PC Gaming

[That_Dude]

1 hour ago, The People's Hero said:

The odd thing is that the quality of the build and cable management is quite good and actually quality of the components used, I can't criticise.

 

My massive issue here is that the PSU wasn't specified on the listing (with Currys) and so I assumed (my mistake) it'd be us to the job, but its a Corsair CX 550.

 

Just a very odd build. Penny pinching on a key component. 

 

They also picked a-non-generic cooler fan which sits on the processor (which seems overkill for a non-K chip...) which makes access to the 4th RAM slot problematic; I mean, not impossible, but just poorly planned.

 

I just feel a bit miffed. I can change the PSU. I know how to and its not going to cost me the earth; but I shouldn't have to.

You're right. PSU and CPU cooling are components where one shouldn't save money as they really screw up your rig. Imo Gold certfication is a must for a PSU and preferably from a well known brand. Corsair's RMx series is a great one. Efficient and silent.

 

You also have the BeQuiet Straight Power and Dark Power, Seasonic and Thermaltake are also reputable. Best is to read various reviews about the product you're about to install.

 

I personally don't mind an overkill cooler. I slapped a Noctua DH-15 on my 5600x. It hoovers at 50-60°C in a silent case that has a mediocre thermal performance. Low temps mean longer life expectancy for your hardware.

 

I saw in that build that it inly has a 512GB SSD, which isn't a great choice by today's standards. The OS takes a good chunk of that and modern games rarely go under 35GB.

 

They should change you PSU, no way they can ship a PC like that.

Edited 21 January 2021 by That_Dude

[The People's Hero]

13 minutes ago, That_Dude said:

You're right. PSU and CPU cooling are components where one shouldn't save money as they really screw up your rig. Imo Gold certfication is a must for a PSU and preferably from a well known brand. Corsair's RMx series is a great one. Efficient and silent.

 

You also have the BeQuiet Straight Power and Dark Power, Seasonic and Thermaltake are also reputable. Best is to read various reviews about the product you're about to install.

 

I personally don't mind an overkill cooler. I slapped a Noctua DH-15 on my 5600x. It hoovers at 50-60°C in a silent case that has a mediocre thermal performance. Low temps mean longer life expectancy for your hardware.

 

I saw in that build that it inly has a 512GB SSD, which isn't a great choice by today's standards. The OS takes a good chunk of that and modern games rarely go under 35GB.

 

They should change you PSU, no way they can ship a PC like that.

I've slapped in another 16gb DDR Ram (same frequency) and another SSD I already had. I knew of those shortcomings and could work with them. The PSU is a curveball that I didn't see coming !

 

Its an odd build in a way, since you'd expect to get the 10700k, not the 10700 in what is clearly a gaming build. The more I think about it, it feels like it wasn't a gaming system, but they had it there and so put in a 3070 and some RGB and bam ... gaming rig?

 

Just an underpowered one with a non-gaming processor? For what its worth I'm happy with what I got for my money generally (for 1300 ish); just the PSU is a very weird pick!

 

[Carl the Llama]

2 hours ago, The People's Hero said:

The odd thing is that the quality of the build and cable management is quite good and actually quality of the components used, I can't criticise.

 

My massive issue here is that the PSU wasn't specified on the listing (with Currys) and so I assumed (my mistake) it'd be us to the job, but its a Corsair CX 550.

 

Just a very odd build. Penny pinching on a key component. 

 

They also picked a-non-generic cooler fan which sits on the processor (which seems overkill for a non-K chip...) which makes access to the 4th RAM slot problematic; I mean, not impossible, but just poorly planned.

 

I just feel a bit miffed. I can change the PSU. I know how to and its not going to cost me the earth; but I shouldn't have to.

That's the sort of thing I mean though.  Any pre-builder worth their salt would have known it's a potentially problematic combination of components.  I feel like their quality control stops at the "does it boot up" stage at which point they move onto shoving the next unit out of the warehouse.

 

1 hour ago, The People's Hero said:

I've slapped in another 16gb DDR Ram (same frequency) and another SSD I already had. I knew of those shortcomings and could work with them. The PSU is a curveball that I didn't see coming !

 

Its an odd build in a way, since you'd expect to get the 10700k, not the 10700 in what is clearly a gaming build. The more I think about it, it feels like it wasn't a gaming system, but they had it there and so put in a 3070 and some RGB and bam ... gaming rig?

 

Just an underpowered one with a non-gaming processor? For what its worth I'm happy with what I got for my money generally (for 1300 ish); just the PSU is a very weird pick!

