Greetings, fellow computer enthusiasts,
As my post history will no doubt attest, I'm a longtime occasional lurker of these forums, and I pop out of the woodwork every few years when it's time to spec a new pc project, the better to avail myself of your tremendous collective knowledge and experience on all matters pc-related.
A friend has asked if I could help him build a new pc. He'll use it in his home office, to do his business accounts and so on, but also would like something that can, quote, "run Baldur's Gate III, Warhammer Total War, Cities Skylines and, eventually, Medieval Total War III." He's been out of the loop for a long time - he currently does his accounts on an 18 year old (!) laptop - so the upgrade is overdue, he's excited to get chance to get back into some gaming again, and I'd like to do the best job for him I can.
He is sorting out the monitor through someone else, and I've no idea on spec and resolution, so I can't say if we are targeting 1080p, 1440p or 4K - so i'll just try and cover as many bases as possible within budget.
I've explained to him about RAMpocalypse, etc, and he's aware, and resolved we shall just bite the bullet and go ahead. He hopes to get a decent few years of use out of this machine (maybe not 18 years between upgrades again, mind you).
Budget is £1500, though he says he could stretch if needed.
I've told him to budget £200 separately for a copy of Windows and a basic keyboard/house/headset. So I've left them out of the build budget for now.
To give him an idea of available options, I've provided him two specs. One is for the machine I'd do for £1500. The other is for the machine I'd "ideally" do if I was picking out bits for myself, as a gamer, without necessarily saying I had an unlimited budget and wanted to just have the most-expensive-everything. I am not pressuring him to go for the latter basket in its entirety, but I thought it would help him to see what upgrades to consider if he did want to stretch on any given aspect of the build.
I have specced Fractal Design cases because I like them, I usually use them for my own builds, and I trust to their build quality. They're also narrow enough, since he'd ideally like the machine to fit in a cubby-space that is 230mm wide (so max width of 220mm for the case, with clearance). I've explained and checked that we need adequate room for airflow at the front & back, ideally the top as well.
He's not fussed about water cooling AIOs or RGB lights, so I've stuck with air cooling.
Basket 1, targeting his £1500ish budget:
And my "bigger budget" machine:
About the latter, I've said to him that if he had another £200 to spare, the first thing I'd do would be to opt for the better CPU, primarily on the basis that CPU upgrades are marginally more of a faff, and it saves him thinking about it in the future (plus the 9800X3D is so well-rated). After that, if he can find another £200 again, to go for the 9070. The rest is "nice to have" stuff but not so impactful. I've caveated that by saying that if he does definitely want to game at 4K native right away, then maybe prioritise the 9070 first, and just accept the prospective hassle that he might want to upgrade the CPU one day (or, then again, might never find he feels it necessary).
I explained as well that, were it 4 months ago, I'd recommend C28 or C30 RAM, but with current availability and prices, a higher-latency kit with a reasonable speed may be the compromise we have to make to stay on any kind of budget.
Observations, alternatives, recommendations, mistakes, all welcome. Have I done anything egregiously foolish?
Thanks all!
As my post history will no doubt attest, I'm a longtime occasional lurker of these forums, and I pop out of the woodwork every few years when it's time to spec a new pc project, the better to avail myself of your tremendous collective knowledge and experience on all matters pc-related.
A friend has asked if I could help him build a new pc. He'll use it in his home office, to do his business accounts and so on, but also would like something that can, quote, "run Baldur's Gate III, Warhammer Total War, Cities Skylines and, eventually, Medieval Total War III." He's been out of the loop for a long time - he currently does his accounts on an 18 year old (!) laptop - so the upgrade is overdue, he's excited to get chance to get back into some gaming again, and I'd like to do the best job for him I can.
He is sorting out the monitor through someone else, and I've no idea on spec and resolution, so I can't say if we are targeting 1080p, 1440p or 4K - so i'll just try and cover as many bases as possible within budget.
I've explained to him about RAMpocalypse, etc, and he's aware, and resolved we shall just bite the bullet and go ahead. He hopes to get a decent few years of use out of this machine (maybe not 18 years between upgrades again, mind you).
Budget is £1500, though he says he could stretch if needed.
I've told him to budget £200 separately for a copy of Windows and a basic keyboard/house/headset. So I've left them out of the build budget for now.
To give him an idea of available options, I've provided him two specs. One is for the machine I'd do for £1500. The other is for the machine I'd "ideally" do if I was picking out bits for myself, as a gamer, without necessarily saying I had an unlimited budget and wanted to just have the most-expensive-everything. I am not pressuring him to go for the latter basket in its entirety, but I thought it would help him to see what upgrades to consider if he did want to stretch on any given aspect of the build.
I have specced Fractal Design cases because I like them, I usually use them for my own builds, and I trust to their build quality. They're also narrow enough, since he'd ideally like the machine to fit in a cubby-space that is 230mm wide (so max width of 220mm for the case, with clearance). I've explained and checked that we need adequate room for airflow at the front & back, ideally the top as well.
He's not fussed about water cooling AIOs or RGB lights, so I've stuck with air cooling.
Basket 1, targeting his £1500ish budget:
- 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DG-AM) = £187.99
- 1 x Crucial Pro OC 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRU-02219) = £329.99
- 1 x Asus TUF GAMING B850-E WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASU-06001) = £169.99
- 1 x WD Black SN7100 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-WDC-04134) = £216.95
- 1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 140 Black Dual Tower CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03288) = £39.95
- 1 x CORSAIR RM750x Gold ATX 3.1 PCIe 5.1 Fully Modular Power Supply (SKU: POW-CRS-02465) = £134.98
- 1 x Fractal Design Define 7 Compact Mid-Tower Case - Black (SKU: CA-095-FD) = £104.99
- 1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 9060 XT Reaper 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PWC-05257) = £359.99
Total: £1,544.83
And my "bigger budget" machine:
- 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £399.95
- 1 x Crucial Pro OC 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRU-02219) = £329.99
- 1 x MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03298) = £259.99
- 1 x WD Black SN8100 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCIe 5.0 Solid State Drive with Heatsink (SKU: STO-WDC-05315) = £329.00
- 1 x Noctua NH-U12S Chromax Pure Black CPU Cooler (SKU: HS-03N-NC) = £79.99
- 1 x CORSAIR RM850x Gold ATX 3.1 PCIe 5.1 Fully Modular Power Supply (SKU: POW-CRS-02466) = £147.95
- 1 x Fractal Design North Charcoal Black TG Dark Windowed Mid Tower Case - Black (SKU: CA-0AV-FD) = £134.99
- 1 x Asus Radeon RX 9070 Prime OC 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-ASU-04157) = £569.98
Total: £2,251.84
About the latter, I've said to him that if he had another £200 to spare, the first thing I'd do would be to opt for the better CPU, primarily on the basis that CPU upgrades are marginally more of a faff, and it saves him thinking about it in the future (plus the 9800X3D is so well-rated). After that, if he can find another £200 again, to go for the 9070. The rest is "nice to have" stuff but not so impactful. I've caveated that by saying that if he does definitely want to game at 4K native right away, then maybe prioritise the 9070 first, and just accept the prospective hassle that he might want to upgrade the CPU one day (or, then again, might never find he feels it necessary).
I explained as well that, were it 4 months ago, I'd recommend C28 or C30 RAM, but with current availability and prices, a higher-latency kit with a reasonable speed may be the compromise we have to make to stay on any kind of budget.
Observations, alternatives, recommendations, mistakes, all welcome. Have I done anything egregiously foolish?
Thanks all!
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FREE DELIVERY
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