Build Or Hold Off?

[Hunterlit]

Looking at building a gaming rig from scratch, though I haven't really got into the specs yet, I can say the build will have water cooling of some type. To start with an AIO cooler as I'm not really to fussed about water cooling the graphics card. Case size will be big enough for a custom loop though if I decide to modify it in the future. This will be my first water cooled build and I'm actually looking forward to it somewhat. I know that DDR5 is just around the corner would it be better to hold out for that or would you do it before? I know if I want to go down that route in future it's going to be a whole new board job and possibly a new CPU to boot.

 

[mickyflinn]

Gpu is the biggest stumbling block and there expensive .

What resoloution will you be gaming at ?


Budget ?

 

[dave28]

I would hold out for the next CPU`s. So Intel 12th Gen and AMD`s 3D Cache or whatever it is called. Plus it looks like GPU are falling in price although i dont see it much myself

 

[Hunterlit]

Gpu is the biggest stumbling block and there expensive .

What resoloution will you be gaming at ?


Budget ?

The higher the better, at least 1440p in an ideal world. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for an upgraded GPU, I do have a spare GTX 1070 extreme I can use until I get one. Budget is basically it costs as much as it costs 'within reason' ballpark probably about £1,000 (excluding the graphics card).

I would hold out for the next CPU`s. So Intel 12th Gen and AMD`s 3D Cache or whatever it is called. Plus it looks like GPU are falling in price although i dont see it much myself

I do hope so, I ain't paying scalpers prices. I've not heard about that CPU news, I'm not too cluded up on AMD as I've always tended to stick with Intel, this build could be different though as AMD seemed to have upped their game in recent years.

 

[mickyflinn]

If you was buying now i would be buying around a 5800x, b550 motherboard and 32gb of ram.

Can put something together if you wish ?

 

[Craig_d1]

Build if you need a pc. Hold off if you have a working pc at the mo. My laptop dying and that's all I've got, so build was my route. Compared to my laptop it'll feel lightning quick once I build it, and as mickyflinn suggested, I went B550, 5800X with 32Gb 3600 Ram

 

[Hunterlit]

If you was buying now i would be buying around a 5800x, b550 motherboard and 32gb of ram.

Can put something together if you wish ?

Thank You, yes, that would be good although I do like tweaking things it must be said. I will probably be putting pictures if the finished build on here to share anyway.

Build if you need a pc. Hold off if you have a working pc at the mo. My laptop dying and that's all I've got, so build was my route. Compared to my laptop it'll feel lightning quick once I build it, and as mickyflinn suggested, I went B550, 5800X with 32Gb 3600 Ram

Talk online is it will be a couple of years at least yet until upgrading to DDR5 will be fully worthwhile, and I don't think I can hold out until then. My current main PC for gaming is an Intel core i7 and is quite a few years old.

 

[Venali]

Build. I'm in the same boat. Outside of the graphics card it doesn't cost much for a cheap build.

DDR5 and Alder Lake are a few months away, but you're better skipping the first generation of DDR5 it'll be expensive AND slow. Then when you want to build all the kinks will be worked out, components will be cheaper etc.

 

[Joxeon]

My current main PC for gaming is an Intel core i7 and is quite a few years old.

I wouldn't bother with upgrading till you manage to get a new card as you won't really gain anything upgrading the CPU while still rocking a 1070. In 3 months you'll have Alderlake or zen3+ to choose from while the current parts will be discounted.

 

[mickyflinn]

Heres a starting point so tinker away, case has plenty of room for watercooling.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core 4.7GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £399.95
• 1 x MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard= £159.95
• 1 x Patriot Viper Steel 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS432G360C8K)= £149.99
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £89.99
• 1 x Corsair RM Series RM850 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020196-UK)= £89.99
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer II High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 360mm= £99.95
• 1 x Corsair 5000D Airflow Tempered Glass Mid-Tower - Black CC-9011210-WW= £145.99

Total: £1,150.51 (includes shipping: £14.70)
​

 

[dfour]

Quick AMD build

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Lian-Li Lancool II Mesh RGB Midi-Tower Case - Black= £96.95
• 1 x Corsair RM Series RM850 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020196-UK)= £89.99
• 1 x Kingston HyperX Fury RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C17 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit= £89.99
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £89.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core 4.7GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £399.95
• 1 x Lian-Li GALAHAD 240mm High Performance RGB CPU Water Cooler - Black= £109.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B550 AORUS Elite V2 (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard= £139.99

Total: £1,030.05 (includes shipping: £13.20)
​

Personally if your serious about going with custom water cooling then I would just buy a £50ish air cooler until you have the parts you want and dont bother with the AIO. Save it for the custom water as parts are not cheap.

