New PC spec for advice

[lulu2608]

Hi,

I'd appreciate help on a possible spec for a new pc. I'm replacing an 8 yr old pc that is too old to upgrade to Win11. The spec doesn't seem bad by numbers (AMD FX(tm)-6300 Six-Core Processor 3.50 GHz, 16 GB RAM) but is obviously old and worn out and doesn't have dedicated a GPU. Wifi keeps crashing as I only have a dongle, so that needs to be integrated.

I use it for photo processing on Lightroom and Photoshop, gaming and household admin. I don't play fast games but those with quality graphics like Myst, Talos Principle and Quern. I want to get into VR. I've looked at the recommended specs for the games I play and CPU is split Intel i5 / i7 / AMD Ryzen 5 / 7. Recommended graphics are mainly RTX 1070 or 2080. I want to future proof as much as possible while I have the cash as there are a few new games due in the next 12 months with no spec released yet. Therefore I would look at the top whack of what's recommended now plus a bit (Ryzen 9 x3d, RTX 40 series). 32 GB RAM is recommended and 12GB VRAM. After reading a few articles I'm looking at AMD again as I believe Intel are changing something soon that AMD aren't.

My budget is £2k-ish as I also need a new monitor. I've only had AMD before (Intel has seemed like paying too much for the name) but I'm willing to switch if appropriate given what I've put above.

As I started looking I said I don't need the pretty, but the more I look the more I want it! I really like the Kolink Void Rift ARGB Midi Tower Gaming Case but I'm struggling to configure that with the right spec on this site. So what I've ended up with so far is:

OcUK Gaming Buzzard - AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Radeon RX 7600 Gaming PC
SKU FS-19D-OG

• 1x Kolink Void Rift ARGB Midi Tower Gaming Case - Black
• 1x AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail
• 1x Kingston FURY Beast EXPO RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C36 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KF556C36BBEAK2-32)
• 1x Sapphire Radeon RX 6750 XT Pulse Gaming OC 12GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card
• 1x WD Black SN770 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS100T3X0E)
• 1x Samsung 1TB 870 QVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 64 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-77Q1T0BW)
• 1x Build Stock Microsoft Windows 11 Home Advanced - Systems

Quantity: 1

£1,489.49 - this seems cheap compared to other retailers so I'm not sure if I've missed anything. Specifically, I don't see an option to select a motherboard.

Thanks

 

[Tetras]

I want to get into VR.

My understanding is that nvidia is better for VR, but you may want to ask in the VR forum.

I use it for photo processing on Lightroom and Photoshop, gaming and household admin.

What resolution were you planning on for the monitor?

My budget is £2k-ish as I also need a new monitor. I've only had AMD before (Intel has seemed like paying too much for the name) but I'm willing to switch if appropriate given what I've put above.

An example £2K self-build:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DV-AM) = £308.99
• 1 x Asus ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6JX-AS) = £250.00
• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C40 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G5600HC40BDC01) (SKU: MY-0B3-TG) = £99.94
• 1 x MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ventus 3X OC 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-394-MS) = £620.00
• 1 x Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB SSD PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (ZP2000GM3A013) (SKU: HD-3DX-SE) = £109.99
• 1 x Kolink Void Rift ARGB Midi Tower Gaming Case - Black (SKU: CA-066-KK) = £79.99
• 2 x Kolink Umbra Void HDB ARGB LED PWM Case Fan - 120mm (SKU: FG-008-KK) = £10.99
• 1 x Seasonic Focus GX-750 750W 80+ Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-06U-SS) = £119.99

• 1 x LG 27" 27GR75Q-B 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Gaming Monitor (SKU: MON-LGC-00585) = £279.97

• 1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632) (SKU: SW-18J-MS) = £109.99

Total: £2,000.84 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[Noughtboy]

As per usual, @Tetras had put together a great spec. I concur that my understanding is Nvidia is better for VR but that being said, my kids haven't had a problem with Meta Quest 2 and a 6700 10GB.

Glad to see he specced 1x2TB SDD instead of 2x1TB. The only thing I would change is the RAM to the Kingston Renegade Fury 6000MHz C32 for an extra £30.

 

[turbot1984]

As per usual, @Tetras had put together a great spec

+1 on that

 

[Noughtboy]

I actually reckon we should just start an "Ask @Tetras " forum and he should be paid by OCUK for doing their presales for them.



And whilst we are at it, an "Ask @tamzzy" one too.

They could even go into competition. See which one shifts more OCUK product.

