First upgrade in a while - pretty out of touch!

AlexTrickle

AlexTrickle

AlexTrickle

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So I'm finally looking to do a new build as my current setup (7700k and gtx1080) is getting on and I can feel the limitations starting to creep in.

I used to do new build almost every 2 years but this build is like 6 years old and I'm very out of the loop.

My personal needs are mostly gaming but things like WoW and Minecraft but I've recently started enjoying the latter with pretty fancy shader packs which are actually pretty taxing on my system and getting big fps drops.

I intend to re-use my case, PSU and storage so don't need these. Pretty much all my builds have been Intel/Nvidia but some initial research has said the Ryzen 7800X3D is currently top dog for gaming specifically?

My initial first parse in my basket is as follow:
My basket at OcUK:

Total: £1,487.95 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

I'll probably add a H100i AIO (basically the new version of what I currently have) for cooling.

One big question I have is that OCUK doesn't seem to sell Windows USBs anymore? I always use to buy Windows from OCUK to install with a new fresh build. The only copies I see are on a DVD apparently - I remember these used to be sold in USB form to boot from - has this completely changed? DVD seems to be a little backwards no?
 
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Most people download Windows from the Microsoft website onto their own usb drive and then purchase an activation key for about 20 quid. You can find these on Google.

Do you need a mobo with all those features if your main use is gaming?

www.overclockers.co.uk

Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard

Order Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

Something like this is almost half the price and would probably allow you to get a 4070ti super with the change.

6000mhtz ddr5 seems to be the sweet spot for AM5 and the 7800X3D so you could possibly look at slightly faster ram for about a tenner more.
 
The CPU is sound and will pair well with your GPU choice well and beyond.

My only gripe is buy a new PSU.
ben1987 said:
Most people download Windows from the Microsoft website onto their own usb drive and then purchase an activation key for about 20 quid. You can find these on Google.

Do you need a mobo with all those features if your main use is gaming?

www.overclockers.co.uk

Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard

Order Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

Something like this is almost half the price and would probably allow you to get a 4070ti super with the change.

6000mhtz ddr5 seems to be the sweet spot for AM5 and the 7800X3D so you could possibly look at slightly faster ram for about a tenner more.
Click to expand...
AlexTrickle said:
So I'm finally looking to do a new build as my current setup (7700k and gtx1080) is getting on and I can feel the limitations starting to creep in.

I used to do new build almost every 2 years but this build is like 6 years old and I'm very out of the loop.

My personal needs are mostly gaming but things like WoW and Minecraft but I've recently started enjoying the latter with pretty fancy shader packs which are actually pretty taxing on my system and getting big fps drops.

I intend to re-use my case, PSU and storage so don't need these. Pretty much all my builds have been Intel/Nvidia but some initial research has said the Ryzen 7800X3D is currently top dog for gaming specifically?

My initial first parse in my basket is as follow:
My basket at OcUK:

Total: £1,487.95 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

I'll probably add a H100i AIO (basically the new version of what I currently have) for cooling.

One big question I have is that OCUK doesn't seem to sell Windows USBs anymore? I always use to buy Windows from OCUK to install with a new fresh build. The only copies I see are on a DVD apparently - I remember these used to be sold in USB form to boot from - has this completely changed? DVD seems to be a little backwards no?
Click to expand...
The CPU is sound and will pair well with your GPU choice well and beyond.

My only gripe is buy a new PSU.
 
ben1987 said:
Most people download Windows from the Microsoft website onto their own usb drive and then purchase an activation key for about 20 quid. You can find these on Google.

Do you need a mobo with all those features if your main use is gaming?

www.overclockers.co.uk

Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard

Order Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

Something like this is almost half the price and would probably allow you to get a 4070ti super with the change.

6000mhtz ddr5 seems to be the sweet spot for AM5 and the 7800X3D so you could possibly look at slightly faster ram for about a tenner more.
Click to expand...
No I probably don't need as fancy a Motherboard feature wise. I do have my case on display so looks are important still; so I don't want a plain black board with no lights and generally 'ugly'. I guess that's reasonably important to specify.
I think I was naturally drawn to the ROG Strix as I've always had good experiences with ROG motherboards but when I was younger I did actually get into overclocking (tbh not something I'm fussed with now as my time is more limited!)

