A PC Build?

[Brew]

Hi All,

I am sure you are all bored of people requesting advice for a Gaming PC however I am truly stuck to what I actually need to run a game efficiently. To start it off, I am looking to play games like Call of Duty, Planet Zoo and other high resolution games and I want to hopefully run it above 60fps on a high setting. I have a budget of just north of £1500 (hopefully, willing to go over if necessary) Per trend nowadays, I am hoping to get some nice lighting going on inside of the case etc.

Can anyone recommend a rough guide of what I would need? i.e. GPU,CPU,AMD? Intel?

 

[SpyderTracks]

We can advise on a build from PCSpecialist which comes fully built and ready.

Do you need windows?
What monitor do you have, what resolution and refresh or make and model if you’re unsure?

 

[Scott]

Great budget! As above, it hinges on resolution and if you require a monitor. You will absolutely smash 1440p with that budget, 4k might be a bit of a stretch though, especially if a monitor and peripherals are required.

 

[Brew]

We can advise on a build from PCSpecialist which comes fully built and ready.

Do you need windows?
What monitor do you have, what resolution and refresh or make and model if you’re unsure?

Yeah, that would be good. It's just trying to get an idea of roughly what I will need to put in to it when I configure it, there is plenty of options but I am unsure of what compliments what and what is just overkill?

I like RGB lit, but when it comes to CPU I'm not sure will be able to handle multiple programmes and gaming etc. I think I'd like to have an RTX 2060? But I'd like to get opinions.

In terms of monitor, I'm looking to buy a new one along with my new PC but currently using a HP Pavillion 23xi.
(I wont include the monitor in the budget, so I'm hoping 1500 should get a good gaming pc)

Tia

 

[Brew]

Great budget! As above, it hinges on resolution and if you require a monitor. You will absolutely smash 1440p with that budget, 4k might be a bit of a stretch though, especially if a monitor and peripherals are required.

I've currently got a monitor and all the kit, I will be changing the monitor soon 🙂

 

[Scott]

As requested.... What spec of monitor are you looking at? What resolution and frame rate are you aiming for?

It all hinges on what you are looking for

 

[Brew]

As requested.... What spec of monitor are you looking at? What resolution and frame rate are you aiming for?

It all hinges on what you are looking for

Ideally, I’ll be aiming for 1440p. In terms of frame rate I’d like it to be above 60 minimum.

I’ve drafted a few examples on the pc configuration. If you’ve got any advice you could give I’d appreciate that.

AMD
Case

NZXT H500 MID-TOWER GAMING CASE (WHITE)

Processor (CPU)

AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)



Get 3 Months of XBOX Game Pass for PC w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs



The Outer Worlds -AND- Borderlands 3 w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs

Motherboard

ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - RGB Ready!

Memory (RAM)

32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 8GB)

Graphics Card

8GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - 2 x HDMI, 2 x DP



Get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!

1st Storage Drive

480GB ADATA SU630 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/W)

2nd Storage Drive

2TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE

1st M.2 SSD Drive

128GB ADATA SU800 M.2 2280 (560 MB/R, 300 MB/W)

Intel Optane Memory

16GB INTEL® OPTANE MEMORY (X299) - USE WITH MECHANICAL HDD

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive

NOT REQUIRED

Power Supply

CORSAIR 650W VS SERIES™ VS-650 POWER SUPPLY

Power Cable

1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)

