Build Gaming PC for £1500-£2000?

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other than saving on the monitor with a cheaper/smaller(if need be) model, i dont think theres much to improve on with Lee's build,

Though if he does choose to save on the monitor, then a 1700 CPU would be even better for recording/streaming, as Lee mentioned. Without changing too much of his spec:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,388.08
(includes shipping: £15.30)




Only £10 difference right now between 1700 and 1700X so might as well (not so much for the extra 100MHz although every little helps but rather for the possibility it will OC even better being a binned chip, although this is not guaranteed). Cooler does now need adding (not so with the 1700) however.

If you take Lee's advice to flash the BIOS on the Vega 56 to take it to Vega 64 level, then you'll get GTX 1070 level performance in GTA with it. If not (does this void warranty?) I'd go with the GTX 1070 for an extra 15-20 frames on average (GTA). For most other games, a Vega 64 (or Vega 56 with modded BIOS) would be better in general. Then again, if you fancy the Freesync feature, you may want to get Vega regardless. Personally I would go for the GPU that would provide the most frames as they can be hard to come by in GTA with everything looking "good" in-game (MSAA X4 @ 1080p + Tessellation Very High), even with very powerful cards (with Grass on Ultra not even 1080Tis can avoid huge drops @1080p).

3200MHz RAM would be nice but would take you over budget.

Monitor - you do lose some resolution with a cheaper 1080p screen. Pros are that IPS looks nicer and you get 75Hz instead of 60Hz with that particular LG. At that range, I do notice the difference (between 60Hz and 70Hz).
 
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Though if he does choose to save on the monitor, then a 1700 CPU would be even better for recording/streaming, as Lee mentioned. Without changing too much of his spec:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,388.08
(includes shipping: £15.30)




Only £10 difference right now between 1700 and 1700X so might as well (not so much for the extra 100MHz although every little helps but rather for the possibility it will OC even better being a binned chip, although this is not guaranteed). Cooler does now need adding (not so with the 1700) however.

If you take Lee's advice to flash the BIOS on the Vega 56 to take it to Vega 64 level, then you'll get GTX 1070 level performance in GTA with it. If not (does this void warranty?) I'd go with the GTX 1070 for an extra 15-20 frames on average (GTA). For most other games, a Vega 64 (or Vega 56 with modded BIOS) would be better in general. Then again, if you fancy the Freesync feature, you may want to get Vega regardless. Personally I would go for the GPU that would provide the most frames as they can be hard to come by in GTA with everything looking "good" in-game (MSAA X4 @ 1080p + Tessellation Very High), even with very powerful cards (with Grass on Ultra not even 1080Tis can avoid huge drops @1080p).

3200MHz RAM would be nice but would take you over budget.

Monitor - you do lose some resolution with a cheaper 1080p screen. Pros are that IPS looks nicer and you get 75Hz instead of 60Hz with that particular LG. At that range, I do notice the difference (between 60Hz and 70Hz).

If I upped the budget to £1500, would I be able to afford what you're suggesting? If so are you able to make adjustments to your list and include the newer things?

Thank you!
 
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If I upped the budget to £1500, would I be able to afford what you're suggesting? If so are you able to make adjustments to your list and include the newer things?

Thank you!

Just the RAM really. RAM prices are evil right now (and have been for months). But if you're spending a good total, might as well get the fastest that Ryzen can run, as it does benefit.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,424.08
(includes shipping: £15.30)





If anything doesn't work or isn't fit for purpose, don't RMA, send back the item for a full refund ASAP. The monitor in particular you'll want to check carefully for any blue vertical pixelation as some units are known to have this issue.​
 
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Just the RAM really. RAM prices are evil right now (and have been for months). But if you're spending a good total, might as well get the fastest that Ryzen can run, as it does benefit.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,424.08
(includes shipping: £15.30)





If anything doesn't work or isn't fit for purpose, don't RMA, send back the item for a full refund ASAP. The monitor in particular you'll want to check carefully for any blue vertical pixelation as some units are known to have this issue.​
So this is all I would need to get it going? Say I ordered this and this all arrived, all the bits are here for it to work and start playing with?
Because I AM SPENDING £1300-£1500 for sure, and if you guys can find me the perfect build then that money will ALL be spent at Overclockers which I am sure they would appreciate ;)

I'm aware of the grass issue but I won't be setting that very high as I'm not fussed about the grass. So in the last list you posted, did that include the upgraded RAM? If I had say £1600, is there something you would choose instead of what is listed above that would be beneficial?
 
