Spec me a build to replace my aging 2500K system.

[valve90210]

Just before my son was born, I took the opportunity to build myself a PC, knowing it would be a good long time before I would be able to build a new one.

My boy turned 12 in January and I'm still using pretty much the same PC - I changed out the graphics card when my original died and that's about it.

The current spec:
i5 2500K
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P
32GB Crucial DDR3 PC3-12800
GTX 1660 Super
and a bundle of hard drives which I've amassed over the years.

Impressively, this PC still largely runs everything I throw at it (I game at 1080P and will continue to do as as I will be keeping my existing monitors (2 x Samsung S24E200) but it is starting to get a little long in the tooth and I want to build a new PC - budget somewhere about £1,000 ish.

It will be used for work, long days of InDesign and Photoshop, along with office tasks, so a lot of RAM is important; and gaming - I tend to play lots of FPS, driving, etc etc, so good gaming performance is important.

I'd really like to go with the Lian Li Lancool 205M Mesh in white, as I like it looks and it'll (just about) fit on my unfortunately narrow desk. A little RGB would be nice if possible without sacrificing performance for the money.

I don't need a keyboard or mouse as Ill use my existing ones and I don't need wifi on the motherboard if that saves me anything.

Can anyone give me any suggestions as a starting point for the best bang for my buck but with consideration of longevity I'd like a bit of an upgrade path so this system can last me a good few years.

 

[Tetras]

but with consideration of longevity I'd like a bit of an upgrade path so this system can last me a good few years.

AM5 has a better upgrade path than 1700, but I'll let someone else do the inevitable AM5 PC.

It will be used for work, long days of InDesign and Photoshop, along with office tasks

The A770 is an usual choice, but it has plenty of VRAM and does decently well in Photoshop:

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The 12600K also has competitive multitasking performance and the IGP can come in handy if anything goes wrong with your graphics card. There are some interesting videos on how capable/useful they can be:

Is UHD770 iGPU enough for video editing? | Intel 12900k iGPU Performance in Premiere Pro

Checking out the video editing performance of Intel i9 12900k but without a dedicated GPU. Is the UHD770 iGPU enough for video editing?Sponsor Message: Spi...

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I tend to play lots of FPS, driving, etc etc, so good gaming performance is important.

Which games do you play specifically? Some games really love the X3D's cache, so that might be a consideration.

In this build, going DDR4 is partly a cost saving thing and partly because of the availability of Micro-ATX DDR5 boards. Feel free to switch to 2x32GB sticks if you think that an upgrade to 128GB is likely.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-12600K 3.70GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-69X-IN) = £176.99
• 1 x Asus Prime B760M-A WIFI D4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6KG-AS) = £125.99
• 1 x Team Group Xtreem "8Pack Edition" 64GB (4x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (SKU: MY-09Y-TG) = £139.99
• 1 x Intel ARC A770 Phantom Gaming OC 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-ASR-02266) = £299.99
• 1 x WD Black SN770 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS100T3X0E) (SKU: HD-58F-WD) = £64.99
• 1 x Lian Li Lancool 205M Mesh Micro-ATX PC Case Black (SKU: CA-7B2-LL) = £69.95
• 1 x Phanteks AMP 650W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-09Q-PT) = £89.98
• 1 x Arctic Freezer 36 A-RGB 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02418) = £29.99

Total: £997.87 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[Quartz]

1 x Intel ARC A770 Phantom Gaming OC 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-ASR-02266) = £299.99

Do note that the A770 is available for much, much cheaper elsewhere. I expect OCUK will price-match.

 

[valve90210]

I think my priority for graphics card would be it's gaming performance, as my 1660 Super has no real issues in Photoshop etc even on my aged system.

Games wise, recently played games include Dying Light 1 & 2, Ghost Recon Wildlands, motortown, stardew valley (lol), satisfactory, scrap mechanic, trail makers. That kind of stuff, basically anything my lad wants to play that is co-op, and probably some VR games on his Quest 2.

 

[Quartz]

and probably some VR games on his Quest 2.

This rule out Arc.

 

[Gray2233]

edit: Fixed

AM5 option, storage and RAM are easy enough to add down the line. You have £300 left over, if you look up the AMD RX 6750XT you can find them for £299 currently.

The socket should see support until 2027-2028.

