Family fun!

[Time Bandit]

A friend was looking at some pre-built systems for a reasonably substantial family PC which will be used for photos and video (including editing) while the kids will be gaming their t*ts off whenever they are allowed near it. If the family can get 6 or more years out of it (subject to usual upgrades) they were looking at a budget of ~£1200 for the tower. They already have their eye on a nice 27” QHD Dell monitor with Freesync and support for Gsync.

I was asked what I thought of the system selected. There seemed to be lots of LEDs and an expensive graphics card but otherwise the components seemed rather modest for a relatively expensive PC. I looked at 3XS and a couple of other sites and struggled to get what felt like the right mix of components. One option is to get the bits separately and let the local PC shop put it together which is apparently a possibility.

After checking a couple of threads on here I threw this together on PC Partpicker just to get a vague idea of the costs and wondered if anyone would like to comment as it is has been a while since I built my own.

Thanks. TB

Motherboard	MSI B550-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard	£99.94
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	£242.31
Cooler	Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler	£30.99
Graphics	MSI Radeon RX 6600 XT 8 GB GAMING X	£429.99
Memory	Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16	£68.79
OS Drive	WD Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVMe	£69.98
‘Games Drive'	Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" SSD	£99.29
Media Storage	Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5"	£41.99
Case	Corsair 110Q ATX Mid Tower	£58.09
PSU	SeaSonic CORE GM 650 W 80+ Gold Semi-modular	£59.99

Without the OS (not required), this comes to just over £1200.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It might be more cost effective to get a prebuilt system:
https://forums.hexus.net/review-my-b...or-2020-a.html

I would have a look at the prebuilt system some of us suggested.

[DanceswithUnix]

I can never put together a list of what I think are ideal components, but the best pre built I have found are PC Specialist:

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/compu...d-am4-gen3-pc/

They are pretty good, the main downside for me it their insistence on using Corsair Vengeance RAM. I can only assume they have some exclusivity deal to get a better price on that. But then, it's their job to get the stuff to work in a Ryzen machine.


Edit: Three drives seems excessive. You could save a little money if you just have a single 2TB NVMe drive and lose the SATA ssd: https://www.ebuyer.com/1136129-wd-bl...ve-wds200t2b0c
Makes the build simpler, neater wiring, fewer things to go wrong.

[Time Bandit]

Thank you both for these replies.

I looked at the other thread and am happy that B550/R5 5600X seems to be a reasonable way to go and the Scan offer on the MSI MAG B550M MORTAR looks like a good upgrade for no extra cost.

I have pretty much given up on finding a RTX 3060 Ti at sensible money and will have a look again at the 'backdoor offers' when my friends are closer to deciding on what they want to do (how on earth to people find out stuff like this!)

The 3 HDD solution is indeed a bit over the top, the family have lots of photos and videos so the HDD is necessary but I hadn't realised how much cheaper larger NVMe drives had got so losing the SATA SSD is indeed a bit of a no brainer.

I still find it incredibly frustrating navigating the pre-build sites - never seem to be able get quite the combination you want! I did have a go with the PC Specialist configurator and the closest to this (losing the SATA SSD) came in at £1,320. The mobo (Asus Prime B550-Plus) and the NVMe drive (Corsair MP400 2TB) are both a little more expensive, but the RX 6600 XT comes out at £392 which is a bit better.

It will be interesting to see what the local PC shop might charge to put a bunch of components together - that could be the deciding factor.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thank you both for these replies.

I looked at the other thread and am happy that B550/R5 5600X seems to be a reasonable way to go and the Scan offer on the MSI MAG B550M MORTAR looks like a good upgrade for no extra cost.

I have pretty much given up on finding a RTX 3060 Ti at sensible money and will have a look again at the 'backdoor offers' when my friends are closer to deciding on what they want to do (how on earth to people find out stuff like this!)

The 3 HDD solution is indeed a bit over the top, the family have lots of photos and videos so the HDD is necessary but I hadn't realised how much cheaper larger NVMe drives had got so losing the SATA SSD is indeed a bit of a no brainer.

I still find it incredibly frustrating navigating the pre-build sites - never seem to be able get quite the combination you want! I did have a go with the PC Specialist configurator and the closest to this (losing the SATA SSD) came in at £1,320. The mobo (Asus Prime B550-Plus) and the NVMe drive (Corsair MP400 2TB) are both a little more expensive, but the RX 6600 XT comes out at £392 which is a bit better.

It will be interesting to see what the local PC shop might charge to put a bunch of components together - that could be the deciding factor.

I would get the Palicomp deal on there - for around a £1000 you can get a Ryzen 5 5600X and a RTX3060TI. CPWhite made a guide on what to do and you can customise the parts.

If you want to build your own you either need to wait for an RTX3060TI FE drop,or get an RX6600XT for at least £430~£450!