Help with gaming PC specs

Hey there,

I'm considering buying my first gaming PC and was curious about advice on the specs I have listed below. I'm looking to play most AAA games at high quality and around 60fps, 60fps preferable over the other if both not possible. Thanks for any help.

Max Budget: Around £1000

Case
PCS 6003B BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six Core CPU (3.4GHz-3.9GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME A320M-K: Micro-ATX, AM4, USB 3.0, 6GB/s
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 580 - HDMI, 3 x DP - DX® 12 ()
1st Storage Drive
120GB WD Green™ 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 545MB/sR)
2nd Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212X (120mm) Fan 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
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

What monitor are you gaming on?

The spec is let down a little by the low end case which will likely restrict future upgrade options (Corsair Spec 04 or Fractal Focus G would be better)

It's also let down by slow RAM. Ryzen CPUs can benefit a lot from faster RAM, and some titles love faster RAM regardless of Intel/AMD CPUs. RAM is expensive right now so spending a huge amount on 16gb RAM and not making it 2933MHz is a bit of a waste.

I'd strongly recommend the B450 motherboard as it has more options for upgrades, and opens overclocking as a possibility down the line / for future CPUs you may want to upgrade to.

To help afford the above you could switch the CPU cooler to the std AMD one, and drop the SSD. That SSD is small and slow and you'd probably be better off waiting until you can get a larger one as an upgrade down the line anyway. And it's less wasteful to just add an SSD than to find yourself replacing a component.

Oussebon said:

What monitor are you gaming on?

The spec is let down a little by the low end case which will likely restrict future upgrade options (Corsair Spec 04 or Fractal Focus G would be better)

It's also let down by slow RAM. Ryzen CPUs can benefit a lot from faster RAM, and some titles love faster RAM regardless of Intel/AMD CPUs. RAM is expensive right now so spending a huge amount on 16gb RAM and not making it 2933MHz is a bit of a waste.

I'd strongly recommend the B450 motherboard as it has more options for upgrades, and opens overclocking as a possibility down the line / for future CPUs you may want to upgrade to.

To help afford the above you could switch the CPU cooler to the std AMD one, and drop the SSD. That SSD is small and slow and you'd probably be better off waiting until you can get a larger one as an upgrade down the line anyway. And it's less wasteful to just add an SSD than to find yourself replacing a component.

Click to expand...

Currently deciding what monitor I can work in, but likely going to stretch to a 144hz monitor if it'd be worth it? I've added in everything you've said - but curious as to whether the 250gb 860 EVO would be a good alternative for SSD or no? How does it compare to the seagate barracuda also?

What's the budget for the monitor?

850 Evo will be faster than the Seagate. I wouldn't buy a Seagate SSD but if every penny counts then it's still faster than an HDD.

Oussebon said:

What's the budget for the monitor?

850 Evo will be faster than the Seagate. I wouldn't buy a Seagate SSD but if every penny counts then it's still faster than an HDD.

Click to expand...

Probably don't want to go any higher than £200 on a monitor.

That would let you go for a 1080p 144hz monitor with freesync, which would go well with the RX 580. There are some new ones by Acer that are VA panels with freesync and 144hz that you can get for ~£150 on sale, which is lower than the ~£200 odd for the regular TN crowd. Although I'm not sure if they're any good, so read reviews first. But at least you have options.

Oussebon said:

That would let you go for a 1080p 144hz monitor with freesync, which would go well with the RX 580. There are some new ones by Acer that are VA panels with freesync and 144hz that you can get for ~£150 on sale, which is lower than the ~£200 odd for the regular TN crowd. Although I'm not sure if they're any good, so read reviews first. But at least you have options.

Click to expand...

Great, thanks.

Thanks for all your help.

No worries, glad it helped

Btw I only noticed this evening that the WD Black M.2 NVMe SSD is £6 more only than the 860 Evo. if you're going with the 860 Evo, you might as well go with the WD Black. Although if you're sticking with the Seagate to save cash, the 500gb Seagate is literally only £7 more than the 250gb 860 Evo. It's not an amazing SSD, but you can't fault it for GB per £ and it's still way faster than an HDD.