PC Build £2500 budget

Mike Ford

Mike Ford

Mike Ford

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Hi all

Not done a build for some years so pretty out of touch with current options and after some advice.

I am already fortunate enough to have a glorious Sammy CRG9 5120x1440 32:9 monitor and am looking to see if i can build a PC that can do it justice for around £2500.

As far as I can tell the monitor is beyond most current configs if i want to really push it up to what it is capable of regrading refresh rates etc.

Only real option at the moment looks like a combo of an I9 CPU and RTX 2080ti cpu to do it any justice at all. What worries me is that even with the current top end of hardware am i still going to be disappointed with the results? I mostly play FPS single player games rather than online stuff (My sons more into that but this is MY PC :) )

What I don't want to do is blow an extra £500 that could be spent elsewhere on the system on the 2080 ti just for the sake of 5-10 fps when a 2070 Super or maybe an AMD card will do the job, and still give me good enough performance to give me a consistent playable 60+ fps with relatively high details settings. I just don't want to see screen tearing or other display issues, refresh over 100fps is less important to me.

Any thoughts particularly from anyone who has a monitor like mine would be very much appreciated.

Cheers

Mike
 

EsaT

EsaT

EsaT

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Welcome aboard.

Better forget Intel's luxury prices for yester-yesteryear's core counts.
For that CPU price level you'll want enough cores to run next-gen games without getting bothered by background stuff like web browsers, or at least upgrade path.
And Intel has neither. Only core count which will be baseline for games thanks to next-gen consoles. (+more holes than Swiss cheese)
While AMD has already CPUs up to 16 cores/32 threads and BIOS update compatible Zen3 architecture likely kicks Intel out from single core/game performance crown.
(what high end gaming is that if there's no CPU horse power to run something on background?)

Such resolution anyway means Intel loses its small current advantage.
And it's total guess how much more vulnerabilities Intel needs to patch.
Intel's security is like that CIA vault door in 2010 movie Red: Doesn't matter if lock is supposed to be unbreakable when building is made of cardboard:
https://youtu.be/QDinOwB9LJQ?t=2m3s
For Intel's quality Google Intel + some of these: Meltdown, Spectre, Spoiler, Fallout, RIDL, Zombieload, Plundervolt, CacheOut

AMD's 8 core/16 thread Ryzen 3700X has huge bang per buck advantage over Intel
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/amd-...hz-socket-am4-processor-retail-cp-3b7-am.html
12 cores costs high end:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/amd-...hz-socket-am4-processor-retail-cp-3b5-am.html
But there's that upgrade path and with AMD actually lowering prices of old models 12c/24t Zen3 should be at nice discount price two years from now.

For motherboard you don't need any luxury priced.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...4-x570-chipset-atx-motherboard-mb-57w-gi.html

In memory 16GB is now enough for most games, but next-gen consoles are likely going to cause some increase to memory usage of games.
So 32GB would be thatcertainly future proof amount.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cruc...b-kit-2-x-16gb-ddr4-3200-udimm-my-20d-cr.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...zen-tuned-ddr4-memory-dual-kit-my-4cl-cs.html


SSD prices are now quite good (likely in "wave bottom") and 2TB wouldn't impossible for that budget.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/patr...80-pcie-2tb-ssd-vpn100-2tbm28h-hd-015-pa.html



And you're definitely on right track in not wanting to pay for ludicrously priced top GPUs.
Last few year's Nvidia has been focused into pumping users' butts... err prices and after £500 performance per price goes to bad and super bad.
2080 Ti is just 30-40% faster than sub £400 Radeon 5700 XT.
And what marketing "forgets" to tell is that actually using marketing feature of RTX card+next-gen consoles, raytracing, makes performance crash down by 30-50%.
So you'll get about as much future proofness as from roll of toilet paper.
Wouldn't wonder much if by fall we'll be talking about better raytracing cards for half the price:
Next-gen consoles just can't afford such super bad raytracing performance from their GPUs, or they wouldn't be running anything at advertised resolutions!

