New Build - 4k Future Proof - £2k budget

Plec said:
except @tamzzy :D who also suffers from the same affliction as yourself - but bypasses general public interaction by inducing his patients into a coma.
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Plec said:
You still have to endure them for 30 seconds to a minute before onset - you need better product :D
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Luckily for our ICU reg Mr. @tamzzy most of them are already/near comatose by the time they get to him, he just tops them up every so often so they don't wake up and start bothering him :p.

Plec said:
The Zotac should still stay as the white sleeved cables will act as the focal point - would be happy accident if it lit up in white, haven't checked. Plus, shade/shadow/contrast can be equally effective as you've probably seen from other builds.

I prefer 3700X as an option as I suspect you may delay upgrading due to life commitments and this being a brief flirtation rather than a hobby. i.e. once built out of mind - plus, money will be a novelty for a while, so spend what you have now :D
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No issues with the Zotac but it's unfortunately out of stock, so i've got the Gigabyte you recommended earlier in the basket instead. And agreed about both the 3700X and the money being a novelty!

Some updates on my copious reading/research into the world of RGB. The main consideration was the NZXT architecture vs the Corsair. I'm pretty sold on the Kraken, the infinity mirror really just does it for me. From what I understand, there's then an issue of USB headers, because you have the AIO, and then when you swap out the rear and top stock fans for RGB ones you don't have enough headers or you can't control the lights/fans or something. So people typically get

this:
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or this:
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Since they have the Hue 2/Lighting PRO management thingies which only takes up one USB header. When I compared both, going with Corsair:

++ The fan bracket itself is white
+ RAM is Corsair RGB so would sync on the same system as the fans
+ Apparently the Corsair software is better than the NZXT
+/- The fan blades are illuminated, as well as the halo on the outside
- £90
- 3 Pack of fans, and I only need 2 (for rear/top)

Going with NZXT:
+ AIO is NZXT so syncs on the same system as the fans
+ £72 so cheaper
+ 2 pack of fans
+ If I decide to convert the radiator fans to RGB, or add an LED strip it would be a like for like swap/addition on the same system
+/- Halo ring light only
- NZXT software apparently not as good

From an aesthetics point of view I really can't say one set of fans looks better than the other. I'd really welcome some input on this to sway me one way or the other.

qVTxdpc.jpg

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Here's where we're at currently:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,613.81 (includes shipping: £0.00)
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  • Thanks to @tamzzy and @Plec 's eternal wisdom, the motherboard has 2x M.2 Slots, so I can save money and have my spacious 500GB SSD for now, and always throw another 1/2TB one in down the road if I ever have need of it.
  • 16GB RAM rather than 32GB because even though I think 32 would be better and worth the extra price, i've seen reports that it's extremely tight/not possible to seat the Kraken AIO horizontally with 4 sticks, and having it seated vertically looks stupid imo.
  • I had a look for a 650+W Gold PSU in white that would mean not needing the £45 white extension cables but it doesn't seem to exist.
  • Swapping the 3700X for a 3600 would change the total to £1482.81. Is it a pain to unplug an AIO to change a CPU? Removing fans and unscrewing the backplate of my Prolimatech Megahalems was akin to torture - but it's been 10 years of development. If it's easy to do, I wouldn't be opposed to a straight CPU swap in a few years if needed, especially since I recall AMD have promised to keep the same socket until 2022? We're well under budget either way.
  • NZXT fans + HUE 2 placeholder until decision on the above
  • Tempted to get one LED strip because the H500 doesn't come with any but left it out for now, I want some degree of tastefulness :p:D
I think we're nearly there guys, thank you so much for your continued patience
 
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Minato said:
he just tops them up every so often so they don't wake up and start bothering him :p.
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that's why there's something called pancuronium :)

Minato said:
No issues with the Zotac but it's unfortunately out of stock, so i've got the Gigabyte you recommended earlier in the basket instead.
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i would wait tbh. the extra £30 on top of the zotac puts it in the category of "not worth it" when compared to the 5700xt

Minato said:
the motherboard has 2x M.2 Slots
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b450 tomahawk only has one m.2 slot. and i wouldn't waste it on a sata m.2 drive.

Minato said:
Is it a pain to unplug an AIO to change a CPU?
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no. very easy.
 
