First time PC build - (UK lockdown induced)

Onthejourney

Onthejourney

Onthejourney

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16 Oct 2020
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13
Good Morning - I am looking to build a PC (first time) and would really appreciate some advice on the parts on the shopping list. For context, I will use PC mainly for work (MS Excel, Word and other Office software), multi-task quickly, watching films, music. However, when I have time after work I would also like to be able to play games such as COD every now again comfortably without an issue for the system. I don't plan to undertake exercises such as editing 4K videos.

Motherboard - Gigabyte B450 AORUS PRO (SOCKET AM4) DDR4 ATX
1 x https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...ocket-am4-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-572-gi.html= £104.99

CPU - AMD Ryzen 5
1 x https://www.overclockers.co.uk/amd-...hz-socket-am4-processor-retail-cp-3b9-am.html= £218.99

GPU - RADEON RX 550 RED DRAGON 4096MB GDDR5
1 x https://www.overclockers.co.uk/powe...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-194-pc.html= £112.99

RAM - Corsair VENGEANCE LPX 16GB (2X8GB)
1 x https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...hannel-kit-black-cmk16gx4m2a26-my-441-cs.html= £62.99

Power - Seasonic CORE GOLD GM-650 650W 80
1 x https://www.overclockers.co.uk/seas...w-80-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-06y-ss.html= £89.99

SSD - WD BLUE 3D NAND 250GB M.2 2280 SOLID
1 x https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...-solid-state-drive-wds250g2b0b-hd-54l-wd.html= £40.99

Case - Lian-Li Lancool 205
1 x https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lian-li-lancool-205-midi-tower-case-white-window-ca-786-ll.html = £61.99

Total = £693

I planned to spend around £700-900 as I believed anything above this market is for high end gaming, high end photography. However, I am happy to be corrected.

I planned to use the SSD just for Windows 10 64 bit and use my HDD for main data drive. I am new to this so would appreciate any advice/tips if I am going wrong anywhere.
 
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Onthejourney said:
Motherboard - Gigabyte B450 AORUS PRO (SOCKET AM4) DDR4 ATX
1 x https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...ocket-am4-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-572-gi.html= £104.99


SSD - WD BLUE 3D NAND 250GB M.2 2280 SOLID
1 x https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...-solid-state-drive-wds250g2b0b-hd-54l-wd.html= £40.99
Click to expand...
MSIs are only good B450 boards.
Asus and Gigabyte boards couldn't feed top CPUs under full load without market garbage level CPU VRM (power circuitry) overheating.

£5 cheaper MSI B450 Tomahawk is completely superior in that.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-b450-tomahawk-max-socket-am4-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-33t-ms.html
For mATX size B450M Mortar is the best B450 board.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-b450m-mortar-max-socket-am4-ddr4-matx-motherboard-mb-348-ms.html

No sense to waste M.2 slot for SATA drive, which would be as fast in end of cable.
Besides games are bloating up insanely and half TB drive is minimum.
 
I have gone back to a atx build. Proper m.2 drive, Faster graphics card. The ryzen 3600 can be bought cheaper elsewhere saving £30 ish.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £735.22 (includes shipping: £12.30)


With the money saved on the cpu you could upgrade the psu to this

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £79.85 (includes shipping: £9.90)​
​

Gold rated, semi modular for easier cable managment and a 7 year warrenty.​
 
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thank you for your responses.

I plan to use 1 M.2 slot for a SSD just for Windows 10 (64 bit) to increase boot time. I plan to keep my HDD for music, data etc. Is it worthwhile getting a motherboard with M.2 slots? I ask as I am thinking further in future as SSDs become cheaper I could use the second slot, but if my board only has 1 slot I could be limited in this sense.
 
Onthejourney said:
thank you for your responses.

I plan to use 1 M.2 slot for a SSD just for Windows 10 (64 bit) to increase boot time. I plan to keep my HDD for music, data etc. Is it worthwhile getting a motherboard with M.2 slots? I ask as I am thinking further in future as SSDs become cheaper I could use the second slot, but if my board only has 1 slot I could be limited in this sense.
Click to expand...
No opinion on the rest of the builds ?

