New Gaming/Music PC Build

A

ambrosevh

Member
Hey everyone! I've always been a laptop user, but after a long time spent saving up some money I decided to splash out with a PC.

With this PC I am looking to play games such as Rainbow Six Siege and BeamNG.drive (a realistic car physics game) with a 1440p 144hz display. I am also studying music production, which can be fairly CPU heavy.

I tried to stay around the budget of £2,000, but I'm happy with this price. Unfortunately I had to skip the RGB to save some money, but it won't matter too much as this PC will go under my desk.

Any thoughts or changes would be much appreciated!

Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY S2 TEMPERED GLASS
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP (Pre-Order Only)
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
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
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
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 - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
 
MrWilson

MrWilson

Godlike
Hi there,
This looks like a really solid start, but could do with a couple of areas of optimisation.
Please could you provide your configuration link, and then I'll be happy to slot in some changes I think would help you get a little bang for your buck. Info on how is below.

How to Post Your Specification to the Forum - Check this Spec

Just a first note, if you've been provided this link, don't amend your first post as it won't update the queue, please add an additional comment to the thread, that way it will go back to the front of the queue. Otherwise we don't know it's been updated. When creating a forum post looking to...
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk
 
AgentCooper

AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
I’ve done a variation on the build that I think suits music production very well. The Fractal case is the best of all the quiet ones, a great choice if you’re recording from a mic close by. You’d ideally want the 5800X in there for the extra oomph an eight core CPU would provide, but the 5600X is no slouch. The B550 Strix motherboard is a solid one for music work, it has a thunderbolt header and no internal chipset fan to prevent extraneous noise. You want the fastest RAM you can get, especially if you’re working with lots of plugins. The H100X is an older model cooler with no software integration, I’ve subbed in a newer version. I’ve also spilt the drives so you’ve got a dedicated OS drive, a fast drive for current projects and games, and a HDD for general storage and completed projects.

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE 7 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® STRIX B550-F GAMING (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB 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
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
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
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
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 - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £2,169.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/RY0g7x!590/
 
MrWilson

MrWilson

Godlike
Hey, sorry i didn't get around to this one.
Switched case to the Define 7. This is the case to go to with quietness in mind. Paired with the Cappelix cooler it will ensure quiet and efficient cooling which is ideal for audio work. With £8 between this and the H100i I would recommend going for the 280mm cooler in cases that support it.
Given you slightly faster RAM. Ryzen CPUs like fast RAM and even more so in audio production.
For the GPU the 3060ti would have been the go-to, but it remains a bit of a unicorn and hasn't been seen in a couple of months sadly. The 3070 is the current 1440p pick. I wouldn't recommend paying the extra £90-100 for the STRIX variant, while it will give marginally better performance it doesn't give enough to justify paying that much more imo.
Adjusted your storage, for £3 extra you get and extra 500GB of storage. 980 pro for your OS and programs, Intel drive for your games and projects that won't benefit from being on any faster storage than a NVME drive.

Seen the green text and that @AgentCooper has snuck in first with a very similar build. Good to see I'm on the right lines in my recommendation!

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE 7 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® STRIX B550-F GAMING (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB 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
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
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
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
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 - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £2,177.00 including VAT and Delivery

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

ambrosevh

Member
Thank you both! It's nice to see that I was on the right track with my build, but I definitely prefer both of your configurations. I had originally looked at the Define 7 as noise levels are a big factor, especially for my usage - I was a bit concerned with the thermals though.

I hadn't thought of splitting the SSDs for different uses, will definitely be doing that! I've heard multiple times that these drives (980 Pro in particular) perform best with a storage capacity of 1TB and above though, but I don't know how much of an issue that would really be in my case.
 
AgentCooper

AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
ambrosevh said:
Thank you both! It's nice to see that I was on the right track with my build, but I definitely prefer both of your configurations. I had originally looked at the Define 7 as noise levels are a big factor, especially for my usage - I was a bit concerned with the thermals though.

I hadn't thought of splitting the SSDs for different uses, will definitely be doing that! I've heard multiple times that these drives (980 Pro in particular) perform best with a storage capacity of 1TB and above though, but I don't know how much of an issue that would really be in my case.
Click to expand...
Unless you’re keeping your system in a locked steel box the Define 7 case will serve you well, especially with a high quality cooler. Drive performance at this level won’t be a huge factor, if you look at the read/write speeds of the ones suggested, they’re seriously snappy. The added bonus of splitting the OS drive from the other SSD is that should you encounter a virus or crippling system issue and need to reinstall Windows, your files and games remain safe in the secondary M.2 SSD 👍
 
A

ambrosevh

Member
Hey again everyone, I'm getting very close to ordering the computer but I've got a few questions first - I thought I'd put them here as you guys are really helpful!

First, what's the advantage of using the ASUS STRIX B550-F GAMING motherboard over the ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS? From the comparison websites I've visited, it seems that the ASUS TUF just has one more M.2 slot.

