Help I have no clue

[JoeKeenan265]

I am currently looking to buy a gaming pc, I want to future proof it as much as possible and have a pc that will run essentially any game at high fps

(Genuinely no clue if that isn’t really clear haha)

Monitor wise i am open to suggestions with roughly £500 budget I currently have two Samsung monitors the main one is 144hz but I would look to upgrade both of these

I will use this for high end gaming and daily use for long periods and would like to get into vr games

Budget wise I think this came out to around 4400ish, 4500 would probably be max before monitors and stuff

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 24-Core Processor i9-14900KS (Up to 6.2 GHz) 36MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG MAXIMUS Z790 DARK HERO (LGA1700, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7)
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
24GB ASUS TUF GEFORCE RTX 4090 OC EDITION OG - 2x HDMI, 3x DP
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W 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 XT RGB High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ASUS STRIX Soar 7.1 PCIe sound card
Network Card
ASUS XG-C100C V2 10 Gigabit PCI-E CARD (1 x RJ45)
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
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
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

 

[SpyderTracks]

Please read before posting:- Collaboration of Helpful Hints

NB: These forums are not an official support channel. None of us work for PCS, we're all either customers or techies who just like to help out where possible. For any official support, you need to contact PCS directly either through your PCS account, or via the contact details on the main...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[JoeKeenan265]

changed it slightly which hopefully gives enough info! obviously happy to save money where possible i dont know if i went too overkill. I would like it to run any game at 4k and VR games. some of the games i play currently are escape from tarkov and starfield and i would like to get into a game like star citizen. future proofing it is important my current PC i've had for about 6 years which is a 2070 thats starting to struggle

 

[SpyderTracks]

So Intel are now like AMD were in the Bulldozer days, they're the chips you want to avoid at any cost. The 14900KS is a joke of a chip anyway as can't be cooled so will always thermal throttle hence can never reach its supposed speeds anyway. It's the same for the 14900k. Basically Intel big no no for loads of reasons, not just performance

Intel CPU's crashing in games

So there's been a lot of upset gathering steam on the inter webs with intermittent games crashes on Intel 13th and 14th gen. Workarounds range from underclocking to disabling ecores. BUT, there are a lot of people finding that simply disabling hyperthreading is a proper solution. The findings...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

An AMD system will cost a lot less and perform a lot better, and.... you know, actually work.

What VR headset are you planning to buy?

I cut this down a lot, I get the impression you'd just chosen the most expensive components a lot of the time, that's not how computing works, the product needs to fit your use case, just because it's more expensive doesn't mean your usage would ever use that performance.

But if there are specific reasons you chose 64Gb RAM, 10Gb ethernet and a sound card, do let me know.

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.0GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X670E-A GAMING WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
24GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4090 - HDMI, DP
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W RMx SHIFT 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 LINK H150i RGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
4 x Corsair ICUE LINK QX120 RGB PWM Fan + Controller Kit
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe 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
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
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 4 to 6 working days
Price: £3,572.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/DqQB3JAysm/

 

[SpyderTracks]

For monitors, if you want real immersion, there's nothing like a Superwide, and at your budget, you'd be looking at a QD OLED which is the best panel technlogy currently available

This would be the ultimate superwide QD-OLED

49 Inch Odyssey OLED G9 Monitor for Gaming | Samsung UK

Buy the 49" Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 Curved Gaming Monitor LS49CG934SUXXU. Enjoy 0% Finance & Free Delivery at Samsung UK.

www.samsung.com

If you don't want something quite as wide, then a Ultrawide is a better fit, still QD-OLED

Alienware 34 Inch Curved QD-OLED Gaming Monitor (AW3423DWF) - Computer Monitors | Dell UK

Shop the Alienware 34 Inch Curved QD-OLED Gaming Monitor (AW3423DWF), featuring infinite contrast ratio & AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, or view all computer monitors at Dell.com.

www.dell.com

 

[JoeKeenan265]

What VR headset are you planning to buy?

