Looking for some Advice on PC Build

Associate
Joined
5 Mar 2015
Posts
37
Howdy,

So I'm in the market for a new gaming rig and I've been dithering this way and that. I'm reasonably happy with what I've selected below after pouring over it for a while but was hoping for a second (of third or fourth) pair of eyes on the bits I've picked out.

My budget (including speakers, monitor and keyboard / mouse since the ones I have are also somewhat knackered) runs £2500 - £3000 all in, and with the below I'm pushing up at the very edge of that. Are there any bits here you'd downgrade in favour of something better elsewhere?

My basket at Overclockers UK:
  • 1 x OcUK Tech Labs AMD Ryzen 3rd Gen Pro Gaming Configurator = £2,958.67
    • CPU:AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT Eight Core 4.7GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail (100-100000279WOF)
    • Motherboard:Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus WiFi (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 Chipset ATX Motherboard
    • CPU Cooler:Corsair Hydro Series H115i Platinum RGB Performance Liquid Cooler - 280mm (CW-9060038-WW)
    • Memory:Kingston HyperX Fury 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit
    • M.2 Solid State Drive 1 (Primary Drive If Selected):Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB M.2 2280 PCI-e 3.0 x4 NVMe Solid State Drive
    • M.2 Solid State Drive 2:Unwanted
    • 2.5" SATA Solid State Drive 1:Samsung 1TB 870 QVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 64 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-77Q1T0BW)
    • 2.5" SATA Solid State Drive 2:Unwanted
    • Mechanical Hard Drive 1:Unwanted
    • Mechanical Hard Drive 2:Unwanted
    • Power Supply:Corsair RMx Series RMx850 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020180-UK)
    • Soundcard:Unwanted
    • Network Adapter:Unwanted
    • Case Lighting:Unwanted
    • Operating System:Microsoft Windows 10 Home Advanced - Systems
    • Security Software:**Special Offer** Bullguard Internet Security - Anti-Virus and Security - 1 Year 3 PC
    • Build Time:Standard Build Systems - Dispatched in approx 10-15 working days
    • Headset:Unwanted
    • Keyboard:MARS Gaming MK0 Gaming Keyboard - UK Layout
    • Mouse:Corsair M55 RGB PRO Ambidextrous Multi-Grip Gaming Mouse (CH-9308011-EU)
    • Monitors:Gigabyte 27" M27Q 2560x1440 SS IPS 170Hz 0.5ms FreeSync LED Backlit Gaming KVM Monitor
    • Speakers:Edifier Studio R980T 2.0 Speakers 24W
    • Gaming Chair:Unwanted
    • Gaming Desk:Unwanted
    • Cases:Fractal Design Define C Tempered Glass Midi Tower Case - Glass Window
    • Graphics Card:Zotac GeForce RTX 3080 Trinity 10GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card
Total: £2,972.77 (includes shipping: £14.10)​

Any input appreciated :)
 
Associate
OP
Joined
5 Mar 2015
Posts
37
Cheers - I'll take a lack of comment on the other parts as a good sign :)

I think my inclination to go with the samsung over wd is A.) WD is an unknown quantity for me, don't believe I've ever used anything of theirs before and B.) from what I could tell looking at benchmarks online, the 970 EVO Plus is very slightly faster in a host of scenarios (in particular it looked like more often than not 1/3 faster read speed). Given the cost of the whole thing I thought that would probably be worth just going the whole hog on that, although I suppose I'll find out if it's noticeable ':)
 
Associate
OP
Joined
5 Mar 2015
Posts
37
Morning -

The main reason going through is as I was tweaking everything was to keep the whole build below £3k. Going slightly above if it's something that's worth it is something I could conceivably do. Is the 5800X worth the extra over 3800XT?
 
Caporegime
Joined
17 Jul 2010
Posts
25,658
Do you need speakers if you have a headset? Could also drop windows, legit copies are £10 from elsewhere. That should get your budget under £3k so you can get that 5800x.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
5 Mar 2015
Posts
37
The speakers are in mind for the hopefully not too distant future when having people 'round is a thing again XD

I had originally thought to get windows separately, however when looking up the mobo online the most common complaint I heard is that getting windows installed on it can be a bit of an embuggerance, so was going the lazy route of having it come pre-installed :p

Now that I compare benchmarks between 3800XT and 5800X online, I'm somewhat inclined to just push the budget out to it anyway :p
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Nov 2005
Posts
10,910
Location
manchester,uk
The Fractal Meshify C has better airflow at that price point. The Phanteks P400A is also a good airflow case, as is the Lian-Li Lancool II Mesh.

The MSI B550 Gaming Edge Wifi would be a cheaper option for the board. You also get Wifi 6 with the MSI board.

You could get a WD SN550 2TB for about the same price as those 2 Samsung SSD's.

If you don't mind a non RGB cooler then the Arctic Liquid Freezer II ones are really good and cost less money.

You would have to ask Customer services if you wanted to make any changes, as the options above might not appear in the configurator.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
5 Mar 2015
Posts
37
Heya,

Re: the case - I was actually looking at this one: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/be-q...HqIm1g3ukG9Ti8ftrCp1dM1UusH1OF8RoCXNYQAvD_BwE

No particular reaosn beyond liking the look of it.

For the mobo - I've always been haziest when it comes to motherboards and this will be my first AMD PC - is there any other reason beyond wifi 6 to go with a B550 chipset over X570?

On storage my rationale was to have a faster but smaller boot drive and then the remaining 1tb doesn't need quite the same speeds (and for more long term storage of things I won't regularly need access to I have a 1tb external hard drive). My frame of reference may be a bit skewed here though, on the current compuiter that I'm replacing is just a 256gb old-timey SSD and a 2tb HDD but an updated version of a split like that was what I was theorising around.

The cooler looks very interesting - I'm fairly ambivalent when it comes to RGB
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Nov 2005
Posts
10,910
Location
manchester,uk
Heya,

Re: the case - I was actually looking at this one: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/be-quiet-silent-base-601-midi-tower-case-silver-ca-12m-bq.html?campaign=affiliate/tag&gclid=CjwKCAjwvMqDBhB8EiwA2iSmPPSLUDCDZiJAw0RHbXzQH5HqIm1g3ukG9Ti8ftrCp1dM1UusH1OF8RoCXNYQAvD_BwE

No particular reaosn beyond liking the look of it.

For the mobo - I've always been haziest when it comes to motherboards and this will be my first AMD PC - is there any other reason beyond wifi 6 to go with a B550 chipset over X570?

On storage my rationale was to have a faster but smaller boot drive and then the remaining 1tb doesn't need quite the same speeds (and for more long term storage of things I won't regularly need access to I have a 1tb external hard drive). My frame of reference may be a bit skewed here though, on the current compuiter that I'm replacing is just a 256gb old-timey SSD and a 2tb HDD but an updated version of a split like that was what I was theorising around.

The cooler looks very interesting - I'm fairly ambivalent when it comes to RGB

If you want to sacrifice airflow for silence then sure. There is a review from Gamers Nexus on that case if you want to watch it.


There is no real reason to go X570 unless you need the extra pcie 4.0 M.2 slot. A B550 board is fine for the majority of people, and is usually cheaper.

If you go with an SSD just for Windows then you are wasting space. A W10 installation takes up around ~30GB. I would just go with a large 1TB/2TB SSD and stick Windows/games on that. Then have a HDD for mass storage.

Not a fan of RGB either. The Arctic Liquid Freezer II is a solid cooler.
 
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