I've not built a PC in 10 years, advice needed.

[Wizardskills]

Hi Guys,

As per the title, I’ve not built a PC in quite some time and the last one that I did build is slowly dying on me so a new one is now required. Things seem to have moved on quite a bit with regards to hardware and I have no idea about much of it as I've not followed it like I used to.

I'm not planning on doing any heavy gaming on this machine, but I wouldn't rule out putting in a graphics card further down the line.

My time is usually spent doing software dev now-a-days so something that will be able to do this while running databases (SQL Server) etc and emulated devices is a must. I'm planning on have this setup for quite some time (maybe not a decade this time haha).

This is a spec that I have put together, any advice or observations are very welcome.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (Arrow Lake) Socket LGA 1851 Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-INT-03110) = £499.99
• 1 x Corsair Force MP700 PRO 2TB NVMe PCIe 5.0 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRS-01188) = £211.99
• 1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-Bit DVD - OEM (FQC-10528) (SKU: SW-18K-MS) = £149.99
• 1 x CORSAIR RM850x Gold ATX 3.1 PCIe 5.1 Fully Modular Power Supply (SKU: POW-CRS-02466) = £147.95
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 C40 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRS-05108) = £229.99
• 1 x Lian Li O11 Dynamic Mini V2 Flow Midi-Tower Case - Black (SKU: CAS-LIA-05356) = £83.99
• 1 x Lian Li HydroShift II LCD-C 360R Black All In One CPU Cooler - 360mm (SKU: COO-LIA-04868) = £149.99
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming Z890-Plus WIFI (LGA 1851) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASU-03431) = £239.99

Total: £1,725.86 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

 

[hornetstinger]

Don't need gen5 NVME
£150 for AIO?

 

[Tetras]

This is a spec that I have put together, any advice or observations are very welcome.

285K is rarely worth the extra money versus the 265K, it only has 4 more E-Cores. OCUK have a bundle on a 265K and MSI Z890 board for £450. It could also be worth waiting for black friday as the Core Ultra CPUs were heavily discounted awhile back and the discounts may return.

1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 C40 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRS-05108) = £229.99

If you need lots of memory I'd have a good look around, since even though it has gone up a lot recently there are still some old-price deals. Note that 96GB and 128GB (2x sticks) kits exist.

1 x Corsair Force MP700 PRO 2TB NVMe PCIe 5.0 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRS-01188) = £211.99

Are you often bottlenecked by storage? If not, a PCI-E 4.0 drive is fine. Good deals about on Crucial's T705 (PCI-E 5.0).

 

[Wizardskills]

Don't need gen5 NVME
£150 for AIO?

Is there an AIO you would recommend as a replacement?

285K is rarely worth the extra money versus the 265K, it only has 4 more E-Cores. OCUK have a bundle on a 265K and MSI Z890 board for £450. It could also be worth waiting for black friday as the Core Ultra CPUs were heavily discounted awhile back and the discounts may return.


If you need lots of memory I'd have a good look around, since even though it has gone up a lot recently there are still some old-price deals. Note that 96GB and 128GB (2x sticks) kits exist.


Are you often bottlenecked by storage? If not, a PCI-E 4.0 drive is fine. Good deals about on Crucial's T705 (PCI-E 5.0).

Thanks for advice. I'll check out the bundle, I suspect you may be correct with regards to the CPU. As for the storage, I can sometimes hit bottlenecks if I'm running multiple VMs but my current setup is very old. TBH I was thinking of PCI-E 5 for future proofing reasons.

 

[Kelt]

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-amp-gh-1000w-80plus-platinum-atx-power-supply-modular-black-pow-phk-02521.html?_gl=1*1p8skyq*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=Cj0KCQjwl5jHBhDHARIsAB0YqjwRbcobvS8iwZBYFi8yaiQoiB5I1pp4W1ibFXLZ2Yeqw7prhkIPqbUaAoN5EALw_wcB

Better PSU, and cheaper too.

 

[Thaifood]

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ther...all-in-one-cpu-cooler-360m-coo-tlr-04551.html
Half the price just as good

 

[sastusbulbas]

If you like the look of the Lian Li case and want a great looking AIO that matches, I can see why you would want those choices. It can't always be about buying a boring cheap do the job solution, sometimes you need something that looks great as well as performs. But also, the core needs for the PC and where you want to take it long term are important, a case and cooler can be upgrades easily.

If you have a 10yr old system and no experience where you know a Gen 5 NVMe would benefit, the reality is you will not need a Gen 5.

