Classic "Idiot Needs Help" Thread

In a nutshell, I'm looking to spend around £1200 to £1500 for a machine that will:

1. Do the normal day-to-day stuff well and fast.

2. Play games to a reasonable (but not "super optimized") level.

3. Have bags of storage.

4. Be as small as possible (bearing in mind the above).

5. Have a DVD player/writer (why is that considered such an oddity these days???)

Thanks for any help.

5. Have a DVD player/writer (why is that considered such an oddity these days???)

Click to expand...

All modern games are downloaded, Windows installs faster off USB than DVD, and many people have digitised their media libraries.

I still have a DVD drive in my PC. But this so I can digitise my media collection.. and run a few older games that are on disc. Many people are fine using external drives, and not having to put 5.25" drive cages at the front of the case gives case-makers the option to do things like make the front all tempered glass, have more fans, support larger radiatiors without making the case ginormous, etc. I'm not saying that I'd necessarily buy a case with no DVD drive bay, just that I can see why it's gone out of fashion.

What monitor are you gaming on? resolution and refresh rate (if you don't know, the model number is usually on the back or underside)

If you need a monitor is that within the £1200-£1500 or do you have a separate monitor budget? if so, what is that?

I have a basic monitor which is all I need (I have no interest in 4k graphics and all that jazz). I take your point on the DVD player issue, but I haven't yet digitized my collection!!!! I'm an old fart that likes perusing his CD collection visually before making a choice as to what to play.

In an ideal world, I would prefer not to have to use some advanced cooling system for the CPU - that just makes fiddling about inside the case a real chore in my experience.

In any event, thanks for the reply.

Sorry to press, but what actually is your basic monitor? Some 1024×768 or 1366x768 thing? Or is it actually 1080p? It's hard to recommend a spec appropriate for playing games without knowing the resolution you game at, and if the monitor is below 1080p then it will make sense to factor in ~£120 of the budget for an upgrade because the higher resolution will help massively improve general productivity when using the PC as well as the gaming experience.

Your budget is actually a bit more than your requirements, at a glance at least.

Are you looking to spend the budget regardless, maximising what you can get for your cash or would you rather pocket the savings and just have a system that does what you request?

As above you could get everything you want and new monitor within that budget if you so choose.

My monitor is a BENQ GL2460-B (Manufacture date June 2013). It's the perfect size for my needs and I'd rather not get the sort of monstrosity that some people I know have on their desks!!!

I'm happy to spend the entire budget and if that means a bit of future-proofing, all the better. I've been advised that you can't go wrong in lashing out on the motherboard and cpu as other components can be upgraded in the future if necessary. Is that right?

Thanks again.

Not quite. It's worthwhile spending a good bit on the motherboard for some niceties but longevity isn't really something that's garnered from motherboards, or CPUs for that matter. A slight exception is with the Ryzen offerings, the next gen is said to be compatible with the current generation chipsets so that means you should have a good few upgrade options should you wish to go down that route further down the line.

Do you need a windows 10 license key or will you be transferring? If you are transferring it may be worthwhile going for the 850w PSU. It runs near silent for the day to day stuff. You said you wanted loads of storage but I wasn't sure quite how much. I've gone for 7TB over 3 drives as that should cover most bases I can think of.

Something around this would be good.....

Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 200R COMPACT GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.25GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
Tom Clancy's The Division 2 FREE w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs!
Motherboard
Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE: DDR4, USB 3.1 - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2933MHz ~ (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 580 - HDMI, 3 x DP - DX® 12 ()
Up to 2 Games FREE w/ select RADEON RX GPUs!
1st Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
2nd Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB WD Black™ M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3400MB/s R | 2800MB/s W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W 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
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 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 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,354.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-pc/X5mf6gaPPN/

The above spec is very solid.

