Please review and improve my build

Brok

Brok

Brok

Associate
Joined
9 Mar 2004
Posts
1,637
Hi folks,

Looking for some advice on how to improve this build please. I will be putting together a new rig with a 30x0 GPU once released and wanted to get a head start on the other components. Main usage will be for games at 1440p 144hz (for now) and VR.

I've been out of the build game for a few years so my knowledge is severely lacking, so my main questions are

1) Is the PSU sufficient and are Corsair still reliable or is there a better choice?
2) Same for AIO, am I as well with a decent air cooler? I don't want to go custom loop.
3) I'm set on the case as I have an R4 that has served me well and I like the uncomplicated look.
4) SSDs - this seems like a total minefield. I have picked a fast nvme for boot/key apps and then a standard SATA SSD for game storage. Is there a better configuration that is also not insanely expensive?
5) Motherboards - no idea here, I saw this one recommended in another thread so went with it. I will only be using a single GPU so i think the benefits of X570 will be wasted on me? Happy to be told otherwise. Also I am confused by the description of the USB ports. I would ideally like all 5 on the case top to work, as well as a minimum of 4 at the back. I have many input devices and some are fussy about hubs.

I don't need OS or fans etc included as I have most of what I need there already.

In terms of budget, I can move a bit from this but I think the parts demonstrate the level of spend I'm willing to put in to the build, minus the gfx card which I know is going to add signficantly.

Any advice would be appreciated!


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,468.54 (includes shipping: £14.70)​
​
 
You can get 32gb teamgroup 3200mhz for £93

850w is what you want for 3000 ampere and the corsair is a good unit with 10 year warranty.
 
Brok said:
Hi folks,


1) Is the PSU sufficient and are Corsair still reliable or is there a better choice?
2) Same for AIO, am I as well with a decent air cooler? I don't want to go custom loop.
3) I'm set on the case as I have an R4 that has served me well and I like the uncomplicated look.
4) SSDs - this seems like a total minefield. I have picked a fast nvme for boot/key apps and then a standard SATA SSD for game storage. Is there a better configuration that is also not insanely expensive?
5) Motherboards - no idea here, I saw this one recommended in another thread so went with it. I will only be using a single GPU so i think the benefits of X570 will be wasted on me? Happy to be told otherwise. Also I am confused by the description of the USB ports. I would ideally like all 5 on the case top to work, as well as a minimum of 4 at the back. I have many input devices and some are fussy about hubs.

I don't need OS or fans etc included as I have most of what I need there already.

In terms of budget, I can move a bit from this but I think the parts demonstrate the level of spend I'm willing to put in to the build, minus the gfx card which I know is going to add signficantly.

Any advice would be appreciated!


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,468.54 (includes shipping: £14.70)
​
Click to expand...


Intel for VR .
More ram, faster storage, same pricing . WiFi too

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,479.62 (includes shipping: £14.70)
​


Ryzen - though that much for 3900... Mm rather get 3700X and use cash for Nvidia !
b]My basket at Overclockers UK:[/b]
Total: £1,512.62 (includes shipping: £14.70)​
​
 
Last edited:
orbitalwalsh said:
Intel for VR .
More ram, faster storage, same pricing . WiFi too

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,479.62 (includes shipping: £14.70)
​


Ryzen - though that much for 3900... Mm rather get 3700X and use cash for Nvidia !
b]My basket at Overclockers UK:[/b]
Total: £1,512.62 (includes shipping: £14.70)
​
Click to expand...

The rest looks solid though.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for the advice guys I really appreciate it. I was kind of hoping to give AMD a chance this time around, is it worth holding fire until the new CPUs are announced as I'm not in a desperate hurry to do this build? Or do you think in single threaded performance Intel is still going to be king? Or I could hedge my bets with a 3700x as pointed out further up it seems to be the sweet spot on price/performance and look to move to a 4 series Ryzen later.
 
