pc build for friend..

zx|muppet

zx|muppet

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My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £2,988.92 (includes shipping: £23.10)​
​

looking at building this for a friend.. hes going to be gaming on it but also will be used as a daily office pc also.

have I got everything I need or have I got some stuff missing?

will get coolant at a later date after I have built it.

also does everything seem like it should be compatable with gfx card / mobo / case?
 
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StarShock

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As much as I think the watercooling stuff looks good. I would seriously just go for standard cooling and spend the money on a better CPU and GPU. Almost half your budget here is just pure cosmetics.

That being said to each their own, if pretty is more important than powerful, then go for it.
 

Quartz

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That PSU is overkill. And you really don't want RGB for an office PC. Try this with your GPU of choice:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,323.04 (includes shipping: £13.20)


​
 
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Gray2233

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You could get a substantially better PC if you weren't going for all that RGB slathered water cooling gear, gear that's going to be used for hardware that doesn't use a lot of power or generate a lot of heat.

Seems a bit mad to spend half your budget to get a worse PC simply for the sake of cosmetics.

Even as far as the raw component choices go, you're spending more money for no good reason. A WD Blue NvME goes for £110 and there will be no noticeable difference between that and the £60 more expensive WD Black. The PSU is massive overkill, the 2070S you've chosen is needlessly expensive compared to models that cost £450-480, at the £540 price point you might as well push through to a 2080S which can be had for £600 if you shop around. The RAM is horribly priced, you can get 16GB of Micron E-Die for £80, or 32GB of the stuff for the same price as what you've chosen. Why get a 3800X over a 3700X? The real world difference between the two might as well be non existent and there's a £40-50 difference in price.

Honestly it seems like you've just picked out a lot of needlessly expensive stuff because it looks good.

Assuming the system will be used with at least a 1440P monitor for gaming, I would go for something like the following:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,466.11 (includes shipping: £13.20)
​

It'll perform better in gaming than the rig listed in the OP at half the cost, with the following things factored in due to usage:

1. Silence -- An office PC should not be noisy enough to distract, a sound dampened case and a HSF with slow spinning fans help here, the PSU also has a nice quiet fan (speaking as someone that owns one).
2. Reliability -- I'd imagine downtime could potentially cost the person money, as such air cooling minimises that as there's few points of failure.
3. Understated -- The last thing you want when trying to get work done is a 90's rave happening in the corner of your eye, as such I've chosen items which while aesthetically pleasing aren't likely to distract.

I'd normally just add a nice big NvME, but having a HDD for saving work onto could be useful.
 
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zx|muppet

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he wants it watercooled and wants rgb.. its a pc for when hes at home and not at the office (but can still be used for that also)
he dosent want anything overclocked tho. he saves all his work to the cloud so this is the reason I didn't add a mechanical drive in there.
he likes the look of asus products which is the reason for the motherboard I went for.
The gpu was the only one I could find that was compatible with the waterblock OCUK.

Even tho this is going to be an "office" pc as well its what hes asked for with regards to looks.

I could probably have knocked a few things down but its done now.
 

Gray2233

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Did he specifically want a high priced custom loop? If he's asking you to build I'm assuming he's not super clued up when it comes to computers? As I mentioned it seems a bit mad to needlessly spend double the amount (compared to my spec) to get a functionally worse PC just for the sake of aesthetics. We're literally talking £1500 more for a worse system, it's a very substantial amount, if I spent £3000 I could have specced a top of the range system, 2080TI with a 3950X (16c/32t) and 32GB of RAM with room to spare. It's totally unnecessary to have a custom loop for an 8 core Ryzen, as mentioned earlier they do not generate enough heat to warrant the investment when a £50 HSF will keep them cool under sustained load.

In fact, here's a really quick throw together as an example:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £2,484.58 (includes shipping: £14.70)
​

£500 cheaper and it'd absolutely decimate the initial build in literally every task under the sun, that £500 would be plenty to 'pretty things up' if that's a requirement.

