Speccing new system for friend. Thoughts?

[dannyboy75]

A friend has asked me to spec a new PC for him. His budget is £1200(ish), which I've advised him will get something decent but not high-end. He's going to be using it for work and some 1440p gaming.

We are both mostly vendor agnostic, although I tend to stick to nVidia on the GPU side of things atm.

As a first draft, I've come up with the following:

Raptor Lake i5 13500 - £250
NZXT N5 Z690 - £155
2x16GB 3600MHz DDR4 - £100
850W Thermaltake PSU - £130
RTX 3070 - £550
m.2 PCIe 1TB SSD - £65

The above comes to £1250, and I haven't factored in a case or any secondary storage.

Also, I haven't mentioned specific parts for RAM/SSD as there are multiple options with these, at same price points.

Is the CPU a bit overkill for the rest of the system? I thought a non-K Intel would keep things simple as he's not going to be overclocking, and saves having to spec a separate cooler.

Appreciate any thoughts/feedback anyway. Thanks.

[AGTDenton]

First thing is you can definitely go with a 650-750W PSU, definitely don't spend that much for an 850W either!

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w...-black-atx-psu @ £75.98
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w...n-atx-psu-refu @ £53.99

You could easily drop to a 12400f & to the H610 chipset

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/inte...che-65w-retail @ £164.99
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus...n1-a-micro-atx @ £94.99



Then I'd go for something like this Lian Li Lancool chassis
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lian-...ca-786-ll.html @ £64.99

Hopefully you'll then have a bit left over still for extra storage or the modern turbo boost of RGB lighting!

[dannyboy75]

Looks like some sound advice there, thanks mate

Seeing how the 12400F and 3070 run those games, that'd be more than adequate for his needs. He's not a hardcore gamer or PC enthusiast, he just wants a PC he can use for work and also some gaming now and then.

Just added up the rough savings and it's about £200. Think I had way over-specced it for him!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I wouldn't pay £550 for an RTX3070,especially as the generation is EOL and the RRP is £469. Its an utter ripoff at £550 because Nvidia admitted they did not want to reduce pricing. I would try and hold out for an RTX3060TI FE drop for around £370.

You can an RX6800 for £500 or RX6800XT for £600 which is much faster:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/PowerColor-.../dp/B08P2B5XXD
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/power...gx-19u-pc.html

Also a Ryzen 7 5700X has dropped in price too. I wouldn't get a pure six core CPU now if you have the budget,either an 8 core or a hybrid Intel six core CPU.

I would get this:
https://www.cclonline.com/100-100000...-core-am4-cpu/
https://www.cclonline.com/b550-a-pro...-amd-am4-cpus/
https://www.cclonline.com/bk007-be-q...er-cpu-cooler/
https://www.cclonline.com/kf436c16rb...r4-memory-kit/
https://www.cclonline.com/skc3000s-1...-m-2-2280-1tb/
https://www.cclonline.com/fd-ca-focu...black-usb-3-0/
https://www.ebuyer.com/1615766-corsa...-cp-9020229-uk

The Kingston KC3000 is one of the quickest PCI-E 4.0 SSDs available ATM. The total comes to just over £650.

An RX6700 starts at £350ish and an RX6700XT starts at £375ish. They also have the advantage of having more VRAM than an RTX3070 which might prove useful. Raytracing performance will be better on the RTX3070 but again,even with my RTX3060TI it is still not sufficient IMHO,and the RTX3070 isn't much better AFAIK.

But IIRC,Raytracing does put demands on both the VRAM and CPU too.

The Nvidia dGPUs are massively overpriced in comparison:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/sa...gb-299-dollars




The RTX3070 is probably slightly ahead of the RX6700XT at qHD AFAIK,but not generally its not £150+ faster.

