Mid range vs all in dilema

[Warbie]

Hey guys. I need a new gaming PC - still rocking a i7-4790K! - and am torn between going all in with a 7800X3D / 7900XTX / new 1440p ultrawide etc for 3.5-4k, or something more mid tier for my current monitor (1080p ultrawide 75hz). If going for the former, i'd want 5 years+ out of it. The latter, 3 years.

The dilema i'm hitting is it seems to cost 2/3 of a high end rig to go with a more middling spec and, if the budget is there, that doesn't make sense. On the flip side, i'm perfectly happy gaming on my 1080p ultrawide (not an aspiring hardcore gamer anymore) and if there's a relatively cheap option that would max out 75fps 2560*1080 on high settings for a few years, that would be preferred.

Any ideas or build suggestions for the more modest PC would be much appreciated!

 

[tamzzy]

mid-high end with 1440p ultrawide
parts not available/pre-order at ocuk are available elsewhere...similarly, shop around for the best prices

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £229.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen Game Bundle - Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (SKU: XX-03C-AM) = £0.00
• 1 x Asrock B650M PG Riptide (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-18Y-AK) = £179.99
• 1 x Kingston FURY Beast EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (KF560C36BBEK2-32) (SKU: MY-29T-KS) = £128.99
• 1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XT Gaming 20GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-3A2-SP) = £749.99
• 1 x be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 750W ATX 3.0 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-14S-BQ) = £109.99
• 1 x WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) (SKU: HD-58G-WD) = £136.99
• 1 x Jonsbo D31 Mesh Micro-ATX PC Case – Black, Tempered Glass (SKU: CA-02K-JB) = £59.99
• 1 x Alpenfohn Dolomit Advanced 120mm ARGB CPU Cooler - Black (SKU: HS-05V-AL) = £34.99
• 1 x Gigabyte 34" M34WQ 3440x1440 IPS 144Hz 1ms FreeSync KVM Widescreen Gaming Monitor (SKU: MO-00R-GI) = £498.95

Total: £2,145.86 (includes delivery: £15.99)​

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[mickyflinn]

@tamzzy done a very nice build for the money if you want to push it further then a 1000w psu and a 7800x3d or equivalent .

Put a 280mm aio water cooler in the roof to keep the x3d cool.

Roughly another £400.

 

[Warbie]

mid-high end with 1440p ultrawide
parts not available/pre-order at ocuk are available elsewhere...similarly, shop around for the best prices

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £229.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen Game Bundle - Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (SKU: XX-03C-AM) = £0.00
• 1 x Asrock B650M PG Riptide (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-18Y-AK) = £179.99
• 1 x Kingston FURY Beast EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (KF560C36BBEK2-32) (SKU: MY-29T-KS) = £128.99
• 1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XT Gaming 20GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-3A2-SP) = £749.99
• 1 x be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 750W ATX 3.0 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-14S-BQ) = £109.99
• 1 x WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) (SKU: HD-58G-WD) = £136.99
• 1 x Jonsbo D31 Mesh Micro-ATX PC Case – Black, Tempered Glass (SKU: CA-02K-JB) = £59.99
• 1 x Alpenfohn Dolomit Advanced 120mm ARGB CPU Cooler - Black (SKU: HS-05V-AL) = £34.99
• 1 x Gigabyte 34" M34WQ 3440x1440 IPS 144Hz 1ms FreeSync KVM Widescreen Gaming Monitor (SKU: MO-00R-GI) = £498.95

Total: £2,145.86 (includes delivery: £15.99)​

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Cheers man - looks good.

@tamzzy done a very nice build for the money if you want to push it further then a 1000w psu and a 7800x3d or equivalent .

Put a 280mm aio water cooler in the roof to keep the x3d cool.

Roughly another £400.

That's the loop I end up in. Might as well then pay a bit more for a 7900XTX and i'm at the 3k all in machine. I swear everything's priced to upsell!


If the intention was to game at just 2560*1080 75fps for the next few years - what GPU do you think I could get away with at high settings?

 

[tamzzy]

@Warbie
7900xt is fine for 1440p ultrawide
see here: https://youtu.be/mAdlIRN9PsE

I've also bought that D31 myself (just arrived yesterday)
it's basically a cheaper Asus AP201 TG that retails for £90-100 review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYZ9G8ZccZk
Can't wait to build in it and will be holding my new AM5 rig
Not many reviews of the D31 but quite a few build vlogs floating around

basically I wouldn't think of recommending any component I would not use myself lol

 

[tamzzy]

white build + 7800x3d + 7900xtx
(very nice if i may say so - almost tempted to buy it myself )

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Asrock B650M PG Riptide (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-18Y-AK) = £179.99
• 1 x WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) (SKU: HD-58G-WD) = £136.99
• 1 x Gigabyte 34" M34WQ 3440x1440 IPS 144Hz 1ms FreeSync KVM Widescreen Gaming Monitor (SKU: MO-00R-GI) = £498.95
• 1 x Powercolor Radeon RX 7900 XTX HellHound Spectral White 24GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-1AW-PC) = £1,049.99
• 1 x Jonsbo D31 Mesh Micro-ATX PC Case – White, Tempered Glass (SKU: CA-02L-JB) = £59.98
• 1 x be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 1000W ATX 3.0 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-14Q-BQ) = £149.99
• 1 x Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L V2 RGB White AIO CPU Cooler - 240mm (SKU: HS-08G-CM) = £74.99
• 1 x TeamGroup Delta RGB 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - White (FF4D532G6000HC30DC01) (SKU: MY-0B6-TG) = £139.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core 5.00GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DT-AM) = £439.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen Game Bundle - Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (SKU: XX-03C-AM) = £0.00

Total: £2,746.86 (includes delivery: £16.00)​

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[mickyflinn]

Cheers man - looks good.