Water cooling GPU is awesome. It really reduces the temps and obvoiusly in silence.

 

[Hunterlit]

I wouldn't bother with upgrading till you manage to get a new card as you won't really gain anything upgrading the CPU while still rocking a 1070. In 3 months you'll have Alderlake or zen3+ to choose from while the current parts will be discounted.

I'm looking out for a more up to date decent card, all depends if I come across anything at a decent price.

Heres a starting point so tinker away, case has plenty of room for watercooling.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core 4.7GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £399.95
• 1 x MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard= £159.95
• 1 x Patriot Viper Steel 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS432G360C8K)= £149.99
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £89.99
• 1 x Corsair RM Series RM850 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020196-UK)= £89.99
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer II High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 360mm= £99.95
• 1 x Corsair 5000D Airflow Tempered Glass Mid-Tower - Black CC-9011210-WW= £145.99

Total: £1,150.51 (includes shipping: £14.70)
​

Thanks

Quick AMD build

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Lian-Li Lancool II Mesh RGB Midi-Tower Case - Black= £96.95
• 1 x Corsair RM Series RM850 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020196-UK)= £89.99
• 1 x Kingston HyperX Fury RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C17 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit= £89.99
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £89.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core 4.7GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £399.95
• 1 x Lian-Li GALAHAD 240mm High Performance RGB CPU Water Cooler - Black= £109.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B550 AORUS Elite V2 (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard= £139.99

Total: £1,030.05 (includes shipping: £13.20)
​

Personally if your serious about going with custom water cooling then I would just buy a £50ish air cooler until you have the parts you want and dont bother with the AIO. Save it for the custom water as parts are not cheap.

Water cooling GPU is awesome. It really reduces the temps and obvoiusly in silence.

Air coolers seem to be getting bulkier and bulkier these days which is one reason that has pushed me onto water cooling, the blocks for GPUs are expensive, custom loops are very expensive, I think I would need to watch a few videos on how to design them.

 

[EsaT]

Air coolers seem to be getting bulkier and bulkier these days which is one reason that has pushed me onto water cooling, the blocks for GPUs are expensive, custom loops are very expensive, I think I would need to watch a few videos on how to design them.

High cooling performance needs lots of surface area.
High end heatpipe coolers are actually better in continuous cooling per noise than average waterpipe coolers with slim radiators.

 

[Hunterlit]

High cooling performance needs lots of surface area.
High end heatpipe coolers are actually better in continuous cooling per noise than average waterpipe coolers with slim radiators.

It's the bulkiness and the weight issue. A few years ago I tried some swanky heatpipe cooler and it was big and heavy then, not sure how large they are now. I don't really like all that weight virtually hanging off the MB

 

[dfour]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6EARDgxDy8

Yes custom water cooling builds are very expensive exspecillay if your cooling the gpu as well. Easily hit £400 if your buying all the parts new. Plenty of parts second hand to save money.

Use a heatsink like this one (660g) until you can afford all the water cooling goodness. A bargain for the money.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Alpenfohn Brocken ECO Advanced CPU Cooler - 120 mm= £29.99

Total: £32.73 (includes shipping: £2.74)​

​

 

[Hunterlit]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6EARDgxDy8

Yes custom water cooling builds are very expensive exspecillay if your cooling the gpu as well. Easily hit £400 if your buying all the parts new. Plenty of parts second hand to save money.