The 7600 comes with an HSF, but the Thermalright Assassin King 120 at £15 or Thermalright Phantom Spirit for £30 would be excellent improvements, both have RGB versions.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x WD Black SN770 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS100T3X0E) (SKU: HD-58F-WD) = £64.99
• 1 x Lian Li Lancool 205M Mesh Micro-ATX PC Case Black (SKU: CA-7B2-LL) = £69.95
• 1 x Phanteks AMP 650W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-09Q-PT) = £89.99
• 1 x TeamGroup Delta RGB 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Ki (SKU: MY-0AT-TG) = £99.95
• 1 x Asrock B650M PG Riptide (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-18Y-AK) = £159.98
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £172.99

Total: £657.85 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[Quartz]

You might find this video of interest

 

[Gray2233]

You might find this video of interest

It's depressing that after the entire VRM debacle AM4 had for multiple generations that we see see absolute cack getting released at times.

I've been leaning toward Asrock for awhile now for entry to mid range options when building, not out of any sort of brand loyalty but more because they seem to have things together compared to supposedly more premium companies in terms of releasing decent products.

 

[valve90210]

I am so out of touch with PC parts, I have no idea about pretty much any of the parts in either spec. lol. I'm sort of leaning towards the AMD build as I often hear good things about AMD CPUs these days when it comes to value for money.

Is the 7600X a decent CPU, likely to last me a good while? I'm sure the performance of all the new CPUs will be vastly improvements over my current one but have no idea how much of a step up.

I know nothing about the 6750XT is that a decent card, I've been an nvidia user for pretty much all my PC gaming life, and have some awareness of their current and previous range of cards, whereabouts does the 6759XT sit in comparison, and how much of a jump up from my 1660 Super would it be? (I'm guessing somewhat considerale)

 

[Gray2233]

I am so out of touch with PC parts, I have no idea about pretty much any of the parts in either spec. lol. I'm sort of leaning towards the AMD build as I often hear good things about AMD CPUs these days when it comes to value for money.

Is the 7600X a decent CPU, likely to last me a good while? I'm sure the performance of all the new CPUs will be vastly improvements over my current one but have no idea how much of a step up.

I know nothing about the 6750XT is that a decent card, I've been an nvidia user for pretty much all my PC gaming life, and have some awareness of their current and previous range of cards, whereabouts does the 6759XT sit in comparison, and how much of a jump up from my 1660 Super would it be? (I'm guessing somewhat considerale)

Check this GPU hierarchy chart out:

*** GPU Hierarchy ***

NVIDIAAMDINTELTier - Suggested Resolution/FPS RTX 5090 Tier A - "Elite Tier" RTX 4090 RTX 5080 Tier B RTX 4080 Super RTX 4080 RTX 5070TiRX 7900XTX RX 9070XT Tier C RTX 4070Ti Super RTX 3090Ti RTX 5070 RTX 4070TiRX 7900XT RX 9070 Tier D - 4K 60fps / 1440P 144fps RTX 3090 RTX 4070...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

For £300 you aren't getting anything remotely close to the 6750XT in terms of performance from Nvidia, the closest would be the 4060 (non ti) which is two tiers lower on that chart.

Also:

Source: https://www.techspot.com/review/2701-nvidia-geforce-rtx-4060/

The 6750XT is around 10-15% faster than the 6700XT, it usually sits about half way between the 6700XT and 6800. It's also worth noting that it has 12gb of VRAM as opposed to the 8gb on the 4060, and VRAM absolutely has become a limitation with current cards even at 1080-1440P. The gap widens substantially at higher resolutions, but expect that to also reflect future games as well rather than just those within the review.

The 7600 is an excellent CPU for gaming and general use at your budget, it's at least on par with if not better than the Intel option suggested by @Tetras, either chip will offer massive gains in productivity over your current. The AMD option uses the AM5 platform, which has guaranteed support until 2027, the Intel platform is already end of life.

 

[valve90210]

Thanks for that, the 6750XT does seem to be a decent bit of kit then, as does the 7600X, seems like those would be good options for me, and as you say the AM5 platform having guaranteed support for another couple of years seems like a good choice.

Just having a bit of a search for 6750XT cards, any pointers for ones which fit my budget and are they likely to fit in the case as some look pretty long?

 

[Gray2233]

Thanks for that, the 6750XT does seem to be a decent bit of kit then, as does the 7600X, seems like those would be good options for me, and as you say the AM5 platform having guaranteed support for another couple of years seems like a good choice.

Just having a bit of a search for 6750XT cards, any pointers for ones which fit my budget and are they likely to fit in the case as some look pretty long?

The XFX AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT Speedster QICK 319 is currently available for £299 but unfortunately OCUK don't stock it as of yet, we're not allowed to link competitors either.

Edit: I've actually switched out the 7600X in my above build for the 7600, it's £20 cheaper than the X version and comes with an HSF whereas I don't believe the 7600X does. Although if you go for the aforementioned Thermalright HSF's that's a moot point, regardless you might as well save the cash given the minimal performance difference.