The k would cost more though, obviously.  That's one area where I think they're justified to cut back a little.  People make a big deal about overclocking and how only a few intel chips can be OC'd compared to AMD, but how much does it really matter?  You'll only need to start overclocking it when the CPU becomes a bottleneck but how often are you expecting an 8-core 4.8GHz processor to do that?  For comparison my CPU's a range lower at 4.5GHz and I've yet to see it bottleneck (far less likely with a 2060s on board than a 3070, but still).  It's not a perfect test but I've got Yakuzo 0 running right now with MSI afterburner's overlay and after a quick run around town and a bit of fighting (all at max settings) the CPU stayed pretty solidly at 20-30% usage running at a full 4.5GHz, the highest I saw it go was a 40% spike transitioning from a fight back to the overworld.  I'd say that's 'gaming' performance by anyone's standards.  By contrast the GPU, which I already have earmarked as the likelier bottleneck, stayed solidly in the mid-to-high 90s.  I think it's too easy to get caught up the hype over components with incremental performance increases and forget that the 'inferior' products are still very much fit for purpose.

 

As an aside I pulled up FM20 expecting it to be a good test of CPU power but it's surprisingly low-demand:  I've started a career unemployed and gone on a year's holiday, as it runs through the calendar the CPU isn't even using its full processing speed, it flip flops from a low of 2.6GHz up to a high of just 3.6GHz all the while staying in the same 20-30% CPU usage range as Yakuza.  So apparently if you're buying a computer to play FM you don't even need to go that crazy on the CPU, good bit of consumer advice for whoever there.

[The People's Hero]

5 minutes ago, Carl the Llama said:

That's the sort of thing I mean though.  Any pre-builder worth their salt would have known it's a potentially problematic combination of components.  I feel like their quality control stops at the "does it boot up" stage at which point they move onto shoving the next unit out of the warehouse.

 

The k would cost more though, obviously.  That's one area where I think they're justified to cut back a little.  People make a big deal about overclocking and how only a few intel chips can be OC'd compared to AMD, but how much does it really matter?  You'll only need to start overclocking it when the CPU becomes a bottleneck but how often are you expecting an 8-core 4.8GHz processor to do that?  For comparison my CPU's a range lower at 4.5GHz and I've yet to see it bottleneck (far less likely with a 2060s on board than a 3070, but still).  It's not a perfect test but I've got Yakuzo 0 running right now with MSI afterburner's overlay and after a quick run around town and a bit of fighting (all at max settings) the CPU stayed pretty solidly at 20-30% usage running at a full 4.5GHz, the highest I saw it go was a 40% spike transitioning from a fight back to the overworld.  I'd say that's 'gaming' performance by anyone's standards.  By contrast the GPU, which I already have earmarked as the likelier bottleneck, stayed solidly in the mid-to-high 90s.  I think it's too easy to get caught up the hype over components with incremental performance increases and forget that the 'inferior' products are still very much fit for purpose.

 

As an aside I pulled up FM20 expecting it to be a good test of CPU power but it's surprisingly low-demand:  I've started a career unemployed and gone on a year's holiday, as it runs through the calendar the CPU isn't even using its full processing speed, it flip flops from a low of 2.6GHz up to a high of just 3.6GHz all the while staying in the same 20-30% CPU usage range as Yakuza.  So apparently if you're buying a computer to play FM you don't even need to go that crazy on the CPU, good bit of consumer advice for whoever there.

Completely agree; hence I was quite happy with the 10700. 

 

This machine is used 10 hours a day for boring office type rubbish. The 3070 is there for a bit of fun now and then.

 

Even the RAM I probably didn't need; but I happened to have the same class/speed etc of RAM so in it went. I nearly added another old mechanical hard drive but then had a quiet word with myself. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

 

Cyberpunk so far is the only thing that's wow'd me on the 3070; which you might say was a waste of time seeing as my most played games in the last x years are FM and travian!

[Carl the Llama]

On 14/01/2021 at 20:24, moore_94 said:

Hoping someone on here can give me their opinion on this build, looking to get a new PC pretty much just for gaming, not looking to spend more than £1000 really

 

Motherboard: Asrock B365M-PRO4-F

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-9700F

 

GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT 6GB

 

RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200mhz

 

SSD: 1TB WD Blue SN550 M.2

Just seen this in the general pc help thread, so apologies if it's redundant now but I'm quoting you in here since it seems appropriate.

 

What's the question here, is that the spec of a system you're already looking at within your budget? 

 

I'm not too savvy on mobos and how different ones benefit you so can't say much about that.

I have that exact CPU, see above for my thoughts on it (it's good).

