New Gaming PC ~ £2500

Klo

Klo

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Hi all,

I want build a new high end gaming PC with a budget of under £3000. The below is what I've come up with. Does anyone have any suggestions for improvement? I'm not sure which graphics card brand is best, does anyone have good experiences with any in particular?

Thanks for your help.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £2,686.71 (includes shipping: £15.90)​
 
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Hi

What monitor are you going to be using ?

Also you open to a Ryzen build ?

As for the Intel spec it looks fine for the most part.

A few points to note though:

Why only 8GB Ram ? You can get 16GB for less than that kit.

No need for an SSHD. Just go with a regular HDD for mass storage.

The Samsung 970 EVO is a bit pricey compared to other NVMe SSD's such as the Corsair MP510 or Sabrent Rocket (Not sold on here).

I would probably go with a Gigabyte Gaming OC version as you get 4 years warranty when registered online.
 
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Ryzen option just to give you an idea.

The Phanteks P600S is another good case around this price point. The Scythe Mugen 5 is also a good alternative for the cooler.

Slightly more expensive psu, but nice and quiet. You can also switch it to multi rail which is good when you are running a high end gpu like the 2080 ti.

The board below doesn't have wifi so not sure if you needed that feature ? There is a wifi version of this board, but not stocked on here for whatever reason.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £2,358.11 (includes shipping: £13.20)
 
Soldato
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1 Dec 2015
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18,514
Hi all,

I want build a new high end gaming PC with a budget of under £3000. The below is what I've come up with. Does anyone have any suggestions for improvement? I'm not sure which graphics card brand is best, does anyone have good experiences with any in particular?

Thanks for your help.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £2,686.71 (includes shipping: £15.90)

as journey mentioned , need to be rocking a good screen for 2080ti and 9900k only worth it for extra workloads over 9700k for pure gaming

cheaper, better warranty on parts


B CODE
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £2,355.81 (includes shipping: £15.90)


counter to @lee32uk AMD build :)
 
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Having just spec'd exactly what you have - and with a similar budget (spend £2700 but did get mouse/keyboard/headphones and monitor as well as the actual PC) - I dont see a lot wrong with your initial build list as a base - EXCEPT Id DEFINATELY for with a Ryzen 3900+ over the intel chip, and obviously a different motherboard - an X570 to future proof.

Id look to change the NMVe drive to a Corsair MP510 2TB. Its only £80 more then the Evo 1TB on for pretty much the same spec but twice the fast storage..... OR go for a PCIe 4 drive at a little more as youd have the capability (though at this point not really worth it - as long as you have 2 M2 slots you can add one later). I know one rec was to use a regular HD for mass storage but I dont agree (unless its just photos/music etc). If you need Mass storage in the multiple TB range - I much prefer external storage. Chances are the stuff your storing on that you'd rather not loose if the PC went bang. My build had the 2TB MP510 and I have 4T external USB drive for mass storage. I do plan to add another internal SSD drive down the line.

Also as budget allows, Id also get at least 16 GB of RAM (if not 32 to future proof - though you can add 2 more sticks down the line easily) and go 3600 not 3200. Its not the sweet spot for value BUT it does play a little better (base) than the 3200 with Ryzen chips (there sweet spot is 3700). You can tighten the timings up without increasing the speed for even better performance.

Finally I wouldnt bother with a standard HD any more - especially if you have that kind of budget. If the 2TB NVMe drive isnt enough (you only have 3TB spec'd anyway) - add a SATA SSD rather then the 7200 HD. You could add this down the line if you NVMe gets full (or indeed another NVMe drive at that point).
 
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A 2TB HDD is still a lot cheaper than a 2TB SSD. Also games are getting bigger and bigger in size, so a 2nd HDD can be used to store those downloads if need be.

You don't need 3600MHz Ram. There are a few videos around that show this. Also you can get good results by overclocking the infinity fabric. And 3600MHz CL16 is expensive anyway compared to 3000 - 3200 CL15/16.
 
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Re RAM It is - BUT there are vids that show a stock 3600 v an over clocked 3200 does give better results - be it very small. If your scraping into a budget Id totally agree - BUT I sourced 16GB of 3600 for only £10 more than the cheapest 3200 I could find. At that price difference its definitely worth it. Id say with the kind of budget the OP has - even £30 extra for 3600 is worth it. You can get 3600 18 memory, and leave it at 3600 (close enough to the magic figure for Ryzen 3) and tighten the timings to 16 instead. At that point the difference starts to show.

RE SSD/HD - yes it is BUT again, look at the budget. If your talking a £3k system why would you scrimp on SSD over NVMe for main drive for the sake of £40 or SSD over HD for storage for the sake of £80? On a £1k build of course - even on a £2k potentially but at this end of the market - not worth skimping.

Its all personal opinion though.
 
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The cheapest 3600MHz CL16 that I can find on that well known comparison site is around £161.40. Using that same website you can get a set of Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 3000MHz CL15 for £72.26. That is a pretty big difference in price for very little difference in performance. Plus the fact you can easily overclock ram using the Ryzen dram calculator and the Crucial ram supposedly overclocks pretty well.


An NVMe SSD doesn't make a huge difference over a SATA one for general usage such as gaming or boot times etc. If you are doing something like video editing where you might be moving large files around then sure. You are looking at around £190 for a 2TB NVMe SSD such as the Intel 660p vs £47 for a 2TB HDD.

Plus we don't know if the op has a suitable monitor for his £3K build, so that could factor into it as well. If he doesn't need a monitor then of course he could go all SSD if he wanted. Depends if he wants price/performance.
 

Klo

Klo

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Hi

What monitor are you going to be using ?

The goal was a 1440p 144hz monitor. That, and I think I'm going to buy a Valve Index, which does seem to demand high performance.

Also you open to a Ryzen build ?

Very much so, but in pure gaming as far as I can tell, Intel still holds the lead at the top end.

As for the Intel spec it looks fine for the most part.

A few points to note though:

Why only 8GB Ram ? You can get 16GB for less than that kit.

Typo! 16GB is the aim.

No need for an SSHD. Just go with a regular HDD for mass storage.

Good point, I'll re-jig that.

The Samsung 970 EVO is a bit pricey compared to other NVMe SSD's such as the Corsair MP510 or Sabrent Rocket (Not sold on here).

Yeah I was actually looking at the Adata XPG SX8200 PRO 1TB, but OcUk don't sell them. I might source it from an alternative place.

I would probably go with a Gigabyte Gaming OC version as you get 4 years warranty when registered online.

Didn't know that, thanks for the tip!




Someones got to buy intel chips these days :D
8Gb must be a typo, no one would spec a pc up with that now.

Correct, I meant 16GB!
 
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