Can I have a sense check for a build? Budget of ~£1,600.

[Vonhelmet]

It's been a while since I've last posted.. and a while since I've last built a PC...

So, going by the template...

Purchase Timeframe: I'll be buying and building in the next month. I get a bonus at the end of July, but I'll probably buy on credit before then.

Budget: Total budget is about £1,600. My bonus will cover about £1,400 of that, and I think I can make up the other £200 in selling parts from my current machine.

Usage: Purely gaming on Steam. I'm currently playing Clair Obscur, and there's some other new-ish titles I'd like to play, like the Indiana Jones game. Beyond that, I've got a backlog of older stuff going back over the last 5 to 10 years - Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3, Doom Eternal, Alien Isolation, Prey...

Preferences: I'm not too fussed about AMD vs Intel. I'm pretty out of touch, but I gather that AMD is better bang for buck, and that Intel have had some problems with recent CPUs or motherboard chipsets or something, so I'd maybe err towards AMD? I'll be gaming at 1440p (monitor limited - not looking to upgrade this) so for older stuff I'll be looking to max out detail at 1440p and for newer stuff I'm prepared to compromise on detail. I'll need a Windows 11 license as part of the build, so that's basically £100 gone, but I'd rather that than go for a potentially shady keysite. The machine will be sitting on my desktop, so I'd prefer MATX over anything bigger. I'd like something reasonably quiet if at all possible. I currently have an SFF ITX machine and it's noisy as hell when the GPU fan really gets going. I'd like USB ports and a headphone jack on the front rather than the top if possible.

Current Hardware: I'm currently using a build from back in 2018 - Core i5 i9400f on an ASRock H370M ITX board with 16GB RAM and a Geforce RTX 3060, which was an upgrade last year to tide me over. I'm using an NVME drive for the OS and HDD drives for storage. My monitor is a Gigabyte M27Q, which I know isn't the best monitor in the world, but it has an inbuilt KVM which is super useful as this monitor gets shared between several computers.

Peripherals: I need a small gaming keyboard, so that's probably another £100 gone. I currently have a Corsair SK622 which is a 60% keyboard, but it's absolute trash and doesn't work properly, so I'm looking to replace it.

Special Needs/Requirements (inc Wi-Fi): I need Wi-Fi as this computer will be nowhere near the router and we don't have ethernet in the house. I'd like a case with space for at least 2 3.5" HDDs, as my Steam library is currently stored on a mirrored pair of terabyte HDDs. I don't know if that's crazy, but that's how I've got things set up.

This is what I've come up with:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Kingston FURY Renegade 500GB PCI-e 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SFYRS/500G) (SKU: STO-KNG-01328) = £49.99
• 1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 Dual Tower CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03279) = £39.95
• 1 x Kingston FURY Beast 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-41600C40 5200MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MY-29G-KS) = £79.99
• 1 x Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming OC 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-GIG-04215) = £649.99
• 1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-Bit DVD - OEM (FQC-10528) (SKU: SW-18K-MS) = £149.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B850M DS3H (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-GIG-03862) = £139.99
• 1 x Ducky One X Mini 60% Wireless Ducky Linear Inductive Switch RGB Gaming Keyboard Black - UK Layout (SKU: PER-DCK-03477) = £99.95
• 1 x Aerocool Integrator Gold 850W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-23T-AE) = £89.99
• 1 x Fractal Design Pop Mini Air RGB Clear Tempered Glass Mini Tower Case - Black (SKU: CA-0AG-FD) = £99.95
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 9600X Six Core 5.40GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-02677) = £229.99

Total: £1,629.78 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

Can someone take a look at this and tell me if I've missed anything, or made any stupid mistakes? I don't know a thing about modern cases, or coolers, for example, and I might have picked a motherboard that's no good for that CPU, or something.

Thanks.

 

[Tetras]

Can someone take a look at this and tell me if I've missed anything, or made any stupid mistakes? I don't know a thing about modern cases, or coolers, for example, and I might have picked a motherboard that's no good for that CPU, or something.

If you're planning on using onboard wifi, that board doesn't have it (Gigabyte wifi term is "AX").

