Advice on PC Build

Leadmill

Leadmill

Leadmill

Associate
Joined
26 Dec 2023
Posts
3
Location
Manchester
Hello Overclockers!

I need some advice, my venerable gaming laptop my old MSI GS75 Stealth is long in the tooth and now turns into Chernobyl Reactor 4 the moment I try and run any modern with graphics higher than "low".
Was initially looking at pre-builds until my friends told me that was not the best way to get value for money. So they suggested I look at a custom build. I play a lot of RTS, City Builder and War Thunder type games, along with FPS stuff like Dark Tide, Ready or Not etc. I'm not a hardcore gamer and don't stream or anything. Instead I am looking for something that will run decently and can bloody manage the heat! A friend recommended the following and wanted your opinion.

I can afford the price, but my friend said to check with you folks first before just pressing "buy". I am no ludditte but i'm not exactly an expert when it comes to this area of technology. Any help would be very much welcome.

The build list as it stands
1 X AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £314.99
SKU: CP-3DV-AM
1 X Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £175.99
SKU: MB-6K1-AS
1 X TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G6000HC38ADC01) - £99.95
SKU: MY-0B2-TG
1 X Asus GeForce RTX 4070 Dual 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card - £563.99
SKU: GX-49B-AS
1 X NVIDIA - PC Game Pass and Geforce Now Bundle - £0.00
SKU: DIG-NVI-01340
1 X Crucial P5 Plus 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 x4 3D NAND NVMe Solid State Drive with Heatsink - £126.94
SKU: HD-07N-CR
1 X Phanteks Eclipse P400 Air Midi Tower Case - Black - £72.95
SKU: CA-09F-PT
1 X Seasonic Focus GX-750 750W 80+ Gold Modular Power Supply - £109.99
SKU: CA-06U-SS
 
Personally I'd swap out the nvme ssd to a firecuda 530 2tb, I'm using 2 of the heatsink versions and (touch wood) they've been flawless. You might need to buy elsewhere due to being pre-order on OCUK though, they might even come in cheaper or the same cost as the Crucial....
www.overclockers.co.uk

Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB SSD PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (ZP2000GM3A013)

Order Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB SSD PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (ZP2000GM3A013) now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

No mention of a cpu cooler so I'd be looking at an aftermarket option even if the 7700 comes with one. I'd also personally (assuming you can afford the extra) maybe push it up to either the 7800x3D or 7900 cpu's at £380 and £400 respectively. If you're going 8 cores you might as well get the faster option in the 7800x3D but I'd personally maybe edge towards the 7900 with 12 cores for slightly better long term life or if you do anything cpu intensive like 3D or video editting etc.

There's a fair few rumours floating round about a revision to the 4000 series gpu's, ie the super versions, so not sure how urgent the new parts are but end of January is being mentioned at the moment as possible release dates.

I'd maybe go slightly larger on the psu too, 750w is likely OK, but I like a little more headroom in case of future changes/upgrades.
 
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Looks fine to me, @ OCUK I think the wifi version of that board is slightly cheaper.

That board has a lot o M.2 heatsinks, so not sure you need SSD with a heatsink.

The cooler that comes with the 7700 non-X is the wraith prism and it is alright (better than the 7600, which has the wraith stealth), so you don't have to upgrade.
 
This is what the final selection looks like thus far. Anything glaring that has been missed or concerns?

1 X TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G6000HC38ADC01) - £99.95
SKU: MY-0B2-TG
1 X NVIDIA - PC Game Pass and Geforce Now Bundle - £0.00
SKU: DIG-NVI-01340
1 X Crucial P5 Plus 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 x4 3D NAND NVMe Solid State Drive with Heatsink - £126.95
SKU: HD-07N-CR
1 X Phanteks Eclipse P400 Air Midi Tower Case - Black - £72.94
SKU: CA-09F-PT
1 X Seasonic Focus GX-750 750W 80+ Gold Modular Power Supply - £110.00
SKU: CA-06U-SS
1 X Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo V2 CPU Cooler - 120mm - £39.94
SKU: HS-08F-CM
1 X ASUS 27" TUF Gaming VG27AQ 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitor - £329.01
SKU: MO-0A9-AS
1 X Asus TUF Gaming B650M-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro ATX Motherboard - £219.95
SKU: MB-6K2-AS
1 X AMD Ryzen 7 7700X Eight Core 5.40GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £319.99
SKU: CP-3DF-AM
1 X Asus GeForce RTX 4070 Dual OC 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card - £569.99
SKU: GX-49C-AS
 
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Leadmill said:
1 X Crucial P5 Plus 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 x4 3D NAND NVMe Solid State Drive with Heatsink - £126.95
SKU: HD-07N-CR

1 X Asus TUF Gaming B650M-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro ATX Motherboard - £219.95
SKU: MB-6K2-AS

1 X Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo V2 CPU Cooler - 120mm - £39.94
SKU: HS-08F-CM
Click to expand...

You have a heatsink on the ssd when you don't need it with the motherboard having them and I'm not a fan of the cooler master hyper 212, it's a bit 'old' and in terms of value for money, you'd be better going with something like a thermaltake peerless assassin for basically the same price. Personally I'm running a Bequiet Pure Rock 2 cpu cooler with a silent wings 4 2500rpm fan on my air cooled rig but that's pretty expensive way of doing things lol

Motherboard - you could get the below MSI board for thirty pounds less on OCUK and other sites compared with the asus, same core specs etc. I've got AM4 b550 and Intel socket 1700 b760 matx boards from MSI and they're solid imo, I'd pick them before Asus but it's a personal preference at the end of the day. Do you actually need micro atx?
www.overclockers.co.uk

MSI MAG B650M Mortar WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard

Order MSI MAG B650M Mortar WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk
 
Change the ram for Kingston fury, if going with the Asus board.

If not check the motherboard qvl list before purchasing ram, am5 platform is very sensitive to ram
 
For cooler I would recommend the Phantom Spirit. Under £40, very silent.
For CPU is a tough choice. Either spend a bit more and get the 7800x3D or save some money and get the 7600. For games, I don’t think the 7700x would perform much better than the 7600. The 7800x3D would be similar in few games but much better in others. Runs cool.
GPU is a ********. The next step up is usually a couple of 100s and going down a notch the performance can be abysmal. If going for a Nvidia card, I would wait for the Super as, for some miracle, you may be able to get a current gen cheaper.
The motherboard should be fine, but I lwould be tempted by the Tomahawk B650 under £200. I found their BIOS easier to navigate, fan curves works better, and the included thermal pads are much better. Your NVME would run at least 10C cooler.
 
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