 

[Subzero85]

He's lethal, needs a pay rise

 

[tamzzy]

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6BD-IN) = £359.99
• 1 x MSI B760 Gaming Plus WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-37M-MS) = £149.99
• 1 x Kingston FURY Renegade 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C32 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MY-29P-KS) = £128.98
• 1 x Zotac GeForce RTX 4070Ti Trinity 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-13M-ZT) = £779.99
• 1 x Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB SSD PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (ZP2000GM3A013) (SKU: HD-3DX-SE) = £109.99
• 1 x Phanteks Eclipse G300A Mid-Tower High Airflow PC Case - Black (SKU: CA-0C0-PT) = £65.00
• 1 x LG 27" 27GR75Q-B 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Gaming Monitor (SKU: MON-LGC-00585) = £279.97
• 1 x MSI MAG A750GL 750W 80 Plus Gold ATX 3.0 PCIE5 Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-013-MS) = £99.95

Total: £1,973.86 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

​

​

cpu cooler = thermalright peerless assassin​

​

this is my take, 13700f + 4070ti​

13700f has vastly better multicore performance than the 7700, but it's slightly slower than the 7700 in gaming performance...​

...but there's a 4070ti, so to consider the system as a whole - a 13700f/4070ti build would be faster both for gaming and also for productivity applications​

 

[tamzzy]

And whilst we are at it, an "Ask @tamzzy" one too.

nah, i only reply to threads that i can be bothered with
@Tetras replies to everyone lol

 

[lulu2608]

My understanding is that nvidia is better for VR, but you may want to ask in the VR forum.


What resolution were you planning on for the monitor?


An example £2K self-build:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DV-AM) = £308.99
• 1 x Asus ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6JX-AS) = £250.00
• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C40 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G5600HC40BDC01) (SKU: MY-0B3-TG) = £99.94
• 1 x MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ventus 3X OC 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-394-MS) = £620.00
• 1 x Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB SSD PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (ZP2000GM3A013) (SKU: HD-3DX-SE) = £109.99
• 1 x Kolink Void Rift ARGB Midi Tower Gaming Case - Black (SKU: CA-066-KK) = £79.99
• 2 x Kolink Umbra Void HDB ARGB LED PWM Case Fan - 120mm (SKU: FG-008-KK) = £10.99
• 1 x Seasonic Focus GX-750 750W 80+ Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-06U-SS) = £119.99
• 1 x LG 27" 27GR75Q-B 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Gaming Monitor (SKU: MON-LGC-00585) = £279.97
• 1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632) (SKU: SW-18J-MS) = £109.99

Total: £2,000.84 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

Thank you. I'll ask about the Nvidia difference.

I don't know about the monitor, I haven't started looking. I don't know if I can afford 4k but I need to get the colour gamut right for photography. I can spend up to £500.

I think I worded the budget sentence wrong. I have £2k for the pc, an additional £500 for the monitor. You say 'self build', so these are just component prices? I would love to build it but don't have time to learn a new skill right now (despite having a degree in Ikea ) so I'm looking for an OC build. I struggled to get the spec right on the site, eg. I couldn't find Ryzen 9 or a few other bits you've added on.

 

[lulu2608]

Glad to see he specced 1x2TB SDD instead of 2x1TB. The only thing I would change is the RAM to the Kingston Renegade Fury 6000MHz C32 for an extra £30.

Hi,

I selected 2 x 1TB as I need a separate drive for photo back up. I could look at cloud back up and would only need 1 x 1TB then.

 

[lulu2608]

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6BD-IN) = £359.99
• 1 x MSI B760 Gaming Plus WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-37M-MS) = £149.99
• 1 x Kingston FURY Renegade 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C32 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MY-29P-KS) = £128.98
• 1 x Zotac GeForce RTX 4070Ti Trinity 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-13M-ZT) = £779.99
• 1 x Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB SSD PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (ZP2000GM3A013) (SKU: HD-3DX-SE) = £109.99
• 1 x Phanteks Eclipse G300A Mid-Tower High Airflow PC Case - Black (SKU: CA-0C0-PT) = £65.00
• 1 x LG 27" 27GR75Q-B 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Gaming Monitor (SKU: MON-LGC-00585) = £279.97
• 1 x MSI MAG A750GL 750W 80 Plus Gold ATX 3.0 PCIE5 Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-013-MS) = £99.95

Total: £1,973.86 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

​

​

​

​

cpu cooler = thermalright peerless assassin​

​

this is my take, 13700f + 4070ti​

13700f has vastly better multicore performance than the 7700, but it's slightly slower than the 7700 in gaming performance...​

...but there's a 4070ti, so to consider the system as a whole - a 13700f/4070ti build would be faster both for gaming and also for productivity applications​

Thank you for bothering to reply to my post. Any particular reason you suggest Intel rather than AMD? I'm not planning on upgrading in future given that paying £50 for something now plus £100 for some in future means a total spend of £150 when I could just spend £100 now and get the better item. But I've read of longer support for AMD AM5 compared to the Intel 14th generation coming out soon. I would prefer to futureproof where possible. For that reason I would look at i9 if possible but couldn't find it on the site.

 

[tamzzy]

Thank you for bothering to reply to my post.

Any particular reason you suggest Intel rather than AMD? I'm not planning on upgrading in future given that paying £50 for something now plus £100 for some in future means a total spend of £150 when I could just spend £100 now and get the better item.

