New PC Build Advice

[jpmaxxy]

hi folks, a long time ago....I built via buying from OcUK around 2012 and not followed much on PC parts since then, using laptops for work and random bits of gaming since. So excuse my ignorance and becoming out of touch.

Now that I have bought a superb LG G4 TV, I was hoping to build a PC (or otherwise could be convinced to get a pre built one here) that can do the below two things, as my current older laptops struggle a bit.

My surface pro 6 is struggling to stream 60GB+ movies via plex to the TV for 4k HDR playback, and my 2021 macbook for gaming (I know..) is a bit poo especially over the last 12 months.

So ideally the build could do the following:

1. playback 4k HDR content / running plex server / high seas content, I'd presume having a 2TB disk drive [or more] would work here. I've a mikrotik home access point I need to confirm but pretty sure it can handle the wifi streams for plex HDR 4k streaming bit rates which I think are about 20-80 mbps (not sure how to debug my current plex setup that uses a surface pro 6, to see if why its breaking is it from: a) wifi limits, b) processor limits, c) i/o storage limits etc).

Note: as the home cinema aspects are here - it would be nice to have a quieter PSU and case fans setup plus an ability to turn off any case lighting would be appreciated to allow for the dark and quiet cinema environment for movies! Similarly I'd occasionally do some small LAN parties so having the case be not ultra heavy or huge would be nice too. Medium size is fine.

2. gaming at 4k HDR - I don't need to run AAA titles at ultra high settings with all the bells and whistles, probably that would be less than 5% of the time as usually I play indie games or play online messing around games with mates dota/counterstrike/party games. I would be happy if it could play something like last of us ii remastered / FF7 remakes / baldurs gate / cyberpunk / witcher 4 whenever it drops - at a decent frame rate with 4k resolution / hdr and medium-high graphics though.

I don't have a strict budget but nothing too silly as I don't need cutting edge tech here, ideally 2k pound or less, but if there's a good reason to increase it then I could be convinced.

No preference for amd/intel/nvidia etc, and I don't need a monitor nor keyboard/mouse/speakers.

Any advice is appreciated, and thank you for your time

 

[Tetras]

Note: as the home cinema aspects are here - it would be nice to have a quieter PSU and case fans setup plus an ability to turn off any case lighting would be appreciated to allow for the dark and quiet cinema environment for movies!

Most mid/higher-end PSUs have a low load passive mode and case fans are commonly PWM which will spin down. Cases with RGB/ARGB built in may have a button on the case which can be used to turn it off, but you'd need to check other parts like motherboard and graphics card too.

Similarly I'd occasionally do some small LAN parties so having the case be not ultra heavy or huge would be nice too. Medium size is fine.

4K capable PCs are really not ideal for that, because you need a large/hefty graphics card and plenty of case cooling. Smaller 4K capable builds are possible, but I'd spec it with that in mind rather than a "nice to have" because you're best starting from the case and fitting the parts around that.

(not sure how to debug my current plex setup that uses a surface pro 6, to see if why its breaking is it from: a) wifi limits, b) processor limits, c) i/o storage limits etc).

Not sure about that one.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core Ultra 7 265K (Arrow Lake) Socket LGA 1851 Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-INT-03111) = £289.99
• 1 x MSI Z890 GAMING PLUS WIFI (LGA 1851) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03440) = £220.00
• 1 x Intel Motherboard Master Key - Star Wars Outlaws (SKU: DIG-INT-04686) = £0.00
• 1 x Crucial Pro 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C46 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRU-01085) = £145.99
• 1 x Palit GeForce RTX 5080 Gaming Pro 16GB GDDR7 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PAL-04059) = £959.99
• 1 x NVIDIA - DOOM: The Dark Ages Premium Edition Game Bundle (SKU: DIG-NVI-05178) = £0.00
• 1 x Crucial T500 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01090) = £129.95
• 1 x Lian Li Lancool 216 Mid-tower PC case - Black (SKU: CA-7BG-LL) = £85.99
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 1000W 80PLUS Platinum ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02521) = £128.99
• 1 x UK Mains Plug with 13A Fuse to IEC C13 Socket Lead, 10A, 2m (SKU: ACC-OCS-01709) = £0.00

• 1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE Black Dual Tower CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03285) = £34.99

Total: £1,995.89 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[jpmaxxy]

Most mid/higher-end PSUs have a low load passive mode and case fans are commonly PWM which will spin down. Cases with RGB/ARGB built in may have a button on the case which can be used to turn it off, but you'd need to check other parts like motherboard and graphics card too.


4K capable PCs are really not ideal for that, because you need a large/hefty graphics card and plenty of case cooling. Smaller 4K capable builds are possible, but I'd spec it with that in mind rather than a "nice to have" because you're best starting from the case and fitting the parts around that.

Thanks - that makes sense to me. OK let's ignore the case size comment, we can go BIG if needed

I'll check out those parts, do you not think AMD CPU / GPU is better value for money or are those also being overpriced / gouged like nvidia ones I heard about?

Do you think having two SSDs: one faster drive for booting, and one slower one for movies / storage would be worth doing?

I think I also need to add in a Windows OS license too for costs but can stretch the budget a few hundred more no problem.

 

[Tetras]

do you not think AMD CPU / GPU is better value for money or are those also being overpriced / gouged like nvidia ones I heard about?

GPU: I fitted the best 4K GPU I could fit in the budget. It is about 15% faster than a 5070 Ti.

