Questions And Advice For New Build

[Craig_d1]

I will not make you a basket like other have because there are sensible options up above, I will try and put down some thoughts on what you want.

I play Total War Warhammer II on a 34" 3440x1440 monitor and it is a fantastic experience and I love the 21-9 apect ratio for gaming and web browsing as well. My monitor is just 60 hz and fine for TW and World of tanks , I no longer play shooters so high refresh rate not needed for me. 3440x1440 is around half the pixels of 4k and is actually a way to future proof your gpu. 3070 is closer to a 3080 at lower res so if you go 4k you do need more gpu power.

You cannot really future proof a system , you can only make sensible choices. Decent B550 mobo with 5600x or 5800x if you really want 8 cores with a 3070 are all sensible choices. I have been trying to snag a 3080 past couple of weeks and what I have seen is that BOTs are autobuying 3070s at £750, I saw a bunch of 3070 TUF on sale for £700 and then they were gone in a minute and later a different card was up for £750 and gone almost instantly but 3070s at slightly higher prices will hang around to be purchased. To get a 3070 at near MSRP needs a lot of luck at the moment.

I did see an ex display version of a 3080 at just over £800 up for sale and when I clicked on it the message said 100+ people are trying to buy this item. 1 3080 and 100 bots and me trying to buy it .... I fought the bots and the bots won.

...." I fought the bots and the bots won ".. .ha ha ha. Love it

 

[Craig_d1]

Thanks for the advice. It's very likely I'll stick to 1440p and eventually if I really want to, upgrade for 4K.

Any ideas on requirements for VR? Would the kind of build I've included in the above post be able to handle VR at a reasonable level? Again more a nice to have but just out of curiosity.

3070 is more than capable of playing VR. If you can get hold of a 3080 even better(at msrp 3080 offers best performance/price) but only way at mo as above, via FEPartAlert.
A couple of thing I would change personally in above build are
1) mobo. For same price if you shop around you can get MSI B550 gaming edge wifi, which runs cooler and built on 6 layer pcb rather than 4(for example 1hrs blender load test elite board was 54 degrees compared to msi 41 degrees).
2) Subjective, but for an extra £10 or so I'd go 850w psu...if you upgrade your gpu or manage to get a 3080 then the extra power will come in useful, and maybe in a few years time if you upgrade gpu again, the 850w might still be enough so you wont have to swap that out.
3) Also for £859 you can get a Aorus 3070ti(in stock in shop, though only 1 left) if you search
Also found a gigabyte 3070 eagle for £749, and Gigabyte 3070 OC gaming for £799(1725Mhz to 1815Mhz diff)

 

[Craig_d1]

As a side note, just checked scalper maketplace so to speak to see what prices are going for and 3070ti are being offered brand new for less than shops are selling(there's 8 palit 3070ti being offered for lessthan £775). If that continues then for once, scalpers will actually help and drive down the prices in the shops

 

[MutenJoshi]

3070 is more than capable of playing VR. If you can get hold of a 3080 even better(at msrp 3080 offers best performance/price) but only way at mo as above, via FEPartAlert.
A couple of thing I would change personally in above build are
1) mobo. For same price if you shop around you can get MSI B550 gaming edge wifi, which runs cooler and built on 6 layer pcb rather than 4(for example 1hrs blender load test elite board was 54 degrees compared to msi 41 degrees).
2) Subjective, but for an extra £10 or so I'd go 850w psu...if you upgrade your gpu or manage to get a 3080 then the extra power will come in useful, and maybe in a few years time if you upgrade gpu again, the 850w might still be enough so you wont have to swap that out.
3) Also for £859 you can get a Aorus 3070ti(in stock in shop, though only 1 left) if you search
Also found a gigabyte 3070 eagle for £749, and Gigabyte 3070 OC gaming for £799(1725Mhz to 1815Mhz diff)

Is there much difference between different priced graphics cards of the same model? What's the difference between say a £850 3070 and a £950 3070 other than manufacturer?

