Fair warning - if you hope to see a really compelling build or even ideal cable management you may be disappointed! But this is my first build in just short of 7 years (and I don't touch my PCs in between upgrades unless something breaks) so I thought it might be nice to record the build ... mostly for my own benefit. I understand that there probably isn't much exciting about plugging a standard 4070 into a budget motherboard (well actually i'm very excited about, I just know most of the builds on here are amazing and beyond my skills)
I am sure there are parts to this build many of you will disagree with, but this is the first system I have ever mapped out myself and I am happy with it. My old PC was put together while I was a student based on advice from MMO friends and has served me very well, but it is now struggling even outside of games and is occasionally making mildly alarming noises, so I thought that now I have a full time job (and a very forgiving wife) I would save up for a few months and put together a new system - I waited for Black Friday to try get the most out of my budget. I didn't get any crazy deals, but did make modest savings on pretty much everything but my CPU...every little helps and let me put a few quid towards 'optional' factors like RGB.
Everything except one part (a Corsair AIO which has been marked as 'dispatched' for over a week - but I still haven't even been given a tracking number
not from OC!) has arrived, so here is my 'table full of cardboard':
My final build was:
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
Zotac GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Solid 16GB
Corsair Vengeance RGB EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit
Crucial P3 Plus SSD 1TB M.2 NVMe
Samsung 990 PRO NVMe M.2 SSD 2 TB
Corsair RM850e PSU
ASUS TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI
iCUE LINK H150i RGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler - White (hopefully?)
Antec CX800 Elite RGB Mid Tower - White
My main theme was creatively called 'best I can do for a set budget across Black Friday' in the hope of futureproofing (I know that's a dirty word) at lower settings for as long as possible into the future. I knew I wanted to go AMD CPU and Nvidia GPU (only because my last 3 GPUs have been AMD and I just fancied a change) but aside from that I was prepared to be flexible across the build. I had some cashback and a few vouchers saved up which also helped with costs.
I had always planned to use my existing Cooler Master case which is dull but functional. But while speccing out this build I rather fell in love with fish tank cases and at the last moment I bought an Antec CX800 Elite RGB Mid Tower - White. At £65 quid its a lot cheaper than the fairly similar looking Corsair version which I adored. It comes with tempered glass and 6 RGB fans... i'm hoping it turns out to be both cheap and cheerful
I have never had an RGB computer but have always secretly wanted one - I had bought a couple of boxes of very very cheap (3 for £12!) Thermalright RGB fans and a Thermalright Phantom Spirit RGB CPU cooler to try and give my existing case (despite very little visibility) a hint of colour - but when I caved and bought the Antec case this already had 6 fans, so I sent these back and put the money towards covering most of the AIO cost (which was on a healthy discount). Maybe this was a bit of a pointless change, but I am a bit excited about the new case and AIO. Never had an AIO before, I have only ever used the stock cooler for my previous cpus.
As I now have a computer which should hopefully be capable of more than 1080p (or which at the very least will run Football Manager pretty damn well!) I figured I should probably replace my ancient monitor and picked up: MSI 27" MAG 274QRF QD E2 - which I am conveniently not counting within my budget as my wife is getting me it for Christmas
It was on a very healthy discount and feedback on the forum has been I would struggle to do better for the price.
If I had known I would end up with a white fish tank case I might have tried to see if I could get deals on a white motherboard and GPU (I think Zotac have one) - but I bought the case at the very last second and wasn't going to start processing returns and looking for new parts at that stage.
I know I don't have the prettiest parts and certainly lack skill - but after years of watching LTT and looking at lovely builds online I really want to try my best to build it properly in terms of cable management etc to atleast make it look tidy - I am very open to advice and feedback
I am sure there are parts to this build many of you will disagree with, but this is the first system I have ever mapped out myself and I am happy with it. My old PC was put together while I was a student based on advice from MMO friends and has served me very well, but it is now struggling even outside of games and is occasionally making mildly alarming noises, so I thought that now I have a full time job (and a very forgiving wife) I would save up for a few months and put together a new system - I waited for Black Friday to try get the most out of my budget. I didn't get any crazy deals, but did make modest savings on pretty much everything but my CPU...every little helps and let me put a few quid towards 'optional' factors like RGB.
Everything except one part (a Corsair AIO which has been marked as 'dispatched' for over a week - but I still haven't even been given a tracking number
not from OC!) has arrived, so here is my 'table full of cardboard':
My final build was:
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
Zotac GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Solid 16GB
Corsair Vengeance RGB EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit
Crucial P3 Plus SSD 1TB M.2 NVMe
Samsung 990 PRO NVMe M.2 SSD 2 TB
Corsair RM850e PSU
ASUS TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI
iCUE LINK H150i RGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler - White (hopefully?)
Antec CX800 Elite RGB Mid Tower - White
My main theme was creatively called 'best I can do for a set budget across Black Friday' in the hope of futureproofing (I know that's a dirty word) at lower settings for as long as possible into the future. I knew I wanted to go AMD CPU and Nvidia GPU (only because my last 3 GPUs have been AMD and I just fancied a change) but aside from that I was prepared to be flexible across the build. I had some cashback and a few vouchers saved up which also helped with costs.
I had always planned to use my existing Cooler Master case which is dull but functional. But while speccing out this build I rather fell in love with fish tank cases and at the last moment I bought an Antec CX800 Elite RGB Mid Tower - White. At £65 quid its a lot cheaper than the fairly similar looking Corsair version which I adored. It comes with tempered glass and 6 RGB fans... i'm hoping it turns out to be both cheap and cheerful
I have never had an RGB computer but have always secretly wanted one - I had bought a couple of boxes of very very cheap (3 for £12!) Thermalright RGB fans and a Thermalright Phantom Spirit RGB CPU cooler to try and give my existing case (despite very little visibility) a hint of colour - but when I caved and bought the Antec case this already had 6 fans, so I sent these back and put the money towards covering most of the AIO cost (which was on a healthy discount). Maybe this was a bit of a pointless change, but I am a bit excited about the new case and AIO. Never had an AIO before, I have only ever used the stock cooler for my previous cpus.
As I now have a computer which should hopefully be capable of more than 1080p (or which at the very least will run Football Manager pretty damn well!) I figured I should probably replace my ancient monitor and picked up: MSI 27" MAG 274QRF QD E2 - which I am conveniently not counting within my budget as my wife is getting me it for Christmas
It was on a very healthy discount and feedback on the forum has been I would struggle to do better for the price.If I had known I would end up with a white fish tank case I might have tried to see if I could get deals on a white motherboard and GPU (I think Zotac have one) - but I bought the case at the very last second and wasn't going to start processing returns and looking for new parts at that stage.
I know I don't have the prettiest parts and certainly lack skill - but after years of watching LTT and looking at lovely builds online I really want to try my best to build it properly in terms of cable management etc to atleast make it look tidy - I am very open to advice and feedback
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