[OBSOLETE ]First custom pc for occasional gaming => is it an okay one?

Dec 25, 2018
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Hi everyone,

So it's time for me to get a new pc (the last one died and was a 2011 laptop). I decided I wanted to be able to play some recent games, and don't have an immense budget so I settle for a custom config I will assemble myself. I never did before but I'm patient and looking forward to learn.

I settled on this configuration:
CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K [with a Be Quiet pure rock slim cooler since it seems the cpu is sold naked]
MoBo: Asus PRIME z270-P motherboard (ATX format)
GPU: Radeon RX590 8G
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666 (2x16Go) C16 XMP 2.0
PSU: Corsair TX850M Gold (850W)

[Link if you prefer: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bwscr6]

I am already slightly over my budget (which was 900-1000)
I have several PCs which died recently and therefore have lots of decent HDD around, so I don't buy storage.

Why this build?
-> I want to be able to play recent games (and do so in the future), however I am not a hardcore gamer and I'm fine playing some games that arn't the newest. I would like my PC to stay relevant for at least 5 years (knowing that at the end of these 5 years I won't be playing the newest games obviously).
-> I had choices to make, and decided to go for the i7-7700K because it's the fastest quadcore on the market (I think?). From what I have seen, we don't need more than 2 cores for gaming and I won't be multitasking hard, and frequency is a bigger factor? So I decided to go with this one so that when it will become slightly dated, it will be slightly dated but used at 100% (compared to a CPU 8 cores which would become dated but only using 4 cores out of 8 when it becomes dated, making the initial higher investment questionnable). Also I suppose overclocking basically works with percentage and I suppose I will be able to get slightly more overclocking possibilities with a higher frequency gain when it will become dated, increasing again slightly its lifetime.
Is the logic correct or flawed?
-> I go for 32Gb RAM because I might want to upgrade later for the cheaper cost possible so I don't want to buy 2x8Gb now and in 3 years sell them to buy 4x16Gb. Some new games seem to start to require 16Gb (in recommended) so getting 32Gb now is likely not a waste for the 1/2 years to come. 2666MHz because it's the max listed with the CPU, and after watching some tests it seems the improvement with faster ramsticks is marginal. Also I think the GPU will be the weakest part of the gaming config for the 2 days to come, so faster rams don't make much sense.
-> I had a choice between getting very good GPU and less of the rest, or get this config and a cheaper but still good graphics card. I am okay to have a pc working very fine and easy upgrade in the years to come (by buying more RAM and upgrading the GPU). Also, I'm expecting this one to work just fine as I will play in 1080p and don't need millions of FPS to play. I'm also okay to play in MID settings in general.
-> This cooling fan seems excellent value for a "cheap" price and I need one, so better get a good one (maybe it will be enough to get some (very) slight overclock when needed also. Not putting to much hopes there though)
-> I suppose the PSU is way higher than needed, but I suppose it will give good power stability which is allways desirable. Also I don't want to be starved for power when upgrading the GPU and RAM in 2/3 years. Also it's not much more expensive than the 650W so why not, it might be reusable later.

Here are my questions:
-> Is there anything you find stupid or dubious in the setting?
-> Is the plan of getting a setup now that will be easily upgradable with 2x16Go RAM (if needed) and changing the graphics card in 2/3 years stupid?
-> Will quadcore become a liability for gaming?
-> Is this graphic card good? I was going for the RX580 initially, but I found this one for slightly cheaper and it seems to have a better frequency. Are there better alternatives for $330 or less?
-> I plan to reuse a very old case (the big ones from like 20 years ago) because I don't give a sh*t about aesthetics. Is it doable or should I forget about it?
-> SSD seems to be only useful for faster boot times on startup and load times during gaming, I don't care about that so I didn't go for it. Am I missing something?

I understand that's a lot of questions and a long thread, but I want to give you as much information as possible. I'm new to making a pc config and I don't want to waste my money :)

Thanks a lot for having read everything (if you did, otherwise thank you a little for helping anyways!)
 
We're now in 9th generation Intel core CPUs. You're only a couple years behind.

Buy DDR4-3000 you can get it on sale for the same price as 2666 stuff.

ABSOLUTELY GET AN SSD. You're wasting your upgrade if you don't.

RX590 is only about 10-15% faster than an RX580. In the USA, RX580s are only $190. AMD is launching their RX3080/3070/3060 in the next couple months. Honestly I'd wait for that.

