[SOLVED] Needing advice / guidance on PC build I am looking to buy :)

[bengrichardson]

Hey there guys / girls

I am looking for some advice on this pre-built PC I have found & interested in purchasing, I will list all of the specs of the build below (Note: All of the parts are posted on behalf of the owner & not myself so I am trusting the parts he has stated are the parts that are within the PC itself)

One thing to touch on is the GTX 980-TI GPU that is has within it & I know it's 'outdated' but I will probably upgrade in the future if I actually NEED to, however, I have done a lot of comparisons to other graphics cards & this one actually holds it's weight quite well, especially coming in close to some GPU's like the GTX 2060. This will be my first ever PC purchase so I am relatively noobie when it comes to things like this hence why I am turning to this reputable forum where others may be able to help me out, I don't game much, well, I don't game at all really hence why I am looking to purchase a PC in the first place.

The parts / specifications -
NEW AMD RYZEN 7 3700x 8/16 Cores CPU
NEW 360MM AIO RGB COOLER
16GB DDR4 GSKILL TRIDENT Z 3600Mhz RGB
ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING MB
ASUS ROG MATRIX GTX980TI OC best in class
Samsung EVO 240GB NMVE SSD
1000GB HDD
Wifi Ready
NEW EVGA 600W PSU
NEW THERMALTAKE COMMANDER C33 CASE
8 RGB FANS,RGB GPU HOLDER SYNCED TO MB

The gentleman is asking for £1,185 but we negotiated & he is happy to take £1,050 for it. I inputted all of the parts into a part picker & it came out pretty much just under so I am guessing that he isn't trying to rip me off but this is why I am trying to get some healthy advice from others who are more clued up compared to me

We are arranging the transaction for collection as he lives very close to me so is there anything I should be inspecting when I see the PC for the first time or anything that would ring alarm bells if there was anything 'dodgy' going on?

Thanks in advance for any help that anyone can offer

 

[tennis2]

NEW AMD RYZEN 7 3700x 8/16 Cores CPU -Good CPU
NEW 360MM AIO RGB COOLER - Fine
16GB DDR4 GSKILL TRIDENT Z 3600Mhz RGB - 2x8GB hopefully
ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING MB - Fine
ASUS ROG MATRIX GTX980TI OC best in class - Yeah, slightly outdated, but as long as price is in check...whatever. The 980Ti is outperformed by the 1070, which is outperformed by the 2060 though, so the 2060 is about 25% faster than the 980Ti....you're sitting more in the 1660 Super levels of performance
Samsung EVO 240GB NMVE SSD - A bit small. You'll probably want to replace this with a ~500GB SSD in the near-term since games are 100GB + nowadays.
1000GB HDD - Meh, small for mechanical storage these days, but a good supplement to the relatively small SSD
Wifi Ready - All PCs are WiFi ready...just install a WiFi card (USB or PCIe)
NEW EVGA 600W PSU - Likely a low quality unit. Assuming one from their BR or BQ lineups.
NEW THERMALTAKE COMMANDER C33 CASE - Fine.
8 RGB FANS,RGB GPU HOLDER SYNCED TO MB - The case has mounts for 6 fans, so presumably they've doubled up the 3x120mm on the AIO (push-pull) and in doing so, weren't able to fit the front top fan in anymore = 8 total case fans.

Finally is the price. You can pretty easily look up the MSRP on each component and total them together, which is what MOST people do when they list on CL or Ebay. The true value of said USED system is rarely the sum of the MSRPs though (although these days, GPU prices are inflated far past the MSRP, so...)

 

[rickypicky5]

Are all the parts new or used? If used, for how long?

 

[tennis2]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor (£268.79 @ Newegg UK)
Motherboard: MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£109.99 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£71.48 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£51.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB GAMING X Video Card (£408.97 @ More Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G Mini MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£43.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA G3 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£95.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £1050.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-03-11 18:05 GMT+0000

Granted there's some value differences that need to be mentioned:

• This system uses the stock AMD cooler (still sufficient)
• Only has 2 case fans (you should only need 2 intake fans and 1 exhaust for systems of this caliber)
• No Windows license included
• RTX2060 Super >>>> 980Ti.
• This PSU is far better quality than the 600W in your listing.
• The 5600X is better for gaming than the 3700X.
• This system has a 500GB SSD already
• This system HAS WiFi.
• All parts in this system are NEW and under warranty.