You could trim down the storage and a few other features if you wanted to save some cash:

Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 200R COMPACT GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.25GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
---Tom Clancy's The Division 2 FREE w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs!
Motherboard
Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE: DDR4, USB 3.1 - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2933MHz ~ (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 580 - HDMI, 3 x DP - DX® 12 ()
---Up to 2 Games FREE w/ select RADEON RX GPUs!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Storage Drive
NOT REQUIRED
2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1[SUP]st[/SUP] M.2 SSD Drive
500GB WD Black™ M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3400MB/s R | 2500MB/s W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-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)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 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 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,095.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-pc/55PqYR!QQ4/

Oussebon said:

The above spec is very solid.

You could trim down the storage and a few other features if you wanted to save some cash:

Click to expand...

Storage was purely down to this..

3. Have bags of storage.

Click to expand...

I did query how much "bags of storage" was though

Thanks for the replies gentlemen. I noticed that one of you recommended a third party CPU cooler and the other did not. In an ideal world, I would prefer NOT to have to use one.

Is this a matter of keeping the machine quieter, or is it required for reliability?

I'll have to get a new Windows 10 licence.

Thanks again.

The noctua cooler is significantly quieter than the stock AMD one, and is more effective. It's also more expensive.

if you want as quiet a spec as possible get the Noctua cooler and Fractal Define S case

cycladianpirate said:

Thanks for the replies gentlemen. I noticed that one of you recommended a third party CPU cooler and the other did not. In an ideal world, I would prefer NOT to have to use one.

Is this a matter of keeping the machine quieter, or is it required for reliability?

I'll have to get a new Windows 10 licence.

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

The Noctua is as straight forward as the stock one. No footering required, it's just better and quieter. The stock one should handle your requirements admirably though if you don't fancy it.

Oussebon said:

The noctua cooler is significantly quieter than the stock AMD one, and is more effective. It's also more expensive.

if you want as quiet a spec as possible get the Noctua cooler and Fractal Define S case

Click to expand...

Wants an internal DVD player. I would have gone with the Define S too, thought the R6 was pushing the budget a little

Sorry for the delay - been away. I googled the Noctua cooler and it's HUGE!!! Is the AMD one that big as well? I thought it would be similar to the bog standard Intel job (as was) which had a tiny footprint compared to custom coolers.

My problem with these things is that, if you want to do anything like change the motherboard battery or add more ram, you have to disassemble the thing and if you're as cack-handed as I am, that's a nightmare!!!

I do have an external DVD player, so if insisting on an internal player is making the build sub-optimal, I could bite the bullet.

Thanks for you continued help, it's greatly appreciated.

cycladianpirate said:

Sorry for the delay - been away. I googled the Noctua cooler and it's HUGE!!! Is the AMD one that big as well? I thought it would be similar to the bog standard Intel job (as was) which had a tiny footprint compared to custom coolers.

My problem with these things is that, if you want to do anything like change the motherboard battery or add more ram, you have to disassemble the thing and if you're as cack-handed as I am, that's a nightmare!!!

I do have an external DVD player, so if insisting on an internal player is making the build sub-optimal, I could bite the bullet.

Thanks for you continued help, it's greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

Intel coolers are notoriously gash. This is partly down to their inadequate size.

I do understand your plight though. Would you not consider an AIO cooler such as the H100x? Really good coolers and they don't take up a lot of motherboard footprint. With a case such as the Define S there would be loads of room for the radiator.

Here is my build with a Define R6 (In a kind of Define S mode) with a larger H115 cooler in. You can see the amount of room there is to work around.

View attachment 12541

Thanks for the prompt reply Scotster. Could you resend the message though? I can only see "Attachment 12541" in lieu of your build.

cycladianpirate said:

Thanks for the prompt reply Scotster. Could you resend the message though? I can only see "Attachment 12541" in lieu of your build.

Click to expand...

Are you unable to click on it? It seems to work ok from my side?

It's from this thread... https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...-it-yourself-they-said-it-ll-be-fun-they-said

The_Scotster said:

Are you unable to click on it? It seems to work ok from my side?

It's from this thread... https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...-it-yourself-they-said-it-ll-be-fun-they-said

Click to expand...

FWIW the link works for me too.

My Bad!! I was expecting a new list of parts!! So I just swap the Noctua cooler for the H100x and change the case to a Define S, right?