I'm not too familiar with the 5600 but I believe it's akin to having a 2060 minus ray tracing so very good for 1080p and decent enough for 1440p.

16GB high speed ram, 1TB m.2. drive, both pretty standard for a base gaming rig.

 

My thoughts are you're looking at all the right pieces, it's essentially the same rig I bought a year and a half ago for a few hundred more, just with a slightly lower powered GPU but faster RAM than mine.   For me it was all about budgeting for the highest performance CPU in a rig with otherwise minimum requirements to still play games at max settings for a couple of years (if you're using a 1080p screen you'll be able to do that easily, 1440p should also be pretty comfortable afaik).  That way the upgrade path becomes more straight forward since the CPU, which for me is the scariest component to play around with while keeping the mobo intact, should be the last thing that needs upgrading.  Given how similar those specs are to mine I think you're onto a winner if that all comes in under a grand, snap their hands off and worry about getting a better graphics card in a couple of years.

Edited 21 January 2021 by Carl the Llama

[That_Dude]

4 hours ago, The People's Hero said:

I've slapped in another 16gb DDR Ram (same frequency) and another SSD I already had. I knew of those shortcomings and could work with them. The PSU is a curveball that I didn't see coming !

 

Its an odd build in a way, since you'd expect to get the 10700k, not the 10700 in what is clearly a gaming build. The more I think about it, it feels like it wasn't a gaming system, but they had it there and so put in a 3070 and some RGB and bam ... gaming rig?

 

Just an underpowered one with a non-gaming processor? For what its worth I'm happy with what I got for my money generally (for 1300 ish); just the PSU is a very weird pick!

 

The 10700 is no slouch and it will be quite a while before it becomes itself a bottleneck. So unless you're an enthusiast, by the time it finally does, technology has advanced so much that you're going to upgrade your MoBo and RAM anyway. Before my actual rig, I had an i7 4790K (2014) and never overclocked it once, nor felt the desire or need to do so. And I was playing demanding games at 1080p where the CPU plays a more important role than in higher resolutions. Only the latest generation of GPUs proved to be a tad too much for it and I felt that the current CPU and GPU generation jump was worth a total upgrade to move on to higher resolutions.

 

Also from what I gathered, the Gigabyte Z490 UD is an entry-level motherboard, it doesn't have the best VRMs (voltage regulator modules, good ones are essential when it comes to overclocking) and cooling. That would make it a poor choice if you slap on it a high-end CPU with overclocking abilities like the 10700K. So in this case, selling that rig with a 10700 actually makes sense.

 

Not knocking down your buy nor spoiling the mood, you'll be just fine and have plenty of fun with your rig. The PSU was definitely an odd one though.

Edited 21 January 2021 by That_Dude

[The People's Hero]

My mobo is a prime B460 plus. I do agree with everything you say though mate.

 

10700 absolutely fine and to be honest its never really once been properly pushed as yet.

 

Just usually on a 'gaming' rig you do see the K chips used, because everyone thinks they're an overclocker, right?
 

98% of the time its just a very powerful machine displaying simple spreadsheets.

[Carl the Llama]

Just gone back to that FM season from the CPU test and the final table's a load of bullshit:

 

[moore_94]

1 hour ago, Carl the Llama said:

Just seen this in the general pc help thread, so apologies if it's redundant now but I'm quoting you in here since it seems appropriate.

 

What's the question here, is that the spec of a system you're already looking at within your budget? 

 

I'm not too savvy on mobos and how different ones benefit you so can't say much about that.

I have that exact CPU, see above for my thoughts on it (it's good).

I'm not too familiar with the 5600 but I believe it's akin to having a 2060 minus ray tracing so very good for 1080p and decent enough for 1440p.

16GB high speed ram, 1TB m.2. drive, both pretty standard for a base gaming rig.

 

My thoughts are you're looking at all the right pieces, it's essentially the same rig I bought a year and a half ago for a few hundred more, just with a slightly lower powered GPU but faster RAM than mine.   For me it was all about budgeting for the highest performance CPU in a rig with otherwise minimum requirements to still play games at max settings for a couple of years (if you're using a 1080p screen you'll be able to do that easily, 1440p should also be pretty comfortable afaik).  That way the upgrade path becomes more straight forward since the CPU, which for me is the scariest component to play around with while keeping the mobo intact, should be the last thing that needs upgrading.  Given how similar those specs are to mine I think you're onto a winner if that all comes in under a grand, snap their hands off and worry about getting a better graphics card in a couple of years.

