Best Bang for Buck Gaming PC Build - £1500

Sir Stallion

Sir Stallion

Sir Stallion

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Joined
17 Aug 2019
Posts
63
Location
Chester UK
Don't shoot me!!!.....I have always been a console player (Still am), but I'm thinking of building my own 4K Gaming PC and I am a total PC noob.

I will hopefully be using the PC for:
  • 4K Streaming of Netflix
  • 4K Gaming at 60fps or higher at max/ultra settings if possible with my budget (FPS, Football manager, most new AAA titles). Would also love to have a crack at the old Command an Conquers too if possible, entire series).
  • Working from home (Full MS office suite etc nothing special), mostly connecting to a Citrix farm so running off of hosted servers.
  • Triple monitor setup.
Things I don't need:
  • Windows 10
  • Monitor (Already have a 4K monitor)
  • Keyboard
  • Mouse
I want to squeeze the best possible visual gaming experience for a budget of around £1500 (could stretch a little more if needed).

I don't mind subtle RGB but definitely do not want to go OTT with this, I'm not a fan of rainbow pulsing etc. Ill most likely stick to one solid colour theme, Black with Blue orWhite lighting.

Like I say I'm a total newbie to all of this so if someone could pop a build together for me it would be much appreciated to get me on the right road. Always been an intel fan but I'm not against AMD. Whatever gives best performance for my budget really.

Any help appreciated.
Cheers
 
NovaKill4 said:
Hi and welcome to the forum!

4k gaming at max/ultra settings and maintaining a solid min FPS of 60 in the latest AAA titles is not going to be possible with your budget unfortunatley, but i think you can get close.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,480.07 (includes shipping: £13.20)
​

Idealy paying an extra £100 to get the 3700x would be nice, giving an extra 2c/4t for longevity. 2080 super should do good job in 4k but will struggle to keep max settings in some newer AAA's.
I added 2 extra fans in the build to go in the front of the case to help bring in cooler air from the front, the case comes with a single exhaust fan.
I have prioritized getting the fastest GPU possible so the SSD is not the latest and gratest but tbh you wouldn't notice a difference in game. The RAM is 3200mhz which is good but the sweet spot is 3600 for 3rd gen Ryzen, again if you can stretch then go for the 3600 version, extra £40 i think.
I was going to recommend an aftermarket cooler but i think the stock cooler is half decent with the 3600x and as you are on a tight budget for 4k it may be worth trying that out the stock one first and see how the temps go.
Click to expand...


That’s great thanks for the welcome, direction and advice. Much appreciated. Taking everything you have said on board I think I may actually to wait it out a little longer to increase the budget and do it right first time. I want to comfortably hit the mark if I can so that I don’t have to upgrade too much over the next few years. I have noticed another 2K build thread that I think I might follow using your advice. I will just have to put the build on hold a little while longer.

Thanks again for your time and assistance! Much appreciated
 
Sparx said:
4K gaming is a struggle for anyone my friend. You have to spend thousands of £££ annually to keep it up.

If you're not afraid to turn down some graphic settings, no reason why you can't go for the build like NovaKill4 suggested now.

That said the only thing I would try aim for is the 3700X, otherwise 2080 Super is still plentiful for GPU power!!
Click to expand...

Thanks much appreciated!! Might take the plunge then and go for 3700X......although on the other hand.....are new Ryzen chips out soon? Is it worth waiting if they are? as I am assuming older chips would drop in price?

So much to think about and learn, I think I’ll do some more research on NovaKill4’s build and upgrade certain aspects if newer parts are released soon. I will increase the budget by more if it means getting the right build, I want it to look aesthetically nice too without going for the rainbow look. Really just want to understand all components and do the best build I can.
 
aoaaron said:
2080 super is enough for 4k gaming in most games other than kingdom come deliverance. you will have to decrease shadows to medium and foilage in most games but its enough.
bang for buck, it has to be the 3600. i wouldn't even get the X.
Click to expand...

Well that’s thrown a spanner in the works, conflicting advice lol. If you are correct I could be on to a winner with NovaKill4’s build.
 
aoaaron said:
I have an 8086k and an RTX 2080 and I was able to play any game I tried except Kingdom Come Deliverance at 4k which was horrible.
Even something quite demanding like Rise of the Tomb Raider was very playable.

