New build assistance

[Rob.S]

Hello

I've been lurking these forums over the weekend as I am looking for a complete new build, including a monitor. I do both gaming and other multi-tasking work too, but in terms of games I generally play CS:GO and Americas Army, though I would like the build to be capable of playing some newer games too.

Budget is around the £750 - £850 mark (lower the better of course) and after some research I was hoping someone can assist around the components below:

Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB (or 3GB but for an extra £50 or so I think it be worth the 6GB?)
AMD Ryzen 2600X
ASUS ROG STRIX B350 Gaming

Happyy to be shown something better with or without the above components. Also for a monitor, I was also hoping to use a nice big 27" screen for resolution but not sure if I should stick to a 24" and lower resolution instead? Would prefer the build to last me at least the next 3-4 years without having to do another substantial upgrade.

P.s. I should add the monitor cost is separate to the budget above, prepared to pay up to £200 on the monitor alone.

Thanks in advance

 

[Rob.S]

Hi Orbitalwalsh

Thank you for this, very useful but forgive me I have a few extra questions.

1. First of all the extra HDD is not necessary so that makes a little saving.
2. For AMD you have opted for the 2600 but not the 2600X - is there really much of a difference?
3. Regarding the GTX 1060 3GB, would it be overkill if I opted for the 6GB 1060 for the difference in price?
4. I see both builds are Micro ATX, so I am presuming there will be smaller space for and I suppose my real worry would be airflow and cable management, particularly if the PSU is not modular/semi-modular and therefore noise levels overall. I've never done a Micro ATX build before, not saying that I won't have one, but just something I thought about.
5. The monitor does look real nice I have to admit, however at the moment my gaming hours are not that great probably up to 8-10 hours in the week and maybe some more over the weekend. I tend to work from home fairly often so it will also be used as a workstation, mainly word processing but definitely use of multiple apps open at the same time.

Taking all of the above into account, would you change anything to the build you have suggested? Perhaps alternatives to the monitor, CPU, GPU etc. This build is something as a starting point really and over the next 2-3 months I could do some more upgrades if necessary.

Edit: I know these are all picked from the OCUK site, but have noticed the Samsung monitor is £50-£70 cheaper elsewhere, so I think I will source it from the cheaper supplier - assuming we work from the same budget, that leaves about £110 extra to play with.

 

[Rob.S]

That looks pretty good to me, work are going through a refresh at the moment upgrading monitors so I am going to see if they will give me an extra monitor for home (HP 23" ones) which should save me that extra costs. If that's the case, using your latest basket of goodies I could for an extra £5 by sourcing the monitor elsewhere get the 27" version of the Samsung curve monitor. Good idea, or bad?

@Journey quite frankly I think it was more the size of the screen than the actual capabilities! I'm not particularly clued up on the monitor side of things and I am not a hardcore gamer either so what might matter to most gamers, probably doesn't matter too much to me.

 

[Rob.S]

@Journey, I'm open to all suggestions obviously I have seen a fair few reviews for the 2600X but little on the 2600 so just presumed the 2600X was the one to go for. However, if there isn't much difference and I make a saving I am happy to go with the 2600.

@orbitalwalsh - thank you for that, let's just stick to the 24" version I think. My field of expertise is law, so I do have 2 monitors at work since it makes drafting contracts and comparisons so much easier than flicking between word docs! Certainly makes a difference and I agree going back to one monitor would be difficult for me unless the screen size justifies it.

Anyway, it looks like you have given me what I need - your last basket minus the monitors at a total of £778.85 and I buy the monitor Samsung Curve monitor separate at £200 so a total cost of £978.85.

Two final points, the 450 watt PSU will be able to cope with those components including the revised 6GB 1060? Secondly, you mentioned about obtaining a "loan boot kit" from AMD or sending to Gigabyte to flash - is this straightforward and what would you recommend? I take it there are compatibility issues with the new Ryzen CPUs?

 

[Rob.S]

Great, thanks guys. I will give them a quick call prior to placing an order, if they aren't prepared to do it then I might call other suppliers to see if they are willing instead. If nobody's willing then I don't think it matters whichever way I go.

 

[Rob.S]

So would you suggest ordering the RX570 over the 1060? Am I likely to benefit from the 1060 using this monitor and if not, would it not make sense to buy a different monitor? Is the sole benefit to Samsung curve the refresh rate, how much of a difference am I really going to see if lets say I buy a monitor with a refresh rate of 75hz for example?

 

[Rob.S]

Thank you both, I think I might just stick with the curve, perhaps I might look at a 1440 monitor down the line but I am sure I'll be happy with it for now.

As an aside, called up Overclockers to see if they could flash the motherboard for me and the guy said that it would depend on how busy their tech team were. After a few minutes of being on hold, he told me that they are too busy at the moment so its a no. Have checked another supplier albeit their costs are slightly higher than the costs here they did say they would flash it for me though charge £12 for it - for the sake of having to ship it off to Gigabyte and wait, I think I would rather pay the £12 and get it done.

 

[Rob.S]

A fair point.

@Rob.S What sort of multi-tasking do you do?

Can vary, but work-wise it would be multiple large file size word documents, skype, plenty of browser tabs and on occasions reviewing videos / high quality photos.