Processor Cooling

CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler

Thermal Paste

COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND

LED Lighting

50cm White LED Strip

Extra Case Fans

3x Corsair LL120 RGB LED Fan + Controller Kit

Sound Card

Asus Xonar SE 5.1-Channel Gaming Audio Card

Wireless/Wired Networking

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



~~~~~~~~~~~~



Intel



Case

NZXT H500 MID-TOWER GAMING CASE (WHITE)

Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor i7-7800X (3.5GHz) 8.25MB Cache (Special Offer)

Motherboard

ASUS® ROG STRIX X299-E GAMING: ATX, USB 3.1, SATA 6 GB/s, WIFI - RGB Ready

Memory (RAM)

32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 8GB)

Graphics Card

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



Get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!

1st Storage Drive

480GB ADATA SU630 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/W)

2nd Storage Drive

2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE

1st M.2 SSD Drive

128GB ADATA SU800 M.2 2280 (560 MB/R, 300 MB/W)

Intel Optane Memory

16GB INTEL® OPTANE MEMORY (X299) - USE WITH MECHANICAL HDD

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive

NOT REQUIRED

Power Supply

CORSAIR 650W VS SERIES™ VS-650 POWER SUPPLY

Power Cable

1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)

Processor Cooling

PCS FrostFlow 120 Series RGB High Performance Liquid Cooler

Thermal Paste

COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND

LED Lighting

50cm RGB LED Strip

Extra Case Fans

3x Corsair LL120 RGB LED Fan + Controller Kit

Sound Card

Asus Xonar SE 5.1-Channel Gaming Audio Card

Wireless/Wired Networking

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 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

 

[Oussebon]

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor i7-7800X (3.5GHz) 8.25MB Cache (Special Offer)

Don't use any of the CPUs from that configurator. It's the "Intel Extreme X299" configurator, which in real terms means "not for gaming or regular consumers". Many of the CPUs are badly obsolete versus newer options.

For intel options, use the ones labelled Z390 or maybe Z370 configurators.

For any gaming system, 32gb RAM is a waste. Games won't care a jot if you have 16gb or 32gb. It's not even futureproof as by the time a future PC game might care, the rest of your system will be obsolete and a bottleneck anyway.

Don't bother with a sound card. Modern onboard audio is pretty good. And if it's not good enough for you, a random gamer-oriented soundcard probably won't cut it either.

Don't bother with the ironwolf drives. Huge price premium, not worth it, spend more on a larger and somewhat faster SSD.

Don't bother (in most cases) with the Strix GPUs as they have a stonking price premium for basically no performance benefit.

Also... Intel Optane in an AMD system !?! Copy paste error there?

To post specs, you should configure your prospective spec, click "proceed" and then on the next page there is an option to Post to Forum below the spec. This also makes it more legible as well as easier for you to post.

I put your AMD spec into the configurator - minus the optane, natch! - and it came to £2042. Which is quite a way off the ~£1500 mentioned above I think.

So I think we need to nail down the budget before suggesting specs.

What's the target budget / budget range if flexible for the PC, and for the new monitor?

 

[Brew]

Don't use any of the CPUs from that configurator. It's the "Intel Extreme X299" configurator, which in real terms means "not for gaming or regular consumers". Many of the CPUs are badly obsolete versus newer options.

For intel options, use the ones labelled Z390 or maybe Z370 configurators.

For any gaming system, 32gb RAM is a waste. Games won't care a jot if you have 16gb or 32gb. It's not even futureproof as by the time a future PC game might care, the rest of your system will be obsolete and a bottleneck anyway.

Don't bother with a sound card. Modern onboard audio is pretty good. And if it's not good enough for you, a random gamer-oriented soundcard probably won't cut it either.

Don't bother with the ironwolf drives. Huge price premium, not worth it, spend more on a larger and somewhat faster SSD.

Don't bother (in most cases) with the Strix GPUs as they have a stonking price premium for basically no performance benefit.

Also... Intel Optane in an AMD system !?! Copy paste error there?

To post specs, you should configure your prospective spec, click "proceed" and then on the next page there is an option to Post to Forum below the spec. This also makes it more legible as well as easier for you to post.

I put your AMD spec into the configurator - minus the optane, natch! - and it came to £2042. Which is quite a way off the ~£1500 mentioned above I think.

So I think we need to nail down the budget before suggesting specs.

What's the target budget / budget range if flexible for the PC, and for the new monitor?

That's really helpful thank you🙌

I was hoping to keep it within a 1500 budget but that's why I thought I'd approach here first, as I am unsure on a lot of components. You may be able to recommend cheaper alternatives i.e. the ram, I didnt know that! however, I'd rather spend the extra and get a better more future proof system if it means I can get better performance. My maximum would definitely be in the region of 2100.

So any advice or a rough build of what to look for is appreciated 😁

The new monitor I will probably purchase after the PC. As I am not sure what I am going to. So that's not considered in to the 1500-2100 budget.

 

[Oussebon]

The PC needs to match the monitor.

If you drop £2100 on a PC now and only have the budget for (say) a £400 monitor, in 6 months time, that's a lot of wasted money. Because the spec will be overkill for the monitor, and by the time you buy it the GPU might have already been superseded by something newer/faster/cheaper etc.

I'd actually suggest looking at this 'deal' that PCS are doing:

MAGMA RTX SUPER

Case
PCS SR-819 RGB FULL TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)

Get 3 Months of XBOX Game Pass for PC w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs

The Outer Worlds -AND- Borderlands 3 w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!

Get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 760p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 3230MB/sR | 1625MB/sW)
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
Corsair H100x Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
