Looking for a new Desktop

Z

Zelios

Active member
Hi

My old PC SPECIALIST PC has gone kapput (has been about 7 years) so was looking for a new PC.

I had a budget of around 1500 and was looking to get it through Currys, as I can save about 150 quid by getting it on the companys Techscheme. I did have a 180 GB SSD and 2 TB HDD with my old Fallout 4 game (game on the SSD, mods on the HDD) that I was hoping to add to it if possible.

Mainly play Fallout 4 with mods or Skyrim with mods, although might be tempted to try Cyberpunk once I can run it.

I was originally wanthing this but its out of stock so am now looking at a couple of PC SPECIALIST ones

Link removed as it was a competitor build but the info for it was :Intel® Core™ i7-10700 Processor
RAM: 16 GB / Storage: 1 TB HDD & 512 GB SSD
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8 GB

Is there much difference between these two? They seem the same but are 150 quid difference

Gaming PCs - Cheap gaming PC deals | Currys

Experience stunning graphics and lightning fast gameplay with a gaming PC from Currys. Check out the latest gaming heavyweights from Alienware and Acer today.
www.currys.co.uk www.currys.co.uk

www.currys.co.uk

PCSPECIALIST Tornado A5XT Gaming PC - AMD Ryzen 5, RX 6700 XT, 2 TB HDD & 512 GB SSD

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Processor; RAM: 16 GB / Storage: 2 TB HDD & 512 GB SSD; Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB; 289 FPS when playing Fortnite at 1080p
www.currys.co.uk www.currys.co.uk

Any advice appreciated
 
C

ColEyt

Gold Level Poster
Well from what I can see the Fnatic comes with the following :

Strix B550 Motherboard (Previous builds of the Tornado previously had the lowest mb possible (A320) so maybe they are now using the Prime 450, but am only guessing here)

Faster RAM (3200mhz compared to 3000mhz)

Corsair 550 txm PSU (no idea on the Tornado but guess it will be the even cheaper CV series)

The SSD suggest that its a Samsung 970 500GB (Tornado is PCS 512GB)

PCS Frostflow 120 Liquid Cooler (Tornado looks like a Frostflow 100 air cooler)

Standard 2.4Ghz wifi (Tornado is better with AX200 wifi6 with bluetooth)

It should be noted that when trying to build the same spec via the configurator, PCS recommend a PSU of at least 650 Watts, so with the 550txm, you are already 100w lower than what PCS recommend, and I would suspect the Tornado is not going to be any better


I would suggest that you would be better off putting your own spec together via the PCS configurator. It will be a little more expensive, but with the help of the fine folk on this forum, you will end up with a better balanced pc, that should last you a good number of years.

Just to give you an idea I put this together for you, its a similar build to the Fnatic, although have left out the 2tb hard drive, as you already have your own that you can use with the build, but with a better PSU, better liquid cooler and the same wifi and bluetooth as on the Tornado, and instead of having a SSD drive for the OS, I've gone with a 500gb Samsung NVMe drive which will be about 5-6 times faster than the SSD equivalent.

I've also made the assumption that you will be using a 1440p monitor, giving that you were previously thinking of getting a 3070 gpu, however, it would be great if you could confirm the monitor you intend to use, or at least the resolution and refresh rate, as that will help others refine my starting build to better suit your needs

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
12GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
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)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
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
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
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 16 to 19 working days
Price: £1,596.00 including VAT and Delivery

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


EDIT : Just realised that I have only put the standard AMD cooler in the build. The Coolermaster 240 Liquid Cooler would add another £48 to the price above
 
Last edited:
Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
ColEyt said:
Well from what I can see the Fnatic comes with the following :

Strix B550 Motherboard (Previous builds of the Tornado previously had the lowest mb possible (A320) so maybe they are now using the Prime 450, but am only guessing here)

Faster RAM (3200mhz compared to 3000mhz)

Corsair 550 txm PSU (no idea on the Tornado but guess it will be the even cheaper CV series)

The SSD suggest that its a Samsung 970 500GB (Tornado is PCS 512GB)

PCS Frostflow 120 Liquid Cooler (Tornado looks like a Frostflow 100 air cooler)

Standard 2.4Ghz wifi (Tornado is better with AX200 wifi6 with bluetooth)

It should be noted that when trying to build the same spec via the configurator, PCS recommend a PSU of at least 650 Watts, so with the 550txm, you are already 100w lower than what PCS recommend, and I would suspect the Tornado is not going to be any better


I would suggest that you would be better off putting your own spec together via the PCS configurator. It will be a little more expensive, but with the help of the fine folk on this forum, you will end up with a better balanced pc, that should last you a good number of years.

