Go on then, what one thing should I change ... :)

[skewball]

Hey good people


Just need some advice please on a new general purpose PC which will last for a good 4 or 5 years. The only think that should stretch the PC is photography editing mainly on Adobe Lightroom. Will be used for a bit of gaming and I will be adding my sons 'old' 1060 GPU will do me fine. I like plenty of storage and want it to remain punchy for a good few years, I am not averse to upgrading.
As I have done with my outgoing PC I will also add more RAM in due course but can't see needing more than 16GB initially..?

I have got pretty close to my budget but could add another £100 or so if anyone thought I was missing something obvious? Anything that you would tweak to to keep me happy for a long time ...

cheers!


Case
AVP MAMBA BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B450-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD. WILL BE A 3GB 1060. I am happy with this as it's being passed down to me lol
1st Storage Drive
NOT REQUIRED
2nd Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
3rd Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
USB 3.0 EXTERNAL SD/MICRO SD CARD READER
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD 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

 

[Scott]

Definitely the case. Focus G would be the low end recommendation

 

[skewball]

What do people thinking about upgrading the motherboard? Would having a PCIe 4.0 be really worth it in the future given the options I have already chosen for SSD, are there any other benefits of the next level up of AMD X570 motherboard? It is £90 extra which if it genuinely helped with future proofing I would do it, otherwise I might never actually bother getting the benefit from it..??

(I will look into that case, what would be the benefit?

 

[Scott]

What do people thinking about upgrading the motherboard? Would having a PCIe 4.0 be really worth it in the future given the options I have already chosen for SSD, are there any other benefits of the next level up of AMD X570 motherboard? It is £90 extra which if it genuinely helped with future proofing I would do it, otherwise I might never actually bother getting the benefit from it..??

(I will look into that case, what would be the benefit?

Case a mile before the motherboard. The case is what houses all the expensive parts you are purchasing. Airflow is the key to a good system, and obviously space. The Focus G has elite level airflow and features for the price of a budget case. It's the default starting point for anything even remotely gaming.

I don't think the X570 is worth it in your case. There are too many other items that would likely need upgraded in order to have the potential of the X570 worthwhile. Best to just leave it until the time comes and either upgrade en masse or sell/gift on and purchase a ground up replacement.

If you let me know maximum budget I can have a look through for a config that I think would suit best... there would be more than one change from your original choices though.

 

[Scott]

FYI, Focus G has gone out of stock due to popularity unfortunately.

 

[skewball]

Thanks so much for the reply. I will definitely upgrade the case.
Thanks for advice about the motherboard.
I think with a better case the above is about £850. A better screen will come later , probably a qhd for the photography. Gaming really is secondary. I do need 4TB ish of hdd. Maybe 3.

With regards overall budget I could probably go to £1,000 if it really added to its life or balanced things up.

Part of me thinks the best thing with computers is to just spend £500 every 2 or 3years rather than £1,000 every 5 or 6. Which is what i effectively have just come out of...

 

[Scott]

Thanks so much for the reply. I will definitely upgrade the case.
Thanks for advice about the motherboard.
I think with a better case the above is about £850. A better screen will come later , probably a qhd for the photography. Gaming really is secondary. I do need 4TB ish of hdd. Maybe 3.

With regards overall budget I could probably go to £1,000 if it really added to its life or balanced things up.

Part of me thinks the best thing with computers is to just spend £500 every 2 or 3years rather than £1,000 every 5 or 6. Which is what i effectively have just come out of...

The QHD would make a good difference for photo editing IMO. The 1060 is probably the bare minimum for doing anything meaningful though so I would maybe consider a GPU upgrade around the same time. I went with 3TB as that was the easiest way to get you around your budget without compromising anything else.

It's a great idea to spend a few £100 every few years like you say.... the important thing is to have a solid base to begin with, that way you can be confident this will be do-able.

If you're happy to max out your budget then the below would be about the best performance you can get. Coupled with the 1060 it would do well for 1080p but would definitely be more aimed at productivity.

The other option in my mind would be lowering the CPU to the 3600, removing the cooler and upgrading the motherboard and the M2 drive to the evo that you had. This would be a fair bit less productive but would increase the base thinking of the future. To have it all would be £1163.

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 220T RGB AIRFLOW MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B450-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid 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 [KUK-00001]
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
Firefox™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
TIMED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND - MON-FRI (BEFORE 2PM)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 13 to 15 working days
Price: £1,016.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/BUC9yYUcDQ/

 

[skewball]

Great, thanks for your recommendation and taking the time to do a spec. Lots of food for thought there. I will spend some time going over it.

 

[skewball]

Hi again

The icue case does not support a DVD writer, which I do need, what would be an ok alternative ? (ideally not much more money, if at all)

Thanks again!

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Hi again

The icue case does not support a DVD writer, which I do need, what would be an ok alternative ? (ideally not much more money, if at all)

Thanks again!