Thank you for the spot on the RAM - I wasn't sure what speed RAM would work out of the box without any tweaks. I know a long time ago the highest speed RAM often required special settings to work properly and wanted to avoid that kind of thing this time around!
 
Mr Oxide said:
My only gripe is buy a new PSU.
Click to expand...

Haha I had a feeling someone would say this! I do understand the importance of PSUs but mine is 1000W Platinum and its been well maintained, not even close to stretched over the last few years so I'm reasonably confident in its healthiness. Is there any official way to test this out of interest?
 
AlexTrickle said:
Haha I had a feeling someone would say this! I do understand the importance of PSUs but mine is 1000W Platinum and its been well maintained, not even close to stretched over the last few years so I'm reasonably confident in its healthiness. Is there any official way to test this out of interest?
Click to expand...
Test not from what I know. If you have a pat tester maybe do that.

I just open mine up. Get dust out and have a visual/ sniff at capacitors / other components like diodes after a visual inspection for bulging or looking burnt. Caps are bad. MMkay.

If you feel confident on that power supply
 
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The B650-A is more than enough for gaming. Has 3 nvme slots, primary being gen5. Gpu slot is gen4...for gen 5 youd have to go b650e-f at min, but then you're back to a black board. Couldn't find any white corsair 6000c30 ram here...they have the g skill neo silver and black rgb for £139 which would look good..if you want corsair you'll have to look elsewhere...or theres the tamgroup delta rgb for £110, but it's on preorder...

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £557.98 (includes delivery: £7.99)​
​
Sorry, on a really old tablet otherwise I'd stick them up here, but was hard enough listing above​
 
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AlexTrickle said:
The AIO is more for looks than anything else as I think air coolers look super clunky. Nothing to do with performance - looks are important to me.
Click to expand...
I was only thinking about the price, the above cooler is only £35 or so, and you could upgrade to a 4070 Ti or 4070 Ti Super. £680 for a 4070 Super is a bit too much of a premium for me when the 7900 GRE is so much less.
 
From the sounds of most of the replies I think the biggest/most obvious saving I can make is on the motherboard so I will likely drop that.

I see most people recommending B650 boards - is there very little performance decrease between B650 and X670? As mentioned I'm very out of the loop and even then always been on team Intel so AMD is a first!
 
You can get 4070 supers for around the £500 mark, spending £680 on one is flushing money away.

Go for a 4070ti Super or 7900XT if spending that sort of money on a GPU. You could easily fit either in with a little shuffling on parts, cheaper motherboard and HSF for example.
 
AMD GPU option:

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £1,497.91 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

Nvidia GPU option:

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £1,626.91 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

If either is more than you're willing to spend, as mentioned in my last post you could easily fit in a 4070TI Super or a 7900XT. Just make sure that you have enough room in your case, and that your PSU is up to the job.

Edit: Switched out the Palit for the Zotac, slightly more expensive but it comes with a 5 year warranty if you register within 30 days.
 
TeamGroup Delta RGB 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Ki
MY-0AT-TG
£120 (incl. VAT)
£90 (incl. VAT)
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AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core 5.00GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail
CP-3DT-AM
£500 (incl. VAT)
£350 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
MB-6K0-AS
£160 (incl. VAT)
£150 (incl. VAT)
FREE DELIVERY
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AlexTrickle said:
I see most people recommending B650 boards - is there very little performance decrease between B650 and X670? As mentioned I'm very out of the loop and even then always been on team Intel so AMD is a first!
Click to expand...
B650: PCI-E 4.0 graphics, can have PCI-E 5.0 or 4.0 M.2 slots (TUF B650-Plus has 1x PCI-E 5.0 M.2, but many boards are all PCI-E 4.0).
B650E: PCI-E 5.0 graphics, PCI-E 5.0 M.2.
X670: PCI-E 4.0 graphics, can have PCI-E 5.0 or 4.0 M.2 slots.
X670E: PCI-E 5.0 graphics, PCI-E 5.0 M.2.