I've not even looked that much into it just yet to be really honest. Been waiting for them to improve but from what i've seen they're starting to get pretty good so id want the PC to be able to run the higher end ones that are currently out.

I cut this down a lot, I get the impression you'd just chosen the most expensive components a lot of the time, that's not how computing works, the product needs to fit your use case, just because it's more expensive doesn't mean your usage would ever use that performance.

This is essentially exactly what i did to be fair, i want to be able to upgrade around it monitor wise and with VR and such so want room for it to last and play newer games at 4k with good fps. I usually play for a good few hours at a time so i was really unsure even when it comes to cases. If i can cut the price down a lot and still get great performance (probably still want to go a bit over the top to ensure it lasts a good few years before starting to drop off as my current one is doing.

But if there are specific reasons you chose 64Gb RAM, 10Gb ethernet and a sound card, do let me know.

i upgraded to 32Gb of RAM in my current PC as escape from Tarkov is pretty heavy on it so the 64gb was just to future proof, as was the ethernet but it's likely not going to go above 1Gb/s in the next few years anyway.. the sound card was purely just because i thought it'd be the best (in my limited understanding of cost = performance

 

[JoeKeenan265]

Is there much difference between the two graphics cards too? i searched both and there does seem to be minimal difference and the one you selected is slightly cheaper which is good

 

[SpyderTracks]

i upgraded to 32Gb of RAM in my current PC as escape from Tarkov is pretty heavy on it so the 64gb was just to future proof, as was the ethernet but it's likely not going to go above 1Gb/s in the next few years anyway.. the sound card was purely just because i thought it'd be the best (in my limited understanding of cost = performance

Common misconception with RAM. Adding more ram doesn’t improve performance one iota, all it does is MAINTAIN performance IF the program running can use it, otherwise it’s just never used.

The only time you really need to consider over 32Gb for gaming is serious SIMS like Flight Sim, but they're not really games at the end of the day.

Your LAN depends on your router and any switches in your house. But that’s only if you’re doing internal transfers. On most home PCs the limit is your internet line anyway.

That board has a 2.5gb Ethernet port anyway so it’s well fitureproofed.

External sound cards aren’t a thing anymore as on board is now often better anyway. The motherboard sound card is extremely high end 7.1 setup. It would be far better than any external "gaming" card

Is there much difference between the two graphics cards too? i searched both and there does seem to be minimal difference and the one you selected is slightly cheaper which is good

No, that's why I reduced it, again, spending loads of cash on an OC card actually will do ZERO for performance, the way modern GPU's work, they automatically overclock themselves and there's barely any headroom for anything more. The only time it makes a worthwhile difference is with huge render jobs that are ongoing for many days where saving an hour rendering can equal several hundred pounds, so it actually has a real world impact, but for gaming, literally no difference whatsoever.

 

[SpyderTracks]

This is essentially exactly what i did to be fair, i want to be able to upgrade around it monitor wise and with VR and such so want room for it to last and play newer games at 4k with good fps.

What kinds of games do you play? I have a 4k monitor and a superwide, and I never use my 4k since I've got the superwide.

4k isn't all it's cracked up to be to be honest, standard aspect ratio is a lot more limiting in gaming than 21:9. All the top tier monitors nowadays are ultra wides and superwides.

What resolution is your current monitor?

Also what speaker setup do you have to make use of a 7.1 system?

 

[JoeKeenan265]

Ahhh you’ve been an absolute life saver honestly! I’ve seen in a few other posts you’ve mentioned having to reinstall windows regularly, would I need anything specific for this?

What kinds of games do you play? I have a 4k monitor and a superwide, and I never use my 4k since I've got the superwide.

