New to PCs budget £2000-£2500

[jeezy85]

Hi All,

I am completely new to gaming on pc and I’m ready to jump over from consoles.

I would require a monitor too and I will be mainly playing Warzone. I heard 144hz -240hz is the best way forward? I want some thing that is powerful to run games on max.

Would appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction of a build with a budget of £2000-£2500. Thanks in advance.

 

[Sparx]

Are you looking to build the PC yourself? Or do you need a pre-built system?

If you're comfortable and able to build your own, you'll get slightly better components (typically motherboard, power supply, storage etc)

Do you need WiFi, or can you get internet directly wired to your router?

 

[jeezy85]

Are you looking to build the PC yourself? Or do you need a pre-built system?

If you're comfortable and able to build your own, you'll get slightly better components (typically motherboard, power supply, storage etc)

Do you need WiFi, or can you get internet directly wired to your router?

thanks for the reply. I would be comfortable building my own pc I did a very long time ago.

would preferably like to have a option for both I may need to use WiFi till I get I get a wire running to the pc. Thanks

 

[Sparx]

Are you bothered about RGB/light and blingy parts, or after a plain sleek look? (case, RAM and CPU cooler wise etc) For now I've gone plain black as a base idea to start with, you don't need to go into the £2-2.5k bracket tbh so can save some change and the below rig will still run very, very well for gaming. If you want to bling it up a bit then let me know and can suggest some other parts, just know you'll pay a slight RGB premium lol.

Only issue is Nvidia are supposedly releasing their next-gen Ampere GPUs mid-September time if they stick to their historic schedule. No official announcement yet though. Nothing wrong buying now if you really wanna dive in to PCMR, just bear in mind there could be new products on the horizon... Frustrating time to buy with uncertainty lol.

The LG monitor I suggested is one of the best 1440p for the money about in that price bracket. It's on offer this week so that's definitely a worthy purchase as usually near £500 price point. So with your budget you'll be diving into 1440p and playing games nicely

Case is entirely your choice, I've just gone for a good brand and reviewed case. But you might prefer something different. Cooler wise I thought might like a quality AIO which is one of the best reviewed one for price point, quiet too and will keep temps down well. Mobo is a great X570 mb with the latest WiFi AX 6. 2070S is a great pre-overclocked model and run games @ 1440p well.

Just chucked a 1TB NVMe drive in for now, presume that should suffice to start with? Although I know my latest COD folder is 200GB lol. So if you fancy adding more in could swap it out to a 2TB drive. Or you can always start with that and add a 2nd NVMe or SSD drive later on.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £299.99
• 1 x MSI MAG X570 TOMAHAWK WIFI (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 ATX Motherboard= £219.95
• 1 x Corsair RM Series RM650 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020194-UK)= £99.95
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £99.95
• 1 x Asus GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Dual EVO OC 8192MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £499.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 16GB (2x8GB) 3600 MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit= £82.99
• 1 x Phanteks Eclipse P500 Air ATX Case Tempered Glass Satin Black= £89.99
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer II High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 240mm= £79.99
• 1 x LG 27GL850-B 27" 2560x1440 NANO IPS 144Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Compatible Widescreen LED Gaming Monit= £439.99

Total: £1,912.79 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​

 

[jeezy85]

Are you bothered about RGB/light and blingy parts, or after a plain sleek look? (case, RAM and CPU cooler wise etc) For now I've gone plain black as a base idea to start with, you don't need to go into the £2-2.5k bracket tbh so can save some change and the below rig will still run very, very well for gaming. If you want to bling it up a bit then let me know and can suggest some other parts, just know you'll pay a slight RGB premium lol.

Only issue is Nvidia are supposedly releasing their next-gen Ampere GPUs mid-September time if they stick to their historic schedule. No official announcement yet though. Nothing wrong buying now if you really wanna dive in to PCMR, just bear in mind there could be new products on the horizon... Frustrating time to buy with uncertainty lol.