For the specific reason you tend to keep your computer for a long time (bar any unforseeable unpredictable component failures)

But I've read of longer support for AMD AM5 compared to the Intel 14th generation coming out soon. I would prefer to futureproof where possible. For that reason I would look at i9 if possible but couldn't find it on the site.

you are correct, AM5 should be supported to 2025 and will have new CPUs, for intel's LGA1700 socket, the "next gen" 14th gen is simply a rehash of the current gen CPUs
However as you tend to keep your computers for this long (the FX 6300 was released 2012, so you have had this computer for about a decade), then the upgrade for AM5 ie Ryzen 8000/9000 would also be woefully out of date when you next upgrade in what...2030 at the earliest? lol

as i've said, for your use case, the 13700 has more cores and is faster than the ryzen 7000 for content creation: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...core-processors-content-creation-review-2369/ (i know it compares the 13700k/7700x, but the differences are broadly similar)
the 13700 is slower than the ryzen 7700 for gaming, but this is only when the graphics card is controlled and kept the same for both test systems. for gaming, the gpu is, in the vast majority of the times, the determining factor for FPS, and as such, a 13700f/4070ti build would be faster for gaming than a 7700/4070 build...and by a not insignificant margin: https://www.techspot.com/review/2676-geforce-4070-versus/

 

[tamzzy]

I think I worded the budget sentence wrong. I have £2k for the pc, an additional £500 for the monitor. You say 'self build', so these are just component prices? I would love to build it but don't have time to learn a new skill right now (despite having a degree in Ikea ) so I'm looking for an OC build. I struggled to get the spec right on the site, eg. I couldn't find Ryzen 9 or a few other bits you've added on.

you can ask in customer services for a custom build and link them the build
they will charge extra but you do have a 3 year ocuk warranty for the whole build (as usual)

 

[Tetras]

You say 'self build', so these are just component prices? I would love to build it but don't have time to learn a new skill right now (despite having a degree in Ikea ) so I'm looking for an OC build. I struggled to get the spec right on the site, eg. I couldn't find Ryzen 9 or a few other bits you've added on.

Yes, these are just component prices. I think someone said in another thread that OCUK charge £150 + 4% (of the spec) to build a PC.

I don't know about the monitor, I haven't started looking. I don't know if I can afford 4k but I need to get the colour gamut right for photography. I can spend up to £500.

I have £2k for the pc, an additional £500 for the monitor.

I'm not great with monitors, but when I google recommendations for photography monitors I seem to get Asus ProArt and Dell professional monitors, none of which I can find at OCUK.

The Optix seems to be marketed for colours (here):

IPS Panel – Provides 1ms fast response time, optimizes screen colors and brightness.
A content creation level color reproduction of 99% Adobe RGB, 97% DCI-P3 and 82% Rec.2020 by utilizing a dynamically engineered layer of Quantum Dot technology.
UHD High Resolution – Games will look even better, displaying more details.

and this review seemed to think the results were pretty good for a gaming monitor. Except, it was not calibrated well out of the box, which you'd expect a professional level monitor to be.

I think it's likely to not be the one to buy, but maybe you can do some more research, since this is arguably the most important part of your build.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x MSI 32" Optix MPG321UR QD 3840x2160 4K IPS 144Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Widescreen Gaming Monitor (SKU: MO-01D-MS) = £799.00

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DV-AM) = £308.98
• 1 x Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BF-GI) = £189.95
• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C40 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G5600HC40BDC01) (SKU: MY-0B3-TG) = £99.94
• 1 x Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 WindForce OC 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-1G2-GI) = £559.99
• 1 x Seagate FireCuda 520 2TB SSD PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (ZP2000GV3A012) (SKU: HD-3EX-SE) = £95.00
• 1 x Kolink Void Rift ARGB Midi Tower Gaming Case - Black (SKU: CA-066-KK) = £79.99
• 2 x Kolink Umbra Void HDB ARGB LED PWM Case Fan - 120mm (SKU: FG-008-KK) = £11.00
• 1 x Seasonic Focus GX-750 750W 80+ Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-06U-SS) = £119.99

• 1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632) (SKU: SW-18J-MS) = £109.99

Total: £2,384.82 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

I couldn't find Ryzen 9

So far as I know, photography is usually single-core/thread dependent, so I'm not sure how much advantage a Ryzen 9 would offer you and I believe the new AI features primarily use the GPU rather than the CPU.

 

[turbot1984]

I use it for photo processing on Lightroom and Photoshop

not sure if this helps but i spec'd a work pc for a mate who uses those and Lumion, it was last gen 5800X and 6800XT (he wanted 16GB VRAM), its been working a treat via a very expensive Dell Pro 4K monitor he bought which cost more than the pc. (and 6800XT's weren't cheap at that time £900?)

 

[lulu2608]

not sure if this helps but i spec'd a work pc for a mate who uses those and Lumion, it was last gen 5800X and 6800XT (he wanted 16GB VRAM), its been working a treat via a very expensive Dell Pro 4K monitor he bought which cost more than the pc. (and 6800XT's weren't cheap at that time £900?)

Everything helps so thank you. I'm not sure i can afford a monitor that's more expensive than the pc though!

 

[lulu2608]

Thanks everyone. Lots of info to digest and mash together into a full spec, then to find it at the best price.