- May 18, 2012
- 14
- 0
- 18,510
Hi guys, I've tried to be really thorough here. Filled in the full help form and included my attempt at a build. Any advice greatly appreciated. I haven't done this before, but I have put in a bit of consideration and time researching.
Approximate Purchase Date: A month from now
Budget: Approximately £1500 in total, including shipping
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, audio production in Ableton, Adobe Suite (primarily web / photography related but possible occasional video editing at 1080p), web development, surfing, Plex media server
Monitor required: No
Parts to Upgrade: PC only
OS Required: No (buying separately, not included in budget)
Preferred Website: https://www.scan.co.uk/ - They are UK based, I've used them many times. They offer a 30 day additional warranty in case you damage your components attempting a build - I have never built a pc completely on my own before so I'd like to go for that. They work out a little pricier than some places, but I feel like they offset it with good service.
Location: UK
Parts Preference: AMD
Overclocking: I would like to try - but from my reading it seems like there's nowhere to go with the 3000 series and that switching on PBO is the simplest option to gain some benefit with little effort(?) I was thinking about having a go at tweaking RAM settings and using MSI afterburner though.
Resolution: 1080p currently, but in the next couple of months I'm looking to upgrade to 1440p. I'm fine staying around 60/75hz though.
Why Are You Upgrading: My current pc is 8 years old (it was a Scan 3XS custom build) so it's starting to show its age, and I'd like to try building a new one from scratch.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor
(I'd like the pc to serve me well efficiency-wise as well as being good at gaming. One thing I do wonder is if it's worth adding in a Hyper 212 instead of the stock cooler, I've seen frequent remarks the Wraith Prism is really solid but can be noisy)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard
(As I understand this is compatible out of the box with 3000 series. I'm hoping this pc will last me for many years again, so not worried about processor upgrades or looking to stretch to a x570 budget wise)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory
(This I'm slightly unsure about. Scan's RAM selection seems very limited. The downside is this RAM has 20 CAS latency, but I'm not sure if the offset of 3600 frequency will mean it's good enough. Or honestly if I'd even notice the different in RAM with lower latency. If it's going to be a minimal difference I'd ideally like to buy everything from the one place. Scan do also have 3200mhz CAS 16, maybe that would be better?)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
(This will be for my OS, general applications and maybe a current game or two)
Storage: Seagate EXOS Enterprise 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
(This will be primarily for media. I take photos in RAW and have a large old catalogue of music and movies that's already approaching 3.5gb so I'd be looking to add another 4tb drive in the future)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC 3X Video Card
(I think this is good enough for my needs without being over the top. I would like to go up to 1440p in the coming months but no more, and around 60-75hz will do me fine. I do run two monitors, but even when I upgrade my primary for gaming, my secondary will be my old primary one at 1080p and effectively a browser window. I am toying with the idea of adding a capture card and streaming at some point, but dunno if I ever will!)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox NR600 (w/o ODD) ATX Mid Tower Case
(I've done a fair bit of research into this and I think it's about as good as it gets for a minimal case with good airflow at the price point. I don't care about case bling)
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 11 700 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply
(This seems to be a solid and I think it gives me a fair chunk of overhead. Maybe slightly too much, but I didn't think it'd hurt?)
3 x Case Fan: be quiet! Pure Wings 2 140 PWM 61.2 CFM 140 mm Fan
(I thought I'd put these 3 in the front of my case and either store the existing front one or move it to the top. Want to increase airflow and help keep noise down a little, not that it matters too much)
This comes in at £1496.51 on Scan's site including shipping and their additional build protection warranty.
Approximate Purchase Date: A month from now
Budget: Approximately £1500 in total, including shipping
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, audio production in Ableton, Adobe Suite (primarily web / photography related but possible occasional video editing at 1080p), web development, surfing, Plex media server
Monitor required: No
Parts to Upgrade: PC only
OS Required: No (buying separately, not included in budget)
Preferred Website: https://www.scan.co.uk/ - They are UK based, I've used them many times. They offer a 30 day additional warranty in case you damage your components attempting a build - I have never built a pc completely on my own before so I'd like to go for that. They work out a little pricier than some places, but I feel like they offset it with good service.
Location: UK
Parts Preference: AMD
Overclocking: I would like to try - but from my reading it seems like there's nowhere to go with the 3000 series and that switching on PBO is the simplest option to gain some benefit with little effort(?) I was thinking about having a go at tweaking RAM settings and using MSI afterburner though.
Resolution: 1080p currently, but in the next couple of months I'm looking to upgrade to 1440p. I'm fine staying around 60/75hz though.
Why Are You Upgrading: My current pc is 8 years old (it was a Scan 3XS custom build) so it's starting to show its age, and I'd like to try building a new one from scratch.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor
(I'd like the pc to serve me well efficiency-wise as well as being good at gaming. One thing I do wonder is if it's worth adding in a Hyper 212 instead of the stock cooler, I've seen frequent remarks the Wraith Prism is really solid but can be noisy)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard
(As I understand this is compatible out of the box with 3000 series. I'm hoping this pc will last me for many years again, so not worried about processor upgrades or looking to stretch to a x570 budget wise)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory
(This I'm slightly unsure about. Scan's RAM selection seems very limited. The downside is this RAM has 20 CAS latency, but I'm not sure if the offset of 3600 frequency will mean it's good enough. Or honestly if I'd even notice the different in RAM with lower latency. If it's going to be a minimal difference I'd ideally like to buy everything from the one place. Scan do also have 3200mhz CAS 16, maybe that would be better?)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
(This will be for my OS, general applications and maybe a current game or two)
Storage: Seagate EXOS Enterprise 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
(This will be primarily for media. I take photos in RAW and have a large old catalogue of music and movies that's already approaching 3.5gb so I'd be looking to add another 4tb drive in the future)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC 3X Video Card
(I think this is good enough for my needs without being over the top. I would like to go up to 1440p in the coming months but no more, and around 60-75hz will do me fine. I do run two monitors, but even when I upgrade my primary for gaming, my secondary will be my old primary one at 1080p and effectively a browser window. I am toying with the idea of adding a capture card and streaming at some point, but dunno if I ever will!)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox NR600 (w/o ODD) ATX Mid Tower Case
(I've done a fair bit of research into this and I think it's about as good as it gets for a minimal case with good airflow at the price point. I don't care about case bling)
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 11 700 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply
(This seems to be a solid and I think it gives me a fair chunk of overhead. Maybe slightly too much, but I didn't think it'd hurt?)
3 x Case Fan: be quiet! Pure Wings 2 140 PWM 61.2 CFM 140 mm Fan
(I thought I'd put these 3 in the front of my case and either store the existing front one or move it to the top. Want to increase airflow and help keep noise down a little, not that it matters too much)
This comes in at £1496.51 on Scan's site including shipping and their additional build protection warranty.
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