First build (newbie) advice

[bs0jdd]

Hi all,

Appreciate any responses in advance. I'm looking to build a gaming PC for son, to be honest he currently is just playing Fortnite on a console but will be interested in 1-2 other games and want to try and future-proof to a degree with a decent build.

I am new to PC building (well, maybe did some 20+ yrs ago!), so not up on all of the lingo and latest, so please be gentle

I want to go for a DDR5 motherboard, and for ease although perhaps more expensive I thought it might be easier to try and stick with Corsair components (case, CPU cooler, fans, PSU, etc) as my theory is it should be more straightforward to fit all together if same manufacturer...

I'm buying in bits every few weeks when I see something on sale and/or have some spare funds. I've already bought a CPU (oops, locked into Intel) and a PSU, so these are probably set in stone.

Already purchased:
CPU: Intel i7 12700F
PSU: Corsair RM750x (750W) 80 plus gold

Current plan (please advise/feedback on!):
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow (or 3000D??)
Motherboard: MSI Z790 Gaming Plus WiFi ATX for Intel (??)
CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE LINK TITAN 280 RX RGB Liquid CPU Cooler
RAM: Currently thinking a 4 x 16GB DDR5-6000, CL30 ??
SSD: Min 1TB NVME PCIe4.0 X4 of some sort
GPU: Probably something like a 4060 Ti or similar

I'm most concerned about choosing the right motherboard, I was looking at Asus Z790 but saw a lot of reviews saying poor customer support and issues with bios - I want as minimal post-build messing about as possible, so that put me off. I'm also drawn to a Z790 but this may be overshooting what I need (?) and is a Z790 board right in the price-point (around £200-250) that I am looking at for a Mobo?

Any other general thoughts and advice very welcome! Thanks v much.

 

[mickyflinn]

Hi and welcome.

You don't need 64gb of memory for gaming get 32gb.

Motherboard £165 ifor this is superb value imo put the extra into a 4070.

MSI MPG Z790 Carbon WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard

Order MSI MPG Z790 Carbon WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

£160 for a aio is excessive there are plenty of alternatives but there are some great air coolers for around £35 like the thermalright phantom spirit or peerless assassin.

 

[pastymuncher]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

First off, don't buy bits each week as that's the worst way to buy a pc. Save up until you have enough money for everything and then hunt around. By buying bits each week you are wasting the warranty on them plus if you have a component that is DOA you will have to go through a full RMA procedure that could take up to 28 days. By buying all at once if you have a item that is DOA and it is within 14 days of the purchase date you get a straight swap.

Second, don't stick to the same manufacturer, especially Corsair as it will tie you into their awful icue software, plus the majority of their stuff (especially fans) are overpriced. It makes little difference anyway as most things will play nicely together no matter who the manufacturer is.

Personally I wouldn't have gone Intel with their problems on the 13th and 14th gen cpu's as it leaves you no upgrade path. I would have gone (and did) AM5 with a 7800x3d if gaming is the main use. Are you within the returns window (usually 14 days) for the cpu?

You have picked a solid psu (I have the 850w version) so that's all good.

Don't buy a 4060ti, it's a awful card at a awful price. Either a 4070/4070 Super or RX 7800XT (Powercolour Hellhound is only £440) and wipes the floor with the 4060ti. They are all overpriced these days.

Don't go for four memory sticks as that creates more problems. Just go for a pair of sticks. 32Gb is more than enough for gaming so 2x16Gb. If you really insist on 64Gb then 2x 32Gb.

Mickyflinn has recommended a cracking motherboard and is more than enough to spend.

I agree with the aio, £160 is ridiculous (Corsair tax). You can buy a Thermalright 360mm AIO for less than £50 with five others less than £69. Don't overspend, save the money and put it towards tha components that count such as the gpu. If you went AMD you could easily manage with a £35 air cooler from Thermalright.

