Sub £2000 Gaming Rig - help/advice wanted

kloudy

kloudy

kloudy

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Hello!

I've had pre-built gaming PCs in the past but I'm planning to build my own rig for the first time.
I already have a pretty good idea of what I want based on the following criteria:
  • total cost less than or equal to £2000 (I already have monitors etc so 2k all for the rig)
  • pure gaming build - I have separate machines for work and other things
  • mATX preferred just because of limited space
  • easily upgradeable in future
On that last point, my thinking is the CPU and mobo are the hardest things to change later as everything else kinda depends on those so if I spend the money now to make sure they're as good as I can afford, the other components are easier to swap out later. Is this a reasonable approach?

I'm not a hardcore gamer or streamer or anything so having the absolute best performance with everything cranked up to the max isn't something I care too much about. I just want a machine capable of playing the latest games with decent graphics settings at a decent resolution (currently have a 34" Dell UltraSharp U3419W Ultrawide - probably not great for gaming but it'll do for now).

I've put together a list of components I'm thinking of for the build but as it'll be my first one I'm looking for someone who knows a lot more than I do to have a look at the components I'm thinking of and give any feedback/suggestions/recommendations.

Here's the list so far:

CPU: Intel Core i7 13700K
Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX Z690-G
GPU: MSI AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio 12GB
RAM: 32GB (2x16GB) Corsair DDR5 Vengeance RGB Black (5600MHz)
Storage: Crucial P5 Plus 500GB M.2 NVMe
CPU Cooling: NZXT Kraken X63 RGB AIO
PSU: ThermalTake Toughpower GF2 ARGB 850 Watt Fully Modular 80+ Gold

For the case, I'm thinking something like the Thermaltake Level 20 VT micro-ATX Case and building it out like this:
imgur.com

Thermaltake Level 20 VT Build

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users like iNobble.
imgur.com imgur.com

If I go with that case and add a decent 200mm front fan, 2 x 140mm fans for a top exhaust and another 140mm fan for a rear exhaust, I can get it all for £1957.88.

Any thoughts, suggestions, things I should change or stupid things I've picked that simply wont work?

Thanks guys!
 
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Just FYI, you may have to flash the BIOS with a Z690-G board for 13th gen, but I think the Z690-G supports bios flashback with an unsupported CPU.

I haven't seen any reviews yet, but you may want to consider the 13700 non-K.

AMD + NVIDIA alternative:

AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £338.99
Asus TUF Gaming B650M-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro ATX Motherboard - £225.95
Kingston FURY Beast EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (KF560C36BBEK2-32) - £179.98

WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) - £149.99

Zotac GeForce RTX 4070Ti Trinity 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card - £800.00

Phanteks Glacier One 240MP All In One CPU Water Cooler D-RGB Black - 240mm - £79.99
Lian Li Lancool 205M Mesh Micro-ATX PC Case Black - £69.95
MSI MPG A850G PCIE5 UK PSU 850W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply - £179.98

Grand Total: £2,036.82 (includes delivery charge)

AMD + AMD alternative:

Same case, cooler & SSD.

AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £338.99
Asrock B650M PG Riptide (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard - £179.98
Kingston FURY Beast EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C36 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KF556C36BBEK2-32) - £140.00

Powercolor Radeon RX 7900 XT HellHound 20GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £929.98

Super Flower Leadex III 850W 80 PLUS Gold Modular Power Supply - Black - £113.00

Grand Total: £2,013.86 (includes delivery charge)
 
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For the case, take a look at the Kolink Citadel Mesh.
If you're not after the acme of performance then drop overclocking and look at a B660 / B760 board like the Asus Tuf Gaming B760M-Plus D4 and an Intel 13600. You might even look at the 13400 (£200 for the F version, £240 for the standard version). OCUK don't seem to sell these right now though they were launched last month.
 
Tetras said:
Just FYI, you may have to flash the BIOS with a Z690-G board for 13th gen, but I think the Z690-G supports bios flashback with an unsupported CPU.

I haven't seen any reviews yet, but you may want to consider the 13700 non-K.

AMD + NVIDIA alternative:

AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £338.99
Asus TUF Gaming B650M-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro ATX Motherboard - £225.95
Kingston FURY Beast EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (KF560C36BBEK2-32) - £179.98

WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) - £149.99

Zotac GeForce RTX 4070Ti Trinity 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card - £800.00

Phanteks Glacier One 240MP All In One CPU Water Cooler D-RGB Black - 240mm - £79.99
Lian Li Lancool 205M Mesh Micro-ATX PC Case Black - £69.95
MSI MPG A850G PCIE5 UK PSU 850W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply - £179.98

Grand Total: £2,036.82 (includes delivery charge)

AMD + AMD alternative:

Same case, cooler & SSD.

AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £338.99
Asrock B650M PG Riptide (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard - £179.98
Kingston FURY Beast EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C36 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KF556C36BBEK2-32) - £140.00

Powercolor Radeon RX 7900 XT HellHound 20GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £929.98

Super Flower Leadex III 850W 80 PLUS Gold Modular Power Supply - Black - £113.00

Grand Total: £2,013.86 (includes delivery charge)
Click to expand...
Thanks for this. Yeah I read about the Z690-G needing a BIOS flash. That's ok I'm comfortable doing that kind of thing but I really like your recommendations.
Realistically I'm unlikely to overclock - I have done in the past but as I'm just after pretty good rather than the best it makes sense to drop the OC CPU & mobo for cheaper non-OC alternatives.
I had a quick look at the Asus TUF Gaming B650M-Plus you suggested and looks like it has everything I want/need.
The GPU I had in my list was a sacrifice to keep the cost below the 2K mark so I'm amazed you managed to get an RTX 4070 in there and still meet that budget!
Definitely thinking to go with a bunch of your suggestions so really appreciate that!
 
kloudy said:
Thanks for this. Yeah I read about the Z690-G needing a BIOS flash. That's ok I'm comfortable doing that kind of thing but I really like your recommendations.
Realistically I'm unlikely to overclock - I have done in the past but as I'm just after pretty good rather than the best it makes sense to drop the OC CPU & mobo for cheaper non-OC alternatives.
I had a quick look at the Asus TUF Gaming B650M-Plus you suggested and looks like it has everything I want/need.
The GPU I had in my list was a sacrifice to keep the cost below the 2K mark so I'm amazed you managed to get an RTX 4070 in there and still meet that budget!
Definitely thinking to go with a bunch of your suggestions so really appreciate that!
Click to expand...
If you want it upgradeable, I'd lean am5 platform atm. Prices have def come down for ddr5 ram..you can actually get 32gb 6000C30 for £170 now. also being the new platform in a few years time, you can drop a new cpu in and away you go. Intel wont give you that as next years cpu's will require a new socket so new mobo. If you want to save a bit more the standard 7600x cpu can be had for £255 new if you look, and is similar to the 5800x3d in performance ( a few % ahead but not really noticeable). Or you could wait a few weeks for the x3d versions about to be released for the 7000 series cpu's, though they'll be more expensive
 
Thanks all for the help and recommendations.
This is what I'm going for now based on everyones advice plus a little research:

Case: Kolink Citadel Mesh RGB Micro-ATX Case
Motherboard: Asus TUF Gaming B650M-Plus WIFI DDR5 Micro ATX
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700
CPU Cooling: Gigabyte AORUS WATERFORCE 280 aRGB Liquid AIO
GPU: Zotac GeForce RTX 4070Ti Trinity OC 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express
RAM: Kingston FURY Beast EXPO RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz
Storage: WD Black SN770 2 x 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4
PSU: MSI MPG A850G PCIE5 UK PSU 850W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply

TOTAL: £2,186.87 (inc. VAT & delivery)

Slightly over budget but I wanted a nice looking 280mm CPU AIO - the NZXT Z63 RGB which I really like was way too expensive so settled on the Gigabyte AORUS WATERFORCE 280 aRGB.

My only concern now is clearances in the case for everything.
The case specs say it can take a 280mm radiator in the front and also say it can fit a graphics card up to 34.5cm long (32cm if mounting a front AIO).
The Zotac GeForce RTX 4070Ti Trinity is 306.8mm according to the specs so it's gonna be tight but I'm hoping everything will fit and I can still get reasonable airflow. Plan is to move the 2 preinstalled 120mm case fans from the front to the top and flip them to be exhaust fans, then mount the AIO at the front with fans as intakes pushing across the rad.
 
kloudy said:
The GPU I had in my list was a sacrifice to keep the cost below the 2K mark so I'm amazed you managed to get an RTX 4070 in there and still meet that budget!
Definitely thinking to go with a bunch of your suggestions so really appreciate that!
Click to expand...

You're welcome :D Yeah, it seemed like a 6750 XT was not... spectacular, for a 2K build, so I wanted to give a 4070 Ti (or higher) a go. If you really maximised your budget and got something like the thermalright peerless assassin instead of an AIO and the 5600 memory, then even a 7900 XTX is viable, but I can appreciate there's more to a build than stuffing it with the biggest graphics card possible.

kloudy said:
Slightly over budget but I wanted a nice looking 280mm CPU AIO - the NZXT Z63 RGB which I really like was way too expensive so settled on the Gigabyte AORUS WATERFORCE 280 aRGB.
Click to expand...

OCUK currently have the Alpenfohn Glacier 280mm on sale for £130, don't know if that would be more to your aesthetic tastes than the Phanteks.

FYI: you have chosen the OC version of the Zotac card which is £60 more expensive than the non-OC in my spec.

FYI 2: I didn't go with 2x 1TB because M-ATX boards don't have many M.2 slots, so you'd have to replace one to expand M.2 storage.
 
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Tetras said:
FYI: you have chosen the OC version of the Zotac card which is £60 more expensive than the non-OC in my spec.
Click to expand...

That was because of stock - I'm impatient & lazy so wanted to get everything in a single place and get the order in today! lol! They had the OC version but the non-OC version was only on pre-order.

