Gaming desktop advice

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drunkoctopus

Member
Hi,

I am looking for advice for a gaming desktop. I was planning to spend about £150 - 200 on a monitor.
I obviously wont be 4k gaming. I will be 1440p but I only have a 1080p monitor now.

I play a variety of games, some AAA but I certainly don't aim for that level, some low level. I tend towards multiplayer games, including fast competitive games at a hobby level.

My budget for the PC is around £1700.

I wanted a 16gb VRAM card like the 6950XT so the GPU would last, but I don't seem to be able to make it. Maybe my budget is too low. Maybe I am overvaluing the VRAM. Maybe the GPU market is an absolute casserole of nonsense and I shouldn't even be able to make sense of it. Not sure.

Thank you in advance for the info!
 
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drunkoctopus

Member
What do people think of this? It was posted in another thread.
What do people think of the PSU and the SSDs for gaming? I would probably increase both from this build based on what I have read.
Also, do people have advice on how to pair a monitor with this level of build?

Case
CORSAIR 5000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core CPU (4.7GHz-5.3GHz/38MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6950 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 3000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)
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 H100i RGB PRO XT 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
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe 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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
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
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 9 to 11 working days
Price: £1,815.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/ws5nMZ5FEx/
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
It's great, but I have a few questions!

First, you've specced it without an operating system -- do you have Windows to add already?

Second, you've gone rather over £1700 already and are talking about spending more on power and SSDs! What's the budget?

Third, that's not enough to spend on a display that would do this build justice. You're really looking at more like £300+ on a 1440p gaming display.

Finally, are you the kind of person who's likely to upgrade things like a CPU during the lifetime of the PC? If you are, the 7600X is a great choice. If not, then you could get more performance for a similar price from the 5800X3D on the previous-gen platform.

I wouldn't get too hung up over VRAM. The 16GB 6950XT would be amazing if your budget can stretch to it, but equally the 12GB 6700XT would do a solid job at 1440p. Its raw performance is lower, but that's because of its computational capacity, not its VRAM. 8GB is arguably not enough now, but 12GB certainly is and probably will be for quite a while.
 
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drunkoctopus

Member
Thanks so much for the reply.
Your right, I need windows adding to it.

I could stretch the budget to around £1850, but equally it might be nice to spend less, like around £1500 if I can still get a decent (ofc less powerful) build. I should probably forget the psu, I would probably like slightly more ssd though.

My reservation with the 6700xt was that the ‘benches’ don’t seem a serious improvement on the gtx 1080 I have had for 8 yrs. Is that just wrong?

I would prefer to be upgrading things as needed in this pc, which is one of the reasons I will probably build one this time, instead of a prebuilt. It just seems a better way to do it.

Would a ddr4 build with the 6950xt be a cheaper option? I was thinking I could just upgrade to ddr5 at a later date, but that might need a new processor too…

Would a 6700xt build last me a few years of decent gaming do you think? Any suggestions for an upgrade path would be epic. Is it just the vram that gives it some longevity over the rtx series?
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
drunkoctopus said:
Thanks so much for the reply.
Your right, I need windows adding to it.

I could stretch the budget to around £1850, but equally it might be nice to spend less, like around £1500 if I can still get a decent (ofc less powerful) build. I should probably forget the psu, I would probably like slightly more ssd though.
Click to expand...
You can, but anything at that price comes with compromises. You can't have it all, unfortunately!

drunkoctopus said:
My reservation with the 6700xt was that the ‘benches’ don’t seem a serious improvement on the gtx 1080 I have had for 8 yrs. Is that just wrong?
Click to expand...
Yeah, that doesn't add up. It's a fair way ahead of the 1080: probably at least 30%. If you are using a website with the initials "UB", I'd suggest washing your eyes out and trying to forget what you saw in that dark place. It's a famously (infamously!) biased site with no actual useful information on it. The 6950XT would be a much bigger upgrade, but obviously costs more.

drunkoctopus said:
I would prefer to be upgrading things as needed in this pc, which is one of the reasons I will probably build one this time, instead of a prebuilt. It just seems a better way to do it.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's a good call! But the downside is that adding upgradability at this point adds cost, because the only plausible platform is AMD's Ryzen 7000 series, which currently adds ~£200 to the equivalent spec from the last generation. I think that's a price worth paying, but I want to make sure you're making it deliberately!

