Hi, looking for thoughts and checks on this build (£2000-£2500 gaming build)

A

AHA-Lambda

Member
Hi, looking for thoughts on this build.

Case
CORSAIR FRAME 4000D RS ARGB MODULAR - WHITE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.0GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
GIGABYTE X870E AORUS ELITE WIFI7 (AM5, DDR5, M.2 PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz CL40 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB SAPPHIRE PULSE RADEON™ RX 9070 XT GAMING - 2 x HDMI, 2 x DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe 4.0 & 5.0 NVMe (up to 7150MB/R, 6300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ ATX 3.1, MODULAR, CYBENETICS GOLD
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR ICUE LINK TITAN 360 RX RGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND APPLICATION
Extra Case Fans
5 x 120mm Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Case Fans
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
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
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Home Installation
Technician Assisted Installation & Set-Up
Delivery
TIMED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND - MON-FRI (BEFORE 2PM)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £2,355.00 including VAT and Delivery

PCSPECIALIST - Configure the AMD Am5 PC to your ideal requirements.

PCSpecialist is an award-winning manufacturer of high quality custom PCs & Laptops. Configure the AMD Am5 PC to your ideal requirements.
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk

I’m feeling:
- quite set about the GPU choice
- pretty good on the CPU, RAM, and storage capacity choices
- but a lot of the rest I’m kinda guessing/flexible on from PC Specialist’s options (especially feeling unsure about the mobo or cooling, and I’m open to increasing the ram to 64gb unless that is overkill?).

I don’t know much about PC building so appreciate the help, thanks!

(Not sure what to do with a monitor yet, I’ve got an old Dell 27” 1440p monitor that I expect I’ll replace later in the year)
 
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TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
I don't think you're far off for a good 1440p build, but if you could provide the config link it would help us to tweak it for you (without having to start from scratch). Probably gone a bit over-the-top with all those Toughfans as you have 3 on the case and 3 on the cooler already...so they'd have to remove some Corsair fans to put those Toughfans in (which would be a waste of money / downgrade).

BTW, what refresh rate is the old Dell monitor? If it's a business monitor at 60-70Hz then an upgrade really is necessary to take advantage of this build for gaming.
 
A

AHA-Lambda

Member
TonyCarter said:
I don't think you're far off for a good 1440p build, but if you could provide the config link it would help us to tweak it for you (without having to start from scratch). Probably gone a bit over-the-top with all those Toughfans as you have 3 on the case and 3 on the cooler already...so they'd have to remove some Corsair fans to put those Toughfans in (which would be a waste of money / downgrade).

BTW, what refresh rate is the old Dell monitor? If it's a business monitor at 60-70Hz then an upgrade really is necessary to take advantage of this build for gaming.
Click to expand...
Thank you, the link is below (i'll edit the OP to include it)

PCSPECIALIST - Configure the AMD Am5 PC to your ideal requirements.

PCSpecialist is an award-winning manufacturer of high quality custom PCs & Laptops. Configure the AMD Am5 PC to your ideal requirements.
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk

I didn't know that about the toughfans so I'm happy to remove them.

The monitor in question refresh rate is 60Hz, so yeah I'll need something.
What's a good 27" 1440p monitor in the £500 range?
 
T

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Are you looking specifically for a white build? If so, we can change to the Luna configurator, which has more white components (although smaller choice of components, and sometimes more expensive).
 
T

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Here's the tweaked white case with non-white components build. It's £70 more, but the CPU upgrade is about £100 in itself, plus you get an additional 2TB SSD for game installs.

Case
CORSAIR FRAME 4000D RS ARGB MODULAR - WHITE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core CPU (Up to 5.2GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5) - faster, newer, best gaming CPU at the moment
Motherboard
GIGABYTE B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI 7 (AM5, DDR5, M.2 PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7) - not a lot of difference between this and the X870E, but £100 cheaper
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz CL30 (2 x 16GB) - RGB RAM with tighter/faster timings
Graphics Card
16GB SAPPHIRE PULSE RADEON™ RX 9070 XT GAMING - 2 x HDMI, 2 x DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB CORSAIR ELITE MP600 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 7000 MB/R, 6200 MB/W) - faster, smaller primary drive for Windows, apps & games launchers only (to keep the games safe on a second drive in case of Windows issues/reinstalls)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB CORSAIR CORE XT MP600 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 5000 MB/R, 4400 MB/W) - secondary, larger drive for game installs
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ ATX 3.1, MODULAR, CYBENETICS GOLD
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR NAUTILUS 360 RS ARGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER - same fans as case, so will match perfectly
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
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
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Home Installation
Technician Assisted Installation & Set-Up
Delivery
TIMED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND - MON-FRI (BEFORE 2PM)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £2,421.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/ztFnFjRmWG/
 
T

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Here's the same tweaked build, but using the white/Luna configurator (£37 more than the black build above).

