For gaming & design

mrx2525

Member
I'm looking for a Desktop that can handle heavy Photoshop files, with Illustrator or InDesign open at the same time too. I also want to be able to run most games to the max, not necessarily the latest games but something like the Witcher 3 which currently sends my laptop to space. I can stretch to £2,000 but I want to leave some money for a good chair and monitor too (possibly around £400 for them). Last time I posted here, this was the suggestion:

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL II GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
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!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive
256GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (1900 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
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
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
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
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® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Firefox™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
TIMED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND - MON-FRI (BEFORE 2PM)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 13 to 15 working days
Price: £1,656.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/5CcGGuY4nk/

Is this still a good configuration? What sort of things could I change and what would the effect be? (e.g. do I need two SSDs, would one 256GB be enough; is there an optimum power supply; how future proof is this build). Many thanks!
 

062876344

Bronze Level Poster
The only 2 things i'd change are

1) The processor. i think that the 3800x is a bit of a waste of money. The 3700x is already one of the best, if not, the best AMD gaming CPU. It is also cheaper which would allow you to have
2) 1, 1Tb M.2 SSD instead of two different sized ones.
 

mrx2525

Member
@Scott here is what you originally wrote for me, just wanted to double check it. I've been told the 3700X is hardly different from the 3800X and that I should consider reducing two SSDs to just one! Thanks mate
 

mrx2525

Member
The only 2 things i'd change are

1) The processor. i think that the 3800x is a bit of a waste of money. The 3700x is already one of the best, if not, the best AMD gaming CPU. It is also cheaper which would allow you to have
2) 1, 1Tb M.2 SSD instead of two different sized ones.
Thanks for your reply. Lots of people seem to agree about the 3700X so I'll make that change. I'll also take just one SSD and reduce its size overall, it's only for the OS really.

The rest of it is okay then?
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
The build looks good to be honest.

With regards to the 3700X vs the 3800X....... it's barely any money for a better chip all round. The recommended spec above was based on the price difference vs the increased performance. What would be worth considering would be the 3800XT, that's my go-to chip for this sort of work. That is a bit of a price hike but there is a reasonably significant performance hike to go along with it.

With regards to the SSDs. Whoever is recommending you drop to 1 is disregarding the importance of a scratch drive. The 2nd drive is purely for backup up your RAM usage should you hit some heavy RAM demand. The faster the cache/scratch drive the less of an impact the RAM limitations will have on performance.

I would remove bullguard though, I must have left that in by accident.

I would suggest a £300-£350 monitor to go along with that build. You want 1440p 144hz with Adaptive sync (Freesync or GSync).
 

062876344

Bronze Level Poster
To be honest, i am not the most knowledgeable. I just knew the 3800x wasn't all that great of a choice when there's the 3700x :giggle:

I'll leave it for someone like @SpyderTracks to keep you right on the rest of your build!
 

mrx2525

Member
The build looks good to be honest.

With regards to the 3700X vs the 3800X....... it's barely any money for a better chip all round. The recommended spec above was based on the price difference vs the increased performance. What would be worth considering would be the 3800XT, that's my go-to chip for this sort of work. That is a bit of a price hike but there is a reasonably significant performance hike to go along with it.

With regards to the SSDs. Whoever is recommending you drop to 1 is disregarding the importance of a scratch drive. The 2nd drive is purely for backup up your RAM usage should you hit some heavy RAM demand. The faster the cache/scratch drive the less of an impact the RAM limitations will have on performance.

I would remove bullguard though, I must have left that in by accident.

I would suggest a £300-£350 monitor to go along with that build. You want 1440p 144hz with Adaptive sync (Freesync or GSync).

Thanks for the reply! I'm gonna stick with the 3800X and it seems that just one SSD is fine, it's only gonna have the OS on it and I don't think I'll get to that point with the RAM. My laptop hasn't run into issues yet beyond it's general problems. Lots of people have guided me to this case which I might send in: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lian...-usb3.1-type-c-cable-ca-77y-ll-bu-001-ll.html and I have also been told that I either don't need a cooler other than the default, or that CoolerMaster cannot cool anything!
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Fair enough, happy for you to follow others advice. Best of luck with the build :)
 

mrx2525

Member
Fair enough, happy for you to follow others advice. Best of luck with the build :)
Thanks Scott. Sorry to be a pain, but can you help me with the cooling? I'm seeing that people aren't too keen on CoolerMaster because of fan quality, noise, and leaks?
 

mrx2525

Member
Here's my latest specs:

Case

COOLERMASTER MASTERCASE H500 ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/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 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
256GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (1900 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
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
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
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
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
Microsoft® Office Home & Student 2019 (1 Digital License)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
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 16 to 18 working days
Promotional Item
Get Rainbow Six Siege: Gold Edition with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Logo Branding
PCSpecialist Logo
Price: £0.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/rW5nmTYRBr/
 

AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
That build looks fairly solid on the gaming side of things, although I’ve not enough knowledge about the Coolermaster Liquid AIO to give an informed comment. I think the usual forum suggestions would be to drop the thermal paste, consider upgrading the M.2 drive to 500GB so you’ve got plenty room for your programs and maybe up the PSU to 650/750 so you’ve got the headroom if you decide to upgrade your graphics card at some point.
 
Last edited:

mrx2525

Member
That build looks fairly solid on the gaming side of things, although I’ve not enough knowledge about the Coolermaster Liquid AIO to give an informed comment. I think the usual forum suggestions would be to drop the thermal paste, consider upgrading the M.2 drive to 500GB so you’ve got plenty room for your programs and maybe up the PSU to 650/750 so you’ve got the headroom if you decide to upgrade your graphics card at some point.
Thanks man. I can't seem to figure out what cooling to go with, and yeah I'll drop the thermal paste. Do you reckon I'm okay if I just have the OS on the SSD, I don't have any software or games on it at the moment and I've not found any issues.
 

062876344

Bronze Level Poster
One thing to note regarding you GPU... I believe they have had to source Zotac Mini 2070 supers. I think they are not the standard length cards and are slightly shorter. You will need to contact PCS for the exact card that will be put in your system.
 

mrx2525

Member
This is where I am now. Have been on Reddit and Discord all night lol:

Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERCASE H500 ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/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 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
128GB ADATA SX6000 LITE M.2 2280 (1800 MB/R, 1200 MB/W)
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 H60 2018 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)
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
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
Microsoft® Office Home & Student 2019 (1 Digital License)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
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 16 to 18 working days
Price: £1,754.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/z7p4E4kRTs/
 
D

Deleted member 17413

Guest
Agent is right, 128GB will just about get the operating system on it but very little else (might even run out of space for the OS alone).
500GB for a primary drive or more is what would normally be recommended. PCS own is a decent quality and reliable one, Intel are known to have a few issues, im not familiar with the adata one sorry.

Other one might be the 128GB is just a scratch drive, no programs or anything on it?
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Agent is right, 128GB will just about get the operating system on it but very little else (might even run out of space for the OS alone).
500GB for a primary drive or more is what would normally be recommended. PCS own is a decent quality and reliable one, Intel are known to have a few issues, im not familiar with the adata one sorry.

Other one might be the 128GB is just a scratch drive, no programs or anything on it?
I have Windows 10 and many applications in 60GB of a 128GB SSD. I don't game though, I understand some of those can be large....
 
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