Anything specific I should look out for if I see one?

 

[dfour]

Mainly the price and maybe a different cooler. It all depends how custom the card is from the manufacturer.

See one you like. Try and find a review before someone/bot buys it or just take a chance. There are very few turkeys out there but it does happen sometimes.

I agree with Craig that for an extra tenner you can buy the 850 watt psu

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Corsair RM Series RM850 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020196-UK)= £89.99

Total: £98.69 (includes shipping: £8.70)​

​

It will potentially last many upgrades and has a ten year warrenty.

 

[Craig_d1]

Is there much difference between different priced graphics cards of the same model? What's the difference between say a £850 3070 and a £950 3070 other than manufacturer?

Anything specific I should look out for if I see one?

The example withe the 2 gigabyte models, eagle and OC gaming is the clock speed/ The eagle runs at 1725Mhz whereas the OC has been manufacturer overclocked to 1815Mhz, so will provide a slight performance boost. both have same amount of cuda cores 5888 and 8gb gddr6 memory. Ad Dfour says, other thing that can alter the price would be the heatpipes/fins/cooling fans/rgb etc.

3070ti memory is GDDR6X so memory throughput is up 40%( would need to check that, my memory bit foggy), but cuda cores only up 250, giving the slight increase in performance

3080 has 8704 cuda cores paired wit 10gb gddr6x so much bigger jump in performance with all the extra cores.

At the end of the day between the 3070 v 3070ti with prices fluctuating so much, if you see them both at the same price, get the ti, if the 3070 cheaper by £100, get that. And shop around. Shops seem to be charging as much or more than scalpers at the moment and I've seen the same 3070 differ by over £100

Also look at bundles. If your not set on case etc, worth a look. Just seen Aorus 3070 Master, NZXT H510 case, Kingston 1TB m.2 SSD and think NZXT Kraken X63 aio 280mm watercooler(in description, not title) for £979.99...if you break that down aio for £125, case for £75, storage for £85, so puts card £695...as an example

 

[MutenJoshi]

Thanks both for all of your help. This is going to be tough while the GPU prices are what they are but I've been looking at prebuilds as you've mentioned. May be the best way to go with things as they are.

 

[EsaT]

1 x AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £259.99
1 x Gigabyte B550 AORUS Elite V2 (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard= £139.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C16 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit= £79.99

Could save some with this bundle.
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X - Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite AX V2 Bundle= £444.94

 

[Craig_d1]

Thanks both for all of your help. This is going to be tough while the GPU prices are what they are but I've been looking at prebuilds as you've mentioned. May be the best way to go with things as they are.

Found a prebuild as follows.
Corsair 4000D RGB airflow or 4000X rgb 120
Asus B550 E-strix wifi 225
Ryzen 5 5600X 260
Gigabyte RTX 3070 OC Gaming
Corsair 750 RM750 Gold 80
Crucial Ballistix RGB 32GB 3600C16 189
WD SN550 1TB 90
Price £1627 or (£1737 for 5800X)
Prices on right what the components cost Ocuk, so 964 leaving gpu price £663

Problem with prebuilds is you always compromise a little as sometimes you cant get the choice you want, be it case design(I prefer 5000x which gone on sale for instance) etc(I would want bigger psu so in 3/4 years when I upgrade gpu, i wont have to upgrade psu also...reports rtx4000 series will be much bigger power hogs already circulating) Also doesn't account for price changes( I literally bought the same mobo for £136 2 weeks ago during Asus promotion) so for above build with everything else the same the gpu part becomes £750, so you're not really saving anyway
Plus, you dont get the enjoyment of building it yourself

But good luck either way, let us know which way you go

 

[MutenJoshi]