I did in fact pick it up, and it is good to hear that it is actually a good enough for build for now for what I want it for

 

Picked it up for about £1100.00 but doesn't really bother me because I definitely wasn't going to go through building it myself from the ground up haha

 

I ended up watching some videos on youtube where they benchmarked the GPU showing how it is essentially like having a 2060 which is the level I was after

 

Picked myself up an AOC 24" Full HD 144Hz monitor which seems really good so far

 

Only issue I have is that it only came with 3 RGB fans on the front and none inside the actual PC... whats the point in a tempered glass side with no RGB inside! Going to rectify that soon haha

[z-layrex]

12 hours ago, moore_94 said:

I did in fact pick it up, and it is good to hear that it is actually a good enough for build for now for what I want it for

 

Picked it up for about £1100.00 but doesn't really bother me because I definitely wasn't going to go through building it myself from the ground up haha

 

I ended up watching some videos on youtube where they benchmarked the GPU showing how it is essentially like having a 2060 which is the level I was after

 

Picked myself up an AOC 24" Full HD 144Hz monitor which seems really good so far

 

Only issue I have is that it only came with 3 RGB fans on the front and none inside the actual PC... whats the point in a tempered glass side with no RGB inside! Going to rectify that soon haha

I actually just removed all the RGB from mine, got tired of it.

[mancunianfox]

Got a 3060 ti. Sold my 2070 for more than I paid for it. What a time to be selling components.

[Zear0]

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/peripherals/printers-and-scanners/3d-printing/3d-printers

 

There are some 3070s in stock if people were after one.

[That_Dude]

54 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/peripherals/printers-and-scanners/3d-printing/3d-printers

 

There are some 3070s in stock if people were after one.

Nvidia can feck off with their MSRP, the actual pricing is absolutely insane. The 3070 was supposed to be sold around £469.

 

  

16 hours ago, The People's Hero said:

My mobo is a prime B460 plus. I do agree with everything you say though mate.

 

10700 absolutely fine and to be honest its never really once been properly pushed as yet.

 

Just usually on a 'gaming' rig you do see the K chips used, because everyone thinks they're an overclocker, right?
 

98% of the time its just a very powerful machine displaying simple spreadsheets.

Ah, my bad mate.

 

The K is for overclocking ability. They have a higher stock frequency (and TDP) and can be pushed beyond that, the non K have their cores locked.

 

Most of the buyers never overclock their CPU and buy it because it sounds cool. I was an Intel consumer from 2004 (my last AMD CPU was the Athlon XP for those who remember) to this day but made the jump to the red team this time, because Intel screwed up its transition to 7Nm and still proposes an outdated one pushed to the maximum, which higher temps and power consumption.

 

The AMD ZEN 2 series was already good but ZEN 3 simply blew Intel out of the water and I can't see it change in a foreseeable future.

Edited 22 January 2021 by That_Dude

[z-layrex]

3 hours ago, Zear0 said:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/peripherals/printers-and-scanners/3d-printing/3d-printers

 

There are some 3070s in stock if people were after one.

Ridiculous prices though. I hate how OCUK are marking up everything, I used to really like them.

Edited 22 January 2021 by z-layrex

[Zear0]

1 hour ago, z-layrex said:

Ridiculous prices though. I hate how OCUK are marking up everything, I used to really like them.

The thought of people who've paid up and being in a queue with them is a bit sickening. Was so happy when I got mine from Amazon and could cancel. 

[The People's Hero]

Crikey, the build I got at about 1300 looks a real snip if the 3070 aspect should be over 600 quid. That's absolutely bonkers.

[Christoph]

Mental prices on the 3070. What are 3080s selling for in the UK then?! 

[HoustonFox]

Hey all, good thread.  Just got back into gaming on my PC (mainly to customize PES, play some Elite Dangerous and then will starting getting into some other games).

 

I did go down the just buy it route and splurged using my bonus on an Alienware R11 with i7 3.8GHz processor, 32GB dual channel RAM, 2070 graphics card and currently just a TB of SSD but can easily get more as slots to expand.  Also has 1000W power supply.  The funny thing was that the free keyboard and mouse they gave me were so cheap and early 90s! Pretty funny after going all out on the other stuff, so of course upgraded.  I also have a Dell 32” gaming monitor that I love as it’s great for work as well as you can have full screen docs (full A4) and video conferencing etc all on one screen. I’ve gotten used to the curved nature of the screen too.  

[BroughtonFox]

Really want to get into pc gaming, bust just don’t know anything about what the best parts are, how to set it up or where’s best to buy from   

 

can you have a good set up with about 1k ish?

[The People's Hero]

30 minutes ago, BroughtonFox said:

Really want to get into pc gaming, bust just don’t know anything about what the best parts are, how to set it up or where’s best to buy from   

 

can you have a good set up with about 1k ish?