 

[bengrichardson]

Are all the parts new or used? If used, for how long?

The gentleman has stated that all parts are BRAND NEW. He said the GPU has been used a little but he finished building the entire thing only 2 days ago so everything is intended to be sold as out the packaging > straight into the system.

 

[bengrichardson]

NEW AMD RYZEN 7 3700x 8/16 Cores CPU -Good CPU
NEW 360MM AIO RGB COOLER - Fine
16GB DDR4 GSKILL TRIDENT Z 3600Mhz RGB - 2x8GB hopefully
ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING MB - Fine
ASUS ROG MATRIX GTX980TI OC best in class - Yeah, slightly outdated, but as long as price is in check...whatever. The 980Ti is outperformed by the 1070, which is outperformed by the 2060 though, so the 2060 is about 25% faster than the 980Ti....you're sitting more in the 1660 Super levels of performance
Samsung EVO 240GB NMVE SSD - A bit small. You'll probably want to replace this with a ~500GB SSD in the near-term since games are 100GB + nowadays.
1000GB HDD - Meh, small for mechanical storage these days, but a good supplement to the relatively small SSD
Wifi Ready - All PCs are WiFi ready...just install a WiFi card (USB or PCIe)
NEW EVGA 600W PSU - Likely a low quality unit. Assuming one from their BR or BQ lineups.
NEW THERMALTAKE COMMANDER C33 CASE - Fine.
8 RGB FANS,RGB GPU HOLDER SYNCED TO MB - The case has mounts for 6 fans, so presumably they've doubled up the 3x120mm on the AIO (push-pull) and in doing so, weren't able to fit the front top fan in anymore = 8 total case fans.

Finally is the price. You can pretty easily look up the MSRP on each component and total them together, which is what MOST people do when they list on CL or Ebay. The true value of said USED system is rarely the sum of the MSRPs though (although these days, GPU prices are inflated far past the MSRP, so...)

Thanks for this response brother!

That’s right, it’s 2 x 8GB for the RAM

I agree on everything else you have mentioned, the SSD especially, can always upgrade it down the line

What do you mean when you say “low quality unit” and what is BR & BQ lineups? Again, like mentioned above, I’m a bit of a noob with this sort of stuff so please forgive me - is this a bad thing with the 600W though? Would that not be enough?

 

[tennis2]

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007657 600014078 50001402

PSU wattage isn't everything....quality is important also.

Again, not saying the system you're considering is bad. The price just needs to be right (not saying it isn't). Also, there are intangibles, like the fact that the system you're looking at is pre-assembled for you, so if assembly isn't something you're comfortable with, that needs to be assigned some intrinsic value.

 

[bengrichardson]

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007657 600014078 50001402

PSU wattage isn't everything....quality is important also.

Again, not saying the system you're considering is bad. The price just needs to be right (not saying it isn't)

Absolutely man

This build is a custom build as has been built by a reputable company who love close to me + it comes with a warranty as well.

Do you think, in your honest / professional opinion, that this is reasonable for the price? Truth be told, I don’t game THAT much, but do want to get into it so just looking for something that can handle my work & any game it’s decent FPS that I throw at it

Also, is there anyway that I can post photos of the build so you can see it? I’m new here so still getting used to it haha

 

[bengrichardson]

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007657 600014078 50001402

PSU wattage isn't everything....quality is important also.

Again, not saying the system you're considering is bad. The price just needs to be right (not saying it isn't). Also, there are intangibles, like the fact that the system you're looking at is pre-assembled for you, so if assembly isn't something you're comfortable with, that needs to be assigned some intrinsic value.

I don’t mind building a system myself but the stock shortages are a problem right now so opting for a pre-built isn’t a bad way to go in my opinion as it works out well + the 980TI seems reasonable & with the rest of the build, it fits within my allocated budget of what I am willing to actually spend

 

[tennis2]

In my opinion, I'd rather have the PCPP build I listed for the same money. It offers far better performance for the price, and is better balanced overall. But again, I can assemble the components myself and I have a couple spare Windows keys lying around, so I don't need to add that $100 to the total.

That said, GPU prices and availability are in constant fluctuation right now (here today, gone in 60 seconds). As I said, GPU prices are severely inflated due to supply shortages. That's going to affect what systems you can compare with. Its a pretty crummy time to buy a PC.

