(GPUless) First Build!

[Walrusplayz21]

Budget (including currency): £1000 ±100 (PC and peripherals)

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Valorant, CSGO, GTA V, Minecraft, General browsing, but would like to be able to play more demanding titles from time to time.

Other details: Currently no existing parts: upgrading from a laptop. Most likely one monitor 1080p with 144Hz.  Also looking to add a GPU (3060) in the future when prices drop.

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/vMMsY9

 

Trying to make a GPUless build that is good value for money and around £1000. Primarily used for gaming with general browsing and schoolwork on the side.

Any suggestions on better parts for a similar price or anywhere I can save money on parts and put that money into other components would be appreciated. 

 

**CPU** | [AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor] £199.50 

**CPU Cooler** | [Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO V2 62 CFM CPU Cooler] £29.99 

**Thermal Compound** | [Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5 g Thermal Paste] £6.78

 

**Motherboard** | [MSI MPG B550 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard] £114.50
**Memory** | [Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory] £59.99 

**Storage** | [Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive] £62.99

**Storage** | [Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive]| £40.98
 
**Case** | [Zalman S2 ATX Mid Tower Case] £45.82 

**Power Supply** | [Corsair RMx (2018) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply] £69.99 

**Wireless Network Adapter** | [TP-Link Archer T4E PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter] £28.49  

 

**Case Fan** | [ARCTIC P12 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan] £6.39 
**Case Fan** | [ARCTIC P12 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan] £6.39 
**Case Fan** | [ARCTIC P12 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan] £6.39 

 

**Monitor** | [AOC 24G2U/BK 24.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor] £189.95 

**Keyboard** | [Redragon K552 Wired Gaming Keyboard] £41.99 

**Mouse** | [Razer Viper Mini Wired Optical Mouse] £24.99 

**Headphones** | [Razer Kraken X 7.1 Channel Headset] £37.99

 

 | **Total** | **£973.12**
 | Generated by [PCPartPicker]

 

Some other basic questions; do I need a sound card, do I need to flash the BIOS of the motherboard, would a 3060 be suitable to add in the future and how should I configure the fans in the case.

 

[Chris Pratt]

Sound cards are only necessary for folks doing actual audio mastering type workflows. Virtually all modern motherboards come with built-in audio that's sufficient for mere consumption. It's like how you can get display out and even basic gaming out of integrated graphics, but you need a dedicated GPU for serious gaming performance.

 

You probably won't need to do a BIOS update at this point, but it is a possibility. 500 series AM4 motherboards preceded Zen 3, so there's a possibility you could get one that was manufactured earlier. Boards that rolled off the assembly line since Zen 3 was released all come with the necessary BIOS update applied. This goes doubly for the Zen 3 APUs which were released after the rest of the Zen 3 line up and require an even more recent BIOS revision specifically to support them. In other words, even if the box says "5000 series ready", it still might not have a recent enough BIOS to support the 5000 series APUs. If you do end up needing to apply an update, AMD has a program where they'll mail you a loaner CPU to apply the update with.

 

A 3060 will work with the system and will be sufficient for 1080p gaming.

 

As for fan config, just throw the three you're buying up front and leave the included one as a back exhaust. Nothing more complicated is necessary.

 

[BiotechBen]

You won't need a sound card unless you believe that onboard audio is just too plebian for your ears, a 3060 would be good addition down the line, and for bios flash: it depends.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/2nPCJM

Cut cost by ~160£, upgraded psu, ssd, cooler, and rams

 

Vetroo v5 should be abit more beefy than an h212

 

Cheaper b550 aorus elite board, it even comes with wifi so no need for a wifi card

 

Upgraded to ballistix since cheaper and guaranteed with micron dies which basically means 4500+ cl18 is acheivable with enough tuning, i do reccomend running ludicrous ram speed cause igpu will benifit alot from it but that might be abit tedious with the tuning so maybe go for an easier 4000-4133cl16 tune (pretty much raise freq then set volt between 1.4-1.5v), i reccomend looking at buildzoid ballistix oc vids just so you arent going in blind when ram oc

 

Upgraded ssd to 1tb and it should still be decently fast, 970 evo are overpriced and overrated so avoid those (pricing is so bad to the point that even a 980 pro has better value than a 980 or 970 evo)

 

Upgraded the psu to an 850w cause same price

 

Yeeted the fans cause zalman s2 should already come with 3 fans preinstalled (2 in 1 out), though you may wanna add 1 p12 just to give the eventual gpu some airflow

[Walrusplayz21]

9 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

Sound cards are only necessary for folks doing actual audio mastering type workflows. Virtually all modern motherboards come with built-in audio that's sufficient for mere consumption. It's like how you can get display out and even basic gaming out of integrated graphics, but you need a dedicated GPU for serious gaming performance.

 

You probably won't need to do a BIOS update at this point, but it is a possibility. 500 series AM4 motherboards preceded Zen 3, so there's a possibility you could get one that was manufactured earlier. Boards that rolled off the assembly line since Zen 3 was released all come with the necessary BIOS update applied. This goes doubly for the Zen 3 APUs which were released after the rest of the Zen 3 line up and require an even more recent BIOS revision specifically to support them. In other words, even if the box says "5000 series ready", it still might not have a recent enough BIOS to support the 5000 series APUs. If you do end up needing to apply an update, AMD has a program where they'll mail you a loaner CPU to apply the update with.

 

A 3060 will work with the system and will be sufficient for 1080p gaming.

