Gaming PC Refresh: Something Old. Something New

RubberDucky

RubberDucky

RubberDucky

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Joined
26 May 2020
Posts
6
Location
Reading
Hi All,

I've been a bit of a lurker on these forums over the years, trying to learn what I can, but it's been a long time since I ever attempted to build my own gaming PC and I'm a little over my head with no idea where to start.

I'm looking to salvage the good bits out of my existing setup, and then build a new, water-cooled setup that will fit in a work desk cabinet with dimensions (H63cm x W43cm x D53cm).

AMD FX 8350
8GB DDR3 RAM
ROG-Poseidon-GTX1080Ti
Gigabyte 970A-DS3P AMD 970 Motherboard
232GB Sandisk Ultra 3D SSD
232GB HDD
111GB (ish) Sabrent SSD
Corsair 850W Gold certified PSU
Generic tower case currently too big for the cabinet

I've also got two mismatched AOC 22" G2260VWQ6 monitors on a VonHaus Gas Powered Double Arm that I'm looking to either replace at some point in the future or consolidate into a wide screen monitor - but that's another issue :p

I don't know much about water cooling or where to start, but there's probably not that much ventilation in the cabinet and figured it would be better. The reason it's going in the cabinet is I want to consolidate my work/gaming setup to one home office space and keep it tidy and out of sight.

Any suggestions on what to swap out and what to keep?

Budget is £500 to £1000 - ish. I plan to buy this and assemble as a project over several paycheques :)

I'm grateful for any guidance and expertise.
 
Hi and welcome to the forums. :)

You can keep the GTX 1080ti, 850w psu (how old is it?) and maybe the 232Gb Sandisk SSD as a Windows drive although I prefer NVME drives personally. I would aim for a Ryzen 3700x coupled with a B550 motherboard, 16-32Gb of 3600mhz DDR4 and a 1Tb NVME drive or SSD for storage and games. No doubt someone will be along soon and spec you a build.

One thing I will advise though is that buying components bit by bit over several weeks/months is absolutely the worst way to build a pc. All that time individual components are sat in their boxes doing nothing the warranty is ticking away. Not only that but if something is faulty you will most likely be waiting longer for a replacement if it's over 28 days old (or is it 16 days?) as rather than the retailer doing a straight swap it will be sent off to the manufacturer to be repaired/replaced and you could end up with a refurbished component instead of the brand new one that you haven't used yet. You would be much better off putting the money aside until you have enough to buy everything.
 
pastymuncher said:
All that time individual components are sat in their boxes doing nothing the warranty is ticking away. Not only that but if something is faulty you will most likely be waiting longer for a replacement if it's over 28 days old (or is it 16 days?) as rather than the retailer doing a straight swap it will be sent off to the manufacturer to be repaired/replaced and you could end up with a refurbished component instead of the brand new one that you haven't used yet. You would be much better off putting the money aside until you have enough to buy everything.
Click to expand...

I hadn't thought of that! That's a top bit of advice, thank you.
 
I agree with what @pastymuncher says. Buy all the bits you need at the same time. There's a bit of a generation 'refresh' in the PC hardware components world at the moment, Intel launched their latest hardware only last week. AMD will be launching their latest chipset motherboards in a couple of weeks time. Prices are all over the place too due to world events & the dollar/pound exchange rate.

Watercooling cases = have a look at Phanteks cases priced between £120-£200, they look as though the size will fit in your space.
 
If anybody finds this thread in the distant future, I decided to update this thread for the sake of posterity!

Having spent the past few weeks researching and learning I've come up with the following:

  1. Keeping the case as I've discovered it is a Corsair Vengeance C70 and it's actually really good. It also fits in the enclosure after I checked the measurements :)
  2. Processor and mother board have to go. The new processor in my shopping basket is the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6Ghz
  3. Motherboard is an MSI X570-A Pro ATX AM4 Motherboard (I got this from a build template on UK PC Part Picker)
  4. Crucial Ballistix RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory
  5. Keeping my existing SSD disks and HDD as they're perfectly fine
  6. Power supply is definitely staying!
  7. Graphics card is staying! One day I might upgrade to a 2080Ti when it's cheaper...
  8. Four Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200 PWM (my existing fans are 23 db(A), but these are supposedly 19db so things should get quieter.
  9. Keeping my Corsair H60 CPU cooler
That should be all! Doing a bit of research has definitely helped with my idea of how to setup this build. So good luck to whoever reads this in future!
 
RubberDucky said:
If anybody finds this thread in the distant future, I decided to update this thread for the sake of posterity!

Having spent the past few weeks researching and learning I've come up with the following:

  1. Keeping the case as I've discovered it is a Corsair Vengeance C70 and it's actually really good. It also fits in the enclosure after I checked the measurements :)
  2. Processor and mother board have to go. The new processor in my shopping basket is the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6Ghz
  3. Motherboard is an MSI X570-A Pro ATX AM4 Motherboard (I got this from a build template on UK PC Part Picker)
  4. Crucial Ballistix RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory
  5. Keeping my existing SSD disks and HDD as they're perfectly fine
  6. Power supply is definitely staying!
  7. Graphics card is staying! One day I might upgrade to a 2080Ti when it's cheaper...
  8. Four Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200 PWM (my existing fans are 23 db(A), but these are supposedly 19db so things should get quieter.
  9. Keeping my Corsair H60 CPU cooler
That should be all! Doing a bit of research has definitely helped with my idea of how to setup this build. So good luck to whoever reads this in future!
Click to expand...

The MSI X570-A Pro actually has worse VRM's than the likes of the B450 Tomahawk.

Spend the extra on a better X570 such as the Elite or Tomahawk or wait for the launch of the new B550's.

I honestly don't think you're going to notice a difference in noise levels going from 23db fans to 19db either tbh.
 
Last edited:
RubberDucky said:
Having spent the past few weeks researching and learning I've come up with the following:

  1. Keeping the case as I've discovered it is a Corsair Vengeance C70 and it's actually really good. It also fits in the enclosure after I checked the measurements :)
  2. Processor and mother board have to go. The new processor in my shopping basket is the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6Ghz
  3. Motherboard is an MSI X570-A Pro ATX AM4 Motherboard (I got this from a build template on UK PC Part Picker)
  4. Crucial Ballistix RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory
  5. Keeping my existing SSD disks and HDD as they're perfectly fine
  6. Power supply is definitely staying!
  7. Graphics card is staying! One day I might upgrade to a 2080Ti when it's cheaper...
  8. Four Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200 PWM (my existing fans are 23 db(A), but these are supposedly 19db so things should get quieter.
  9. Keeping my Corsair H60 CPU cooler
Click to expand...

1. I had a hankering for one of those back in the day. Its a good case, Its a shame that Corsair no longer make it but things move on.
2. Agreed with 3600, I have one.
3. As others have said, MSI have not made good X570 boards in the past, they have learned their lesson & released the X570 mag Tomahawk that the world & his dog are buying right now. I dont see anything wrong with the X570 aorus elite TBH.
4. Good choice.
5. OK
6. OK
7. OK
8. Noctua are a tad expensive. These are quiet at half the price. https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arctic-cooling-p12-pwm-pst-black-fan-120mm-fg-04h-ar.html
9. You might want to check if your H60 will fit an AM4 board.
 
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