New Lounge PC build help

Dan_P said:
Hi all,

I have been playing the Call of Duty beta this weekend and really enjoyed PC gaming in our lounge.

This left me in a predicament as I am not wanting to permanently or every time move my PC from my office into the lounge. So I have been coming up with ideas to build a cheap lounge gaming PC to play COD and VR Games such as Beat Saber.

Budget wise to convince the wife less than £300 please if possible - could stretch to £400 if performance enhancement worth while.

I have a Kolink 500W PSU spare at home I plan to use and In my main build I have two 980Ti's in SLI, I am proposing to take the Asus Strix out of this and use in my lounge build and the 128GB Samsung SSD along with:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £254.66 (includes shipping: £11.70)
​

Any suggestions, changes or enhancements?

Edits:
  • TV native Resolution 3840*2160.
  • Any build form factor is acceptable (PC will be hidden anyway)
  • B450 motherboard rather than A320/B350 - post 10
  • Reusing Samsung SM951 128GB M.2 SSD which is currently not in use
MTIA

Dan
Click to expand...
sounds like a useable cheap system. Of course you could spend more but what you have here should work fine and then you could replace a single component (or add a graphics card) if needed.
 
an0nym0us said:
That motherboard is very likely going to need a BIOS update before you can use the R3 3200G. Do you have a 1st/2nd gen Ryzen CPU to perform the BIOS update?


I personally wouldn't want to risk using that PSU with a GTX 980 Ti in the same system.
Click to expand...

I don't have any other AMD processes - what should I do?
 
Dan_P said:
I don't have any other AMD processes - what should I do?
Click to expand...
Depending on where you buy from, the vendor may be kind enough to update the BIOS for you or they might charge a fee for the update (if they even offer that service, as many don't).

Other option is to get a motherboard with BIOS flashback feature (BIOS update without needing CPU) such as this:
MSI B450M Mortar MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 mATX Motherboard
It's a much better motherboard than the ones you shortlisted above, but also pricier.

My picks would be:
  • Ryzen 5 2600 ~£115
  • MSI B450M Mortar MAX ~£93
  • 2x8GB Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 3200MT/s ~£75
  • Cooler Master MasterWatt 650 ~£65
  • Your preferred micro-ATX case (but be mindful of your GPU clearance)
Then transfer over SSD and GTX 980 Ti, which should be a reasonable 1440p gaming rig, but would total ~£400 for the new parts.

As the B450M Mortar MAX is a half decent motherboard, you'd have a better upgrade path with this if you wanted to upgrade the CPU and GPU in future.

Decent 4k gaming is totally impossible on your budget.
 
going for cheapness and 2600 as above ^^^ waste on MAX boards which are extra for being ryzen 3000 flashed. Just grab MSI or Gigabyte B450 ITX board £100-15 and get Wifi included as well as console sized case :)
 
Updated build after getting approval to upgrade budget to no more than £500 from the wife:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £503.66 (includes shipping: £11.70)​
​
 
Dan_P said:
1 x Gigabyte X570 GAMING X (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 Chipset ATX Motherboard= £175.99
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Save your money and get either the MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX or the MSI B450M Mortar MAX.

Dan_P said:
1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK16GX4M2B32= £82.99
Click to expand...
The Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 3200 has been reported to work well with 3rd gen Ryzen CPUs:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/ballistix-sport-lt-overclocking.18861166/

Is the new PSU not part of the budget? With the money saved on one of the alternative motherboards above, you'll easily have enough for a half decent PSU anyway.
 
an0nym0us said:
Save your money and get either the MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX or the MSI B450M Mortar MAX.


The Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 3200 has been reported to work well with 3rd gen Ryzen CPUs:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/ballistix-sport-lt-overclocking.18861166/

Is the new PSU not part of the budget? With the money saved on one of the alternative motherboards above, you'll easily have enough for a half decent PSU anyway.
Click to expand...

Would there be any impact going from a X570 to B450?

Yes there should be the 650W Coolermaster Masterwatt in that list which I have added and included below.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £510.55 (includes shipping: £12.60)
​
 
Dan_P said:
Would there be any impact going from a X570 to B450?
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The main difference is that X570 supports PCIe gen 4, but for most of us PCIe gen 3 is more than enough anyway.

The Gigabyte X570 Gaming X you linked has approx equivalent VRM to the MSI B450 Tomahawk, so I don't see any reason to pay the extra.
 
Dan_P said:
Would there be any impact going from a X570 to B450?

Yes there should be the 650W Coolermaster Masterwatt in that list which I have added and included below.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £510.55 (includes shipping: £12.60)
​
Click to expand...
generally there will be no impact on using a B450.

I initially bought a 3600 for a SFF build for the wife and got a gigabyte B450 ITX (corsair MP510 nvme). I was so please with the 3600 that I then bought one for myself with a X570 auros pro (£260!) - me still using old SATA SSD. There is no real difference between x570 and B450. PCI gen 4 makes no difference - in fact, I don't notice any real world difference between sata ssd and pci gen 3 nvme (corsair MP510 or Samsung 960 EVO).

with the 3600 turn times in Warhammer 2 mortal empires now fly for me when before (with either a OC quad core or an OC octacore) they were taking 5 minutes!


in your build the 3600 is great and that mobo and RAM will be good partners.
 
I only bought the x570 auros pro for £260 as ultimately I want to upgrade my desktop to the 4th gen 16 core and overclock it (will sell my trusty 3600 then).

The auros pro x570 has lots of VRM power and cooling sufficient for overclocking a 4950x.
 
Alan1969 said:
generally there will be no impact on using a B450.

I initially bought a 3600 for a SFF build for the wife and got a gigabyte B450 ITX (corsair MP510 nvme). I was so please with the 3600 that I then bought one for myself with a X570 auros pro (£260!) - me still using old SATA SSD. There is no real difference between x570 and B450. PCI gen 4 makes no difference - in fact, I don't notice any real world difference between sata ssd and pci gen 3 nvme (corsair MP510 or Samsung 960 EVO).

with the 3600 turn times in Warhammer 2 mortal empires now fly for me when before (with either a OC quad core or an OC octacore) they were taking 5 minutes!


in your build the 3600 is great and that mobo and RAM will be good partners.
Click to expand...

Will this board support SLI? In the future I am going to replace my 2nd 980Ti in my main rig with a 2080Ti or 3080Ti(whatever its called) and so want to make sure SLI is supported.

EDIT: Just seen it wont with the below text, can anyone recommend a B450 board that will?

  • 1x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16) for high-end graphics cards
Click to expand...
 
Dan_P said:
Will this board support SLI? In the future I am going to replace my 2nd 980Ti in my main rig with a 2080Ti or 3080Ti(whatever its called) and so want to make sure SLI is supported.

EDIT: Just seen it wont with the below text, can anyone recommend a B450 board that will?
Click to expand...

This seems to be the solution - anyone aware of anything cheaper that would do the job?

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £180.49 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​
 
Dan_P said:
Saw the two slots and thought that was it. Struggling to find one here.
Click to expand...
SLI isn't a feature I'd ever consider using myself, so I've not been looking out for it.

However, if the motherboard supports SLI it will specifically state it in the specifications. Here's an example of one that supports SLI and NVLink, but not necessarily a recommendation for your use case:
https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X570 Taichi/#Specification
 
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