First Time Build, Thoughts and Advice Wanted

[saymyusername]

Hi! I'm looking to build my first PC in the next few months, and have come up with a configuration I'm happy with for now. I wanted advice from some of you regarding whether it's a solid configuration, any alternative part suggestions, compatibility warnings, or any other thoughts you might have! Please read through everything before posting

 

My needs for this build:

Budget: £800 (GBP. This is pretty firm)

Location: UK

Purpose: 

1080p 60FPS gaming (Far Cry 5, GTA V, PUBG, AC, The Witcher 3 etc)

University level Civil/Architectural Engineering work (REVIT, Autocad, etc)

General use (Youtube, Office, etc)

Monitors: Only one at this stage.

Overclocking: I'm a beginner so plan to mildly OC the CPU and GPU, but I won't push the hardware very far.

 

My current plan:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700 (See notes)

MBD: Asus Strix B350-F Gaming

RAM: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000

GPU: Asus ROG STRIX-GTX1060-O6G-GAMING

(This is too expensive right now, but is my first choice. Second choice is Gigabyte's GV-N1060G1 GAMING-6GD.)

PSU: Cooler Master MasterWatt 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

CASE: Fractal Design Meshify C Dark TG ATX Mid Tower

 

I already have the following parts:

SSD: Western Digital - Blue 500GB M.2-2280 SSD 

HDD: 3TB Seagate Desktop Hard Drive

OS: Windows 10

 

Notes/Questions:

1. CPU - I originally planned to buy the Ryzen 5 1600X. When I included the cooler I wanted, the Wraith Spire RGB (an aesthetic choice), it worked out the same price to buy the 1700 which includes the cooler, as to buy the 1600X plus cooler. I consider this an upgrade, especially for my work uses, but maybe I'm wrong (eg, will the lower base clock reduce gaming performance?) - let me know!

2. I have a 60Hz, 1080p monitor. I will buy a keyboard/mouse, but these can be excluded from the budget.

3. I've read some terrifying things about my RAM and Motherboard compatibility. The exact RAM model isn't on the QVL, although similar ones are. Some threads say it's fine, some don't. I'm happy to run at 2667Mhz, the max supported by the MB without OC, so I'm guessing it will be fine, but please give me any thoughts/advice you have on this.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read all of this. Any advice you have is welcomed - if it's gonna be trash, tell me! Equally, if it sounds solid, please say so, some confidence will go a long way.

[SliceT]

Looks pretty decent, you might want to consider the X370 Pro4 instead of the B350, it's at pretty decent price atm.

[williamcll]

What's the cheapest GTX 1060 available in your area?

[saymyusername]

1 hour ago, SliceT said:

Looks pretty decent, you might want to consider the X370 Pro4 instead of the B350, it's at pretty decent price atm.

Good shout, looks like decent find - will it make much difference performance wise, or is the main benefit the Crossfire support?

[saymyusername]

1 hour ago, williamcll said:

What's the cheapest GTX 1060 available in your area?

Cheapest seems to be the PNY - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB (is this a good brand? I've never heard of them), currently at £240, followed by the MSI - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB GT OCV1 at £245. You think it's better to save the money and go for one of these?

[Taf the Ghost]

@saymyusername

 

Since you'd have use for the Cores, it's a good idea to go for Ryzen 7, however, what is your time frame? 

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/gkz3yX

 

If you could, I'd try to squeeze in the 2700 over the 1700. Prices might come down a little over the next few months, especially with the launch of the B450 series soon enough.

 

RAM all works at JEDEC values, so up to 2666, on Ryzen. It's OC'ing the RAM beyond that. (Even on Intel, everything over 2666 is an OC, it's just the industry bins for Intel.) However, the 2nd Gen Ryzen plays a whole lot nicer with all of the memory.

[saymyusername]

@Taf the Ghost

 

Thanks for your reply - it was all really helpful, and I definitely feel better about the RAM situation now.

 

With regards to my time frame, I'm planning to purchase/build around mid to late July, so I'm hoping there will be some discounts by then, but I'm guessing not huge.

 

What you said about 2nd Gen Ryzen was really interesting since my original plan was based on 2600X. I changed my mind partly due to the BIOS updates necessary to get it working on B350 motherboards, as I won't have access to a compatible CPU for the update. I know there's those loaned CPU kits you can get through the AMD warranty service, although it seemed not worth all the hassle - or would you disagree?

