AmisThysia

I started my first build recently with the intention of spending around £350-400 on a bunch of used parts, a la Scrapyard Wars. Over time, the budget increased as I was informed across this forum that buying certain parts used is pretty dumb in reality - and also as I realised that I'd forgotten some core parts of the build, such as case fans and a wifi card. Ended up at around £550, having had a shift in priority towards performance rather than budget due to a series of perplexing BSODs on my 'gaming' laptop.
 
I've ended up with the following parts:
 
Case: Be Quiet Dark Base Pro 900, £50, used
Case fans: 2x140mm Noctua NF-A14, 2x120mm Noctua F-12, £30, used
Motherboard: MSI B450 Tomahawk Max, £82, new
CPU: Ryzen 5 2600 with Wraith Stealth stock cooler, £90, used - can hopefully sell on the Wraith Stealth and earn a little back.
Cooler: Arctic Freezer 34 Esports DUO, £27, new
GPU: AMD RX 480 4GB, £60, manufacturer refurbished
RAM: Patriot Viper 4 16GB (2x8) DDR4 3000Mhz, £55, "new" (off ebay, opened-but-never-used category.)
Storage: Crucial MX500 500GB SATA SSD, £58, new
PSU: Corsair TX650M 650W 80+ Gold, £65, new
WiFi Card: Ziyituod AX2974, £25, new
Thermal paste: Arctic MX4, £5, new
 
With all of those now confirmed - the last things arrive/are being picked up tomorrow or Monday - it's time to start my build log! I'll be updating with images as I put everything together, and with benchmarks upon completion. We'll see if I've managed to put something worth ~£550 (~$700) together.

If i got that response,.. I'd not buy it.
Test equipment before you buy.
Plain and Hella SImple.
Done Deal or No Deal, I want to know more, if they don't offer that, I don't offer anything either.
 
A few minutes to guarantee the sale,.. isn't much to ask IMO.
He found a way to limit his own potential... I have no idea why people think this way and are so stubborn to accommodate SIMPLE needs.

So “as is”.  there was a saying my dad liked “when something seems too good to be true it often is.”

No worries.

I mean there are certainly running issues that can occur with gear beyond not posting, but if it posts you know:
MOBO, PSU, CPU, RAM are operational. (RAM will give notifications if there are issues, or it just won't post.) If Windows boots up, you know the boot drive is operational. Confirm the monitor is hooked up to the GPU and not to the MOBO's IO Shield. If you're seeing display, the GPU is working. Talk to the seller ahead of time and express that you'd like to see the PC benchmarks. There are free stress tests you can perform that should show you that the GPU or CPU isn't gonna shut down under stress. Really from there, that should be a good indicator that it's all working fine.

Ah sorry, misunderstood you. I believe the x370 has solid VRM, though any check/confirmation of that from someone more experienced would be nice. And I think the H100i will be enough cooling but again, hard for me to know without the experience. As for RAM stuff, I'll definitely look into that - I think it may be one of the weaknesses of this board.
Thank you for all the advice!
 
True, but it doesn't really give me any practice of researching compatibility and understanding why certain parts work together. The above post by Bombastinator is a good example - just buying this, disassembling, and reassembling doesn't teach me about the importance of fast RAM for Ryzen, or about needing good VRM for overclocking (I didn't even know that VRM was a thing, honestly). It'd purely be about what cable plugs in where in this particular setup. Choosing parts and constructing my own, by contrast, does bring up those questions in conversation that allow me to learn. Plus I think it's more fun, and I'm entering this to develop a hobby and passion - that's the end goal, really, rather than my end goal being the actual product I end up with.
 
As a sidenote, I am genuinely astonished at the value CeX is selling that at. Really good. They're often fairly expensive (they want £95 for the 4GB RX 480 that I'm getting for £55 manufacturer-refurbished off Ebay!)

That's a steal.
 
 
I doubt USD 90 +shipping to the UK is worth it.
In the US, maybe. Maybe still too high for a 970 or a R9 290.
 
It depends - do you like less VRAM and older hardware?  

Afaik the RX 480 and GTX 970 are pretty much the same performance - found a refurb'd RX 480 for £55 (see above.) Would there be any reason to go for a 970 over (what seems to me) a good RX 480 deal?
See above.
 
Thank you for the response and help, all of you! Definitely a learning experience for me.

You should get a GTX 970 like this on Ebay.  It's only $90 if you buy out + shipping.
It's worth it at the price you're at.

Yeah i totally agree. Look for something else and just comment if you want to make sure the new thing got a good value.

Not worth. You can get a GTX 970 or rx480 for that price on eBay, probably even less.
(The guy wanted 70 pounds for it, lol)