Work Horse PC run down please

[NeiEva]

1) Your budget (you might not have a budget as such, but you will have an idea of the max you'd like to spend)
Ideally around the 1200 ex VAT place point - but can do more if it brings longer use potential

2) What's the PC / Laptop for (gaming, workstation, heavy VM use, etc.) <-- as much detail as we can get here helps!
This is a Work PC for graphic design and web development. I am running photoshop, illustrator, office software - nothing killer, no video editing.
Development wise I do run virtual machines for webservers on a per project basis - opening and closing them as required. Due to this i was considering an i9 with more cores, but not sure I necessarily need it.
Due to being freelance - I run 3 monitors as I am on call on various chats, multiple email accounts, etc. Also having code on various different screens, terminals, etc, etc. Occasionally a small video will be running if i fancy watching sport while i work, but never full screen, usually less than 1/4.
Memory - i could run more, but content with 32 for now... But i have chosen a motherboard that would allow me to drop in two more 16gb cards and jump up a bit.
I went for faster OS drive, and then working files on separate drive - meaning if OS goes down I can easily drop in a new OS drive and reinstall fresh, or similar.
Case was simply selected to one that worked with the setup, ideally a cheaper one would be good... But... Not fussed about clear panels, RGB lights, etc. Its likely to sit under the desk. As a flag, i probably need to be very dust aware because of this.

3) What monitor will you be using (especially important for gaming) <-- there's no point in us suggesting a lower end graphics card if you have a 4K high refresh monitor!
Nothing fancy - 3 x Acer V246HL.


Any thoughts, advice, etc appreciated. Know i am not designing a amazing gaming rig, but a general work horse, hopefully with pretty good longevity.
Thanks, N

Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 200R COMPACT GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 12-Core Processor i7-12700KF (3.6GHz) 25MB Cache
Motherboard
GIGABYTE B660M DS3H DDR4 (rev. 1.0) : LGA1700, DDR4, USB 3.2
Memory (RAM)
32GB PCSpecialist PRO DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 SUPER - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2200 MB/R, 1500 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W CV SERIES™ CV-450 POWER SUPPLY
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
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Black Case Fan
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 Professional 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 Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 6 working days
Price: £1,469.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/x0fc9tNpfH/

 

[Scott]

Hi there,

Unfortunately I can't get close to your requirements on the budget. There are a number of areas that need dramatically increased in order to support the main ingredients of the build you have chosen. Below is way past the budget you have suggested while actually being less performance orientated due to the low spec GPU that I had to select to try and get closer to the budget. Ideally, I would have selected the 2060, as it's far better value for it's performance compared to the 1660 Super.... just the budget forced the 1650 selection.

If £1200+Vat is a firm target, we can certainly aim for it..... but it wouldn't be with such a low level of supporting parts around a 12700K(f) processor. You would be looking at an entry AMD setup to try and hit that budget I think.

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 12-Core Processor i7-12700K (3.6GHz) 25MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS WIFI D4 (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1650 - HDMI
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 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
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
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 Professional 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 3 to 6 working days
Price: £1,721.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/aeYSVkUJ93/

 

[NeiEva]

Thanks for the response.
To make sure I am understanding correctly.

The components I originally chose are effectively bottlenecked by the Motherboard, and so I would not get the best out of them. Is that correct?
I notice better MB, faster RAM, faster disk, better cooling, but that the graphics card chosen does not support three monitors (compromise like you said).

Is this what you recommend?

 

[Aza]

The motherboard isnt ideal, but there is also the issue of the power supply chosen and the RAM speed.
The case isnt a fantastic choice and it would make sense to take a better case rather than extra fans to fix a poor case.

Generally, its just not a particularly well matched up system, and your budget is very limiting, as highlighted in Scotts' build, for your tasks you would want a bigger spend to get a solid machine that will deal with it effeectively.

Custom machines are different to off the shelf, you build it around teh tasks you want to do with them and you match components together to ensure best performance. They cost more initially, but also tend to have a much, much longer shelf life (very normal for around a decade of use) with just occational upgrades such as the GPU to keep it relevant. In the long term, this is then much cheaper, rather than £1000 every couple of years for a new machine.