That's the loop I end up in. Might as well then pay a bit more for a 7900XTX and i'm at the 3k all in machine. I swear everything's priced to upsell!


If the intention was to game at just 2560*1080 75fps for the next few years - what GPU do you think I could get away with at high settings?

Investing in a larger psu is a bit of a no brainer and it will last 10 years and allow for more power hungry upgrades .

The 7900xt will handle 1440p no problem and if you hit the toughest of games lower detail slightly from ultra

CPU that's your call but you can always drop in something more powerful in the future or bite the bullet for the best available , that's always the dilemma.

 

[Tetras]

If the intention was to game at just 2560*1080 75fps for the next few years - what GPU do you think I could get away with at high settings?

A 6700/6750 XT could manage it if you don't go crazy with the settings (it can do 1440p too), but a 4070 would be more comfortable.

I'd expect this build to last the 3 years you anticipated, maybe 5 if games don't go much beyond the requirements of the latest games like Hogwarts:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-12600K 3.70GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-69X-IN) = £248.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B660 DS3H AX - Intel B660 DDR4 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5AN-GI) = £124.99
• 1 x Lexar Hades 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C18 3600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (SKU: MY-018-LE) = £79.99
• 1 x WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) (SKU: HD-58G-WD) = £136.99
• 1 x Palit GeForce RTX 4070 Dual 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-071-PL) = £560.00
• 1 x Nvidia Unleash Your Ultimate - Overwatch 2 Ultimate Battlepass (SKU: XX-047-NV) = £0.00
• 1 x be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 750W ATX 3.0 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-14S-BQ) = £109.99
• 1 x Lian Li LANCOOL 215 Mid-Tower aRGB Tempered Glass Black (SKU: CA-78K-LL) = £89.99
• 1 x Akasa Alucia H4 Plus Premium CPU Cooler (SKU: HS-10L-AK) = £38.95

Total: £1,401.88 (includes delivery: £11.99)​

 

[jigger]

For the 2560x1080 option it’s probably wise to hang on for the 7800/7700 cards. That is if AMD ever get round to it…

For 75fps a 5700X would be plenty.

 

[Warbie]

Cheers everyone - that's covered everything and much appreciated

I'm going to base this around the display and atm am leaning towards the cheaper mid range option for my current 2560x1080 at 75hz monitor, hoping for it to last 2-3 years before going all in on an uber oled ultrawide and a rig that can make it fly.

 

[tamzzy]

I'm going to base this around the display and atm am leaning towards the cheaper mid range option for my current 2560x1080 at 75hz monitor, hoping for it to last 2-3 years before going all in on an uber oled ultrawide and a rig that can make it fly.

if that's the case then a £1500-1700 build - such as my initial spec less the monitor (or tetras' spec if you want to go intel/nvidia) - will easily run an ultrawide 1080p for probably the next 5-7 years lol
(ultrawide 1080p does not even have as many pixels as standard 1440p)

 

[Warbie]

if that's the case then a £1500-1700 build - such as my initial spec less the monitor (or tetras' spec if you want to go intel/nvidia) - will easily run an ultrawide 1080p for probably the next 5-7 years lol
(ultrawide 1080p does not even have as many pixels as standard 1440p)

If 1.5k gets me 75fps at 2560x1080 on high settings for the next 3 years, i'll be a happy chappy

 

[tamzzy]

75fps

it'll get you more than that mate

 

[tamzzy]

£1600 at OCUK, shop around and the price will drop to £1500

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £229.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen Game Bundle - Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (SKU: XX-03C-AM) = £0.00
• 1 x Asrock B650M PG Riptide (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-18Y-AK) = £179.99 OOS at OCUK - available elsewhere
• 1 x Kingston FURY Beast EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (KF560C36BBEK2-32) (SKU: MY-29T-KS) = £128.99
• 1 x be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 750W ATX 3.0 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-14S-BQ) = £109.99
• 1 x WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) (SKU: HD-58G-WD) = £136.99
• 1 x Jonsbo D31 Mesh Micro-ATX PC Case – Black, Tempered Glass (SKU: CA-02K-JB) = £59.99
• 1 x Alpenfohn Dolomit Advanced 120mm ARGB CPU Cooler - Black (SKU: HS-05V-AL) = £34.99 Swap over to Thermalright Assassin King 120 SE ARGB
• 1 x Powercolor Radeon 6950 XT Red Devil 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-1AK-PC) = £698.99 OOS at OCUK - available elsewhere (I've even picked the correct card for you to google )

Total: £1,591.91 (includes delivery: £11.99)​

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[mickyflinn]

@tamzzy you want a larger psu than 750w for the 6950xt powercolor recommends 950w to allow for power spukes.

 

[tamzzy]

@mickyflinn ah fair enough.
Guess the bequiet 1kw for £150 would still be in budget

 

[Warbie]

So in the end I chucked all reason out the window and ordered a 7800x3d rig with a 4080 rtx (new, Palit OC version for 1k. Still overpriced I know!) to go with a Dell ultrawide oled. My wallet is having a sulk but I'm pretty stoked!