First Gaming PC

Graham West

Graham West

Graham West

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Joined
2 Nov 2021
Posts
11
Location
south east England
Hi All,

Im sure this question has come up a lot but I am putting together my first ever gaming PC.

I have looked around and started down the rabbit hole that is custom PC's

I am after some advice of my first build. I intend to run at 1440p but would like good frame rates at this level.

This list I have put together so far is
  • Corsair iCUE 4000X RGB Mid Tower Gaming Case
  • MSI Z590 PRO WIFI Intel Socket 1200 Motherboard
  • Intel Core i5 11600K Rocket Lake-S CPU
  • 16GB Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO SL DDR4 3600mhz
  • Gainward GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Phoenix 8GB GPU
  • Western Digital Black SN850 1TB M.2-2280 SSD
  • Seagate BarraCuda 1TB SATA III 3.5" HDD
  • Corsair RM Series RM850 850W Modular 80+ Gold PSU
  • Corsair iCUE H100i Elite Capellix 240mm Liquid CPU Cooler
This parts list come to about £2000 which is my limit really.

I am also looking at getting a 165HZ 1ms refresh rate monitor but again so many of them to choose from so any recommendations also appreciated

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or improvements on the above list
 
Alderlake is released in 2 days time. Would be advisable to wait for at least that long to see what Intel bring to the table.

I personally would recommend an AMD system over 11th gen Intel but there is nothing glaringly obvious wrong about the parts you have picked. The normal points of convention are do not go for PCIe 4 NVME drive and go for cheaper PCIe 3.0 such as WD SN750 or to get a cheaper tower cooler and not an expensive AIO and you can get better ram for less money if you forgo the RGB.

This is just a personal opinion of mine and others may have different experience but for the me the Corsair iCUE software is a crime against technology. It is obvious you want your pc to look nice but do not expect all the rgb to play nicely and do expect to pull your hair out in frustration.
 
Haz123 said:
Alderlake is released in 2 days time. Would be advisable to wait for at least that long to see what Intel bring to the table.

I personally would recommend an AMD system over 11th gen Intel but there is nothing glaringly obvious wrong about the parts you have picked. The normal points of convention are do not go for PCIe 4 NVME drive and go for cheaper PCIe 3.0 such as WD SN750 or to get a cheaper tower cooler and not an expensive AIO and you can get better ram for less money if you forgo the RGB.

This is just a personal opinion of mine and others may have different experience but for the me the Corsair iCUE software is a crime against technology. It is obvious you want your pc to look nice but do not expect all the rgb to play nicely and do expect to pull your hair out in frustration.
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Thanks for your reply much appreciated. I am after a good looking PC but it doesn't have to be filled with RGB.

I am planning to order it in the next month or so when I feel I have researched what I am buying and am getting the best value for my money, so thanks for the heads up hopefully the current chips may change in price.
I will look at other cases as well I don't have a preference of brand so I will see if there are others that I like.

1-What other ram would you recommend ?
2-is there a specific reason to not go for PMIe 4 ? it is only about £30 more for the PMIe 4 over the 3 and about double the speeds. (apologies if it is obvious and said loads I am new to this)
 
Graham West said:
Thanks for your reply much appreciated. I am after a good looking PC but it doesn't have to be filled with RGB.

I am planning to order it in the next month or so when I feel I have researched what I am buying and am getting the best value for my money, so thanks for the heads up hopefully the current chips may change in price.
I will look at other cases as well I don't have a preference of brand so I will see if there are others that I like.

1-What other ram would you recommend ?
2-is there a specific reason to not go for PMIe 4 ? it is only about £30 more for the PMIe 4 over the 3 and about double the speeds. (apologies if it is obvious and said loads I am new to this)
Click to expand...

The case RGB and the AIO RGB will work jsut fine once you have the wires sorted out, that will be a real octupus for sure , but the ram and mobo rgb is not hardwired and will be tempermental and I noticed you have chosen a lot of Corsair parts and I just hate their iCUE software. Just letting you know that RGB is the wild west of PC building with nothing working well together.

I was not saying do not go for the ram you have chosen. I have Corsair RGB ram and works just fine but you will always get comments on being able to get cheaper faster ram for less. You can but it may not look how you want it too , buying for aestetic is perfectly reasonable. With Alderlake being DDR5 compatable memory choices could change entirely , we will know in a couple of days if that is the case.

I also have that exact SSD, I also thought it was worth the cost over the slower PCIe 3.0 nvme drives but currently it does not make anything faster, many many tests that show their is currently very little benfit to have the faster pcie 4 drives unless you are transferring large files between drives on the same pc. If direct storage becomes mainstream it may have benefits in the future.

