New office PC

[VortexA1]

Is B450 ok? I've not built a PC fully in probably 10 years.



My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 3 3300X Quad Core 4.3GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £149.99
• 1 x Corsair Carbide 275Q Silent Mid-Tower Case - Black (CC-9011164-WW)= £79.99
• 1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 5500 XT Pulse 4096MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £179.99
• 2 x ASUS TUF Gaming VG27AQ 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitor= £479.99
• 1 x Patriot Viper Steel 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C17 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS416G360C7K)= £74.99
• 1 x Corsair CV Series CV550 550W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (CP-9020210-UK)= £56.99
• 1 x MSI B450M Mortar MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 mATX Motherboard= £99.95

Total: £1,628.22 (includes shipping: £26.34)
​

The CV looks alright yeah. I saw a review and it was good.

You can't go wrong with the B450, I have that motherboard. Solid and reliable ,good VRMs and runs everything on it.

It's now not the latest because of the B550 , the difference is PCIE X4 but that doesn't look like you're going to be fully saturating PCI-E x3 for a while yet.

Also M2, you'll get 6.4GBs vs 3.2GBs , I have max 3.2GBs and hardly use that power.

 

[Beerbaron]

Which M2 would you recommend?

 

[VortexA1]

The two that I'd recommend are the WD Blue and the WD Black.

I bought the black because I'm thinking about the increased NVM throughput with the new consoles which should come to PCs.

The blue is a nice drive too.

Blue sn550 1TB NVME M.2 2280 PCIE GEN3 SSD (S100T2B0C) £109.99

 

[Joxeon]

Is B450 ok? I've not built a PC fully in probably 10 years.



My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 3 3300X Quad Core 4.3GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £149.99
• 1 x Corsair Carbide 275Q Silent Mid-Tower Case - Black (CC-9011164-WW)= £79.99
• 1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 5500 XT Pulse 4096MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £179.99
• 2 x ASUS TUF Gaming VG27AQ 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitor= £479.99
• 1 x Patriot Viper Steel 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C17 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS416G360C7K)= £74.99
• 1 x Corsair CV Series CV550 550W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (CP-9020210-UK)= £56.99
• 1 x MSI B450M Mortar MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 mATX Motherboard= £99.95

Total: £1,628.22 (includes shipping: £26.34)
​

I would either get the ryzen 3 3100 for around £100 or for £150 you can pick up the 6 core ryzen 5 3600. The 3300X at that price makes no sense.

 

[Beerbaron]

Good point, it only has a slightly faster clock speed.

 

[Beerbaron]

I have a Corsair RM850 '80+ Gold' 850W Power Supply currently in my PC which is 7 years old. Should i reused or replace it?

 

[VortexA1]

It has a 10 year guarantee so you have three years left so Corsair consider it good enough to last the new few years.

If it was me I would buy new as 7 years old, others might want to keep it.

 

[Beerbaron]

I will likely purchase a new PSU to be safe.

What thermal compound shall i use for the CPU? I have used Arctic Silver 5 and MX4 previously.

 

[Beerbaron]

I have some MX4 still. Does this have an expiry date as its probably 5-7 years old.

 

[VortexA1]

I read at least 8 years , when you squeeze it out see how it is,if it seems quite solid then don't use it.

 

[Beerbaron]

Still appears to be normal consistency so will probably use it.

PC spec so far;

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Corsair Carbide 275Q Silent Mid-Tower Case - Black (CC-9011164-WW)= £79.99
• 1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 5500 XT Pulse 4096MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £179.99
• 2 x ASUS TUF Gaming VG27AQ 27" 2560x1440 IPS 165Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitor= £479.99
• 1 x Patriot Viper Steel 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C17 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS416G360C7K)= £74.99
• 1 x Corsair CV Series CV550 550W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (CP-9020210-UK)= £56.99
• 1 x MSI B450M Mortar MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 mATX Motherboard= £99.95
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 3 3100 Quad Core 3.9GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £99.95
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £109.99

Total: £1,661.83 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​

 

[Beerbaron]

Considering swapping out the Asus monitors for LG 27GL850-B 27" as they can be purchased for £30 less each.

 

[Sparx]

For someone who doesn't game much, why are you spending so much for 2x fairly high end gaming monitors? You're not even gonna be gaming on two at the same time as it is lol. I was staring at your basket for a minute thinking how the hell is that costing so much? Til I realised you had 2x £480 monitors.

If you want something better on the wallet and they have to match, then get 2 of these new Gigabyte displays (£350). That'll knock £260 from the basket total straight away. Or even this AOC 27" model for £280 but no stock atm. I can see their in stock at another retailer for £20 more though atm.

