Desktop PC Spec

I

immy

Member
JUNI0R said:
Looks like a good build to me! What was the idea behind the 500GB SSD and the 250GB SSD when you already have a 2TB SSD and a 2TB HDD? Personally I'd just go for a 500GB Gen 4 M.2 (either the Seagate Firecuda 520 or the Samsung 980 Pro) then just use the drives you already own or the rest. The CPU Cooler, is perfectly fine for the CPU, if you wanted to it could be upgraded. The PSU could be seen as a little overkill but it's worth investing in the PSU now as it'll last longer and cover you for upgrades down the road- the RMx 850W is a great choice and it's not something I'd change.

And as Martin said, they'll put them in the welcome box but you could always request the ones you need be connected for easy installation.
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Thanks for the thoughts - it was recommended to keep the LR catalogue on a separate drive, however I am on the fence tbh - I don't want to have too many drives, config will likely be 1 or 2 M.2s with the 2TB SSD I already have, and an external back up drive.

I don't want to end up throttling the M.2s either if they get full (Having that problem with a smaller SSD in my current build). I assume that would still be an issue with the Gen 4 ones, even though they are screaming fast?
 
Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
immy said:
Thanks for the thoughts - it was recommended to keep the LR catalogue on a separate drive, however I am on the fence tbh - I don't want to have too many drives, config will likely be 1 or 2 M.2s with the 2TB SSD I already have, and an external back up drive.

I don't want to end up throttling the M.2s either if they get full (Having that problem with a smaller SSD in my current build). I assume that would still be an issue with the Gen 4 ones, even though they are screaming fast?
Click to expand...
External USB drives can be your friend
 
JUNI0R

JUNI0R

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
immy said:
Thanks for the thoughts - it was recommended to keep the LR catalogue on a separate drive, however I am on the fence tbh - I don't want to have too many drives, config will likely be 1 or 2 M.2s with the 2TB SSD I already have, and an external back up drive.

I don't want to end up throttling the M.2s either if they get full (Having that problem with a smaller SSD in my current build). I assume that would still be an issue with the Gen 4 ones, even though they are screaming fast?
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My apoligies, I should've read up more in the thread. Honestly not too clued up on PS/LR builds so might have to wait for @NoddyPilot to return to discuss. He knows his way round this stuff, so will be well worth waiting for his input!
 
NoddyPirate

NoddyPirate

Grand Master
When you are moving from the SSD or HDD experience, I think even the PCS M.2 will be on another level altogether. A Gen 4 drive will have incredibly fast read/write speeds and will help with boot up times and program launch and so on. A Gen 3 drive will still be incredibly fast though compared to traditional SSD or HDD.

So for me: Try to keep the two M.2 drives if you can. If you are squeezed on budget, I wouldn’t personally worry about compromising storage capacity just to have a faster drive. A super fast drive will give you quicker startup times than a slower one, but won’t really affect your performance as much when LR or PS are up and running. A larger drive which is slower is better than small and fast in the long run if you run out of room! I personally have two 500 GB PCS M.2’s and they are absolutely fine for me.

Your catalogs don’t functionally have to be on a separate drive – but in general separating such things from your OS drive is good practice and avoids bandwidth bottlenecks if lots of backgrounds processes are happening at the same time. Both @Bigfoot and I have two M.2’s in our setup for that reason. Remember though that catalogs are tiny! They need a drive with a minimum of 20% space to spare – but they take up single GB’s at most themselves and only if you have heaps of 1:1 previews at that.

My only real point to note would be – and I am no expert in AIO’s I must say – for your use case I feel the AIO is total overkill. If you are not expecting to see much multi-threaded use on the CPU or do any serious gaming, then I just don’t think it is necessary at all. I don’t know what stock cooler comes with the 5800X – if any at all – but an air tower cooler would be perfectly fine I think. AIO’s don’t live forever – but a tower cooler can – with just the odd change of a fan needed every decade or so and only if it dies! But again, others will know better. My cheap as chips tower cooler keeps my 5600X running very cool when it is being pushed at 100% use.
 
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NoddyPirate

NoddyPirate

Grand Master
Just adding - it looks like the 5800X doesn't come with a cooler - and I would rather upgrade to anything from the stock AMD cooler on offer in PCS. The Coolermaster 240 AIO is so cheap that I guess it's hard to argue with it really. AIO's in the old days would be expected to last a maximum of 5 years or so. I imagine they have improved significantly since then? So they would probably outlive your system anyway possibly......
 
