Widescreen Gaming Build

[randomone]

Hi,

Given the recent death of my old PCS system I'm looking to purchase a new gaming machine to take me into the future! I'm looking to pick up a new system to be delivered early November and have been keeping an eye on the forums with the recent new hardware releases.

First question before even looking at specs – is it worth me waiting any longer before putting in an order? I know the new GPUs/CPUs/MBs etc. Are all here now, is there anything else I would be worth hanging around for? I guess the details below may help answer that.

Budget
Ideally I'd say £3000 at an absolute maximum. I'd like this machine to last a long time so spending this much up front, whilst a lot, seems to make sense to me. I do have some cash set aside to buy a new monitor with so this budget would be for the PC itself.

Use
Primarily gaming with the possibility of streaming in the future should I choose to. I'd like to be able to run the most recent games on the monitor below with no real concerns about frame drops. I've been avoiding "nice looking" games for a while now due to poor performance so I'm quite exited about being able to play them. My November deadline is mainly set to allow me to play the new Call of Duty, Warzone, and everything that comes with it however I’d also be playing games such as Escape from Tarkov, Rust, Battlefield, Football Manager & others.

Monitor
I quite like the look of the following:
Gigabyte 34" M34WQ 3440x1440 IPS 144Hz 1ms FreeSync KVM Widescreen Gaming Monitor
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...-kvm-widescreen-gaming-monitor-mo-00r-gi.html

I am a little anxious of moving up to a widescreen monitor for gaming from the 27" I'm used to, however it seems to be the thing to do so looking forward to the upgrade!

I've added my comments below where I feel relevant although I must admit I don't have much of a clue when it comes to picking these parts so feel free to suggest changes.

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
I struggle to tell the difference between all of the case choices. I'm looking to sit my computer on my desk, ideally with the window on the left so that I can see into the PC. Ideally I'd like to have some pretty RGB lights in there (who doesn't right?) so I can actually see them.
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X Eight Core CPU (4.5GHz-5.4GHz/40MB CACHE/AM5)
From what I've seen the 7700X is one of the best around at the moment. Quite confident I want to go AMD over intel at this point but happy to be convinced otherwise.
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, PCIe 5.0) - RGB Ready!
I have no idea which board to pick here, I've gone with this because it doesn't cause any conflicts with the build. I'm sure there's probably a better option.
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
A little bit of future proofing I guess? Is it worth getting DDR5? 32GB over 16GB?
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
I'd love a 3080 in here but I'm not sure it's worth the extra money? I thought they'd be a little cheaper with the 4000 series being launched but the price point of those hasn't exactly helped. I'd be quite happy to sacrifice elsewhere to get a better GPU if it's worthwhile.
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Fast drive for my OS
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
1TB of NVMe for my games
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
2TB of other space. Did originally have 1TB but it looks like it's a quite £ extra for 2TB so might as well.
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Not sure if I need this much but perhaps adding with an eye on the future.
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
I've heard the AMDs run hot so some hydro cooling would be recommended. Not entirely sure which one to go for. Also a little anxious about this as I've never had water cooling before.
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products

Price: £2,746.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/C5pQVmdf!8/

 

[Martinr36]

Monitor
I quite like the look of the following:
Gigabyte 34" M34WQ 3440x1440 IPS 144Hz 1ms FreeSync KVM Widescreen Gaming Monitor
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...-kvm-widescreen-gaming-monitor-mo-00r-gi.html

I am a little anxious of moving up to a widescreen monitor for gaming from the 27" I'm used to, however it seems to be the thing to do so looking forward to the upgrade!

You will not regret it, I've got one as my main monitor, then a samsung G5 as my secondary.................

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
I struggle to tell the difference between all of the case choices. I'm looking to sit my computer on my desk, ideally with the window on the left so that I can see into the PC. Ideally I'd like to have some pretty RGB lights in there (who doesn't right?) so I can actually see them.

Should do you nicely, it's a case I'm tempted to transplant the Berserker into when finances allow

Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
I've heard the AMDs run hot so some hydro cooling would be recommended. Not entirely sure which one to go for. Also a little anxious about this as I've never had water cooling before.