Use a heatsink like this one (660g) until you can afford all the water cooling goodness. A bargain for the money.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Alpenfohn Brocken ECO Advanced CPU Cooler - 120 mm= £29.99

Total: £32.73 (includes shipping: £2.74)
​

I've not looked much into what I need yet I just know that they're expensive. I think the hardest part will be finding the GPU tbh I did see that video and another one where he gathers together all the parts needed to build a custom loop setup though I only watched it briefly and I think the video was about an hour long

 

[dfour]

I've not looked much into what I need yet I just know that they're expensive. I think the hardest part will be finding the GPU tbh I did see that video and another one where he gathers together all the parts needed to build a custom loop setup though I only watched it briefly and I think the video was about an hour long

Hes really passionate and talks a lot of sense about custom water cooling. If you want I can spec you a basic setup as I have run custom water cooling the last 15+ years

 

[Hunterlit]

Hes really passionate and talks a lot of sense about custom water cooling. If you want I can spec you a basic setup as I have run custom water cooling the last 15+ years

Yes, go ahead. Cheers

 

[dfour]

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Velocity AMD CPU Water Block - Copper + Plexi= £65.99
• 1 x Raijintek Antila D5 RBW Pump / Reservoir Combo with RGB Lighting - 280mm= £119.99
• 2 x XSPC FLX Tubing 3/8" ID, 1/2" OD (13/10mm) - 2m Clear= £4.99
• 8 x XSPC G1/4" to 3/8" ID, 1/2" OD Compression Fitting (Matte Black) V2= £3.95
• 1 x XSPC Antimicrobial 99.99% Pure Silver Coil= £3.95
• 2 x Mayhems Ultra Pure H2O Watercooling/Cleaning Fluid - 1 Litre= £2.50
• 4 x EK Water Blocks EK-AF Classic Angled 90 Degree Rotary Fitting - Black= £4.99
• 1 x XSPC EX420 Triple Fan Radiator= £69.95

Total: £336.92 (includes shipping: £10.50)​

​

Add another £100+ for a full GPU block and probably another dual rad (£40+) although the triple should be able to handle that heat capacity its always nice to have some left over so to speak.

This is based on a case that can handle a triple rad at the front and a dual in the roof like a lian-li lancool 2/011 dynamic or phanteks p400a etc.

You dont need to buy the mayhems ultra pure water as de-ionised water from a garage etc will work just as well for pennies but you will need either a biocide or silver coil in either. You may not need 2 meters of tubing but to much is better than not enough.

OC do a configurator for water cooling builds in ther water cooling section but I dont know if it will be any cheaper using it with the same items as I have picked.

Hope this helps.

 

[Hunterlit]

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Velocity AMD CPU Water Block - Copper + Plexi= £65.99
• 1 x Raijintek Antila D5 RBW Pump / Reservoir Combo with RGB Lighting - 280mm= £119.99
• 2 x XSPC FLX Tubing 3/8" ID, 1/2" OD (13/10mm) - 2m Clear= £4.99
• 8 x XSPC G1/4" to 3/8" ID, 1/2" OD Compression Fitting (Matte Black) V2= £3.95
• 1 x XSPC Antimicrobial 99.99% Pure Silver Coil= £3.95
• 2 x Mayhems Ultra Pure H2O Watercooling/Cleaning Fluid - 1 Litre= £2.50
• 4 x EK Water Blocks EK-AF Classic Angled 90 Degree Rotary Fitting - Black= £4.99
• 1 x XSPC EX420 Triple Fan Radiator= £69.95

Total: £336.92 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​

Add another £100+ for a full GPU block and probably another dual rad (£40+) although the triple should be able to handle that heat capacity its always nice to have some left over so to speak.

This is based on a case that can handle a triple rad at the front and a dual in the roof like a lian-li lancool 2/011 dynamic or phanteks p400a etc.

You dont need to buy the mayhems ultra pure water as de-ionised water from a garage etc will work just as well for pennies but you will need either a biocide or silver coil in either. You may not need 2 meters of tubing but to much is better than not enough.

OC do a configurator for water cooling builds in ther water cooling section but I dont know if it will be any cheaper using it with the same items as I have picked.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, it looks like I have some more saving to do