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£1k / £1.3k build

Abyss

Abyss

Abyss

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,548
Location
Nottingham
I am long overdue an upgrade (last done in 2012) and the wife is having my current machine so I'm looking for a complete new build.

I am not a heavy gamer but I don't want to uprade then not be able to socially game with friends on the odd occasion at 1080p; else I may aswell just keep what I have and buy the wife a cheap PC. I'm also considering moving from PS4 to PC so will potentially play GTA5 on it a few evenings per month.

Usage is:
Triple monitor setup (all 1080p but only 1 used when gaming)
70% - Work (emails, Teams calls, spreadsheets etc)
20% - Google Sketchup, the odd bit of photoshop
10% - Gaming; Cities Skyline, GTA5, Wildlands, that sort of thing

I'm intending to keep the PC for 7-8 years but happy to upgrade bits in that time.

The main thing I can't decide is whether it's worth the extra £300 between the below builds or if there's even a hybrid between the two? I've always worked on the more value end (i.e. no point paying twice as much when I'd get more up to date performance by upgrading twice as often), but in reality my days of upgrading every 2-3 years are behind me and I just want something that's reliable and works.

Any thoughts or advice are appreciated. I don't have a set budget, just want absolute best bang for my buck without going overkill for realistically 2-3 nights gaming per month.

PSU is indicative only, realistically I'll go 650w but struggling to find much stock currently!

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,342.39 (includes shipping: £13.20)
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My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,041.43 (includes shipping: £13.20)

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Last edited:
Could easily get B550 board with modern features and good upgradability, if ever needing strong CPU or latest GPU.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-tuf-gaming-b550-plus-amd-am4-b550-atx-motherboard-mb-6f9-as.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-mag-b550-tomahawk-amd-am4-b550-atx-motherboard-mb-359-ms.html
Out of stock Gigabyte would be also good for near £150
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/gigabyte-b550-aorus-elite-amd-am4-b550-atx-motherboard-mb-58v-gi.html


Corsair CX is brand overpriced for cheap capacitors, low end already decade ago efficiency and basic 5 year warranty.
Hence despite of its price it's out of place in that budget PC.
Bitfenix Formula is modern efficiency PSU with good capacitors for £67:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/bitfenix-formula-series-550w-80-plus-gold-power-supply-ca-22y-bx.html
Alternately £10 more gives good 10 year warranty PSU.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-rog-strix-550w-80-plus-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-05e-as.html
And already 450W would be more than enough for low end GPU.


This memory has overall faster latencies for £5 less than Corsair.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...-3600mhz-dual-channel-kit-blac-my-0a3-tg.html

No sense in two NVMe drives to fill limited slots, especially with small second drive.
Get another bigger NVMe or SATA SSD later if needing more storage.


Plenty of cases good for such basic usage PC for lot less, including more upgradable ones.
(what's the styling you want: RGB aquarium or more classy)


And waterpipes in place of heatpipes don't make heat disappear magically anywhere.
Cheaper dual tower heatpipe coolers would have better continuous cooling per noise than that marketing hype overprice cooler.
Besides being more reliable:
Heatpipes work by laws of the physics and cheap and easy to replace fan is only wearing part and its failure doesn't kill all cooling.
Waterpipes again need operating pump to avoid CPU cooking up at idle and have also other degradation mechanisms.
And for 8 core Ryzen you don't need expensive cooler.

Also Coolermaster is brand overpriced:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arctic-freezer-34-co-cpu-cooler-120mm-hs-079-ar.html
 
Thanks EsaT / bagel. Updated list so far:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,155.98 (includes shipping: £11.10)​
​


A few things I've been thinking through:
  • Case wise - I already have 2 cases I can use. My current PC is in an ATCS Coolermaster 200 which is circa 18 years old. It's a brilliant case but I'd planned to upgrade as cases have changed a lot since the original ATX design. Should I just keep it? Down side is the fans are all 80mm. I have a second case in the loft which is a more budget Coolermaster case but it'll comfortably take all the parts in my current setup
  • Storage - In my current setup is a 250GB Samsung SSD (this will be used in the wife's PC as a boot drive), a 500GB 7200rpm and a 2TB 7200rpm. My plan was to ditch the 500GB and put the 2TB in the wife's machine, but I could keep the 2TB in mine? The reason I haven't is I'm always nervous the older a hard drive the more likely it'll die.
  • Graphics card - All 3 monitors are 60HZ so sounds like the 1660 super is ok. If I upgrade monitors in the future I'll work on the basis I'd need to upgrade the GPU aswell.
 
[QUOTE="Abyss, post: 33757549, member: 113"My current PC is in an ATCS Coolermaster 200 which is circa 18 years old.[/QUOTE]That case has no cooling to speak of by modern standards.
With it's restricted insides PSU is bad as case exhaust, besides sucking in preheated air stressing PSU.
And that 80mm fan is so last millennium.
Web surfing/office PC is exactly for what it's fit.

Though some heavier modding could help:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/modding-a-coolermaster-atcs-200.18661527/
 
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