Returning to gaming - New PC needed

BYTEr

BYTEr

BYTEr

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2 Oct 2004
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Hi all,

I am making a return to gaming since 2011 to play WoW with friends and therefore in need of a new PC as I only have a laptop bought last year which has integrated graphics and I'm completely out of the loop hardware wise.

Ideally I want the cheapest/best bang for buck, perhaps with the option to upgrade in the future in case we move onto more demanding games than WoW, right now, I'd happily play WoW with medium to low settings as long as it was smooth, but just as a reference will £750 be enough? I'd want two monitors as well. I am perfectly capable of building myself unless things have radically changed in the last 10 years.

I would appreciate any advice or specs.

Thanks in advance.
 
£750 for a decent gaming system and 2 monitors, you're kidding? You're scraping the boundaries of a mega budget 1080p system :p

You're now gonna say you need mouse, keyboard, headset and pair of speakers too aren't you? :D

But I come up with this wizardry still... Had to cut corners all over, but it'll work pretty well for WoW and other games at 1080p tbh. No stock on the 3100 CPU, but it's £5 cheaper elsewhere and in stock so have a look around.

Ideally I'd of gone for a Ryzen 3600, MSI Mortar B450M, 1660 Super, modular PSU and 1TB NVMe. But that'd be another £210 odd. Oh and a decent high refresh rate monitor like the AOC 24G2U but they're £190 each.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £765.71 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​
 
Sparx said:
£750 for a decent gaming system and 2 monitors, you're kidding? You're scraping the boundaries of a mega budget 1080p system :p

You're now gonna say you need mouse, keyboard, headset and pair of speakers too aren't you? :D
Click to expand...

£750 was just a rough figure, bang for buck is more important but I won't be spending £2k :P

Yeah, I also need a new chair, desk and printer as well :P

Thanks for your suggestions and spec, will check it out properly tomorrow, thanks again.
 
Laptop have Thunderbolt 3 portion it ? EGPU or external GPU closure

Scaling up the price a little for GPU power . Intel for similar pricing

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £874.83 (includes shipping: £0.00)


Above has larger 1TB SSD... Bit going 500GB, single monitor lands RTX 2060 for ray tracing which is coming to next WOW expansion pack....

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £812.88 (includes shipping: £0.00)​
​
 
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orbitalwalsh said:
Laptop have Thunderbolt 3 portion it ? EGPU or external GPU closure

Scaling up the price a little for GPU power . Intel for similar pricing

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £874.83 (includes shipping: £0.00)


Above has larger 1TB SSD... Bit going 500GB, single monitor lands RTX 2060 for ray tracing which is coming to next WOW expansion pack....

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £812.88 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​
Click to expand...
Can I ask why you've gone with Intel? OP suggested that he wanted best price to performance so is AMD not the way to go??
 
Saul Farrell said:
Can I ask why you've gone with Intel? OP suggested that he wanted best price to performance so is AMD not the way to go??
Click to expand...

to be honest, at budget and 4 cores 8 threads. both the same, if not intel holding slight lead specially at 1080p and A520 only being able to run faster ram at extra coost. could go older b450 but still, OC 3100 willl just be slightly behind intel 4 core.

just another option due to being able to field cheaper ram , slight increase in 1080p performance (even with budget GPU). Both have limited life span as Zen 3 or Ryzen 4*** and Intel 11th gen or i* 11*** coming out end of the year which boths both zen2 and intel 10th gen

personally can wait to see 6 core Zen3 and 11th Gen go head to head! both clean slates bar 11th really should have been on 10nm node
 
Thanks again for all the replies, it's given me something to go on and research.

Could I please call upon you again though if you'd be so kind.

Forgetting the original budget of £750, which was more just a figure plucked out of thin air as I didn't really know what the current situation with components was, I want the best value for money and bang for buck system I can get, which hopefully has some room to upgrade in future if I so desired, what sort of specs would you recommend in this instance, for example, I'm willing to get a hex/octo core CPU over a quad core if it represents better value for money, eg; Ryzen 3100 and Ryzen 3600, is the 2 extra cores and increase in clock speed worth £100 for gaming? Same question for everything else really also baring in mind I'm not fussed about graphics, if getting a better graphics card only enabled me to go to medium settings to high then I'd rather save the money, but, if by spending another £50 I'd get another 50 FPS then I'd consider that better value for money.

Another question, is there any negatives to going to a small form size like Micro-ATX? I like the idea of having something small, easier to move, but if it's much harder to work with, much more difficult to cool, limits future upgrades etc, then I'd probably rather getting a bigger factor providing it's not hundreds more.

I also think I'd settle for a better single monitor at this point, I can always have my laptop next to me when playing WoW if I feel the need and then if I really wanted a second monitor will buy at a later stage.

Last question, if I was to buy one of the above specs, does it have everything I'd need? comes with thermal paste and a CPU cooler I presume etc?.