 

[bengrichardson]

In my opinion, I'd rather have the PCPP build I listed for the same money. It offers far better performance for the price, and is better balanced overall. But again, I can assemble the components myself and I have a couple spare Windows keys lying around, so I don't need to add that $100 to the total.

That said, GPU prices and availability are in constant fluctuation right now. As I said, GPU prices are severely inflated due to supply shortages. That's going to affect what systems you can compare with.

The build you posted looked great! In what areas does the performance increase compared to the build I have posted? Because I am open to upgrading & changing components when I get comfortable & when parts come back into stock etc

Yeah I’m from the UK so getting a 2060 is hard but from what I have read from research, the 2060 is only marginally better than the 980Ti

 

[bengrichardson]

In my opinion, I'd rather have the PCPP build I listed for the same money. It offers far better performance for the price, and is better balanced overall. But again, I can assemble the components myself and I have a couple spare Windows keys lying around, so I don't need to add that $100 to the total.

That said, GPU prices and availability are in constant fluctuation right now (here today, gone in 60 seconds). As I said, GPU prices are severely inflated due to supply shortages. That's going to affect what systems you can compare with. Its a pretty crummy time to buy a PC.

Is there anyway I can post photos to you via email or any other way so you can see how the system looks & I can get an opinion on that too buddy?

 

[tennis2]

Yeah I’m from the UK so getting a 2060 is hard but from what I have read from research, the 2060 is only marginally better than the 980Ti

Most people wouldn't say 25% is "marginal" when that can cost $100-$400 (depending on where you sit on the price curve), BUT, if you're taking $100 in the grand scheme of a $1,000 or $1,500 system....I suppose it could be called that.

 

[bengrichardson]

Most people wouldn't say 25% is "marginal" when that can cost $100-$400 (depending on where you sit on the price curve), BUT, if you're taking $100 in the grand scheme of a $1,000 or $1,500 system....I suppose it could be called that.

I mean yeah it is a better card for sure but when it comes to running things, it’s not bad considering the current state of the market & what I am comfortable with running as per this comparison > https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-980-Ti-vs-Nvidia-RTX-2060/3439vs4034

 

[tennis2]

The build you posted looked great! In what areas does the performance increase compared to the build I have posted? Because I am open to upgrading & changing components when I get comfortable & when parts come back into stock etc

I've stated that in previous posts (I might have added those comments after you'd read my original posts, sorry, trying to condense comment quantity). As mentioned, the 3 biggest things are:

• SSD capacity - 240GB is small these days and wont fit many 100+GB games alongside your OS and other programs
• CPU - The 3700X is fine, but the 5600X beats it easily in gaming workloads for roughly the same price
• GTX980Ti = GTX1660 Super. Good for 1080p gaming.

You could resell components to recoup some of your costs, but if you're buying stuff that you intend to upgrade in less than a year, consider why you're buying it in the first place.

 

[bengrichardson]

Most people wouldn't say 25% is "marginal" when that can cost $100-$400 (depending on where you sit on the price curve), BUT, if you're taking $100 in the grand scheme of a $1,000 or $1,500 system....I suppose it could be called that.

Overall, it’s not a BAD card at all.

With the rest of the build & performance it has currently without comparisons or what you can get for better, when stock shortages are the current problem too, it seems decent

 

[Why_Me]

Hey there guys / girls

I am looking for some advice on this pre-built PC I have found & interested in purchasing, I will list all of the specs of the build below (Note: All of the parts are posted on behalf of the owner & not myself so I am trusting the parts he has stated are the parts that are within the PC itself)

One thing to touch on is the GTX 980-TI GPU that is has within it & I know it's 'outdated' but I will probably upgrade in the future if I actually NEED to, however, I have done a lot of comparisons to other graphics cards & this one actually holds it's weight quite well, especially coming in close to some GPU's like the GTX 2060. This will be my first ever PC purchase so I am relatively noobie when it comes to things like this hence why I am turning to this reputable forum where others may be able to help me out, I don't game much, well, I don't game at all really hence why I am looking to purchase a PC in the first place.

