Advice please!

[Dmaster]

Hi, I bought my last machine from here with the advice of the forum and would like to go down the same pathway for a new build. Hopefully all the info required is here:

Monitor - ROG Strix XG438Q is my current primary monitor, I run two other 4k monitors at 60fps mainly for other windows/videos etc while gaming.
Uses - Gaming, with some VR using a quest 2 linked via virtual desktop or the airlink. I have ambitions to try streaming in the nearish future.
Budget - £4k is roughly the max I would like it to be but obviously the lesser the better.

Of note - I am aware that the monitor cannot get all of the 3080 (or better's) performance, but I do want the added power now and really its the main cause for me wanting to refresh from the machine I have now. Furthermore - it looks like they are becoming far more available now as I feel my current build is feeling its age a little, and as I have some budget, I have had my eye on the 3080. In the nearish future I am looking at redoing a study to house the machine and cannot say if a new monitor may follow then which would make better use of the graphics card. I did look at the 4070 ti and the difference in price was acceptable but a cursory check seemed to indicate that it doesn't work the best with the i9 processor.

Everything else is looking to either match or better what I already have. That said there is very likely other places where I have picked what I roughly think is the best option rather than most sensible.

Case
PCS PRISM TG WHITE ARGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 18 Core Processor i9-10980XE (3.0GHz) 24.75MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X299-E GAMING II: ATX, USB 3.2, SATA 6 GB/s, Wi-Fi AC - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
128GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (8 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 - HDMI, DP, LHR
Graphics Card Support Bracket
PCS ARGB GRAPHICS CARD SUPPORT BRACKET
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
2TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
8TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H150i ELITE LCD XT RGB CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Asus Xonar AE 7.1-Channel Gaming Audio Card
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 12 to 15 working days
Price: £3,937.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-x299-pc/82Q36BEvu8/

Any and all advice is appreciated, if I have neglected any pertinent information please let me know and accept my apologies.

 

[Martinr36]

The CPU is 3 generations old & what do you intend to do with 128GB of RAM

 

[sck451]

I'm looking at that system that @CountingDown posted. It's an interesting system, not really an ideal gaming system and now 6 years old. I agree that it would be perfectly reasonable to get a new graphics card and the system would support it. On the other hand, it is now six years old and there could be an argument for moving it on while it still has some second-hand value... I also have precisely no idea how the 7980XE performs in modern gaming (it's not even really intended as a gaming CPU...).

If you did want an upgrade, don't go with the same dead X299 platform. You want either a modern AMD or a modern Intel system. I would go with AMD in the next couple of weeks when the new v-cache X3D chips come out. Here's the basic build I'd go for if you were convinced you needed a new PC, sufficiently under your budget that you could get the world's best gaming monitor to go with it and still be under the £4k budget:

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE Much superior case
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12 Core CPU (4.7GHz-5.6GHz/76MB CACHE/AM5) But wait for the 7900X3D to come out at the end of the month
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, PCIe 5.0) - RGB Ready! Plenty of motherboard for what you need
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB) A completely adequate quantity of RAM for gaming
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4070 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR A very strong graphics card, better than the 3080 for a little more in price
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W) Fast boot drive
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW) For game storage (no idea why you'd need 8TB of storage, but you could add it I guess or transfer some of those old hard drives over)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W HX SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler Plenty good enough cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD) You don't need a discrete sound card (and if you do, you want a USB DAC not a PCIe card)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 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
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 12 to 15 working days
Price: £2,738.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/Z4eAXmNqMF/

But I'm far from convinced that this is actually a good way to spend your money; I'd certainly be looking to upgrade unless there were compelling reasons that the old system was insufficient.

 

[Scott]

I'm really confused. You state that you purchased that system after advice on the forum. I had a quick check as I would have been flabbergasted if we had recommended such a system on here.

It was recommended that you purchased a system more in line with a gaming rig. Is it possible that you've copied over the wrong spec, as you appeared to follow the advise?

Gaming PC Spec Advice request

Hi All Looking for an opinion on a gaming pc I'm looking to get. As some background - I've got quite a decent budget but obviously don't wan't to spend pointlessly. I have tried to give it some decent thought but confess I am no expert in hardware, and sometimes get carried away with the idea...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[Dmaster]

I'm really confused. You state that you purchased that system after advice on the forum. I had a quick check as I would have been flabbergasted if we had recommended such a system on here.

It was recommended that you purchased a system more in line with a gaming rig. Is it possible that you've copied over the wrong spec, as you appeared to follow the advise?

Gaming PC Spec Advice request

Hi All Looking for an opinion on a gaming pc I'm looking to get. As some background - I've got quite a decent budget but obviously don't wan't to spend pointlessly. I have tried to give it some decent thought but confess I am no expert in hardware, and sometimes get carried away with the idea...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Apologies I don't fully follow. In the linked post I started with a configuration, asked for advice and was given a recommendation, towards the end of the post I reiterated the recommendation I was given and went with it (a few minor differences such as virus protection and browser but nothing I would think would matter). The spec given at the start of this post was not copied or distinctly related to the previous build (outside of the purchaser of course).