For a NVME drive I would go at least 2Tb if you only want a single drive. Games are getting bigger and bigger and it will only take a few games to fill a 1Tb drive. Don't go with a pci-e 5.0 drive either. They are overpriced and very hot running. Stick with a good pci-e 4.0 drive (you wouldn't notice the speed difference outside of benching anyway).

I am sure someone will be along with a build for you soon.

 

[Tetras]

I'm most concerned about choosing the right motherboard, I was looking at Asus Z790 but saw a lot of reviews saying poor customer support and issues with bios - I want as minimal post-build messing about as possible, so that put me off. I'm also drawn to a Z790 but this may be overshooting what I need (?) and is a Z790 board right in the price-point (around £200-250) that I am looking at for a Mobo?

I wouldn't worry too much about the support, there are horror stories with every brand if you read enough reddit threads. I'd just get whatever is a good value board, since the offers are constantly changing.

In regards to Z boards, you don't need one, they support overclocking but that is pretty much pointless nowadays except for the hobbyists and benchmark jockeys.

You can overclock memory on any board now, including B760. You do have more limited voltage settings on B boards though, which can be a negative if you want to undervolt or use very fast memory.

Z boards usually have 1 or 2 more M.2 slots and may have better sound and more/higher spec USB ports. They should also have PCI-E 5.0 graphics.

For gaming the VRM is not particularly important, but since you're not spending e.g. £100 on the board then I really wouldn't worry too much.

The board that mickyflinn suggested looks like a great deal.

RAM: Currently thinking a 4 x 16GB DDR5-6000, CL30 ??

pastymuncher already mentioned this, but yeah... don't, 4 sticks is a very bad idea if you can avoid it. 32GB should be enough. 6000 CL30 tends to be EXPO/AMD optimised instead of XMP, but in theory there's nothing wrong with that speed.

GPU: Probably something like a 4060 Ti or similar

These are barely any faster than the 3060 Ti (or even slower in some circumstances) and have poor performance for the money, I'd look at a 7800 XT or 4070 non-Super, as close to (or under) £450 as you can get one. If that means compromising on the RAM capacity or the motherboard then do it. The 7800 XT and 4070 non-Super are some 30% faster than the 4060 Ti which is a big deal for future longevity and makes them significantly stronger at higher resolutions/details.

Here's a collection of stuff for your perusal, cheapest to highest:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x MSI MPG Z790 Carbon WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-36V-MS) = £164.99

• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C36 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLBD532G5600HC36BDC01) (SKU: MY-0BB-TG) = £79.99
• 1 x Kingston FURY Renegade 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C32 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MY-29P-KS) = £104.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-51200C32 6400MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRS-01177) = £116.99

• 1 x PowerColor AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT HellHound 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PWC-00986) = £439.99
• 1 x AMD Radeon - Space Marine & Unknown 9 Awakening Games Bundle (SKU: DIG-AMD-02939) = £0.00
• 1 x MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ventus 2X E OC 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-MSI-02561) = £479.99
• 1 x NVIDIA - Star Wars: Outlaws Game Bundle (SKU: DIG-NVI-03030) = £0.00

• 1 x Phanteks XT Pro Ultra ATX Case Tempered Glass Window, Black (SKU: CAS-PHK-01443) = £74.98
• 1 x Lian Li Lancool 216 Mid-tower PC case - Black (SKU: CA-7BG-LL) = £89.98
• 1 x Antec C5 ARGB Midi Tower - Black (SKU: CAS-ATC-02729) = £110.00

• 1 x Arctic Freezer 36 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02420) = £22.99
• 1 x Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE Dual Tower CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02723) = £36.95
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer III High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 360mm (SKU: COO-ARC-01991) = £77.00

Total: £1,798.84 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[bs0jdd]

Awesome replies, thank you all very much and thanks for the warm welcome. Will look into each of these options in more detail! I think I might have to stick with the 12th gen i7 given the timing (I got it sub-£200 on sale but it is outside returns window...lesson learnt!), but hopefully intel will sort out in the next few years for post-14th gen, whatever their issue is?!

