PC for Workstation/Moderate Gaming

[confuseddave]

So, my 5 year old PC bit the dust, and I'm looking to put together a replacement.

 

Probably the most demanding thing I'll be doing with it is 3D graphics work, but I'd also like it to be able to handle games reasonably well.  I'm buying in the UK, and my budget is around £1000-£1300 GBP.

 

I'm planning on keeping the existing case and most of the peripherals, so really what I'm looking for is a recommendation for PSU, CPU, motherboard, graphics card and memory.

 

Some things I'm thinking about:

- I have a preference for intel/nvidia since my experience with AMD hasn't been great in the past, but if it makes a huge difference in price I'd consider it

- I'm planning on bringing an external optical drive and the four internal HDDs from my old machine, so data storage isn't an issue.  I'm not sure whether to include (or swap in) a new SSD for the boot drive, any comments on whether that'd be necessary for a system like this would be appreciated. 

- While I can probably only budget for a single decent graphics card in this build, I might be interested in upgrading in the future, so a setup that would allow a second card might be nice.

- I'm not obsessed with a silent build, but my last PC was extremely noisy, so any suggestions for a quiet air-cooling solution would be handy too.

[Zando_]

For anything multi-threaded, or if you want o save money, Ryzen is better. I'll work on a solid build that shouldn't have any problems. 

[confuseddave]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

For anything multi-threaded, or if you want o save money, Ryzen is better. I'll work on a solid build that shouldn't have any problems. 

Yeah, I'd heard that - I'd assumed it'd be a bit too bleeding edge at the moment, but if there was a model in my price range I'd definitely be interested.

[Zando_]

5 minutes ago, confuseddave said:

Yeah, I'd heard that - I'd assumed it'd be a bit too bleeding edge at the moment, but if there was a model in my price range I'd definitely be interested.

here's a solid build (You don't need a CPU cooler unless you want to OC a lot, as the CPU includes a good cooler. And you could get a cheaper mobo):

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/7rWyd6
Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/7rWyd6/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  (£190.83 @ Ebuyer) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£91.98 @ Novatech) 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  (£129.60 @ Aria PC) 
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£76.80 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£41.88 @ Aria PC) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB ACX 3.0 Video Card  (£398.98 @ Ebuyer) 
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Evolv ATX Glass ATX Mid Tower Case  (£162.15 @ CCL Computers) 
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£107.66 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £1199.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-15 21:11 BST+0100

 

I can make an Intel one if you like. 

[cj09beira]

(for that money he could have a got a full i5 with a massive 4 threads instead of the 12 that amd build has)

[domandric034]

12 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

here's a solid build (You don't need a CPU cooler unless you want to OC a lot, as the CPU includes a good cooler. And you could get a cheaper mobo):

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/7rWyd6
Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/7rWyd6/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  (£190.83 @ Ebuyer) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£91.98 @ Novatech) 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  (£129.60 @ Aria PC) 
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£76.80 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£41.88 @ Aria PC) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB ACX 3.0 Video Card  (£398.98 @ Ebuyer) 
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Evolv ATX Glass ATX Mid Tower Case  (£162.15 @ CCL Computers) 
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£107.66 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £1199.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-15 21:11 BST+0100

 

I can make an Intel one if you like. 

Why so much money to throw on case & PSU ?

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor  (£282.09 @ Amazon UK) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£67.57 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-AB350-GAMING 3 ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£87.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  (£129.60 @ Aria PC) 
Storage: Crucial - MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£85.55 @ Aria PC) 
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£61.41 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£41.88 @ Aria PC) 
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Dual Series Video Card  (£393.47 @ BT Shop) 
Case: Corsair - 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  (£55.98 @ Amazon UK) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£92.67 @ BT Shop) 
Total: £1298.17
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-15 21:23 BST+0100

[Zando_]

15 minutes ago, domandric034 said:

Why so much money to throw on case & PSU ?

My bad, got a bit carried away with the case.  But the PSU is because he wants a stable build, and the Corsair RMx got 10/10 from JohnnyGuru, has a 10 year warranty, and is pretty efficient. So he should never need to replace it for the life of the system. 

[domandric034]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

My bad, got a bit carried away with the case.  But the PSU is because he wants a stable build, and the Corsair RMx got 10/10 from JohnnyGuru, has a 10 year warranty, and is pretty efficient. So he should never need to replace it for the life of the system. 

EVGA G2 is better. (in my opinion)

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, domandric034 said:

EVGA G2 is better. (in my opinion)

I think they're about the same, but EVGA probs has better customer service. And if it's cheaper, then it's defo a better choice. I'm torn betwwn a 1000W G3 SuperNOVA or a RM1000x for my build. I'll just go for whichever is cheaper when I buy it, I guess. 

[Herman Mcpootis]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor  (£282.09 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: MSI - X370 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£118.55 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  (£108.60 @ Aria PC) 

Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£76.80 @ Amazon UK) you can skip this if you already have an ssd and you think it's enough.

Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Gaming OC 11G  Video Card  (£649.98 @ Ebuyer) 
Power Supply: Deepcool - 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  (£70.97 @ Ebuyer) 
Total: £1306.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-16 03:05 BST+0100