X670 & X670E have more lanes available, so you can get more M.2 slots (or they have less sharing issues) and may have more USB ports, faster LAN. Premium boards can have features like USB4 and 10Gb LAN.

B650E like Mickyflinn suggested (B650E-F) is enough for pretty much everyone, but the B650-A Strix (white heatsinks) also suggested above has a PCI-E 5.0 M.2 slot.
 
Okay thanks everyone I'll come back with a revised basket tomorrow I think - all very welcome suggestions and comments.

ben1987 said:
Most people download Windows from the Microsoft website onto their own usb drive and then purchase an activation key for about 20 quid. You can find these on Google.
Click to expand...
Circling back to this - I only have old/small USB sticks - what kind of size do you need for the Windows install file? If its this simple then this is definitely what I'll do. Do you need to format the USB in any particular way?
 
AlexTrickle said:
Okay thanks everyone I'll come back with a revised basket tomorrow I think - all very welcome suggestions and comments.


Circling back to this - I only have old/small USB sticks - what kind of size do you need for the Windows install file? If its this simple then this is definitely what I'll do. Do you need to format the USB in any particular way?
Click to expand...

It's pretty straightforward:

learn.microsoft.com

Install Windows from a Flash Drive

Install Windows from a Flash Drive
learn.microsoft.com

You need a 6-8gb drive for the initial install, but you'll probably do a bunch of updates via the net during the process.
 
I have the ROG strix X670E-A and it's a great board, I also built my son a PC for Christmas using the strix X650E-F and that is equally as good. If I was to buy another motherboard again, I would pick the X650E-F out of the 2 and I can't tell the difference performance wise. My son is running a 7800X3D with a 7900XT with some G.skill Trident Z5 6000MHz ram, this ram works with both boards
 
AlexTrickle said:
Okay thanks everyone I'll come back with a revised basket tomorrow I think - all very welcome suggestions and comments.


Circling back to this - I only have old/small USB sticks - what kind of size do you need for the Windows install file? If its this simple then this is definitely what I'll do. Do you need to format the USB in any particular way?
Click to expand...
There's a windows install tool that does it all, but the preferred method is probably using Rufus.

I've had issues with some very old usb but probably my fault for using freebie usb sticks from ancient times
 
for a white build I'g go something like below if going amd gpu. stuck the corsair 6200 so you can see what it looks like, it's similar price to the gskill away for 6000C30. the 7800x3d does like tighter timings so I'd def try and get the lowest timings out there
Asrock gre card is white, and now the memory can be overclocked, can get a decent performance boost.
For the 7900xt and 7900xtx used the tuf cards. they have decent performance, look good and also on a promotion at the time...you can get £100 off the xtx and £110 off the xtx bringing them to £669.99 and £888.99 respectively...ocuk aren't good at advertising the promotions


it'll list the gpu's, you can click on it and it'll show you the participating retailers that sell it..just click the overclockers and will take you to the card in the promotion

t at OcUK:[/b]

Total: £3,248.93 (includes delivery: £0.00)​
 
Asus ROG Strix B650-A Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
MB-6JY-AS
£190 (incl. VAT)
£170 (incl. VAT)
FREE DELIVERY
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TeamGroup Delta RGB 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - White (FF4D532G6000HC30DC01)
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£140 (incl. VAT)
£110 (incl. VAT)
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G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo EXPO RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit
MEM-GSK-01358
£150 (incl. VAT)
£129 (incl. VAT)
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Corsair Vengeance RGB 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-49600C36 6200MHz Dual Channel Kit - White (CMH32GX5M2B6200C36W)
MY-0BA-TG
£135 (incl. VAT)
£120 (incl. VAT)
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Asrock Radeon RX 7900 GRE Steel Legend 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card
GRA-ASR-01794
£570 (incl. VAT)
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AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core 5.00GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail
CP-3DT-AM
£500 (incl. VAT)
£350 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
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