Feedback on £3.5k+ Spec.

[Ashley Long]

My current spec isn't quite up to the job anymore, having waited for the new AMD processors to come out (and flop somewhat) i'm itching to pull the trigger on a new build.

Current Spec : i7-8700k, Asus ROG Strix Z370-F, 16GB DDR4, Sound Blaster Zx, Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT Nitro Gaming OC (I believe the powersupply is a XFX 850W 80 Plus Silver, which is about 10 years old). Samsung Odyssey G9 49inch 240Hz monitor (5120x1440).

Usage : Gaming (CS2, WOW, a few other random steam games), Media play back (i attached my 4k TV via a HDMI cable for watching SkyGO).

New Spec : My plan is to buy a 5090 in Dec/Jan when they are released. keep the ultrawide monitor, keyboard and mouse from my current rig. I might move the sound card across and get some desktop speakers. I'm undecided on the PSU and the Motherboard i picked out is currently Pre-Order, but others with similar features are all pre-order.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x NZXT H6 Flow RGB Mid-Tower Case - Black (SKU: CAS-NZX-01111) = £119.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core 5.00GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DT-AM) = £349.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen - Space Marine & Unknown 9 Awakening Games Bundle (SKU: DIG-AMD-02908) = £0.00
• 1 x Asrock X670E Pro RS (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-18S-AK) = £279.98
• 1 x NZXT Kraken 360 Black RGB AIO CPU Water Cooler - 360mm (SKU: HS-02G-NX) = £200.00
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C40 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMH64GX5M2B5600Z40K) (SKU: MY-4DQ-CS) = £199.99
• 1 x Corsair Force MP600 ELITE 2TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRS-01682) = £169.99
• 1 x Corsair HXi Series HX1200i 80 PLUS Platinum ATX Power Supply (SKU: POW-CRS-01895) = £259.99
• 1 x Corsair HXi Series HX1000i Fully Modular Ultra-Low Noise ATX Digital Power Supply (CP-9020259-UK) (SKU: CA-27Q-CS) = £184.99

Total: £1,764.92 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

Any opinions and/or comments? I'm open to suggestions or optimisations.

 

[Tetras]

Any opinions and/or comments? I'm open to suggestions or optimisations.

Some cheaper alternatives. I tried to pick in-stock only, but cooler is not in stock (usually readily available elsewhere).

Motherboard retains PCI-E 5.0 graphics, I'd also look at MSI's X670E Gaming Plus. What features do you need from the board?

Case includes 7 stock RGB fans.

HCG Pro PSU is based on Seasonic's Vertex.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core 5.00GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DT-AM) = £349.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen - Space Marine & Unknown 9 Awakening Games Bundle (SKU: DIG-AMD-02908) = £0.00
• 1 x Asus ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6JX-AS) = £220.00
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C40 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK64GX5M2B5600Z40) (SKU: MY-4DL-CS) = £169.99
• 1 x WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) (SKU: HD-58G-WD) = £103.99
• 1 x Antec C5 ARGB Midi Tower - Black (SKU: CAS-ATC-02729) = £109.99
• 1 x Antec HCG 1000 Pro Platinum 1000W ATX3.1 Full modular Power Supply (SKU: POW-ATC-02746) = £179.99

• 1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB Black CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02724) = £29.99

Total: £1,163.94 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[Firegod]

Personally I would stick with 32GB and also go 6000Mhz with EXPO not 5600Mhz. Can't see 64GB being required for casual gaming use. And personal taste, I'd swap out the M.2 for the Kingston Fury. Both saves you £100 from your original basket whilst giving you a bit more (better Mhz and CAS on memory, and better TBW and theoretical max write speed on the M.2):

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMH32GX5M2B6000Z30K) (SKU: MY-4DU-CS) = £124.99
• 1 x Kingston FURY Renegade 2TB PCI-e 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SFYRS/2000G) (SKU: STO-KNG-01330) = £145.99

Total: £274.98 (includes delivery: £3.99)​

 

[Quartz]

Any opinions and/or comments?

You have two PSUs listed.

I might move the sound card across and get some desktop speakers.

I have a Soundblaster Katana v2 soundbar + sub (not sold by OCUK) with which I am very happy - but I am no audiophile - and it saves a lot of space.

Corsair Vengeance EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C40 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black

The sweet spot is C30 6000. I agree with @Tetras that 64 GB is overkill, but if you think you're going to play games like DCS, or maybe Cities Skylines 2 then you might as well go for it.

For a case, take a look at the RGB version of the Montech King Air 95 Pro (I have the red model).

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Corsair Vengeance EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-02841) = £218.99
• 1 x Montech KING 95 PRO Midi-Tower, Tempered Glass, ARGB - Black (SKU: CAS-MON-01482) = £124.99

Total: £343.98 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[Ashley Long]

Some cheaper alternatives. I tried to pick in-stock only, but cooler is not in stock (usually readily available elsewhere).