* @Minato - out and about - will take a closer look when I get back.
  • Prefer the subtler ring of light around fans rather than a full glow (spotlight) throughout fins - they also don't light the case up as much so you have more interest/shadows (if you're after an opinion(?))
  • Corsair or Kraken - you must pick your preference the Kraken will fill the whole front at 280mm so no gaps - and the contrast works well with the white sleeves - if you're looking for an excuse to get the NZXT :D
  • The Gigabyte card lights up - but the big bonus is 4 year warranty and UK RMA. (But Zotac has 5 i think and easy RMA - so swings and round abouts - depends how soon you need it)
  • And **** those fans are expensive!!!
Will take a closer look when back...
 
^^^ need to check if zotac does full 5 yrs In UK lrnhong Kong, extra use to be from there . Been a while since had any contact with them but their UK base is a small unit

X570 matches and beats z390/intel finally with more m.2 slots and PCIe 4 at that. But controllers aren't quite yet up to speed, though will be for PS5...

Explains how they can saw off their development kits, anything is better then HDD

@Plec starting to out feet up I think .

Must plan this ITX case. ....
 
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orbitalwalsh said:
^^^ need to check if zotac does full 5 yrs In UK lrnhong Kong, extra use to be from there . Been a while since had any contact with them but their UK base is a small unit
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I'm not sure where they handle all their RMA's but some must be within the UK (this was similar to a friends recent RMA) - Clicky

/off topic

Have you made a decision on the case - from your last reply looks promising?

EDIT: @orbitalwalsh missed your edit:
orbitalwalsh said:
@Plec starting to out feet up I think .
Must plan this ITX case. ....
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You have to do this - looking over spec/dimensions and your preliminary designs - on paper/sketchUp it looks manageable. I'm sure there will be some ad-hoc - on the fly - amendments but nothing that you're not use to.

DO IT!!!

*If you do - i'll buy the best B550 i like the look of on release - or if they stick a ****ing fan on it i'll get the ULTRA.
 
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@Plec aye, if you remember to register it lol. others allow you over the limit which is a shame.

nice to see they now do the full 5 years here - but at age of card- straight replacement which makes sense
 
Hi chaps, spoke to OcUK today. Regarding the Zotac 2070 Super, there's no ETA for when it'll return. They recommended choosing a different card since there's no guarantee how long the wait will be. Also since yesterday, someone has purchased the last 16GB white corsair vengeance 3200MHz RAM so that's out of stock too. The same RAM with 3000MHz is in stock, but for some reason it's more expensive? I really don't understand why. It's cheaper elsewhere. Perhaps a pricing error?

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Here's how it was looking beforehand:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,583.81 (includes shipping: £0.00)
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Seeing as how we're £400 under budget (let's call monitor a separate budget), i'm very happy already. I'd really welcome your guidance @Plec @tamzzy @orbitalwalsh on the RAM and Graphics card and then i'll place the order for the finalised build. Thanks guys <3
 
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tamzzy said:
this is the wrong choice. if you want do go m.2...then get nvme. not sata3
corsair mp510 480gb is not much more expensive elsewhere...
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I didn't know there was a difference! SSDs that plug into PCI express ports are a new thing for me lol. I actually don't know the difference between M.2, NVME, NAND and SATA 3. I'll do some more googling later. Is there anything reasonably priced you'd recommend in the meanwhile? (doesn't have to be 1TB :p)
 
Minato said:
SSDs that plug into PCI express ports are a new thing for me lol.
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that's the form factor m.2 that looks like sticks of chewing gum
actually has 2 differing protocols 1) nvme - which, as you say, uses the pcie lanes, and 2) sata 3 - which is your bog standard sata
as i've said previously, the tomahawk max only has 1 m.2 slot...hence don't waste it on a m.2 sata3 drive.

nvme is approx 6x as fast as sata 3 - in sequential read (and sometimes write) speeds - HOWEVER in real world loads, this isn't as impressive and there's little difference between nvme and sata3 except when hammering the storage subsystem (eg 4k video editing or same drive file copying)
BUT, as nvme and sata3 drives are basically reaching price parity (for the m.2 form factor), makes no sense getting a slower drive...

Minato said:
Is there anything reasonably priced you'd recommend in the meanwhile? (doesn't have to be 1TB :p)
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tamzzy said:
corsair mp510 480gb is not much more expensive elsewhere...
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tamzzy said:
that's the form factor m.2 that looks like sticks of chewing gum
actually has 2 differing protocols 1) nvme - which, as you say, uses the pcie lanes, and 2) sata 3 - which is your bog standard sata
as i've said previously, the tomahawk max only has 1 m.2 slot...hence don't waste it on a m.2 sata3 drive.