Just to throw another spanner in the works, have you considered ultrawide gaming? I moved from 4k gaming to 21:9 1440p gaming with higher refresh rates and I can comfortably say 21:9 is superior to the 4k FALD set I was using.

It would also mean you might not need a triple monitor setup as you could game in ultrawide resolutions.

I'd personally shift more money towards a good screen if you don't already have one than super powering the CPU/GPU to give 15% more performance.
Click to expand...


I actually quite like this idea! I already have a good 4K monitor but was going to buy another two. I may look into an ultra wide monitor instead which gives me the option of both. Thanks for the idea! What UWide monitor are you running? Would you recommend it?
 
After taking in what people have said and also looking around at parts and researching etc, I have come up with the following: they are not all from OC some are from Scan due to price point so I haven’t linked the parts just incase it’s not the done thing. (Most are from OC though).

Like I have said originally...I’m no expert so if anyone sees any fundamental issues with the build please let me know. From the research I have done I think (hope) it does all work together.....if anyone would swap components for others please do say so and state why, I welcome all expert info.

Case- NZXT H500
Motherboard - Asus Rog Strix B450-F
Processor - AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
CPU Cooler - Deepcool Castle 240 RGB liquid cooler
Memory - 16GB Corsair Vengeance pro DDR4 3600mhz Ryzen tuned.
GPU - RTX 2080 Super
SSD - M.2 Samsung 970 Evo 1TB
HDD - to be added at a later date
PSU - EVGA Super Nova 850G1+

Coming in at £1779

Do all cables etc come with the parts or would any additional things need to be purchased to complete the build?
 
tamzzy said:
crap case for cooling


crap mobo with crap vrms with asus tax
also doesn't work out of box for ryzen 3000
and doesn't have cpu-less bios flash


lousy price/perf when compared to the 3700x


meh. not sure how warranty would work if it breaks and drenches your system. at least if you get a corsair and silverstone (idk about nzxt) they will compensate you for the cost of the components the aio takes out.


overpriced ram


if you want to pay extra...price/perf ratio is firmly against the 2080 super...but your call


overpriced nvme ssd


not really needed for a single gpu system. 650w is sufficient
Click to expand...

Ok, some good points there, I’ll look for a better case, Motherboard, 650psu and cpu cooler. Appreciate the feedback.

As for the other parts..... ‘overpriced’ really isn’t an argument if your not paying the bill lol, but I take on board what your getting at. Cheers.

I’m off to hunt for the above....I shall be back
 
Gray2233 said:
With that budget I'd go for something like this:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,519.91 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​


1. I don't see the point in going for the 3800x over the 3700x.
2. Better motherboard than the one you listed with support for the new AMD processors out of the box.
3. Great PSU currently on sale.
4. The case has great airflow.
5. HSF is extremely difficult to beat for the price.
5. Cheaper SSD but frankly for your usage you wont notice the difference between it and a more expensive/faster model.

There's leeway for brand preference on the GPU and some other components, such as opting for 3600 ram over 3200.
Click to expand...
Great stuff!! Appreciate the advise on other parts. Such a helpful group, so glad I came here for help!.....I really really needed it.
Thanks all
 
tamzzy said:
seeing as you're sourcing parts from mutiple retailers...this would be my performance build...

ryzen 3700x
scythe mugen 5 rev b
msi b450 tomahawk max
crucial ballistix LT 3200c16 2x8gb
zotac rtx 2080 amp edition (non-super)
sabrent rocket 1tb nvme ssd
phanteks p350x case
corsair rm650 gold modular psu
2x arctic cooling p14 pwm pst fans

clearly not all parts sold on ocuk (and some parts are cheaper when sourced elsewhere other than ocuk)

re: GPU
comparing price/perf
Code: 
card model:    performance %:    price £:     price % of 2080 super:      price/performance ratio relative to 2080S:

5700XT            79                410            56                                 1.41
2070 super        88                519            71                                 1.23
2080              94                620            84                                 1.12
2080 super        100               729           100                                 1.00
2080ti            116               1050          144                                 0.80
Click to expand...

Awesome info as always! And thanks for the new build spec and GPU stats,l. Hopefully I’ll have all parts finalised soon and a machine built, can’t wait much longer.....I’m itching to get going.
 
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