Strictly speaking I could afford an 8700 but I am resisting temptation and trying to set a budget since I don't usually have hours to game these days but just nice to have something there without too much expense. Not had a great experience with AMD graphics cards previously and have tended to stick with nvidia as well as Intel CPUs - do these new AMD cards use more power than the nvidia counterparts? and what about noise levels too?

@tamzzy, curious about your choice of CPU any particular reason over the 1st gen than the 2nd?

 

[Rob.S]

hmm food for thought.

I thought I was all set on the 2600 perhaps being an all-rounder I guess but I am starting to lean towards Intel. I can see that in the last couple builds the memory is at 2400Mhz compared to the Ryzen builds. Is that a limiting factor of having an Intel build and does it have much of an effect?

If the i-8400 is only going to yield a little extra in gaming and I'm not really going to see that performance increase then I am inclined to stick to the Ryzen - the 1060 power consumption is also attractive over the 580. I can probably cope on 240gb SSD for the time being, though I do see your point tamzzy.

Think I'll mull it over the next couple of days before I decide which way I'm going and before I take the plunge, there's nothing new coming out from Intel, AMD or Nvidia anytime soon that might be worth the wait?

 

[Rob.S]

since you're buying a new monitor anyway, at this point, rather get a 580 + free sync monitor than a 1060 without a gsync monitor.

And if I were to go down this route, are there aftermarket coolers that are decent enough to keep the card less noisy? Really want to avoid having a card that is really loud particularly playing games

 

[Rob.S]

So, I've been doing a bit of research and tinkering with components (knew this would happen) - I think I am decided on the 2600 so its really a question of GPU thats sort of stumping me.

Anyway, anyone got thoughts on the below, particularly the 1070 card? Factoring in the MSI curved monitor or the Samsung (which I can find at £180) comes in around the £1,100 mark. Slightly over budget but is the 1070 worth it? Otherwise, I think I might settle for the 1060 over the 580. I would consider buying a monitor that is 1440p if 1070 was an option though I appreciate I won't be getting the best monitor.



Also looked at the Samsung UE50 4K 1ms monitor, but I suspect the above build isn't going to handle 4k on the games I play?

 

[Rob.S]

Thanks, will look into this. Since I’ve come across the cheap 1070 I think I’ll buy the majority of components here and then use other supplier for motherboard and CPU and get them to flash it for the extra cost.

Just reviewing the monitor side of things again, I would really like to try and get one at a 1440 resolution. I was looking at the AOC 27” 1ms monitor currently going for £200. It seems to have some decent reviews for a sub-200 monitor and granted it has a refresh rate of 60hz and the Samsung / MSI is a step up but I am trying to get the best of both worlds to allow me odd hours of gaming but a decent enough (and this is where “big and nice” comes into play) monitor for other stuff such as working from home.

Am I likely to run into drastic problems with the 1070 and the AOC monitor when gaming? From what I’ve read, it doesn’t sound like I would but I’m not the expert!

Or even the bigger brother 31.5” option with a refresh of 75hz, though I understand that has a 4ms rate and not sure how that computes into gaming terms or if it’s not good enough

 

[Rob.S]

Thanks tamzzy , I think I am almost ready to make an order.

The 1070 I mentioned on here has suddenly gone up in price to £389 however I have found a Palit 1070ti version for only £10 more, so I think I'm going to jump to that one although it comes from a different supplier.

As for the monitor, I would really like the 31" but I think I am going to opt for the AOC 27" which is the in between - not sure I have space for the 31" anyway on my desk.

I will be looking to place this order today so hopefully everything arrives in the next 48hours!

 

[Rob.S]

Actually, I correct myself, I thought it was the Palit and yes that would have been the dual but actually opted for the MSI ARMOR one - that sufficient?

 

[Rob.S]

Ahh, well order has already been placed now and en-route. Will have to wait and see when it arrives is it really that bad?

 

[Rob.S]

I see, thanks. The only alternative close to budget was the Gigabyte Windforce version for £20 more or the EVGA Gaming ACX version for the same price

 

[Rob.S]

Morning guys, sorry for not replying, been a busy week!

Many thanks for all your help, I did actually opt for the MSI 1070ti Armor version though now I know might not have been the best option. Anyway, I speaking to the supplier and they said that the memory I purchased requires an overclock if I am to get the faster speeds. Is anyone able to assist me on how I go about that? I was under the impression those speeds work out of the box but was told it should work but technically an overclock is needed.

 

[Rob.S]

did you go for the B350 Gaming 3 in the end or intel board ?

also what ram did you get ? from ocuk ?

Went for the B350 and down the Ryzen route, also after too-ing and fro-ing and various discussions with the guy on the phone, went with the 16GB Corsair Vengence 3000mhz (I think). Everything seems to be working fine but wanted to check the ram was running at the right speeds, though he did say if it doesn't work can send back or swap out for alternative as apparently there had been reports before of problems with this board and the ram getting to the correct speeds.

 

[Rob.S]

Great thanks, at work right now but will test when I get home tonight. So glad I opted for the 27" AOC that screen is already massive itself compared to working on a 24", I think the 3" version would have been overkill!