nvme is approx 6x as fast as sata 3 - in sequential read (and sometimes write) speeds - HOWEVER in real world loads, this isn't as impressive and there's little difference between nvme and sata3 except when hammering the storage subsystem (eg 4k video editing or same drive file copying)
BUT, as nvme and sata3 drives are basically reaching price parity (for the m.2 form factor), makes no sense getting a slower drive...
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Aaah I understand you now, thanks for that. I was originally confused because the page for the motherboard says "Two M.2-slots with PCIe connectivity are available thanks to it being an AM4-based motherboard." But you're right it only has one. The mp510 480gb is out of stock on OcUK, I suppose it wouldn't be that difficult to buy it and just add it into the system myself later? Or how about this instead?: NVME and looks like it has similarly fast read/write speeds as the corsair. Only £20 more and in stock.
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@Minato - will you be installing/setting up Windows/drivers yourself?

You could get the 3200MHz memory kit they haven't got in stock from elsewhere (may come in stock while it's in queue for build) - they can sub in another kit while they setup (but you will have to set the XMP with your new set - not an issue for you.)

Minato said:
Aaah I understand you now, thanks for that. I was originally confused because the page for the motherboard says "Two M.2-slots with PCIe connectivity are available thanks to it being an AM4-based motherboard." But you're right it only has one. The mp510 480gb is out of stock on OcUK, I suppose it wouldn't be that difficult to buy it and just add it into the system myself later? Or how about this instead?:

Total: £103.69 (includes shipping: £8.70)
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No, you would get the Crucial over that - way too expensive.

@tamzzy was talking about price parity - that cripples the argument for.
 
@tamzzy - if OcUK are building/setting up then he's limited for choice, and he needs the PC sooner rather than later (from opening post). The memory could be overcome easily, as explained above - OcUK should accommodate as it's their stock issues causing speed/aesthetic problem.

As for the drive - the Crucial will suffice with the limited options he has available. No real life speed loss - pays a bit of premium but gets the machine when he needs it.

@Minato - maybe worth haggling with them...
 
Plec said:
@Minato - will you be installing/setting up Windows/drivers yourself?
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Yep that's easy I regularly format my C: and freshly install windows and latest drivers - not a problem at all.

Plec said:
You could get the 3200MHz memory kit they haven't got in stock from elsewhere (may come in stock while it's in queue for build) - they can sub in another kit while they setup (but you will have to set the XMP with your new set - not an issue for you.)
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They do an overnight stress test as part of the build which is very handy for me because it would hopefully ensure all the components are stable and solid and not faulty - if they use different RAM then doesn't that mean they're not really stress testing my system if that makes sense? Because all the parts work together so if the 3200MHz memory I end up using is dodgy i'd have to sort it myself. Is the 3000 MHz noticeably worse than the 3200MHz? I could ask them to price match it - i'm sure they wouldn't mind especially if it's priced in error.

tamzzy said:
too expensive. but if you are going to ask ocuk to build it for you...then you're kinda stuck.
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=(. I don't remember there ever being this level of component shortages in the past. It's dog eat dog nowadays in who can get them first!

Any ideas re: the graphics card?
 
Plec said:
As for the drive - the Crucial will suffice with the limited options he has available. No real life speed loss - pays a bit of premium but gets the machine when he needs it.
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i'd rather get a 2.5 inch sata 3 drive than to waste the only m.2 slot on a sata 3 drive.

probably something like this: overclockers.co.uk/gigabyte-ud-pro-512gb-ssd-2.5-sata-6gbps-toshiba-3d-nand-solid-state-drive-hd-002-gi.html
 
Minato said:
Yep that's easy I regularly format my C: and freshly install windows and latest drivers - not a problem at all.
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Great - £20 tops.

Minato said:
They do an overnight stress test as part of the build which is very handy for me because it would hopefully ensure all the components are stable and solid and not faulty - if they use different RAM then doesn't that mean they're not really stress testing my system if that makes sense? Because all the parts work together so if the 3200MHz memory I end up using is dodgy i'd have to sort it myself. Is the 3000 MHz noticeably worse than the 3200MHz? I could ask them to price match it - i'm sure they wouldn't mind especially if it's priced in error.
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Yes, but if you had errors with your new memory - you would know that that was the issue. Quick and easy RMA depending on where you purchase - some places you would buy replacement and send other back for free return. (assuming OcUK send you out a working machine - they can arrive DOA).

Minato said:
Any ideas re: the graphics card?
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Gigabyte Gaming (£10 more?) - 4 year warranty UK RMA.
 
You know you can get the Corsair RMx 750w PSU in white, with white cables for less than the combo you have?

EDIT: Forget it, I guess OCUK don't sell it in white, they'd rather make the giant margin selling cable upgrades
 
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