It is dubious if the 9600X is worth the extra £70 or so from the 7600/7600X, though I'm not sure where I'd put the money instead (bigger SSD?).

 

[Quartz]

I'd like a case with space for at least 2 3.5" HDDs, as my Steam library is currently stored on a mirrored pair of terabyte HDDs

It's probably time to retire those to backup duties and replace them with a NVME drive. How big is your current NVME drive?

How old is the PSU? Can you reuse it?

You can get a new Windows license for much less. Indeed, depending on the license you currently have you may be able to transplant your current OS drive into the new machine and have it work.

You want DDR5-6000 for AM5.

 

[GreatAuk]

Overall that's not a bad build I don't think... I think I'd consider going for a ryzen 7600X instead (only a slight reduction in performance vs a 9600x), and putting that saved money towards buying a 2TB m.2 nvme drive, which can be had for under £100 now although if you spend slightly more then can get faster models which may be worth it (but any ssd will be much faster than the hdds). This leaves an upgrade path to say a 9800x3d down the line when you may be able to get one for a good price.

Also 500GB drives tend to be worse value for money than larger drives now.

Re the case, it doesn't have loads of room for drives (although in theory you can mount a single 3.5" drive in it) I recently rebuilt a system in a Jonsbo Z20 case (not available from ocuk unfortunately) which is a compact little matx case and was very pleased with it: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...-of-these-jonsplus-z20.18984405/post-37862663
Add on a few 140mm case fans as it doesn't come with any.

 

[Gray2233]

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB Black CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02724) = £29.99
• 1 x Crucial T500 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01090) = £128.99
• 1 x Gainward GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Phoenix-S 16GB GDDR7 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-GNW-05399) = £689.98
• 1 x Antec CX600M ARGB M-ATX Mini Tower - Black (SKU: CAS-ATC-04160) = £54.95
• 1 x PNY XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-51200C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-PNY-04564) = £77.99
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 850W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02519) = £104.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600X3D Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-04829) = £269.99
• 1 x Asrock B850M-X WiFi R2.0 (Socket AM5) DDR5 mATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASR-05290) = £124.99

Total: £1,493.86 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

You can run W11 without a key and only lose minor functionality, alternatively keys can be had for £10 or so.

For the price difference between the 9070XT and 5070ti, the latter is the superior product. Slightly faster in rasterisation on average, DLSS has better support and IQ than FSR4, and ray/path tracing are better.

For purely gaming the X3D will be superior to the 9600X.

Faster RAM.

Better PSU, I'd not touch that Aerocool unit personally.

A larger NvME that's on par with the renegade in most respects, not that you'll be able to tell the difference in games.

 

[Vonhelmet]

If you're planning on using onboard wifi, that board doesn't have it (Gigabyte wifi term is "AX").

It is dubious if the 9600X is worth the extra £70 or so from the 7600/7600X, though I'm not sure where I'd put the money instead (bigger SSD?).

Thanks for the heads up on the WiFi - I'll look around for something different.

I've swapped out the 9600X for a 7600X, which saves £20. Between that and some other savings I've got some room for a separate SSD for my Steam library.

It's probably time to retire those to backup duties and replace them with a NVME drive. How big is your current NVME drive?

How old is the PSU? Can you reuse it?

You can get a new Windows license for much less. Indeed, depending on the license you currently have you may be able to transplant your current OS drive into the new machine and have it work.

You want DDR5-6000 for AM5.

My current NVME drive is just 128GB, so it's fine for the OS, but won't be any good for a big Steam library. Do motherboards these days have multiple NVME slots, or only ever just the one? Or do you pay a fortune if they've got multiple NVME slots?

My current PSU is a Seasonic G550W, which I got second hand, so it could be over 10 years old at this point. 550W might also be a bit low these days?

I'm currently on Windows 10, and it keeps nagging me to upgrade to Windows 11, but I've not yet. I didn't think it was possible to transplant OS drives, but that would be nice if I could!

I've swapped out for DDR5-6000 RAM and it's a bit cheaper than what I had previously, so that's nice!

