Associate
Joined
19 Jul 2020
Posts
5
Looking to build my 2nd PC as my current one is getting old. I do average level gaming and general use including occasional Adobe CC use (Photoshop, Illustrator & XD) Primarily shooters: Call of Duty, Forza, Minecraft (Modded & w/ Shaders) and some fortnite

Im looking at roughly £800 with some leeway (NZXT H1 case included in budget. costs $349 on their .com site)

Am planning on building within the next few weeks before my bday (unless there are specific next-gen components coming out in the next month or two that's *really* worth waiting for.

The components I'm after (and would like recommendations/advice on are:

Appropriate ITX motherboard, compatibie CPU, GPU and RAM (ideally 16GB) and potentially an M.2 SSD
Case comes with power supply & CPU cooler

could potentially use my exisiting SSD for OS/games library if buying a new M.2 SSD (for OS) eats into the budget too much

I'm not planning on overclocking and my only requirements are:

Motherboard with decent onboard wifi capabilities (attachable arials welcome) as existing PC has poor connection
compontents that are compatible with each other & work together (not sure how common bottlenecking is these days)

Aesthetic wise, I'll be using the mini ITX NZXT H1 case, black/dark components are preferred, I'm going for a sleeper/covert look so not bothered about flashy compontents

Essentially just looking for components that'll be the best bang for my buck, that will handle average 1080p 60fps gaming at 60hz. Any future proofing would be awesome too

Any advice is welcome, has been 5-6 years since I built my current PC and am not particularly up to date with new compontents and what works best together.

My current pc does use an AMD rx480 - and this * could* be carried over if it would manage my usage but I'm not sure it can, the CPU and motherboard in my current build are certainly struggling, and I'm looking for something smaller and sleeker, hence the new build, any advice would be great!

Sorry for the long post! :/
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
30 Jul 2007
Posts
5,185
Location
Lincolnshire
Are you in the US and buying from the US at a guess? (OcUK is a UK site and retailer just FYI :p)

Nothing wrong with it though, just for clarity really... Can really only suggest components and not link to any particular website with deals/prices, as they would be competitors to OcUK.

Either way, you're not gonna get a decent gaming PC with £800 - not when you're putting £300 down on the case (even with the PSU/cooler)... Sorry lol :o

Edit: Here's an example spec with Ryzen 3600, 16GB RAM, 1TB NVMe and 1660 Super GPU combo. But it's £1050 which is about $1300 USD. Prices may be a bit different if you're in the US but I doubt by much.

Edit2: Also OcUK product page states H1 case stock not due until end of August. Nvidia are releasing next gen GPUs around the same time apparently. So I'd wait until then anyway and save some more £/$ if you really want a decent rig and it has to be in the NZXT H1.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,050.94 (includes shipping: £0.00)
 
Last edited:
Associate
OP
Joined
19 Jul 2020
Posts
5
My apologies! No, I'm from the UK, have just been researching the NZXT case and it's in dollars on their site, so had also figured out what my components would cost in dollars too, ignore that!
 
Man of Honour
Joined
22 Jun 2006
Posts
11,649
You can re-use the RX 480, especially if you don't use many of the GPU accelerated features for your editing and you're happy turning down the details. The RX 480 would struggle with the latest games though.

Haven't looked at this case before, does it use a riser? If so, you might want to check how well that works with PCI-E 4.0 cards.
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Jul 2007
Posts
5,185
Location
Lincolnshire
My apologies! No, I'm from the UK, have just been researching the NZXT case and it's in dollars on their site, so had also figured out what my components would cost in dollars too, ignore that!

Ah right, well you could do it without a new GPU for £800... :p Does it really have to be the H1? It's a very expensive case (even with the cooler & psu).

If you really want ITX form factor, there are lots of others much cheaper that look smart. Like the Lian Li PC-TU150 and CoolerMaster have a new MasterBox NR200P as linked below coming out.

Lian Li - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/case...ini-itx-cases?ckSuppliers=347&ckTab=0&sSort=2
CoolerMaster - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/case...ini-itx-cases?ckSuppliers=133&ckTab=0&sSort=2
 
Associate
OP
Joined
19 Jul 2020
Posts
5
You can re-use the RX 480, especially if you don't use many of the GPU accelerated features for your editing and you're happy turning down the details. The RX 480 would struggle with the latest games though.

Haven't looked at this case before, does it use a riser? If so, you might want to check how well that works with PCI-E 4.0 cards.

It does use a riser I believe if you're talking about a bendy GPU connector thingy (if we're using the proper names for things) and I could potentially use the rx480 until the next gen guy's come out as long as they'd be compatible with the motherboard
 
Last edited:
Associate
OP
Joined
19 Jul 2020
Posts
5
Ah right, well you could do it without a new GPU for £800... :p Does it really have to be the H1? It's a very expensive case (even with the cooler & psu).

If you really want ITX form factor, there are lots of others much cheaper that look smart. Like the Lian Li PC-TU150 and CoolerMaster have a new MasterBox NR200P as linked below coming out.

Lian Li - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/case...ini-itx-cases?ckSuppliers=347&ckTab=0&sSort=2
CoolerMaster - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/case...ini-itx-cases?ckSuppliers=133&ckTab=0&sSort=2

Unfortunately I'm a sucker for aesthetics, and I do really like this case, despite the price tag. I'm not really a fan of something short and boxy, ideally I'm looking for something not too wide and slim, or tall without much depth.

Are there any cases you'd reccomend that are small and fit those specs? Anything sleek and minimal with little branding is what I'm after, I could possible use my current 600w power supply if it was a different case to bring the price down further.

Budget wise on reflection I'd say £1000 is maximum all-in, and I could use the rx480 with the new cpu and motherboard and if it wasn't enough I'd use any leftover money to upgrade to a new GPU early September? Would those GPU's be compatible though? And what CPU & motherboard combo offers the best compatibility with a potential new NVIDIA gpu.

Thanks for your help so far!
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Jul 2007
Posts
5,185
Location
Lincolnshire
Considering there’s no stock until end of August for the case + Nvidia GPUs come out around then too, may as well just revisit the build idea then tbh.

Other components might be more healthier stock levels too and better priced (I’m looking at you PSUs) :o

Kinda makes it pointless IMO buying any other components if you’ve not got the case to build it in? Otherwise I’d say go for it, reuse 480 and upgrade GPU later.

Edit: Or there is the Phanteks Evolv Shift Air Mini? Those other cases are really small and compact btw, it’s ITX geez :p
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom