Hi all
I'll start with some basic background so you understand my circumstances.
My 7 year old gaming laptop is on its last legs (keeps crashing during zoom calls, noisy, GPU looking ancient) and needs replacing. I still need something small, but am eyeing up a mini-ITX system for 2 reasons;
- Better value
- Possible upgrade path
I already have a 1080p 75Mhz monitor I can use (I may buy a second better monitor).
I don't have a lot of free time so am willing to drop some extra £ on a pre-build. Main uses are gaming and general office work (Excel, Word) via a VPN during lockdown. No CAD or heavy computational tasks.
I was looking at custom builds but also came across a couple of outlet/clearance deals which look tempting. Which would you go for?
Build 1: Kolink Satellite Plus case, GA-Z370N motherboard, i5-9400F, 16Gb 2666Mhz RAM, GTX1660 TI, 250Gb M2, 1TB 7200 RPM HDD, 650W PSU. £900
Build 2: Corsair One - watercooled AIO - i7-7700K, 16Gb 2400Mhz RAM, GTX1080 8Gb, 420Gb M2, 2TB HDD £1100.
Build 3: Coolermaster 130 case, A320i-K motherboard, Ryzen 3-3100, 16Gb 2400Mhz RAM, 1660 Super, 250Gb Samsung EVO M2, 2TB 7200RPM HDD, 550W PSU. £891. Can fiddle with the spec on this one. R3-3220 for £25 less, or 3300X for £15 more or R5-3400 for £28 more. Can also upgrade to faster RAM if any point.
The Corsair seems to offer the most bang-for-buck, but will be really hard to upgrade (probably impossible really) so it will need to last me a few years. But it's stronger now than the others so has a head start.
The third build is the weakest in spec, but as long as the CPU isn't the limiting factor, I can upgrade that later as there are plenty of faster AM4 CPUs that will come down in price in future. Build 1 is on LGA1151 which looks dead already so little upgrade path beyond the i9-9900.
Thanks for your help.
I'll start with some basic background so you understand my circumstances.
My 7 year old gaming laptop is on its last legs (keeps crashing during zoom calls, noisy, GPU looking ancient) and needs replacing. I still need something small, but am eyeing up a mini-ITX system for 2 reasons;
- Better value
- Possible upgrade path
I already have a 1080p 75Mhz monitor I can use (I may buy a second better monitor).
I don't have a lot of free time so am willing to drop some extra £ on a pre-build. Main uses are gaming and general office work (Excel, Word) via a VPN during lockdown. No CAD or heavy computational tasks.
I was looking at custom builds but also came across a couple of outlet/clearance deals which look tempting. Which would you go for?
Build 1: Kolink Satellite Plus case, GA-Z370N motherboard, i5-9400F, 16Gb 2666Mhz RAM, GTX1660 TI, 250Gb M2, 1TB 7200 RPM HDD, 650W PSU. £900
Build 2: Corsair One - watercooled AIO - i7-7700K, 16Gb 2400Mhz RAM, GTX1080 8Gb, 420Gb M2, 2TB HDD £1100.
Build 3: Coolermaster 130 case, A320i-K motherboard, Ryzen 3-3100, 16Gb 2400Mhz RAM, 1660 Super, 250Gb Samsung EVO M2, 2TB 7200RPM HDD, 550W PSU. £891. Can fiddle with the spec on this one. R3-3220 for £25 less, or 3300X for £15 more or R5-3400 for £28 more. Can also upgrade to faster RAM if any point.
The Corsair seems to offer the most bang-for-buck, but will be really hard to upgrade (probably impossible really) so it will need to last me a few years. But it's stronger now than the others so has a head start.
The third build is the weakest in spec, but as long as the CPU isn't the limiting factor, I can upgrade that later as there are plenty of faster AM4 CPUs that will come down in price in future. Build 1 is on LGA1151 which looks dead already so little upgrade path beyond the i9-9900.
Thanks for your help.
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