Good balanced build plan for ~£2.3k

[gaykneealdee]

Planning on spending somewhere between 2 to 2.4k on a new pc to play competitive games and maybe the occasional story game and some personal development projects.

The main part im unsure about is whether to go for Nvidia or AMD for graphics card as probably looking to choose between rtx4080 or or rx7900xtx but am not hard set on any specific parts just want a decently balanced build that will last me a few years.

Also looking to purchase a 240/360hz monitor to go alongside which willing to spend around £500

Any help is appreciated

 

[Scott]

I shudder when I see 240/360hz mentioned to be honest. Do you have a real need to get hardware of this fashion? Most people will have very little benefit for such a setup, you would need to be a very high calibre of competitive gamer to get anywhere near this, professional level... top 1% in the world sort of thing. The human eye can't perceive this level of refresh rate and it's purely advantageous for interpolation, which is where the top 1% gain their advantage. You need to be proper elite to make any use of this and even the elite gamers tend to have zero benefit between 240 and 360hz. The step up from 144 to 240 for them is marginal too, although the jump from 60 to 120 is considerable (only for elite though, most gamers don't get any measurable advantage from 60-120, but there is a positive and noticeable visible impact).

I know what the marketing hype says, and a number of media outlets (sponsored handsomely by the manufacturers), but there really is no advantage for the home user for anything over 144hz.

If you absolutely must have these headline numbers then the budget should just about get you there. But you need to understand that you could have a far better, more rounded, 1440p gaming system for the same budget..... just with less FPS on the display counter.

With regards to AMD vs Nvidia, it would depend on the games you want to eek out the frames on. Paired with the 7800X3D you would get the most out of certain games with certain GPUs. For value AMD are far better, but Nvidia have the better headline technologies.... and VR especially is an Nvidia win.

 

[gaykneealdee]

I shudder when I see 240/360hz mentioned to be honest. Do you have a real need to get hardware of this fashion? Most people will have very little benefit for such a setup, you would need to be a very high calibre of competitive gamer to get anywhere near this, professional level... top 1% in the world sort of thing. The human eye can't perceive this level of refresh rate and it's purely advantageous for interpolation, which is where the top 1% gain their advantage. You need to be proper elite to make any use of this and even the elite gamers tend to have zero benefit between 240 and 360hz. The step up from 144 to 240 for them is marginal too, although the jump from 60 to 120 is considerable (only for elite though, most gamers don't get any measurable advantage from 60-120, but there is a positive and noticeable visible impact).

I know what the marketing hype says, and a number of media outlets (sponsored handsomely by the manufacturers), but there really is no advantage for the home user for anything over 144hz.

If you absolutely must have these headline numbers then the budget should just about get you there. But you need to understand that you could have a far better, more rounded, 1440p gaming system for the same budget..... just with less FPS on the display counter.

With regards to AMD vs Nvidia, it would depend on the games you want to eek out the frames on. Paired with the 7800X3D you would get the most out of certain games with certain GPUs. For value AMD are far better, but Nvidia have the better headline technologies.... and VR especially is an Nvidia win.

I mainly play competitive games such as cs, rocket league, apex etc. so im not really concerned about anything higher than 1080p. Im only looking to get alot more fps and a smoother gaming experience than I have at the moment.

I just would like some help with configuring a good build that is going to give me the best all round performance for the price im willing to spend.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I mainly play competitive games such as cs, rocket league, apex etc.

Do you play competitively or do you just play the games? ie are you in a league?

Have you experienced high refresh or pc gaming before? Sorry to ask, but the amount of people we get moving from console who have no idea what high refresh means and that 99% of humans won't notice anything over 120Hz is quite incredible, there's an awful lot of disinformation aimed at console players.

 

[sck451]

As others have said, I'm unconvinced by 1080p super-high refresh gaming. But if you definitely 100% want and need that, I'd suggest something like the below. The 7800X3D will come into its own at this kind of gaming, so it's the only real choice. For graphics cards, most high-end cards will be overkill. The 7800 XT is the best value. The 7900 XTX and 4080 take the build over your budget. The 7900 XT and 4070 Ti would be about in your budget, though I do think they're a bit ridiculous for 1080p unless you are a very high-level player.

This build would really be suited to a 1440p high-refresh display, but if you need 1080p 240+fps, it would also be ideal for that.

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS 2 ARGB GAMING CASE (BLACK)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.0GHz/104MB w/3D V-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
16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 7800 XT GAMING - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
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
CORSAIR iCUE H100i ELITE CAPELLIX XT RGB 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
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 9 to 12 working days
Price: £2,004.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/Bpf!wEU8k5/

 

[gaykneealdee]

Do you play competitively or do you just play the games? ie are you in a league?

Have you experienced high refresh or pc gaming before? Sorry to ask, but the amount of people we get moving from console who have no idea what high refresh means and that 99% of humans won't notice anything over 120Hz is quite incredible, there's an awful lot of disinformation aimed at console players.

I have played competitive games on pc for many years, I have also played with both* 240hz and 360hz monitors. Im high ranked in both games and have played at LAN for smaller tournaments and have prefered the monitor experience with them hence why I am buying one.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I have played competitive games on pc for many years, I have also played with both* 240hz and 360hz monitors. Im high ranked in both games and have played at LAN for smaller tournaments and have prefered the monitor experience with them hence why I am buying one.

That's cool then, didn't mean any offence, we get a lot of people crossing over from console who've seen the benefit from 60 to 120Hz and think there's an exponential advantage in just going upwards without realising the limitations.