Sons friends PC build

[Ravens Nest]

MY sons friend has a budget of £600 for a gaming PC 1080p

He has the Monitor, keyboard and mouse already.


CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 1200mhz (£89.99 @ Aria PC)

Motherboard: MSI - B350M Pro-vdh Motherboard (£64.97 @ Amazon UK)

Memory:Ballistic sport LT - 8GB (1 X 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£84.60 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Samsung 850 evo series SSD 2.5" (£80.21 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.79 @ Amazon UK)

Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050ti 4GB SC Gaming ACX 2.0 Video Card (£154.27 @ Novatech)

Case: Deepcool Smarter MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£19.04 @ ebuyer)

Power Supply: Corsair 2015 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£51.49 @ Novatech)

Total: £582.36

Any ideas how this can be improved? i am thinking he should maybe buy second hand ( a Nvidia 970 would be an improvement)

[DanceswithUnix]

SSD will just boost boot and patching times, put that money into the graphics card and it will boost every single frame of every game. Save the SSD for a future upgrade when they can get a decent sized one.

[Ravens Nest]

SSD will just boost boot and patching times, put that money into the graphics card and it will boost every single frame of every game. Save the SSD for a future upgrade when they can get a decent sized one.

That's a really good point thanks

[scaryjim]

Faster memory - Ryzen loves it. Shouldn't really change the cost too much to get 2666MHz instead of 2400MHz making the most out of the stock capabailities of the CPU, and if the friend has any interesting in overclocking consider the extra money for 3200MHz. I'm also not sure if running single channel on Ryzen will have any noticable impact on CPU performance...

I did my step-son's Christmas upgrade with Kingston HyperX bought direct: 8GB single module @ 2666MHz is £84.90 (https://www.hyperxgaming.com/en/memo...=HX426C16FB2/8), and a dual channel 8GB kit is £91.34 (https://www.hyperxgaming.com/en/memo...HX426C15FBK2/8) - although you do have to allow for delivery, which is ~ £4 extra. They dropped into an ASRock B350 mobo at full rated speed.

[Ravens Nest]

Faster memory - Ryzen loves it. Shouldn't really change the cost too much to get 2666MHz instead of 2400MHz making the most out of the stock capabailities of the CPU, and if the friend has any interesting in overclocking consider the extra money for 3200MHz. I'm also not sure if running single channel on Ryzen will have any noticable impact on CPU performance...

I did my step-son's Christmas upgrade with Kingston HyperX bought direct: 8GB single module @ 2666MHz is £84.90 (https://www.hyperxgaming.com/en/memo...=HX426C16FB2/8), and a dual channel 8GB kit is £91.34 (https://www.hyperxgaming.com/en/memo...HX426C15FBK2/8) - although you do have to allow for delivery, which is ~ £4 extra. They dropped into an ASRock B350 mobo at full rated speed.

I will let him know, so do you rate the Asrock b350 mb? dual channel might be wise..

[scaryjim]

... do you rate the Asrock b350 mb? ...

The one I went for was the AB350M Pro4 - it was on offer when I picked it up @ ~ £65, and I went for it because it was the cheapest mATX with 4 RAM slots (although the inclusion of USB-C was a factor too).

It's only been in use for a week, so it's hard to give a good impression, but in terms of quality, ease of build, and intuitive UEFI I've got no complaints. I splashed out a bit so it's hosting a 1300X, 16GB of the HyperX 2666MHz, and a 240GB NVMe SSD (plus his existing RX 460). AFAICT he spent the entire long weekend over new year playing on it, though, and he's promised to contact me immediately if he has any problems, so I'd guess it's holding up OK And it had no problems at all booting the procesor and RAM with the shipping BIOS, although pretty much the first thing I did once the build was complete was update it to the latest one anyway!

[Mr_Jon]

I've been running the Asrock AB350M Pro4 since October, and it seems fine - I've got no ground for complaints.

[Ravens Nest]

The one I went for was the AB350M Pro4 - it was on offer when I picked it up @ ~ £65, and I went for it because it was the cheapest mATX with 4 RAM slots (although the inclusion of USB-C was a factor too).

It's only been in use for a week, so it's hard to give a good impression, but in terms of quality, ease of build, and intuitive UEFI I've got no complaints. I splashed out a bit so it's hosting a 1300X, 16GB of the HyperX 2666MHz, and a 240GB NVMe SSD (plus his existing RX 460). AFAICT he spent the entire long weekend over new year playing on it, though, and he's promised to contact me immediately if he has any problems, so I'd guess it's holding up OK And it had no problems at all booting the procesor and RAM with the shipping BIOS, although pretty much the first thing I did once the build was complete was update it to the latest one anyway!

Thanks you've given me a few things to think about

I've been running the Asrock AB350M Pro4 since October, and it seems fine - I've got no ground for complaints.

