Custom build questions

ratto

Member
Hey guys.

sorry if this isnt the right thread for this, happy to redirect if not. just let me know.

few questions here about a prospective build. its gona be a big one, sorry. i'm the kind cautious kind who asks a tone of questions and doesn't go ahead till i think iv found the perfect solution for me. SO thank you in advance if you replay and stick with it. The machine will be used for gaming and entertainment primarily and other tasks as a side note.
I will post the spec below.

the main questions iv got is, any suggestions as to where I could reduce cost or optimize my options. here without to much compromise in performance and staying as near future proofed (as one can get when it comes to these things) as possible.

as you can see iv jumped on the AMD bandwagon after using Intel for many years due tot he good reviews and feedback iv seen and heard.

a few specifics:

im not to familiar with the Palit or Zotac manufacturers of the Nvidea cards, so im not sure whether to put my eggs in that basket or not but as they are indeed cheaper that the ASUS 2080 TI 11GB option on PCS, if people think they are okay to role with I could consider it. The other option which is a swing in the other direction totally is leaving the GPU off this order and either putting my own in on delivery or giving a 3rd part bought GPU to PCS (i dont live far from their warehouse so can hand deliver it). If i were to buy my own GPU for fitting i was considering the Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 2080 Ti XTREME WATERFORCE 11G (for £1400) or the EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti XC Hybrid Gaming, 11GB (for £1308) this obviously hykes the price up and is more of a faff but both these GPU's have the AOI water coolers already fitted. The comeback to this is obvious, design a full water cooled system and dont get 2 water separate AOI water coolers (1 for CPU and one for GPU, im keen to get the best cooling i can for the GPU as this is where the real heat and work will take place for my rig) especially as 2 AOI watercolors will take up a tone of space and may no even fit into he case) however the price difference is about £300 cus i would have to go for a mid range water cooling kit from PCS and the ASUS 2080 TI 11BG. so thats one to figure out (also if people can advice what they think about the whole water cooled scene in general as iv heard mixed options Vs air cooled and things like water cooled maintains more stable temps where as air is more of a reactive system to when temps get high) .

I think this MOBO will do good, but i must admit im not really sure where im standing with MOBO's. not 100% sure what im looking for out of one (other than 4.0 PCI slots, up to date USB (3.1 and 3.2) decnet build quality and sturdiness and heat/power management which i think the ASUS CROSSHAIR VIII HERO covers.

im not bothered about wifi as it will only ever be seriously used with Ethernet but its only £8 to ahve it and im not currently planning on using the slot for anything else as the in built sound card is totally fine.

storage is fine, OS on the M.2 SSD, and games etc on the Samsung SSD (can just buy more if i want some for anything)

iv gone for a 750W PSU on purpose as i would like it to not have to work to hard to supply the components. (open to persasive arguments those PCS says i only need a 650)

a little on the case here, it says "1 x Fan Controller" in the description. not does that mean it already comes with one? or that if u select one then it can go in. i ask as if i select one from he configuration menu it does jump up and stop me when i click proceed. similar query with the case fans descriptions details 4 front and 1 rear extractor. (im not precious about looks and bloody RGB, im a functionality man. went for this case as it had some good prospective bells and whistles and options without being too pokey so as to provide decent air flow. the other aspect for the water cooled bits would be to help reduce fan sound which may be counter productive if i have this case with its 5 fans? but i'm thinking if i can control them then i can turn them down and i'm not sure but i think they can be linked with MOBO to automatically down RPM if temps are okay (which should be low if the main 2 heat sources GPU AND CPU are water cooled)

price is sitting at £2,751.00 as below.

The spec

Case
PCS SR-819 RGB FULL TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.6GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)

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Motherboard
ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO (DDR4, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX/SLI) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
1TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)

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1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)

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DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
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
Corsair H100x Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
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
2 PORT (1 x TYPE A, 1 x TYPE C) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence

link to the saved confg
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/FzV3Gu6wN8/
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
What are you using it for besides gaming, and for gaming what monitor are you using exactly? Resolution, refresh rate, and adaptive sync?

Apols if you said already, am tired and skim-read a bit :)

And what's the max budget? If the above is £2750, I'm assuming you could stretch further for that watercooled GPU to self install, potentially.
 

ratto

Member
Hey Oussebon.

Thanks for your reply, much appreciated.
I don't blame you for skim reading it was a big post.

Besides Gaming it will just mainly be entertainment such as streaming, videos and music, some word processing pretty generic stuff. So nothing specifically taxing. Might branch into hosting some streaming but then again maybe not haha.