I

immy

Member
NoddyPilot said:
Just adding - it looks like the 5800X doesn't come with a cooler - and I would rather upgrade to anything from the stock AMD cooler on offer in PCS. The Coolermaster 240 AIO is so cheap that I guess it's hard to argue with it really. AIO's in the old days would be expected to last a maximum of 5 years or so. I imagine they have improved significantly since then? So they would probably outlive your system anyway possibly......
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Thanks for the great thoughts here, I appreciate your time :)

Re the cooler, I had assumed that I would get an air cooler for the reasons that you mention... however I couldn't really see an option to select one. but I will have another look.
 
I

immy

Member
immy said:
Thanks for the great thoughts here, I appreciate your time :)

Re the cooler, I had assumed that I would get an air cooler for the reasons that you mention... however I couldn't really see an option to select one. but I will have another look.
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Seems that the best air-cooler option on PCS is the hyper 212... which should cover my use case, with a little headroom for overclocking.
 
NoddyPirate

NoddyPirate

Grand Master
immy said:
Seems that the best air-cooler option on PCS is the hyper 212... which should cover my use case, with a little headroom for overclocking.
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OMG - embarassment city here.....

I didn't spot your overclocking intention before now - I'm not really sure how much benefit you will actually see from OC'ing with your workflow - but the 5800X does seem to overclock well overall for single core work - as the other cores can drop to idle to keep the power consumption under control - but it does get hot.

Ryzen 7 5800X Review

For the £20 difference I would probably go back to the AIO if you really want to overclock.

Apologies @immy - sloppy reading on my part before I went on my AIO rant above. 🤦‍♂️ When overclocking is involved I think the most cooling is always the best as you can otherwise defeat yourself quickly if your CPU starts throttling against your attempts to push it further.......
 
NoddyPirate

NoddyPirate

Grand Master
Out of interest - what do you think you'll want to do overclock wise? The odd short term (as in a few minutes) of single core work - or something else?
 
NoddyPirate

NoddyPirate

Grand Master
Bigfoot said:
AMD processors have a built in boost that is a type of automatic over clocking on individual cores. Over locking the whole chip can actually reduce performance, depending upon you appIication.
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Yep. The review saw the 5800 X get up to 4.85GHz - it's better than many AMD chips but I'm really not sure that's worth it for single core. Single cores boost to 4.7 GHz naturally anyway - albeit for quite a short time.

Your warranty allows you overclock but doesn't cover any damage which occurs as a result. For a single % point gain, I personally wouldn't really want to take the risk as you just won't really notice it I don't think. Which is also why I think if you intend to do any overclocking then you need to protect your CPU and system as much possible with as much cooling as you can afford really......
 
I

immy

Member
Thanks guys... think I am all set :)

By pushing the budget and going for the 5800X, I hope to not even have to consider OCing it. I might reconsider a few years down the line, and I can always upgrade the cooler then. So in summary OCing is not a need at all.

So this is where I am at: Two 500GB M.2s for dedicated fast storage for lightroom/temp files/pagefile, dropped the PSU to 750, and the 212 for air cooling (Not keen on an AIO and this is the best air cooler on PCS).

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL II GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
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
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler Black Edition
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 (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
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
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
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 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: £1,385.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/GWC6mxBs3V/
 
NoddyPirate

NoddyPirate

Grand Master
immy said:
Thanks guys... think I am all set :)

By pushing the budget and going for the 5800X, I hope to not even have to consider OCing it. I might reconsider a few years down the line, and I can always upgrade the cooler then. So in summary OCing is not a need at all.

So this is where I am at: Two 500GB M.2s for dedicated fast storage for lightroom/temp files/pagefile, dropped the PSU to 750, and the 212 for air cooling (Not keen on an AIO and this is the best air cooler on PCS).

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL II GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
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
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler Black Edition
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 (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
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
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
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 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: £1,385.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/GWC6mxBs3V/
Click to expand...
I think that looks really good sir!
 
I

immy

Member
Hi There,

I am just about to place an order after working through the spec on the forum, however just one question.... can I request that power cables are run for my GPU as I will be installing this when the system arrives? Additionally I want to install a couple of drives and have the same request for power/SATA cables.

Thanks!
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
immy said:
Hi There,

I am just about to place an order after working through the spec on the forum, however just one question.... can I request that power cables are run for my GPU as I will be installing this when the system arrives? Additionally I want to install a couple of drives and have the same request for power/SATA cables.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
You'd need to ask PCS, best way is by phone.

None of us work for PCS and they don't monitor these forums.
 
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