Oh well, it's not my money I suppose.

I really, really hope your friend understands where his money is going.
 
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EsaT

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zx|muppet said:
he wants it watercooled and wants rgb.. its a pc for when hes at home and not at the office (but can still be used for that also)
Click to expand...
Does he acknowledge that watertube cooler isn't some maintenance free cooling, which can be expected to keep automatically working for long time without any monitoring?

And before literally smoking up such huge amount of money for bling bling and no bang would expect some big screen home theater with projector and surround sound setup.
 

Gray2233

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Danny75 said:
This thread needs some music.

Click to expand...

Excellent.

Maybe everyone is over-reacting and the use of money is actually a good idea? Lets ask some others who may be able to enlighten us:

@tamzzy
@Plec
@lee32uk

Anyone? Well spent money? Maybe I'm missing something?

I'm really not trying to be an ass here, I'm genuinely concerned that some random guy who knows very little about computers just agreed to spend a very healthy amount of money on, for the money, a really bad PC.
 

tamzzy

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Gray2233 said:
Anyone? Well spent money? Maybe I'm missing something?
Click to expand...
personally, from what i can gather...it sounds like this friend will not have a clue on how to maintain a custom loop.
i'd have suggested going the aio route if he wanted "water cooling"

declaration of interest: i've used air cooling, aio cooling and custom loop cooling...eventually i've went back to air cooling. lol.
don't underestimate the value of (nearly) maintenance-free components
 

Gray2233

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tamzzy said:
personally, from what i can gather...it sounds like this friend will not have a clue on how to maintain a custom loop.
i'd have suggested going the aio route if he wanted "water cooling"

declaration of interest: i've used air cooling, aio cooling and custom loop cooling...eventually i've went back to air cooling. lol.
don't underestimate the value of (nearly) maintenance-free components
Click to expand...

Those are my thoughts.

I've built custom loops and I can even see scenarios where one is worth it for the average user, but Ryzen at no point comes under that umbrella.

I actually call for the OP to show their friend this thread. Maybe they'll still want the bling and the custom loop, all the same parts, but I'd be frankly shocked should someone want such a low performing system for the money if they actually understood what they were doing.

Honestly I'd not even be acting as I am if not for the following statement: "I could probably have knocked a few things down but its done now." implying the stuff has been bought already even though he asked for advice on the components the same day of posting that response.
 

tamzzy

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Gray2233 said:
Maybe they'll still want the bling and the custom loop, all the same parts, but I'd be frankly shocked should someone want such a low performing system for the money if they actually understood what they were doing.
Click to expand...
well bling is like the icing on the cake
but in this instance, there is no cake. only icing lol.
as i keep saying, bling bling is nice...but bling bling is not what one is looking at, when the computer is being used
this is the innards of a £1000 equivalent computer at the end of it all
 

Gray2233

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tamzzy said:
well bling is like the icing on the cake
but in this instance, there is no cake. only icing lol.
as i keep saying, bling bling is nice...but bling bling is not what one is looking at, when the computer is being used
this is the innards of a £1000 equivalent computer at the end of it all
Click to expand...

Exactly!

The ridiculous build I put above with a 3950X, 2080TI etc is massive overkill and there was still £500 to spare. The amount of 'bling' you can buy to fancy things up with £500 is unreal.

He could have had a nice case, a flashy AIO, and a few flashing lights with the same specs for £1200 if that.

This is a masterclass in how not to build a friends computer.
 

lee32uk

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Not sure what to say that hasn't already been said :D Nothing wrong with wanting to spend £3K on a pc. I would if I had the cash, but I would want more than a 2070 Super.

And as mentioned, a custom loop will need maintenance from time to time, and for a 3700X/3800X it is complete overkill. You could have just put an RGB AIO in there and been perfectly fine.

Has this already been ordered ?
 
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