Just to give you an idea I put this together for you, its a similar build to the Fnatic, although have left out the 2tb hard drive, as you already have your own that you can use with the build, but with a better PSU, better liquid cooler and the same wifi and bluetooth as on the Tornado, and instead of having a SSD drive for the OS, I've gone with a 500gb Samsung NVMe drive which will be about 5-6 times faster than the SSD equivalent.

I've also made the assumption that you will be using a 1440p monitor, giving that you were previously thinking of getting a 3070 gpu, however, it would be great if you could confirm the monitor you intend to use, or at least the resolution and refresh rate, as that will help others refine my starting build to better suit your needs

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
12GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
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)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
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
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
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 16 to 19 working days
Price: £1,596.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/MJSdYXVxAe/
Click to expand...
if the budget would stretch another £22 over the price of this build, I think I'd put the 850W RMx in, instead of the 750W, but other than that, this should do nicely, way better than the offerings from curry's
 
Z

Zelios

Active member
Thanks for the info guys - I would have saved money doing it through Currys (I think about £180) but if it means a better PC I dont mind spending a bit extra. I think 9 years ago I gave myself a budget of 1000 and ended up spending 1500.

I've changed it to 850Hz and added the 240 Liquid Cooler, currently stands at £1,660.

Monitor:

Samsung LC27R500FHUXEN 27" Curved Monitor - FullHD, 3-sided bezel-less, Freesync, HDMI, VGA, Dark Blue Grey​


The original PC I was looking at had a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8 GB which I read good things about, how does the RX 6700 XT hold up against this?
 
Last edited:
C

ColEyt

Gold Level Poster
Amended build to include Coolermaster Cooler and upgrade PSu from 750 to 850

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
12GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ 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)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
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
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
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 16 to 19 working days
Price: £1,666.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/YSnpBwRC83/

I have the 6700 and it's fine for the games I play at 1440p, dont have experience of the 3070 to compare, although most say the 6700 fits between the 3060ti and the 3070.

One thing to note however, your monitor is only a 1080p, so you wouldnt get as much of a benefit from either a 6700 or 3070 as those cards are aimed at the 1440p market. A 3060ti would be more suited for your monitor and the price of the above system with the 3060ti would be £1561
 
Last edited:
Z

Zelios

Active member
Just looking at changing to 3060 TI and it has (Pre Order Only) after it - does that mean you have to wait at all? As I was thinking of paying the 30 quid for 5 days build time.
 
steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
You probably won't be able to use fast-track as the 3060 Ti is on backorder (hence the pre-order only) and you're in a queue for it.

You could give it a go, but it likely won't let you choose it.
 
Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
steaky360 said:
You probably won't be able to use fast-track as the 3060 Ti is on backorder (hence the pre-order only) and you're in a queue for it.

You could give it a go, but it likely won't let you choose it.
Click to expand...
And in the unlikely event that it does, you'd get a refund when your system doesn't arrive in 5 days
 
Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Zelios said:
Ive tried to go ahead with this, although it recommends that I only need 650W (calculates 432W with 20% allowance) - am thinking I might just go 750W Ultra Quiet to be on the safe side?

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

The only thing Ive changed is the case and the 5 day build time I believe
Click to expand...
Stick with the 850 W , the configurator looks at what you need now, we spec on what you may need when you upgrade things such as as GPU in a couple of years time or over the life of the PC
 
Z

Zelios

Active member
Hi All

So my new desktop arrived today - which was great and extremely quick.

However, adding my 2TB HDD seems a lot more complicated than I recall (not something ive done for over a decade or more).

I've found where they slot in after removing the opposite side panel - but I'm not sure how to get the power cable to the power unit (which seems closed off and impossible to get to).

Its a COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX K500 ARGB GAMING CASE if that helps
 

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Z

Zelios

Active member
Thanks thats helped - have managed to take the power unit out and plug the cable in. Just need to work out how to get into BIOS and get it to recognise the HDD now - tried del and F12 as its booting up - has that changed in the last 15 years? :)
 
BlessedSquirrel

BlessedSquirrel

We love you Ukraine
Zelios said:
Thanks thats helped - have managed to take the power unit out and plug the cable in. Just need to work out how to get into BIOS and get it to recognise the HDD now - tried del and F12 as its booting up - has that changed in the last 15 years? :)
Click to expand...
You don't need to access the BIOS at all to recognise a secondary drive. It will be automatically recognised.
 
BlessedSquirrel

BlessedSquirrel

We love you Ukraine
Zelios said:
Its from my old PC so still has some of my stuff on it - Game Mods etc
Click to expand...
In that case if it's correctly connected it will just show up in windows. You don't need to do anything to it.

You mentioned connecting up the PSU SATA Power, have you made sure the SATA Data cable is connected to the motherboard? Sorry if it sounds redundant.
 
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