Found a prebuild as follows.
Corsair 4000D RGB airflow or 4000X rgb 120
Asus B550 E-strix wifi 225
Ryzen 5 5600X 260
Gigabyte RTX 3070 OC Gaming
Corsair 750 RM750 Gold 80
Crucial Ballistix RGB 32GB 3600C16 189
WD SN550 1TB 90
Price £1627 or (£1737 for 5800X)
Prices on right what the components cost Ocuk, so 964 leaving gpu price £663

Problem with prebuilds is you always compromise a little as sometimes you cant get the choice you want, be it case design(I prefer 5000x which gone on sale for instance) etc(I would want bigger psu so in 3/4 years when I upgrade gpu, i wont have to upgrade psu also...reports rtx4000 series will be much bigger power hogs already circulating) Also doesn't account for price changes( I literally bought the same mobo for £136 2 weeks ago during Asus promotion) so for above build with everything else the same the gpu part becomes £750, so you're not really saving anyway
Plus, you dont get the enjoyment of building it yourself

But good luck either way, let us know which way you go

I will do, thanks again. Hopefully the gpu prices come down by the time I have the money!

 

[EsaT]

Asus B550 E-strix wifi 225

Extremely brand overpriced board for B550 chipset.
Lot more capable X570 boards are even cheaper.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...-am4-ddr4-x570-atx-motherboard-mb-351-ms.html

 

[Craig_d1]

Extremely brand overpriced board for B550 chipset.
Lot more capable X570 boards are even cheaper.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...-am4-ddr4-x570-atx-motherboard-mb-351-ms.html

Well that OCuk price...easily available a lot cheaper elsewhere, but was using it as a point that prebuilds aren't necessarily better than self build. I bought it as was £136, otherwise I'd go MSI B550 Gaming edge wifi(basically newer version of b550 tomahawk) for £140 just about everywhere except OCuk who want £179.99

 

[MutenJoshi]

Another quick couple of questions when picking a GPU (likely going for 3070). Sorry if they're basic questions, just trying to learn before I spend my hard earned cash...

Is there much difference in a 3070 between different brands? Is it essentially the amount and quality of fans on the card etc? How do I know which to pick?

When I search on OC there are four different gigabyte rtx 3070 models. Gamic oc, master, eagle and eagle oc. Again, what's the difference and how would I know what to go with?

 

[Craig_d1]

Another quick couple of questions when picking a GPU (likely going for 3070). Sorry if they're basic questions, just trying to learn before I spend my hard earned cash...

Is there much difference in a 3070 between different brands? Is it essentially the amount and quality of fans on the card etc? How do I know which to pick?

When I search on OC there are four different gigabyte rtx 3070 models. Gamic oc, master, eagle and eagle oc. Again, what's the difference and how would I know what to go with?

Taking Gigabyte 3070 as your example, there are 5 variants
1) Eagle , clock 1725MHz
2) Eagle OC, clock 1770MHz
3) Vision, clock 1815MHz
4) Gaming OC, clock 1815MHz
5) Master, clock 1845MHz
All have same number of cuda cores etc, but eagle is at reference clock, others overclocked to different degrees. Vision is same as Gaming OC, but design is different with a silver look
yesterday there was a nvidia drop, the 3060ti (£369)was available for 15 to 20mins, the 3080ti(£1049) for an 1 and a 1/2 hrs before stock went out. So just be aware before pulling trigger for 3070 @£800 odd

 

[MutenJoshi]

Taking Gigabyte 3070 as your example, there are 5 variants
1) Eagle , clock 1725MHz
2) Eagle OC, clock 1770MHz
3) Vision, clock 1815MHz
4) Gaming OC, clock 1815MHz
5) Master, clock 1845MHz
All have same number of cuda cores etc, but eagle is at reference clock, others overclocked to different degrees. Vision is same as Gaming OC, but design is different with a silver look
yesterday there was a nvidia drop, the 3060ti (£369)was available for 15 to 20mins, the 3080ti(£1049) for an 1 and a 1/2 hrs before stock went out. So just be aware before pulling trigger for 3070 @£800 odd

Ok so the main thing to look out for is the clock speed then? But in reality, if I find any of them at a reasonable price, it will still be worth it?

