[SOLVED] will this system work for gaming and normal schoolwork

[ray :)]

Hi everyone, i'm looking to build my first gaming PC and i have a budget of around £900 or $1,151 for you Americans. my parts list is as follow:



RAM - Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3000 MHz C15 XMP 2.0 High Performance Desktop Memory Kit, Black



CPU - AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (im going to be using the stock AMD cooler)



GPU - Nvidia RTX 2060 6GB by Zotac



Motherboard - MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC (this has wifi on board, any equivalent would be great if you have any suggestions)



PSU - Corsair CX550M uk plug



Storage - WD Green M.2 SSD 120GB (for the OS)

2TB HDD



Monitor - BENQ ZOWIE XL2411P 144hz 1ms response time



Case fans - 1 Corsair icue SP140 RGB PRO



Peripherals - i already have a mouse and keyboard but for your peace of mind i have a Logitech g502 hero (wired) and the keyboard is a HyperX alloy fps with the cherry mx blue keys (preference but i like clicky keyboards )



Case - i have my own case but if you want to know then it's the Corsair Carbide SPEC-05 which already has one case fan pre-installed



Now as i'm new to this whole PC master race thing, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated as I kind of know what to do when building one but any advice from you pro's like i said would be greatly appreciated.

basically what im asking is if this system will work fine and if not how could i replace the items i have that's within budget.

 

[ceriumin]

Hi everyone, i'm looking to build my first gaming PC and i have a budget if around £900 or $1,151 for you Americans. my parts list is as follow:



RAM - Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3000 MHz C15 XMP 2.0 High Performance Desktop Memory Kit, Black



CPU - AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (im going to be using the stock AMD cooler)



GPU - Nvidia RTX 2060 6GB by Zotac



Motherboard - MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC (this has wifi on board, any equivalent would be great if you have any suggestions)



PSU - Corsair CX550M uk plug



Storage - WD Green M.2 SSD 120GB (for the OS)

2TB HDD



Monitor - BENQ ZOWIE XL2411P 144hz 1ms response time



Case fans - 1 Corsair icue SP140 RGB PRO



Peripherals - i already have a mouse and keyboard but for your peace of mind i have a Logitech g502 hero (wired) and the keyboard is a HyperX alloy fps with the cherry mx blue keys (preference but i like clicky keyboards )



Case - i have my own case but if you want to know then it's the Corsair Carbide SPEC-05 which already has one case fan pre-installed



Now as i'm new to this whole PC master race thing, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated as I kind of know what to do when building one but any advice from you pro's like i said would be greatly appreciated.

basically what im asking is if this system will work fine and if not how could i replace the items i have that's within budget.

Welcome to Toms Hardware @ray :) !

That setup is fine for gaming, im not recommending you anything because it meets standards for gaming and for sure school work. However the only problem is the RTX2060 will not pull most games at 144hz but it is still sufficient. You shouldn't run into any issues.

 

[Sohom]

Your listed specs are fine...
My recommended specs:
PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wyyBFG

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor ($214.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Amazon) (P.S.: u shud be able to find it way cheaper than the price listed, check out deals this mobo can be found at way cheaper prices) (although, may require bios update for ryzen 3000 series)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($64.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.32 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB EVOKE OC Video Card ($334.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $948.27
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-04 08:03 EST-0500

And for wifi; i suggest u go for Netgear A7000 USB WIFI AC1900 https://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/wifi-adapters/A7000.aspx adapter or AC1200 adapter https://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/wifi-adapters/a6210.aspx it will be way better for gaming;

 

[ray :)]

Welcome to Toms Hardware @ray :) !

That setup is fine for gaming, im not recommending you anything because it meets standards for gaming and for sure school work. However the only problem is the RTX2060 will not pull most games at 144hz but it is still sufficient. You shouldn't run into any issues.

hi ceriumin,
thanks for the quick reply and for letting me know about the RTX 2060 fps thing.
the games i will mostly be playing is CSGO at competitive settings so either low with stretched or something along those lines so i hope that this wont be too much of a problem. As for the monitor though i wanted to have the experience of having a monitor more than 60hz because I've heard once you experience it you will never go back to 60hz.
anyway thanks for the advice 😉

 

[ray :)]

Your listed specs are fine...
My recommended specs:
PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wyyBFG

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor ($214.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Amazon) (P.S.: u shud be able to find it way cheaper than the price listed, check out deals this mobo can be found at way cheaper prices) (although, may require bios update for ryzen 3000 series)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($64.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.32 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB EVOKE OC Video Card ($334.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $948.27
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-04 08:03 EST-0500

And for wifi; i suggest u go for Netgear A7000 USB WIFI AC1900 https://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/wifi-adapters/A7000.aspx adapter or AC1200 adapter https://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/wifi-adapters/a6210.aspx it will be way better for gaming;

Hi Sohom,
unfortunately your specs doesn't include a monitor in the budget and if i decide to add a decent one, would be too expensive in my budget. Also as i'm new to PC building, when i need to update the bios will i need an older cpu to update the bios or does it have a flashback button that can do it when it's connected to power?
thanks in advance,
ray from the uk 😉

 

[JoshRC]

hi ceriumin,
thanks for the quick reply and for letting me know about the RTX 2060 fps thing.
the games i will mostly be playing is CSGO at competitive settings so either low with stretched or something along those lines so i hope that this wont be too much of a problem. As for the monitor though i wanted to have the experience of having a monitor more than 60hz because I've heard once you experience it you will never go back to 60hz.
anyway thanks for the advice 😉

To get any use out of a monitor with higher than 60hz means that you have to be getting more than 60fps which is unlikely with a 2060 in higher settings in aaa games which I think is what ceriumin meant

CSGO and other eSports games you'll get well over 60fps though even on high settings. It's true though high refresh rate monitors are great as long as you have the FPS to get the use out of them.

