£2k to £3k New Build Advice

[mr.sly]

Hi,

I've not owned a PC since 2007. I'm completely out of the loop with what the most reliable and best value components are.

What I'm trying to achieve is build a reasonable PC to use now for gaming but will allow me to upgrade to 5000/6000 series GPU or in the future, without having to build a whole new PC. I've got a budget of £3000 but would like to come in below that, so I can save the remaining funds for future upgrades/games.

Any advice, changes or components I've missed? Is there a benefit to having all 9 case fans or can I reduce the cost a little by going to 3 or 6? I'm starting from zero, so I need to buy everything except a monitor, keyboard and mouse.

I don't care about AMD or Intel, so happy for any Intel based options. I do want the 40 series, for DLSS, as I'll be using a 5k monitor and don't want to spend the money on a 4090.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER WindForce OC 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics (SKU: GRA-GIG-01543) = £619.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core 5.00GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DT-AM) = £349.99
• 1 x MSI MAG B650M Mortar WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-377-MS) = £190.00
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRS-00996) = £109.99
• 1 x Corsair Force MP700 1TB NVMe PCIe 5.0 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: HD-070-CS) = £159.95
• 1 x DeepCool AK620 Digital CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: HS-01J-DC) = £69.95
• 1 x Corsair RMe Series RM850e Fully Modular Low-Noise ATX Power Supply v2 (CP-9020263-UK) (SKU: CA-27N-CS) = £124.99
• 1 x Corsair 2500X AIRFLOW Micro ATX Dual Chamber PC Case – Black CC-9011265-WW (SKU: CAS-CRS-01586) = £129.95
• 1 x CORSAIR iCUE LINK RX120 120mm PWM Fans Starter Kit (SKU: COO-CRS-01761) = £84.95
• 6 x CORSAIR iCUE LINK RX120 120mm PWM Fans Expansion Fan (SKU: COO-CRS-01760) = £24.94
• 1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632) (SKU: SW-18J-MS) = £107.99

Total: £2,109.42 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

 

[mr.sly]

Thanks all.

Nice build - you could definitely save a few quid though.

Spending £110 on case fans alone is a bit much, there are plenty of decent fans available for £10 or less. You could easily get a decent (though less blingy) CPU cooler for £40 as well.

Should be safe with a 750w PSU as well.

Unless your particularly attached to Asus - there's another £50-60 to be saved by going with a different brand 4070

750w PSU still be okay, if later I'm looking to move to a 5000 series, say a 5080 (I know it doesn't exist yet and we don't know how much power it needs but I guess based on historical data)

Things I would change:

Thermalright PS120SE CPU Air Cooler (£30.39)
Thermalright TL-C12C X3 (£13.90)
Thermalright TL-C12C (£5.39)

That would be £130.22 saved on the air cooler and case fans which you could put towards a 4070 Ti Super.

Zotac GeForce RTX 4070 TI Super Trinity Black 16Gb Graphics Card

Order Zotac GeForce RTX 4070 TI Super Trinity Black 16Gb Graphics Card now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

I'd also swap the SSD for this: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cruc...gen4-m.2-solid-state-drive-sto-cru-01089.html

Thanks for those, I'll take a look. I'd not even considered the 4070 Ti Super, I'd only looked at the 4070 Super and 4080 Super.

As for the SSD, that was a question I was meant to put in my first post. Assuming for purely gaming, there's no benefit to PCIe Gen 5 for the SSD and performance wise in games a PCIe Gen 4 is just as good?

 

[mr.sly]

Yes there's no benefit to Gen 5 for gaming, and that motherboard doesn't have a Gen 5 NVMe slot anyway.

Glad I posted now. Swapped out the MB at the last moment because I needed Micro-ATX, when I decided to go with the Corsair 2500X over the 6500X. Didn't even notice it didn't support Gen 5.

 

[mr.sly]

Am I right in thinking, that if I want to connect more than 3 fans, I'm going to need some sort of controller like this?

TL-FAN-HUB Controller

 

[mr.sly]

What about a 240nm/360mm aio in the roof (exhaust), 3 fans at the bottom (intake) , 2 fans side chamber (intake) ?

I did consider an AIO. For the extra price, I wasn't sure how much benefit I would get from it.

At the moment I'm thinking of going with Eddie99 suggestion:
Thermalright PS120SE CPU Air Cooler (£30.39)
Thermalright TL-C12C X3 (£13.90)
Thermalright TL-C12C (£5.39)

Although, not sure what layout he was thinking of when he suggested those.

Got any suggestions of decent AIO with a good performance to cost ration, considering the price of the Thermalright setup.