I've got this in my basket now, which is a bit closer to budget and fixes some of the points above.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Kingston FURY Renegade 500GB PCI-e 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SFYRS/500G) (SKU: STO-KNG-01328) = £49.99
• 1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 Dual Tower CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03279) = £39.95
• 1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-Bit DVD - OEM (FQC-10528) (SKU: SW-18K-MS) = £149.99
• 1 x Ducky One X Mini 60% Wireless Ducky Linear Inductive Switch RGB Gaming Keyboard Black - UK Layout (SKU: PER-DCK-03477) = £99.95
• 1 x Aerocool Integrator Gold 850W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-23T-AE) = £89.98
• 1 x Fractal Design Pop Mini Air RGB Clear Tempered Glass Mini Tower Case - Black (SKU: CA-0AG-FD) = £99.95
• 1 x Kingston FURY Beast EXPO 16GB (2x8GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-KNG-03703) = £59.99
• 1 x Crucial BX500 2TB SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (SKU: HD-07K-CR) = £111.95
• 1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XT Gaming 20GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-3A2-SP) = £569.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DG-AM) = £209.98
• 1 x Asrock B850M-X WiFi R2.0 (Socket AM5) DDR5 mATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASR-05290) = £125.00

Total: £1,606.72 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[aaronyuri]

Take out that Windows licence. £150 for Windows is nuts.

 

[Tetras]

I've swapped out the 9600X for a 7600X, which saves £20. Between that and some other savings I've got some room for a separate SSD for my Steam library.

If you're paying those prices, I'd probably just keep what you have, since the 9600X shows a nice uplift in some games, I'm talking about...... stuffs of other origins.

 

[Quartz]

My current NVME drive is just 128GB, so it's fine for the OS, but won't be any good for a big Steam library. Do motherboards these days have multiple NVME slots, or only ever just the one? Or do you pay a fortune if they've got multiple NVME slots?

3 or 4 slots is the norm. Keep your 128 GB OS drive - just transplant it - and get yourself a 2TB+ second NVME drive like the BX500 you have listed.

My current PSU is a Seasonic G550W, which I got second hand, so it could be over 10 years old at this point. 550W might also be a bit low these days?

Definitely replace it, on both grounds. It's not worth taking the risk.

1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XT Gaming 20GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-3A2-SP) = £569.99

This has been superseded by the Radeon RX 9070 XT which costs £620.

 

[Gray2233]

That's 16gb of RAM you've swapped to, you really want 32gb.

£116 for a SATA SSD is nuts, the build I linked is superior in almost every respect and comes in as cheaper. lol

 

[tamzzy]

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB Black CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02724) = £29.99
• 1 x Crucial T500 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01090) = £128.99
• 1 x Gainward GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Phoenix-S 16GB GDDR7 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-GNW-05399) = £689.98
• 1 x Antec CX600M ARGB M-ATX Mini Tower - Black (SKU: CAS-ATC-04160) = £54.95
• 1 x PNY XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-51200C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-PNY-04564) = £77.99
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 850W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02519) = £104.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600X3D Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-04829) = £269.99
• 1 x Asrock B850M-X WiFi R2.0 (Socket AM5) DDR5 mATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASR-05290) = £124.99

Total: £1,493.86 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

You can run W11 without a key and only lose minor functionality, alternatively keys can be had for £10 or so.

For the price difference between the 9070XT and 5070ti, the latter is the superior product. Slightly faster in rasterisation on average, DLSS has better support and IQ than FSR4, and ray/path tracing are better.

For purely gaming the X3D will be superior to the 9600X.

Faster RAM.

Better PSU, I'd not touch that Aerocool unit personally.

A larger NvME that's on par with the renegade in most respects, not that you'll be able to tell the difference in games.

This is the spec you want.

 

[Vonhelmet]

Cheers, I'd missed that post while I was typing my earlier reply.

If I leave off buying Windows and add in a keyboard then that gets me pretty much to be £1,600 budget.

Thanks all!

 

[pastymuncher]

Please don't go with the awful Aerocool psu, it's cheaper than other 850w psu's for a reason. The warranty is only three years on it which tells you all you need to know about the quality, or lack of in this case. Tammzy's choice of the Phanteks AMP 850w is much better and has a 8 year warranty although reviews are still lacking for these units. Also keep in mind that the 12v high power connector only delivers 450w so that's something to think about if you will upgrade to a beefier card in future. I found that out from Phantek's own website. Sadly there is nothing better without spending another £25 or more.