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yerp, that's perfect.
Ok. Is there a certain type of W10 that is better? Or is W10 Home ok?

So I am not expecting or necessarily wanting ULTRA/VERY HIGH graphics quality, I am not super obsessed like some gamers are but I would like most games to be able to run on medium/high :)
 
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Ok. Is there a certain type of W10 that is better? Or is W10 Home ok?

So I am not expecting or necessarily wanting ULTRA/VERY HIGH graphics quality, I am not super obsessed like some gamers are but I would like most games to be able to run on medium/high :)

Windows 10 home should be fine.

At 1080p you should be able to put most/everything on ultra with a GTX 1070 or Vega 56.
 
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Windows 10 home is fine and that spec should be able to run just about everything at highest settings 1080p. its a very similar spec to what I'm using and its pretty great :)
 
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Windows 10 home should be fine.

At 1080p you should be able to put most/everything on ultra with a GTX 1070 or Vega 56.

Windows 10 home is fine and that spec should be able to run just about everything at highest settings 1080p. its a very similar spec to what I'm using and its pretty great :)

So the most recent build Danny sent:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/31159555
...is all I need to set it up from scratch and will play most games well and be able to record most games with a fairly decent quality result? The total for Danny's latest build is £1408 (ex delivery). If I had another £100/£200 to spend, is there anything you guys would swap/upgrade to improve it? The screen size is perfect for me.

Oh I also saw that the RAM (Team Group Dark Pro 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TDPGD416G3) isn't available until the 29th Sept. Are there any alternatives because I would rather have the build sooner.
 
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Soldato
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Oh I also saw that the RAM (Team Group Dark Pro 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TDPGD416G3) isn't available until the 29th Sept. Are there any alternatives because I would rather have the build sooner.
If you want guaranteed 3200Mhz this is an expensive but guaranteed alternative - they can clock higher too in most cases.

My basket at Overclockers UK:




Or a cheaper alternative and only 2-3% difference in speed - the 3000MHz kits have the best price to performance ratio (but appreciate if you only wanted 3200MHz kits):

My basket at Overclockers UK:


 
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So the most recent build Danny sent:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/31159555
...is all I need to set it up from scratch and will play most games well and be able to record most games with a fairly decent quality result? The total for Danny's latest build is £1408 (ex delivery). If I had another £100/£200 to spend, is there anything you guys would swap/upgrade to improve it? The screen size is perfect for me.

Oh I also saw that the RAM (Team Group Dark Pro 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TDPGD416G3) isn't available until the 29th Sept. Are there any alternatives because I would rather have the build sooner.


Yes the build by Danny should have everything you need. Should be a nice system for gaming/streaming. Ryzen should handle streaming better, especially with other stuff going on in the background.

The board comes with 4 x SATA cables so you are covered on that. The only thing you might need depending on the psu cable lengths is an 8 pin extension cable so that you can route it neatly behind the motherboard. This is usually the case with full towers so you might be ok with the CoolerMaster case as it is a midi size.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £12.19
(includes shipping: £8.70)







For another £100/£200 you could maybe look at a better case, a bigger SSD and/or up the gpu to a GTX 1080 although not really needed at 1080p.

Here are a couple of videos that show streaming performance of Ryzen vs the i7 in a couple of games, and also 2933MHz vs 3200MHz ram.

