New PC build - AM5 Foundation

[Gudge]

Hi All,

After a long time, it's time to build a new PC.

While I had been thinking about it for a while, my hand has been forced by my previous PC going bang on me - so the matter has been pushed earlier than planned!
Historically I have always been an Intel user; I've decided to go with an AMD AM5 build this time; from the grumbles I've heard about the recent Intel chipsets and reading that AMD is in a decent place at the moment, it seems to be the way to go.

The use would be a mix of home/office use (Zoom/Teams/Power BI/Spreadsheets blah blah blah) + casual gaming (Total War games, Mechabellum, Rogue Trader, CIV VI, Doom Eternal, etc) and will probably try some more hardware testing games (Space Marine 2, Cyberpunk 2077, etc) with the new setup; I am not looking for a hardcore/mega spec or something to overclock till it can bend the space-time continuum - just some that a casual gamer can enjoy making the most of.

Due to the immediate nature of the build, my budget is not what I hoped it would be and I'd like to have all the parts ordered ASAP and be in the process of building/testing ASAP (The itch is getting THAT bad!) so I am mainly looking for available components.
In terms of future upgrades, I would hope to be at least 2-3 years before I need to revisit the system.

Budget: £1200 (ish)

I have done some build planning and have chosen some items but would like to have input from more knowledgeable people on the components, and the components that I have yet to choose, as I'm stuck with the balance between cost/'future proofing' (as in for the next couple of years):

Current Picks
My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 7700X Eight Core 5.40GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DF-AM) = £289.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen - Space Marine & Unknown 9 Awakening Games Bundle (SKU: DIG-AMD-02908) = £0.00
• 1 x Arctic Freezer 36 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02420) = £24.95
• 1 x Corsair RMe Series RM750e Fully Modular Low-Noise ATX Power Supply v2 (CP-9020262-UK) (SKU: CA-27S-CS) = £99.95
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-01125) = £119.99
• 1 x Crucial P3 PLUS 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 NVMe Solid State Drive (SKU: HD-07B-CR) = £113.98

Total: £656.86 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

​

The items that I'm struggling with include 2 important ones though; Motherboard & GPU.

ATX MOBO
I've been searching around and checking the reviews on YouTube (Hardware Unboxed, PC Builder, JayzTwoCents, etc.) and I've narrowed it down to 2 boards so far - but am open to suggestions... Mainly I have picked them due to their High Vram scores. WIFI would be good but not an absolute and I am not bothered about RGB, I'd rather have a good cost-effective setup, rather than a show pony. Ideally, I wouldn't want to spend more than £150 on a Mobo.

Currently, I am toying with the idea of an ASROCK B650 PG LIGHTNING but have read on some forums to avoid it due to BIOS and 'memory training' issues (The posts were a couple of years ago so am hoping BIOS updates have resolved a lot of this) which rocked my certainty in it.

My other thought (preferred choice) is B650 STEEL LEGEND, due to the lack of availability of this board & its higher price it'll probably be the ASROCK PG Lightning unless there is a strong response not to.


GPU
I've been toying between the cheaper tier RTX 4060 TI 16GB or the RTX4070 12GB models.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Gainward GeForce RTX 4060Ti Panther 16GB GDDR6 Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-GNW-00762) = £419.99

OR

• 1 x Asus GeForce RTX 4070 Dual EVO OC 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-ASU-02563) = £509.99

Total: £937.97 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

As this is the component I will probably be swapping out most over the lifetime of the system I am leaning toward the RTX 4060 TI 16GB - the main factor is it is about £100 cheaper! - Other than that, a requirement was that the card had to have at least 12GB+ in terms of memory & build compatibility!

I am hoping to run @1440 at a good quality setting (High at a minimum) but ULTRA settings are not critical for me, I use multiple screens; two of which are G-sync compatible, so would prefer an RTX card to make the most of them.

If there is any advice to think differently about my choices I am open to hearing it.

Case:
I've not put much thought into the case yet as I have been focused on the MOBO & GPU research, but I am beginning to look into this - Probably something around the £100 area - black or Grey/Silver mainly but a Window side could be nice.
I would prefer it to be as quiet as possible (I know fans are the main culprit of that) and some USB 3.0 access to the front/top & I have 2 old HDDS that I'd like to SATA link in until I can transfer & upgrade them in the future.

Thanks for getting this far and I would appreciate any feedback.

 

[Gudge]

Thanks for all the responses so far.

With all the new suggestions I've been looking at the recommendations and have tweaked the current plan:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) (SKU: HD-58G-WD) = £103.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core 5.00GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DT-AM) = £349.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen - Space Marine & Unknown 9 Awakening Games Bundle (SKU: DIG-AMD-02908) = £0.00
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance 32GB EXPO (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-02786) = £125.00
• 1 x MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-375-MS) = £179.98
• 1 x Arctic Freezer 36 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02420) = £24.95
• 1 x Corsair RMe Series RM750e Fully Modular Low-Noise ATX Power Supply v2 (CP-9020262-UK) (SKU: CA-27S-CS) = £99.95

Total: £883.86 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

​

The RAM has been updated to the EXPO versions and kept with the Vengeance.

If you're gaming you want the Ryzen 7800X3D.

I've changed the build to include the 7800X3D after multiple recommendations, I'm justifying that the investment will be better for the medium term.

I'd switch to WD's SN770, which is cheaper and superior since it uses TLC and has much write higher endurance than the QLC-based P3 Plus.

Switched to this due to the recommendation.

This is not one of Corsair's best models, I'd get the SHIFT if your case is compatible with it (side-mounted cables).

I've decided to stick to my initial PSU until I've decided on the case, mainly due to the side-loading cables, but once that decision has been made It'll be a toss-up between my current choice and the Shift.

I thought sucking up the extra £10 over the TUF, and the initially planned Thunderbolt, in going for a MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-375-MS) - it seems to be positively reviewed in numerous sites so seemed like the way to go; More VRAM, better Audio Codec and ditches the Gen 5 PCIE for an extra Gen 4 PCIe.

Still need to decide on the GPU; The 4070 tier is the max tier I can go to at the moment and seems to be the one that has been recommended so will be looking more into these. Is there any particular manufacturer that I should look to/avoid or are they all a 'much-of-a-muchness' at this band in the 4070 tier?