I am looking at your current spec which I presume is the same as the one in this thread from 2018:

Gaming PC Spec Advice request

Hi All Looking for an opinion on a gaming pc I'm looking to get. As some background - I've got quite a decent budget but obviously don't wan't to spend pointlessly. I have tried to give it some decent thought but confess I am no expert in hardware, and sometimes get carried away with the idea...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

It would need someone with a bit more knowledge than me but, looking at that machine, you could easily slot in a 3080 and carry on rather than buying a brand new system. My only concern is the motherboard only supporting PCI-e 3.0 rather than PCI-e 4.0. For reference and ease for anyone advising, here is the motherboard in question:

ROG RAMPAGE VI EXTREME | ROG RAMPAGE VI EXTREME | Gaming Motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG United Kingdom

Intel LGA 2066 X299 EATX gaming motherboard for dream liquid-cooled rigs, with Aura Sync, triple M.2, 10G Lan, Wi-Fi AD, U.2 and USB 3.1

rog.asus.com

....however, I found a review by KitGuru (one of the few internet tech review sites I trust) that indicated at 4k there was almost no difference:

Nvidia RTX 3080: PCIe 4.0 vs 3.0 scaling analysis - KitGuru

By the time you are reading this, RTX 3080 reviews will be live and we will know exactly how fast th

www.kitguru.net

That review was prior to the actual global release of the 3080 so maybe things are different. Presuming that is correct, then you can save yourself £3k maybe and carry on for another 5 years....desktop advice here will always be thinking about a 7-10 year life cycle with just GPU changes.

It should be noted I am not telling you what to do or how to spend your money so apologies if it comes across that way.

Thanks for the info - I appreciate it. I am still interested in outlining a fresh machine but it is worth consideration.

The CPU is 3 generations old & what do you intend to do with 128GB of RAM

Thanks - I was leaning towards intel because I have done so in the past, and was going for what looked to be the most advanced offered here, simple as that. And I picked the RAM in the initial spec really as a 'what looked the best under the rough budget I attributed to it' pick. Ideally part of the reason for asking for advice is on subjects such as these.

I'm looking at that system that @CountingDown posted. It's an interesting system, not really an ideal gaming system and now 6 years old. I agree that it would be perfectly reasonable to get a new graphics card and the system would support it. On the other hand, it is now six years old and there could be an argument for moving it on while it still has some second-hand value... I also have precisely no idea how the 7980XE performs in modern gaming (it's not even really intended as a gaming CPU...).

If you did want an upgrade, don't go with the same dead X299 platform. You want either a modern AMD or a modern Intel system. I would go with AMD in the next couple of weeks when the new v-cache X3D chips come out. Here's the basic build I'd go for if you were convinced you needed a new PC, sufficiently under your budget that you could get the world's best gaming monitor to go with it and still be under the £4k budget:

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE Much superior case
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12 Core CPU (4.7GHz-5.6GHz/76MB CACHE/AM5) But wait for the 7900X3D to come out at the end of the month
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, PCIe 5.0) - RGB Ready! Plenty of motherboard for what you need
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB) A completely adequate quantity of RAM for gaming
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4070 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR A very strong graphics card, better than the 3080 for a little more in price
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W) Fast boot drive
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW) For game storage (no idea why you'd need 8TB of storage, but you could add it I guess or transfer some of those old hard drives over)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W HX SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler Plenty good enough cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD) You don't need a discrete sound card (and if you do, you want a USB DAC not a PCIe card)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 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
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 12 to 15 working days
Price: £2,738.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/Z4eAXmNqMF/

But I'm far from convinced that this is actually a good way to spend your money; I'd certainly be looking to upgrade unless there were compelling reasons that the old system was insufficient.

Thanks for the suggestion and a question if you don't mind - With regards to the motherboard, is the reason you put it to the TUF rather than either of the ROG options purely based on cost or are the ROG versions not offering particular advantages?

One thing to note - I could be wrong but I'm getting the impression that my initial spec placed in the previous post is being taken as what I have. To reiterate the spec actually bought was further down following advice given. Forgive me if I have the wrong end of the stick here.

 

[Martinr36]

Thanks - I was leaning towards intel because I have done so in the past, and was going for what looked to be the most advanced offered here, simple as that. And I picked the RAM in the initial spec really as a 'what looked the best under the rough budget I attributed to it' pick. Ideally part of the reason for asking for advice is on subjects such as these.

Ok so you want the configurator linked below for the the latest CPU, and regards the memory when gaming you won't normally need more than 16 GB maybe 32 GB if you're playing msfs2020, the only time you might use 128 GB is if you're creating a an orphophoto and 3D model using several thousand photos in a program such as webODM, having more memory than you use is pointless as it sits there doing nothing.

PCSPECIALIST - Configure the Intel Z790 Ddr5 PC to your ideal requirements.

PCSpecialist is an award-winning manufacturer of high quality custom PCs & Laptops. Configure the Intel Z790 Ddr5 PC to your ideal requirements.

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[sck451]

Thanks for the suggestion and a question if you don't mind - With regards to the motherboard, is the reason you put it to the TUF rather than either of the ROG options purely based on cost or are the ROG versions not offering particular advantages?

It's more the lack of advantages that the ROG option gives. The advantages to a motherboard upgrade are (a) features (b) connectivity (like USB ports and network speed) and (c) better power delivery and cooling. Unless you have specific needs (and it doesn't sound like you do) then the only reason to upgrade would be the power delivery, and actually there are no bad X670 boards. All of them are sufficient, as this HUB video shows. So there's no need to spend extra; it gets you nothing.

As for Intel, I'd strongly suggest that the AMD V-cache CPUs will be significantly superior and will be the way to go.