Also the RX6600 and A750 are below £250,so these might be sufficient depending on the games being run.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

There are also a few prebuilt systems on offer too for under £900:
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/the...awd-it-4083513
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/int...licomp-4082819
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/msi...awd-it-4082556

These have RTX3060TI/RX6700XT/RX6750XT dGPUs and either a Ryzen 5 5600 or a Core i5 12400F.

[AGTDenton]

Some good deals there. You could then spend on some more RAM, peripherals etc.. with the savings

[dannyboy75]

There are also a few prebuilt systems on offer too for under £900:
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/the...awd-it-4083513
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/int...licomp-4082819
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/msi...awd-it-4082556

These have RTX3060TI/RX6700XT/RX6750XT dGPUs and either a Ryzen 5 5600 or a Core i5 12400F.

Thanks for all the info Cat, appreciate it. Those pre-built systems look to be decent value. I'm going to speak to the guy who wants this PC later, so will see what he thinks.

If he does want to geek out and build it himself though, looks like there are plenty of cheaper options to what I originally came up with.

I know what you mean about RTX cards being a rip-off these days. I was fortunate to get my 3080 FE at RRP, but even that was the same as I paid for an xx80Ti (£650) with the 10 series cards. And the 40xx pricing is utterly stupid.

I'd tended to steer clear of AMD's GPUs because of the lower ray-tracing performance, but I know they're better in terms of bang-for-buck in general raster performance so could be worth considering. I'll check with my mate what kind of games he's going to be playing, and whether he's bothered about RT. Looking at those GPU benchmarks, maybe a 6700XT is the way to go.

[Saracen999]

Prebuilts have one huge if not obvious advantage - you're far less likely to end up as free, 24/7 tech support than if your recommend a parts list, and even worse, if you help build it.

Just sayin' .... (from bitter experience )

[dannyboy75]

Prebuilts have one huge if not obvious advantage - you're far less likely to end up as free, 24/7 tech support than if your recommend a parts list, and even worse, if you help build it.

Just sayin' .... (from bitter experience )

That's a very good point. Working in IT, I often end up being tech support for friends & family already. Don't really want to add another one to my list.

Also, I can build PC's just fine, but the one thing I'm abysmal at is cable management. I can already see the look of disappointment on my mate's face when he looks inside his new PC and sees a bird's nest of cables

[MrJim]

Also, I can build PC's just fine, but the one thing I'm abysmal at is cable management. I can already see the look of disappointment on my mate's face when he looks inside his new PC and sees a bird's nest of cables

I'm the same! I just don't have the patience - as long as everything works, that's all I care about. In any case, if you want to add or remove any components at a later date, it's a pain to have to do all the cable management all over again. My best tip: buy a case with a solid side-panel. Where cable management is concerned, 'out of sight, out of mind' works a treat!

[AGTDenton]

I will say modern cases do make it much easier for cable management. I too never bothered in the past.

The Fractal Torrent I bought has preinstalled cable management that's finally functional. I didn't put much effort into cable management it just seemed to just be naturally tidy.
And with the plentiful gap behind the motherboards these days it's easy to hide nrealy all of it out of site.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for all the info Cat, appreciate it. Those pre-built systems look to be decent value. I'm going to speak to the guy who wants this PC later, so will see what he thinks.

If he does want to geek out and build it himself though, looks like there are plenty of cheaper options to what I originally came up with.

I know what you mean about RTX cards being a rip-off these days. I was fortunate to get my 3080 FE at RRP, but even that was the same as I paid for an xx80Ti (£650) with the 10 series cards. And the 40xx pricing is utterly stupid.

I'd tended to steer clear of AMD's GPUs because of the lower ray-tracing performance, but I know they're better in terms of bang-for-buck in general raster performance so could be worth considering. I'll check with my mate what kind of games he's going to be playing, and whether he's bothered about RT. Looking at those GPU benchmarks, maybe a 6700XT is the way to go.