I think my only worry with a super wide is I’m 7ft tall and feel like it’d be weird to set up properly hahah

I play a lot of fps like eft overwatch and warzone and then a fair few other games. Looking at getting into star citizen which is what has me wanting to get a new pc as my old one is definitely starting to struggle - Starfield was like a PowerPoint when it first came out I had to use my Xbox

I don’t even have a speaker system just yet I just have no clue how much a 7.1 is so if I’d have needed more hahah

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ahhh you’ve been an absolute life saver honestly! I’ve seen in a few other posts you’ve mentioned having to reinstall windows regularly, would I need anything specific for this?

It’s just a standard windows clean install, there are loads of guides on the internet and on this forum

I think my only worry with a super wide is I’m 7ft tall and feel like it’d be weird to set up properly hahah

Not sure how that translates. Don’t think your height will make any difference if it’s a super wide or standard monitor, you’re mounting it at the same place on either.

I play a lot of fps like eft overwatch and warzone and then a fair few other games. Looking at getting into star citizen which is what has me wanting to get a new pc as my old one is definitely starting to struggle - Starfield was like a PowerPoint when it first came out I had to use my Xbox

Star citizen if definitely far more suited to wide aspect ratio, but overwatch and war zone may be better on a 32” 4k actually.

This is one of the brand new gen 3 QD-OLED 4k panels, it's considered the best so far, the benefit of these newer panels is that they have far better text clarity over the first gen panels, so are good for work as well.

ASUS ROG Swift PG32UCDM 32" 4K UHD 240Hz G-SYNC Compatible HDR OLED Gaming Monitor

Buy from Scan - ASUS ROG Swift Gaming Monitor, OLED, 3840x2160, HDR10, 0.03ms, 240Hz, G-SYNC Compatible, 450cd/m², HDMI/DP

www.scan.co.uk

I don’t even have a speaker system just yet I just have no clue how much a 7.1 is so if I’d have needed more hahah

So yeah, you'll want a decent speaker setup to make any use of the on board audio.

A lot of people have dedicated audio equipment like Dolby Atmos amps, if you were using anything like that, those connect via HDMI from the graphics card, and completely bypass the PC audio anyway, so the sound is processed by the amp rather than the PC. So you need to work out what you're wanting there.

Don't get bogged up in getting the most expensive of everything, that's not how PC's work, each tier component is fitted to a specific use case, and you have to tailor the system to your specific usage, otherwise you just end up spending loads of money on stuff that you're never going to use in your applications as they don't require it.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ahhh you’ve been an absolute life saver honestly! I’ve seen in a few other posts you’ve mentioned having to reinstall windows regularly, would I need anything specific for this?

It’s just a standard windows clean install, there are loads of guides on the internet and on this forum

I think my only worry with a super wide is I’m 7ft tall and feel like it’d be weird to set up properly hahah

Not sure how that translates. Don’t think your height will make any difference if it’s a super wide or standard monitor, you’re mounting it at the same place on either.

I play a lot of fps like eft overwatch and warzone and then a fair few other games. Looking at getting into star citizen which is what has me wanting to get a new pc as my old one is definitely starting to struggle - Starfield was like a PowerPoint when it first came out I had to use my Xbox

Star citizen if definitely far more suited to wide aspect ratio, but overwatch and war zone may be better on a 32” 4k actually.

This is one of the brand new gen 3 QD-OLED 4k panels, it's considered the best so far, the benefit of these newer panels is that they have far better text clarity over the first gen panels, so are good for work as well.

ASUS ROG Swift PG32UCDM 32" 4K UHD 240Hz G-SYNC Compatible HDR OLED Gaming Monitor

Buy from Scan - ASUS ROG Swift Gaming Monitor, OLED, 3840x2160, HDR10, 0.03ms, 240Hz, G-SYNC Compatible, 450cd/m², HDMI/DP

www.scan.co.uk

I don’t even have a speaker system just yet I just have no clue how much a 7.1 is so if I’d have needed more hahah

So yeah, you'll want a decent speaker setup to make any use of the on board audio.

