My First Build

TukayAway · 26 Apr 2021 at 22:17

Playing Cyberpunk was the last straw for my elderly i7-4770K and it has just about given up. I'm fairly confident that I could build a PC by myself but I know little about processors and motherboards and so I'm looking for some guidance.

I plan to re-use my SSDs (250GB SATA for Windows and 1 TB M2 for gaming) and also plan to re-use my GTX1660 Super. Ideally I want to build something that will last another 5 years with the minimal of upgrades. I know that graphics cards aren't readily available but if I could build something that is 3090 ready (or what ever the next gen holds) when the availability and costs allow, that would be perfect.

So what should I be buying? I've got a budget of around £700-800 right now for a motherboard, CPU, RAM, PSU and whatever I need to cool things down. I've never used water-cooling but if someone can convince me that it's easy for a noob to install then I'd consider it.

I've already been bought a case: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/bitf...40eDj-dweU7fmLhde88thdhSRCS4TRA2kuJnq1Kj17OqA

Despite the flashy case, I'm not overly bothered by lighting it up as it will sit out of sight with just the front lighting where my feet will be.

Joxeon · 26 Apr 2021 at 22:52

This should be good for atleast 5 years.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x MSI MPG B550 Gaming Edge WiFi (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard= £159.95
1 x AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core 4.7GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £389.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C16 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit= £158.99
1 x Corsair RM Series RM850 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020196-UK)= £119.99

Total: £839.42 (includes shipping: £10.50)

Cooler running · 26 Apr 2021 at 23:04

IMO the 10850K is great value on OCUK at the moment. Note I've included a fairly pricey AIO watercooler, in here, but there are plenty of other options.
To stick to your £800 budget you could spring for something like
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...n-fan-cpu-cooler-ct-9010003-ww-hs-03w-cs.html
Instead.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Intel Core i9-10850K 3.6GHz (Comet Lake) Socket LGA1200 Processor - Retail= £419.99
1 x MSI Z490-A Pro (Socket LGA 1200) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £149.99
1 x Corsair RM Series RM750 750W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020195-UK)= £104.95
1 x Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C16 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit= £79.99
1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer II High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 360mm= £99.95

Total: £865.37 (includes shipping: £10.50)

ninjag · 27 Apr 2021 at 15:48

Sounds like a similar situation as me, I recently built a new rig with this spec and hopefully it has future proofed me for a long time. I moved across my GTX1660 Super, Sound Blaster Z and some fans but I'm replacing these with new ones arriving today:

Kingston HyperX Fury 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (I do photography and some video editing so wanted 32GB)
Alpenfohn Brocken 3 Black Edition CPU Cooler Dual Fan Edition - 140mm (awesome CPU fan)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail (I wanted good single thread power)
MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk WiFi (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 ATX Motherboard
Corsair RM750X PSU

I also got these but you are covered here:

ASUS TUF Gaming GT501VC Midi-Tower Case - Black Tempered Glass
Corsair Force MP510 series 960GB NVMe PCIe M.2 Solid State Drive (CSSD-F960GBMP510B)

My Passmark rating went from 3231 (52% percentile) with my i7-3770k rig to a lovely 8209 (96% percentile). I've not really checked many games yet but I play 4k 34" ultra wide and so far so good. I'm hoping that all I'll need to do us upgrade the GPU to handle stuff in the future.