drunkoctopus said:
Would a ddr4 build with the 6950xt be a cheaper option? I was thinking I could just upgrade to ddr5 at a later date, but that might need a new processor too…
Click to expand...
It would need a new CPU and a new motherboard as Ryzen 7000 is DDR5-only, while Ryzen 5000 is DDR4-only. If you're looking at future upgrades, you need to look at the 7000 chips.

drunkoctopus said:
Would a 6700xt build last me a few years of decent gaming do you think? Any suggestions for an upgrade path would be epic. Is it just the vram that gives it some longevity over the rtx series?
Click to expand...
I would say so. It's both the VRAM and also the excellent driver work AMD have done over the last few years. That said, we can get a 6950XT into a £1850 budget. I'll put that up in a few seconds for you...
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Here's an option that gets the 6950 XT and Ryzen 7000 into £1850:

Case
CORSAIR 5000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core CPU (4.0GHz-5.2GHz/38MB CACHE/AM5) The coolest of AMD's current chips. Will be easily upgradable (and actually easily overclockable if you're not worried about the warranty!)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6950 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 3000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW) I'd rather have more, but it's an easy upgrade
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ - MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET More power for that 6950XT
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 V3 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (AMD) Enough for the 7600, but it might be a good spot to start upgrading down the line
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe 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 7 to 9 working days
Price: £1,842.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/n9dqUyyYgU/
 
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drunkoctopus

Member
Hi again, just to compare to this 6700 XT build...

Would the below be aiming for a gpu upgrade instead of the cpu? Would that give me more flexibility?

I got this from another similar post. Which of the two would you prefer and why?

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-5.3GHz/40MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 3000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW)
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
PCS FrostFlow 200 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
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe 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 7 to 9 working days
Price: £1,728.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/HXbSkyKwEd/
 
K

Konfunk

Member
The 6700XT is great for 1440p, it might suite if you’re budget conscious and if you’re going to upgrade it anyway in a few years.
The regulars will probably just suggest you to up your PSU to at least 1000w to give you room for future upgrades to the GPU/CPU, it’s only £30 extra.
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Honestly it's quite tricky to know what to go for! Both options would be great: I'm not sure there's a wrong answer to this question. I'd be inclined to go for the 6950XT/7600 one because it would perform better now and, in all probability, would "need" upgrading at approximately the same point, as the 7700 isn't all that far ahead of the 7600... But I wouldn't disagree with going for a stronger platform and a weaker GPU either.
 
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drunkoctopus

Member
Thank you very much both.

The website bottleneck calculator says these builds bottleneck in opposite ways between CPU & GPU. How important is that in your opinion?
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
drunkoctopus said:
Thank you very much both.

The website bottleneck calculator says these builds bottleneck in opposite ways between CPU & GPU. How important is that in your opinion?
Click to expand...
I'd be very hesitant to trust such a website. The 7600 is a very strong CPU, certainly capable of getting the full capacity of a 6950XT at 1440p in virtually very game.
 
D

drunkoctopus

Member
Thanks to you both, very useful to know!

Would you recommend a way to test the suitability of CPUs with GPUs before we buy them?
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
As a general rule, the main driver of a gaming PC is the graphics card. The job of the rest of the system is to make sure that it's being looked after with data (so CPU, RAM, SSDs) and fresh air (so case, fans). You generally want the bottleneck to be the graphics card: that's the way to get the best value for money. (Every system has a bottleneck. A non-bottlenecked PC doesn't exist.)

Basically you decide on what resolution and refresh rate you want to game at. You choose a graphics card to suit. With the CPU, you make sure that you choose one that can handle above that number of frames at that resolution. Beyond that, the CPU will give very little extra performance in the vast number of games, as long as it can drive the graphics card to its limit.

That's why reviewers always use the maximum possible graphics card and low settings to test a CPU, and the maximum possible CPU to test a graphics card: it makes sure that the data represents the maximum that that component is capable of, so you can make the above comparison.
 
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