Scotts' build still isnt ideal, as he has said, there are areas he has held back on to keep teh spend low even though its still considerably over budget. For a solid machine designed for graphic design, virtual machines and so on, its very very easy to spend £2K or more.
But you then end up with a machine that will do all of that without flinching, and still keep up for years to come.

 

[Scott]

Budget aside, below is what I would actually recommend for your uses. To rundown some of the changes:

Case - The case you selected is very closed off and not good for airflow at all.
12700k - Better to have the non-f processor just as a redundancy for your uses.
B660m - Not a great deal of difference in value but the Gigabyte is well below the quality threshold of what I would recommend.
RAM - You selected super slow RAM, this should be absolutely avoided as it will sap performance.
GPU - The one you selected isn't good value at all.
Storage - Older storage, better to have a modern solution and maintainable solution (dual drives)
PSU - 450w office PSU isn't ever going to be recommended. Cutting it far too fine with modern systems. RMx always recommended, this is the powerplant and redundancy protection of your entire system.
Cooling - The 12700k runs hot you need at least a 250w cooler on there at full chat. The cooler you chose would cause the CPU to throttle heavily under extended use.


Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 12-Core Processor i7-12700K (3.6GHz) 25MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS WIFI D4 (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
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 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
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
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 Professional 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 3 to 6 working days
Price: £1,892.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/sAYVYNxNuW/

 

[Scott]

I've covered a lot of info here that you could digest if you had a spare hour or so:

Please read before posting:- Collaboration of Helpful Hints

NB: These forums are not an official support channel. None of us work for PCS, we're all either customers or techies who just like to help out where possible. For any official support, you need to contact PCS directly either through your PCS account, or via the contact details on the main...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[NeiEva]

Thank you both for your response - all incredibly helpful and extends what I need to be thinking about.
Budget wise - understood, I am being unrealistic with my expectations. I can increase this, as it is my livelihood, and what I spend 12+ hours on every day! I don't want to hit 2k for the system, but completely get that 1.2k holds me back, so will push that up.

My current / last build was 4th gen i7 (2014), 16gb ram, 250ssd (slow), and a GTX760. And to be fair to it, it is still doing well. I would run it for a few more years quite easily, but I am beginning to overwork it, and the graphics card is no longer support by Adobe programmes which causes freeze ups. I could throw a new graphics card in it and probably get a couple of years grinding it out, but i have worked it hard so i am going down the safe route.

One factor, I can probably save on Win11 Pro, as I can grab this from my current system. I have checked this. That cuts £100, and i can throw ubuntu on the old machine as fall back for dev work.

I'll read through your other post - thank you.

In summary, yes, better matching, get the best out of modern components and give them enough juice to do their job.
I'll review and come back to you all with another crap build soon! lol

 

[Scott]

Great call on the OS. Most definitely the right route to go down. Saves a very tidy sum.

 

[NeiEva]

Your build does not appear far off. The only compromises i can see would be dropping the RGB lights on cooling -£30, and dropping wifi on the MB -£25. To confirm, were these chosen over the other options for a reason? I have no need for light, and I always hard wire -so...

 

[Steveyg]

Hi mate, all the TUF Z690 Motherboards PCS offer all come with Wifi. The other option is the Z690 PRIME which isn't recommended it's a lower tier of motherboard

Also the H100i XT RGB Pro is the less RGB version. The H100x you're probably confusing it with is a very very old model from like 2016 which isn't recommended in new systems

 

[NeiEva]

Legend. Thanks - there was other reasons for it then. Thanks... I'll read up and probably go down the prescribed path!

 

[Scott]

As above. The TUF is the model you want, the Wifi is just a bonus. Can be handy to have, the bluetooth should definitely be handy regardless.

H100i XT has far better fans on it. Their cooling potential is similar but the XT is definitely better. The fans on the radiator are magnetic levitation which means it'll run silent. The H100x is, ahem, not silent