Spec me a build (non-GPU for £1k)

Addicted

Addicted

Addicted

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Hey,

Just trying to help my brother out, but not clued up on this area of the market in the slightest.

His current spec is super old (so ignore that), aside from the 1080 he has.

So he needs:

CPU, RAM, Mobo, SSD, Case, PSU for £1k (everything except GPU basically) - trying to work out if Intel or AMD are better at this budget? Hopefully factor in for a 500gb NVME if possible?

And then maybe just £100 left for a case so he can choose it?

Primary use is gaming by the way! :)

Cheers,

Matt
 
 
Case is easily the longest time usable part of PC.
(mine going toward 11 year age and at this rate will be used for long long time with fashion destroying case designs)
So better to avoid bigger skimping on it.
Meaning what kind of case your friend would like?
Like would he like case to muffle components noises some?
Cheese grater cases leak all noise out unmuffled.


Next-gen consoles are going to bring huge jump to CPU power requirements of multiplatter games.
So for CPU AMD platform is better with proper upgrade path.
12 cores/24 threads is likely £300 level already at summer and next year likely sees another round of updated processors for AM4.

Though while having decent good strength VRM that particular motherboard has old fashioned lower efficiency VRM design.


There's very little reason for going for waterpipe coolers.
They're basically lots of fashion hype.
For actually better cooling performance than in heatpipe coolers you need to go for really big radiators. (of expensive custom loops)
Otherwise all you get is lot more things which wear and can go wrong.
With pump being extra noise source.
For example Mugen 5 would be just step below top performing heatpipe coolers and like
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/scythe-scmg-5100-mugen-5-cpu-cooler-hs-046-sy.html
Here you can find both it and that Corsair H100i, which gets beaten in cooling per noise:
https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/8857/corsair-h100i-pro-rgb-liquid-cpu-cooler-review/index6.html


Again that expensive NVMe drive is something which gives very little real world benefit for extra price.
Only really noticeable speed difference to SATA SSD would be in copying big files back and forth.
Neither I/O or transfer rate is real bottleneck in basically any other thing normal user does.
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Crucial/MX500_M.2_1_TB/8.html
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Crucial/MX500_M.2_1_TB/13.html

In SATA-signaled SSD you can get that 1TB for £130
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crucial-mx500-1.0tb-2.5-6gbps-7mm-solid-state-drive-hd-06g-cr.html
 
@Addicted

Intel is faster for high refresh rate gaming (1080p/144Hz or 1440p/144Hz etc). You do get more for your money though with Ryzen, and if the next lot of cpu's due in Summer live up to the hype then that route (AMD) will be a good choice.

If he is just gaming then you could look at the R5 2600/X. You can always upgrade to a better cpu later down the line as AM4 is supported until 2020.

I would go with an MSI B450 Tomahawk/Gaming Pro Carbon. The Gigabyte X470 is a bit meh for a board of that price. Not an awful board, but not great either.

I agree with EsaT regarding the cooler/ssd. I would stick with a SATA SSD such as a Samsung 860 EVO or Crucial MX500 etc. Something like an Alpenfohn Brocken 3 is another good option for an air cooler as it doesn't block any ram slots, so you can use tall ram with it.
 
Thanks for the replies so far - both good information!

Air cooler is a good point and will forward across those thoughts, taking into account what comes where in the review you linked :) you are right, as someone with a custom loop myself I know of some of the pains that can occur, especially with AIO's!

With regards to storage I've just done some research myself and you're right, it does look like there's no real benefit right now of going to NVME, so that will save some money.

I'll also consider the MSI boards and compare the featuresets.
 
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