[SOLVED] New PC for Gaming - are these specs any good?

[Max Dread]

Hi all

Sorry for such a general and probably often asked type of question. I built my own PC 12 years ago for audio, based on the Q6600. It's still going strong and it's what I'm typing on now. But a lot of time has passed since then and I am weeelllllll out of touch! Also, being an audio guy I never looked into GPUs much, but obviously know they're important for gamers.

In spite of the years passed, I'm still considered the family PC expert and so my brother has asked me what I think about this spec for his son's PC. He has a PS4 but says there are PC-only games he wants to play. So....

We're in the UK in case that makes any difference. Here's the spec. Any thoughts much appreciated. The spec is quite general, so if things like speed and spec for individual components needs to be known, please let me know and I'll find out. Or just general thoughts on the matter would be a great help.

Many thanks


Website - drmem
CPU - i7-2600
16 GB RAM (doesn't specify speed or settings. Anything to look out for?)
2 TB HDD + 512 GB SSD (again, no specs but can find out if important)
4 GB GTX 1650

 

[popatim]

Well its still old; only about 3 yrs newer then yours.
16gb ram is nice. I would make sure is at least running at 1333Mhz
2tb will be the max hdd size for that board.
SSD make and model do matter as some are slower then hdd's.
gtx1650 is the current entry level gamin card. What games do you play?

Actually, what's your budget for this, perhaps we can find a better deal for you. We have several members in the UK.

 

[Max Dread]

Great, thanks for the info.

All good questions! I'll find out and report back.

Cheers

 

[mdd1963]

The 2600 (a non-K, no less) often struggles to provide minimum FPS many consider adequate in the newer/newest PC games, but, you can research 'i7-2600 with GTX1650' in Youtube and perhaps even find a nice cross-section of it's performance sampled there-in, it might make 60 fps in the games you desire...

OH, what the heck, I was curious, so, did it for you...)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9eYB6k2Ntw

 

[Why_Me]

I'd pair that video card up with some newer and faster technology. Maybe something like this.

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/nda...1200-ddr4-sata3-m2-1gbe-usb-32-gen1-micro-atx
MSI Intel B460M PRO Micro-ATX Motherboard £76.99

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/int...s-12-threads-29ghz-43ghz-turbo-12mb-cache-65w
Intel Hex Core i5 10400F £139.99

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/16g...-(2666)-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-16-18-18-35-xm
16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX Black, PC4-21300 (2666), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 16-18-18-35, XMP 2.0, 1.2V £68.98

https://www.ebuyer.com/912502-adata-su630-960gb-2-5-ssd-asu630ss-960gq-r
ADATA SU630 960GB 2.5" SSD £79.98

 

[Max Dread]

Hey

Thanks for all the above. I'm waiting to hear back RE some of the questions and spec.

In terms of games though I'm told he wants to play:

Rust
Table Top Simulator
Minecraft (Java)
Gary's mod

I know nothing about games so no idea whether they are new, old, taxing on a PC, or quite an easy ride.

Cheers

 

[Max Dread]

I think it is coming in at around £600. Here's where he was looking:

https://www.drmem.com/uk/customized...56gb-512gb-ssd-win10-wifi-series-big-fan.html

 

[Max Dread]

@Why_Me - thanks for that list. Presuming that's all compatible (sorry, probably a silly question). But where or how would he go about getting something built to that spec?

In terms of the drmem PC, the proposed mobo is a B75m and and the RAM DDR3 1600. Waiting to hear about the PSU and HDD/SDD makes and models.

Is anyone familiar with the games listed above and how resource hungry they are (or not)?

Cheers for all the help, much appreciated.

 

[Why_Me]

@Why_Me - thanks for that list. Presuming that's all compatible (sorry, probably a silly question). But where or how would he go about getting something built to that spec?

In terms of the drmem PC, the proposed mobo is a B75m and and the RAM DDR3 1600. Waiting to hear about the PSU and HDD/SDD makes and models.

