Custom built pc for gaming

R

ReucHR

Member
I am going to order this custom pc and I am wondering if there are any flaws in it or anything that I could do to improve it? I am also wondering what is a good monitor to pair with this pc. Thank you.
Here are the pc specs

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE S NANO GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor i7-11700KF (3.6GHz) 16MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z590-I GAMING WIFI (Mini-ITX, LGA1200, USB 3.2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
256GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (500MB/R, 400MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CV SERIES™ CV-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H60 2018 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
1x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN PORT + Wi-Fi
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
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 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 13 to 16 working days
Price: £1,578.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z490-sff-gaming/GJ!JWt39tD/
 
T

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR

Please read before posting:- Collaboration of Helpful Hints

NB: These forums are not an official support channel. None of us work for PCS, we're all either customers or techies who just like to help out where possible. For any official support, you need to contact PCS directly either through your PCS account, or via the contact details on the main...
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk

You don't say what sort of usage you want to put this through, so if it's for gaming we'll need to know:
  • What resolution you'll be wanting to play at?
  • What your current monitor (or it's specs) are?
  • Are you decided on a small form factor case, as that will restrict options and increase temps?
  • Are you decided on an Intel CPU or happy to take the general advice to go AMD instead?

AMD Vs Intel

So some of you aren't aware of the reasons why so many people are heading away from Intel to AMD, so thought it would be important to lay that out for people to refer back to. A lot of you will go to cpubenchmark or userbenchmark to find performance metrics for CPU's. These sites are complete...
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk

However, even without that knowledge, I can say there's plenty there to 'fix':
  • Slow RAM
  • Basic & underpowered PSU
  • Old/basic AIO cooler
  • Bullguard is a resource hog and causes more issues than it fixes
  • Slow SATA SSD instead of a fast NVME SSD
I'm sure someone will come along shortly with a better config for your budget...but will really need those top 4 questions answered.
 
R

ReucHR

Member
TonyCarter said:

Please read before posting:- Collaboration of Helpful Hints

NB: These forums are not an official support channel. None of us work for PCS, we're all either customers or techies who just like to help out where possible. For any official support, you need to contact PCS directly either through your PCS account, or via the contact details on the main...
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk

You don't say what sort of usage you want to put this through, so if it's for gaming we'll need to know:
  • What resolution you'll be wanting to play at?
  • What your current monitor (or it's specs) are?
  • Are you decided on a small form factor case, as that will restrict options and increase temps?
  • Are you decided on an Intel CPU or happy to take the general advice to go AMD instead?

AMD Vs Intel

So some of you aren't aware of the reasons why so many people are heading away from Intel to AMD, so thought it would be important to lay that out for people to refer back to. A lot of you will go to cpubenchmark or userbenchmark to find performance metrics for CPU's. These sites are complete...
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk

However, even without that knowledge, I can say there's plenty there to 'fix':
  • Slow RAM
  • Basic & underpowered PSU
  • Old/basic AIO cooler
  • Bullguard is a resource hog and causes more issues than it fixes
  • Slow SATA SSD instead of a fast NVME SSD
I'm sure someone will come along shortly with a better config for your budget...but will really need those top 4 questions answered.
Click to expand...
I am gonna be playing at 1080p. The current monitor I have is 50hz but I am going to get a new one for the pc but i am unsure about what to buy. I did not know that the case would restrict options, can you suggest one that would lower the temp. I wasn't aware that I should go with amd, what processor do you think I should go with?
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
It depends on your budget. What is the computer going to be used for, how much do you have to spend and no matter what you'll definitely need a monitor if yours is 50Hz. We can help with that but we would need the first two questions answered first

Also no one will recommend a small form factor case here, they are terrible for thermals and restrict your options

Which CPU we recommend will depend on the budget and uses for the computer
 
R

ReucHR

Member
Steveyg said:
It depends on your budget. What is the computer going to be used for, how much do you have to spend and no matter what you'll definitely need a monitor if yours is 50Hz. We can help with that but we would need the first two questions answered first

Also no one will recommend a small form factor case here, they are terrible for thermals and restrict your options

Which CPU we recommend will depend on the budget and uses for the computer
Click to expand...
The budget is £1600 and the use is gaming, mostly minecraft. The resolution will be 1080p. Thank you!
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
With £1600 it needs to be 1440p IMO. If you want to stick to 1080p then we can but it's honestly a waste of the budget.

Below is over budget but includes a very good monitor for the money.

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WiFi (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3000MB/sR | 1600MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ 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
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NOT REQUIRED
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Monitor
IIYAMA G-MASTER GB2760QSU-B1 27"
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 13 to 16 working days
Price: £1,731.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/ChGapw0Hrs/
 
R

ReucHR

Member
Scott said:
With £1600 it needs to be 1440p IMO. If you want to stick to 1080p then we can but it's honestly a waste of the budget.

Below is over budget but includes a very good monitor for the money.