Case
CORSAIR FRAME 4000D RS ARGB MODULAR - WHITE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core CPU (Up to 5.2GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
GIGABYTE B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI 7 ICE (AM5, DDR5, M.2 PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7) - same motherboard, just in white
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz CL40 (2 x 16GB) KIT - WHITE - same RAM, just in white
Graphics Card
16GB SAPPHIRE PURE RADEON™ RX 9070 XT GAMING OC - 2 x HDMI, 2 x DP - same GPU, just in white
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB CORSAIR ELITE MP600 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 7000 MB/R, 6200 MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB CORSAIR CORE XT MP600 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 5000 MB/R, 4400 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ ATX 3.1, MODULAR, CYBENETICS GOLD
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR NAUTILUS 360 RS ARGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER - WHITE - same cooler, just in white
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
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
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)
Home Installation
Technician Assisted Installation & Set-Up
Delivery
TIMED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND - MON-FRI (BEFORE 2PM)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £2,458.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-white/sTJkPvDrFK/
 
A

AHA-Lambda

Member
Thank you everyone for the build and monitor recommendations. I’ll take a look through them in detail later when I can and come back on it.
TonyCarter said:
Are you looking specifically for a white build? If so, we can change to the Luna configurator, which has more white components (although smaller choice of components, and sometimes more expensive).
Click to expand...
I’m not looking for specifically a white build, I’m flexible on that but I think it would be nice
 
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T

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
AHA-Lambda said:
Sorry for the double post

As I say I know previous little about pc building, is the Arctic MX4 paste not worth it?
Click to expand...
Not if you're paying for a premium Corsair AIO cooler, as the pre-applied, machine-applied paste that comes on the cooler plate is better and more evenly applied (vs the randomness of human technician application).
 
T

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
If you build that exact spec on the config tool, you'll see that you're only saving about £40 for the pre-built option. £160 of the extra costs in the custom builds I built are in your delivery/installation/warranty selections (i.e. £10 / £84 / £69 respectively).

It seems good value at first glance, as it has the same CPU & RAM, and very similar motherboard spec, but the GPU costs £100 more for less than 5% improvement.

But when you look closer it's got a poorer spec / lower power PSU, weaker cooler, single 2TB SSD for everything (and a Samsung 990 model which is not well-regarded around here, and a single SSD leaves you running everything off a single drive) and doesn't even say what case it is.

Once you add the £50 for the better PSU, £50 for the better CPU, £25 for the better case, and £70 for the extra 1TB boot SSD, £160 of delivery/installation/warranty options you're at a very similar price point.

The problem with the case & cooler is that we have no idea what quality they are, as the manufacturer is not known. Which means customising/configuring or repairing them would be almost impossible - other than by sending the whole thing back to PCS for replacement/repair. At least with the Corsair cases/coolers you can add more fans, swap out fans, change from glass to mesh, etc. simply by buying the components at Scan, eBuyer, Overclockers, Corsair.com.

Here's the same pre-built option, but with your £160 of delivery/installation/warranty selections...
Case
PCS SPECTRUM II ARGB MID TOWER CASE (PWM)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core CPU (Up to 5.2GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B850-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, M.2 PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz CL30 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB ZOTAC GEFORCE RTX 5070 Ti SOLID SFF - HDMI, 3 x DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 990 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe 4.0 & 5.0 NVMe (up to 7250MB/R, 6300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMe SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 240 Series ARGB High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
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
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) [+£69]
Home Installation
Technician Assisted Installation & Set-Up [+£84]
Delivery
TIMED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND - MON-FRI (BEFORE 2PM) [+£10]
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £2,300.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/KCmC0uPEvM/

So, about £150 saving, but you've got very little headroom in the PSU, less/poorly-configured storage, poorer case & cooler.
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
It's definitely a good price, but I wouldn't go for it. The power supply is itself enough of a downgrade for me to recommend against it. Also, on a PC of this budget I'd want a cooler with better reliability than that one (it'd do a perfectly good job of cooling, but who knows how long it'll last...), and personally I wouldn't want to run on a single SSD. The GPU is much of a muchness as I understand it.

And that case really doesn't look great.

So if you want to save money, it's not an awful option, but I myself would recommend against it if you can build something better -- and the PC listed above would last you longer.
 
A

AHA-Lambda

Member
Ok thank you I’m going to stick with this one then

PCSPECIALIST - Configure the AMD Am5 PC to your ideal requirements.

PCSpecialist is an award-winning manufacturer of high quality custom PCs & Laptops. Configure the AMD Am5 PC to your ideal requirements.
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Some slight tweaks to the first recommendation provided (took off the 2nd SSD (I think 1TB will be enough) and the set up fee)

Also probably going for the AOC AG276QZD2 monitor
 
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T

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
With AAA games hitting over 100GB each, that 1TB drive will fill up very quickly...and that's before you take into account the SSD works fastest/most efficiently at <50% capacity (have a read of the 'Why more than one storage drive' sticky I below for more info.

Why more than one storage drive?

I've been meaning to put something like this together for a while. In recent weeks I've found myself writing this more and more so thought I would just post my thoughts in a thread that I could link to. So the reason for this thread is to try and give insight as to the reasoning behind having...
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk
 
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