Gaming PC

[mdavids]

I haven't upgraded in years so I'm in need of an almost complete system overhaul: CPU, mboard, memory, hard drive and gfx card.
The original plan was to wait until 3060ti became available then buy everything but the way things are going that could take a while. In fact it's looking like there are no gfx cards of any flavour around unless you buy a complete system.
I've found the following for £1000 which when you add up all the components actually seems like a decent deal. I could then sell the gfx card once the 3060 becomes available.

Ryzen 5 5600x
16gb ram
500gb SSD
Asus prime B550 mboard
Asus 1660 super gfx card

Using pc part picker those bits alone come to nearly £1k however I'm aware that's partly because the gfx card by itself is so overpriced at the moment.
I've just bought a 4k monitor but I'd be happy playing latest games and stuff from the last couple of years at 1080p for now

Is there a flaw in my plan?
Is this horribly overpriced?
Does anyone know of a better deal available?
Anyone like to guess when gfx cards will become easy to find again?

Edited by mdavids on Saturday 6th March 21:16

[jingars]

As your proposed motherboard supports M2 drives it seems a pity not to include one; the performance over SSD is handy.

[towser]

mdavids said:

I haven't upgraded in years so I'm in need of an almost complete system overhaul: CPU, mboard, memory, hard drive and gfx card.
The original plan was to wait until 3060ti became available then buy everything but the way things are going that could take a while. In fact it's looking like there are no gfx cards of any flavour around unless you buy a complete system.
I've found the following for £1000 which when you add up all the components actually seems like a decent deal. I could then sell the gfx card once the 3060 becomes available.

Ryzen 5 5600x
16gb ram
500gb SSD
Asus prime B550 mboard
Asus 1660 super gfx card

Using pc part picker those bits alone come to nearly £1k however I'm aware that's partly because the gfx card by itself is so overpriced at the moment.
I've just bought a 4k monitor but I'd be happy playing latest games and stuff from the last couple of years at 1080p for now

Is there a flaw in my plan?
Is this horribly overpriced?
Does anyone know of a better deal available?
Anyone like to guess when gfx cards will become easy to find again?

Edited by mdavids on Saturday 6th March 21:16

I've just done pretty much the same....went a bit over budget (budget was £1000 but spent £1300!) but specced a 1660 Super with the mindset that I'll pick up a 3060Ti when they are available and at sane prices.

Used Scan for my build but still a 3 week wait.

1660 is a solid card and good for 1080p gaming

[Digger]

How much extra is it to spec with a 3070?

[HRL]

Digger said:

How much extra is it to spec with a 3070?

If it’s in stock...

[Brainpox]

jingars said:

As your proposed motherboard supports M2 drives it seems a pity not to include one; the performance over SSD is handy.

Also less cables looks neater

[Digger]

HRL said:

Digger said:

How much extra is it to spec with a 3070?

If it’s in stock...

These 30xx cards seem to be available in systems.

I ask as while a 1660 Super is a reasonable stop gap it might make sense to get what you REALLY want

[take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey]

HD is too small. You need at least a tb for gaming.

Games are knocking on the door of 100gigs.

[DamanC]

Case? PSU? Make and model of the RAM and SSD? Which Mobo model?

[halo34]

I went with Scan who have put up with numerous build changes.

They do seem to have a limited amount of specific RTX cards in stock for pre-builds if your prepared to wait 3-4 weeks.

I did suffer from 100% budget creep however.

[mdavids]

To answer a couple of questions about the original system, the SSD is actually an M2 and yes it's a little small but it'll do for now and storage is easy enough to add to.
The mboard is coming in at around £110 which is more than I'd probably spend if I was self-building so I assume it's a decent one.
The case is not something I care about - it'll be under my desk and not on display.
Power supply just say's 500watt.

However, I've been looking around and a few other options have cropped up.