Would be really best to plan that you'll be update graphics card relatively soon.
And that monitor has FreeSync.
So you'll get smooth artefact free image even if frame rates don't constantly reach high level.


What kind style you'll want for case?
Classic moderate style or fancy "aquarium" look?


And what about other part of gaming immersion, sound?
Anyway unless wanting speakers (anything below proper surround set is bad) good headphones for gaming from actual audio makers and sound card to do binaural sound simulation cost little...
 

Mike Ford

Mike Ford

Mike Ford

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Thanks for the detailed response, my situation is that I may have a 1 off opportunity to ***** £2500 ish on a gaming rig. My wife has been contracting (and getting a really good daily rate) and has agreed to fund it as she can offset against her tax bill.

The AMD CPUs look interesting, but my limited understanding of the current market seems to indicate that the Intel ones still provide better gaming performance. Bear in mind that with my monitor every 5fps here or there could make the difference between glorious and disappointing.

Case wise, I would be looking at something that looks great rather with a bit of lighting bling rather than something subtle and understated, she will be funding and is all about how it looks rather than whats inside :)

So, based on your suggestions I am looking at something like this? What sort of confidence level do you have that this will be able to drive the Sammy at a decent rate?

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,830.62 (includes shipping: £14.70)​
​
 

BongoHunter

BongoHunter

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I'd build something a bit over powered and nice and small with a build at that budget:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £2,296.58 (includes shipping: £14.70)


Edit: Few hundred to be saved with a different case, which would also allow a regular CPU cooler - not as sexy though: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-enthoo-evolv-micro-atx-glass-case-black-ca-06m-pt.html

Edit 2: A Gen3 NVME drive might be a better choice - as you might need a 'naked' drive to fit under the motherboard heat shield (though these can be left off anyway)​
 
Last edited:

Quartz

Quartz

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Mike Ford said:
My wife has been contracting (and getting a really good daily rate) and has agreed to fund it as she can offset against her tax bill.
Click to expand...

Well done her! Can she reclaim VAT? If so, that will expand your budget considerably.

What @EsaT hasn't mentioned is that Nvidia's next-generation GPUs are in the offing - about 6 months if rumours are to be believed, so you may wish to factor that into your build. If you want to get the next top-end Nvidia GPU set aside £1000 (inc VAT) now.
 

Mike Ford

Mike Ford

Mike Ford

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Don't think she can do the VAT unfortunately but will ask her. She is the best! (She actually bought the monitor too, I was looking at a smaller one but showed her the CRG9 and she insisted we got it coz it looks so cool) :)

Assuming she was serious about the whole PC upgrade thing (She agreed to it last night after I had taken her out for a nice dinner ;) ) I will need to just get the best I can now while she is onboard. Ideally would wait for a year until next gen comes out but could you wait if your Mrs made an offer like that? :D

@BongoHunter that case would really work nicely for my old gaming machine as it sits on the sideboard in the kitchen (Use it for Kodi etc on the kitchen telly). This machine though will need to have a normal tower as it will sit in the floor next to the desk (no room with the massive monitor). The 2080s thought might be a good shout, that would give me a bit of a boost over the Radeon and while expensive isn't in the stupid money league of the 2080ti.

So, with the AMD CPU and the 2080 Super we have the below...

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £2,139.62 (includes shipping: £14.70)​
​
 
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lee32uk

lee32uk

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A 3900X isn't needed for gaming. A 3700X makes more sense. You can always upgrade the cpu later on when prices have dropped.


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,751.61 (includes shipping: £14.70)​
​
 

EsaT

EsaT

EsaT

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Mike Ford said:
The AMD CPUs look interesting, but my limited understanding of the current market seems to indicate that the Intel ones still provide better gaming performance. Bear in mind that with my monitor every 5fps here or there could make the difference between glorious and disappointing.
Click to expand...
With that resolution primary bottleneck will be GPU and what little advantage 9900K has over 3900X is meaningless.
And especially with next-gen games made for 8 cores/16 threads as baseline situation could well turn around, unless you want to close down web browser etc every time when starting game.
Also code of future games certainly won't be Intel optimized, because next-gen consoles will come with pretty much underclocked for energy efficiency 3700X.


