Need help with future PC purchase

[BalKar]

Hello,


I ordered a PC listed below and had to refund it as it just stopped working so I had a refund on it.
I understand that I used parts that was not the smart or good choice so I'm seeking help here now so next time I can configure a desktop that will work perfectly.
I will use this for gaming only.

I have an Asus 4k monitor but only 60Hz. I'm using it on my PS5 and even for PC gaming I probably won't need more as I never play online and most games that I play more than fine on 60fps.

The price limit for me is around £1500 with £1600 top.

The case below was a little bit too big for the space I have so if possible next time I would go with a little bit smaller one. I understand that it might not be the best for cooling. I pretty much loved all the other parts (while it was working it ran games that I play with perfectly).

Thank you for all the help!

Case
CORSAIR 5000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X Eight Core CPU (4.5GHz-5.4GHz/40MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 5600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 7800 XT GAMING - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 150 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
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 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
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
Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (6 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

 

[TonyCarter]

Your original config above comes to £1669 on the configurator at the moment, so has the budget changed or have the prices increased?

I'm struggling to get a similar spec under £1600, never mind £1500, but this is my starting point if anyone else has any suggestions?

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE - smaller sibling of the case you had (£30 less)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-5.3GHz/40MB CACHE/AM5) - newer, more efficient version of the CPU you had (£42 less)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB) - faster RAM at AMD sweet-spot (£2 more)
Graphics Card
16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 7800 XT GAMING - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW) - small & fast for Windows and Apps only...not for games (£35 less)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW) - secondary drive for game installs...would prefer 2TB, but budget doesn't allow (£69 more)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET - more headroom to protect from GPU power spikes (£27 more)
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
DeepCool AG400 Performance ARGB CPU Cooler - better quality/performance than the PCS offering (£4 less)
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
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 4 to 6 working days
Price: £1,655.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/z4SkXQsj7G/

 

[SpyderTracks]

The above looks spot on, nothing I would change.

The 4000D is quite a bit smaller than the 5000D, there's a graphical comparison here to give you a more accurate idea:

4000 & 5000 Series Case Comparison | CORSAIR:EXPLORER

Our 4000 Series and the most recently launched 5000 Series cases have arrived! Both lineups signal a return to classic CORSAIR styling with a focus on improving the build experience, flexibility, and performance over our previous lineup of cases.

www.corsair.com

I would say though, that you'd see a marked improvement in gaming performance moving down to a decent 1440p 144Hz monitor.

60Hz just isn't a gaming monitor by any means and gives a really poor overall feel. Online has no impact on refresh rate, I guarantee, unless you're playing really old games, you'd be surprised by just how much better it could be.

Perhaps an option a little down the line. You can get a decent 1440p monitor now around the £200 - £400 mark.

 

[BalKar]

Your original config above comes to £1669 on the configurator at the moment, so has the budget changed or have the prices increased?

I'm struggling to get a similar spec under £1600, never mind £1500, but this is my starting point if anyone else has any suggestions?

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE - smaller sibling of the case you had (£30 less)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-5.3GHz/40MB CACHE/AM5) - newer, more efficient version of the CPU you had (£42 less)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB) - faster RAM at AMD sweet-spot (£2 more)
Graphics Card
16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 7800 XT GAMING - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW) - small & fast for Windows and Apps only...not for games (£35 less)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW) - secondary drive for game installs...would prefer 2TB, but budget doesn't allow (£69 more)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET - more headroom to protect from GPU power spikes (£27 more)
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
DeepCool AG400 Performance ARGB CPU Cooler - better quality/performance than the PCS offering (£4 less)
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
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 4 to 6 working days
Price: £1,655.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/z4SkXQsj7G/

This is looking really good to me, thank you very much!
I do have a few question though. Do I need 2 SSD? I don't really like to install many games at once so having an extra just to store games seems unnececasry for me.
The second question is, if I have a laptop that came with Win10, can't I just install that on the desktop too? I mean I can download a Win Imiga to a USB stick and that would save me £110
The last one is if the processor you selected newer and more effisent, how come it's cheaper?

If these questions are dumb then apologies, desktops are not my cup of teas and just started to dive into this from console gameing.

 

[TonyCarter]

Why more than one storage drive?

I've been meaning to put something like this together for a while. In recent weeks I've found myself writing this more and more so thought I would just post my thoughts in a thread that I could link to. So the reason for this thread is to try and give insight as to the reasoning behind having...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

The price of the 7700 and 7700X move around a bit (probably on availability), but it 7700 has more or less replaced the 7700X as it performs the same at a lower power usage. The 7700X has higher base speeds, but the automatic boosts will deliver the same performance on both, AMD are probably just getting rid of any stock of the 7700X they’ve got left in their supply chain.

If you have an UNUSED Windows licence then yes you could transfer it. But if it’s W10, you will have to upgrade it to W11 before you try to install it on the new PC - which will usually come with an OEM test build on, which should not simply be activated as it’s incomplete.

 

[BalKar]

The above looks spot on, nothing I would change.

The 4000D is quite a bit smaller than the 5000D, there's a graphical comparison here to give you a more accurate idea:

4000 & 5000 Series Case Comparison | CORSAIR:EXPLORER

Our 4000 Series and the most recently launched 5000 Series cases have arrived! Both lineups signal a return to classic CORSAIR styling with a focus on improving the build experience, flexibility, and performance over our previous lineup of cases.

www.corsair.com

I would say though, that you'd see a marked improvement in gaming performance moving down to a decent 1440p 144Hz monitor.