 

[King_V]

I see no mention of FreeSync or GSync for that monitor, so I would recommend against it.

Do not bother with GSync, as Nvidia now will also support FreeSync on their 10-, 16-, and 20- series cards.

FreeSync (and GSync) are adaptive-sync technologies where the refresh rate of the monitor will be adjusted on the fly as the frame-rate of a game changes, based on what the video card can put out.

 

[Archaic59]

Here's how I'd fill that budget-

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£113.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC ATX AM4 Motherboard (£118.99 @ AWD-IT)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£74.75 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£97.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB GAMING X Video Card (£289.98 @ Box Limited)
Case: Corsair SPEC-05 ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For £0.00)
Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£64.98 @ AWD-IT)
Monitor: ViewSonic XG2401 23.6" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor (£139.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £899.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-04 19:38 GMT+0000

 

[ray :)]

I see no mention of FreeSync or GSync for that monitor, so I would recommend against it.

Do not bother with GSync, as Nvidia now will also support FreeSync on their 10-, 16-, and 20- series cards.

FreeSync (and GSync) are adaptive-sync technologies where the refresh rate of the monitor will be adjusted on the fly as the frame-rate of a game changes, based on what the video card can put out.

Hi King_v,
would you be able to suggest anything that's great but doesn't break the bank?
thanks in advance

 

[ceriumin]

hi ceriumin,
thanks for the quick reply and for letting me know about the RTX 2060 fps thing.
the games i will mostly be playing is CSGO at competitive settings so either low with stretched or something along those lines so i hope that this wont be too much of a problem. As for the monitor though i wanted to have the experience of having a monitor more than 60hz because I've heard once you experience it you will never go back to 60hz.
anyway thanks for the advice 😉

If its games like CSGO then yeah go ahead, a nice experience of 144hz. I thought you meant playing heavy AAA titles which could not be ran at 144fps. All good

 

[King_V]

I think the ViewSonic in @Archaic59 's suggested build seems like a good fit.

Coming in about the same total price, I'd swap the video card and SSD for these:
£277.67: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...rx-5600-xt-6-gb-pulse-video-card-11296-01-20g
£104.99: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...tb-m2-2280-nvme-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0c

The 5600XT is a better performer than the 1660Ti for slightly less money. The WD drive is a bit more modern, slightly faster, with a higher endurance rating, compared to the P1.

 

[Sohom]

Also as i'm new to PC building, when i need to update the bios will i need an older cpu to update the bios or does it have a flashback button that can do it when it's connected to power?
thanks in advance,
ray from the uk 😉

As far as i know, this motherboard comes ryzen 3000 ready out of the box, but if it doesn't u can always ask the seller to update it for you or you can go to a local store and ask them to update the bios for you...

 

[ray :)]

I think the ViewSonic in @Archaic59 's suggested build seems like a good fit.

Coming in about the same total price, I'd swap the video card and SSD for these:
£277.67: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...rx-5600-xt-6-gb-pulse-video-card-11296-01-20g
£104.99: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...tb-m2-2280-nvme-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0c

The 5600XT is a better performer than the 1660Ti for slightly less money. The WD drive is a bit more modern, slightly faster, with a higher endurance rating, compared to the P1.

hi would an RTX 2060 be too much for the performance as i have heard that AMD GPU's get really bad updates in things like bios software?

 

[King_V]

hi would an RTX 2060 be too much for the performance as i have heard that AMD GPU's get really bad updates in things like bios software?

I've never heard of any such issue.

The RX 5600XT edges out the RTX 2060 in performance by a small amount, and starts slightly cheaper. I did not choose the least expensive 5600XT, though, but went with the Sapphire Pulse, since its cooler is excellent.

But, going with the 2060, you'd be giving up a small amount of performance, and not saving any money in the process.

There were some driver issues for the Navi cards (some people had problems, other people didn't have any issues at all), but I understand that the most recent driver has resolved the black-screen issues. Nothing with a BIOS problem, though.

 

[Sohom]

PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/7Zsrp8

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£147.98 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B450M-A Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£69.98 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£74.52 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 250 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£42.95 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.48 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB TUF Gaming X3 OC Video Card (£359.60 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA BR 600 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£51.96 @ Laptops Direct)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 24.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor (£176.55 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £959.02

 

[Archaic59]

PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/7Zsrp8

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£147.98 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B450M-A Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£69.98 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£74.52 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 250 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£42.95 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.48 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB TUF Gaming X3 OC Video Card (£359.60 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA BR 600 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£51.96 @ Laptops Direct)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 24.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor (£176.55 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £959.02

Downgrading the power supply from your previous build to a crappy EVGA BR series is not a good idea. It may be ok for an office pc but not a gaming pc. 👎

 

[King_V]

Power Supply: EVGA BR 600 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£51.96 @ Laptops Direct)

^^^^ absolutely NOT!

 

[Sohom]

Downgrading the power supply from your previous build to a crappy EVGA BR series is not a good idea. It may be ok for an office pc but not a gaming pc. 👎

Yes, you are right... i must have mistakenly selected the PSU, i generally recommend Corsair or seasonic... Ignore the power supply in my suggested build...

 

[King_V]

The Corsair TX is about £65 for the 550W, and £73 for the 650W in the UK on the PCPartPicker list.