First Ever PC build

Hello! This is my first ever PC build! Will this work well? Will anything bottleneck? I am welcome to any and all feedback, whatever you have to say please say it below
Case
PCS SPECTRUM RGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 5700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CV SERIES™ CV-650 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 V2 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (AMD)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
ASUS PCE-AC88 AC3100 2100Mbps/5GHz, 1000Mbps/2.4GHz
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 12 to 14 working days

My budget is £1500 max, I intend to use it for the internet, video editing and gaming. I will be using the
ACER Nitro VG270UPbmiipx Quad HD 27" LCD Gaming Monitor - Black
If you want to recommend any changes just say them in a reply!
 
Last edited:

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
Hi @Bouncinghat what are your main uses, what monitor will you be using and what is your budget?

Also if you can edit your previous post to include the link to allow folk to easily amend your spec that would be really helpful.
 
An expert will be able to point out what is good or not here but a couple of things stand out:

A bottleneck will be your choice of Hard Drive....you have chosen the slowest drive there...SATA drives are only really useful as storage drives...for a £1500 system, you really need an M2 drive as a minimum.

I don't know enough to be sure but I question whether that Wi-Fi card has even advantage over the Intel AX200 to warrant spending an extra £66?

Likewise, not sure the Motherboard is better enough than the TUF-X570 to warrant £68.

I've changed the motherboard to the B450-F and the hard drive to a 2TB barracuda SSD, I'm fine with spending more on the wifi because I like good connectivity but while I'm here: that will have Bluetooth right? So this system is gtg?
 
I didn't take as much care choosing my case as I should done and picked the one I liked the look of best. Now I've looked closer into it and it has 4 USB slots and a headphone port which is great but I don't see any HDMI port. I know I should of looked into this more but I thought any case would have a HDMI as standard. Does anyone know if this case has a HDMI?
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
If you're quite happy with what you have selected and are happy to make the decisions on the spec etc then I'm happy to just answer your queries directly.

The HDMI connects to the GPU, not the case. If you have a look at the specification of the GPU you have selected it will tell you which ports it has at the back for connectivity. I believe most, if not all, GPUs have at least 1 HDMI. Most have multiple DP's too, depending on model. DP is always recommend as it allows for more bandwidth and there are often times that Freesync needs DP to function.

If you want a spec drafted up then let us know and we can go through it. The URL from your build is always helpful though if you can provide that.
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
The AX200 is better than the expensive one. The only reason to consider the expensive one is if you are limited to 2.4Ghz band. It has the multiple array connectivity for increased throughput. Would need a supporting router though.

The AX200 is the newer standard that has the high frequency options on the 5ghz band. It's just a newer standard of Wifi.
 
Hello Everyone! Thank you for all the advice you've given me! The motherboard does have HDMI which is great. I ordered my PC with this spec back on the 2nd and with the update on my order email I checked through everything again. You're right about the Wifi but my connection is a bit spotty in my house and I don't want to delay my order any more than it has been so its good. I only have one question left. In this
video it says they come with settings installed and fully overclocked. Is that right? So it'll come with Ryzen Master and overclocked to 4.2Hhz (or whatever's the safest and highest)?


These are the final specs of the computer btw
Case
PCS SPECTRUM RGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 5700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 120 2.5" SSD, (up to 560MB/sR | 540MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 V2 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (AMD)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
ASUS PCE-AC88 AC3100 2100Mbps/5GHz, 1000Mbps/2.4GHz
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 18 to 20 working days
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Logo Branding
PCSpecialist Logo
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Hello Everyone! Thank you for all the advice you've given me! The motherboard does have HDMI which is great. I ordered my PC with this spec back on the 2nd and with the update on my order email I checked through everything again. You're right about the Wifi but my connection is a bit spotty in my house and I don't want to delay my order any more than it has been so its good. I only have one question left. In this
video it says they come with settings installed and fully overclocked. Is that right? So it'll come with Ryzen Master and overclocked to 4.2Hhz (or whatever's the safest and highest)?


These are the final specs of the computer btw
Case
PCS SPECTRUM RGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 5700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 120 2.5" SSD, (up to 560MB/sR | 540MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 V2 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (AMD)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
ASUS PCE-AC88 AC3100 2100Mbps/5GHz, 1000Mbps/2.4GHz
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 18 to 20 working days
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Logo Branding
PCSpecialist Logo

There may be a port on the motherboard, but it will be inactive for the 3600 as it does not have on-board graphics processing. This is reserved for other chips (less premium). The 5700XT will likely have the connections you require though.

With regards to the build, the spec is not very well balanced. You would have been given very different recommendations if you had asked at the time.

There's nothing particularly wrong with the build but do note the following:

The case is a cheap and cheerful one. It will work fine and it has good airflow but it will have fairly noisy fans and won't be easy to configure as it's a generic RGB fan option
The ROG B450 is expensive for what it is and has been outdated by the introduction of the B550. The 550 is the new standard option, the B450 will require a non-return BIOS "hack" for future upgrades
The AMD GPUs are notoriously more challenging than NVidia when it comes to drivers and compatibility. It's well suited with your monitor though.
For storage you would be better with an M2 drive. They are up to 10x faster.
I would remove the cooler, it's noisy and only comparable with the stock cooler. Theres no upgrade of note here.
The WIFI is not the best option and is a very old standard of card.
I would remove the bullguard, it will slow the system down unnecessarily. Standard windows defender is ideal.
Silver warranty would be a no brainer for me. It's only £5.

With regards to overclocks. They apply overclocks in overclocked systems. This is not an overclocked system and you wouldn't want an overclocked AMD chip. The system as standard will apply the boost clocks automatically and usually very well. 4.2 should be achieved quite regularly during gaming without any additional tweaks :)
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
If changing the spec won't slow down the process, I'll have a look. I don't see any option for an M2 though in storage.

There's no guarantees with anything unfortunately. If the parts are in stock it shouldn't have any impact.

The M2 drives are in their own menu below the one you have selected the drive in :)

Don't select the 660p, it's not a great choice.
 
Ok this is the new draft. I looked at the M2 but it sent me way over my budget so instead I tried to fix everything else:
Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY C BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 5700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 120 2.5" SSD, (up to 560MB/sR | 540MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 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 - Approximately 18 to 20 working days

If you have any thoughts at all, please post them
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Looks pretty good. I would lose the cooler altogether though. The standard cooler is excellent and has you covered. The Noctua is a waste of money on the 3600.

With the storage, I would opt for a 500GB PCS drive (or 970 Evo if you want premium) then just have a normal 2TB 7200RPM drive. That will cover fast speed for the OS, programs and a game or 2 with the conventional storage used for everything else.
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
You should be able to go to the PCS website, into your account and then into your orders. From there you should see your order, click the link and make the amendments then submit.
 
Ok everyone, I have amended the order, it most of the advice I've received here and I'm really happy with the build. The only thing I've not done is get 2 types of memory, I've never used two types of memory before and would prefer to keep things simple and everything fast. In two years or so when its cheaper and I'm more experienced with Desktops I'll probably at some M2 memory but I'm fine for now. Thank you so much everyone for all the awesome advice I've received today!
 
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