Cheapest - £760
1660 Super
Ryzen 5 3600X
240gb SSD + 1TB HDD
16 gb Ram
unsure on mboard
No OS (not a problem)


middle - £970
RTX 3060 (but not TI)
Ryzen 5 3600
240gb SSD + 1TB HDD
16 gb Ram
unsure on mboard
windows 10 pre-installed


Top - £1450
RTX 3070
Ryzen 5 5600x
240gb SSD + 1TB HDD
16 gb Ram
ASUS PRIME A520M-K Motherboard
windows 10 pre-installed


The middle option is a dilemma, CPU is a lage step down from the 5600x in the original £1k system but I'd always planned on speccing a Ryzen 3600 anyway. The RTX 3060 is a good chunk faster than the 1660 but about 20% slower than a 3060TI, so would I end up just wanting to upgrade to a 3060TI anyway, in which case I might as well go for the £750 cheapest option - going for the middle option would mean I'd be paying £250 extra for a better card but which I'd just be changing in the future.
To be honest I know the answer is go for the top option and then there's no need to think about upgrading in the future but thats a 50% budget creep over the original and is probably over-kill.

Edited by mdavids on Sunday 7th March 18:20

[Brainpox]

take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:

HD is too small. You need at least a tb for gaming.

Games are knocking on the door of 100gigs.

Whilst I agree, at least hard drives are not in short supply and no need to go for extremely high performance drives for gaming. It is easy to add more capacity cheaply. So if that config is otherwise the most appropriate, then go for it and pick up a 1TB drive as well.

[towser]

What PSU are you getting with these builds...?

Nvidia bumph I've read on the 3060Ti suggests a system with a 600 / 650 watt PSU - not sure if it's a necessity but just a thought....

[mdavids]

towser said:

What PSU are you getting with these builds...?

Nvidia bumph I've read on the 3060Ti suggests a system with a 600 / 650 watt PSU - not sure if it's a necessity but just a thought....

The top option just says 750 watt, the others are 500, no mention of brand so I'd guess this is an area where they'll be saving. Obviously they're all warrantied so if it goes pop I have come back, and could always upgrade it myself once warranty period is over

[halo34]

mdavids said:

To answer a couple of questions about the original system, the SSD is actually an M2 and yes it's a little small but it'll do for now and storage is easy enough to add to.
The mboard is coming in at around £110 which is more than I'd probably spend if I was self-building so I assume it's a decent one.
The case is not something I care about - it'll be under my desk and not on display.
Power supply just say's 500watt.

However, I've been looking around and a few other options have cropped up.

Cheapest - £760
1660 Super
Ryzen 5 3600X
240gb SSD + 1TB HDD
16 gb Ram
unsure on mboard
No OS (not a problem)


middle - £970
RTX 3060 (but not TI)
Ryzen 5 3600
240gb SSD + 1TB HDD
16 gb Ram
unsure on mboard
windows 10 pre-installed


Top - £1450
RTX 3070
Ryzen 5 5600x
240gb SSD + 1TB HDD
16 gb Ram
ASUS PRIME A520M-K Motherboard
windows 10 pre-installed


The middle option is a dilemma, CPU is a lage step down from the 5600x in the original £1k system but I'd always planned on speccing a Ryzen 3600 anyway. The RTX 3060 is a good chunk faster than the 1660 but about 20% slower than a 3060TI, so would I end up just wanting to upgrade to a 3060TI anyway, in which case I might as well go for the £750 cheapest option - going for the middle option would mean I'd be paying £250 extra for a better card but which I'd just be changing in the future.
To be honest I know the answer is go for the top option and then there's no need to think about upgrading in the future but thats a 50% budget creep over the original and is probably over-kill.

Edited by mdavids on Sunday 7th March 18:20

This is what happened with me. I went from 3060 to 3070 then before I knew it 3080.

I went down the 5600x route with a b550 motherboard, and a RTX 3080. So yeah 120% more than my original budget.

I erred away from the 3060 as I wanted top performance for as long as I could.

