New/First PC build for gaming and design

[RDO.Nico]

Hi,
I'm building a pc for my kid for gaming mostly, we would like it for low level 3d design , animation and photoshop too, it won't be nothing major but I would like it to do what he needs for as long as possible without the need to upgrade too soon.

I already have some parts which are

Lian li lancool II mesh performance
GE force RTX 3070 ti I chill x4
Klevv cras X RGB 16GB (2x8gb)
WD_SN570 1TB 2280 PCIe gen3 NVMe

I've been looking at 3 different CPU builds
AMD Ryzen 5 5600x
Intel i5 12600k
Intel i7 12700k

I was aiming more towards the i7 but I'm not sure now if the parts I have will be compatible, my budget will stretch for it but it's a case of is it really justified for what I'm looking for and me working a few more shifts after the 6 weeks hols :/ and with the cost of living rising!
If it's a case of saving £300 now to cost me more later down the line it may be better to pay the extra now?

Also if I go with the 5600x I could probably get a better monitor for his gaming so would that be a factor too?

Any help and advice is much appreciated

Thanks

 

[Tetras]

For 3d design, animation and photoshop you really need a decent monitor, otherwise productivity suffers a lot and to be honest 1080p is rather nasty, due to the lack of horizontal resolution and not being quite big enough for side-by-side working. But, unfortunately that tends to ramp up the requirements on the rest of the build if you want to play games at native 1440p or 4K. A 3070 Ti can handle both resolutions fairly comfortably in older games, but 4K will need the settings dialled down a bit in newer ones.

Depending on the software and how it is used, they're usually more single core performance heavy right now for more casual usage, particularly photoshop. But, when the cores are made good use of in something like Blender, the 12600K or 12700K can pull far ahead of the 5600X and if he's waiting a lot (e.g. hours) for work to complete then something like a 5700X, 5900X or 12700K is well worth it in time saved.

 

[RDO.Nico]

Ah right I see, the 3d design and animation will be very basic as it's just something he's interested in atm but it will want to do the job if he gets into it, probably be using Photoshop and illustrator with a huion sketch pad and he likes the idea of developing games as he gets older too (as most kids probably), and we will be using blender.

I'm new to the forum so not sure how to link the parts, but I'd probably go with this then

12700k
MSI z690 edge
Arctic liquid freezer II 240mm cooler
Corsair 650w 80plus gold PSU

but question is now will my ram and hard drive I have be compatible, I'm guessing the hard drive won't ? And what sort of monitor should I be looking at for this set up if wants to be 1440p / 4k

 

[Tetras]

Memory (what speed? 3200?) and SSD should work fine.

How much is the board? On OCUK it is £300 and that is way more than you need to pay for a decent board. I'd suggest the MSI Z690-A Wifi (ATX) @ £220 or MSI B660M-A Wifi (M-ATX) @ £150.

Unless you already have the PSU I'd upgrade it to a 750 or 850 watt model like the Seasonic GX-750 @ £95, to give you some more protection against the < 400 Watt spikes that a 3070 Ti can have. Nvidia themselves recommend at least 750 watt psu for a 3070 Ti.

If the workstation usage is fairly low-key as you suggest I'd be pretty comfortable with a 12600K, but don't pay too much for one or you might as well get a 5900X which can comfortably outpace it for workstation tasks.

The 12700 non-K is also a good alternative, especially if the 12600K is nearing £300, or the 12700K £400!

I don't know enough about monitors to recommend them, hardware unboxed posted some videos recently that you might like (e.g. this one).

 

[RDO.Nico]

Yeah 3200 SSD, I thought with it been PCie 3 it wouldn't be compatible but just read they're forward / backward compatible.

I've just checked and you're right, £300! I must have been looking at a different one, I've looked into that many on my nightshift.

I think you're right a 12600k would be more than enough, maybe the 5600x if would be up to the tasks and be decent for long enough, it will mainly be for gaming just with his interests I'd like it to ideally help him with it if he decides to take it up and help him for his future but it won't be too heavy workload for the time been.