 

As for fan config, just throw the three you're buying up front and leave the included one as a back exhaust. Nothing more complicated is necessary.

 

Thanks, that makes a lot more sense now.

 Would you say all the parts I have selected are 'the best value for money' considering my budget, or should some parts be downgraded (for example; motherboard, M.2 drive or PSU) because there are cheaper alternatives that can do the same job without affecting performance too much?

 Also you talked about using the included fan as a back exhaust, is this included with the case? And will only one exhaust fan be enough when there are 3 intakes? (I'm not too knowledgeable on this stuff and this may sound really stupid).

[Walrusplayz21]

17 minutes ago, BiotechBen said:

You won't need a sound card unless you believe that onboard audio is just too plebian for your ears, a 3060 would be good addition down the line, and for bios flash: it depends.

Is there anything to look out for in terms of knowing whether to flash or not?

[Walrusplayz21]

5 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/2nPCJM

Cut cost by ~160£, upgraded psu, ssd, cooler, and rams

 

Vetroo v5 should be abit more beefy than an h212

 

Cheaper b550 aorus elite board, it even comes with wifi so no need for a wifi card

 

Upgraded to ballistix since cheaper and guaranteed with micron dies which basically means 4500+ cl18 is acheivable with enough tuning, i do reccomend running ludicrous ram speed cause igpu will benifit alot from it but that might be abit tedious with the tuning so maybe go for an easier 4000-4133cl16 tune (pretty much raise freq then set volt between 1.4-1.5v), i reccomend looking at buildzoid ballistix oc vids just so you arent going in blind when ram oc

 

Upgraded ssd to 1tb and it should still be decently fast, 970 evo are overpriced and overrated so avoid those (pricing is so bad to the point that even a 980 pro has better value than a 980 or 970 evo)

 

Upgraded the psu to an 850w cause same price

 

Yeeted the fans cause zalman s2 should already come with 3 fans preinstalled (2 in 1 out), though you may wanna add 1 p12 just to give the eventual gpu some airflow

Wow!

Looking at the LTT tier list for CPU coolers, the Vetroo v5 is placed one tier lower that the h212.

 

Aorus Elite seems like a great deal!

 

I'm not too caught up with overclocking and don't really want to risk something like that, but I will have a look at the video, Ballistix are cheaper so I think I'll go for them anyway. How must more performance does the increased RAM speed bring, is it really necessary?

 

Is throwing everything onto the SSD a good idea, will it slow it down if I am putting random files on it and not just primarily storing games on it? 

 

Is there any disadvantage to having an 850W PSU (does it not run at lower efficiency for lower power loads)? Its a bit overkill right, even with a GPU? Is the TXM better than the RMx, if so why the price difference?

 

Didn't know the case came with fans, that's great, are they good fans or will they just do the job?

 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

11 minutes ago, Walrusplayz21 said:

I'm not too caught up with overclocking and don't really want to risk something like that, but I will have a look at the video, Ballistix are cheaper so I think I'll go for them anyway. How must more performance does the increased RAM speed bring, is it really necessary?

Oc is not dangerous as long as you arent a moron and set 1.9v ram or some stupid sht like that, ballistix caps at ~1.65v scaling wise and that should be dailyable if you got active cooling, though uneccesary unless you are running ludicrously low timings or stupidly high speeds (5000+), theres far more reward than risk here

 

14 minutes ago, Walrusplayz21 said:

Is throwing everything onto the SSD a good idea, will it slow it down if I am putting random files on it and not just primarily storing games on it?

Ssds only slow down when they are almost full so avoid going over 90% ssd capacity

 

15 minutes ago, Walrusplayz21 said:

 

Is there any disadvantage to having an 850W PSU (does it not run at lower efficiency for lower power loads)? Its a bit overkill right, even with a GPU? Is the TXM better than the RMx, if so why the price difference?

Yea lower power loads may have nuked efficiency (<100w) but the psu will be a long term saving since if you ever go buy a high end gpu like a 3080 then the psu will have enough capacity to support it. TXM is abit lower end than RMx but that pretty much doesnt matter other than some small things to nitpick like component choice, the fan, semi modular cables, etc.

 

17 minutes ago, Walrusplayz21 said:

Didn't know the case came with fans, that's great, are they good fans or will they just do the job?

Its a budget case, ofc they are only meant to do the job, though pretty much doesnt matter as long as they are quiet enough and provide sufficient airflow

[Walrusplayz21]

4 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Oc is not dangerous as long as you arent a moron and set 1.9v ram or some stupid sht like that, ballistix caps at ~1.65v scaling wise and that should be dailyable if you got active cooling, though uneccesary unless you are running ludicrously low timings or stupidly high speeds (5000+), theres far more reward than risk here

 

Ssds only slow down when they are almost full so avoid going over 90% ssd capacity

 

Yea lower power loads may have nuked efficiency (<100w) but the psu will be a long term saving since if you ever go buy a high end gpu like a 3080 then the psu will have enough capacity to support it. TXM is abit lower end than RMx but that pretty much doesnt matter other than some small things to nitpick like component choice, the fan, semi modular cables, etc.

 

Its a budget case, ofc they are only meant to do the job, though pretty much doesnt matter as long as they are quiet enough and provide sufficient airflow

Thanks a lot, cleared up a lot of uncertainties. I don't think I'll ever go for a 3080, bit expensive and don't think I'll ever crave that much performance, any other reason to go for the increased wattage as it feels more 'natural' for me to go for the RMx; its fully modular, slightly higher end (as you say), and surely a lower wattage is going to result in lower power bills.