Is anyone familiar with the games listed above and how resource hungry they are (or not)?

Cheers for all the help, much appreciated.

You can order parts and have a local PC shop put it all together. As far as the PSU power goes, it depends on the graphics card .. as in what the manufacture suggest. For quality PSU's look at Seasonic, Corsair, Antec and EVGA brands. DDR3 memory is older technology and significantly slower than DD4. 16 gigs (2x8) set of DDR4 is the standard these days.

 

[Max Dread]

Hi

My nephew has been back to the drawing board, increased his budget a bit, and come up with the following. I wondered if anyone could spare a moment to share some thoughts on it please?

CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT 3.8ghz 6-core
MOBO - MSI B450
RAM - 32GB Crucial Ballistix. DDR4-3200 CL16
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM
GPU - Gigabyte GTX 1660 Super 6GB
PSU - Corair CV 450W 80+ Bronze

Comes in at around £1k.

Aside from general thoughts, what sprung to my mind is whether a better HDD is in order? For a gaming PC, is one drive enough (in audio 2 minimum is preferred). If one is sufficient, would a smaller SSD be better?

Also, is 450W enough?

All and any reflections most welcomed

Cheers

 

[Why_Me]

Hi

My nephew has been back to the drawing board, increased his budget a bit, and come up with the following. I wondered if anyone could spare a moment to share some thoughts on it please?

CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT 3.8ghz 6-core
MOBO - MSI B450
RAM - 32GB Crucial Ballistix. DDR4-3200 CL16
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM
GPU - Gigabyte GTX 1660 Super 6GB
PSU - Corair CV 450W 80+ Bronze

Comes in at around £1k.

Aside from general thoughts, what sprung to my mind is whether a better HDD is in order? For a gaming PC, is one drive enough (in audio 2 minimum is preferred). If one is sufficient, would a smaller SSD be better?

Also, is 450W enough?

All and any reflections most welcomed

Cheers

It works although I might do it a little different. 16GB's of RAM should be fine unless he plans on doing video editing then stick to the 32GB of RAM. I'd size down on that storage drive and with the money saved purchase an SSD such as the one I linked earlier in this thread.

 

[Max Dread]

That's a great help, thank you.

Stupid question probably, but if going with 16GB RAM is it ok to do that with a single stick? Any disadvantages? If not I'm guessing it would make more sense to keep the other slots free for future upgrades...

Also, how much drive space do games tend to take? I'm not a gamer so I've really no idea how long it would take to fill a 1TB drive is mainly only gaming?

Cheers

 

[madmatt30]

That's a great help, thank you.

Stupid question probably, but if going with 16GB RAM is it ok to do that with a single stick? Any disadvantages? If not I'm guessing it would make more sense to keep the other slots free for future upgrades...

Also, how much drive space do games tend to take? I'm not a gamer so I've really no idea how long it would take to fill a 1TB drive is mainly only gaming?

Cheers

Ryzen needs dual channel (meaning 2 x matching sticks) for optimal performance do 2 x 8gb sticks is pretty much a necessity.

Re - games storage, honestly depends what games you're talking about.
Plenty of titles are only a few gb then the big AAA titles like Red Dead Redemption, Forza Horizon, GTAV, Cyberpunk are in excess of 50gb each!!

I would always go an ssd boot drive and a secondary drive for mass storage - it just makes sense.

Also a corsair Cv is not good enough for those components above, you want something better quality.

 

[Max Dread]

Gotcha - thanks for that.

In audio, you run the OD and programs on one drive, and then the actual audio files themselves from another. At least that was always the advice before! Perhaps it has changed now? Anyways, how's it best to divide things in the gaming world?

Cheers

 

[madmatt30]

I'd go with a 480-500gb nvme and a secondary 2tb+ platter drive.

That keeps your options open when installing stuff.

Once you've seen a system boot to desktop in under 15 seconds you'll never go back to traditional platter drives as a boot drive.

