Out of the Loop, want to get back in!

[kinger8938]

Hey all.

Once our 2nd boy came along I had to sacrifice the space to turn my little game room in to a bedroom.

With this I fell out of the pc space but stayed in partially via the steam deck

We are moving soon and I'll have the luxury of space for a proper set up again, however Im out of the loop now and wonder if a prefabricated system may be the best bet for me?

My last system (which I donated to my office to use for cad/cam) consisted of a Ryzen 3600? Maybe, and a nVidia 2070s

Will be used primarily for gaming. I used to aim for 1440p, is that still considered a good sweet spot?

Budget wise I'm not too sure. I never went mad in the past, I guess I'd always hover around Mid range kit. But if it's worth stepping things up a bit for future proofing and so on, then I'm all ears! £1000-1500 maybe?

I'd need to get a monitor and peripherals but I consider that separate to the budget here.

Any advice appreciated, I always preferred nVidia but if that's changed, I'm open to swapping sides as it were.

Thanks in advance!

*Also as a side note, I'd like to explore 3d printing too but I imagine that's irrelevant at this point

 

[Tetras]

however Im out of the loop now and wonder if a prefabricated system may be the best bet for me?

Main problem right now is getting affordable RAM, cheapest in stock 32GB is over £300 at OCUK.

If going pre-built, I'd get this one, says is in stock and ready to ship:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x OcUK Gaming Mach 3.2 - Ryzen 7500X3D RTX 5070 Pre-Built Gaming PC (SKU: FS-PB07-EP) = £1,399.99

Total: £1,399.99 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

Will be used primarily for gaming. I used to aim for 1440p, is that still considered a good sweet spot?

Yes, though with upscaling you can go 4K and not have to play native unless there's a lot of performance on the table.

I always preferred nVidia but if that's changed, I'm open to swapping sides as it were.

The main problem with the 5070 is 12GB, since it'll probably be annoying down the road, like the 8GB is for the 3070 (that otherwise has enough grunt for modern games).

5070 Ti isn't a bad card, but it depends on what price the 9070 XT is. At one point the 9070 XT was around £550 and the 5070 Ti ~£700, where the former wins, but lately they're both creeping upwards.

But if it's worth stepping things up a bit for future proofing and so on, then I'm all ears! £1000-1500 maybe?

Not really. If you can fit a 7800X3D/9800X3D, 32/48/64GB, a 9070 XT or 5070 Ti and 2TB storage then there's no need for more at 1440p. I'd suggest buying soon because the RAM shortage and SSD/GPU prices don't look like they're going to improve this side of Christmas, or maybe even this side of 2027.

 

[kinger8938]

Main problem right now is getting affordable RAM, cheapest in stock 32GB is over £300 at OCUK.

If going pre-built, I'd get this one, says is in stock and ready to ship:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x OcUK Gaming Mach 3.2 - Ryzen 7500X3D RTX 5070 Pre-Built Gaming PC (SKU: FS-PB07-EP) = £1,399.99

Total: £1,399.99 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

Yes, though with upscaling you can go 4K and not have to play native unless there's a lot of performance on the table.


The main problem with the 5070 is 12GB, since it'll probably be annoying down the road, like the 8GB is for the 3070 (that otherwise has enough grunt for modern games).

5070 Ti isn't a bad card, but it depends on what price the 9070 XT is. At one point the 9070 XT was around £550 and the 5070 Ti ~£700, where the former wins, but lately they're both creeping upwards.


Not really. If you can fit a 7800X3D/9800X3D, 32/48/64GB, a 9070 XT or 5070 Ti and 2TB storage then there's no need for more at 1440p. I'd suggest buying soon because the RAM shortage and SSD/GPU prices don't look like they're going to improve this side of Christmas, or maybe even this side of 2027.

Thank you for such a detailed post/breakdown.

I didn't even realise that RAM shortages was a thing, it popped up this evening in a convo with old friends funnily enough.

That system you linked does sound like a good fit, may go for it. Would you say it will keep me going for a while with good room for upgrades down the line if need be?

 

[Tetras]

Would you say it will keep me going for a while with good room for upgrades down the line if need be?

A 7500X3D and 5070 pairing can play anything right now and should be good for at least 2-3 years, with AM5 supporting CPU upgrades for 2 gens (guaranteed) from where you are, with rumours a 3rd might come.

It does depend on you and your expectations. If you were happy to trundle along at 60 fps, it could go for 5-6+ years, but if you wanted high refresh gaming in the latest AAA games, then that timeframe is not realistic.

On the negative side, I doubt the motherboard and PSU fitted are great (a common problem with prebuilds, to be fair). B840 is the lowest chipset for the current gen and a 750 bronze suggests it isn't something high-end. That said, there's no reason those have to be a limit on upgrades, B840 motherboards can be decent and not all bronze-rated PSUs are bad (MSI's own is in the good category, though it isn't clear if that's what OCUK will fit!).

 

[Craig_d1]

I'd rather find a b650 mobo than a B840 mobo though, if there's a choice. a b840 is basically a A620 board, which mean no cpu overclocking and you're locked out from things like Precision Boost overdive (PBO). I'm guessing most of them will have worse vrm's also. That's ok if you're going to stick to the lower tier cpu's that may not need that much power, but it way also hamper future upgrades down the line, which is one of the main selling points of AMD platform, it's longevity. you can get decent B850M boardsd now for £140-£150. I don't think that's expensive seeing as the top bang for buck board for am4 back in 2020 was the b550 tomahawk, which got down to £130 on sale but was more expensive for most of that time (more £150) and didn't have wifi, with the b550 gaming plus wifi (basically the tomahawk with wifi built in) basically being £20 more, and..factor in 5yrs of inflation and a £150 board now such as a b850m sapphine nitro+ looks good value to me..remember back then a lot of the boards were on a 4 layer pcb..now most are 6 and the better boards are 8 layer. I'm pretty impressed personally on what you can get now with £150 for am5...wheen it launched all boards were closer to £300 upwards