First build in a long long time, spec advice.

[ZG002]

Hi all,

Been here a long time, but haven't actually build a gaming PC in many years.

I now seem to have a right itch and can't stop looking at parts!

I'd like to game at 1440p (I have a 27" Dell 1440p monitor that will run up to 165Hz)

Gaming - I'd like to play the latest games at 1440p and would be happy running at anything over 60fps really.

The spec I've currently got in my basket is as below, could someone please cast an eye over it and point out any issues or advise on a better combo? Am I missing something obvious?

I do have a second m.2 1tb gen4 drive in my gaming laptop that I will likely remove and add to this.

Budget is a hard £1500.

1 X AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £199.99
SKU: CP-3DG-AM

1 X Asrock B650M PG Riptide (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard - £158.99
SKU: MB-18Y-AK

1 X Corsair Vengeance RGB EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMH32GX5M2B6000Z30K) - £115.99
SKU: MY-4DU-CS

1 X Gainward GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Ghost 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card - £518.99
SKU: GRA-GNW-01534

1 X Corsair Hydro Series H100 RGB Liquid All in One CPU Water Cooler - 240mm - £99.95
SKU: COO-CRS-01009

1 X Phanteks AMP GH 750W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black - £84.95
SKU: POW-PHK-02517

1 X WD Black SN850X 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2X0E) - £89.99
SKU: HD-590-WD

1 X Antec C3 ARGB Midi Tower - Black - £79.99
SKU: CAS-ATC-02727


Grand Total: £1,348.84

 

[Tetras]

1 X Asrock B650M PG Riptide (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard - £158.99

1 X Antec C3 ARGB Midi Tower - Black - £79.99

Wouldn't you be better off with the CX500 if you're going MATX?

1 X Corsair Hydro Series H100 RGB Liquid All in One CPU Water Cooler - 240mm - £99.95

I assume you're aware that these CPUs can be cooled with cheap air coolers like the freezer 36 or peerless assassin?

1 X WD Black SN850X 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2X0E) - £89.99

Good drive, but a bit pricey for just 1TB (£ per GB) versus the 2TB drives.

 

[hornetstinger]

Is building your own worth it, or more cost effective to get ready made PC? I know someone who wants a complete PC.

Also what's generally best value for performance/price? Ie a cheap £30 HTPC office GPU would be useless in games, a £200 GPU is good enough without breaking the bank, and £500 gives slightly more fps but you have to spend a lot more to get that.

Similar analogy to Hifi, big jumps in price for marginal improvements

 

[ZG002]

Wouldn't you be better off with the CX500 if you're going MATX?

I had that in my basket at first, I like the look of the c3 a little more. I think I will have a look at both, see if I can find some videos of them being built etc.

I assume you're aware that these CPUs can be cooled with cheap air coolers like the freezer 36 or peerless assassin?

Yeah, I just like the look of AIO. Tbh I wasn't sure which air cooler would be best, so will take a look at those two thanks

Good drive, but a bit pricey for just 1TB (£ per GB) versus the 2TB drives.

Is there a different drive you would recommend currently?

Thank you for taking a look.

 

[ZG002]

Is building your own worth it, or more cost effective to get ready made PC? I know someone who wants a complete PC.

Also what's generally best value for performance/price? Ie a cheap £30 HTPC office GPU would be useless in games, a £200 GPU is good enough without breaking the bank, and £500 gives slightly more fps but you have to spend a lot more to get that.

Similar analogy to Hifi, big jumps in price for marginal improvements

Half the fun is the build for me, the research and then putting to all together and getting it running right. I have looked at pre built but they all have something I'm not happy with and I'm paying someone to do a part I enjoy anyway.

Gpu's have gone up in price a little since my last build, a i7 4770k build many moons ago.

I already have a legion 7 gaming laptop but it's not really happy at 1440p, I have the space for a tower again now.

 

[Tetras]

I has that in my basket at first, I like the look of the c3 a little more. I think I will have a look at both, see if I can find some video of them being built etc.

If you do go with the C3, I'd upgrade your motherboard to ATX, you'll likely get an extra M.2 slot and it will be easier to use a secondary slot if you have a large graphics card.

Is there a different driver you would recommend currently?

It depends on the drive you pick, but usually a higher-end PCI-E 4.0 drive with dram 2TB is around £130-£150, so that would be better value (e.g. KC3000, T500, P44 Pro, 990 Pro, Firecuda 530).

Is building your own worth it, or more cost effective to get ready made PC? I know someone who wants a complete PC.

If they want a cheap office PC buying a prebuilt is often more cost effective, but a gaming PC you'll likely find that a build is better value, but you can just price out the parts yourself to compare. Keep in mind that prebuilds often use very cheap motherboards, cases and PSUs, so you have to compare like with like to get a true picture.

a £200 GPU is good enough without breaking the bank, and £500 gives slightly more fps but you have to spend a lot more to get that.

It depends what resolution you're going for, you then need to compare each card on their own merits. At ~£200, the RX 6600 is the best value and consistently beats the 3050. That's great for 1080p, but you would not buy one for 1440p. ~£500 cards like the 7800 XT and 4070 non-Super are decent value for 1440p and at a push, entry-level 4K.

 

[hornetstinger]

right ok just to get I would need following on complete new build (I'm IT person but some things so obvious probably forgotten haha)

Parts needed for complete PC

Monitor
Case
Keyboard
Mouse
Speakers/sound system
Motherboard, AMD or Intel based
CPU, AMD or Intel based
GPU, AMD or Nvidia based
Memory
Heatsink
PSU
NVME for game storage
3.5" spinning hard drive for secondary mass storage
Mouse mat

 

[Tetras]

right ok just to get I would need following on complete new build (I'm IT person but some things so obvious probably forgotten haha)

Parts needed for complete PC

Can you start your own thread and state the requirements/usage, budget, etc.