There are cheaper aquarium cases and also with white colour if that would be nicer:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/search?sSearch=kolink+observatory
Though curious that goal is that look, usually that "higher management" is for other look.


Indeed that Corsair has rather crappy timings and Crucial might well perform better in real world.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cruc...b-kit-2-x-16gb-ddr4-3200-udimm-my-20d-cr.html
It would no doubt overclock to better level.
Micron's chip in those are the second best DDR4 chips there are for Ryzens, while Corsairs likely have what ever chips they found from factory floor overclocked up to eleven.

Prices of better timing 3600MHz memories go through roof:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/king...l-channel-kit-hx436c17pb3k2-32-my-291-ks.html
And that's not even at level of likely latency capabilities of Crucial kit, which is known to reach 3600MHz CAS16 reliably.


You didn't mention what kind sound reproduction you have there, but I assume actually proper speaker set ups are out of question.
Those are also more expensive and no matter the speakers sound quality would still depend lot on room acoustics.
Headphones don't take space, don't care about room acoustics or lack of it and also avoid disturbing others in the house.
In case environment is quiet Beyerdynamic DT990 would be good for "balanced" gaming with good above neutral bass to give "fun factor" but without flushing details down the toilet.
For less quiet environment, or someone else in same room, Beyer's DT770 Pro would be good for closed design headphone of its price.
There are internal sound cards, but external USB sound card would give more convenient access to controls.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crea...-sound-card-pc-ps4-xbox-switch-sc-107-cl.html
 

Mike Ford

Mike Ford

Mike Ford

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Thanks for the advice on memory, every little bit helps :)

Sounds wise, not too bothered really. Have some basic speakers and a set of HyperX Cloud 2 headphones which will do me fine, only time I would really make any use of a decent sound card would be if i set it up in the living room and use the 5.1 set up in there but that would only be very occaisional.

I suppose if I made savings on the case etc I could consider the expensive memory if it would give a decent improvement and more future proofing. Would memory like that make a noticeable difference?
 

EsaT

EsaT

EsaT

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Mike Ford said:
Sounds wise, not too bothered really. Have some basic speakers and a set of HyperX Cloud 2 headphones which will do me fine, only time I would really make any use of a decent sound card would be if i set it up in the living room and use the 5.1 set up in there but that would only be very occaisional.

I suppose if I made savings on the case etc I could consider the expensive memory if it would give a decent improvement and more future proofing. Would memory like that make a noticeable difference?
Click to expand...
Speakers are exactly a thing which doesn't benefit that much from separate sound card.
And all later AVRs come with HDMIs and there's no use for any sound card and analog connections with them, unless there's some problem getting HDMI to work.

For gaming stuff those HyperXes are good, but good for gaming headphones from actual audio makers don't cost much.
And if your head shape is close to average with binaural sound you'll get also sense of distance besides directions.
Beyerdynamic DT990's studio aimed Pro version with coiled cable is like £100.
250 ohm normal "Edition" with straight cable costs couple dozens more.
Closed ear cup design (needed if environment is noisy) DT770 Pro 80ohm costs about same.
Creative's sound cards with good binaural sound simulation cost similar fair £100.
Those are basically semi free compared to prices people pay for Nvidia's super bad performance per price graphics cards...


With high latencies high clock speed isn't that good.
Only truly good memory without more experience from manual BIOS settings and such tweaking would be 3600MHz 16-16-16 latency kits, which are highly screened Samsung B-die chips.
And those cost like arm and leg.
Heck, already 3200MHz 14-14-14 B-die kits cost lot that. (but overclock to basically same)
Anyway for automatic settings 3733MHz would be highest you'll want for Ryzen, because the way their internal structure is organized.
 
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