M2 v ssd boot times and loading times Will be at best 1 second difference.
 
dfour said:
Proper m.2 drive
[*]1 x Crucial P1 500GB M.2 2280 PCI-e 3.0 x4 NVMe Solid State Drive= £59.99
Click to expand...
I have problems with calling any drive which falls behind old spinning rust in sustained write speed as proper SSD.
Crucial P1 is QLC Flash drive, whose actual uncached write speed literally looses to old HDDs:
https://www.tweaktown.com/image.php...07_024_crucial-p1-500gb-nvme-ssd-100_full.png
TLC Flash SATA SSDs would be literally lot faster in sustained writes.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...-solid-state-drive-wds500g2b0a-hd-54h-wd.html
Hence QLC Flash drives should be clearly cheaper than usual SSDs.

And Corsair CV is such cheapo that it belongs only into shoe string budget PCs.
 
mickyflinn said:
He says the ssd is just for Windows but you certainly would want your games on an mechanical hard drive.

Ssd you should always have windows, apps and games for fastest loading.
Click to expand...

Apologies I am still learning and don't believe I have been clear enough. I have just educated myself on the different form factors for SSDs as I previously thought that a motherboard could only connect to either a M.2 or a SSD drive. I now see how you can have 1 M.2 drive and just connect up multiple SSDs to the Sata cables.

What I meant was that I would have a small SSD/or M2. just for Windows 10 (small apps) in order to achieve a very quick boot. I would then use my current SATA 2 TB drive to store everything else.

I really like that build you recommended, but just had one question below
  1. You changed model for RAM/SSD where the prices are broadly the same. Is this simply down to difference in quality or speed as prices are broadly the same and I am not familiar with Team Group Vulcan and Crucial (not a criticism)
 
dfour said:
I have gone back to a atx build. Proper m.2 drive, Faster graphics card. The ryzen 3600 can be bought cheaper elsewhere saving £30 ish.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £735.22 (includes shipping: £12.30)
​
Click to expand...

Thank you for putting the build together
- is the 6GB GPU too excessive? I mean would a 4GB card be sufficient.
- is 550W enough power for this build? I am ask as I have read it is always better to have more than vice versa
 
[QUOTE="Onthejourney, post: 34084230]

I really like that build you recommended, but just had one question below
  1. You changed model for RAM/SSD where the prices are broadly the same. Is this simply down to difference in quality or speed as prices are broadly the same and I am not familiar with Team Group Vulcan and Crucial (not a criticism)
[/QUOTE]
The are both quality ram just went for the slightly cheaper.

Ssd I choose is twice the size of the m2 drive for the same price so when your on a tight budget makes sense.
 
Onthejourney said:
Thank you for putting the build together
- is the 6GB GPU too excessive? I mean would a 4GB card be sufficient.
- is 550W enough power for this build? I am ask as I have read it is always better to have more than vice versa
Click to expand...

No its not excessive. It all really depends upon what resolution you game at.
550 should be enough but I think we are all trying to hit about £700 budget as that is what you hit and you havent specified a budget unless I have missed it.
 
dfour said:
No its not excessive. It all really depends upon what resolution you game at.
550 should be enough but I think we are all trying to hit about £700 budget as that is what you hit and you havent specified a budget unless I have missed it.
Click to expand...

I planned to game at the level my monitor would allow (it is a HD 1920x1080 model).
I have adjusted edited my first post to include budget, but again I deemed anything north of £1K was for the creators, pro gamers etc
 
Slight upgrade to my build.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £919.08 (includes shipping: £13.20)
​


The case you originally specced.
1tb m.2 drive for all to go on instead of a mechanical drive. Also the motherboard has 2 m.2 drives so you could add another m.2 drive later.
better psu, you could go modular for another £10
after market cooler.
MSI cashnack offer (https://uk.msi.com/Promotion/back-to-school-2020#AMD-Motherboard) will give you £45 cash back bringing it back under £900 inc postage.
the 3600 can be had cheaper but you would also need to buy the motherboard from them as well to qualify for the cash back and it needs to be a qualifying retailer.
 
COD MW will definitely benefit from that SSD.. loading times in that game are really bad on HDD..
not really a fan of lancool 205... i would prefer something with more open front for more airflow. but if OP likes it than it will be alright
 
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