Thanks I'll check that out, appreciate it

Edit: I'll upgrade the PSU too as I don't have one yet and read the same thing to buy 750w

 

[Tetras]

Yeah 3200 SSD, I thought with it been PCie 3 it wouldn't be compatible but just read they're forward / backward compatible.

I think you're right a 12600k would be more than enough, maybe the 5600x if would be up to the tasks and be decent for long enough, it will mainly be for gaming just with his interests I'd like it to ideally help him with it if he decides to take it up and help him for his future but it won't be too heavy workload for the time been.

Yep, they are backwards compatible and if you get a B550 board (AM4) then one slot will be PCI-E 3.0 anyhow.

The easy compromise option between the 5600X and the 12600K is a 5700X, which is pretty well priced right now @ £230 and is a jack-of-all-trades kind of CPU.

My opinion about buying PCs for maybe workstation usage is not to over-spec the system, because if someone decides to start getting into something in a serious way then they will know what they need and the cost-benefit ratio tends to shift significantly toward favouring much higher-end hardware.

 

[RDO.Nico]

I was just looking at the B550 boards and thinking that tbh, this is all new to me so I'm just figuring it out as I go, but correct me if I'm wrong, with me already having a ssd PCIe 3 it would be pointless getting a x570 board which the only real difference is that it supports PCIe4 and it would only perform at PCIe 3 anyways with the SSD?

I bought parts on offer or from friends without thinking/knowing all this stuff haha

In that case I could build this pc significantly cheaper and it should do him fine for now and if he does get into design and animation then could look at it later down the line of it's not performing up to speed and the new gen chips will be out soon anyway and future proofing it seems a waste for that reason?

 

[RDO.Nico]

Yeah can pick up a 5700x for not much extra as the 5600x so would that be a decent choice, a 5700x with a b550?

 

[martynr]

I replaced my 5600x processor with 5800x iirc. There were no improvement on graphics test. I would go with 5600x imho as it costs less.

 

[JollyJamma]

I replaced my 5600x processor with 5800x iirc. There were no improvement on graphics test. I would go with 5600x imho as it costs less.

Price difference I would get the 5700X which is 8 cores but cheaper than the 5800X.

YOu'll see better 1% lows with 8 cores but the 5600X is still a great CPU.

 

[Tetras]

I was just looking at the B550 boards and thinking that tbh, this is all new to me so I'm just figuring it out as I go, but correct me if I'm wrong, with me already having a ssd PCIe 3 it would be pointless getting a x570 board which the only real difference is that it supports PCIe4 and it would only perform at PCIe 3 anyways with the SSD?

In that case I could build this pc significantly cheaper and it should do him fine for now and if he does get into design and animation then could look at it later down the line of it's not performing up to speed and the new gen chips will be out soon anyway and future proofing it seems a waste for that reason?

Yeah, with 1 SSD and no additional cards there's no need for X570, unless you need a feature a X570 board has.

Exactly, that's how I look at it, if he gets into it seriously then he'll probably want something a lot more high-end, so for now, a 5700X seems like a great compromise. It is very good for gaming and has 8 fast cores for productivity tasks. That'll be plenty good enough for casual/hobby usage of those apps. The number of people who over-spec for workstation stuff and then don't do any is a lot higher than those that do, in my experience (e.g. things like getting a 32 core threadripper and stuffing it with 128GB of ram and then the PC spends all evening playing CS:Go).

 

[RDO.Nico]

I replaced my 5600x processor with 5800x iirc. There were no improvement on graphics test. I would go with 5600x imho as it costs less.

Yeah I did read somewhere that it wasn't worth the upgrade from 5600x to 5800x but I also read in one of the other threads on here that a certain game likes 8 cores? So thinking the 5700x would be good choice for that reason.

Yeah, with 1 SSD and no additional cards there's no need for X570, unless you need a feature a X570 board has.

Exactly, that's how I look at it, if he gets into it seriously then he'll probably want something a lot more high-end, so for now, a 5700X seems like a great compromise. It is very good for gaming and has 8 fast cores for productivity tasks. That'll be plenty good enough for casual/hobby usage of those apps. The number of people who over-spec for workstation stuff and then don't do any is a lot higher than those that do, in my experience (e.g. things like getting a 32 core threadripper and stuffing it with 128GB of ram and then the PC spends all evening playing CS:Go).

