New build for daughter

voodooflux

voodooflux

voodooflux

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I'm currently in the process of building my daughter her first serious PC for her birthday later this month. It's been a good few years since my last builds, so I'm playing catch-up with the latest hot stuff.

I've already picked up:
  • MSI B450 Tomahawk Max DDR4 ATX Motherboard
  • AMD Ryzen 3600 CPU
I'm planning to re-use some old kit, namely a case and GPU (for now):
  • Lian-Li PC7B Plus II Aluminium Midi Tower Case
  • HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
I'll replace the GPU with something new that'll do the build justice in a couple of months, or maybe Christmas if it can tide her over for Roblox until then.

I've got an old Seasonic SS-600HT 600W PSU but I'm guessing it lacks some of the connectors required for modern graphics cards, and I'd like something fully modular anyway to cut down on clutter in the case, so I'll ditch that.

Given the above I'd really appreciate some recommendations for…
  • 16Gb RAM
  • Hard disk (preferably a ~500GB NVMe PCIe device to save clutter)
  • Power supply
  • Anything I've missed!
…and also please point out any glaring errors I've made in assuming she can make do with the old graphics card for a few months.

Any advice gratefully received. Thanks in advance.
 
If you're gonna go through the hassle of building this for her, at least spend another ~£40 to get a half decent case (or let her pick one :p) ...

Saves you ripping it apart again and building it again too ;)

PSU wise, this is the cheapest quality one I can find, if it needs to be fully modular.


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £264.92 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​
 
Cheers Sparx, appreciate the tips.

My current Lian-Li case is in good shape, so I hadn't been planning to swap that out later (just the GPU) - but I am now tempted by that Rift case you quoted.

Thanks again.
 
Your choice pal on the case :p

That aside the RAM, M2 and PSU are all good price/quality, well reviewed gear and reputable brands :)

Good warranties too; RAM lifetime, M2 5 years and PSU 7 years.
 
I can highly recommend the above RAM as I have it in my build and it runs well, I've also had a Super flower Leadex PSU before and they are also very good units so don't hesitate to grab them if that's what your after
 
Thanks Minibiker. I might even stretch to the 650W version of that PSU to give the build a little more headroom for future expansion.

Would that memory offer much scope for overclocking? Is there much to be gained by going for a 3200 or 3600 kit?
 
voodooflux said:
Would that memory offer much scope for overclocking?
Click to expand...
Not those kits - Crucial Ballistix Sport LT (E-Die) are great value and have clocking potential - be sure they have AES in the product code. All i'm permitted to say due forum rules - unfortunately OcUK don't stock them.
 
Just wanted to say thanks to you folks who offered advice for this build. In the end I went with:
  • MSI B450 Tomahawk Max DDR4 ATX Motherboard
  • AMD Ryzen 3600 CPU
  • Corsair Force MP510 series 480GB NVMe PCIe M.2 Solid State Drive
  • Gigabyte AORUS P750 750W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply
  • Crucial Ballistix Sport LT BLS2K8G4D32AESBK 3200 MHz, DDR4, 16 GB (8 GB x 2)
  • ** Temporary HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **

It all went into my old Lian-Li PC7 Plus case really nicely, and the modular PSU and M.2 drive meant minimal cable clutter. I was also able to remove the drive caddy and a few other bits and pieces.

Can't seem to embed images, but here's a link to a photo on Dropbox:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/03u8s83rzqvrgsm/06325AF1-A029-4843-8B5D-B900DECF8E79.JPG?dl=0_

Worth noting that the stock Wraith cooler is a very close fit against the motherboard heatsink on the Tomahawk Max when the "AMD" tab on the cooler is oriented towards it. I could have rotated it towards the DIMM slots, but was concerned that might render the first DIMM slot unusable should we add more RAM in the future.

Thanks again, will have a very happy daughter on her birthday next weekend :)
 
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voodooflux said:
Worth noting that the stock Wraith cooler is a very close fit against the motherboard heatsink on the Tomahawk Max when the "AMD" tab on the cooler is oriented towards it. I could have rotated it towards the DIMM slots, but was concerned that might render the first DIMM slot unusable should we add more RAM in the future.
Click to expand...
If need be, the stock Wraith Stealth cooler's fan shroud can be removed to give you extra clearance. It's only there for aesthetic purposes. To remove the shroud, you'd have to take the cooler off the CPU though, because the screw holding the shroud in place can only be accessed when the cooler is upside down.

Doesn't seem like you need the extra clearance though.
 
an0nym0us said:
If need be, the stock Wraith Stealth cooler's fan shroud can be removed to give you extra clearance. It's only there for aesthetic purposes. To remove the shroud, you'd have to take the cooler off the CPU though, because the screw holding the shroud in place can only be accessed when the cooler is upside down.

Doesn't seem like you need the extra clearance though.
Click to expand...

Thanks an0nym0us, that's useful to know. The shroud is brushing right up against the motherboard heatsink, but not detrimentally from what I can see. Not sure whether that's by luck or design on the part of MSI.
 
voodooflux said:
Thanks an0nym0us, that's useful to know. The shroud is brushing right up against the motherboard heatsink, but not detrimentally from what I can see. Not sure whether that's by luck or design on the part of MSI.
Click to expand...
No problem. I actually had to remove the fan shroud on one of my own builds due to height clearance requirements. In fact, I ended up needing to sand down the fan's housing in places to reduce the overall height of the fan. It was pretty barbaric because I couldn't be bothered to buy specific tools or sandpaper only for this one purpose.
 
Couple of minor issues with the system I assembled - for some reason the power LED on the case only seems to come on at initial boot, and the HDD led doesn't seem to come on at all. After power cycling the system sometimes I have to flick the PSU switch off and on again to get the system to boot.

But the major issue is that my cunning plan to make do with an older graphics card for a couple of months isn't going to work. The 7850 seems to work for a while but then gives up the ghost, so I'm guessing it's probably knackered.

So I'm having to bring forward my plan to add a decent GPU to this system. Probably looking around £350-£400, and I see the Gigabyte Radeon™ RX 5700 XT 8G can be had for around this. I see lots of mention of the "OC" version of this card though - is that worth the premium (and the wait)?
 
The RX5700x cards are great for the money - but worth considering the Vega 56 as well for cheaper. More than enough card for your purpose (though the 5700 will obviously give more future proofing).

Cant help with the switch problem, but the HDD LED..... You dont have a HD so I wouldnt expect it to come on.
 
Thanks Paul. That's a good point you make about the NVMe drive, I wasn't sure whether activity would register in the same way.

I'll check out some Vega 56 cards too...
 
voodooflux said:
Thanks Paul. That's a good point you make about the NVMe drive, I wasn't sure whether activity would register in the same way.

I'll check out some Vega 56 cards too...
Click to expand...

both my pcs have M.2 drives and the HDD lights work fine. maybe the power switch and the LED are on there way out
 
You can remove the power switch connectors from the motherboard header and test turning on PC by using a screwdriver to briefly bridge the power switch pins instead. If you can consistently power up PC using the screwdriver method, then the case's front panel connectors may be the problem.
 
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