Thanks Mr_Jon thats helpful

[Ravens Nest]

Updated build so far..

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 6 Core AM4 CPU/Processor with Wraith Spire 95W cooler (£179.98 @ ebuyer)

Motherboard: ASRock AMD Ryzen AB350M Pro4 AM4 mATX Motherboard (£72.83 @ ebuyer)

Memory: Patriot Viper 4 8GB (2x 4GB) 3000MHz DDR4 RAM (£89.99 @ ebuyer)

Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£41.98 @ ebuyer)

Video Card: Asus GTX 1060 3GB Phoenix Graphics Card (£182.99 @ ebuyer)

Case: AvP Viper Micro ATX Gaming Case (£17.45 @ ebuyer)

Power Supply: CORSAIR CXM series CX550M 550W 80 PLUS BRONZE (£47.06 @ ebuyer)

Total: £632.32 (£49.96 more than before) (Used one place to reduce postage costs, but i will still see if i can improve prices further..)

[Mr_Jon]

Thanks Mr_Jon thats helpful

Ha. I mean that yeah, what Jim said - quality, ease of build, intuitive uefi - make it a good board with nothing I've found in that time to be a problem (some boards I've had I've picked faults in right away, or noticed stuff that doesn't make sense - but there's none of that with this board).

The only thing I've seen people gripe about on other forums is the fan headers. There are three - one pwm cpu (that only does fan control with 4-pinners), and two chassis (one of which does adjustable speeds, one doesn't). But they might not have heard of fan splitters or hubs.

[DanceswithUnix]

I suspect Cat will pop up soon to rant at the 3GB on that video card.

I was thinking £50 up from the 1050ti gets you something like: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GV.../dp/B071CQ4MMK

Edit: or https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sapph...gx-37u-sp.html

[Millennium]

It looks pretty sensible to me. Couple of things:

1) can you wait it out for ryzen+?
2) can you go for say a second hand 480 might be about the same cost?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Updated build so far..

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 6 Core AM4 CPU/Processor with Wraith Spire 95W cooler (£179.98 @ ebuyer)

Motherboard: ASRock AMD Ryzen AB350M Pro4 AM4 mATX Motherboard (£72.83 @ ebuyer)

Memory: Patriot Viper 4 8GB (2x 4GB) 3000MHz DDR4 RAM (£89.99 @ ebuyer)

Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£41.98 @ ebuyer)

Video Card: Asus GTX 1060 3GB Phoenix Graphics Card (£182.99 @ ebuyer)

Case: AvP Viper Micro ATX Gaming Case (£17.45 @ ebuyer)

Power Supply: CORSAIR CXM series CX550M 550W 80 PLUS BRONZE (£47.06 @ ebuyer)

Total: £632.32 (£49.96 more than before) (Used one place to reduce postage costs, but i will still see if i can improve prices further..)

I would probably avoid a GTX1060 3GB TBH,as more and more games tend to use more VRAM,so I would be looking for a 4GB as a minimum. The motherboard is not too bad,but IIRC it is apparently only a three phase design for the VRM:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzRG_LjUl8Q

[scaryjim]

... Edit: or https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sapph...gx-37u-sp.html

That's a stonking price for an RX 570 - it'd definitely be my choice with that kind of budget.

[Xlucine]

A generic 570 trades blows with a 6GB 1060, which is faster than the 3GB model by a fair margin.

You could probably find a second hand 980 for around that (I know 980ti's are ~£250), I'm not sure how that'd compare

[Ravens Nest]

I suspect Cat will pop up soon to rant at the 3GB on that video card.

I was thinking £50 up from the 1050ti gets you something like: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GV.../dp/B071CQ4MMK

Edit: or https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sapph...gx-37u-sp.html

Thats a good alternative to the 1060 3gb, he prefers Nvidia but i like AMD myself.

It looks pretty sensible to me. Couple of things:

1) can you wait it out for ryzen+?
2) can you go for say a second hand 480 might be about the same cost?

Couldn't find a 480 for less than £250 and thats the 4GB one.. shocking prices!

Ryzen+, yeah i did tell him but he wants to get it now i think.

I would probably avoid a GTX1060 3GB TBH,as more and more games tend to use more VRAM,so I would be looking for a 4GB as a minimum. The motherboard is not too bad,but IIRC it is apparently only a three phase design for the VRM:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzRG_LjUl8Q

I am going to look at the 580 as has been suggested as an better buy, what is a good budget MATX Ryzen motherboard?

That's a stonking price for an RX 570 - it'd definitely be my choice with that kind of budget.

Yeah im definitely going to let him know.

A generic 570 trades blows with a 6GB 1060, which is faster than the 3GB model by a fair margin.

You could probably find a second hand 980 for around that (I know 980ti's are ~£250), I'm not sure how that'd compare

The 980ti would be great for him, but cant find it cheap and the second hand market makes me think of bitcoin worn out GPU's