The parts / specifications -
NEW AMD RYZEN 7 3700x 8/16 Cores CPU
NEW 360MM AIO RGB COOLER
16GB DDR4 GSKILL TRIDENT Z 3600Mhz RGB
ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING MB
ASUS ROG MATRIX GTX980TI OC best in class
Samsung EVO 240GB NMVE SSD
1000GB HDD
Wifi Ready
NEW EVGA 600W PSU
NEW THERMALTAKE COMMANDER C33 CASE
8 RGB FANS,RGB GPU HOLDER SYNCED TO MB

The gentleman is asking for £1,185 but we negotiated & he is happy to take £1,050 for it. I inputted all of the parts into a part picker & it came out pretty much just under so I am guessing that he isn't trying to rip me off but this is why I am trying to get some healthy advice from others who are more clued up compared to me

We are arranging the transaction for collection as he lives very close to me so is there anything I should be inspecting when I see the PC for the first time or anything that would ring alarm bells if there was anything 'dodgy' going on?

Thanks in advance for any help that anyone can offer

With the current GPU shortage I'd say that's a pretty decent deal.

 

[bengrichardson]

I've stated that in previous posts (I might have added those comments after you'd read my original posts, sorry, trying to condense comment quantity). As mentioned, the 3 biggest things are:

• SSD capacity - 240GB is small these days and wont fit many 100+GB games alongside your OS and other programs
• CPU - The 3700X is fine, but the 5600X beats it easily in gaming workloads for roughly the same price
• GTX980Ti = GTX1660 Super. Good for 1080p gaming.

You could resell components, but if you're buying stuff that you intend to upgrade in less than a year, consider why you're buying it in the first place.

The HDD comes with 1TB so wouldn’t that be enough for the OS & games can get installed on that as well, right? The upgrade can always be made as & when I actually need it. I won’t be playing that many games & that is a very easy swap out if needed I guess

The CPU is an interesting one as I feel like I will mostly be doing work on the computer rather than gaming as I do a lot of video editing & multitasking

There are many alternatives to the GPU for sure, I actually WANT to upgrade that when more stock flows in haha

 

[bengrichardson]

With the current GPU shortage I'd say that's a pretty decent deal.

thanks for the comment man - I wish I could post some photos as I feel that’s an important point too

 

[logainofhades]

With the level of GPU being discussed here, even an R5 3600 is technically enough.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£177.40 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550M MORTAR WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£154.98 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£71.48 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£51.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£44.48 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB GAMING X Video Card (£408.97 @ More Computers)
Case: Tecware Forge M ATX Mini Tower Case (£44.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA G3 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£95.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £1049.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-03-11 20:09 GMT+0000

A bit more, but with a 3700x, if you want more cores/threads.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (£275.15 @ Senetic)
Motherboard: MSI MAG A520M VECTOR WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£74.99 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£71.48 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£51.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£44.48 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB GAMING X Video Card (£408.97 @ More Computers)
Case: Tecware Forge M ATX Mini Tower Case (£44.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA G3 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£95.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £1067.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-03-11 20:10 GMT+0000

 

[bengrichardson]

With the level of GPU being discussed here, even an R5 3600 is technically enough.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£177.40 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550M MORTAR WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£154.98 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£71.48 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£51.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£44.48 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB GAMING X Video Card (£408.97 @ More Computers)
Case: Tecware Forge M ATX Mini Tower Case (£44.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA G3 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£95.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £1049.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-03-11 20:09 GMT+0000

A bit more, but with a 3700x, if you want more cores/threads.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (£275.15 @ Senetic)
Motherboard: MSI MAG A520M VECTOR WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£74.99 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£71.48 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£51.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£44.48 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB GAMING X Video Card (£408.97 @ More Computers)
Case: Tecware Forge M ATX Mini Tower Case (£44.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA G3 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£95.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £1067.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-03-11 20:10 GMT+0000

I did consider the 3600X but isn’t it slightly outdated & considered one of there older models? Which I guess doesn’t affect it but considering there are newer ones with more cores & threads, it makes it better for performance & multitasking? As I was under the impression with the R7 currently in the system, it would be better for performance

 

[mdd1963]

A 980Ti does not match a 2060 in many gaming comparison I've looked at, but, if the latter were available at a reasonable cost, we might even bother further debating it...

(Additionally a 240 GB SSD is getting a small these days...; I'd scrap the spinning hard drive, and just get a 1 TB SSD...)

 

[bengrichardson]

A quick note regarding the CPU cooling too, the gentleman sent me a video stress testing the CPU @ 90% usage using all cores & it maintained underneath 35 degrees & he stated it never peaks over 40 degrees, is that good?

 

[tennis2]

Good, yes.
Overkill, yes.
Predictable with a 360mm rad and 6 fans (at unknown rpm), yes.
Improves CPU performance, no.