking about M.2 drives I have another doubt: will both these 2 drives run at maximum speed on the MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX AMD Socket AM4 Motherboard or they will be limited in some way. I read that this motherboard has 1 M.2 slot. Will this slot run any M.2 drive at maximum speed?
 
Jan 8, 2020
11
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greigm78 , I am grateful for all your suggestions! They helped me a lot! I think I arrived at a final decision. In the end my build will be probabily the following:

MOTHERBOARD: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX AMD Socket AM4 Motherboard - 95 £ (eBuyer)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Processor (6C/12T, 35MB Cache, 4.2 GHz Max Boost) - 174 £ (Amazon UK)
GPU: Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 GAMING 6GB Graphics Card - 273 £ (eBuyer)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz C16 Memory Kit - Black - 71 £ (eBuyer)
STORAGE: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro M.2 Gaming Solid State Drive (SSD) - 512GB - 74 £ (eBuyer)
PSU: EVGA 750 BQ Power Supply - 75 £ (eBuyer)
CASE: Phanteks Eclipse P300 Glass Midi Tower Case - Black - 50 £ (eBuyer)
WIFI ADAPTER: Hommie AC1200Mbps Bluetooth 4.2 WiFi Card 5GHz/2.4GHz Dual-Band WiFi Adapter - 22 £ (Amazon UK)

TOTAL: 834 £
 

greigm78

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About this, I read about the Western Digital Blue SN500 M.2 NVME 500GB SSD (54 £ on eBuyer), it is not the fastest, but among the best when it comes to reliability and dollar per giga. But I actually opted for the Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB M.2 Gaming Solid State Drive (SSD), black (74 £ on eBuyer) because of the speed. What do you think about this?

Moreover, now that I am thinking about M.2 drives I have another doubt: will both these 2 drives run at maximum speed on the MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX AMD Socket AM4 Motherboard or they will be limited in some way. I read that this motherboard has 1 M.2 slot. Will this slot run any M.2 drive at maximum speed?


The WD gets about 1800MT/s which for realworld application is pretty fast. I did have a Samsung 870 at one point but to be honest, we are talking about things so fast anyway that it's almost imperceptible to my mere mortal mind.

You should be fine with two M.2 drives on the Tomahawk, I think the restriction comes in to play when the PCI slot is used. Even with a slight impairment though if you run your OS from the full speed and games from any impaired slot it will still load the games rapid.

Either way, I think you have a solid build there. Yes, others have a point that you could spend a little more on this or that to make it a bit better, but where does that stop? I am the worst for that to be fair :), constantly tinkering (although I am fairly happy with my current build).