Yeah; for current stuff and probably future stuff too on sub-optimal settings. Depends if you want to run stuff at best graphical fidelity with all the options etc; and also what sort of games you're likely to pay.

 

Seems to be a bit of an odd time to be buying as well as components (GPUs mainly) seem to be bonkers money.

 

Let us know what sort of games you like and we can probably link you to a decent £1k option ; but tell me this ... do you already have a decent monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers, or are you looking to buy the whole package?

[BroughtonFox]

4 hours ago, The People's Hero said:

Yeah; for current stuff and probably future stuff too on sub-optimal settings. Depends if you want to run stuff at best graphical fidelity with all the options etc; and also what sort of games you're likely to pay.

 

Seems to be a bit of an odd time to be buying as well as components (GPUs mainly) seem to be bonkers money.

 

Let us know what sort of games you like and we can probably link you to a decent £1k option ; but tell me this ... do you already have a decent monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers, or are you looking to buy the whole package?

The whole package to be honest mate, am I likely to be ripped off and better off waiting then?

[The People's Hero]

24 minutes ago, BroughtonFox said:

The whole package to be honest mate, am I likely to be ripped off and better off waiting then?

Hard to get the very latest GPUs at a reasonable price; but plenty of really superb details on slightly lower spec.

 

If you have 1000 pounds to spend on entire set up you could do worse that look at some of the AWD IT stuff. Price is great. No idea on company service of build quality.

 

Storage and RAM is upgradeable, but I'd recommend you get something with DDR4 Ram at a reasonable speed; since you can supplement at a later date.

 

Get a MOBO and processor you are happy with and a case you like; most things around that you can update.

 

If you can guide us all on what style of games you like etc, that will help us guide you.

 

Some people would spend probably 25% of their budget on a monitor for example; and maybe worth it if you're working on it 8 hours a day too - or if you're going for top graphics. If you're playing solitaire or fortnite or whatever (no judgement - good games!) then you don't need to spend that money... although actually someone is now going to say you need 144Hz refresh rate to play fortnite

[Carl the Llama]

1 hour ago, BroughtonFox said:

The whole package to be honest mate, am I likely to be ripped off and better off waiting then?

I've been toying with the custom builder on Scan's website and honestly I can't find any setups I'd be happy to fork out good money for for less than 1k, but it's certainly possible to get decent specs for a little more than that if you're happy to go the financing route, you can usually get pretty stomachable deals if you can offset it with large deposit. For peripherals you can always just buy a basic mouse and keyboard for like a tenner and get a basic headset for like double that to keep you going while you save up for better parts.

 

@moore_94 recently got a decent deal on a tower, which company did you use for that one?

[moore_94]

2 minutes ago, Carl the Llama said:

I've been toying with the custom builder on Scan's website and honestly I can't find any setups I'd be happy to fork out good money for for less than 1k, but it's certainly possible to get decent specs for a little more than that if you're happy to go the financing route, you can usually get pretty stomachable deals if you can offset it with large deposit. For peripherals you can always just buy a basic mouse and keyboard for like a tenner and get a basic headset for like double that to keep you going while you save up for better parts.

 

@moore_94 recently got a decent deal on a tower, which company did you use for that one?

I used https://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/, although looking on the site all the prebuilt next day systems (like what I bought) are sold out at the moment

 

But they do also offer custom builds, as do https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/ who I have also had a custom built laptop from - both have been good companies to deal with in my personal experiences

 

I then went all out on peripherals haha

[BroughtonFox]

21 hours ago, The People's Hero said:

Hard to get the very latest GPUs at a reasonable price; but plenty of really superb details on slightly lower spec.

 

If you have 1000 pounds to spend on entire set up you could do worse that look at some of the AWD IT stuff. Price is great. No idea on company service of build quality.

 

Storage and RAM is upgradeable, but I'd recommend you get something with DDR4 Ram at a reasonable speed; since you can supplement at a later date.

 

Get a MOBO and processor you are happy with and a case you like; most things around that you can update.

 

If you can guide us all on what style of games you like etc, that will help us guide you.

 

Some people would spend probably 25% of their budget on a monitor for example; and maybe worth it if you're working on it 8 hours a day too - or if you're going for top graphics. If you're playing solitaire or fortnite or whatever (no judgement - good games!) then you don't need to spend that money... although actually someone is now going to say you need 144Hz refresh rate to play fortnite

I play all sorts of games to be honest, I’d like a monitor that links up well to my PS5 as well as I hate playing on a massive tv at the minute.