First custom build - advice/changes please

[MrKev]

Budget (including currency): Max £1500 including the monitor (to purchase extra periperhals later on).

Country:  UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Variety of games including CS:GO, Valorant, Minecraft, various single player games.

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc):

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  (£155.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock 2 Black CPU Cooler  (£32.50 @ Technextday)
Motherboard: MSI B550-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£117.82 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory  (£57.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: *Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£99.98 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Asus GeForce RTX 3060 Ti LHR 8 GB DUAL MINI OC V2 Video Card  (£399.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case  (£88.99 @ AWD-IT)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2021) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (£91.99 @ AWD-IT)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Home OEM 64-bit  (£95.99 @ Box Limited)
Monitor: LG 27GN800-B 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor  (£254.67 @ Senetic)
Total: £1395.37
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-07-24 15:25 BST+0100

 

 

I have some general questions:

Does my draft build look ok? Please let me know if any parts chosen are not the best choice.

 

I've seen some people recommending the Intel i5-12400 instead but from what I understand, the Intel CPU+mobo combination will be more expensive than the Ryzen 3600 for marginal performance gains but I may be incorrect.

 

The GPU is quite a lot cheaper than others as it's on sale for £400 so please let me know if this is not a good choice for the 3060ti, but I know ASUS is a solid brand.

 

Thanks.

 

[emosun]

i'd say buy a cheaper monitor as you're spending a lot on a 144hz monitor for a non 144hz machine. The machine would be a solid 60-75hz machine if you set your expectations lower

[Fl0yd-]

windows 11 keys usually go for 30$ on vip-scdkeys from time to time. if you wanna free up some of the budget.

[Fl0yd-]

Just now, emosun said:

i'd say buy a cheaper monitor as you're spending a lot on a 144hz monitor for a non 144hz machine. The machine would be a solid 60-75hz machine if you set your expectations lower

that's a solid build for the esports titles he's playing though

[emosun]

Just now, Fl0yd- said:

that's a solid build for the esports titles he's playing though

ah , sorry I should have stated I was addressing the OP and not another user my fault.

[MrKev]

2 minutes ago, Fl0yd- said:

windows 11 keys usually go for 30$ on vip-scdkeys from time to time. if you wanna free up some of the budget.

I didn't know about this website, I'll take a look - thanks a bunch!

[PDifolco]

5 minutes ago, Fl0yd- said:

that's a solid build for the esports titles he's playing though

For Esports on a 3060ti he'd better use a hi refresh rate 1080p monitor... 

[MrKev]

4 minutes ago, emosun said:

ah , sorry I should have stated I was addressing the OP and not another user my fault.

 

5 minutes ago, Fl0yd- said:

that's a solid build for the esports titles he's playing though

My understanding was for the shooters like CS/Valorant this would be fine. I don't expect to hit 144FPS on other titles but Nvidia GPUs also have DLSS - would that be of benefit?

 

Otherwise does the build seem pretty solid? Would it be worth going for a cheaper SSD perhaps?

 

Is the 3060ti version good? It's on offer in the UK so I figured it might be a decent choice.

[Fl0yd-]

1 minute ago, MrKev said:

 

My understanding was for the shooters like CS/Valorant this would be fine. I don't expect to hit 144FPS on other titles but Nvidia GPUs also have DLSS - would that be of benefit?

 

Otherwise does the build seem pretty solid? Would it be worth going for a cheaper SSD perhaps?

 

Is the 3060ti version good? It's on offer in the UK so I figured it might be a decent choice.

solid build for most games, would advice on down-res to 1080p 240hz to benefit from most of the performance. Also DLSS is handy always handy when you get the settings right.

[emosun]

6 minutes ago, MrKev said:

My understanding was for the shooters like CS/Valorant this would be fine. I don't expect to hit 144FPS on other titles but Nvidia GPUs also have DLSS - would that be of benefit?

That would be the thing to know going forward , that the build youve listed could play a few titles at higher framerates but just dont expect midrange parts to be able to maintain that performance in the coming months/years as software updates and changes and as newer titles are attempted.

 

I would say just expect the experience wont be 144fps or higher in every title for all time.

[MrKev]

4 minutes ago, emosun said:

That would be the thing to know going forward , that the build youve listed could play a few titles at higher framerates but just dont expect midrange parts to be able to maintain that performance in the coming months/years as software updates and changes and as newer titles are attempted.

 

I would say just expect the experience wont be 144fps or higher in every title for all time.