Get a new case. They're better at cooling and use larger quieter fans. Can get a decent one for $40

650W is more than enough in a PSU for a single GPU system (not recommended going multi GPU) 80+ gold efficiency means good quality.

What country are you in?
 
I'm from France, so I don't necessarily get the same prices as in the US.

Why is not getting an SSD wasting my upgrade? It's so expensive! I watched a few things, and it seems that gaming on SSD rather than HDD has no (or negligible) effect on FPS, and only helps for loading speed. It just doesn't seem worth it to me, especially as I already have plenty of unused storage space lying around.

Sad for the CPU 🙁. But on a quick search I found that the i7-7700K still has higher frequency than the 8th and 9th generation 6-cores (they seem to have stopped making quad-cores). So, are these CPUs really better for gaming? Won't I just waste cores, and lose some overclock potential since they have less base GHz?

I won't get a very high end GPU anyways, as I said I'm already slightly above my budget. Why would these new cards change anything to me since I'm not getting them for sure?
 
Okay, so that's not something necessary. I don't spend my time opening and closing stuff, I don't want to cut on the other components just to load windows faster. I'm just started getting old too, so I will be bottlenecking the responsiveness of the computer anyways hahaha!
 
As I said: I already have storage.
I asked why SSD is better than HDD and it appears that nothing of what it does better has any significance to me. I see no reason to downgrade the rest to buy something I don't need. Unless, as I asked, I was missing something and it was somehow necessary. It appears it isn't, it is just conveience on things that don't matter to me.

To me, it's as if someone was recommending to buy components and case with leds everywhere just because it's prettier. "Hey look you buy all those things, just spend more for RGB no reason not to."
I don't care about having a more responsive OS, all i'm interested in is having a system that can last as long as possible for the same price in gaming. Because I will have a snappy and responsive internet surfing and OS manipulation anyways, since I will only go under windows to play games, I do everything else under linux. And in linux, you can choose a distribution and DE that are very responsive on almost any machine. (Heck, I am on a 1Gb RAM machine right now on a Debian LXDE system. It is more responsive than the 8Gb ram windows 10 computers of my friends). With such a CPU and RAM I will basically have access to any linux distribution and they will all be extremely snappy and responsive. Especially as I'm not too much into pretty things, I need the more ram-hungry distros, I'll just get what works best for me.


From what I have seen (and you all told me): SSD over HDD only helps with loading times and boot times. I don't care about any of these features, so I won't tune down my future system to get something I don't need. Maybe I'll buy one LATER if it appears I have money to spend on it and I want the comfort, but it will not be part of this system.

You are getting extremely sarcastic for no reason since it won't be your system. you read that I want to play games and you suggest to buy a system that won't be able to play jsut so I can buy an SSD I don't need? Why are you even answering if it's to give bad advice with a negative mood? Just shut down your computer and go have a beer with friends or something and start to have a good and positive day instead of spreading that to the world. It will also be more enjoyable for you.

In any case, no need to answer on this thread, I took some of the good remarks from tennis2 and remade another plan.
 
https://www.ldlc.com/configurateur-pc/c-aad3db277aab97be5101904b5ad36d60.html

Ryzen 2600
Gigabyte B450M-DS3H
G.Skill 2x8GB DDR4-3200
Samsung 860 EVO 500GB SSD
Seagate 4TB HDD
Gigabyte RX580 8GB
Corsair TX550M
Corsair Carbide Spec-05
Total 1013€

Sorry if LDLC isn't the best/cheapest place to shop in France.

On the SSD - Everyone uses their PC more than simply "in-game". We're talking 20 second OS boot times, program/game loads 2-3x faster (including game levels), etc etc. It does make your computer more responsive to use. Of course nobody's forcing you to buy an SSD, and a hdd won't affect your frame rates in any significant way. I've always had a hard time getting "holdouts" to understand the night-and-day difference an SSD makes. It is much easier to sell when the client can see the difference first-hand. The speed of a PC is not measured in FPS only, even if gaming is your primary usage.
 
having 2x8gb ram sticks and an SSD is a much better investment than 2x16gb and a HDD. I can't see why you would need more than 32gb of RAM before your chipset goes out of date. 8gb is enough for almost any game currently, even if they recommend 16gb. So 16gb is plenty. It will be a nightmare to rearrange your files when you finally decide to get an SSD because the boot times, installation times, loading times, and noise starts annoying you. especially with used and full hard drives. Do yourself a favor and get at least a 500gb SSD so you can load the OS and several of your most-played games onto it and not have to deal with horrific loading times. I speak from experience of course.