If you don't want to watch it all through then basically the R7 1700/X shows better performance over the i7 in the two games tested. As for the Ram there is a handful of fps difference depending on the game between 2933MHz and 3200MHz.


 
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If you want guaranteed 3200Mhz this is an expensive but guaranteed alternative - they can clock higher too in most cases.

My basket at Overclockers UK:




Or a cheaper alternative and only 2-3% difference in speed - the 3000MHz kits have the best price to performance ratio (but appreciate if you only wanted 3200MHz kits):

My basket at Overclockers UK:


I'll get the more expensive one seeing as it is only a little bit more than the original one that's currently out of stock.

Yes the build by Danny should have everything you need. Should be a nice system for gaming/streaming. Ryzen should handle streaming better, especially with other stuff going on in the background.

The board comes with 4 x SATA cables so you are covered on that. The only thing you might need depending on the psu cable lengths is an 8 pin extension cable so that you can route it neatly behind the motherboard. This is usually the case with full towers so you might be ok with the CoolerMaster case as it is a midi size.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £12.19
(includes shipping: £8.70)







For another £100/£200 you could maybe look at a better case, a bigger SSD and/or up the gpu to a GTX 1080 although not really needed at 1080p.

Here are a couple of videos that show streaming performance of Ryzen vs the i7 in a couple of games, and also 2933MHz vs 3200MHz ram.

If you don't want to watch it all through then basically the R7 1700/X shows better performance over the i7 in the two games tested. As for the Ram there is a handful of fps difference depending on the game between 2933MHz and 3200MHz.


To be sure I'll just add that extension cable to my list seeing as it's only £3.49.

I'm not really fussed above cases but would a better case affect anything performance wise or is it purely for the aesthetics?
With the CPU, as you said there's very little reason to do it when at 1080p.
As for the SSD, what would would a slightly better SSD do more of, speed up boot? Would this make a noticable difference or not? If it's not a huge deal then I would rather leave it seeing as it's an extra £100 https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sams...olid-state-drive-mz-75e500b-eu-hd-192-sa.html

So as someone with a little bit of experience with building computers, would this be super difficult for me? If I get stuck, do you guys have a section where you can advise/assist people on where to put things/how to install. Also how long do you think it would take you (pros) to put all of the above together and boot it up (before the installation of the OS)???
 
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Just keep posting in this same thread. Watch several PC building videos in the days leading up to your order arriving.

Static - put the PSU inside the case before opening/touching anything else. Plug the PSU cable into the wall (with power OFF). Now you can just touch the side of the PSU to ground yourself every now and then (good to do this just prior to opening/touching a new item like the RAM/CPU etc).

Anything else, ask. Someone will help.
 
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Just keep posting in this same thread. Watch several PC building videos in the days leading up to your order arriving.

Static - put the PSU inside the case before opening/touching anything else. Plug the PSU cable into the wall (with power OFF). Now you can just touch the side of the PSU to ground yourself every now and then (good to do this just prior to opening/touching a new item like the RAM/CPU etc).

Anything else, ask. Someone will help.
Yeah I am aware of that thank you, my father taught me this from a young age :D For £3.69, is it worth getting a eBoot Anti-static Wrist Strap Discharge Adjustable Grounding Wrist Slap Band? It has a lot of very good reviews and is on a very reputable e-commerce site. Just getting one to wear, following their guide and also yours to be super sure?
 
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manchester,uk
Some cases are easier to work in i.e more space around the motherboard and better cable management, and have better airflow etc. You also might get better/more fans in an £80/£90 case than you would with a £50 case. You also have cases with tempered glass side panels if you want a nice big window such as the Fractal Design Meshify and Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Glass.


You can always look at some reviews to get another opinion. Websites like Kitguru, Techpowerup and Tweaktown all have reviews on pc hardware.


