Please Help....5th PCS Family Purchase Advice Needed

[Stappa]

Hi all

I've lost track of the current tech though it seems AMD has come on alot....I need advice on a decent high end general purpose Family PC, gaming is not my prime concern though I sure the 3060 or equivalent will be fine, as my GTX1660 seems fine atm

Mass storage is needed for the families Media collection

My monitor is a decent 27inch 1440p AOC monitor and I have no real budget though I hate wasting money...so I want the best PC at the best low price lol

Should I spend £100 odd on a windows or buy a licence from ebay etc for a few quid?
Are the modern CPU liquid coolers safe and decent enough to warrant the price as i only use air cooling
AMD or Intel? Nvidia or Radeon for CPU/GPU?
Best MB for USB 3 sockets etc
Best Case for fans and connections etc oh and pretty lights(my daughter insists??

any help will be appreciated

Thx Tony

PS How about this as a starting point??

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL II GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Six Core CPU (3.5GHz-4.4GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
GIGABYTE B550 GAMING X V2 : DDR4, USB 3.2 - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE
1st Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x 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
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
Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
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 5 to 7 working days
Price: £1,563.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/bv2eZrfXx3/

 

[Stappa]

Help Help I Need Somebody......

 

[SpyderTracks]

Should I spend £100 odd on a windows or buy a licence from ebay etc for a few quid?

Do you have a current PC that you're retiring that you can carry across? Any license can now be moved to a new PC, it's not like the old days.

Are the modern CPU liquid coolers safe and decent enough to warrant the price as i only use air cooling

Yes, they're very robust now, leaks almost never happen and even if they do, it's non conductive so won't cause any damage. But they're far far better than air coolers and modern chips really require them for optimal boost clocks.

AMD or Intel? Nvidia or Radeon for CPU/GPU?

AMD v Intel is very much a personal preference. Intel are incredibly shady and intentionally mislead, AMD tend to under promise and over deliver. From an ethics point of view, AMD definitely.

Nvidia or AMD GPU, NVidia undoubtedly for performance, AMD for budget. AMD have really closed the gap though in the recent GPU's.

Best MB for USB 3 sockets etc

Undoubtedly the brand new X670 boards from AMD with new Ryzen 7000 processors, but they're expensive. But they include USB 4 (which incorporates Thunderbolt)

Best Case for fans and connections etc oh and pretty lights(my daughter insists??

How old is your Daughter? PCS will build into a case bought from elsewhere, and they're selection of those kinds of cases is a little limited. It's always an option to buy one and get it sent to PCS for them to build in, may be worthwhile.


Really before we proceed, we need a firm budget ceiling to determine weather X670 is an option or not

 

[Stappa]

Thx Spyder, max budget is £1700 and how do i move my windows licence from my old pc to a new one? Oh would u advise win 11 over 10 as I have no knowledge of win11, how does my component choices above measure up for £1560‽
Thx again

 

[SpyderTracks]

how do i move my windows licence from my old pc to a new one?

What version is your current PC?

Oh would u advise win 11 over 10 as I have no knowledge of win11

Personally I'd suggest windows 11, it's very good now.

how does my component choices above measure up for £1560‽

It's pretty solid.

I'd suggest an Asus Mobo, they're generally more reliable and easier to diagnose. The x570 Tuf is a good option

The Ironwolf Pro's are noisy, personally I'd recommend leaving them off and picking up some Western Digital Red Pro's which run a lot quieter with the same performance and reliability

I would up the PSU to at least an RMX850W to allow for future upgrades. 1080p is not going to be around for too much longer, and GPU's are using more and more power.

Otherwise it's spot on.

 

[Stappa]

Thx again..... my current PCS PC is win10 though originally it was win7 lol(2011 and still going strong) can I still transfer Windows?and how are PCs tested with no operating system purchased?
The HHD only listed seagate and PCS own, no WD?

 

[SpyderTracks]

my current PCS PC is win10 though originally it was win7 lol(2011 and still going strong) can I still transfer Windows?

Yep, absolutely, make sure it's logged in with a microsoft account and not a local user, and that will convert the license to digital and tie it to your microsoft account.

Then so long as you log onto the new PC windows with that same account, you can activate that same license.

Windows 10 Digital License – How to transfer

In an enterprise environment, users do not need to worry about Windows activation on their work devices. That’s one of the many jobs for the IT department. It’s another story with perso…

win10.guru

and how are PCs tested with no operating system purchased?

They load a basic test version of windows, but you can't use that as it's not configured and will cause issues, so you just clean install when you get it.

The HHD only listed seagate and PCS own, no WD?

Yeah, you'd source them yourself elsewhere.