Also the PSU isn't in stock, personally I'd go for something modular and 80+ Gold rated like this Phantek PSU, but I guess it doesn't matter too much considering you have a non-window case.

 

[Beerbaron]

I'm open to suggestions on monitors. I've never had a curved screen before. I just want 2 decent monitors as i spend a large part of my day in front of them.

I didn't realise that wasn't modular. I thought all new PSUs came that way.

 

[Sparx]

Nah if it doesn't say modular, it means all of the cables are permanently attached to the PSU housing. You can see on the photos the difference between the 2.

Monitor wise, anything such as what I mentioned really. But I'm sure if anyone has better ideas they'll pipe up hopefully. Just my own personal thought, seemed daft to spend so much money on 2 quite high-end gaming monitors that cost more than the PC itself combined.

Edit: Tbh look up my monitor Dell S2719DGF - I use it for both work and gaming it's brilliant. Standard widescreen (not curved) with 1440p res, 155Hz refresh rate with FreeSync (also G-Sync compatible). I've just had a Google and found it for £300 + shipping at a less known online retailer. Usually it's £350-360 though.

 

[ExoMale]

small intel spec or you be better off with either an i5/i7 Nuc or an AIO.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Intel Core i3-9100F 3.60GHz (Coffee Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £68.99
• 1 x Asus Prime H310M-A R2.0 Intel H310 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard= £74.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C14 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK8GX4M2A2400= £49.99
• 1 x WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB M.2 2280 Solid State Drive (WDS500G2B0B)= £64.99
• 1 x be quiet! SFX Power 2 300W '80 Plus Bronze' SFX Power Supply= £56.99
• 1 x Aerocool CS-101 Micro ATX Case - Black= £28.99

Total: £356.64 (includes shipping: £11.70)
​

and this is an idea if you was to add 3 monitors.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Intel Core i3-9100F 3.60GHz (Coffee Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £68.99
• 1 x Asus Prime H310M-A R2.0 Intel H310 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard= £74.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C14 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK8GX4M2A2400= £49.99
• 1 x WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB M.2 2280 Solid State Drive (WDS500G2B0B)= £64.99
• 1 x be quiet! SFX Power 2 300W '80 Plus Bronze' SFX Power Supply= £56.99
• 1 x Aerocool CS-101 Micro ATX Case - Black= £28.99
• 3 x AOC E2470SWDA 23.6" 1920x1080 TN Widescreen LED Monitor - Black= £94.99

Total: £661.77 (includes shipping: £31.86)



edit: just noticed everyone is suggesting a gaming system for an office pc lol ​

 

[Sparx]

Geez this thread's still going on, just realised it was 2 months ago lol - I did mention OP's gaming habits as he's in effect buying a gaming rig.

Tbh @Beerbaron if this is solely work and no gaming, Asus just released the Asus Mini PC PN50 last week, which seems great. See link here - you'll have to search for it on Google, as OcUK don't stock this.

It uses the latest AMD Ryzen 4000 Renoir CPU, it's a barebone kit of sorts, so you need to add a 3200Mhz RAM kit and NVMe drive. The specs state it supports 4 displays simultaneously up to 4K res, seems ideal for a small form factor work rig?

Base model starts at £275 (4300U) then scales up with a better processor. £320 (4500U), £370 (4700U) then tops at £500 (4800U). So if you just go for whichever you fancy, chuck in something like this RAM £65 and this 1TB NVMe £110 - you've got a great SFF rig for £450 - £675 (dependant on which CPU you want).

 

[Beerbaron]

The Asus Mini looks pretty good and are released mid Aug.

 

[Beerbaron]

Thread revive.

I managed to get a good deal through work for 2x Dell UltraSharp 27 USB-C Hub Monitor - U2721DE @£320 each last month.

Toady i finally ordered;

Corsair Vengeance Lpx 32gb (2 X 16gb) Memory Kit Pc4-21300 2666mhz Ddr4 Dimm C16
Intel NUC 10th Gen i7 10710U Frost Canyon Tall Barebone Mini PC Kit
WD Blue SN550 1TB NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)

 

[Sparx]

Thread revive.

I managed to get a good deal through work for 2x Dell UltraSharp 27 USB-C Hub Monitor - U2721DE @£320 each last month.

Toady i finally ordered;

Corsair Vengeance Lpx 32gb (2 X 16gb) Memory Kit Pc4-21300 2666mhz Ddr4 Dimm C16
Intel NUC 10th Gen i7 10710U Frost Canyon Tall Barebone Mini PC Kit
WD Blue SN550 1TB NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)

Why the Intel NUC?

Also you need SO-DIMM RAM, not normal DIMMs they will not fit.