Thanks as always.
 
Do you see yourself playing his latest games such as ms flight sim 2020 ?

Playing games @ 1080p 60hz , the system requirements can be drastically diffrent.

Longevity 6 cores as games are using more cores.

Amd offer you next gen cpu support on some motherboards where intel your stuck within that platform.

Bigger case more space more options (simples) but you still need to move air through it to keep things cool.

Budget it king set your budget and get the best for it.

6 core cpu, 1660 super, 16 gb ram and 1tb ssd would be my choice.
 
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90% of steam games. 4 cores 8 threads is plenty . Triple AAA titles recently released do like cores, they also have a development time of years and budget of ££££.
I believe WOW does run DX12 so more cores can be used better :)

1660 Super is great, 2060 get you ray tracing on latest version coming out... Though it didn't look to fancy.
 
If you want best bang for buck and don't mind spending more all round for a better system, which is also more upgradeable, then I'd get the below.

mATX in a great little compact case. CPU cooler is a duo fan model and will help with the airflow and keep CPU temps down. 1660 Super is perfect for a 1080p card and be plenty for WoW. Modular PSU as don't want excess cable mess in mATX build.

Could've spent £25 less on the mobo, but thought with B550 it gives you PCIe 4.0 support for any future gen GPUs and NVMes should you want a Gen4 card or GPU in later years. B450 can't do this for you. The monitor is one of the best 1080p budget displays too.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,046.87 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​
 
@Sparx

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £119.89 (includes shipping: £9.90)
​
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B550 baz has same VRM set up as B450 Toma and not B450 Carbon . 4 phases Vs 5 of Aorus . £20-40 cheaper but minus C Port at front currently .
(Seems new b550 Aorus boards V2 coming with C ports at the front )
Should help when CCX units are 8 to a core instead of 4 :D
 
orbitalwalsh said:
@Sparx

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £119.89 (includes shipping: £9.90)
​
mobile-minimized.png


B550 baz has same VRM set up as B450 Toma and not B450 Carbon . 4 phases Vs 5 of Aorus . £20-40 cheaper but minus C Port at front currently .
(Seems new b550 Aorus boards V2 coming with C ports at the front )
Should help when CCX units are 8 to a core instead of 4 :D
Click to expand...
Unless the VRM heatsync is as beefy as tomahawk then I would imagen it would perform considerably worse. I know when buildzoid did the B550 run down he didn't like this one B550M and he knows his stuff.
 
Joxeon said:
Unless the VRM heatsync is as beefy as tomahawk then I would imagen it would perform considerably worse. I know when buildzoid did the B550 run down he didn't like this one B550M and he knows his stuff.
Click to expand...

Bullzoid doesn't just do the temps on VRM but the design etc. Even Xtreme z490 has high temps in its vrms running 90amp straight 14 phases, with more copper heatsink fins/metal then 3 b450 boards combined.

Closer look and both that Aorus and Bazo board have the same shaped heatsink . Stupid zigzag grooved metal with large flat top.

Plus buildzoid is a nice bloke . Was nice to see a few people had faith that he'd do well if he received PCB or board testing slightly before or at same time bigger reviewers did ... :)
 
orbitalwalsh said:
Bullzoid doesn't just do the temps on VRM but the design etc. Even Xtreme z490 has high temps in its vrms running 90amp straight 14 phases, with more copper heatsink fins/metal then 3 b450 boards combined.

Closer look and both that Aorus and Bazo board have the same shaped heatsink . Stupid zigzag grooved metal with large flat top.

Plus buildzoid is a nice bloke . Was nice to see a few people had faith that he'd do well if he received PCB or board testing slightly before or at same time bigger reviewers did ... :)
Click to expand...
It was the Vrm + heatsync on this particular board he didn't like though.

37:32

 
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Aye, it's a £100 board . Nothing like the £270 master which beats x570 flagships .
B450 boards should be lower in price. That MSI was £90 and under at launch . Went up to £125 at one point before b550 .
 
Thanks again all, will be ordering the £1k spec above, didn't realise SSD's can be fitted to PCI slots now.

One last thing, I won't be able to route an ethernet cable from my router to my PC, I presume the above mobo doesn't have a wireless adapter, what's the method/best bang for buck wireless network adapter these days? If it matters I currently have 72mb FTTP.

Thanks again for your help.
 
BYTEr said:
Thanks again all, will be ordering the £1k spec above, didn't realise SSD's can be fitted to PCI slots now.

One last thing, I won't be able to route an ethernet cable from my router to my PC, I presume the above mobo doesn't have a wireless adapter, what's the method/best bang for buck wireless network adapter these days? If it matters I currently have 72mb FTTP.

Thanks again for your help.
Click to expand...

Cheapest and one of the fastest WiFi cards . More standard on B550 mid tier and z490 boards being AX standard and not AC

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...d-blutooth-5.0-network-adapter-nw-00b-gi.html
 
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