 

12 minutes ago, Fl0yd- said:

solid build for most games, would advice on down-res to 1080p 240hz to benefit from most of the performance. Also DLSS is handy always handy when you get the settings right.

 

15 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

For Esports on a 3060ti he'd better use a hi refresh rate 1080p monitor... 

Cheers guys. Your input is helpful. I may reconsider and go with 1080p high refresh rate instead, which seems like a more appropriate choice in the medium term until I decide to upgrade later down the line.

 

In terms of the rest of the overall build, would you recommend any additional changes?

[PDifolco]

5 hours ago, MrKev said:

 

 

Cheers guys. Your input is helpful. I may reconsider and go with 1080p high refresh rate instead, which seems like a more appropriate choice in the medium term until I decide to upgrade later down the line.

 

In terms of the rest of the overall build, would you recommend any additional changes?

It's not bad, but you could save on the SSD and PSU, switch to Intel 12400 and then get a 3070 :

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/dkq92m

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  (£179.90 @ Amazon UK) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock 2 Black CPU Cooler  (£32.50 @ Technextday) 
Motherboard: MSI PRO B660M-A DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (£129.97 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory  (£57.98 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN570 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£71.98 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: KFA2 GeForce RTX 3070 8 GB SG Video Card  (£510.49 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case  (£88.99 @ AWD-IT) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS GX 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (£69.98 @ Scan.co.uk) 
Monitor: LG 27GN800-B 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor  (£254.67 @ Senetic) 
Total: £1396.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-07-24 21:24 BST+0100

[MrKev]

15 hours ago, PDifolco said:

It's not bad, but you could save on the SSD and PSU, switch to Intel 12400 and then get a 3070 :

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/dkq92m

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  (£179.90 @ Amazon UK) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock 2 Black CPU Cooler  (£32.50 @ Technextday) 
Motherboard: MSI PRO B660M-A DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (£129.97 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory  (£57.98 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN570 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£71.98 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: KFA2 GeForce RTX 3070 8 GB SG Video Card  (£510.49 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case  (£88.99 @ AWD-IT) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS GX 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (£69.98 @ Scan.co.uk) 
Monitor: LG 27GN800-B 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor  (£254.67 @ Senetic) 
Total: £1396.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-07-24 21:24 BST+0100

I've seen a lot of people recommend the i5-12400 so seems like I'll go the Intel route! Getting a 3070 in there with a similar overall price is great, thanks for this.

 

Just out of interest, is there any particular reason for choosing the motherboard that you have? I understand that it's micro ATX - would this have any real impact on the build at all?

[PDifolco]

21 minutes ago, MrKev said:

I've seen a lot of people recommend the i5-12400 so seems like I'll go the Intel route! Getting a 3070 in there with a similar overall price is great, thanks for this.

 

Just out of interest, is there any particular reason for choosing the motherboard that you have? I understand that it's micro ATX - would this have any real impact on the build at all?

Choice of the board is because it's the best B660 budget board, you can check reviews ..H610 is crap, H670 don't really exist, and Z690 are expensive and useless for less than a 12600K (and even then...)

It's mATX meaning it's smaller but iit has all the needed features : good VRMs, 4 RAM slots, 1 PCIE x16 one x8 one x4, 2x M2 slots and a good rear i/o with 6 USB and 2.5Gb Ethernet (https://fr.msi.com/Motherboard/PRO-B660M-A-DDR4)...There's a wifi version if you need it, £15-20 more

And I got one for my son's rig and we're happy with it, so it's not only by hearsay

 

Now in a big case it may look a bit weird and empty, there are ATX versions but more expensive, +£25 for not much more in terms of performance and features

 

[MrKev]

57 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Choice of the board is because it's the best B660 budget board, you can check reviews ..H610 is crap, H670 don't really exist, and Z690 are expensive and useless for less than a 12600K (and even then...)

It's mATX meaning it's smaller but iit has all the needed features : good VRMs, 4 RAM slots, 1 PCIE x16 one x8 one x4, 2x M2 slots and a good rear i/o with 6 USB and 2.5Gb Ethernet (https://fr.msi.com/Motherboard/PRO-B660M-A-DDR4)...There's a wifi version if you need it, £15-20 more

And I got one for my son's rig and we're happy with it, so it's not only by hearsay

 

Now in a big case it may look a bit weird and empty, there are ATX versions but more expensive, +£25 for not much more in terms of performance and features

 

That makes a lot of sense, thanks a lot! I'll likely go with this board then if simply getting ATX versions for +£25 doesn't really add much benefit besides maybe looking a bit weird in the case haha. Happy to know that your son's rig has the same mobo too!

