Help with a spec

doodah

doodah

doodah

Caporegime
Joined
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Been a while since I have done one of these, so thought I would get some advice. A friend needs a new gaming PC and I whittled it down to these two. He already has a PSU and case; Corsair AX1200 Gold and Lian Li PCX2000. But how does the following look? The Intel alternative would be a 12700K and MSI Pro Z690-A. I think he's currently running a Q6600 in that case and probably doesn't have any case fans, so that's something else to add.

A few questions though....
  • What's the recommended memory these days for Ryzen, 3600 is the sweet spot? This Corsair stuff is Ryzen tuned
  • What's the best/recommended 3080? I went with a 3080 as they're reasonably priced and still powerful, Tis at over £1k seemed a bit excessive
  • Before you say it - he has no patience so he won't wait until AMD's next release :cry:
My basket at OcUK:

Total: £2,120.95 (includes delivery: £11.10)​

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Edit - have to share this. He's just sent me a pic of the current/derelict tower, my blood pressure after seeing that cable management :eek:​
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If he wont wait then his choices are solid but personally I would get the zotac 3080 comes with a 5 year warranty if registered within 30 days, otherwise 3 years. Not to fussed about ray tracing then look at the 6800xt/6900xt.

Memory 3600mhz is spot on as is the MSI Tomahawk.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Zotac GeForce RTX 3080 Trinity OC LHR 10GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card

Order Zotac GeForce RTX 3080 Trinity OC LHR 10GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk
 
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I'd save some cash and get B550 instead. Literally makes no difference to your gaming performance, only difference is really that the bottom chipset will not run PCI-e 4.0.

You could save £130 and go B450 (Tomahawk B450 can run a 5800X3D fine) but I doubt he wants to go that cheap.

This is the B550 board I'd tell him to get
www.overclockers.co.uk

Gigabyte B550 AORUS Elite AX V2 (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard

Order Gigabyte B550 AORUS Elite AX V2 (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

Keep in mind that AM5 and 13th gen are coming out but AM5 will need DDR5 and be way more pricey.

I do like the 12700K but the 5800X3D is faster in gaming than the 12900KS so that's great.
 
LOL patience is definitely not his thing, ordered the parts as I posted this thread :cry:. And OcUK didn't take long, parts are with him now and he just started building. And for some reason my PC decided to stop working this morning, stuck on POST (Windows swirling circle) and is supposedly now trying to do a repair. Doh.

Thanks any way :).
 
doodah said:
LOL patience is definitely not his thing, ordered the parts as I posted this thread :cry:. And OcUK didn't take long, parts are with him now and he just started building. And for some reason my PC decided to stop working this morning, stuck on POST (Windows swirling circle) and is supposedly now trying to do a repair. Doh.

Thanks any way :).
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Meh, if you want a computer now, buy it now.

There will always be new tech coming and it's time you could spend gaming.

Hope your computer isn't borked.
 
JollyJamma said:
Meh, if you want a computer now, buy it now.

There will always be new tech coming and it's time you could spend gaming.

Hope your computer isn't borked.
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He's going from a Q6600 and Radeon 6970 to a 5800X3D and 3080 - so should be a massive jump. And yeah you're right, always something around the corner. At 1440p, this new system should do nicely.

I've been on a black screen with a mouse pointer for 15 minutes - I am not hopeful :(
 
doodah said:
He's going from a Q6600 and Radeon 6970 to a 5800X3D and 3080 - so should be a massive jump. And yeah you're right, always something around the corner. At 1440p, this new system should do nicely.

I've been on a black screen with a mouse pointer for 15 minutes - I am not hopeful :(
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Create a windows 10/11 USB installer and try using that to repair your machine.
 
doodah said:
He's going from a Q6600 and Radeon 6970 to a 5800X3D and 3080 - so should be a massive jump. And yeah you're right, always something around the corner. At 1440p, this new system should do nicely.

I've been on a black screen with a mouse pointer for 15 minutes - I am not hopeful :(
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I hope your doing a fresh install of Windows, if yes dissconect all those other hard drives if connected.
 
Thanks both, I assume it's a Windows update that hasn't worked properly. Though in the lead up to this, it would mull things over on the same pre-Windows screen for up to a minute or two. It always eventually loaded Windows but this seems to be straw that broke the camel's back.

Is Windows 11 more mature now and free of its release issues?

Edit - I can sense it's going to be one of those days/fixes where alternative fixes seemingly don't work. The first being it not loading Windows install from a USB (used the very same one two weeks ago with no issue), so I can launch repair or safe mode.
 
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Thank you. I unplugged all but the boot drive and managed to get into install environment/repair mode. Uninstalled the last quality update, last feature update wouldn't uninstall - and now doing a system restore from a week ago. I'll get on a fresh install once I get back into this faltering Windows install.
 
doodah said:
Thank you. I unplugged all but the boot drive and managed to get into install environment/repair mode. Uninstalled the last quality update, last feature update wouldn't uninstall - and now doing a system restore from a week ago. I'll get on a fresh install once I get back into this faltering Windows install.
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Once you get round to a new windows install I would particion the m2 drive to 500gb for windows and programs and 1.5tb for games.
 
Success, I can get back into Windows. Time to plug the other drives in and copy over what I need to save. Going to be doing a lot of downloading today to get all of my games back :(.
mickyflinn said:
Once you get round to a new windows install I would particion the m2 drive to 500gb for windows and programs and 1.5tb for games.
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Assume you mean for my friend, how come? And not just keep it as a 2TB drive for games and Windows?
 
doodah said:
Success, I can get back into Windows. Time to plug the other drives in and copy over what I need to save. Going to be doing a lot of downloading today to get all of my games back :(.

Assume you mean for my friend, how come? And not just keep it as a 2TB drive for games and Windows?
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You ideally want windows and games on the fastest drives for fastest loading , etc. Windows slows down over time so its just good practice but not essential especially if you already have a fast drive for Windows.
 
mickyflinn said:
You ideally want windows and games on the fastest drives for fastest loading , etc. Windows slows down over time so its just good practice but not essential especially if you already have a fast drive for Windows.
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Ah right, didn't realise. Wondering if I should do it on my 1TB as I am about to do a fresh install (e.g. 250/750GB). You would just partition it during the start of Windows install right?
 
doodah said:
Ah right, didn't realise. Wondering if I should do it on my 1TB as I am about to do a fresh install (e.g. 250/750GB). You would just partition it during the start of Windows install right?
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Yes patrician at Windows install then activite the second particion once in Windows.

Or get 2 drives ;)
 
Just easier to get a second drive.

Good luck when you wreck the one boot loader of the drive and need to spend a few hours creating a new one using a util or boot repairer or windows recovery.
 
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