Currently monitor wise iv got an AOC G2460VQ6 (https://eu.aoc.com/en/gaming-monitors/g2460vq6) its got a 74 Hz refresh, 1920x1080 res, it hasnt got 'adaptive sync' per-say but its got 'freesync' which i think is AMD's version right, not sure? I know Nvidea have a version called Gsync? But yeah again, nothing to special, its not a 2k or 4k which I know people say you will need to get more out of from this GPU.
I actually have 2 of these AOC monitors but that was happy accident, I don't use them both atm but would do with a new PC.
I would possibly get a new monitor after the PC (monitor suggestions very welcome) as well to get the most from the GPU but that would be after saving up again and id like to ahve the foundations set with the PC hardware.

yeah id say ideal budget is around 2800, could be convinced to go higher (say to £3000'ish) for the right gear. yeah if I got the AOI watercooled GPU as a separate purchase (was thinking either the: EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti XC Hybrid 11 GB OR the Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 2080 Ti XTREME WATERFORCE 11GB. on amazon they are £1,308.40 and £1,399.99 respectively. The quote iv posted above without a GPU included is £1,747.00. so say i did the more expensive one that's £3147 which is what i would say is my DEFINITE maximum budget.

And then there is the downsides to installing it myself such as not getting the benefit of having it tested with the system by PCS etc...
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Don't buy this PC to go with a low spec monitor. The monitor simply won't let you get the performance out of the system it can provide.

For a system of this spec you'd be looking at a minimum of 1440p 144hz adaptive sync (which as you say usually goes by the AMD or Nvidia brandings Freesync or Gsync, or now 'Gsync compatible' too). Possibly 140p ultrawide 100hz or 4k 60hz.

Either drop the spec massively or invest in a better monitor. Economies in the spec can help with the latter without hurting your wallet too much.

For 1080p gaming you should be looking at an R5 3600 and an RTX 2060 (non-super) as a maximum, and that's already well overkill.

Moreover, an R9 CPU is pointless for gaming. There's no real advantage to it over a 3700x, or really a 3600. If you were going to spend a premium for modest performance gains, Intel's 9700k and 9900k still have the gaming performance advantage. The 3700x would be a very safe pair of hands for you doing some streaming, but not an egregious waste of cash if you found you never did. Similarly the Intel 9700k or 9900k would be fine.

The Crosshair mobo, no real point to it. No performance gains, and the VRMs on something like the X570 TUF are more than fine.

Instead of 2 SSDs, just get 1. It'll keep you going for a while and leave more slots free for expansion with even larger drives (whether SSD or HDD) should you find you really need more space.

3600MHz RAM... meh.. hard to justify the price premium. 3000/3200MHz RAM is more than fine, and a lot cheaper, which is money to invest elsewhere or just keep in your pocket.

Get a better case - something with better front air intakes. Corsair 560X / 570X maybe.

Drop the wifi card if you're not going to use it. No point having Something clutter the case / potentially affect airflow etc if you're not using it.

Drop the USB card. Mobo and case already provide loads of ports.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Slicing off some of the biggest excess already nets you £450+ for a decent monitor

Case
CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 460X RGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)

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Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!

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1st Storage Drive
NOT REQUIRED
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB ADATA SX6000 Pro PCIe M.2 2280 (2100 MB/R, 1500 MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
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 [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™
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 10 to 12 working days
Price: £2,290.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/3ShTG50vsJ/

£400-500 being ideal for 1440p 144hz freesync / gsync shopping.

Some monitor ideas
More monitors
Other monitors

The Gigabyte AORUS AD27QD or the LG 27GL850 if you can get your hands on it would be my top picks for 1440p 144hz, but you could go for 1440p ultrawide or even 4k.
 

ratto

Member
Hi Oussebon

sorry for long response time. life admin piled up.

Thanks for your time and deeply considered opinions and suggestions.
I will take them well into account and rethink.

Many thanks
 

ratto

Member
Hey Oussebon

I'm gonna get a monitor first before anything else as you suggested. It just makes sense.

Think i'm down to either:

LG 27GL850-B (overclockers are selling it for 469.99 but not looks like only pre-order atm as no stock)
or
Dell S2719DGF

I might be leaning towards the Dell for a few reasons, 1: cost and availability 2: TN panel so no worry about bleed (As i understand you done get bleeding or at least not to the same extent with TN compared to IPS and im not bothered about angle view cus i will be sat straight on anyways). 3: Dells 3 year Pixel guarantee and Dells general company ethos/standards. 4: no unnecessary speakers or RGB crap that you get with a lot of other monitors (not necessarily the LG)
(downside to Dell is no DP just HDMI, but not sure if this is really worth worrying about as its not 4k???)

Also, i know with recent firmware updates that the AMD free sync will work fine with Nvidea cards but it feels like a gsync compatible monitor would be better, thoughts?

I know you were pretty hyped/keen for the LG 27GL850-B from reading the posts you linked to other threads with the same topic. Do you actually have the LG monitor now? if so what do you think, any issues?

the Gigabyte AORUS AD27QD-EK (link) was also in the running but all the frivolous RGB crap put me off and there were a few bad reviews surrounding light bleed issues. This combined with the fact its the most expensive of the 3 (but not as bad if i got the 24" version) made me axe it as a competitor.