A lot of people have dedicated audio equipment like Dolby Atmos amps, if you were using anything like that, those connect via HDMI from the graphics card, and completely bypass the PC audio anyway, so the sound is processed by the amp rather than the PC. So you need to work out what you're wanting there.

Don't get bogged up in getting the most expensive of everything, that's not how PC's work, each tier component is fitted to a specific use case, and you have to tailor the system to your specific usage, otherwise you just end up spending loads of money on stuff that you're never going to use in your applications as they don't require it.

 

[JoeKeenan265]

from everything I’ve searched the one you sent over seemed pretty spot on - I lowered it to a 1000w power supply as it said 850 would have been enough and it does make more sense to spend the extra on a monitor!

You’ve been a huge help I appreciate it!

 

[SpyderTracks]

from everything I’ve searched the one you sent over seemed pretty spot on - I lowered it to a 1000w power supply as it said 850 would have been enough and it does make more sense to spend the extra on a monitor!

You’ve been a huge help I appreciate it!

The 1200 is not so much about power rating, it’s that it’s the new ATX 3 standard which accounts for transient spikes in modern graphics cards. Ignore the warning, that’s merely letting you know the bare minimum you can get away with, but it doesn’t take into account a lot of factors. It's only relevant on really low end pc's that don't have GPU's in them really. Certainly not of any relevance for this system.

But basically modern gpu can draw spikes of double its TDP rating, which is 1200w for the 4090

It’s worth getting the 1200 for this calibre of system. The PSU wattage has no bearing on how much power the system uses, only the maximum cap it can draw up to

Even with that and the above monitor you’re still about £200 under budget

 

[JoeKeenan265]

Ahh okay I’ve put it back up, after reading the building guide on this forum and googling a bit more I’m half tempted to go for the 24GB AMD RADEON™ RX 7900 XTX - HDMI, DP - DX® 12 instead

Unless I’m going insane on graphics it seems like this might be the play and then upgrade it in a few years?

 

[JoeKeenan265]

Also which would be the better monitor?

This

Or this

 

[JoeKeenan265]

Sorry mate, just pinging this quickly for the last two questions! Really appreciate all your help it’s genuinely helped loads

 

[TonyCarter]

Ahh okay I’ve put it back up, after reading the building guide on this forum and googling a bit more I’m half tempted to go for the 24GB AMD RADEON™ RX 7900 XTX - HDMI, DP - DX® 12 instead

Unless I’m going insane on graphics it seems like this might be the play and then upgrade it in a few years?

If you're wanting to play with ray-tracing on and use VR, then Nvidia is the best way to go. If not the AMD is the better value for money.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ahh okay I’ve put it back up, after reading the building guide on this forum and googling a bit more I’m half tempted to go for the 24GB AMD RADEON™ RX 7900 XTX - HDMI, DP - DX® 12 instead

You stated you were interested in VR which is why the 4090 was suggested. AMD don't do VR very well. The 7900XTX is also quite a big step down from the 4090 power wise. What was the reason you made the change?

Also which would be the better monitor?

The MSI is the newer panel type which does improve text rendering which can be a bit blurry on first gen panels that the Alienware is.

The Alienware is better for gaming only, the MSI is more of an all rounder. But they are both excellent. The MSI does pack in extra features like an in built KVM (keyboard, video and Mouse switch) so that you can plug in multiple computers into different inputs on the monitor, but control them all from the same keyboard and mouse. These monitors can support picture in picture or picture by picture, so you can plug in say your laptop plus the PC and have custom sized windows say for the laptop in a top corner displaying something from that if you needed.

The MSI being the newer gen 3 panel as well has better burn in protection.

If it were me, I'd choose the MSI personally.

 

[TonyCarter]

Also which would be the better monitor?

This

Or this

I believe the Alienware uses Gen 1 QD OLED, and the MSI uses Gen 3 QD OLED.

Gen 3 is better overall as it's less susceptible to burn-in and has less fringing on text.