New Build

[Tony Marcus]

Hi Guys,

My 9 year old system is overdue an upgrade soon, I'd like to build a gaming PC spec build and do an low-mid overclock. I'd like the system to be a reasonable spec for the next 7-8 years like my current system. I am a little shocked at some of the prices of components since my last build in 2017, would it be worth be waiting until prices drop or are high prices here to stay. Here's what I am thinking:-

Reuse of current storage:-

1. Samsung 990 PRO 2TB M.2 NVME SSD - (MZ-V9P2T0BW)
2.Western Digital Black 6TB
3. Toshiba 4TB 3.5" SATA HDD 7.2K 128MB MD08ADA400

New components:-
1. CPU - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (Arrow Lake) Socket LGA 1851 Processor, 4.6GHz Clock Speed, 5.7GHz Single Core Max Turbo - Retail - £530
2. Motherboard - Gigabyte Z890 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 (LGA1851) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £230
3. Ram - Corsair Dominator Titanium RGB XMP 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - £800
4. Video Card - Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5080 Windforce OC SFF 16GB GDDR7 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £1230
5. Case - Corsair FRAME 4000D LCD RS ARGB Premium Mid-Tower PC Case - Black - £300
6. PSU - Corsair HX1000i 1000W ATX 3.1 PCIe 5.1 80 Plus Platinum Modular Power Supply - £170
7. CPU Cooler - CORSAIR iCUE LINK TITAN 360 RX RGB Black All In One CPU Cooler - 360mm - £170
8. Case fan - CORSAIR LX120-R RGB 120mm PWM Reverse Fan - Black - £35
= £3455

Whats peoples thoughts

Thanks

Tony

 

[Tony Marcus]

Forgot to say, current 2017 system is:-

1.CPU - Intel Core i7 7700k 4.2GHz Kaby Lake - £300 (overclocked to 4.6Ghz)
2.Motherboard - Gigabyte Aorus GA-Z270X-Gaming K5 - £156
3.Ram - Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (16GBx2) 3000Mhz DDR 4 - £229
4.Video Card - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 G1 Gaming 6GB - £267
5.Hard Drives -Samsung 960 EVO 1TB M.2 PCI-E NVME SSD - £410
Samsung 990 PRO 2TB M.2 NVME SSD - (MZ-V9P2T0BW)
Western Digital Black 6TB - £241.62 - April 2026
Toshiba 4TB 3.5" SATA HDD 7.2K 128MB MD08ADA400E
6.Case - Corsair 460X RGB - £135
7.CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-U14S with NF-A15 fan - £52
8.Case Fan - Corsair SP120 RGB - £17
9.PSU - Corsair HX750i - £118 April 2015

 

[tamzzy]

Whats peoples thoughts

What's the main use of the PC?

 

[Tony Marcus]

What's the main use of the PC?

Occasional gaming and general PC use, it's probably over kill but I'd like it to stand the test of time like my current system

 

[tamzzy]

Occasional gaming and general PC use, it's probably over kill but I'd like it to stand the test of time like my current system

if that's the case you definitely don't need to pay inflated prices for RAM
in fact i'd go out on a limb to say it'll probably be cheaper to get 32G now and only upgrade if you need...and by that time prices should've come down

also, future-proofing is a bit of a stupid idea, it'll be more cost-effective to get a mid-high end system where the best value parts are, and then upgrade a bit sooner
in the intervening time, the new mid-high end system would outperform the original high-end system (and probably saves you money as well)

 

[tamzzy]

i would recommend spending half your budget and getting a pc that's 85% of the way there:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £368.99
• 1 x MSI B850 Gaming Plus WIFI6E (AMD AM5) B850 DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-05941) = £129.95
• 1 x KLEVV FIT V EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) 5600MHz C30 DDR5 Dual Channel Kit - Black (SKU: MEM-KLV-07035) = £299.98
• 1 x Asus Radeon RX 9070 XT Prime OC 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-ASU-04155) = £620.00
• 1 x Thermalright Aqua Elite 360 White ARGB V3 All In One CPU Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03257) = £39.94
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 850W ATX 3.1 PCIe 5.1 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply - White (SKU: POW-PHK-02520) = £104.96
• 1 x Phanteks XT View ATX Case Tempered Glass Windows, White (SKU: CAS-PHK-01446) = £74.95