I tried to tip to into 4K world but got a bit lost and couldn't seem to coherently tract down anything that had a good combo of features for a mentally stable price. Any guidance on this?

cheers
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Don't get the 24" version of the gigabyte. It's totally different.

Amazon lump all different kinds of monitors together as if they were different colours of the same pair of socks or something. Coupled with monitors' often confusing names, this isn't helpful.

The 24" gigabyte is 1080p 240hz. Which is very niche (competitive level e-sports).

TN panels are quite capable of giving dead pixels and having edge bleed, just as IPS panels. They aren't prone to IPS glow, obviously. It's called the panel lottery for a reason. IPS may be more prone to it. Or perhaps those who buy IPS panels are even more concerned about visual fidelity and the monitors cost even more, hence the higher likelihood of someone taking to the reviews page at once to report a bad unit. IPS isn't just about viewing angles but about colours being accurate and rich, That said, many people are happy with TN panels too.

I don't have the LG. I'm waiting quite anxiously for it to become available on another particular store.

Whatever monitor you buy, make sure it's from a store with a generous attitude towards returns. For all I know that store is fine, but I've not used them before personally.

(downside to Dell is no DP just HDMI, but not sure if this is really worth worrying about as its not 4k???)
The Dell does have DP.

Which is just as well as Nvidia's GPUs only support adaptive sync over DP afaik.

I would probably go with gsync compatible, though any monitor (especially a high refresh one with a wide range) will probably be fine.

See also:

For 4k, consider LG 27UK650 - though it is 'only ' 27". And you may not prefer 4k to a high refresh. Depends on the games and your personal preference.
 

ratto

Member
Is there an actual difference between the LG 27GL850 and the 27GL850-B (emphasis of the "-B" part there, as i see the 2 names on different sites and cant seem to determine if one is just abbreviated or if it is a more recent revised version?

Also which store are you looking to get if from? Sounds like you have a cunning plan.

some of the stuff on this review (https://www.tftcentral.co.uk/blog/u...-with-144hz-nano-ips-panel-and-adaptive-sync/) such as its just HDR "compatible", and no G-sync overdrive so possible ghosting issues?

what are your thoughts on these topics, worth considering as issues better options to get it all?

Cheers
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Is there an actual difference between the LG 27GL850 and the 27GL850-B (emphasis of the "-B" part there, as i see the 2 names on different sites and cant seem to determine if one is just abbreviated or if it is a more recent revised version?

Also which store are you looking to get if from? Sounds like you have a cunning plan.

some of the stuff on this review (https://www.tftcentral.co.uk/blog/u...-with-144hz-nano-ips-panel-and-adaptive-sync/) such as its just HDR "compatible", and no G-sync overdrive so possible ghosting issues?

what are your thoughts on these topics, worth considering as issues better options to get it all?

Cheers
I don't know the exact answer, but came across this Reddit thread which has quite a lot of information on both the HDR @ 350nits and GSync overdrive:


I think the "b" model number is merely a regional variation, if I go onto the LG Canadian site, it states the "b" version, if I go onto UK site, it states without the "b" and in fact searching for the "b" model number on the UK site doesn't return anything.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
some of the stuff on this review (https://www.tftcentral.co.uk/blog/u...-with-144hz-nano-ips-panel-and-adaptive-sync/) such as its just HDR "compatible", and no G-sync overdrive so possible ghosting issues?
That's not a review. That's a web page speculatively posting various random things it infers about the specs in order to generate clicks and hopefully revenue from people then buying the monitor through the links at the bottom.

It's not a review, because it's very clear they haven't actually tested one for that article.

The actual review by TFT Central is here:

See also:



(techspot article may be based on the hardware unboxed video)

and no G-sync overdrive so possible ghosting issues?
These are unconnected things. As I understand it, what they're saying is that because it is not hardware gsync, but gsync compatible, it doesn't go to the full 165hz refresh rate LG had originally teased. But, tbh, that's not a big deal for most people.

Overdrive is something else, and not related. Overdrive is what some monitors use to achieve the 1ms response time. It can lead to inverse ghosting (overshoot).

There is also variable overdrive, which is related to gsync, but that's not what the article was on about and tbh is also not a big deal.

Watch the Linus video. The TLDR is that if you actually make the monitor go to the advertised 1ms response time the overshoot is horrible - but that it's not a big deal, because you can use not use that setting, and still have a very snappy monitor with great image quality.

For me, gsync compatible rather than gsync is a pro rather than a con. It means you can use adaptive sync with an AMD GPU if you buy one in the future. You're not locking yourself into the Nvidia ecosystem.
 
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