What do you need a dvd writer for?

 

[skewball]

What do you need a dvd writer for?

I'm old school
seems odd not having one!

But seriously, ripping CD's that I buy from specific bands that I want to support/Live CD's etc. to support/Live VD's etc. I also have a load of old bootlegs CDrs. (see, I am old ) I also do some backing up for my parents.

I suppose I could just get an external one as it looks like my options are limited these days

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

External one would be the way forward. There are only a couple of cases that support them these days, an external one works just the same, costs about the same and you don’t have to compromise on the case.

 

[skewball]

External one would be the way forward. There are only a couple of cases that support them these days, an external one works just the same, costs about the same and you don’t have to compromise on the case.

yeah, that seems to be the case. cheers

 

[skewball]

The QHD would make a good difference for photo editing IMO. The 1060 is probably the bare minimum for doing anything meaningful though so I would maybe consider a GPU upgrade around the same time. I went with 3TB as that was the easiest way to get you around your budget without compromising anything else.

It's a great idea to spend a few £100 every few years like you say.... the important thing is to have a solid base to begin with, that way you can be confident this will be do-able.

If you're happy to max out your budget then the below would be about the best performance you can get. Coupled with the 1060 it would do well for 1080p but would definitely be more aimed at productivity.

The other option in my mind would be lowering the CPU to the 3600, removing the cooler and upgrading the motherboard and the M2 drive to the evo that you had. This would be a fair bit less productive but would increase the base thinking of the future. To have it all would be £1163.

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 220T RGB AIRFLOW MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B450-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid 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 [KUK-00001]
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
Firefox™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
TIMED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND - MON-FRI (BEFORE 2PM)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 13 to 15 working days
Price: £1,016.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/BUC9yYUcDQ/

Hi again

Really like this spec. Have done a fair bit of research on a few things, both upgrades and downgrades and I keep coming back to the above, so thanks for that
So my only remaining doubt is whether I actually need the additional CPU cooler. The supplied 'Wraith' cooler gets some pretty good reviews and I will not be overclocking. I am also going with the case you have advised and I wont be doing heavy gaming sessions etc. So overall struggling to think that in my circumstances I will need it? Happy to do so but also happy to spend the money elsewhere
Thanks in advance and for you help so far

 

[Scott]

It's a worthwhile spend IMO. The Wraith cooler is good, no doubt, but an AIO will cool better and allow boost clocks to apply longer. Additionally, it will support airflow thanks to its external flow.

Cooling and airflow aren't areas you want to skimp in to be honest.

 

[skewball]

Bumping hoping for a bit of advice about the 3900 in the context of my build (Scott's recommendation above). Don't really want to add £85 at all but just want to cover all options.

Could drop the cooler on a 3900 if it's at a lower power rating??

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Bumping hoping for a bit of advice about the 3900 in the context of my build (Scott's recommendation above). Don't really want to add £85 at all but just want to cover all options.

Could drop the cooler on a 3900 if it's at a lower power rating??

I'm not gonna comment on this one as I'm not really sure about it. The 3900 is a very low power CPU based on it's core count, and in that respect it's quite a value proposition, but I'm not certain if it would require an upgrade to the X570 to cope with the increased VRM cooling capability that the B450 lacks. Remember, the B450 were released so host the 2000 chips, AMD allowed backwards compatibility with a BIOS update, but they're not designed to handle the increased power loads on the VRM, hence for the higher end chips to maintain stability and achieve stated clocks, you tend to need X570 which would mean it pushes the price up significantly.

 

[skewball]

I'm not gonna comment on this one as I'm not really sure about it. The 3900 is a very low power CPU based on it's core count, and in that respect it's quite a value proposition, but I'm not certain if it would require an upgrade to the X570 to cope with the increased VRM cooling capability that the B450 lacks. Remember, the B450 were released so host the 2000 chips, AMD allowed backwards compatibility with a BIOS update, but they're not designed to handle the increased power loads on the VRM, hence for the higher end chips to maintain stability and achieve stated clocks, you tend to need X570 which would mean it pushes the price up significantly.

cheers. Does this additional VRM requirement apply to all 3700x/3800x/3900x chips?

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

cheers. Does this additional VRM requirement apply to all 3700x/3800x/3900x chips?

I would say it’s only on the extra core counts from the 3900 up.

 

[Scott]

3900+ needs the X570 board IMO. Even the X470 with it's better VRMs (compared to the B450) isn't at a high enough level where I would be personally happy.

The 3900 running at full chat will put out more heat than a 3800X at full chat and need even better cooling, my guess is this makes it a non starter at any rate.

IMO there's nowhere to save money on this build without compromising its integrity. Lowering the CPU to the 3600 would be an option though as I would be happy using the stock cooler with that chip, even for most professional applications.