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WiFi (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3000MB/sR | 1600MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ 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
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NOT REQUIRED
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Monitor
IIYAMA G-MASTER GB2760QSU-B1 27"
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 13 to 16 working days
Price: £1,731.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/ChGapw0Hrs/
Click to expand...
Thank you for the help. If I wanted a better processor or more ram what do you suggest I change it to. Thank you
 
R

ReucHR

Member
SpyderTracks said:
5800x for the processor, there would be no requirement for more RAM unless you have uses you havent mentioned?
Click to expand...
Ah thanks. Its just online i read that 32gb is good for multi tasking and I often have a lot of programs opened up at once so I thought that might be a good idea?
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Na, most of us only run 16GB and we are pretty high end users. Having apps open tends not to use much RAM unless they are particularly RAM intensive. Your system will cache anything past the RAM utilisation, speed won't be much of a factor for general use. Having said that, if most of us were starting from scratch right now I think we would tend to opt for 32GB, not for just now.... but for later on, where the funds allowed of course.

5800X would be the ideal processor but wasn't sure if the budget would be there for it.
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
ReucHR said:
Also right now I have a laptop with an i5-8265U CPU @ 1.60GHz 1.80 GHz and 8gb of ram and in task manager it is always 100% or 95%
Click to expand...

Firstly that's no real surprise, Windows etc will tend to gobble up around 4-5GB with ease. It will also tend to pre-allocate a fair chunk. Hitting 8GB isn't uncommon. If you put 16GB in you would still see pretty high memory usage due to pre-allocation, it's not a shortcoming it's just the way memory is managed.

5600X and 16GB of RAM is absolutely fine

5800X and 32GB of RAM would be a good option if the budget allows for it and you are happy to spend. It's definitely not a requirement for your usage though, it's just a nice to have.
 
R

ReucHR

Member
Scott said:
Firstly that's no real surprise, Windows etc will tend to gobble up around 4-5GB with ease. It will also tend to pre-allocate a fair chunk. Hitting 8GB isn't uncommon. If you put 16GB in you would still see pretty high memory usage due to pre-allocation, it's not a shortcoming it's just the way memory is managed.

5600X and 16GB of RAM is absolutely fine

5800X and 32GB of RAM would be a good option if the budget allows for it and you are happy to spend. It's definitely not a requirement for your usage though, it's just a nice to have.
Click to expand...
Ah thank you. Just curious about why you choose to put 2 ssds on the build you made?
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
ReucHR said:
Ah thank you. Just curious about why you choose to put 2 ssds on the build you made?
Click to expand...

One for the OS & programs. Best to keep this as clean as you can to let it perform at its best.
Second one for your games and any fast storage you want to have.

Means that when you want to reset the PC/reinstall windows you don't need to worry about re-installing your games, saves or documents etc.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Scott said:
Firstly that's no real surprise, Windows etc will tend to gobble up around 4-5GB with ease. It will also tend to pre-allocate a fair chunk. Hitting 8GB isn't uncommon. If you put 16GB in you would still see pretty high memory usage due to pre-allocation, it's not a shortcoming it's just the way memory is managed.
Click to expand...
Windows 10 is really good at managing RAM. It will attempt to use as much RAM as it possibly can, on the basis that the CPU can only operate on code and data that's already in RAM. What this means is that Windows will use (or at least occupy) considerably more RAM in a 16GB system than in an 8GB system. At the other end, if RAM is in short supply, Windows is really good at only keeping in RAM the code and data that absolutely has to be there. On a RAM constrained system therefore, Windows will appear to be using a lot less RAM.

What most of us find is that with 16GB of RAM there is always (or often) a small area of RAM that is marked as Free. This is RAM that Windows isn't using at all, if it wasn't there you'd not notice - everything would perform just as well without it. In an 8GB system you'd typically find very little (or no) free RAM indicating that Windows is (at some stage) using all that RAM.

It's partly because Windows is so good at managing RAM in various configurations that it's not possible to tell whether you have enough RAM installed just by looking at how much is in use. :)
 
Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
bare in mind if you go for the 5800x you'd also have to change the motherboard for a 570, which is more cost, the build tat @Scott did above but with the 5800x in:

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3000MB/sR | 1600MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ 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
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NOT REQUIRED
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Monitor
IIYAMA G-MASTER GB2760QSU-B1 27"
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 13 to 16 working days
Price: £1,892.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/WWB9AJWrCD/
 
R

ReucHR

Member
Martinr36 said:
bare in mind if you go for the 5800x you'd also have to change the motherboard for a 570, which is more cost, the build tat @Scott did above but with the 5800x in:

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3000MB/sR | 1600MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ 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
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NOT REQUIRED
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Monitor
IIYAMA G-MASTER GB2760QSU-B1 27"
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 13 to 16 working days
Price: £1,892.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/WWB9AJWrCD/
Click to expand...
Ah thanks for correcting that, one more question I have is if this will use up a lot of electricity and the bills will rise?
 
D

DarTon

Well-known member
@ReucHR . Any specific reason why you are buying that monitor? The IIYAMA G-MASTER GB2760QSU-B1 was a capable competitive gaming monitor when released in 2017 (at $400 or so) but I believe it's a TN panel. You might be better off with a 27 inch fast IPS panel or VA panel. They might cost a bit more (£250-300) but the overall experience might be better, especially if games like Minecraft are your core usage.
 
R

ReucHR

Member
DarTon said:
@ReucHR . Any specific reason why you are buying that monitor? The IIYAMA G-MASTER GB2760QSU-B1 was a capable competitive gaming monitor when released in 2017 (at $400 or so) but I believe it's a TN panel. You might be better off with a 27 inch fast IPS panel or VA panel. They might cost a bit more (£250-300) but the overall experience might be better, especially if games like Minecraft are your core usage.
Click to expand...
Someone on here told me to use it which is why I chose it
 
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