P.s. The GPU will be by far the hardest part to get and the most expensive. Keep your eyes out for deals and if one comes along at the price you are willing to pay then I suggest you buy it.
Because you are in no rush you could install Telegram and join the FEpartalert channel that will send you a message when the Nvidia Founders edition cards come into stock, they are substantially cheaper and much better value.
 
I'd recommend going for a pre-built system due to the current gpu pricing/stock

You can get as an example what I just looked at...5600x/b550/16gb of RAM, RTX 3080, 1TB NVME, 2TB HDD, Corsair 850w PSU, Win10 Home...£1735.

2k is 3080ti money, i'd try and get an FE card such as a 3070ti/3080ti and you'll either come in well under budget or have more power if you want to build it all yourself, the other cards on the market are mad money.
 
That system should run games really well. The trick will be buying the graphics card as that is not about choice but availability.

Buying a monitor with decent quality control is another issue. I would avoid anything heavily marketed toward gaming and the likes Asus, MSI and Acer particularity.
 
jigger said:
That system should run games really well. The trick will be buying the graphics card as that is not about choice but availability.

Buying a monitor with decent quality control is another issue. I would avoid anything heavily marketed toward gaming and the likes Asus, MSI and Acer particularity.
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I will most likely get a prebuilt system as this seems the best way to get the GPU these days.

any monitors you would recommend ??
 
Graham West said:
I will most likely get a prebuilt system as this seems the best way to get the GPU these days.

any monitors you would recommend ??
Click to expand...

Yeah, prices on pre built a are usually better. Have a look at OcUK Kestrel builds.

Ive had most success with Samsung monitors. OcUK had 49” screens on offer for £600 last week. Depends what you are looking to spend.
 
You could go for something like this and add extra storage and RAM when needed.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
  • 1 x OcUK Gaming Kestrel Micro-ATX Gaming PC - AMD Ryzen 5600X, AMD Radeon Graphics = £2,044.14
    • Case:Kolink Citadel Mesh RGB Micro-ATX Case - Black
    • Primary Solid State Drive (M.2):WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)
    • Secondary Solid State Drive (M.2):Unwanted
    • Primary 2.5" Solid State Drive:Unwanted
    • Secondary 2.5" Solid State Drive :Unwanted
    • Operating System:Microsoft Windows 10 Home Advanced - Systems
    • Security Software:Unwanted
    • Memory:Kingston HyperX Fury RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C17 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit
    • Graphics Card:Asus Radeon RX 6800 XT TUF Gaming OC 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Total: £2,058.24 (includes shipping: £14.10)​
​
 
jigger said:
Yeah, prices on pre built a are usually better. Have a look at OcUK Kestrel builds.

Ive had most success with Samsung monitors. OcUK had 49” screens on offer for £600 last week. Depends what you are looking to spend.
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I was looking into a 27inch monitor as that would be the right size for the space this build is going and from research looks like anything from £300 to £500 should get me a good screen
 
you dont have to use pre-built, OCUK hold stocks of GPUS for Custom builds as well, just pick the rest of the components you want and then ask them what GPU are available
 
Kurgen said:
you dont have to use pre-built, OCUK hold stocks of GPUS for Custom builds as well, just pick the rest of the components you want and then ask them what GPU are available
Click to expand...

I would like the experience of building it myself but if I piece the parts together and then do the same in the pre build the pre build ends up almost the same price with a guarantee. unless I am doing something wrong which there is a good chance I am.
 
Graham West said:
I would like the experience of building it myself but if I piece the parts together and then do the same in the pre build the pre build ends up almost the same price with a guarantee. unless I am doing something wrong which there is a good chance I am.
Click to expand...
Prebuilds can use cheaper parts to reduce the price (often cheaper PSU, motherboard, RAM) but they can come in at a decent price so it's really dependent on the build.

I prefer building my own PC because I'll get the parts I want and building a computer is fun and not that hard.

Graham West said:
Hi All,

Im sure this question has come up a lot but I am putting together my first ever gaming PC.

I have looked around and started down the rabbit hole that is custom PC's

I am after some advice of my first build. I intend to run at 1440p but would like good frame rates at this level.

This list I have put together so far is
  • Corsair iCUE 4000X RGB Mid Tower Gaming Case
  • MSI Z590 PRO WIFI Intel Socket 1200 Motherboard
  • Intel Core i5 11600K Rocket Lake-S CPU
  • 16GB Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO SL DDR4 3600mhz
  • Gainward GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Phoenix 8GB GPU
  • Western Digital Black SN850 1TB M.2-2280 SSD
  • Seagate BarraCuda 1TB SATA III 3.5" HDD
  • Corsair RM Series RM850 850W Modular 80+ Gold PSU
  • Corsair iCUE H100i Elite Capellix 240mm Liquid CPU Cooler
This parts list come to about £2000 which is my limit really.

