Rookie - First Build - All Help & Advice Appreciated

[mickter]

Budget (including currency): £~1200 GBP

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Gaming (Mount & Blade Bannerlord, Kerbal Space Programme, Total War games, Tomb Raider, GTA V etc). As well as some programming (Unity/Visual Studio).

Other details: This is my first PC build, I'm moving on from my deteriorating laptop. I'm using it with my current monitor - an AOC 24G2U. If it's not a terrible idea/there's no better options I plan to keep that and I'll buy another to have a second screen.

I'm in the UK, I saw the below list on UK Part picker which I thought could be a good base. But I struggle to tell if it's actually any good value for money. Or if I should be going with AMD? The link below seems to be coming in under budget so I have about £200 more to spend on the PC, so any tweaks that would give a good price to performance boost let me know.

Finally outside of this budget I'll need a windows key. I see I can include that on Part Picker but want to know if there are better options for building here in the UK.

Thanks!

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/WVVpXb

[flaxe]

AMD cpus are the best bang for your buck, while Intel CPUs give you the best raw performance. Also, your PSU will be severely close to its limit with that gpu. I would recommend something like a 650 watt gold psu at the very least. You can keep the same exact psu, and just select the option from amazon to make it 650+ watts. For the extra $200 (I'm from USA) I recommend getting better storage. If your motherboard is compatible with m.2 ssd's, I would get a 2 tb nvme ssd, along with another 2 tb regular ssd. I would then spend the rest of the money on a more premium case.

[flaxe]

Also, I'm not too sure of the legitimacy of it, but there are some youtubers I've watched where they were sponsored by a website which offered windows pro keys for something as little as 12 dollars. I'm not sure if this is legit, but it's worth doing some research into it.

[flaxe]

If storage isn't a concern with you, and you're good with 512 gb (or have old storage you could just switch over) then the next thing to upgrade is the cpu. However, upgrading the cpu most likely requires using a different motherboard as well. 

 

I apologize for being a little vague and for my english not being too well, I'm in a rush right now and don't have the time to look over my posts.

[Jonathan Lee]

AMD Ryzen 5000 is more expensive than most 10/11th Intel CPU equivalents, but are generally faster (for now).

 

12th gen is faster than 5000, but around the same price with extra e cores. AMD is NOT a value brand anymore.

 

For your budget, I would stick with the 11400. You really wouldn't benefit too much from going with a 5600x/12600k with a 3060 GPU. You would also go overbudget for not much gains.

 

I wouldn't go with the cheapest NVME drive because they can feel worst to use than a good SATA. You would want to go with one that has a dram cache. Here are some options:

 

Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£98.89 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: ADATA XPG GAMMIX S11 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£138.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Team MP34 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£112.46 @ Newegg UK) 
Storage: Mushkin Pilot-E 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£146.63 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Crucial P5 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£84.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: PNY CS2130 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£130.36 @ Newegg UK) 

 

A micro-atx motherboard might look a little small in a mid-tower atx case. You might want to go with a full atx case, but that's more of a personal taste.

 

If you want to spend the rest of budget, just bump the 11400 to 11700 and enjoy having an 8 core CPU for smoother game play. And/or get a higher wattage PSU so you can upgrade to a nicer GPU in the future.

[mickter]

13 hours ago, Flaxe said:

If storage isn't a concern with you, and you're good with 512 gb (or have old storage you could just switch over) then the next thing to upgrade is the cpu. However, upgrading the cpu most likely requires using a different motherboard as well. 

 

I apologize for being a little vague and for my english not being too well, I'm in a rush right now and don't have the time to look over my posts.

No need to apologize at all, I really appreciate your input, and your English is far better than any of my second languages!

I made some adjustments based off the feedback. I've improved (hopefully) the CPU, memory, case, and power supply. These are now closer to my full budget.

 

If you have any thoughts on this new list let me know!

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/6J48Tn

[mickter]

12 hours ago, Jonathan Lee said:

AMD Ryzen 5000 is more expensive than most 10/11th Intel CPU equivalents, but are generally faster (for now).

 

12th gen is faster than 5000, but around the same price with extra e cores. AMD is NOT a value brand anymore.

 

For your budget, I would stick with the 11400. You really wouldn't benefit too much from going with a 5600x/12600k with a 3060 GPU. You would also go overbudget for not much gains.

 

I wouldn't go with the cheapest NVME drive because they can feel worst to use than a good SATA. You would want to go with one that has a dram cache. Here are some options:

 

Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£98.89 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: ADATA XPG GAMMIX S11 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£138.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Team MP34 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£112.46 @ Newegg UK) 
Storage: Mushkin Pilot-E 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£146.63 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Crucial P5 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£84.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: PNY CS2130 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£130.36 @ Newegg UK) 

 

A micro-atx motherboard might look a little small in a mid-tower atx case. You might want to go with a full atx case, but that's more of a personal taste.

 

If you want to spend the rest of budget, just bump the 11400 to 11700 and enjoy having an 8 core CPU for smoother game play. And/or get a higher wattage PSU so you can upgrade to a nicer GPU in the future.

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply! I adjusted some of the equipment based off your feedback, hopefully improving the CPU, memory, case, and power supply.

Apologies I'm not 100% sure about your point on the motherboard/case. Should I be going for a bigger motherboard? Or a smaller case size?

 

If you have any thoughts on this new list let me know! And thanks again!

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/6J48Tn

[Somerandomtechyboi]

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/NY32Fg

¯\_ (ツ) _/¯ 

 

Gpu wise id suggest a 3060ti cause it performs alot better than the 3060, though you may also wanna have a look at the 6600xt cause it should perform better than the 3060 for pretty much the same price

[mickter]

1 hour ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/NY32Fg

¯\_ (ツ) _/¯ 

 

Gpu wise id suggest a 3060ti cause it performs alot better than the 3060, though you may also wanna have a look at the 6600xt cause it should perform better than the 3060 for pretty much the same price

Thanks for the information, do you think something like this 3060ti would be worth the extra £250?

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/89BG3C/msi-geforce-rtx-3060-ti-lhr-8-gb-ventus-3x-oc-video-card-geforce-rtx-3060-ti-ventus-3x-8g-oc-lhr

[Jonathan Lee]

6 hours ago, mickter said:

Apologies I'm not 100% sure about your point on the motherboard/case. Should I be going for a bigger motherboard? Or a smaller case size?

https://techguided.com/micro-atx-vs-mini-itx-vs-atx/

 

Here's a link for the comparison between sizes of motherboards. Mini-atx = itx, micro-atx = matx. A regular size case with a micro-atx will have empty space below the motherboard. Some people mind it, others don't. It's more of a personal preference. I would recommend getting a full size ATX board because it does have more expandability. More m.2 slots, more pcie slots, etc. 

 

For the build, if you're going with 11700K, I would go with with a Z590 board. Although if you don't plan to overclock, a B560 will be fine. I would get a higher quality board. Here are some recommendations:

MSI Z590-A PRO (cheapest Z590 board I would go with)

Asus TUF GAMING B560-PLUS WIFI

MSI MAG B560 TORPEDO

 

3 hours ago, mickter said:

Thanks for the information, do you think something like this 3060ti would be worth the extra £250?

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/89BG3C/msi-geforce-rtx-3060-ti-lhr-8-gb-ventus-3x-oc-video-card-geforce-rtx-3060-ti-ventus-3x-8g-oc-lhr

If you can afford it, sure. It will offset when you feel like you need to upgrade next time.