New Lounge PC build help

[Dan_P]

Hi all,

I have been playing the Call of Duty beta this weekend and really enjoyed PC gaming in our lounge.

This left me in a predicament as I am not wanting to permanently or every time move my PC from my office into the lounge. So I have been coming up with ideas to build a cheap lounge gaming PC to play COD and VR Games such as Beat Saber.

Budget wise to convince the wife less than £500 please.

In my main build I have two 980Ti's in SLI, I am proposing to take the Asus Strix out of this and use in my lounge build and the 128GB Samsung SSD along with:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x MSI Z390 MPG GAMING EDGE AC (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £164.99
• 1 x Intel Core i5-9600K 3.7GHz (Coffee Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £229.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK16GX4M2B32= £82.99
• 1 x Bitfenix Shadow Midi Tower Gaming Case - Black Window= £32.99
• 1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition CPU Cooler - 120mm= £32.99
• 1 x Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)= £6.49

Total: £563.04 (includes shipping: £12.60)


Any suggestions, changes or enhancements?

Edits:

• TV native Resolution 3840*2160.
• Any build form factor is acceptable (PC will be hidden anyway)
• Reusing Samsung SM951 128GB M.2 SSD which is currently not in use
• Budget upgraded to £500
• Needs to allow for SLI in the future (will be adding my second 980Ti to this build when I upgrade to a "3080Ti")

MTIA

Dan

 

[labcoattech]

What resolution will you be playing at?

 

[Dan_P]

What resolution will you be playing at?

Doh! 3840*2160

 

[Minibiker]

How about ITX? Most are light so if you need to move it then you can do so with ease!

I'm not 100% but that board may not work with new gen Ryzen CPU's

 

[Dan_P]

How about ITX? Most are light so if you need to move it then you can do so with ease!

I'm not 100% but that board may not work with new gen Ryzen CPU's

Form factor of the build has no impact as it will either be hidden behind a TV cabinet or the sofa - so whatever is best is fine for me.

 

[Minibiker]

Form factor of the build has no impact as it will either be hidden behind a TV cabinet or the sofa - so whatever is best is fine for me.

Ahhh I see... If your using the 980 from your current build and are looking for cheapest possible... How about using the Board you have picked with a Ryzen 1200 it's a cheap older Gen that will fit into the board selected but performs well, instead of the 3200G

 

[Dan_P]

Ahhh I see... If your using the 980 from your current build and are looking for cheapest possible... How about using the Board you have picked with a Ryzen 1200 it's a cheap older Gen that will fit into the board selected but performs well, instead of the 3200G

Ryzen 1200 looks to be about £30 cheaper, 600Mhz slower and released 2 years ago - which doesn't seem like a great deal. Unless the motherboard needed for the 3200 is going to be a much higher premium?

 

[LuckyBenski]

The G series CPU (APU) isn't necessary as the integrated graphics won't be useful over your 980 Ti. Unless you're concerned about the reliability of the card.

See if you can step up to a 3600 as that seems to be a pretty great CPU for performance value.

I don't believe A320 got BIOS updates for Zen 2. I may be wrong but either way it won't be a great motherboard for features or power delivery. You want at least a B450 IMO.

Given your budget I'd suggest looking for some parts second hand. I'd struggle to build even a no-graphics setup for £300 new. A decent PSU to feed a 980 Ti will cost you £80-100 at the very least if going new. Don't cheap out on the PSU for one of the hungriest cards released.

 

[Dan_P]

The G series CPU (APU) isn't necessary as the integrated graphics won't be useful over your 980 Ti. Unless you're concerned about the reliability of the card.

See if you can step up to a 3600 as that seems to be a pretty great CPU for performance value.

I don't believe A320 got BIOS updates for Zen 2. I may be wrong but either way it won't be a great motherboard for features or power delivery. You want at least a B450 IMO.

Given your budget I'd suggest looking for some parts second hand. I'd struggle to build even a no-graphics setup for £300 new. A decent PSU to feed a 980 Ti will cost you £80-100 at the very least if going new. Don't cheap out on the PSU for one of the hungriest cards released.

Good point on the CPU over APU, however at £200 for a 3600 over a 3200G at £88 even if I don’t use the integrated graphics, the price to cores and clock speed seems worth sticking with the 3200.

Will look at the prices of a B450 board instead. Can probably amend budget to £400 to be honest just have to convince the wife a bit better. I was hoping my spare 500w kolink would be enough - although will look at others

 

[Dan_P]

Found B450 boards for a similar price, considering I don’t need many thrills for this lounge PC something like these seem good:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Asrock B450M-HDV R4.0 (Socket AM4) DDR4 MATX Motherboard= £58.99
• 1 x ASUS PRIME B450M-K (Socket AM4) DDR4 MATX Motherboard= £69.98
• 1 x Asrock B450M Pro4 (Socket AM4) DDR4 MATX Motherboard= £70.99

Total: £211.06 (includes shipping: £11.10)​

​

 

[EssexBoy]

Just be aware that wd green m.2 is slow i would get something else.

 

[Dan_P]

Just be aware that wd green m.2 is slow i would get something else.

Is this better?
My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Kingston A1000 240GB SSDNOW M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe 3.0 Solid State Drive= £44.99

Total: £53.69 (includes shipping: £8.70)​

​

 

[EssexBoy]

Yes a lot more better nearly double in certain tasks.

 

[Dan_P]

Yes a lot more better nearly double in certain tasks.

Excellent I’ll either buy that then or reuse my Samsung SM951 128GB I’m not using which I think is good too?

 

[EssexBoy]

The Samsung is actually better than the Kingston haha

https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compa...ston-A1000-NVMe-PCIe-M2-240GB/m34737vsm497453

 

[Dan_P]

The Samsung is actually better than the Kingston haha

https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compa...ston-A1000-NVMe-PCIe-M2-240GB/m34737vsm497453

Ok cool I’ll reuse the Samsung and then if needed add a SSD like a 960 evo or even hdd for games later.

Can you help with picking a motherboard in post 10?

 

[Dan_P]

Initial post build updated - any further changes suggested/needed?

 

[ninezerofive]

Long HDMI cable is cheaper

 

[an0nym0us]

• 1 x Asrock B450M-HDV R4.0 (Socket AM4) DDR4 MATX Motherboard= £58.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 3 3200G Quad Core 4.0GHz (Socket AM4) APU with RX Vega 8 Graphics - Retail= £88.99

That motherboard is very likely going to need a BIOS update before you can use the R3 3200G. Do you have a 1st/2nd gen Ryzen CPU to perform the BIOS update?

I have a Kolink 500W PSU spare at home I plan to use

I personally wouldn't want to risk using that PSU with a GTX 980 Ti in the same system.

 

[Alan1969]

Doh! 3840*2160

you could play at 1080 on that TV too and then you can keep the cheap 3200G