The LG monitor I suggested is one of the best 1440p for the money about in that price bracket. It's on offer this week so that's definitely a worthy purchase as usually near £500 price point. So with your budget you'll be diving into 1440p and playing games nicely

Case is entirely your choice, I've just gone for a good brand and reviewed case. But you might prefer something different. Cooler wise I thought might like a quality AIO which is one of the best reviewed one for price point, quiet too and will keep temps down well. Mobo is a great X570 mb with the latest WiFi AX 6. 2070S is a great pre-overclocked model and run games @ 1440p well.

Just chucked a 1TB NVMe drive in for now, presume that should suffice to start with? Although I know my latest COD folder is 200GB lol. So if you fancy adding more in could swap it out to a 2TB drive. Or you can always start with that and add a 2nd NVMe or SSD drive later on.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £299.99
• 1 x MSI MAG X570 TOMAHAWK WIFI (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 ATX Motherboard= £219.95
• 1 x Corsair RM Series RM650 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020194-UK)= £99.95
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £99.95
• 1 x Asus GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Dual EVO OC 8192MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £499.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 16GB (2x8GB) 3600 MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit= £82.99
• 1 x Phanteks Eclipse P500 Air ATX Case Tempered Glass Satin Black= £89.99
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer II High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 240mm= £79.99
• 1 x LG 27GL850-B 27" 2560x1440 NANO IPS 144Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Compatible Widescreen LED Gaming Monit= £439.99

Total: £1,912.79 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​

Thank you so much for this but now I’m stuck! New gpu in September confused now wether to wait and get it then or just buy this build now? is there suppose to be a significant improvement on this new card? Don’t mind a simple black case but wouldn’t mind if there was colour in there

 

[Sparx]

Not really sure yet, there is speculation of 30-40% improvements. But this is from aesthetic benchmarks and not real world performance (as in actual FPS improvements in game).

It’s all rumours and no concrete dates yet, Nvidia usually hold a launch event or announcement not long before. Previously it was announced mid August and released mid/late Sept. They also launch the top end model first (£1k region) then trickle the rest of models in the months after, so could be waiting til late in year for the mid-high range model you’ll want at the £500 odd price point.

I presume you don’t have a graphics card you can use temporarily? You could either simply wait and see, but the launch schedule could mean it’s even longer before the actual GPU you want be released... Or take the plunge and go for it, you’ll still enjoy the 2070S (runs great for me 1440p) but if you have the money to burn or can afford to take a hit, if you fancied could sell 2070S later on and get a next gen card. Ofc just lose some money selling it on 2nd hand.

 

[jeezy85]

Not really sure yet, there is speculation of 30-40% improvements. But this is from aesthetic benchmarks and not real world performance (as in actual FPS improvements in game).

It’s all rumours and no concrete dates yet, Nvidia usually hold a launch event or announcement not long before. Previously it was announced mid August and released mid/late Sept. They also launch the top end model first (£1k region) then trickle the rest of models in the months after, so could be waiting til late in year for the mid-high range model you’ll want at the £500 odd price point.

I presume you don’t have a graphics card you can use temporarily? You could either simply wait and see, but the launch schedule could mean it’s even longer before the actual GPU you want be released... Or take the plunge and go for it, you’ll still enjoy the 2070S (runs great for me 1440p) but if you have the money to burn or can afford to take a hit, if you fancied could sell 2070S later on and get a next gen card. Ofc just lose some money selling it on 2nd hand.

thank u! Is the motherboard futureproof? I.e I can always upgrade the graphics card later down the line?

so is 240hz something completely different? More powerful than 144hz? (Sorry I’m completely new to this)

could you recommend some blingy rgb please just to get an idea of the price difference?

 

[Sparx]

Yep X570 is the latest AM4 chipset - all GPUs work in the same PCI-Express slots that are on all modern day motherboards. So you can upgrade your GPU whenever you like.

240Hz refresh rate is to do with your monitor. But 240Hz is pretty pointless, unless you're an elite/professional FPS gamer. Then I'd say go for it, as with 240Hz you need your graphics card to display at that FPS to take advantage of it. At this point it's arguable between people if your eyes can even see the difference above 160Hz panels, I've not witnessed it so couldn't comment. Some say you can, some say you can't.

For a casual/enthusiast gamer at home, 140-160Hz region is the perfect sweet spot for a monitor. Having 1440p resolution and high refresh rate is even better if your rig can do it, which yours would with the budget you have, meaning you have a really nice crisp and good looking image on screen for games/photos/videos etc.