 

[valve90210]

Cool, I'll do some research, thanks.

Will the 650W power supply be ok for this kind of system?

 

[Gray2233]

Cool, I'll do some research, thanks.

Will the 650W power supply be ok for this kind of system?

It'll be just fine, although for longevity with a view for future upgrades 750-850W might be worthwhile but really isn't necessary for the recommended hardware.

 

[Tetras]

I am so out of touch with PC parts, I have no idea about pretty much any of the parts in either spec. lol. I'm sort of leaning towards the AMD build as I often hear good things about AMD CPUs these days when it comes to value for money.

Is the 7600X a decent CPU, likely to last me a good while? I'm sure the performance of all the new CPUs will be vastly improvements over my current one but have no idea how much of a step up.

PassMark can give you a rough idea, the single thread is applicable mainly to short-term load (like starting an application) and to gaming, while the multi thread is for long-term load where you're waiting awhile for the task to complete in a fully threaded application (e.g. 5 minutes to 1 hour).

Generally speaking: the 7600/7600X are very good gaming CPUs and can cope with pretty much any graphics card available right now, but their productivity performance falls some way behind the Intel CPUs, e.g. a 13600K is only consistently beaten by a 7900 non-X, since it can best both the 7600/7600X and 7700/7700X.

Core i5-2500K
Single thread: 1698
Multi thread: 4120

Ryzen 5 7600
Single thread: 3916
Multi thread: 27147

Ryzen 5 7600X
4150
28508

i5-12600K
3951
27724

i5-13600K
4148
38070

the 6750XT does seem to be a decent bit of kit then

For rough comparisons there you can check TPU's database, which excludes any upscaling and ray tracing:
1660 Super: 100%
Arc A770: +60%
RX 7600 XT 16GB: +76%
RX 6750 XT 12GB: +103%
RX 6800 16GB: +139%

Note that driver versions and the specific games played can change those numbers, as can enabling upscaling (DLSS/FSR) or changing the resolution. Arc is more competitive at higher resolutions, which is partly because RDNA 2 less competitive.

If you're interested in VR, you might want to check how the cards perform versus competing cards. RX 7000 GPUs also have some advantages against the RX 6000 GPUs in terms of encoding/decoding and the presence of AI cores, which may or may not be relevant to you in the future.

 

[valve90210]

Looks to me like the 7600x would be a huge step up from my current PC. My main concern really will end up being gaming as although I use my PC for work, my 2500K does everything I need it to still, and that includes running the latest versions of Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator and I can't say it's ever really had too much of a hard time except on huge projects with a large number of pages chock full of images and complicated vector objects with effects.

the 6750XT also seems to be a huge jump up from my 1660 Super so I'm sure will do a grand job. My son's 1080ti seems to perform VR duties happily on his PC so again I'm sure this card would do a good job too.

 

[valve90210]

It'll be just fine, although for longevity with a view for future upgrades 750-850W might be worthwhile but really isn't necessary for the recommended hardware.

Any recommendations for power supplies that might be worthwhile with an eye to the future? If not to much extra, it might save me a bit in the longer term.

 

[Gray2233]

Any recommendations for power supplies that might be worthwhile with an eye to the future? If not to much extra, it might save me a bit in the longer term.

We're not allowed to link other websites, and OCUK has a pretty limited range of options unfortunately, I'd look into getting an ATX3.0 unit if you can. They've also taken to removing warranty information from the website, which tbh I think is pretty dodgy on their end as it's a fair indication of the tier of unit you're getting and important information. There's mid-tier units being sold for high-tier prices and people tend to buy on brand recognition rather than individual basis.

Corsair SHIFT and RMX models are safe bets currently, but do ensure the SHIFT will work with your case as it has side loaded connections, I'd avoid their RME as they recently switched OEM from CWT to HEC and the quality has dropped.

Different wattages of the above Phanteks AMP are also solid, Seasonic OEM and quality internals.

 

[valve90210]

Thanks, I shall have a look around and see what I can find.

Also just noticed your edit about swapping out the 7600 instead of the 7600x, makes sense, if the performance is virtually identical.

Hoping to get my head round it all an order it this week with any luck.

 

[Tetras]

Any recommendations for power supplies that might be worthwhile with an eye to the future? If not to much extra, it might save me a bit in the longer term.

The RMx 750 is £100 at the moment and Seasonic's GX-850 is £120, either of those is a reasonable price, though as Gray2233 said you might want to pick an ATX 3.0 PSU even though you don't need it for the 6750 XT.