I am also looking at getting a 165HZ 1ms refresh rate monitor but again so many of them to choose from so any recommendations also appreciated

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or improvements on the above list
Click to expand...

That's a very nice build. There is LGA1700 launching soon but it's going to be far more expensive than LGA1200 so it's really up to you.

Also, newly launched DDR5 isn't going to be as fast as mature DDR4 so don't think that newer means better.
 
so just after having my 30th I now have the money all together to pull the trigger on ordering my new rig.

I am leaning towards building it myself as it looks about £300 cheaper and I am more than capable of doing so.

I have put together a list of parts so far I have;
  • Intel Core i5 11600KF, S 1200, Rocket Lake, 6 Cores, 12 Threads, 3.9GHz, 4.9GHz Turbo, 12MB Cache, 125W, Retail
  • ASUS ROG STRIX Z590-E GAMING WIFI, Intel Z590, S 1200, DDR4, PCIe 4.0, SATA3, 4x M.2, 2x 2.5GbE, ax/BT5.2, USB 3.2, ATX
  • 750W Corsair RM Series RM750 Full Modular, 80PLUS Gold, SLI/CrossFire, Single Rail, 62.5A, 140mm Fan, ATX PSU
  • NZXT Kraken X63 RGB, 280mm All-In-One Hydro CPU Cooler with RGB Lighting, 2x 140mm RGB PWM Fans, CAM Control, Intel/AMD
  • 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR4 Vengeance RGB PRO Black, PC4-28800 (3600), Non-ECC Unbuff, CAS 18-22-22-42, RGB LED, 1.35V
  • NZXT H710, Black/Red, Mid Tower w/ Tempered Glass Window, 3x 120/1x 140mm Fans, USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C, EATX/ATX/mATX/mITX
  • 27" Gigabyte G27QC-A Monitor, 1500R, VA, 2560x1440, 165Hz, 1ms, 12M:1, 250cd/m², HDMI/DP
  • Corsair Gaming K63, Compact, Red Back-Lit Keys, Cherry MX Red Mechanical, 10 Keyless, Wired, USB 2.0, Anti-Ghosting
  • Corsair IRONCLAW RGB Optical FPS/MOBA Gaming Mouse, RGB Back-Lit, 18,000dpi, Wired, USB 2.0, 7 Buttons, 1000Hz, Black
I will also be running a 3070TI which I will by separately but I have settled on this card.

I am wondering weather or not to go for Intels Alderlake or not which of course would be a new CPU and motherboard.
what are everyones thoughts on going for Alderlake or not ?
 
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Graham West said:
just asking the question is the upgrade worth it?

I take it from your response its a no brainer
Click to expand...
Makes sense to even it cost slightly more but make sure your cooler has a skt 1700 bracket for Alderlake otherwise you will have to order one.

Stick with ddr 4 as ddr5 is to expensive.
 
mickyflinn said:
Makes sense to even it cost slightly more but make sure your cooler has a skt 1700 bracket for Alderlake otherwise you will have to order one.

Stick with ddr 4 as ddr5 is to expensive.
Click to expand...

Perfect thanks will update my parts list. Do you know of any good Z690 motherboards round the £300 mark ? I can find the ROG STRIX equivalent of what I have in the list above but don't like all the sliver.
 
Graham West said:
Perfect thanks will update my parts list. Do you know of any good Z690 motherboards round the £300 mark ? I can find the ROG STRIX equivalent of what I have in the list above but don't like all the sliver.
Click to expand...
The msi edge seems to be a decent option but always check out reviews and specs.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...ntel-z690-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-36a-ms.html

Asus tuf is another option.


https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...ntel-z690-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-6h0-as.html
 
The MSI Z690 Tomahawk Wifi is another option for £30 less than the Edge Wifi.

I would look at a different case as the H710 is a bit of a hot box. Something with a mesh front like the Corsair 4000D Airflow, Phanteks P400 Air or Lian-Li Lancool Mesh II etc would be better.

A good air cooler will be cheaper than the X63. Something like a Scythe Fuma 2. If you want an AIO the Arctic Liquid Freezer II and Lian-Li Galahad are good. As mentioned you will need to check on the bracket. Also make sure to check the cooler will fit the case you choose :)

I would go with 32GB Ram as it shouldn't be a huge amount more.
 
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