 

I did have a question regarding the 3070 if you don't mind. I appreciate that the one you chose is currently the cheapest available 3070 in the UK per PCPartPicker however do you think it would be unwise to get the KFA2 3070 (I've personally never heard of the KFA2 brand) vs spending more on a card from a more "known" brand?

 

Thanks.

[PDifolco]

17 minutes ago, MrKev said:

That makes a lot of sense, thanks a lot! I'll likely go with this board then if simply getting ATX versions for +£25 doesn't really add much benefit besides maybe looking a bit weird in the case haha. Happy to know that your son's rig has the same mobo too!

 

I did have a question regarding the 3070 if you don't mind. I appreciate that the one you chose is currently the cheapest available 3070 in the UK per PCPartPicker however do you think it would be unwise to get the KFA2 3070 (I've personally never heard of the KFA2 brand) vs spending more on a card from a more "known" brand?

 

Thanks.

Thanks !

Regarding GPU brands/models, unless you want a top tier overclock card, which are not good price/performance, you'd better go cheapest and just have to avoid 2 fans versions of cards above 3060 because their cooling will suck.

Usually with 30xx cards there's not even 10% difference in perfs/clocks between the budget ones and the top tier ones, so it's not really worth investing in top ones.

[venomtail]

Not the best time to get into AM4. Either wait for new generation of CPU's or get Intel now.

£400 for 3060ti is a good deal but looks very small. Is it able to cool itself properly?

Don't buy a full priced key. Get it from a reseller for £20 instead of £100.

 

Other than that it's pretty solid.

[MrKev]

1 hour ago, PDifolco said:

Thanks !

Regarding GPU brands/models, unless you want a top tier overclock card, which are not good price/performance, you'd better go cheapest and just have to avoid 2 fans versions of cards above 3060 because their cooling will suck.

Usually with 30xx cards there's not even 10% difference in perfs/clocks between the budget ones and the top tier ones, so it's not really worth investing in top ones.

 

1 hour ago, venomtail said:

Not the best time to get into AM4. Either wait for new generation of CPU's or get Intel now.

£400 for 3060ti is a good deal but looks very small. Is it able to cool itself properly?

Don't buy a full priced key. Get it from a reseller for £20 instead of £100.

 

Other than that it's pretty solid.

Thanks both. So from what I understand, I should definitely not go for the smaller form factor cards (like the 3060ti I initially chose) because while cheap, it may have cooling problems (after searching online it seems like that 3060ti does in fact have issues with this).

 

In terms of the brand of card - I'm not necessarily looking to get a top tier version of any card however I am a little worried about potential RMA/warranty (if ever required) especially with brands that I've not heard of like KFA2. Maybe I just don't know of the brand but they're known to you guys?

 

@venomtail Thanks for the key suggestion. @Fl0yd- suggested this above and pointed me towards a website called vip-scdkeys however reviews seem to suggest that a LOT of people are getting scammed. Not sure if you guys have any further input on this?

[Fl0yd-]

40 minutes ago, MrKev said:

 

Thanks both. So from what I understand, I should definitely not go for the smaller form factor cards (like the 3060ti I initially chose) because while cheap, it may have cooling problems (after searching online it seems like that 3060ti does in fact have issues with this).

 

In terms of the brand of card - I'm not necessarily looking to get a top tier version of any card however I am a little worried about potential RMA/warranty (if ever required) especially with brands that I've not heard of like KFA2. Maybe I just don't know of the brand but they're known to you guys?

 

@venomtail Thanks for the key suggestion. @Fl0yd- suggested this above and pointed me towards a website called vip-scdkeys however reviews seem to suggest that a LOT of people are getting scammed. Not sure if you guys have any further input on this?

had some friends use it a year earlier for win 10 keys and some 1mil arab youtubers here are sponsored by them, if it changed or the reviews are recent, do avoid them. some sites do change to the worst and I don't want to recommend a site gone bad

[MrKev]

1 hour ago, Fl0yd- said:

had some friends use it a year earlier for win 10 keys and some 1mil arab youtubers here are sponsored by them, if it changed or the reviews are recent, do avoid them. some sites do change to the worst and I don't want to recommend a site gone bad

I appreciate that, thanks. It seems like there are a lot of reviews saying scam and then some saying it works fine, so it's a bit weird. Though it would be nice to save like £80-100 on a W11 key haha.