I will be adding a another HDD for extra storage but that's about it.

Yeah exactly I was also worried if I'd gone for the higher spec, he'd just use it for YouTube, playing Undertale and his animations won't get past the stick man stage . But the pc will also be rigged up to our main TV to play games on and I'll use it from time to time when he's at his mams so I'm happy to build it to a reasonable spec to cover all bases.

Appreciate the replys, I'll have a look tonight to see what mother board I'll go for and the rest of the parts and if all looks good?

 

[RDO.Nico]

Here's what I've found on the OC site for the pc build -

AMD Ryzen 7 5700x £229.99
Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming £155.99
Seasonic G12-GC 850W 80+ Gold PSU £89.99
Seagate 2 TB Baracuda HDD 49.99

and for the cooler I was looking at the Arctic liquid II 240mm at £79.99
But with it been for my kid I think he would appreciate some RGB so could was thinking the
be quiet pure loop 2 240 argb for £95.99?
...or if someone could recommend me a better one that would be great
...also the Alpenfohn glacier 280mm for £109.99 looks good?

Again any advice is much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Tetras]

Seasonic G12-GC 850W 80+ Gold PSU £89.99

I'd get the GX-750 for £95, the G12 is not made by Seasonic (it has an inferior fan, capacitors and half the warranty length, 5 instead of 10 years).

 

[RDO.Nico]

I'd get the GX-750 for £95, the G12 is not made by Seasonic (it has an inferior fan, capacitors and half the warranty length, 5 instead of 10 years).

Ah ok I see, thanks will get that one then instead, I was just for the higher watt for the price so cheers

 

[Tetras]

be quiet pure loop 2 240 argb for £95.99?
...or if someone could recommend me a better one that would be great
...also the Alpenfohn glacier 280mm for £109.99 looks good?

Again any advice is much appreciated. Thanks.

The Lian Li and Arctic reviewed well at GN, I haven't seen reviews of those. THG have one of the BeQuiet 360 version.

 

[RDO.Nico]

The Lian Li and Arctic reviewed well at GN, I haven't seen reviews of those. THG have one of the BeQuiet 360 version.

Thanks for the links, the Arctic liquid freezer one looks the better choice I think, and there's an argb version for £10 more so might go with that.

Edit - that was for the 240mm version, think the 280 would be the better choice without rgb

 

[Threepwood]

Any help and advice is much appreciated

hi, do you have a budget?
also, while using the tv for games sounds good, well, cheaper, it will actually suck, for both design, and gaming,I'm presuming it will still be used as a TV of course, but if you can put in on a desk, or on a wall in front of a desk you just might get some use out of it, but if it is staying upon a wall quite far away from where the pc/keyboard/ mouse will be, then hell no! pc games aren't designed like console games where they know what's on screen will be a little way away, and,trying to see what you are designing a distance from the monitor is a no go, personally I think you will have to stump for a seperate monitor,and a desk/table

 

[Threepwood]

advice is much appreciated. Thanks.

If you want some honest advice, just make a cheap pc that can handle some gaming (easy to do,) and if your boy is honestly interested in animation and design, then he will just have to start on that and make do! if by chance he gets good enough to be limited by the pc, then you, (or he) can think about what to do about that then, you don't have to spend a bundle of cash, on the whim that maybe one day a pc capable of compiling something big will be needed, apart from prices maybe being a little higher than they need to be right the now, there has probably never been a better time to get an affordable computer that can play games and be good enough to mess around with some animation/design, okay, maybe the amiga600, at the time, filled that spot until now at least

 

[Threepwood]

(easy to do,)

let's see about this then, you already have the most important parts to build on, as you have a case and a ssd, so all you need is a motherboard, some graphics and a psu, i'm thinking go for an AMD APU, a amd cpu that has graphics built in, ocuk used to have bundles, but I bet they are sold out again, I'll see what I can do