Thanks again, am sure I'll be back with more questions soon...

 

[Craig_d1]

As above but I'd go 4070super myself if going mid level gaming, though do understand the 7800XT route also. I just think dlss is better than fsr, and you'll use it...also much better raytracing, and the 4070dsuper isn't that far behind the 4070tisuper in that regard, esp. at higher resolutions, and that's where the amd cards really fall short...star wars outlaws is a good example. it has raytracing baked into the game which can't be turned off, same as avatar frontiers. If more and more games go this way, I'd take it over the 4gb vram, esp if gaming at 1440p( though arguement there as well ). Also be careful of the 4070 now. the new cards coming out might have GDDR6 rather than 6X, and they're slower (for the same price and no way of knowing which one you get)

if you can send back the intel cpu, then below would be my ideal mid level gaming setup which should last awhile (along these lines as cases etc are subjective). the cpu can be upgraded to 9800x3d in a couple years or hopefully 10800x3d, but it's still a great gaming cpu in itself. psu 850 w s/b ok for next gpu upgrade..hopefully a few years down the line as gpu most expensive component..hense paying a bit more now. Put the corsaur ram in as expo, and 6000c30 with a bit of rgb, as it's for your son, and if he's anything like my 2, that's needed (if it doesn't glow, it doesn't go). amd cpu don't drink as much power as the intel cpu's, so no need for aio's as al

if you want to spend more now, then 7800x3d to start off..best gaming cpu on the mkt at the mo too, though with the lacklustre 9000 launch, the price has gone back up on those until the x3d version comes out I guess (if it has an improvement)



My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Gainward GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Ghost 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-GNW-01534) = £518.99
• 1 x NVIDIA - Star Wars: Outlaws Game Bundle (SKU: DIG-NVI-03030) = £0.00
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £179.99
• 1 x WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) (SKU: HD-58G-WD) = £109.99
• 1 x Arctic Freezer 36 A-RGB 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02418) = £29.99
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6K1-AS) = £169.99
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 850W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02519) = £104.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMH32GX5M2B6000Z30K) (SKU: MY-4DU-CS) = £115.99
• 1 x Antec C3 ARGB Midi Tower - Black (SKU: CAS-ATC-02727) = £79.99

Total: £1,309.92 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

​

​

below is a good showing the difference between a 7600x and 7800x3d with a 4070super, which will give you a good performance metric. so at 1080p you get the most difference but at 1440 it really narrows, and in quite a few there's no difference(really depends which games like the x3d)...the clips also show what happens when frame gen is turned on etc, at which it really becomes a tie..​

​

​

 

[dfour]

This uses your cpu you own.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming B760-Plus WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASU-01804) = £145.99
• 1 x Phanteks XT View ATX Case Tempered Glass Windows, Black (SKU: CAS-PHK-01445) = £85.00
• 1 x TeamGroup Delta RGB 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FF3D532G6000HC30DC01) (SKU: MY-0B8-TG) = £109.99
• 1 x Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB Dual Tower CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02721) = £36.95
• 1 x WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) (SKU: HD-58G-WD) = £109.99
• 1 x MSI MAG A850GL 850W 80 Plus Gold ATX 3.0 PCIE5Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-012-MS) = £119.99
• 1 x Gainward GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Ghost 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-GNW-01534) = £518.99
• 1 x NVIDIA - Star Wars: Outlaws Game Bundle (SKU: DIG-NVI-03030) = £0.00

Total: £1,126.90 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

Only thing I would change is the cpu coler to the frost commander (OC dont stock it yet) Can be had for the same price as the peerless listed above

Frost Commander 140 BLACK – Thermalright

www.thermalright.com

 

[pastymuncher]

He already has a brand new Corsair RM750x so the psu is covered.

 

[dfour]

Teach me for speed reading.