Also unless the 3600xt is a very good price its not worth the extra over the 3600x let alone the 3600 non x - all those cpu's are strong enough for a sub 100htz screen.

Do not skimp on the psu, at a minimum you want a newer model corsair cx series - 550w upwards.

In a £1000 system I'd actually be looking for something better than that

 

[Max Dread]

That's great. Thanks a million for the help

 

[Max Dread]

Hi y'all

I wondered if I could possibly run by another PC with you guys to see what you think compared to the others we've discussed? Here's the spec:

CPU - AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
MOBO - ASUS PRIME B450M-A
RAM - 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz (1x16GB)
SSD - Corsair Force MP510 480GB M.2 NVMe
HDD - Seagate 1TB BarraCuda
GPU - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB
PSU - Corsair 650W CV650
OS: Windows 10 Home x64

Comes in at a bit more than the others; £1,150.

Thanks so much - you've been a great help.

Cheers

 

[madmatt30]

Hi y'all

I wondered if I could possibly run by another PC with you guys to see what you think compared to the others we've discussed? Here's the spec:

CPU - AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
MOBO - ASUS PRIME B450M-A
RAM - 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz (1x16GB)
SSD - Corsair Force MP510 480GB M.2 NVMe
HDD - Seagate 1TB BarraCuda
GPU - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB
PSU - Corsair 650W CV650
OS: Windows 10 Home x64

Comes in at a bit more than the others; £1,150.

Thanks so much - you've been a great help.

Cheers

Thats the alphasync from ebuyer??

Its a good price considering it has a 3070 in there.

The issues

1. Cheap motherboard) not really an issue, if it has all the ports etc you need.

2. Cheap psu, not dangerous but not what anyone would put in a system containing those components.

3. Single channel ram, that's the biggie here, you lose upto 20% perfoemance from the cpu not running 2 sticks in dual channel.
Its corsair lpx 3200, ypu can likely add another 16gb stick for £60 odd and then be all good.

As said its good value just because of the current gpu climate.

 

[Max Dread]

Hi @madmatt30

Yes, that's right it is indeed the alphasync.

One of the questions on the project page mentions that the RAM is 2x8GB rather than 1x16GB. I'll have to get in touch and clarify that with them...

PSU - is it because it is underrated, or because it is a budget model from Corsair? I don't think you can mix and match components. In which case would you make do with it or look to replace it?

MOBO - I think it has everything he'll need, but I will check, so thanks for pointing that out. I note there is no WiFi card, so I guess that would need to be added. Any other down sides to it being a cheap MOBO?

Thanks for the great help

 

[madmatt30]

Hi @madmatt30

Yes, that's right it is indeed the alphasync.

One of the questions on the project page mentions that the RAM is 2x8GB rather than 1x16GB. I'll have to get in touch and clarify that with them...

PSU - is it because it is underrated, or because it is a budget model from Corsair? I don't think you can mix and match components. In which case would you make do with it or look to replace it?

MOBO - I think it has everything he'll need, but I will check, so thanks for pointing that out. I note there is no WiFi card, so I guess that would need to be added. Any other down sides to it being a cheap MOBO?

Thanks for the great help

If its 2 x 8gb then you're good.

Re psu - simply because it's a budget bronze model and isn't great quality.

It'll do the job but seriously wants changing out after a year or two at the most.

You can't mix and match with ebuyer, they're a reseller and don't build their own systems.

The mobo is fine if it has enough ports and expansion slots, will handle a 2700x fine.

As said, it's a good deal because you're not getting a 3070 elsewhere for love nor money at the minute - thats a £600 rrp gpu in there which makes it good value overall.

I wouldn't buy it were the GPU market not the state it is at the minute, because if stuff like the 3070 was easily available at its rrp you could probably do a bueeter build quality wise on the motherboard and psu for the same money.

You can't though and that makes it about the best value/performance prebuilt on the market right now.