Your thoughts, please!

Hi,

My current PC is 5 years old and now struggles to play the latest games on decent graphics, so I'm looking to invest in a PC which will last me a good few years, is able to handle multiple tasks and be able to play the latest games on high settings without any problems at all.

I'd be grateful for your thoughts on the below build!

Case
THERMALTAKE V200 TEMPERED GLASS RGB EDITION GAMING CASE

Processor
(CPU) Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor i7-9700K (3.6GHz) 12MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING II: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready

Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (2 x 16GB)

Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!

1st Storage Drive
500GB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 16MB CACHE

2nd Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB 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
INTEL STANDARD 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
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

Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]

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® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)

Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode

Browser
Google Chrome™

Cost: £1,550

I'm not the hardware expert on here by a long way, but 32GB RAM is well overkill for a gaming PC. Even if you're futureproofing you're never likely to need all that (expensive) RAM. I would suggest 16GB RAM will be plenty.

With what you save on the RAM see whether you can afford an SSD instead of the 500GB HDD, you might be able to get away with a 250GB SSD. If you can stretch to an M.2 NVMe SSD you will notice the impressive speed improvement.

The stock CPU cooler is (apparently) noisy and not that efficient, so a better cooler would be a wise investment.

Get the silver warranty, it's too cheap not to!

Others more experienced than I will have other comments I'm sure.

As above, the build isn't very well balanced, overspending in some areas and letting itself down with poor hardware in others. Although that's not bad news as it means you can get an even better build for the same or less cash potentially

What's the budget?

What monitor are you gaming on?

If you are also looking at a monitor upgrade, what's your rough budget for that?

Thanks both! My budget is around £1,500.

My monitor is a Acer G276HLI 27 inch Wide, Full HD Gaming TN LED Monitor with 1 ms, DVI, HDMI EcoDisplay I could upgrade, budget would be £250-£350 if I was going to.

What should I change with my build to make it more balanced?

If I add/amend:

Memory (RAM): 16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (4 X 4GB)

1st Storage Drive: 1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE

2nd Storage Drive: 500GB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 2.5" SSD, (upto 560MB/sR | 535MB/sW)

1st M.2 SSD Drive: 256GB Intel 760P M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 3210MB/sR | 1315MB/sW)

Processor Cooling: CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 120 High Performance Liquid Cooler

Does that make it a bit more rounded / sensible?

You have several options.

The one I'd recommend would be to go with an AMD R5 system. This is cheaper while offering competitive performance versus Intel options, and the cash saving would let you get a tier up on the monitor you could afford with the £250-£350 budget.

I.e. you'd be able to easily afford something with 1440p, 144hz, and gsync.

With regards to the storage, I wouldn't recommend a 256gb SSD and a 500gb SSD. It's just faff to manage multiple drives. If you want loads and loads of SSD storage, just buy a 1TB SSD. Or stick to a single 500gb SSD, which is a pretty good size to start you off.

Fast RAM is preferable as it can help a lot in some games

I'd suggest a better case as the V200 looks like it might be a little restricted in airflow at the front. The Corsair 460X is a very good case, packing very decent preinstalled RGB fans and offering tempered glass.

Ideally a TXm PSU as they're modular, better quality, and more efficient.

e.g.

Case
CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 460X RGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.25GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE: DDR4, USB 3.1 - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2933MHz ~ (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
--Get Battlefield V -OR- Anthem with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Storage Drive
1TB WD Blue™ 3D NAND 2.5" SSD, (upto 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
2[SUP]nd[/SUP] 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 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
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
Operating System
Genuine 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® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month 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 £1,418.00 including VAT and Delivery

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

And a 1440p 144hz monitor e.g. Dell S2716DG for ~£450 or so. it will be a crazy upgrade over your old monitor.

While it's true that Intel CPUs technically offer more gaming performance, at 1440p resolution you'll see relatively little difference, a few % in most cases. Whereas you'll see a massive difference from having a high refresh gsync monitor. The AM4 motherboard will also support future gens of AMD CPU, while Intel's Z370 offerings aren't expected to.

NB this has a stock AMD CPU cooler, but you can actually get away with those plausibly, unlike the Intel ones which are just a bit too noisy and ineffective to really be viable.