60Hz just isn't a gaming monitor by any means and gives a really poor overall feel. Online has no impact on refresh rate, I guarantee, unless you're playing really old games, you'd be surprised by just how much better it could be.

Perhaps an option a little down the line. You can get a decent 1440p monitor now around the £200 - £400 mark.

The picture you shared is a great comparison and that size difference is exactly I need, thank you so much!

The budget just not allowing me to get a new monitor right now, especially if I already have one even if it isn't the best, still good enough.
Definitely will consider it in the future though.

Why more than one storage drive?

I've been meaning to put something like this together for a while. In recent weeks I've found myself writing this more and more so thought I would just post my thoughts in a thread that I could link to. So the reason for this thread is to try and give insight as to the reasoning behind having...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

The price of the 7700 and 7700X move around a bit (probably on availability), but it 7700 has more or less replaced the 7700X as it performs the same at a lower power usage. The 7700X has higher base speeds, but the automatic boosts will deliver the same performance on both, AMD are probably just getting rid of any stock of the 7700X they’ve got left in their supply chain.

If you have an UNUSED Windows licence then yes you could transfer it. But if it’s W10, you will have to upgrade it to W11 before you try to install it on the new PC - which will usually come with an OEM test build on, which should not simply be activated as it’s incomplete.

Thanks again for the answers. If you don't mind I just wannna ask, would you change things on this setup or you think it's a solid one? Again, I'm just getting started with this and trying to learn plus discovering my options. Just wanna get the best possible for this money and don't want to do the same mistake I did with the previous one.

 

[TonyCarter]

It’s a solid build, with nothing inherently wrong with it.

Of course you could argue for the next step up in lots of areas, but each slight upgrade adds £££. We can only work to the budget provided, otherwise it becomes “What can I get for another £100?” every day.

The only areas I’d say I’d spend MY money on are the full-fat 7800X3D CPU (which is the best gaming CPU) +£120, and a future-proof PSU in the form of the RM1200 (latest ATX3/PCIe5 specs) +£75, and a larger secondary drive +£47.

It’s debatable whether you’d see significant FPS boost from the x3D CPU at 1440p. The PSU is just for more headroom/upgradabilty potential, but it’s a ‘nice to have’. The second drive size purely depends on the size of your game library (if you only have 3 or 4 games installed, then 1TB is fine…if you’re like me, then 4x4TB is about right).

However, all of those can be changed at a point in the future if requirements change, it’s just a question of how much do you want to do now, and how much you’re happy to do in a few year’s time?

Adding/upgrading the SSD is the cheapest/simplest. The others are slightly more involved (especially the PSU if you go from current ATX2 to ATX3 PSU as the cabling is different), and CPU would probably not be changed for at last 5 years (if ever).

Whilst the components I’ve suggested are about ‘future proofing‘ to an extent, you can’t ’future-proof’ a GPU. The GPU will usually be the first component that gets upgraded, because the requirements of newer games makes the advances in GPUs less powerful as time goes on…so what is a 1440p card today will be no more powerful as a 1080p card in 3 years time.

 

[SpyderTracks]

The budget just not allowing me to get a new monitor right now, especially if I already have one even if it isn't the best, still good enough.
Definitely will consider it in the future though.

Yeah absolutely. It's just something to bear in mind for the future. It will be fine at 4k 60, but you would get a definite advantage in overall experience going to 1440p 144Hz.

Just one to bear in mind should the urge grab you in a few years, it's an easy change to make for tangible improvement.

 

[BalKar]

It’s a solid build, with nothing inherently wrong with it.

Of course you could argue for the next step up in lots of areas, but each slight upgrade adds £££. We can only work to the budget provided, otherwise it becomes “What can I get for another £100?” every day.

The only areas I’d say I’d spend MY money on are the full-fat 7800X3D CPU (which is the best gaming CPU) +£120, and a future-proof PSU in the form of the RM1200 (latest ATX3/PCIe5 specs) +£75, and a larger secondary drive +£47.

It’s debatable whether you’d see significant FPS boost from the x3D CPU at 1440p. The PSU is just for more headroom/upgradabilty potential, but it’s a ‘nice to have’. The second drive size purely depends on the size of your game library (if you only have 3 or 4 games installed, then 1TB is fine…if you’re like me, then 4x4TB is about right).

However, all of those can be changed at a point in the future if requirements change, it’s just a question of how much do you want to do now, and how much you’re happy to do in a few year’s time?

Adding/upgrading the SSD is the cheapest/simplest. The others are slightly more involved (especially the PSU if you go from current ATX2 to ATX3 PSU as the cabling is different), and CPU would probably not be changed for at last 5 years (if ever).

Whilst the components I’ve suggested are about ‘future proofing‘ to an extent, you can’t ’future-proof’ a GPU. The GPU will usually be the first component that gets upgraded, because the requirements of newer games makes the advances in GPUs less powerful as time goes on…so what is a 1440p card today will be no more powerful as a 1080p card in 3 years time.

Thank you again for all these informations. I think I learned a little bit here. I will still looking around but this setup then is definitely something to consider.