New Pre-Built PC - Advice Received - Double Check before purchase.

PlacidCasual · 9 Apr 2024 at 15:18

Hi Guys

The last desktop PC I bought was about 11 years ago and was fairly tasty at the time but for the last few years has become my home jobs PC but even that is now beyond it and it is too old to update to Windows 11.

I have a 3 or 4 year old Asus Gaming Laptop which has been ok for Civ 6, Surviving Mars or Skryim when I'm away travelling for work and is still fine for most of the games I play.

I need a new desktop to act as my "Working" PC where I store my photos and files that then gets backed up to my NAS, and do any Fusion360 or MS Office type stuff. I would also like to be able to play games on it but I am so far off the pace on what is current and what is capable.

I want to play the games I currently play like Civ 6 etc, which I doubt is desperately demanding by modern standards but I don't know where to pitch it so I can play future releases. I won't be playing FPShooters at 4k with 4 x AA and 120 FPS. I just want to play strategy games and RPG's like Skyrim or Starfield at reasonable FPS and image quality.

I was considering something like OcUK Budget Gaming PC but have no idea how capable an RTX 4060 8Gb is.

I think £1000 is going to be a hard ceiling for me. I do have my current PC with a 256GB SSD a 2 TB Sata HDD and power supply so I could buy a components bundle and rebuild on that chassis, I just don't know if the saving is going to be worth the effort of the build or even what bundle of components I would buy.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Cheers PlacidCasual

Tetras · 9 Apr 2024 at 15:43

PlacidCasual said:
have no idea how capable an RTX 4060 8Gb is.

It isn't a bad 1080p card since it can play pretty much everything, but the 8GB of VRAM (4GB less than the card it replaced) is a big negative and for anything near £300 it is overpriced. Performance hasn't shifted at the £300 anywhere near how it should have done, so these cards (RX 7600 and 4060) are looking very dated and I don't think they will have a long life.

A 4070 Super or 7900 GRE are what I'd get if you want to keep them for 5+ years and play demanding games like Starfield.

PlacidCasual said:
I was considering something like OcUK Budget Gaming PC

12400F is reasonable and won't be a problem with the 4060, but you'd need an upgrade when the graphics card is replaced. The 12600KF has been available around £150 and that is a much better baseline, in my opinion. The Ryzen 7500F or 7600 are also good options and likely to have more future CPU upgrades available than the Intel platform.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £188.99
1 x Asus TUF Gaming A620-Pro WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASU-01162) = £149.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G6000HC38ADC01) (SKU: MY-0B2-TG) = £99.94
1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 GRE Gaming 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-SPR-01588) = £549.95

Total: £996.86 (includes delivery: £7.99)

PlacidCasual · 9 Apr 2024 at 16:45

@Tetras Thank you very much for that response, it gives me much more to think about. Appreciated

PlacidCasual · 23 Apr 2024 at 13:21

I've put the following basket together and close to pressing the button.

Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632)

Order Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632) now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail

Order AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Asus TUF Gaming A620-Pro WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard

Order Asus TUF Gaming A620-Pro WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 GRE Gaming 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Order Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 GRE Gaming 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G6000HC38ADC01)

Order TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G6000HC38ADC01) now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

WD Green SN350 2TB SSD SATA M.2 2280 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3G0C)

Order WD Green SN350 2TB SSD M.2 2280 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3G0C) now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Tetras has very kindly suggested much of the above as a solution to my query. Could someone else cast a second pair of eyes over it, I'm not informed enough to reliably spot a mistake. Also I think I have chosen an appropriate SSD but a check that I haven't made a mistake would be great.

Any help gratefully received.

MissChief · 23 Apr 2024 at 14:01

Save your cash and get a windows key for £10-£15 online. Use this saving to upgrade either the motherboard or the NVME. The WD greens are bottom tier, an SN850 X isn’t much more but miles better.

PlacidCasual · 23 Apr 2024 at 14:11

MissChief said:
Save your cash and get a windows key for £10-£15 online. Use this saving to upgrade either the motherboard or the NVME. The WD greens are bottom tier, an SN850 X isn’t much more but miles better.

Thanks for the advice on the SSD. I was extending budget to buy Windows Key so if cheaper options exist, I'd probably reduce budget.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Tetras · 23 Apr 2024 at 14:12

PlacidCasual said:
WD Green SN350 2TB SSD SATA M.2 2280 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3G0C)

Order WD Green SN350 2TB SSD M.2 2280 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3G0C) now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Newmaxx's spreadsheet says it is likely to be QLC in 1TB/2TB capacity (WD's datasheet concurs) and the rated endurance is an unbelievably awful 100 TBW in the 2TB capacity.

I'd get the cheaper (£113) SN580 which is guaranteed to be TLC and has 9x (!!!!!) the rated endurance in the 2TB capacity.

PlacidCasual · 23 Apr 2024 at 14:17

Tetras said:
Newmaxx's spreadsheet says it is likely to be QLC in 1TB/2TB capacity (WD's datasheet concurs) and the rated endurance is an unbelievably awful 100 TBW in the 2TB capacity.

I'd get the cheaper (£113) SN580 which is guaranteed to be TLC and has 9x (!!!!!) the rated endurance in the 2TB capacity.

Thanks for that, I had to look up QLC and TLC but wouldn't have thought to ask.

Tetras · 23 Apr 2024 at 14:22

PlacidCasual said:
Thanks for that, I had to look up QLC and TLC but wouldn't have thought to ask.

To be fair, a decent QLC drive can perform pretty well and they can even have rated endurance similar to TLC, so they're not an issue for e.g. a games storage drive, but with such low endurance it suggests they have very low confidence in the longevity of the drive (& the flash used), so I'm not surprised the warranty has been cut by 2 years too.

tamzzy · 23 Apr 2024 at 17:48

PlacidCasual said:
2 TB Sata HDD and power supply

before you press buy...
what is the exact model psu that you have, and how old is the hdd?
also what is the case that you're going to reuse?

PlacidCasual said:
Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632)

you don't need to re-buy windows 11 if there is already a key tied to your microsoft/hotmail/live account

PlacidCasual · 23 Apr 2024 at 18:25

@tamzzy The PSU is from 2009 it's a Corsair but exact make and model I'll need to check. I seem to remember it has a modular design and I have the spare cables somewhere.
The 2 TB hard drive is probably 7 or 8 years old and is my bulk drive but is by and large backed up to my NAS.
The case is a Coolermaster full size ATX.

Thanks for the info on Windows 11. Did not know that I remember having to buy a key for each PC and just assumed.

MissChief · 23 Apr 2024 at 19:25

Not sure I’d still have 100% trust in a 15 year old PSU…

tamzzy · 23 Apr 2024 at 19:59

yeah honestly, you're better off selling your whole current pc as is and starting afresh
out of interest, what are the specs of that 11 y/o pc?

PlacidCasual · 25 Apr 2024 at 10:24

Point taken about the PSU. Used a quick calculator which estimates approx 550W needed so was going to apply an engineers caution and go for 750W. Any brands to avoid?

I'd need to have a good look I seem to think it's a Phenom @ 3GHz. I'll need to check thoroughly when I get home. I mostly use a 4 year old ASUS TUF for gaming but that is relatively SSD limited and whilst it manages Civ 6 and Skyrim adequately probably doesn't have much headroom. Hence my desire to update my utterly obsolete desktop.

fleapea · 25 Apr 2024 at 11:25

MissChief said:
Not sure I’d still have 100% trust in a 15 year old PSU…

I ran an old one too - when i upgraded my card to an RX6600 it wouldnt power on at all.
When i told the guy helping me online what the model of the PSU was he almost logged out and never spoke to me again. lol
think it had been going 11 years to that point.

mickyflinn · 25 Apr 2024 at 11:41

PlacidCasual said:
Point taken about the PSU. Used a quick calculator which estimates approx 550W needed so was going to apply an engineers caution and go for 750W. Any brands to avoid?

You can get the seasonic focus gx 750w for around £90 that's what I would get.

PlacidCasual · 26 Apr 2024 at 08:25

Thank you all for your assistance it is much appreciated. I have taken your advice regards to PSU, SSD and Windows Key and stuck with @Tetras suggestion for everything else. As I don't stay current with PC's these days the way I may have done 10 or more years ago I would have been quite lost without your assistance.

Ordering later today, ouch, the bank account will feel that one.

tamzzy · 26 Apr 2024 at 08:42

Get the crucial t500 instead. £20 cheaper and trades blows with the 850x

With that £20 saving I would get a b650 board rather than a a620 board

MissChief · 26 Apr 2024 at 12:56

tamzzy said:
Get the crucial t500 instead. £20 cheaper and trades blows with the 850x

With that £20 saving I would get a b650 board rather than a a620 board

Tamzzy is wise, but most B650 boards are terrible:

mickyflinn · 26 Apr 2024 at 13:04

PlacidCasual said:
Thank you all for your assistance it is much appreciated. I have taken your advice regards to PSU, SSD and Windows Key and stuck with @Tetras suggestion for everything else. As I don't stay current with PC's these days the way I may have done 10 or more years ago I would have been quite lost without your assistance.

M2 -You can get the adata xpg gammix s70 blade 2tb for £115 .

New Pre-Built PC - Advice Received - Double Check before purchase.

Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632) ​

Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632)