Brok said:
Thanks for the advice guys I really appreciate it. I was kind of hoping to give AMD a chance this time around, is it worth holding fire until the new CPUs are announced as I'm not in a desperate hurry to do this build? Or do you think in single threaded performance Intel is still going to be king? Or I could hedge my bets with a 3700x as pointed out further up it seems to be the sweet spot on price/performance and look to move to a 4 series Ryzen later.
Click to expand...
AMD could well move level or even overtake Intel when zen3 drops as it's rumoured to have 15% IPC, faster clocks and this coupled with the move to a single 8 core CCX which will improve latency should be enough so if your not desperate to upgrade now then waiting a couple more months might well pay off.
 
Brok said:
Or do you think in single threaded performance Intel is still going to be king?
Click to expand...
Nope.
AMD is already slightly ahead in IPC and only higher clock speeds are keeping Intel ahead.
Little more clocks and another Zen+ > Zen2 like IPC improvement and it's Intel who's behind also in single core.
(while aleady unable to match multihreaded performance)
 
Depends on application . Intel can lead at either single or multicore or AMD. Easy to find tens of differing workstation based programs that either shine etc .
E-sports will still be based on Intel for a while, even with Zen3 coming up, 11th gen Intel will be enough to keep it on top along with money they through .

10850k is going for cracking money, no idea why I Tel set 10900k so high along with OCUK pricing of 3900x !

Either one you should be fine with. Both 11th and Zen3 will be the last on their sockets. AMD with 3 CPU gens to a socket with intel being 2 (Zen+ doesn't really count ) , but was to be expected with DDR5
 
@orbitalwalsh I have gone for a build largely based on your AMD suggestion above, with a few tweaks based on other information present in this thread so thanks to all who have contributed. I had a change in circumstances that meant waiting another few months was no longer an option. My wallet now waits in fear of the Nvidia card release prices, not to mention availability!
 
Brok said:
@orbitalwalsh I have gone for a build largely based on your AMD suggestion above, with a few tweaks based on other information present in this thread so thanks to all who have contributed. I had a change in circumstances that meant waiting another few months was no longer an option. My wallet now waits in fear of the Nvidia card release prices, not to mention availability!
Click to expand...

What's did you drop your cash on it in the end ?

And get your finger on the trigger if you do go 3***. You wait, supply and demand will drive prices up along with Covid outbreaks for logistics etc
 
orbitalwalsh said:
What's did you drop your cash on it in the end ?

And get your finger on the trigger if you do go 3***. You wait, supply and demand will drive prices up along with Covid outbreaks for logistics etc
Click to expand...

I did some shopping around to make sure I got the best price per component, including looking at my options as far as SSDs go. Let's leave it at that ;) I went 3900x in the end and will wait and see what AMD come up with for Zen 3. I can always sell on if I feel like taking a bit of hit to step up or just wait and upgrade for cheap in a couple of years when people are moving theirs on.

I had to wait several weeks last time I went for a card at launch (EVGA 1080 GTX FTW) which I'm still using now so I can deal with that if I have to but will see what tomorrow's announcement brings and make a call. It will take me a bit to get the rest of the rig put together to my liking anyway.
 
Brok said:
I had a change in circumstances that meant waiting another few months was no longer an option. My wallet now waits in fear of the Nvidia card release prices, not to mention availability!
Click to expand...
Sensible - stock and prices are finally stable and recent times have shown this can change very quickly; dependant on world thinking of Covid. At the moment the world has collectively taken a breath and prices and stock have found a palatable equilibrium - and it's better to buy from a position of strength with options to upgrade. And you've certainly done that from your brief description and I can't see you needing to upgrade anytime soon plus Nvidia's usual incremental, release price hike will probably add to that.

orbitalwalsh said:
Still waiting to see @Plec Xtreme x570!
Click to expand...
I now have 3 x B450 MAX systems (all rushed builds in March) - and my system is still the only one without a decent cooler (no time). You can imagine my annoyance when the B550 was finally released and was fanless - as predicted (1 year too late)! That said, i couldn't have waited any longer and had i bought all 3 systems when it was released, on average, they would have each cost me £200 more due to the 'then' present Covid pricing/supply/demand. Multiply that by 3 and i would have had that Xtreme :p

I need to furnish 2 with better GPUs - but may see what happens to the 'discontinued'(sic) 2070 Super pricing if stock hangs around near 3XXX release. Otherwise, i may suck up the 3070 tax as the cards aren't urgently needed and AIBs rumoured to get an accelerated release.
 