Not sure about the memory use. Currently costs are all over the place, and I myself regret not just buying a bigger kit. As your not gaming, and I am not 100% sure on your usage, I simply put up a 128gb kit, because when you start looking at 64gb and 96gb kits, your ending up at some prices where 128gb if you will utilize it becomes better value if CAS latency and timings are not critical. You can save money with 64gb kits. But if you do eventually need more, it could be even more expensive.

If running multiple databases your often looking at 16 core plus CPU recommendations with 64gb or more memory, especially if doing it alongside software workloads. The 285K is 8 performance cores, 16 efficiency cores, Ryzen has the 9950x and X3D CPU's with 16 full cores 32 threads. It's more money the more you want to do here, but for databases the 9950x has better multi core ability and support long term for the AM5 platform over current Intel. For serious database workloads, it's usually Xeon or AMD EPYC.

For me if such a system was being used and often left untended for days I would prefer air cooling, AIO's look great, I have had one pump failure in my life, it was easily fixed, but never had an air cooler fail.

Not sure what GPU you would be considering, but as mentioned, for power supplies the Phanteks models are pretty good value with easy to manage individual sleeved cables, Lian Li's own PSU's also look worth considering. Wattage will of course depend, if your getting a 5090 in future a 1200w may be better. If no more than a 9070xt, 850w. If a 5080 maybe 1000w.

Do you need a full Windows License or just a key? What about other drive considerations?

If you do not need USB4 or have a particular worry over bifurication and want to limit lane sharing, it may be worth looking at the lower end B850 motherboards, not a huge saving, but the MSI B850 Tomahawk is pretty decent and will happily run a 9950X3D if you value the cache.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 9 9950X Sixteen Core 5.70GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-02674) = £518.99
• 1 x MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03298) = £259.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance 128GB (2X64GB) XMP DDR5 PC5-44800C42 6400MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRS-05348) = £399.95
• 1 x Samsung 990 Pro 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.3c Solid State Drive (SKU: HD-24R-SA) = £149.99
• 1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 140 Black Dual Tower CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03288) = £39.94
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 850W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02519) = £104.99
• 1 x Phanteks XT Pro Ultra ATX Case Tempered Glass Window, Black (SKU: CAS-PHK-01443) = £74.99

Total: £1,560.83 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

​

If you do want Gen 5 storage but have no need for the USB4, and simply want the best core system to run with cometic upgrades for the next few years, and may one day add a higher end Nvidia GPU, well again a similar build. Case and CPU cooling, well 140mm fans all day, an AIO 360 or 420 would also be fine with that CPU if preferred, I like the NZXT H9 as an example, but it has no fans I like, I also like the Antec Flow Pro due to it's fans and chart performance and the matching Antec HCG 1200w PSU.​

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The real core items are the motherboard, CPU, memory, PSU. These are not items you want to buy twice, a cheap case or cooler can be replaced or repurposed, same with NVMe drives. Dilly dallying also costs money, I was looking at a CPU last month on sale at £270, its back up to £350, memory was full RRP at £270 now £360. So no more upgrades till after Christmas apparently.​

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My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Sixteen Core 5.70GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-04501) = £599.99
• 1 x MSI MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI (AMD AM5) B850 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03993) = £229.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance EXPO/XMP 96GB (2X48GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRS-03746) = £359.99
• 1 x Samsung 9100 Pro 4TB M.2 2280 PCIe 5.0 x4 NVMe Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-SAM-04767) = £424.99
• 1 x be quiet Silent Loop 3 420 High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 420mm (SKU: COO-BEQ-04534) = £124.99
• 6 x be quiet Pure Wings 3 140mm PWM Fan (SKU: COO-BEQ-01131) = £9.95
• 1 x NZXT H9 Air Flow (2025) Large Dual-Chamber Mid Tower Case - Black (SKU: CAS-NZX-06399) = £131.99
• 1 x be quiet! Pure Power 13 M 1000W ATX 3.1 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: POW-BEQ-05638) = £129.95

Total: £2,073.56 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

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[Vestas]

Give some consideration to their pre-built/built to order systems.

Yes they cost more but the whole system comes with a 3 year warranty - parts and labour. That's not going to be the case if you build it yourself.

You could build it yourself but what do you value your time at?

Edit - plus do you still have all the useful tools/bits & pieces you had before for building/repairing? Or are they "somewhere in the garage/loft" Been there and TBH its just less hassle to get Overclockers to do the build.