The Crucial MX300 525GB is pretty good value compared to the 850 EVO. You are not going to notice any difference in speed in day to day usage (boot times/loading games) plus you get 25GB extra for less money.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £158.69
(includes shipping: £8.70)





It is easier than you might think to build a pc. The key is to take your time and double check everything. Once you have the board in and cooler installed it is pretty straightforward. Then it is just a case of plugging in the other components i.e Ram, Gpu and storage etc and sorting out the cabling mess.

I would install the psu initially and feed the 8 pin cable through the bottom cable routing hole and then run it out at the top left where it plugs into the boards 8 pin connector. It can be awkward otherwise to plug in once you have the cpu cooler installed as there isn't a lot of room to work with.

It also makes life a bit easier if you download the AMD chipset and Ethernet (LAN) drivers from the motherboard website, so in your case Asus. Also download the gpu driver from Nvidia. Just put them all on a usb stick.

After you have an internet connection you can look at installing/updating any other drivers i.e Audio and anything else that might need it. You can look in device manager after installing windows to see if there are any issues. The driver support out of the box might be a lot better with Win10 than it was back in the days of Win7/Win8.

There are lots of pc build guides on youtube if you want to watch something before hand. And if you do get stuck just start a thread in general hardware and we will do our best to assist.

As for anti static wristbands I find they are more of a hinderance as they get in the way. Just touch a bare copper radiator pipe before you start.
 
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Some cases are easier to work in i.e more space around the motherboard and better cable management, and have better airflow etc. You also might get better/more fans in an £80/£90 case than you would with a £50 case. You also have cases with tempered glass side panels if you want a nice big window such as the Fractal Design Meshify and Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Glass.


You can always look at some reviews to get another opinion. Websites like Kitguru, Techpowerup and Tweaktown all have reviews on pc hardware.


The Crucial MX300 525GB is pretty good value compared to the 850 EVO. You are not going to notice any difference in speed in day to day usage (boot times/loading games) plus you get 25GB extra for less money.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £158.69
(includes shipping: £8.70)





It is easier than you might think to build a pc. The key is to take your time and double check everything. Once you have the board in and cooler installed it is pretty straightforward. Then it is just a case of plugging in the other components i.e Ram, Gpu and storage etc and sorting out the cabling mess.

I would install the psu initially and feed the 8 pin cable through the bottom cable routing hole and then run it out at the top left where it plugs into the boards 8 pin connector. It can be awkward otherwise to plug in once you have the cpu cooler installed as there isn't a lot of room to work with.

It also makes life a bit easier if you download the AMD chipset and Ethernet (LAN) drivers from the motherboard website, so in your case Asus. Also download the gpu driver from Nvidia. Just put them all on a usb stick.

After you have an internet connection you can look at installing/updating any other drivers i.e Audio and anything else that might need it. You can look in device manager after installing windows to see if there are any issues. The driver support out of the box might be a lot better with Win10 than it was back in the days of Win7/Win8.

There are lots of pc build guides on youtube if you want to watch something before hand. And if you do get stuck just start a thread in general hardware and we will do our best to assist.

As for anti static wristbands I find they are more of a hinderance as they get in the way. Just touch a bare copper radiator pipe before you start.
So would this one https://www.overclockers.co.uk/coolermaster-masterbox-5-midi-tower-case-black-ca-36a-cm.html be too small or not provide a lot of space for better airflow? If I spent another £30/£40 so I am spending £100 on a case, what would you recommend to encase the build above? I am not fussed about it looking fancy or whatever, I just want to make sure that it'll have enough space to circulate air well and for more/better fans as you said.

If I didn't get the 525GB SSD, would the MX300 275GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 3D Nand 7mm Solid State Drive (CT275MX300SSD1) that is in the build above suffice especially seeing as its only £85.99 so if there won't be a huge benefit I would rather save myself the money and stick with 275GB SSD.

I have plenty of time to install it and will definitely take my time to ensure I do it properly but also enjoy it. Probably stick something on the Sky box to watch whilst I build so I can take it at my own pace and keep myself interested whilst still paying lots of attention to what I'm doing. I'll definitely be checking articles online and YouTube if I come across an issue before I come and ask you guys. If I get really stuck or I am unsure with what advice I see online/in videos then I will ask you guys.