@Plec

Will be to busy to give early heads up of pricing and details for tomorrow :( normally able to shoot the goal posts an hour before hand but have a feeling like today, kids will be running over time .
Keep eye out on Videocardz though. Jap reps have habit of getting the sun first and posting before Nvidia does ;)
 
orbitalwalsh said:
@Plec

Will be to busy to give early heads up of pricing and details for tomorrow :( normally able to shoot the goal posts an hour before hand but have a feeling like today, kids will be running over time .
Keep eye out on Videocardz though. Jap reps have habit of getting the sun first and posting before Nvidia does ;)
Click to expand...
I'm in no hurry, bud, plus i will be waiting for AIB releases - so i have a considerable wait yet. And, if the 2070 Super drops enough - comparatively to the 3070 pricing - i'll forgo predicted % speed increase if the price difference makes little fiscal sense. The reality is the 2070 Super is more than adequate for my 1440p monitors - i'll probably take a closer look at the next round of releases when i'll be looking to upgrade to 4K - but that will be a luxury purchase rather than necessity and with the few games i play the 2070 Super will still probably suffice.

*My daughter has started playing Fortnite so her system is twiddling its silicon thumbs at the moment wishing it was a duplo brick. And as mentioned before my son likes ascii games and coding so the most stress his system experiences is when it's compiling. I'm not sure i should have rushed to upgrade their systems before Covid proper...
 
Brok said:
I'll take some potato pics once its done. Didn't expect OCUK to ship on a bank holiday so guess bits will start arriving sooner than expected!
Click to expand...

hope parts assemble nicely and what you thiinking of 3*** pricing and performance ?

@Plec Fortnite about too get its RTX game on... now doubt that will make her game pretty and work a biit harder!
 
orbitalwalsh said:
hope parts assemble nicely and what you thiinking of 3*** pricing and performance ?

@Plec Fortnite about too get its RTX game on... now doubt that will make her game pretty and work a biit harder!
Click to expand...

Funny you should mention it, just had a delivery so all the bits except the GFX card are now in my hands. Hopefully I'll get some spare time at the weekend to put it together and get it ready for a card to slot in.

I'm impressed with the 3080 price/performance and that is the likely pick for me. They are not much more than I paid for a Pascal card at launch 4 years ago. The only slight niggle is that I am hoping in the medium term to move into a bigger office/mancave with a 4k OLED and not sure whether I should go all-in on this generation and go 3090 or if that is just burning money. Then of course there's the likelyhood of a Ti not too far down the line...decisions not made any easier without any real world benchmarks to go on.
 
Brok said:
Funny you should mention it, just had a delivery so all the bits except the GFX card are now in my hands. Hopefully I'll get some spare time at the weekend to put it together and get it ready for a card to slot in.

I'm impressed with the 3080 price/performance and that is the likely pick for me. They are not much more than I paid for a Pascal card at launch 4 years ago. The only slight niggle is that I am hoping in the medium term to move into a bigger office/mancave with a 4k OLED and not sure whether I should go all-in on this generation and go 3090 or if that is just burning money. Then of course there's the likelyhood of a Ti not too far down the line...decisions not made any easier without any real world benchmarks to go on.
Click to expand...

2080ti was first 4k card that ran well , 3080 is enough to handle - 3090 would take advantage if TV supported higher rates when 60hz .

Would look into TVs with G-Sync support though!!!!!!

and order quiick, before demand jacks up pricing
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom