PC Build advice and support

Ayden_J · 31 Jul 2023 at 13:27

Hello

I am a bit of a PC gaming Noob and am embarking on buying my first gaming PC. The driver to buy on is because I have started Sim Racing on the PS4 but want to upgrade the Sim racing experience onto the PC. I want to play Iracing with the specifications below:

https://www.iracing.com/membership/system-requirements/

I was looking to purchase a pre-built from 'CyberPower PC' and made the below configuration which comes in at £808. Would love to hear your thoughts on the set up. I do not want the PC to become obsolete quickly and would be looking to play other games on it too on steam.

Many thanks,
Ayden

SPECIFICATION

BLUETOOTH: None Selected

CAS: CyberPowerPC Kira ARGB Gaming Case - Black (features 4x ARGB 120mm fans) [+16]

CD: None Selected

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4500 - 6-Core 3.60GHz, 4.1GHz Turbo - 8MB L3 Cache Processor, Pro OC Compatible (No On-board Graphics)

CS_FAN: None Selected

EXPAN: Built-in USB Ports

FAN: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Air Cooler [+14]

HDD: None Selected

M2SSD: 1TB Kingston NV2 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD - 3500MB/s Read & 2100MB/s Write (Single Drive)

MEMORY: 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4/3200MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX Memory [+25]

MOTHERBOARD: ASUS PRIME A520M-K: M-ATX w/ USB 3.2, SATA3, 1x M.2

NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT -- As standard on all PCs

OS: Windows 11 Home - with FREE trial of Microsoft 365 and 1 month Xbox Game Pass (64-bit Edition) (No Recovery Media)

OVERCLOCK: No Overclocking

POWERSUPPLY: MSI MAG A650BN 650W 80+ Bronze Gaming Power Supply [+13]

RUSH: Standard Processing Time

SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD AUDIO

SSD: None Selected

USB1: Built-in USB Ports [+0]

VIDEO: MSI GeForce® RTX 3060 12GB - Ray Tracing Technology, DX12®, VR Ready, HDMI, DP - 4 Monitor Support [+111] (Single Card)

WARRANTY: DESKTOP GOLD WARRANTY: 5 Years' Labour, 2 Years' Parts, 2 Years' Collect and Return plus Life-Time Technical Support

XWNA: USB Wireless AC 600Mbps USB Adapter

Tetras · 31 Jul 2023 at 14:20

This is way over budget, but based on the results of this video, it looks like the game likes a powerful CPU and especially the X3D.

For gaming into the future, especially if you don't play at 1080p, then I'd step up to a more powerful card.

The PC is obviously built to a budget, but it is pretty low end, e.g.

Kingston NV2 vs WD SN570. NV2 is rated for 320 TBW with a 3 year warranty. WD SN570 is rated for 600 TBW with a 5 year warranty.
MSI A650BN vs Leadex III 550. A650BN is bronze efficiency, uses sleeve bearings for the fan, dubious capacitors, has a 5 year warranty. Leadex III is gold efficiency, uses a FDB fan, 100% Japanese 105c-rated capacitors and a 7 year warranty.
A520M-K vs B550 Gaming X. A520M-K has a basic VRM with no heatsinks, one PCI-E 3.0 M.2 slot, PCI-E 3.0 graphics. B550 Gaming X has a better VRM with heatsinks, 2x M.2 slots (1x PCI-E 3.0/1x PCI-E 4.0), PCI-E 4.0 graphics.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D Cache Eight Core 4.5GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3D0-AM) = £319.99
1 x Gigabyte B550 Gaming X V2 (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-594-GI) = £115.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 32GB (2x16GB) 3600 MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit (CMK32GX4M2Z3600C18) (SKU: MY-4CL-CS) = £80.00
1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT Pulse Gaming 12GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-39K-SP) = £299.98
1 x WD Blue SN570 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T3B0C) (SKU: HD-589-WD) = £44.00
1 x Phanteks Eclipse G300A Single Fan Mid-Tower High Airflow PC Case - Black (SKU: CA-0CA-PT) = £54.94
1 x Super Flower Leadex III ARGB 550W 80 PLUS Gold Modular Power Supply - Black (SKU: CA-063-SF) = £71.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632) (SKU: SW-18J-MS) = £109.99

Total: £1,108.87 (includes delivery: £11.98)

Ayden_J · 31 Jul 2023 at 14:47

Tetras said:
This is way over budget, but based on the results of this video, it looks like the game likes a powerful CPU and especially the X3D.

For gaming into the future, especially if you don't play at 1080p, then I'd step up to a more powerful card.

The PC is obviously built to a budget, but it is pretty low end, e.g.

Kingston NV2 vs WD SN570. NV2 is rated for 320 TBW with a 3 year warranty. WD SN570 is rated for 600 TBW with a 5 year warranty.
MSI A650BN vs Leadex III 550. A650BN is bronze efficiency, uses sleeve bearings for the fan, dubious capacitors, has a 5 year warranty. Leadex III is gold efficiency, uses a FDB fan, 100% Japanese 105c-rated capacitors and a 7 year warranty.
A520M-K vs B550 Gaming X. A520M-K has a basic VRM with no heatsinks, one PCI-E 3.0 M.2 slot, PCI-E 3.0 graphics. B550 Gaming X has a better VRM with heatsinks, 2x M.2 slots (1x PCI-E 3.0/1x PCI-E 4.0), PCI-E 4.0 graphics.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D Cache Eight Core 4.5GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3D0-AM) = £319.99

1 x Gigabyte B550 Gaming X V2 (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-594-GI) = £115.99

1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 32GB (2x16GB) 3600 MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit (CMK32GX4M2Z3600C18) (SKU: MY-4CL-CS) = £80.00

1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT Pulse Gaming 12GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-39K-SP) = £299.98

1 x WD Blue SN570 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T3B0C) (SKU: HD-589-WD) = £44.00

1 x Phanteks Eclipse G300A Single Fan Mid-Tower High Airflow PC Case - Black (SKU: CA-0CA-PT) = £54.94

1 x Super Flower Leadex III ARGB 550W 80 PLUS Gold Modular Power Supply - Black (SKU: CA-063-SF) = £71.99

1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632) (SKU: SW-18J-MS) = £109.99

Total: £1,108.87 (includes delivery: £11.98)

Thank you Tetras for your time and effort in helping me.

It seems looking at the pre-builts it is much more cost effective to build the computer myself, would you agree?

Do you know of good material/training stuff to help me construct the above configuration?

Many thanks,
Ayden

Tetras · 31 Jul 2023 at 15:27

Ayden_J said:
It seems looking at the pre-builts it is much more cost effective to build the computer myself, would you agree?

It's hard to say 100% really, since it depends on the build. There are some decent deals out there and if you need everything (like a Windows license), a pre-build can work out cheaper. On the other hand, there are pre-builds that are terrible value, or have lots of poor quality components, or both.

Going with a Ryzen 4500 and 3060 isn't a bad spec, this combination will play pretty much anything at 1080p, it's just that racing games tend to be CPU demanding and I prefer more headroom from my new graphics card.

Ayden_J said:
Do you know of good material/training stuff to help me construct the above configuration?

There are dozens of build videos on YouTube, both shorter and longer, like this:

Building JarrodsTech A REAL PC Live!

Hardware Unboxed x Jarrod's Tech 2023 PC Build - Powered by MSI https://msi.gm/HUBxJarrodTechBuildJarrod's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JarrodsTechSuppo...

www.youtube.com

So, I'd just do a search for what you're working on (e.g. "install AM4 CPU") and then watch 1 or 2 videos that you like best, until you feel confident to try it out yourself.