As for the manufacturers, are there any you would typically avoid?

Also for a 3070, 3070ti and 3080, what kind of price would you expect to be reasonable? The prices on Nvidia's website seem very low compared to where others have listed it (previously at non inflated prices).

I've put together the below basket (essentially the same as previously but with no GPU added and the Mobo bundle and 850W PSU included). I had it in my head to spend £2k total including the monitor. so this is leaving me £700-800 to spend on a GPU (unless there's anything glaringly obvious missing from the basket)? What should I be expecting at that price range?

Would I be better off looking for a Ryzen 5800x instead for future upgrades or will that not give me much more benefit compared to a better GPU? I was thinking about adding more storage but in all honesty, I'm thinking now I would benefit more probably spending more on performance now and adding a second storage device when I need to at a later date. I know that's more a personal choice which you can't answer but what would your advice be from a performance perspective?

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Gigabyte 34" G34WQC-EK 3440x1440 VA 144Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Compatible Curved LED Backlit Ultrawid= £438.95
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 5600X - Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite AX V2 Bundle= £444.94
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £89.99
• 1 x Lian-Li ST120 Addressable RGB 120mm Black Fan with Controller - Triple Pack= £34.99
• 1 x Alpenfohn Brocken ECO Advanced CPU Cooler - 120 mm= £29.99
• 1 x NZXT H510 Midi Tower Gaming Case - White Tempered Glass= £74.99
• 1 x Corsair RM Series RM850 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020196-UK)= £89.99

Total: £1,223.46 (includes shipping: £19.62)
​

 

[Craig_d1]

For gaming, your number 1 performance boost will always be the gpu. The 5800X will give you slight uptick at the single core performance is higher than 5600X, but nothing compared to performance boost buy going from a 3070 to a 3080 for example. And with prices as they are, that's why forum members always say get the gpu 1st, as that's your biggest cost. You need to really think how much performance you want, but as you said you initially wanted 4k gaming, I'd put 3080 or above, so for any hope to keep in your budget, you'll need an nvidia card at MSRP

The prices on the Nvidia website are the MSRP prices. You can only get them from one distributer in the UK(can't name it as against forum rules but google), and they are not allowed to increase the price, so they are the only gpu's you can get at MSRP. Everyone else has put their prices up. The only way to get one is via the FEpartalert on telegram(last drop yesterday, which i posted on the 3070/3080/3090 thread as saw it happen). This is by far your best option for bang for buck so to speak. The 3080 at £649 is the ideal card for your build I would say as offers best bang for buck, but non of the cards are bad. Getting the 3060ti at £369 would have been great also(not that far behind the 3070)...you could use that until you prices return to normal, or manage to get hold the card you want at a reasonable price and sell it(at that price you wont loose a lot when prices normalise, and at current prices you'll make a profit)
The 3080ti at £1049 yesterday is only a little behind the 3090 for performance..you pay for it, but I'd rather pay £200 more for that than a a 3070ti for £850/£900 from a shop

i looked at review after review before I bought my components, and everything is personal to you. When i looked at reviews I looked at the graphs etc, as at end sometimes a board was classified as good but not worth it as expensive, but price fluctuate all the time, and shop around. I bought from 4 different places.
Also, how long do you want to keep your pc for. If a long time before upgrading, then I'd get better stuff, as I'd get instant better performance now and it'll last longer before I feel the need to upgrade.
for example, with your build, I would want 32gb of ram. i know there is debate for the need for this, but with the migration to DDR5 in a few years, if I had 16gb and needed more, I'd prob have to pay up to get some, as DDR5 will be the prevalent Ram, so DDR4 will become more expensive as supply dwindles. That would in turn mean you can't get the bundle you put in there, but then the mobo you have there is more the budget end b550(from reviews I've seen...so my personal view), so getting a 3080 I'd want one that has better thermals, and also if i upgrade to a better cpu in future, I'd want my mobo to be able to handle it(it prob could but for me, I'd want something else..again, personal)
I can list a whole lot of reviews of boards if you want, but would have to be later, gotta go for present