The monitor I suggested is a 27" size, 1440p resolution, IPS panel, 144Hz refresh rate and G-Sync compatible. Which is a Nvidia feature to avoid screen tearing in games and keep things looking smooth in games.

2 minutes I'll have a look at blingy RGB stuff lol

 

[Sparx]

So blinged up, be something like this... Just swapped the case, RAM and AIO cooler.

RAM is actually on offer so didn't go up too much. AIO cooler is overkill for the CPU, it'll cool very well - but if you want aesthetics and to match the RAM hence the premium as mentioned lol... Case is same one just with RGB (there is a white version too if preferred). It's quite new out, so currently out of stock lol. It's available at one or two other retailers if you're desperate and looked elsewhere for it.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £299.99
• 1 x MSI MAG X570 TOMAHAWK WIFI (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 ATX Motherboard= £219.95
• 1 x Corsair RM Series RM650 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020194-UK)= £99.95
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £99.95
• 1 x Asus GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Dual EVO OC 8192MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £499.99
• 1 x LG 27GL850-B 27" 2560x1440 NANO IPS 144Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Compatible Widescreen LED Gaming Monit= £439.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Black 16GB (2x8GB) 3600 MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit= £99.95
• 1 x Phanteks Eclipse P500 Air ATX Case Tempered Glass DRGB Satin Black= £117.95
• 1 x Corsair Hydro Series H115i Platinum RGB Performance Liquid Cooler - 280mm (CW-9060038-WW)= £149.99

Total: £2,027.71 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​

 

[jeezy85]

Yep X570 is the latest AM4 chipset - all GPUs work in the same PCI-Express slots that are on all modern day motherboards. So you can upgrade your GPU whenever you like.

240Hz refresh rate is to do with your monitor. But 240Hz is pretty pointless, unless you're an elite/professional FPS gamer. Then I'd say go for it, as with 240Hz you need your graphics card to display at that FPS to take advantage of it. At this point it's arguable between people if your eyes can even see the difference above 160Hz panels, I've not witnessed it so couldn't comment. Some say you can, some say you can't.

For a casual/enthusiast gamer at home, 140-160Hz region is the perfect sweet spot for a monitor. Having 1440p resolution and high refresh rate is even better if your rig can do it, which yours would with the budget you have, meaning you have a really nice crisp and good looking image on screen for games/photos/videos etc.

The monitor I suggested is a 27" size, 1440p resolution, IPS panel, 144Hz refresh rate and G-Sync compatible. Which is a Nvidia feature to avoid screen tearing in games and keep things looking smooth in games.

2 minutes I'll have a look at blingy RGB stuff lol

Thank you sparx appreciate your help!

someone mentioned to me about having a dual gpu slot to have 2 gpu cards? Is this worth it or pointless?

thanks I won’t bother going for 240hz

 

[Sparx]

Just added a build with the rainbow stuff above lol

Don't bother with 2x GPUs honestly it's overkill, very expensive and you don't get anywhere near twice the performance either!

If you wanna splash the cash, just get one single solid GPU. Right now that's the 2070 Super, without spending stupid money on a 2080S or 2080 Ti for a marginal performance gain But that'd be daft when next gen is out later this year (or whenever it arrives lol) so if you do buy now and want a next-gen card later, just sell the 2070S and get a top end next-gen GPU instead then if you really want to lol. You might find your more than happy with the 2070S anyway if you're buying now.

 

[Journey]

I am completely new to gaming on pc and I’m ready to jump over from consoles.

I want some thing that is powerful to run games on max.

Why do you feel the need to jump to such a high budget machine from a console? You can build a PC for well under £1k that will absolutely destroy a current generation console, and easily hit 144Hz at 1080p and the only thing stopping you going 1440p or 4k at those refresh rates would be the GPU which as you have read, can be easily swapped out.

The main thing to get right first time it the screen, you can't upgrade a screen, you can't make it larger after buying it, and you can't make it smaller either!

 

[jeezy85]

Just added a build with the rainbow stuff above lol

Don't bother with 2x GPUs honestly it's overkill, very expensive and you don't get anywhere near twice the performance either!

If you wanna splash the cash, just get one single solid GPU. Right now that's the 2070 Super, without spending stupid money on a 2080S or 2080 Ti for a marginal performance gain But that'd be daft when next gen is out later this year (or whenever it arrives lol) so if you do buy now and want a next-gen card later, just sell the 2070S and get a top end next-gen GPU instead then if you really want to lol. You might find your more than happy with the 2070S anyway if you're buying now.

thank you so much for your help really appreciate it. I’ll probably stick to the 2070s as recommended

 

[jeezy85]

Why do you feel the need to jump to such a high budget machine from a console? You can build a PC for well under £1k that will absolutely destroy a current generation console, and easily hit 144Hz at 1080p and the only thing stopping you going 1440p or 4k at those refresh rates would be the GPU which as you have read, can be easily swapped out.

The main thing to get right first time it the screen, you can't upgrade a screen, you can't make it larger after buying it, and you can't make it smaller either!

is not not worth investing more now to future proof it? I’ll be totally honest I’ve not seen the difference between 1080p and 1440p.

In regards to the screen yes your right screen is important I am bit sceptical becuase I am currently playing in a 65inch tv on my Xbox and jumping down to a 27inch is going to be hard but apparently it’s a lot better to play on this size screen lol

 

[Sparx]

1080p is standard HD which most PC gamers play at... then you have 1440p (or 2k) which is becoming increasingly the preferred res people would like to play at if they could afford it or warrant the price tag, others aren't bothered and happily play @ 1080p... then you have 4K (which consoles run on, but have upscaled textures etc) which is very difficult to play smoothly on PC without a £1k GPU. Personally I was on 1080p for years, went to 1440p and I love it. One of my friends has a 4K monitor and I can barely tell the difference between his and my 1440p, except he needs a lot beefier GPU to run games on, which he can't afford stupidly lol.

Yeah I mean the argument with what to buy, is a £1k rig will be great @ 1080p this year. But in the long run the next-gen consoles will be beating it when released, the 1440p rig I spec'd with a 2070S will probably be on par with next-gen consoles and more future proof. That said if you then go to a next-gen Nvidia GPU later this year, that will surpass the next-gen consoles again if current benchmarks seen are true.

Just depends if your happy going into PC world on 1080p/HD, or going up to 1440p/2k res to begin with. If you went 1080p you'd have to swap monitors out if you ever wanted to go 1440p, so yeah the 1440p spec is more future proof. But you could also be happy at 1080p on a lesser rig.

Your money, so up to you

 

[Journey]

is not not worth investing more now to future proof it? I’ll be totally honest I’ve not seen the difference between 1080p and 1440p.

In regards to the screen yes your right screen is important I am bit sceptical becuase I am currently playing in a 65inch tv on my Xbox and jumping down to a 27inch is going to be hard but apparently it’s a lot better to play on this size screen lol

120Hz OLED is where it is at.

Much better than a monitor, if you want big screen gaming, and if you don't already own an OLED a massive upgrade in TV/Film viewing too!

is not not worth investing more now to future proof it? I’ll be totally honest I’ve not seen the difference between 1080p and 1440

Yes an no, PC technology is moving pretty fast for once, unlike the last 10 years. It is unlikely the a CPU will bottleneck your GPU for a while playing at 1440p or 4k, and the GPU/Graphics card will be the main thing to change. A 2070S as suggested isn't a bad shout, but they don't offer what I'd call an amazing value proposition right now.

 

[Sparx]

Yes an no, PC technology is moving pretty fast for once, unlike the last 10 years. It is unlikely the a CPU will bottleneck your GPU for a while playing at 1440p or 4k, and the GPU/Graphics card will be the main thing to change. A 2070S as suggested isn't a bad shout, but they don't offer what I'd call an amazing value proposition right now.

The better 'value for money' card would be the AMD 5700 XT which I'm sure you're thinking off too... My only gripe is AMD drivers are so hit and miss these days.