 

[Vonhelmet]

Please don't go with the awful Aerocool psu, it's cheaper than other 850w psu's for a reason. The warranty is only three years on it which tells you all you need to know about the quality, or lack of in this case. Tammzy's choice of the Phanteks AMP 850w is much better and has a 8 year warranty although reviews are still lacking for these units. Also keep in mind that the 12v high power connector only delivers 450w so that's something to think about if you will upgrade to a beefier card in future. I found that out from Phantek's own website. Sadly there is nothing better without spending another £25 or more.

Thanks. What would you advise for a better PSU? I don't know that I'll upgrade to a more powerful card any time soon, but it'd be nice to have the headroom if I do decide to.

I'm currently coming it at about £1,580, so another £30 or so on a PSU wouldn't be the end of the world, if there's something with some decent reviews out there.

 

[Craig_d1]

Cheers, I'd missed that post while I was typing my earlier reply.

If I leave off buying Windows and add in a keyboard then that gets me pretty much to be £1,600 budget.

Thanks all!

you have access to the MM. check it out, there's a 7800x3d for sale. Arrived just too late for a recent build where got a 7600x3d, but if doing now, I'd take that instead

psu i'd go for one of the below..prob the msi mpg 1000w msi unit...they all have 10yrs warranty but like a little overhead for future gpu upgrade etc down the line. tweektown review it..it is atx3.0, not 3.1, but doesn't really make much of a difference i think. It's fairly compact as well from review..and been reduced on offer at mo to £139 (so currently only £9 more than it's 850w little brother)


My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x MSI MPG A1000G PCIE5 UK PSU 1000W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-00W-MS) = £139.99
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming 850W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-060-AS) = £129.95
• 1 x Seasonic Focus GX-850 ATX 3.1 850W 80 Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: POW-SSC-03148) = £139.99

Total: £417.92 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

MSI MPG A1000G PCIe 5.0 1000-watt 80 PLUS Gold Gamers PSU Review

MSI manages to impress fairly decently with its new MPG A1000G PCIe 5.0 1000-watt 80 PLUS Gold rated gaming power supply. Let's take a close look.

www.tweaktown.com

 

[Sharpy_1]

If you're planning on using onboard wifi, that board doesn't have it (Gigabyte wifi term is "AX").

It is dubious if the 9600X is worth the extra £70 or so from the 7600/7600X, though I'm not sure where I'd put the money instead (bigger SSD?).

 

[pastymuncher]

Another psu to consider is the Asrock Steel Legend 850w. They have teamed up with HEC to produce these psu's and HEC are a oem I wouldn't normally give the time of day but they have upped their game massively with these units and Asrock certainly has faith in them because they have given them a 10 year warranty. Kitguru reviewed one and were very impressed with it, you can read the review here. The Cybernetics report looks good too. If I was looking for a psu right now it would certainly be on my shortlist along with the Superflower Leadex III UP 850w and the Antec HCG 850w although that's overpriced in my opinion.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x ASRock Steel Legend 850W 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular Power Supply (SKU: POW-ASR-04178) = £139.99
• 1 x Super Flower LEADEX III GOLD UP 1000W 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply PCIe 5.1 ATX 3.1 (SKU: POW-SFL-04172) = £149.99
• 1 x UK Mains Plug with 13A Fuse to IEC C13 Socket Lead, 10A, 2m (SKU: ACC-OCS-01709) = £0.00
• 1 x Antec HCG 850 Pro Platinum 850W ATX3.1 Full modular Power Supply (SKU: POW-ATC-02745) = £159.95

 

[Sharpy_1]

also as a keyboard alternative suggestion, i bought the below for less half the price and LOVE it

Redragon K552 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard​

 

[Vonhelmet]

Just popping back to say thanks to everyone for helping with this. I made a few tweaks to the build to save a bit of cash by taking advantage of the deals on the 9070 XT cards rather than a 5070 Ti, and I got an AIO water cooler as well. I’ve put it all together and I’m installing Windows (which I did not pay £150 for!!) so it seems to be working so far.