2x 50cm RGB LED Strip
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
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 10 to 12 working days
Price: £1,599.00 including VAT and Delivery

PCSPECIALIST - Custom Computers and Laptops Built to Order

PCSpecialist is a manufacturer of high quality custom computers and laptops. Configure your ideal computer in just a few simple steps with a broad range available.

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

It's a fixed spec, but it carries a big discount (it would be £1760ish manually configured), so you're getting more hardware for your money. And it's also a pretty well balanced spec.

And it costs £1600, which means that if your top, top budget was ~£2100, you already have £500 for a very nice 1440p 144hz monitor to buy in the immediate future and pair up nicely with your system. Without having overspent or underspent on anything.

I'm not just suggesting that because it's a special offer - my core suggestion would be, if you have a £1500-£2100ish budget, to buy a very good £1500-ish PC and a great £400-600ish monitor.

You should aim to upgrade monitors probably even less often than you would buying a new PC. Certainly much less often than buying a new GPU.

 

[Brew]

The PC needs to match the monitor.

If you drop £2100 on a PC now and only have the budget for (say) a £400 monitor, in 6 months time, that's a lot of wasted money. Because the spec will be overkill for the monitor, and by the time you buy it the GPU might have already been superseded by something newer/faster/cheaper etc.

I'd actually suggest looking at this 'deal' that PCS are doing:

MAGMA RTX SUPER

Case
PCS SR-819 RGB FULL TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)

Get 3 Months of XBOX Game Pass for PC w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs

The Outer Worlds -AND- Borderlands 3 w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!

Get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 760p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 3230MB/sR | 1625MB/sW)
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
Corsair H100x Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
2x 50cm RGB LED Strip
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
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 10 to 12 working days
Price: £1,599.00 including VAT and Delivery

PCSPECIALIST - Custom Computers and Laptops Built to Order

PCSpecialist is a manufacturer of high quality custom computers and laptops. Configure your ideal computer in just a few simple steps with a broad range available.

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

It's a fixed spec, but it carries a big discount (it would be £1760ish manually configured), so you're getting more hardware for your money. And it's also a pretty well balanced spec.

And it costs £1600, which means that if your top, top budget was ~£2100, you already have £500 for a very nice 1440p 144hz monitor to buy in the immediate future and pair up nicely with your system. Without having overspent or underspent on anything.

I'm not just suggesting that because it's a special offer - my core suggestion would be, if you have a £1500-£2100ish budget, to buy a very good £1500-ish PC and a great £400-600ish monitor.

You should aim to upgrade monitors probably even less often than you would buying a new PC. Certainly much less often than buying a new GPU.

Thank you,

In terms of performance, you think it'll perform and handle the new call of duty etc ?

 

[Oussebon]

Definitely.

A 2070 Super will do fine, yeah.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare PC Performance Review and Optimisation Guide - OC3D

Introduction – Preparing for the calls of next-gen The pst two iterations of Call of Duty have been doing a lot of exciting things on the hardware side. Black Ops 4 focused on delivering a “Battle Royale” experience through the game’s Blackout mode, which targeted the development team’s...

www.overclock3d.net

And the article also talks CPU performance - a 3rd gen Ryzen CPU will do great. It's not a very CPU hungry title tbh.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare Benchmark Test, RTX & Performance Analysis

Modern Warfare is the latest iteration in the Call of Duty series. It pairs amazing graphics with captivating gameplay and has NVIDIA RTX support from day one. We take a closer look at performance, comparing 23 graphics cards at three resolutions. In a separate section, we compare RTX on vs. off...

www.techpowerup.com

So exact framerates - as you would expect, especially in multiplayer games - depend where you bench. But a 2070 Super takes the new COD in its stride at very high settings at 1440p.

It's an extremely powerful GPU and well suited to 1440p gaming at very high-ultra.

 

[Brew]

Definitely.

A 2070 Super will do fine, yeah.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare PC Performance Review and Optimisation Guide - OC3D

Introduction – Preparing for the calls of next-gen The pst two iterations of Call of Duty have been doing a lot of exciting things on the hardware side. Black Ops 4 focused on delivering a “Battle Royale” experience through the game’s Blackout mode, which targeted the development team’s...

www.overclock3d.net

And the article also talks CPU performance - a 3rd gen Ryzen CPU will do great. It's not a very CPU hungry title tbh.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare Benchmark Test, RTX & Performance Analysis

Modern Warfare is the latest iteration in the Call of Duty series. It pairs amazing graphics with captivating gameplay and has NVIDIA RTX support from day one. We take a closer look at performance, comparing 23 graphics cards at three resolutions. In a separate section, we compare RTX on vs. off...

www.techpowerup.com

So exact framerates - as you would expect, especially in multiplayer games - depend where you bench. But a 2070 Super takes the new COD in its stride at very high settings at 1440p.

It's an extremely powerful GPU and well suited to 1440p gaming at very high-ultra.

Thank you for all your help 😁

 

[samwil]

Thank you,

In terms of performance, you think it'll perform and handle the new call of duty etc ?

A 70 super with a Ryzen 7 will see you playing on high/max settings with plenty of frames, you should have no issues as I believe modern warfare is fairly well optimised and performs well. Expect 60+ consistent frames with RTX On and 100+ frames with RTX off,

It's about the perfect price to performance GPU for RTX and 1440p 144hz gaming atm