 

[mr.sly]

Curious about your case though...the 2500x being a dual chamber unit so all glass for the area where the pc parts are etc for display so to speak, but then you have no rgb, so with the tint in the glass, it really will be a black glass box on one side. Is that the intent...the width then make it chunky for a desk also. Speaking from someone with a 5000x case and the 011d evo, the glass on the corsair case is so dark, you really can't see in...if you want no rgb and dual chamber, I'd look at the evo case..the tint is a lot less so at least you'll see your components...(only going by pic above for the 2500x which shows dark tint on glass similar to my 5000x)
If you want to keep it going for gen 5 and 6 nvidia gpu's, I'd also maybe look at something like the asus B650e-f mobo for £190 on offer at mo..the gpu slot is gen 5(you actually get a gen 5 nvme slot also)...so you shouldn't ever have to worry about gpu throughput so to speak... not sure what matx mobo's have that, would need to look a bit tbh...

I did have a lot of RGB in there to begin with and then walked it back but figured I'd stick with the case in case I decided to use any RGB later. Watching reviews of the 6500x I think the glass is clear, so probably just the marketing shots making it look so dark.

Good call out on the motherboard though. Didn't really consider that 5000/6000 might require Gen 5. I did consider the 6500x case to begin, so I don't mind swapping that out to get a different motherboard if required.

Eddie99 suggested the Phantom Spirit 120 as well, which I have added to my basket. I'll update the post later with my current thinking, as a few things have changed now after taking in everyones advice.

 

[mr.sly]

This is the current basket:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Gainward GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Panther OC 16GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics (SKU: GRA-GNW-01536) = £769.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core 5.00GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DT-AM) = £349.99
• 1 x MSI MAG B650M Mortar WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-377-MS) = £190.00
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRS-00996) = £109.99
• 1 x Crucial T500 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01089) = £91.99
• 1 x Corsair RMe Series RM850e Fully Modular Low-Noise ATX Power Supply v2 (CP-9020263-UK) (SKU: CA-27N-CS) = £125.00
• 1 x Corsair 2500X AIRFLOW Micro ATX Dual Chamber PC Case – Black CC-9011265-WW (SKU: CAS-CRS-01586) = £129.94
• 1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632) (SKU: SW-18J-MS) = £107.99
• 1 x Arctic MX-6 Thermal Compound - 2g (SKU: TH-01S-AR) = £5.99
• 2 x EK Water Blocks EK-Cable Y-Splitter 3-Fan PWM (10cm) (SKU: WC-9AK-EK) = £3.49

Total: £1,899.85 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

With the added CPU cooler and case fans:

1 x Phantom Spirit 120 SE
6 x Thermalright TL-C12C

 

[mr.sly]

I've only looked in a couple of places so far but I'm struggling to see a Micro-ATX board for AMD which is Gen 5. I could go ATX but then that's additional money for the case and case size increases.

There are options for the Intel side but I'd need to look at the equivalent Intel CPU and the price comparison between the two.

 

[mr.sly]

Thanks, I was hoping to order tomorrow, so I might contact support and see if they know when stock is arriving. Not sure I care to much about the m.2 slot but if I can get it and save £10 I might as well.

Having a quick look..not much out there is there..nice find by @Tetras. Shame about the price though. To me, that brings it into @Eddie99 not worth it category...(same reason i went b550 instead of X570 back in the day...to get 2nd gen4 nvme slot was over £100 more, plus the x570 boards had a fan to keep the chipset cool, whereas the b550 chipset was passively cooled)

The Asus Tuf B650M-plus wifi only one I could find (at decent price) that'll give you pciegen5 m.2 nvme slot so at least in a few years if you run out of storage you can get a gen5 drive if price has come down, but nothing with a gen 5 gpu slot...the below on offer at mo reduced from £220 (price still £220 elsewhere)

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming B650M-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6K2-AS) = £169.98

Total: £169.98 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that. I'd just picked the Gainward because it was all black. Only 2 years warranty with the Gainward I believe, so for an extra 3 years, I think I can live with the blue down the side (or cover it later)

Zotac offer a 5 year warranty if registered within 30 days otherwise it's 3 years something to consider.

Zotac GeForce RTX 4070 TI Super Trinity Black 16Gb Graphics Card

Order Zotac GeForce RTX 4070 TI Super Trinity Black 16Gb Graphics Card now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Edit: Just noticed that's pre-order as well. So we'll have to wait and see.

 

[mr.sly]

Managed to find the Asus TUF Gaming B650M-Plus Wifi for £170 in stock. So I've just placed my order for everything, added in a cable and some speakers for a total of £2085.38. Thanks for your help and advice everyone!