PC Specialist Scimitar MK1

[HEXUS]

Ryzen 9 3950X and RTX 2080 Super star in a two-grand PC.

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[Gentle Viking]

Those hoses for the cooling, and other wires in that area throw me so off.
All that put together is about as much hose as you would see in my computer with water cooled CPU and RAM, and in regard to wiring its about 5X as much as need to be seen in any PC

[Sim0n]

I don't honestly get the logic of this review.

You clearly state that you give them a budget of £2000 to work to, then berate the build, and suggest that if they spent more on the motherboard, more on the memory, etc etc, that it could have been so much better.

That's like asking Ford to spec, and supply a really nice Fiesta, then complain that its not a Focus.

Either set a guideline for the retailer to follow, specifying you want a x570 board, and faster memory, even if it means a lower tier CPU/GPU.... Or would you have criticised them for not including the 3950X and 2080 super, in the resulting spec?

[philehidiot]

I suspect the market here was a big influence and they know that the kinds of people who buy these kinds of PCs would build themselves if they were into things like mobos and PCIe 4. So it's the main parts which headline.

Myself, I'd have dropped from the top end Ryzen and gone for the 3900X, using the money to improve the mobo to an X570 and possibly improve the RAM. There are gains to be had going to 3200 from 3000 although apparently the gains beyond that are limited compared to the cost.

Those small tweaks would probably have kept it within the 2K mark, not hit gaming performance and would have drastically improved the longevity of the machine. For me, I paid £541 for an X570 mobo, 3900X and 16GB 3200 RAM. There was no way I was upgrading to Ryzen and not getting PCI-e 4 as well as the new USB standards. It doesn't make sense to spend on a long life CPU and not on a long life mobo. Yes, you can upgrade it but if you're planning on / are capable of doing that, why get a pre-built PC?

Sim0n, I think the comments are valid. You're paying the integrator to give you the best components for the price and select them properly. I don't build cars but if I did, I'd definitely not chose the 3 cylinder engine in the Fiesta (an engine built to please accountants). But I can't build a car, so I expect them to make the best possible choice of components for the price. That is the position many purchasers of PCs like this are in. I'd agree that for 2K, you should be expecting an X series mobo with the forward looking features and sacrifices to the CPU would be sensible for this given that the 3950X on its own is £699 when I got the bulk of a system with the CPU one level down (and marginal impact on gaming performance) for £541. For a gaming system, it's a poor choice of components in my book.

[Strawb77]

exactly what i was going to say, phil- 3900x and x570 mobo. i really don`t see the use of having a 3000 series processor in a non-pcie 4 board, it`s like driving a porsche round with the handbrake permanently engaged.

[edmundhonda]

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/reviews/

Can't get near £2000 with the review spec, nearer £2200 now.

[DanceswithUnix]

There are gains to be had going to 3200 from 3000 although apparently the gains beyond that are limited compared to the cost.

I've ordered a couple of 3900X PCs from these people recently, they seem a bit odd with ram. I didn't see an option on the first order for 3200 ram so I went for 3000. Second PC there was an option for 3200 ram (they say they use Vengence, as long as it is QVL that's fine), so I ticked that. I got an email saying there was a compatibility problem, they had downgraded the machine to 3000 and then underclocked to 2933. Two sticks of ram? I emailed back pointing out it is in spec and asking them to try again. Not heard back since, which is a shame as the person who needs that machine starts work Monday.

Now it sounds like they are run off their feet with orders thanks to all the people either working or just stuck at home, and stuff happens so I'm happy to cut plenty of slack. But I have to wonder if they haven't found the XMP setting in the BIOS that makes high speed ram just work

Sadly I haven't personally seen the first workstation they built thanks to social distancing, but the chap who received it seemed very pleased.

[Xlucine]

For £2k in parts you could have a 2080ti if you step down to a 3700X and sensible cooling, and that's including the windows licence

[BigBANGerZ]

agreed for 2k you'd expect a 2080Ti though that's a tough sell right now given how poor an upgrade it was over the 1080Ti (3yrs ago?) and the Nvidia tax vs. what is coming down the line in 6months

[Tunnah]

3700x, x570 mobo, and an m.2 drive and this'd be perfect. And obviously the right speed ram.