Total: £1,638.77 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

of course if you feel the need to spend that £3.5k we'd be very willing to do so too...but honestly, it just really isn't really required for your use case
(two reallys to emphasise the point )

 

[Tony Marcus]

if that's the case you definitely don't need to pay inflated prices for RAM
in fact i'd go out on a limb to say it'll probably be cheaper to get 32G now and only upgrade if you need...and by that time prices should've come down

also, future-proofing is a bit of a stupid idea, it'll be more cost-effective to get a mid-high end system where the best value parts are, and then upgrade a bit sooner
in the intervening time, the new mid-high end system would outperform the original high-end system (and probably saves you money as well)

Thank you for the advise, I will consider as you have suggested. I probably will build next year due to the inflated prices.

 

[Tony Marcus]

i would recommend spending half your budget and getting a pc that's 85% of the way there:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £368.99
• 1 x MSI B850 Gaming Plus WIFI6E (AMD AM5) B850 DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-05941) = £129.95
• 1 x KLEVV FIT V EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) 5600MHz C30 DDR5 Dual Channel Kit - Black (SKU: MEM-KLV-07035) = £299.98
• 1 x Asus Radeon RX 9070 XT Prime OC 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-ASU-04155) = £620.00
• 1 x Thermalright Aqua Elite 360 White ARGB V3 All In One CPU Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03257) = £39.94
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 850W ATX 3.1 PCIe 5.1 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply - White (SKU: POW-PHK-02520) = £104.96
• 1 x Phanteks XT View ATX Case Tempered Glass Windows, White (SKU: CAS-PHK-01446) = £74.95

Total: £1,638.77 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

of course if you feel the need to spend that £3.5k we'd be very willing to do so too...but honestly, it just really isn't really required for your use case
(two reallys to emphasise the point )

Thank you, I don't really want to spend much over £2000 and will probably build next year when hopefully the prices might have dropped a little. Is your build overclockable?

 

[tamzzy]

Thank you for the advise, I will consider as you have suggested. I probably will build next year due to the inflated prices.

To be fair...you're pretty insulated from the pricing inflation because you don't need to get any storage. Just the ram. What used to cost £70-80 is now £300. I doubt ram prices will drop that low again or in the near future.
The rest of the components are "normally" priced.
If you want to upgrade now, then go for it.

 

[tamzzy]

Is your build overclockable?

Overclocking is a thing of the dinosaurs nowadays These new processors have complex boost algorithms it's best just to leave it to do it's thing.
Nowadays the in-thing is to undervolt the processors so they can boost faster for longer

 

[Tony Marcus]

Overclocking is a thing of the dinosaurs nowadays These new processors have complex boost algorithms it's best just to leave it to do it's thing.
Nowadays the in-thing is to undervolt the processors so they can boost faster for longer

oh I didn't know that, that's a shame I used to enjoy tweaking the settings

 

[DotA]

Its now tweeking the setting to make it undervolt as much as possible before it crashes then overvolting the setting before it crashes.

Done both and prefer this way.

 

[Tetras]

Here's what I am thinking:-

New components:-
1. CPU - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (Arrow Lake) Socket LGA 1851 Processor, 4.6GHz Clock Speed, 5.7GHz Single Core Max Turbo - Retail - £530

There's literally no point in buying a 285K except to give Intel free money. The 250K Plus & 270K Plus have made everything else redundant.

 

[tamzzy]

There's literally no point in buying a 285K except to give Intel free money. The 250K Plus & 270K Plus have made everything else redundant.

I also think for OP's use case there is zero reason to get any intel build as he's not doing anything heavily multithreaded, so the 9800x3d/9850x3d makes the most sense