The 9070 XT is a competitor to the 5070 Ti, but they're not that much cheaper at this point.

I'm indifferent really, whatever you prefer and is priced the best, but nvidia's overall package is arguably still better than AMD (though FSR4 is a huge improvement on 3.x), albeit with dodgy drivers.

CPU: the 265K has higher multithreading capability than the competing AMD CPUs and the IGP can be useful for offloading media work. The 7800X3D/9800X3D are better gaming CPUs, there's no argument there.

Do you think having two SSDs: one faster drive for booting, and one slower one for movies / storage would be worth doing?

Yes, if you're offloading Plex work to the PC a lot during normal use, then a drive that handles that streaming could be helpful.

It depends on the SSD and how heavy it is being used, but stutters while you're gaming would be pretty annoying, for example.

Thanks - that makes sense to me. OK let's ignore the case size comment, we can go BIG if needed

The case in my spec isn't THAT big, to be fair, but I think the overall PC weight and the size of the graphics card and cooler would make it unsuitable for LAN use.

I think I'd be more likely to go for an ITX/micro-atx build, with a 240mm AIO and a 5070 non-Ti or compact 9070 non-XT (like the Pulse).

 

[Craig_d1]

9070xt for £650 shaves £300 off gpu and more than capable of playing cyberpunk at 4k with some raytracing (I run it on a lg c4).. run with a 9800x3d as alternative..32gb ram should suffice also..none of thos games need more, and 9070xt...I'm assuming here the 9800x3d doesn't require as much cooling as the intel cpu (haven't really looked at that for intel core 7 ultra cpu's tbh)..prob don't even need a 9800x3d as gaming only a sideline..helps though...9600x will run fine

 

[jpmaxxy]

thanks guys, I still have to hit the buy button, although now my budget is a bit bigger - it would be ~2600 pound incl VAT / ~2150 excl VAT.

Does the manufacturer matter much for the GPUs? I am seeing about 200 pound+ price swings between different mfg for RTXS 5080s

 

[Tetras]

Does the manufacturer matter much for the GPUs? I am seeing about 200 pound+ price swings between different mfg for RTXS 5080s

If you're not in a hurry, you might want to hang on for the rumoured Super versions, especially if you're about to dump £1K on one of those.

The model does matter (particularly the cooler) and there's a difference in warranty length between some manufacturers. However, you have to be careful how much you pay, because these cards are already dubious value for money and if you pay too much you're approaching the next tier up.

This video talks about some of those points:

I'd also be wary of paying mega bucks for a better cooler and then finding you have major coil whine anyway, so to some extent just buying the cheapest model (or the cheapest with the longest warranty, usually Zotac) is the way we go in our specs. Unless there's a particular issue/deficiency with a model that makes it best to avoid (not aware of any models to avoid with the 5080, apart from Gigabyte's leaking gel problem that was reported awhile back).

although now my budget is a bit bigger - it would be ~2600 pound incl VAT / ~2150 excl VAT.

Not sure I could recommend spending more on anything in particular. The 285K is hard to justify the extra. You already have 64GB and don't think there's a use case here for 96GB? You could swap the 2TB out for the 4TB version. There's also Antec's HCG Pro PSU, which I'd say is a step up on the Phanteks AMP GH.

 

[jpmaxxy]

thanks that is interesting, the value of dollar vs performance is quite bad in the USA.
Its not much better here but the 5080 still seems to fit in the budget.

The below specs have the thought that if needed I could in a few years upgrade the GPU -> not for the 60xx series, but the 70xx series in 2027/8 or even the following generation of GPUs - if needed.
How does this look?

Name Cost Cost Excl VAT
CPU AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) £435.62 £335.43
CPU Cooler Arctic Liquid Freezer III PRO High Performance All In One CPU Cooler - 240mm £71.70 £55.21
Motherboard Asus ROG STRIX B850-A GAMING WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard £276.74 £213.09
Memory 64GB Corsair Vengeance EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel £215.24 £165.73
Storage Crucial P310 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 NVMe Solid State Drive £108.60 £83.62
Storage 2 Kingston FURY Renegade 4TB PCI-e 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SFYRD/4000G) £266.49 £205.20
GPU Video Card Exp RTX 5080 (14% better for 42% more cost) £973.74 £749.78
Case Lian Li Lancool 217 - White £112.74 £86.81
Power Supply Asus ROG Strix 1000w Platinum 80 Plus Platinum Power Supply £245.99 £189.41
Case Fan be quiet Pure Wings 3 140mm PWM Fan - White £10.20 £7.85
Case Fan 2 be quiet Pure Wings 3 140mm PWM Fan - White £10.20 £7.85


Total excl VAT of 2100


I'm not too sure about the CPU Cooler and Case Fans. I've never installed water cooling before but the case seems very accessible for self builds including AIO.
Do I need to buy thermal paste nowadays for CPUs?

 

[Tetras]

How does this look?

I'm not too sure about the CPU Cooler and Case Fans.

The Arctic fit in the previous version (216). It has the ability to move the motherboard down for more clearance. I'm not sure about the 217.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with a 240mm AIO, I'd rather just buy a peerless assassin.

The case fans shouldn't be necessary, the stock cooling (with bundled fans) is pretty good.

PSU is expensive, I'd rather have Antec's HCG Pro than the Strix.

I'm not a fan of the P310, mainly due to the poor rated endurance. Would suggest swapping it to the T500, which has nearly 3x the rating.