I got an RX 580 I think it was a year or two ago, and day one I immediately had driver issues - glitching in-games, artifacting and the odd BSOD. It got better after driver releases, but then I just couldn't be bothered with it so I did a full upgrade. I keep hearing they've improved since and they are great value I agree, but the back of my head still doesn't settle on AMD GPUs personally.

So right now, whilst I think AMD CPUs are great - Nvidia is where my wallet goes for GPUs atm, even if it does cost a little more. Also G-Sync seems better implemented than FreeSync for me too. I'd rather pay a little more for a better experience personally.

 

[jeezy85]

1080p is standard HD which most PC gamers play at... then you have 1440p (or 2k) which is becoming increasingly the preferred res people would like to play at if they could afford it or warrant the price tag, others aren't bothered and happily play @ 1080p... then you have 4K (which consoles run on, but have upscaled textures etc) which is very difficult to play smoothly on PC without a £1k GPU. Personally I was on 1080p for years, went to 1440p and I love it. One of my friends has a 4K monitor and I can barely tell the difference between his and my 1440p, except he needs a lot beefier GPU to run games on, which he can't afford stupidly lol.

Yeah I mean the argument with what to buy, is a £1k rig will be great @ 1080p this year. But in the long run the next-gen consoles will be beating it when released, the 1440p rig I spec'd with a 2070S will probably be on par with next-gen consoles and more future proof. That said if you then go to a next-gen Nvidia GPU later this year, that will surpass the next-gen consoles again if current benchmarks seen are true.

Just depends if your happy going into PC world on 1080p/HD, or going up to 1440p/2k res to begin with. If you went 1080p you'd have to swap monitors out if you ever wanted to go 1440p, so yeah the 1440p spec is more future proof. But you could also be happy at 1080p on a lesser rig.

Your money, so up to you

thanks sparx. Does the LG monitor you recommended support 4K? (Obviously to use in the future)

 

[Sparx]

No it's a 1440p monitor mate, you can't increase the resolution of it. You'd have to get a new monitor. I highly doubt you'll want to go 4K anytime soon on PC trust me! If so you'll need a really fat wallet

Talking nearly £1k for a high refresh rate 4k gaming monitor, same again for the GPU and even then with current GPUs it'll not get near 100+ FPS in the latest AAA games...

I've tried both and for PCs I really don't see a difference 1440p vs 4k. Doesn't feel the same going 4k on a big TV and games console. 1440p is the sweet spot for PC gaming that's still enjoyable imo and 4k is the standard for console gaming obviously, as it's implemented differently (upscaled textures etc).

1080p high refresh rate is even more affordable on PC as Journey mentioned, just slightly lower resolution/textures/screen space etc. Still 1080p is a great experience on PC if you did decide to opt that route.

Edit: You'll already find 1440p PC gaming will look much more detailed and better quality than today's console games at 4k trust me. Especially on a good monitor

 

[Journey]

The better 'value for money' card would be the AMD 5700 XT which I'm sure you're thinking off too...

Nope, don't think any cards offer good value for money presently, especially with the unknown quantity that is Ampere and RDNA2. The lock down tax is just silly, and the fact that a 2070S is the same speed as a 1080 Ti for the most part which is over 3 years old at this point in time, and cost the same 18 months ago, we've moved sideways or backwards.

So right now, whilst I think AMD CPUs are great - Nvidia is where my wallet goes for GPUs atm, even if it does cost a little more. Also G-Sync seems better implemented than FreeSync for me too. I'd rather pay a little more for a better experience personally.

I build machines week in week out, both gaming and professional systems, and have to say that I've not really noticed any specific issues on either side if it is all configured and setup correctly. Obviously a sample size of one isn't great, which is what most people have to go on other than anecdotal stories from the www.

Does the LG monitor you recommended support 4K?

The LG OLED TV's do both 1440p and 4k and offer true HDR10 and Dolby Vision and you get to keep gaming on a big screen. Unless you are playing lots of RTS games, or things like City Skylines then there aren't really any drawbacks to having a much larger screen as you would with a console, as long as you can see the whole screen with your peripheral vision when playing fast paced shooters etc. then you'll end up with a great experience. Most people who say big screen gaming isn't great usually haven't tried it, and very few have tried high refresh rate/VRR gaming on OLED as it is such a new development.