With all of the above products in the last build Danny posted, in what order would you install the main and perhaps larger parts? As you've said you would start with PSU and do it the way you suggested to do so it's easier afterward. What order would you do things from there, I know it sounds silly but say you first install PSU, what would you install next? I guess I am looking for advice and the order I get I will install it in that order when I purchase and receive everything.

Trying to think what USB's I have free around. I assume I should ensure I keep the USB stick with Windows 10 on clean and simply with Windows 10 on and then load drivers onto another USB stick. I assume the drivers for the AMD Chipset, Ethernet and GPU aren't very big and will fit on a 8GB USB?
Though I am unsure though if I still have my W10 on a USB stick. If I don't have it anymore, I assume I can download it and load to W10 to a USB stick, I'll buy a new license for £20-£30 online anyway?

Thanks for your opinion on the band, I won't bother with it but I have no copper radiator pipes! I didn't want pipes showing from radiators when building the new house which is only 9 months old now. What can I do instead seeing as I can't ground with copper pipes? I have laminate flooring and then also a large basement underneath. Not sure if any of that is relevant to grounding and static though :p
 
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Soldato
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Nothing wrong with the CoolerMaster case so stick with it if you don't want/need anything fancy. It gets pretty good reviews for a budget case as well.

https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/7796/cooler-master-masterbox-5-mid-tower-chassis-review/index.html
https://www.bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/cooler-master-masterbox-5-review/1/
https://www.pcper.com/reviews/Cases-and-Cooling/Cooler-Master-MasterBox-5-Mid-Tower-Case-Review


A 275GB would be a good starting block. It is easy to add extra SSD's in the future should you need to.

Put the psu into the case and connect the 8 pin, 24 pin, pci-e and a SATA cable into the psu. You can run them all through the bottom cable routing hole. The 8 pin cpu cable will need to come out at the top left.

I usually install the ram with the board lying inside the motherboard box. You can also install the cpu and cooler at the same time if you want.

Screw in the motherboard standoffs if they are not already pre-installed. They just screw into the case as seen in the pic below (red circles). You won't match up all those mounting holes though as some are for different size boards. I think there is usually about 8 or 9 screw holes on an ATX board. The green oblong is where the 8 pin cable will feed through after you route it behind the board.

2qn4fmg.jpg



Fit the i/o shield to the case. It goes to the right of the rear fan just below where the green oblong is in the pic. It just stops dust getting in at the back.

After that just put the board into the case and attach the 8 pin cable. Then screw in the board with the supplied screws into the standoffs. Plug in the rest of the cables as you find easiest. Also don't forget to plug the cpu fan cable in to the cpu header on the board. Also plug in any case fans into fan headers.

Plug the gpu into the top pcie slot. Obviously attach the pcie cable/s to it depending on the gpu. Some are 8 pin or 6 pin or a mixture of both depending on the card.

Fit the SSD into a bay and attach the sata power cable from the psu and a sata data cable to the board and ssd.

You will also need to plug in the front panel headers. These can be a bit fiddly. Look in the manual for this as it will show you what goes where. I usually just do the power switch and reset switch.

I would install the hard drive after you have put windows on the pc. That way you don't install W10 on the hdd by mistake. You want windows on the SSD.

I might have missed a few things but that is the general gist of it.


The drivers should fit on an 8GB usb stick. The ethernet and chipset driver are the main two you want from the start. Install the chipset driver/s first and then the ethernet (LAN) after that. You can download the rest later by going to the relevant website if you want.

Not 100% on the W10 thing as I still have the ancient W7 on my pc as I prefer it. I think you go to Microsoft website and download the creation tool and take it from there. Someone else might know better though.

This is the link though for Microsoft if you have a licence:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

If you don't have any bare metal to ground yourself then by all means by a strap. I just found that it got in the way when I used one a few years back. Never used one since.
 
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