 

[MutenJoshi]

For gaming, your number 1 performance boost will always be the gpu. The 5800X will give you slight uptick at the single core performance is higher than 5600X, but nothing compared to performance boost buy going from a 3070 to a 3080 for example. And with prices as they are, that's why forum members always say get the gpu 1st, as that's your biggest cost. You need to really think how much performance you want, but as you said you initially wanted 4k gaming, I'd put 3080 or above, so for any hope to keep in your budget, you'll need an nvidia card at MSRP

The prices on the Nvidia website are the MSRP prices. You can only get them from one distributer in the UK(can't name it as against forum rules but google), and they are not allowed to increase the price, so they are the only gpu's you can get at MSRP. Everyone else has put their prices up. The only way to get one is via the FEpartalert on telegram(last drop yesterday, which i posted on the 3070/3080/3090 thread as saw it happen). This is by far your best option for bang for buck so to speak. The 3080 at £649 is the ideal card for your build I would say as offers best bang for buck, but non of the cards are bad. Getting the 3060ti at £369 would have been great also(not that far behind the 3070)...you could use that until you prices return to normal, or manage to get hold the card you want at a reasonable price and sell it(at that price you wont loose a lot when prices normalise, and at current prices you'll make a profit)
The 3080ti at £1049 yesterday is only a little behind the 3090 for performance..you pay for it, but I'd rather pay £200 more for that than a a 3070ti for £850/£900 from a shop

i looked at review after review before I bought my components, and everything is personal to you. When i looked at reviews I looked at the graphs etc, as at end sometimes a board was classified as good but not worth it as expensive, but price fluctuate all the time, and shop around. I bought from 4 different places.
Also, how long do you want to keep your pc for. If a long time before upgrading, then I'd get better stuff, as I'd get instant better performance now and it'll last longer before I feel the need to upgrade.
for example, with your build, I would want 32gb of ram. i know there is debate for the need for this, but with the migration to DDR5 in a few years, if I had 16gb and needed more, I'd prob have to pay up to get some, as DDR5 will be the prevalent Ram, so DDR4 will become more expensive as supply dwindles. That would in turn mean you can't get the bundle you put in there, but then the mobo you have there is more the budget end b550(from reviews I've seen...so my personal view), so getting a 3080 I'd want one that has better thermals, and also if i upgrade to a better cpu in future, I'd want my mobo to be able to handle it(it prob could but for me, I'd want something else..again, personal)
I can list a whole lot of reviews of boards if you want, but would have to be later, gotta go for present

Ok thanks. Well I've quickly come to realise that 4K may have been a bit optimistic on my budget. I've signed up to the alerts on telegram so fingers crossed. I have approx £650 ready to go so if I can get a 3070 or above at that price, I'm half tempted to pull the trigger and wait for the rest of the build (until I've saved enough money - could be a few months but at least I'd have the GPU).

Are there any potential issues with FE cards?

The PC I built about 10 years ago was left to rot (I mean I used it but never had intention of updating it). For this build, I plan to upgrade it every 2-3 years if it was worth it.

As for the RAM, I'd probably see if I can afford 32GB when I get to it but that may have to be one of the sacrifices I make. I guess it depends if I can get a GPU for a decent price at the end of the day.

What mobo would you suggest as an alternative to the one here?

 

[MutenJoshi]

Also, I've found a bundle for an ASUS RTX 3070ti TUF gaming GPU with a Corsair RM850x PSU for £780. It'll probably go by the time I get chance to place an order but would something like that be worth the money?