The big problem is you end up having the Nvidia cards being in the wrong areas. So an RTX3050 against an RX6600/RX6600XT and an RTX3060 against an RX6700/RX6700XT,so even with RT the difference is reduced because you end up having lower end Nvidia dGPUs competing on price.

But as I mentioned before its quite clear System Integrators are getting Nvidia dGPUs at a much lower price. Hence you can get an RTX3060TI at around RX6700XT/RX6750XT pricing which is a much more evenly matched comparison.

[dannyboy75]

I'm the same! I just don't have the patience - as long as everything works, that's all I care about. In any case, if you want to add or remove any components at a later date, it's a pain to have to do all the cable management all over again. My best tip: buy a case with a solid side-panel. Where cable management is concerned, 'out of sight, out of mind' works a treat!

Exactly. My MO is "Chuck it all in the case and power it up. If it POSTs then it's all good"

[AGTDenton]

With the components going in there I don't see it as being an issue, but a mesh case will always be better and there is as it happens a mesh front option to the Lancool 205.
I just don't think the mesh cases look as nice, but each to their own.

I had a Fractal Design R3 noise dampened & dust proof case full of 8 HDDs at the front with a GTX 980 and never had any toasty issues.
Ironically I had massive dust issues, so I now don't bother with full dust proof chassis even on a server.

But a small itx case I had lots of heat trouble! The GPU was completely starved of any air based on where it was placed right up against the top, the only option would have been a much slower card or to get a blower style.

[Saracen999]

I'm the same! I just don't have the patience - as long as everything works, that's all I care about. In any case, if you want to add or remove any components at a later date, it's a pain to have to do all the cable management all over again. My best tip: buy a case with a solid side-panel. Where cable management is concerned, 'out of sight, out of mind' works a treat!

Late response alert .... ( )

I'm a bit .... ambivolent .... about cable management.

On the one hand, my PCs are tools for me to do stuff, be it work, play games, whatever. They're not works of art and I'm not planning on displaying one in Tate Modern. Though, now that I think about it, I think it's one daft idea they haven't done yet, so ...

Sorry, got side-tracked. I'm not OCD about cable management, and as for some Youtubers buying custom coloured cables 'cos they look good .... well, if it floats their boat, it's their money. Nor am I OCD about being ultra neat, and cable-tying the crap out of a build.

However .... I do tend to use (removeable and reusable) cable ties to keep internals moderately neat. I don't want random cables running all over the place getting in the way of access should I need to add/remove a card, or SSD or whatever. And while it's nowhere near as much an issue as it used to be, due to even SATA cables being much smaller than older HDD/FD cables (the old, huge ribbon cables I mean) they can still be a bit of a block to airflow. So I do tend to route data cables round the back, then tie them up (once installation is done) just to keep them from driving me nuts if messing about with internals at a later date.

I'd guess my total time expenditure on cable management, per PC build, is maybe 2 minutes. Mainly, loop anything lose int one bundle, tuck it somewhere reasonably out of the way and stick a cable tie or two on it. At most, if I'm in the mood, maybe 5 minutes.

As you said, 'out of sight, out of mind'. Especially given zero interest in RGB and a very strong preference for solid, not windowed, case side panels, so nobody but me is ever likely to see my cable management "skills', or lack thereof. My ethos, therefore, is "enough but not excessive, and definitely functional but fast".

I did have one PC build recipient comment "not very neat". I offered to redo it and get it "beautifully neat". I only charge £60/hour for such work. Guess what they said? I would quote it, but the swear filter would probably overheat.

[DanceswithUnix]

I don't want random cables running all over the place getting in the way of access should I need to add/remove a card, or SSD or whatever. And while it's nowhere near as much an issue as it used to be, due to even SATA cables being much smaller than older HDD/FD cables (the old, huge ribbon cables I mean) they can still be a bit of a block to airflow.

I do love that about modern SSDs. Every time I fit an NVMe drive neatly onto a motherboard I smile at the lack of data and power cables I have to route and tidy.