 

 

[Taf the Ghost]

6 minutes ago, saymyusername said:

@Taf the Ghost

 

Thanks for your reply - it was all really helpful, and I definitely feel better about the RAM situation now.

 

With regards to my time frame, I'm planning to purchase/build around mid to late July, so I'm hoping there will be some discounts by then, but I'm guessing not huge.

 

What you said about 2nd Gen Ryzen was really interesting since my original plan was based on 2600X. I changed my mind partly due to the BIOS updates necessary to get it working on B350 motherboards, as I won't have access to a compatible CPU for the update. I know there's those loaned CPU kits you can get through the AMD warranty service, although it seemed not worth all the hassle - or would you disagree?

 

 

B450 boards should be out by then, so you should have a pick of a large available supply. (I believe early June was the last date we'd heard.) 

 

The memory situation is all but cleared up with Ryzen 2nd gen parts, which is part of why they're highly suggested over 1st Gen at the moment. It's much more like Intel where you can just put your memory in & go. (Unless it's over 3200 memory, that always takes some tuning for both platforms.)

 

Thus, the situation will need to be re-evaluated when we get to July, as it really depends on what type of deals you can get.

 

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

 

Switching to a 2600 with an aftermarket cooler (I just grabbed one that seemed reasonably priced), then toss a mild OC on it would also make a lot of sense. (Could leave Stock with a decent cooler, and the SenseMI will do the OC'ing for you. Or could probably get at least a 4.0 Ghz all-core OC without much issue.)

[williamcll]

11 hours ago, saymyusername said:

Cheapest seems to be the PNY - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB (is this a good brand? I've never heard of them), currently at £240, followed by the MSI - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB GT OCV1 at £245. You think it's better to save the money and go for one of these?

Yes, PNY is good enough, their main focus is workstation cards (like the GV 100, yes no kidding) their consumer cards are good too.

[hiimFred]

I built a system for a friend some months ago.

 

 

The exact same motherboard and RAM you want were used with no issues whatsoever.

But since you're building in late July, I do think that 2700+B450 is your best and safest bet!

[Herman Mcpootis]

you're better off with an i7 8700 for revit and autocad, so i'd recommend that instead.

[Herman Mcpootis]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  (£257.99 @ Aria PC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - B360M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£64.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
Memory: Team - Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  (£134.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB GT OCV1 Video Card  (£244.98 @ Ebuyer) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£47.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Other: Antec P6 Black Midi Tower Gaming Case - USB 3.0  (£50.27 @ CCL Computers) 
Total: £801.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-05-18 12:09 BST+0100

[saymyusername]

16 hours ago, Taf the Ghost said:

B450 boards should be out by then, so you should have a pick of a large available supply. (I believe early June was the last date we'd heard.) 

 

The memory situation is all but cleared up with Ryzen 2nd gen parts, which is part of why they're highly suggested over 1st Gen at the moment. It's much more like Intel where you can just put your memory in & go. (Unless it's over 3200 memory, that always takes some tuning for both platforms.)

 

Thus, the situation will need to be re-evaluated when we get to July, as it really depends on what type of deals you can get.

 

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

 

Switching to a 2600 with an aftermarket cooler (I just grabbed one that seemed reasonably priced), then toss a mild OC on it would also make a lot of sense. (Could leave Stock with a decent cooler, and the SenseMI will do the OC'ing for you. Or could probably get at least a 4.0 Ghz all-core OC without much issue.)

Yeah you make some good points, and I think it is definitely something best decided around the time of purchase, what with B450 coming it may make complete sense to go for that plus a 2nd Gen CPU. Hopefully the new chipset will be released to give me some more options.

[saymyusername]

10 hours ago, Herman Mcpootis said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  (£257.99 @ Aria PC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - B360M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£64.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
Memory: Team - Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  (£134.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB GT OCV1 Video Card  (£244.98 @ Ebuyer) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£47.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Other: Antec P6 Black Midi Tower Gaming Case - USB 3.0  (£50.27 @ CCL Computers) 
Total: £801.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-05-18 12:09 BST+0100

Can't deny, that looks like a good build and does in general look more powerful than what I had planned. Thanks for taking the time to put it together, I'll definitely give it some thought!