 

[Craig_d1]

Ok thanks. Well I've quickly come to realise that 4K may have been a bit optimistic on my budget. I've signed up to the alerts on telegram so fingers crossed. I have approx £650 ready to go so if I can get a 3070 or above at that price, I'm half tempted to pull the trigger and wait for the rest of the build (until I've saved enough money - could be a few months but at least I'd have the GPU).

The PC I built about 10 years ago was left to rot (I mean I used it but never had intention of updating it). For this build, I plan to upgrade it every 2-3 years if it was worth it.

As for the RAM, I'd probably see if I can afford 32GB when I get to it but that may have to be one of the sacrifices I make. I guess it depends if I can get a GPU for a decent price at the end of the day.

What mobo would you suggest as an alternative to the one here?

I would recomment the MSI B550 gaming Edge. You can buy it for £140 from multiple places. It's basically a tomahawk with wifi 6 included and costs the same money. I had originally gone for the MSI B550 Carbon which is meant to be MSI's top B550 board as it had a heatsink for 2nd m.2, and a couple more usb ports, but it actually runs hotter than the gaming edge, hence why I'd get that now(also gaming edge cheaper). I personally got the Asus B550 Gaming E, but only as got it for £136 as a seller had it discounted to £186 and Asus where running a promotion so got aditional £50 cashback. And I'm going with 3080 which i managed to nab in a drop for £649 luckily. I paired that with 32gb(2*16) Corsair Vengeance RGB pro 3600C18 for £173. Crucial 3600C16 will be better but wanted a bit of rgb and corsair was cheaper and went with 5800x which i managed to get for £310. and went with RM850X for £129...comes with 10 yrs guarantee and says uses better components. probably not, but thought as have a precious gpu plugged into it, not to mention everything else, thought i'd pay up

for help, i started here(forum members), then looked at reviews, following not bad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxczZChFaZI&ab_channel=HardwareUnboxed. from there narrowed down to ones i like l liked and searched other reviews. here's another for gaming edge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVs2JtFwwxM&ab_channel=Laurent'sChoice

My budget similar to yours, though I know I'm going over at mo as need a monitor too. My last build so long ago i took the lot to the tip a few months back(had a 17in tn monitor which was Huge at the time)

 

[MutenJoshi]

I would recomment the MSI B550 gaming Edge. You can buy it for £140 from multiple places. It's basically a tomahawk with wifi 6 included and costs the same money. I had originally gone for the MSI B550 Carbon which is meant to be MSI's top B550 board as it had a heatsink for 2nd m.2, and a couple more usb ports, but it actually runs hotter than the gaming edge, hence why I'd get that now(also gaming edge cheaper). I personally got the Asus B550 Gaming E, but only as got it for £136 as a seller had it discounted to £186 and Asus where running a promotion so got aditional £50 cashback. And I'm going with 3080 which i managed to nab in a drop for £649 luckily. I paired that with 32gb(2*16) Corsair Vengeance RGB pro 3600C18 for £173. Crucial 3600C16 will be better but wanted a bit of rgb and corsair was cheaper and went with 5800x which i managed to get for £310. and went with RM850X for £129...comes with 10 yrs guarantee and says uses better components. probably not, but thought as have a precious gpu plugged into it, not to mention everything else, thought i'd pay up

for help, i started here(forum members), then looked at reviews, following not bad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxczZChFaZI&ab_channel=HardwareUnboxed. from there narrowed down to ones i like l liked and searched other reviews. here's another for gaming edge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVs2JtFwwxM&ab_channel=Laurent'sChoice

My budget similar to yours, though I know I'm going over at mo as need a monitor too. My last build so long ago i took the lot to the tip a few months back(had a 17in tn monitor which was Huge at the time)

Haha a 17"! I thought my build was old! What do you think of the bundle for £780 for the 3070ti and 850w psu?

I'll probably have a look at the gaming edge because having wifi included would be a big benefit for me (saves using old wifi adapters which I'm currently doing).