Up it to the 150, that gives you more RGB goodness

 

[MrWilson]

Build looks really good, and it’s a great monitor pick. It got released a couple of months after I bought my Ultrawide and if it had been out I would have opted for it instead of my AOC friend.
The 3070ti will be ample for the monitor pairing. I pair my screen with a 3070 and haven’t experienced any noticeable frame drops in games I’ve played, including some RT titles.
As Martin Mentioned the 150i Capellix will be a better fit aesthetically, and the case is designed to have the 360mm fill out its roof so it will look awesome!
You could save a quick buck if you’re able to transfer your windows licence from your dead PC too.
But overall, really solid spec, it’s clear that you’ve done your research and your reasoning is sound. 🙂

 

[randomone]

Thank you for the feedback!
I'll be honest, I expected a lot more changes to be suggested! Maybe I should be giving myself some more credit for listening on these forums
The only real unknown for me is the motherboard at the moment. Is the X670E a solid choice? I don't know much about them so can't tell the difference between the options.
I'm also thinking about upgrading to the 3080ti if there are no further changes to be made. Adding that plus the 150i cooler brings me to £3005 which is just over the budget.

 

[Martinr36]

I'm also thinking about upgrading to the 3080ti

if you did that you'd be spending money with no gains, I drive both my monitors off of a 2070 super, the 3080Ti is more focused on 4K high refresh rate gaming

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Thank you for the feedback!
I'll be honest, I expected a lot more changes to be suggested! Maybe I should be giving myself some more credit for listening on these forums
The only real unknown for me is the motherboard at the moment. Is the X670E a solid choice? I don't know much about them so can't tell the difference between the options.
I'm also thinking about upgrading to the 3080ti if there are no further changes to be made. Adding that plus the 150i cooler brings me to £3005 which is just over the budget.

From what I've seen the X670 boards are very expensive for a reason, they're hugely over engineered.

B650 boards are being released by the end of the month, could be any day.

But B650E boards which are the ones built for overclocking so have superior VRM and general design may be a very good bridge between the extremely expensive X670 options and B650 normal boards.

BUT of course, involves more waiting.

The TuF X670E you've chosen though is a great board for that processor and likely any CPU upgrade you may wish in the future.

 

[randomone]

I've seen some comments suggesting that the VRAM on the 3070 Ti may not be enough to support the ultrawide screen for games in the future and that I should upgrade to something with at least 12GB of VRAM.

They've also mentioned that the PSU should be 1200 to support upgrades in the future (which seems a little excessive?)

Is this something I should be worried about?

 

[steaky360]

Is this something I should be worried about?

In my opinion, no... by the time the 3070 can't cope (or not without significantly downgrading your experience) I'd imagine you'll be looking at changing the entire PC rather than just the GPU.

Similarly for the PSU. If the industry goes that way, I'd say you'll be looking at swapping out more than just 'one or two' components, so an entirely new rig would probably be more appropriate.

Its all still many years down the line I'd say though, you might not be able to keep everything on ultra max top of the range display fidelity but turning down a setting or two to increase FPS isn't really a hardship and will extend your GPU by many years.

For context around my opinion here: I had a pair of 690's back in 2012, they lasted me until 2018 when I swapped them out for a 1080. That was fine for me until I got my latest PC (its still going strong as the old rig is being used by a friend now quite happily!).

 

[randomone]

You guys will hate me for this.. I've slightly adjusted the build to max out the budget.

+ CPU upped to the 7900X
+ GPU upped to the 3080

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12 Core CPU (4.7GHz-5.6GHz/76MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, PCIe 5.0) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £3,009.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/aPzM20Dwf6/

 

[Martinr36]

what monitor have you got or getting, anything less than a 4k or something like a G9 then you are wasting money on a 3080

 

[randomone]

Sorry only just seen your question! I bought the M34WQ from above.

Another quick question.. I think the 1TB Intel NVMe SSD has gone out of stock (it's disappeared from my order). Which of the other options would be the best choice? Or are they all very similar?

I've put a 1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2 in there for now.

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12 Core CPU (4.7GHz-5.6GHz/76MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, PCIe 5.0) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £3,023.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/0Cp7WcmKd0/

 

[randomone]

Sorry, another question. The motherboard in the build above is the only part that is pre-order only so I was wondering if I could potentially change it to one of the others to allow me to order in the next few days.

Are any of these suitable replacements?

 

[randomone]

Bump! last question before ordering