[venomtail]

15 hours ago, MrKev said:

 

Thanks both. So from what I understand, I should definitely not go for the smaller form factor cards (like the 3060ti I initially chose) because while cheap, it may have cooling problems (after searching online it seems like that 3060ti does in fact have issues with this).

 

In terms of the brand of card - I'm not necessarily looking to get a top tier version of any card however I am a little worried about potential RMA/warranty (if ever required) especially with brands that I've not heard of like KFA2. Maybe I just don't know of the brand but they're known to you guys?

 

@venomtail Thanks for the key suggestion. @Fl0yd- suggested this above and pointed me towards a website called vip-scdkeys however reviews seem to suggest that a LOT of people are getting scammed. Not sure if you guys have any further input on this?

If you have worries about getting scammed, just buy your key with a credit card and if it's a scam in the end, just request money back from you bank and bank will deal with whoever you bought your key from.

Can't remember where I bought my windows 10 key but it was from either G2A or Kinguin. Pretty sure I bought mine from Kinguin, their font really rings a bell.

 

For RMA's I've heard Sapphire, XFX and EVGA are trusted brands, but it also depends on your seller. I bought an XFX card and their RMA process was flawless when I forgot to take some plastic covers off and was hearing false positives. Don't fully understand if RMA process after registering your card is you going directly to your manufacturer or going to your seller who then goes to manufacturer. In either way, might be worth it to buy a card from a reputable site that would honour issues such as RMA's if the process does first go through your seller.

 

For 3060ti cards, also have a look at the 6700XT cards. They should be within performance margin of each other and just look out which has a deal (as long as the cooler is up to the task)

[MrKev]

2 hours ago, venomtail said:

If you have worries about getting scammed, just buy your key with a credit card and if it's a scam in the end, just request money back from you bank and bank will deal with whoever you bought your key from.

Can't remember where I bought my windows 10 key but it was from either G2A or Kinguin. Pretty sure I bought mine from Kinguin, their font really rings a bell.

 

For RMA's I've heard Sapphire, XFX and EVGA are trusted brands, but it also depends on your seller. I bought an XFX card and their RMA process was flawless when I forgot to take some plastic covers off and was hearing false positives. Don't fully understand if RMA process after registering your card is you going directly to your manufacturer or going to your seller who then goes to manufacturer. In either way, might be worth it to buy a card from a reputable site that would honour issues such as RMA's if the process does first go through your seller.

 

For 3060ti cards, also have a look at the 6700XT cards. They should be within performance margin of each other and just look out which has a deal (as long as the cooler is up to the task)

Thanks a lot! Just in terms of going for an AMD card, I was considering going the Nvidia route because DLSS seems to be useful too but not sure if there's a reason why people wouldn't want to use DLSS?

[venomtail]

16 minutes ago, MrKev said:

Thanks a lot! Just in terms of going for an AMD card, I was considering going the Nvidia route because DLSS seems to be useful too but not sure if there's a reason why people wouldn't want to use DLSS?

AMD has their own version of DLSS, called FSR. Both are at the point of being pretty indiscernible from one another.

I'd even go as far as saying AMD has an advantage with FSR because of its open source nature and due to this, FSR is getting super fast adoption. Would be surprised if a year from now just about every mainstream game out there doesn't have FSR in some form, official or modded. DLSS and FSR are depended for official implementation but FSR sort of no more. Just take your game and download the FSR mod or implement it yourself.

 

In terms of why some woudn't use upscaling? Upscaling still can't compete with native quality, especially with detail when things are moving even more if the player themselves is moving and everything is in motion. Some just don't like how it works.

[MrKev]

7 hours ago, venomtail said:

AMD has their own version of DLSS, called FSR. Both are at the point of being pretty indiscernible from one another.

I'd even go as far as saying AMD has an advantage with FSR because of its open source nature and due to this, FSR is getting super fast adoption. Would be surprised if a year from now just about every mainstream game out there doesn't have FSR in some form, official or modded. DLSS and FSR are depended for official implementation but FSR sort of no more. Just take your game and download the FSR mod or implement it yourself.

 

In terms of why some woudn't use upscaling? Upscaling still can't compete with native quality, especially with detail when things are moving even more if the player themselves is moving and everything is in motion. Some just don't like how it works.

Ah I see! It's quite interesting because I've heard DLSS talked about a lot but don't think I've ever heard of FSR, wonder why!