Motherboard retains PCI-E 5.0 graphics, I'd also look at MSI's X670E Gaming Plus. What features do you need from the board?

Case includes 7 stock RGB fans.

HCG Pro PSU is based on Seasonic's Vertex.

For cooler i AIO was a cosmetic choice as my PC will be on display, I don't mind spending the extra, even if there are minimal performance gains.

When i was first looking at Motherboards i was looking at the PCIe 5.0 for both GFX card and M.2 drive, however looking at the extra cost per performance of the M.2 it's not worth the extra so a B650E board will do.

I was looking at that case before settling for the NZXT. I didn't spot extra fan's being included, which makes it more appealing. i'll need to think it over.

Thanks for the PSU suggestion, i have swapped your suggested one in to my basket.

Personally I would stick with 32GB and also go 6000Mhz with EXPO not 5600Mhz. Can't see 64GB being required for casual gaming use. And personal taste, I'd swap out the M.2 for the Kingston Fury. Both saves you £100 from your original basket whilst giving you a bit more (better Mhz and CAS on memory, and better TBW and theoretical max write speed on the M.2):

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMH32GX5M2B6000Z30K) (SKU: MY-4DU-CS) = £124.99
• 1 x Kingston FURY Renegade 2TB PCI-e 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SFYRS/2000G) (SKU: STO-KNG-01330) = £145.99

Total: £274.98 (includes delivery: £3.99)​

I know 32GB is already overkil for most games, i was looking at future proofing and factoring in how hungry chrome can be (figured Windows + Chrome + Discord + a Game might start to push 32GB in the next few years). In general would 6000MHz be better than 5600MHz? I believe it was bottlenecked by the processor speed so there were minimal advantages to fast speeds? (i have fairly poor knowledge when it comes to RAM so forgive me for asking dumb questions).

EDIT : After posting @Quartz mentioned about the sweetspot being C30 6000MHz. Thanks for the information.

 

[Tetras]

In general would 6000MHz be better than 5600MHz

The reason I didn't include it in my spec is just because it cost £49 and I was trying to suggest cheaper alternatives to your spec. For a 3K5 build, the extra cost is not a big deal.

The performance difference is small for X3D CPUs, especially if you're playing at 4K.

For cooler i AIO was a cosmetic choice as my PC will be on display, I don't mind spending the extra, even if there are minimal performance gains.

Have you looked at the freezer III? Is still a good performer, but costs substantially less. I'd advise checking case/motherboard compatibility if you switch.

When i was first looking at Motherboards i was looking at the PCIe 5.0 for both GFX card and M.2 drive, however looking at the extra cost per performance of the M.2 it's not worth the extra so a B650E board will do.

B650E boards still give you that, but you do normally lose 1x M.2 slot overall.

The Strix B650E-E retains 4x M.2 slots like most X670E boards, but steals some lanes from the graphics card to have 2x PCi-E 5.0 M.2 slots (X670E doesn't need to do that). The B650E-F I suggested has 1x PCI-E 5.0 and 2x PCI-E 4.0.

 

[Joxeon]

New X870/X870E boards coming at the end of the month so new options and may effect pricing of the 600 series boards.

For cooler i AIO was a cosmetic choice as my PC will be on display, I don't mind spending the extra, even if there are minimal performance gains.

Have you looked at the freezer III

The freezer III RGB is a great option for a top performing AIO with a bit of bling.

 

[Craig_d1]

5090 rated for power draw of 500w, 5080 350w..
7800x3d power draw didn't look like it went over 70w from below

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Review - The Best Gaming CPU

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www.techpowerup.com

think 1000w adequate as doubt 5090 will be going full pelt all the time, so even with all the other peripherals you'll prob be using 500W I'm guessing while gaming so 50% of the 1000w psu..well within the most efficient band..my rm1000x hits peak efficiency at 30% load so in theory 1200W probably just as good...comes down to how much you want to spend..got a rm1000x shift also which is £140 i think now, more than enough

I'm with @Firegod for ammount of Ram..32 more than enough for gaming....unless you play a specific game that requires it..and go 6000c30...not that much more..may only be a few % more than slower ram, but if you're sticking a £2k gpu in, 3% is £60

How Much RAM Do Gamers Need? 16GB vs. 32GB vs. 64GB

How much RAM do gamers need? It's a question we get asked a lot, and it's one we used to answer yearly with a good old-fashioned benchmark...

www.techspot.com

Case is subjective, and H6 flow has good reviews. @tetrus right though..no need for an aio. got a a35 artcic on my 7800x3d..putting a a36 freezer on it, as bored and it looks nicer, £23 for the dual rgb fan model...b650-e-f above is more than enough for gaming too...x870e boards will give you usb4 if you want..can't think what else apart from different looks..the x870 non e boards will be equivalent of b650e boards...I run a b650e-e board and good..like the eroor code display..but price back up...was down at £235 a month or so ago