FYI 2: I didn't go with 2x 1TB because M-ATX boards don't have many M.2 slots, so you'd have to replace one to expand M.2 storage.
Click to expand...

That's a good point I didn't think of that! I went for 2 x 1 TB as I'll probably keep OS etc separate from games & stuff but I guess I could have achieved the same with partitions. I have NAS for a lot of stuff I don't need fast access to so I doubt I'll get near the 2TB anytime soon anyway.
 
Only thing I need now is a decent monitor! I work as software engineer so do a lot of coding & text editing among other things (and use a Macbook for work with external monitor) so ideally I'd like a monitor I can use with both my PC and Mac that'll be good for both gaming & work. I love the curved ultrawide I have currently but it's no good for gaming.
The Dell Alienware AW3423DW looks quite nice but quite expensive. Anyone else got any recommendations?
 
kloudy said:
That was because of stock - I'm impatient & lazy so wanted to get everything in a single place and get the order in today! lol! They had the OC version but the non-OC version was only on pre-order.



That's a good point I didn't think of that! I went for 2 x 1 TB as I'll probably keep OS etc separate from games & stuff but I guess I could have achieved the same with partitions. I have NAS for a lot of stuff I don't need fast access to so I doubt I'll get near the 2TB anytime soon anyway.
Click to expand...

Aha, okay, didn't know you'd already ordered :D Good luck with the build!

kloudy said:
The Dell Alienware AW3423DW looks quite nice but quite expensive. Anyone else got any recommendations?
Click to expand...

Do you watch hardware unboxed? They have lots of monitor reviews and round-ups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YleSuwK8vR4
 
kloudy said:
Only thing I need now is a decent monitor! I work as software engineer so do a lot of coding & text editing among other things (and use a Macbook for work with external monitor) so ideally I'd like a monitor I can use with both my PC and Mac that'll be good for both gaming & work. I love the curved ultrawide I have currently but it's no good for gaming.
The Dell Alienware AW3423DW looks quite nice but quite expensive. Anyone else got any recommendations?
Click to expand...

One thing to be careful of with a QD OLED panel if you're going to be working with a lot of text is something called text fringing. Some people notice it, other people are less bothered by it.

Standard OLED panels are also not great for text as they often have a WRGB subpixel layout. That extra white subpixel isn't ideal for text. That said, I run a 42" C2 OLED and text looks absolutely fine to me.

You also have to consider burn in with an OLED panel. I've heard reports of the QD OLEDs (such as the Alienware) suffering with it more than something like the C2, even when those monitors haven't been used for work, with a lot of static images, etc.

Ideally I'd use an IPS for work and an OLED for gaming/films, etc. in your position. If you can stomach the frame loss of 4K, I love my C2 and would recommend it all day long for the size and image quality. It does have a glossy panel so doesn't handle reflections well, and has some of the 'TV as a monitor' foibles though.

What sort of budget do you have for a monitor?
 
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Tediore said:
One thing to be careful of with a QD OLED panel if you're going to be working with a lot of text is something called text fringing. Some people notice it, other people are less bothered by it.

Standard OLED panels are also not great for text as they often have a WRGB subpixel layout. That extra white subpixel isn't ideal for text. That said, I run a 42" C2 OLED and text looks absolutely fine to me.

You also have to consider burn in with an OLED panel. I've heard reports of the QD OLEDs (such as the Alienware) suffering with it more than something like the C2, even when those monitors haven't been used for work, with a lot of static images, etc.

Ideally I'd use an IPS for work and an OLED for gaming/films, etc. in your position. If you can stomach the frame loss of 4K, I love my C2 and would recommend it all day long for the size and image quality. It does have a glossy panel so doesn't handle reflections well, and has some of the 'TV as a monitor' foibles though.

What sort of budget do you have for a monitor?
Click to expand...

I defo need IPS panel for work so I'm prepared to take the trade-off with that. I guess main things I need to look at are good refresh rate and response times.
Budget for monitor is max £1000 and ideally a 34" ultrawide with a slight curve.

Quartz said:
Don't be afraid of having two monitors. One for work and one for games.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I don't have the space for 2 monitors.

What do you guys think of this:
www.overclockers.co.uk

Acer Predator 34" X34GS 3440x1440 IPS 180Hz 0.5ms FreeSync/G-Sync Widescreen Gaming Monitor

Order Acer Predator 34" X34GS 3440x1440 IPS 180Hz 0.5ms FreeSync/G-Sync Widescreen Gaming Monitor now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

IPS panel, high refresh rate, ultra-low response time and 34" curved ultrawide so seems to meet all my requirements.
 
Quartz said:
A suggestion: have the rear fan as an intake, not an exhaust.
Click to expand...
Thanks @Quartz but why do you think I should do this? Not against doing this but just wondered the reasoning?
The front mounted fans are the ones from the AIO and they're 140mm and have much higher CFM and RPM compared to the fans which came with the case so with my setup I should have positive pressure.
 
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