[Mr_Yogi]

mdavids said:

To answer a couple of questions about the original system, the SSD is actually an M2 and yes it's a little small but it'll do for now and storage is easy enough to add to.
The mboard is coming in at around £110 which is more than I'd probably spend if I was self-building so I assume it's a decent one.
The case is not something I care about - it'll be under my desk and not on display.
Power supply just say's 500watt.

However, I've been looking around and a few other options have cropped up.

Cheapest - £760
1660 Super
Ryzen 5 3600X
240gb SSD + 1TB HDD
16 gb Ram
unsure on mboard
No OS (not a problem)


middle - £970
RTX 3060 (but not TI)
Ryzen 5 3600
240gb SSD + 1TB HDD
16 gb Ram
unsure on mboard
windows 10 pre-installed


Top - £1450
RTX 3070
Ryzen 5 5600x
240gb SSD + 1TB HDD
16 gb Ram
ASUS PRIME A520M-K Motherboard
windows 10 pre-installed


The middle option is a dilemma, CPU is a lage step down from the 5600x in the original £1k system but I'd always planned on speccing a Ryzen 3600 anyway. The RTX 3060 is a good chunk faster than the 1660 but about 20% slower than a 3060TI, so would I end up just wanting to upgrade to a 3060TI anyway, in which case I might as well go for the £750 cheapest option - going for the middle option would mean I'd be paying £250 extra for a better card but which I'd just be changing in the future.
To be honest I know the answer is go for the top option and then there's no need to think about upgrading in the future but thats a 50% budget creep over the original and is probably over-kill.

Edited by mdavids on Sunday 7th March 18:20

If you are still planning on gaming at 4K (even with DLSS) you will want to have the fastest videocard your can. And with any of those cards you will not be able to tell the difference between an R5 3600 or an R5 5600X with any of those video cards, even running at 1080p.

[take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey]

Brainpox said:

take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:

HD is too small. You need at least a tb for gaming.

Games are knocking on the door of 100gigs.

Whilst I agree, at least hard drives are not in short supply and no need to go for extremely high performance drives for gaming. It is easy to add more capacity cheaply. So if that config is otherwise the most appropriate, then go for it and pick up a 1TB drive as well.

High performance drives are becoming necessary. Quite a few games advise them now and with xbox and ps both now using ultra fast drives, any cross platforms are likely to require the same for pc.

[mikef]

I recently upgraded my gaming PC to Ryzen 7 5800X, RTX 3070 and NVMe4 SSD

I’m so impressed with the performance that I’m planning to upgrade my office PC, but with some changes from what I’ve learned

Like the OP, I’ll go for the Ryzen 5 5600X. The R7 5800X runs really hot; my gaming case (Fractal Define 7 case) has great cooling, but my office PC case (Silencio 600 case) less so

Gaming PC has an ASUS X570 mobo which also needs chipset cooling. I’ll go for the ASUS TUF B550 mobo this time

I went for a 1TB NVMe4 Sabrent Rocket M2 SSD (5,000 MB/s read); this is so impressive at loading game levels that next time I’ll go for a NVMe Rocket Plus (7,000 MB/s read)

As said, make sure your PSU, cooling and especially CPU cooler are up to it.

[mikef]

OP, you may find it cheaper to order CPU/Mobo/RAM as a bundle from CCL or AWD-IT instead of ordering separately, that's what I've been looking at

[Brainpox]

take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:

Brainpox said:

take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:

HD is too small. You need at least a tb for gaming.

Games are knocking on the door of 100gigs.

Whilst I agree, at least hard drives are not in short supply and no need to go for extremely high performance drives for gaming. It is easy to add more capacity cheaply. So if that config is otherwise the most appropriate, then go for it and pick up a 1TB drive as well.

High performance drives are becoming necessary. Quite a few games advise them now and with xbox and ps both now using ultra fast drives, any cross platforms are likely to require the same for pc.

https://youtu.be/2NKnPTkRY2w

No difference in load times between PCI-E gen 3 or gen 4 MVME SSDs. Gen 4 is for high speed transfers or working with large files.