NEW BUILD ADVICE PLEASE

CCampling · 30 Dec 2020 at 13:31

Hi,
I am been tasked with trying to get a gaming rig set up for my son.
I have plenty of experience with PCs but not with gaming setups so could do with some advice.
Budget is £800 to £1000

1) Pre-built or self-build
2) Intel i5 or Ryzen 5

We have been looking at various builds that are generally Ryzen5 based and are getting a bit baffled by all the different hardware options, especially the CPU/GPU/MB combinations.

As far as components for a self build we have come up with this...

PROCESSOR: AMD RYZEN 5 3600 - (£190)
COOLER: STANDARD AMD WRATH COOLER - (£0)
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING B550 ATX (WIFI) - (£180)
GRAPHICS: GIGABYTE GEFORCE GTX 1660 SUPER GAMING OC 6144MB GDDR6 PCI-EXPRESS (£300)
MEMORY: CORSAIR VENGEANCE LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3200 - (£70)
STORAGE 1: ADDLINK S70 M2.512GB - (£45)
PSU: CORSAIR TX650M 650W - (£80)
CASE: NZXT H510 - (£70)
OS: WINDOWS 10 X64 PRO - (£130)

How does this look? Have we missed any bits? Would the stock cooler be up to the job?
Would you swap any components? Why? and what would you replace them with?
I have always preferred Win10 Pro... is this a waste on gaming setups?

Tetras · 30 Dec 2020 at 13:41

That's way too much for a 1660 super, it's near the price of a 3060 Ti (if they sold at RRP and were in stock) which is much faster. A 1660 Super should be closer to £200.

Buy a better cooler for quality of life.

Pawel Brzezinski · 31 Dec 2020 at 00:57

CCampling said:
OS: WINDOWS 10 X64 PRO - (£130)

Is there any particular reason for getting Windows 10 Pro?
You can get Win 10 Home on waaay better price - around £10
saved money invest in better GPU and cooler like mentions above

Tetras said:
That's way too much for a 1660 super, it's near the price of a 3060 Ti (if they sold at RRP and were in stock) which is much faster. A 1660 Super should be closer to £200.

CCampling · 31 Dec 2020 at 10:38

Thanks for feedback.

What about the CPU/GPU/MB pairings.
Would i be better going for a AMD or Intel or is the difference not worth worrying about.

The GPUs at this price point are not available anywhere so i guess that is why the prices are high!
List is currently about £300 for the GEFORCE GTX 1660 and £450 for the GEFORCE RTX 3060.

mickyflinn · 31 Dec 2020 at 10:53

You should get a 1tb m2 512gb will soon fill up with a couple of modern games.

The 10400f matches the 3600 in gaming for less money.

Tetras · 31 Dec 2020 at 20:07

CCampling said:
Thanks for feedback.

What about the CPU/GPU/MB pairings.
Would i be better going for a AMD or Intel or is the difference not worth worrying about.

The GPUs at this price point are not available anywhere so i guess that is why the prices are high!
List is currently about £300 for the GEFORCE GTX 1660 and £450 for the GEFORCE RTX 3060.

The 3060 Ti price isn't unusual, though still too high. There's no way I'd pay £300 for the GTX 1660, especially with a 3060 (non-Ti) and 3050 hopefully available soon.

danq · 4 Jan 2021 at 16:09

You could pick windows up for a lot cheaper btw. My advice to you would be to use your current PC to download Win 10 on a USB stick. Use it to install a fresh copy on the new build and pick up a Win 10 activation key online. (e.g. CD Keys) You can pick up an activation code for like £15-20. It's legal and works absolutely fine and saves you a lot of £!