Could always use the psu money in the builds to upgreade to a 7900xt for about £630.

 

[bs0jdd]

Thanks again for all of the very helpful replies, some saving, planning and ordering to do! No doubt I'll be back at some point for build advice...

 

[zaniro]

I intend to go with the Corsair 4000d as well for my build and team it with Phanteks T30 fans. Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM are also a contender for consideration. I recently bought a Antec Performance 1 FT case with Antec Tranquil fans that emit a grinding sound, which was a lesson learned.

 

[bs0jdd]

Hi folks, hope all had a great Christmas and looking forward to the New Year.

I just wanted to bump this post up to say thank you to everyone who gave such helpful advice on this thread. I was quite nervous building for the first time, I think I lucked out (maybe?) that the original case I was going to get was OOS and so I went for the Antec C5 in the end - I cannot recommend this case enough (OK, n=1 of experience here), but for ~£95 it has 7 pre-installed RGB fans, a lovely glass case but importantly LOADS of room to install everything and it was very straight-forward on that side. It is a beast of a case though (quite wide)!

I finally finished my build the other day, switched it on and to initial horror, none of the case fans spun but it did enter BIOS and so my expensive (for me) GPU was working, lit up, and it recognised the installed RAM and CPU etc, and the CPU fans were spinning (phew!). My second horror was in BIOS under storage I couldn't see my SSD there, but that was overcome with some relief when I realised the MSI BIOS menu you could press left and right I think on the storage menu and it would switch between SATA and PCIe - relief when I saw my SSD in there (I have no SATA HDD).

I then thought it must be a power connection to the fans, the only downside of this case is the fans at the bottom block accessing some of by Mobo's connections (such as the case USB/LED/button control, and the system fans, etc), so you have to unscrew 2 of these fans, that was easy enough though (good case!) and I noticed the sys fan cable appeared perhaps not quite fully plugged in. Powered up, didn't fix it to my dismay, so then accessed under the SATA panel below the PSU where I thought the case ARGB control was, and noticed surprise, surprise (Duh) there was a power connector with nothing in it that looked unlike anything I used so checked my Corsair unused power cables and realised it was a SATA power cable. Plugged that in, easy cabling from the PSU, reassembled and boom - all lit up, spinning etc, and then onto figuring out how to download windows onto a USB stick from my laptop and install.

Big thanks to all for your help with picking the setup! In the end I went for:

CPU: Intel i7 12700K
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE dual tower
MOBO: MSI MPG Z790 Carbon WiFi
RAM: Kingston FURY Beast 2 x 16GB DDR5-6000 CL30
Storage: Kingston FURY Renegade 2TB PCI-e 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
GPU: Zotac Twin Edge OC GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12GB
Case: Antec C5 ARGB ATX
PSU: Corsair RM750x
OS: Windows 11 Home

PS - I know, I know, cable management is not great, but this is not a strength of mine and was just pleased I got it built and working!!

 

[dfour]

Normally you mount a cooler facing front to back so it draws cool air from the front of the case. You will be drawing hot air off the gpu which is not ideal but I dont know how much difference it will make in reality.

 

[bs0jdd]

Normally you mount a cooler facing front to back so it draws cool air from the front of the case. You will be drawing hot air off the gpu which is not ideal but I dont know how much difference it will make in reality.

Thanks for this, I wasn't thinking as much about the direction of airflow as much as the physical fit. It seemed to me as I was playing with this way or the reverse that the Phantom cooler is actually asymmetric. Having it the other way meant that it clashed with the RAM slot, at least it was directly over the closest installed RAM and likely touching/pushing it which I thought was not going to work at worst and at best sub-optimal.

If you look at the first picture you can see how close it is to the installed RAM and if you imagine that the unit is asymmetric in that installing the other way it is closer to the RAM, you might see why I ended up in this configuration!

 

[dfour]

having the front fan hanging over the first ram slot is completely normal.