Second, I've really been on the fence about whether to use the ROG STRIX cooler for the 3070. It seems like the price fluctuates a bit below £80, which as you guys said, is a bit overpriced for this graphics card. But I have seen that in some situations that the cooler can knock off about 10 degrees from the 3070, which could improve the longevity.

Third, I noticed that both of the configs used the 850w PSU, I'm trying to future proof but is 1000 watts a bit overkill?

Finally, would it be worth upgrading to the Ryzen 7 5800x? I hadn't mentioned in my first post that I've been thinking about giving streaming a go, which 8 cores might benefit. I've also had a look at bottleneck calculators and in almost every situation the Ryzen 5 5600x was bottlenecking the GPU, so I kind of want to match the power of the CPU and GPU if you know what I mean.

So many more tiny questions, so much research, at some point I should probably just buy the damn thing 😂
Again, I really appreciate the help :)
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
If that's what the calculator says, that's nonsense. It might (might!) be a bottleneck at 1080p, but then any CPU would be. At 1440p you will be GPU limited, as you should be

The 5800X wouldn't be a bad call for streaming, but I don't think it's necessary, especially as you can do the encoding on the GPU and its integrated Nvenc encoder.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
If the budget is available, then I'd always suggest the 5800x as a minimum for any gaming rig, but especially when streaming.

Gaming consoles are now both 8 core, games are more and more benefitting from extra cores.
 
A

ambrosevh

Member
sck451 said:
If that's what the calculator says, that's nonsense. It might (might!) be a bottleneck at 1080p, but then any CPU would be. At 1440p you will be GPU limited, as you should be

The 5800X wouldn't be a bad call for streaming, but I don't think it's necessary, especially as you can do the encoding on the GPU and its integrated Nvenc encoder.
Click to expand...
I am planning on using 1440p, and the calculator apparently says that I would be bottlenecked with a 5600x. With the 5800x, it says I will be GPU bottlenecked. I don't completely rely on this calculator, but its helpful for a rough estimate.
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
ambrosevh said:
I am planning on using 1440p, and the calculator apparently says that I would be bottlenecked with a 5600x. With the 5800x, it says I will be GPU bottlenecked. I don't completely rely on this calculator, but its helpful for a rough estimate.
Click to expand...
I would be very surprised. That goes against everything I know and have seen/read about the 5600X.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
sck451 said:
I would be very surprised. That goes against everything I know and have seen/read about the 5600X.
Click to expand...
For some modern games, namely Call Of Duty Warzone and a lot of sim games and strategy games, it would be a bottleneck as they're more cpu bound, no matter what GPU you have.

The 5600x is borderline for modern gaming, but in a couple of years it will be a bottleneck.

Warzone for instance will use as many cores as you want to throw at it, and other games are following suit.
 
A

ambrosevh

Member
SpyderTracks said:
There's an interesting article here, just wish they'd benchmarked Warzone as well:

hothardware.com

How Many CPU Cores Do You Need For Great PC Gaming? - Page 3

Find out what you really need for processing power as we test many CPU configs across a bunch of hot PC game titles. - Page 3
hothardware.com hothardware.com
Click to expand...
Interesting! So 8 cores aren't exactly necessary, but good future proofing for gaming. What I take from streaming is that the NVENC encoding will take a lot of pressure off of the CPU for streaming, but more cores will help. As for my music production though, such as exporting and loading plugins, do you think that those 2 extra cores are worth the price?
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
ambrosevh said:
Interesting! So 8 cores aren't exactly necessary, but good future proofing for gaming. What I take from streaming is that the NVENC encoding will take a lot of pressure off of the CPU for streaming, but more cores will help. As for my music production though, such as exporting and loading plugins, do you think that those 2 extra cores are worth the price?
Click to expand...
If the budget is there and it’s not compromising the rest of the platform, then I’d personally opt for 8 cores both for gaming and streaming.

Music wise unless you’re running hundreds of plugins and loading over 64 tracks, the 5600x would be really capable. It’s a surprisingly powerful cpu for the budget.

But 5800x just gives a bit of future consideration that I would say was worthwhile.
 
A

ambrosevh

Member
Alright I'll take that onboard, thanks!

I was wondering what's the advantage of using the ASUS STRIX B550-F GAMING motherboard over the ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS? I received two configs to optimize my setup a while ago and they both used the ASUS STRIX. I checked out some comparison websites and it seems that the ASUS TUF has a bonus 1 extra M.2 slot.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
ambrosevh said:
Alright I'll take that onboard, thanks!

I was wondering what's the advantage of using the ASUS STRIX B550-F GAMING motherboard over the ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS? I received two configs to optimize my setup a while ago and they both used the ASUS STRIX. I checked out some comparison websites and it seems that the ASUS TUF has a bonus 1 extra M.2 slot.
Click to expand...
They both only have two m2 slots, it’s a limit on the chipset rather than individual to the board.

The strix has superior audio and VRM’s, but it’s the VRMs that are most important.
 
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