My own gaming "build" vs a prebuilt. Need advice.

Pai Mei

Okay so I'm not really confident that I can build my own PC and the more I look into it the more confused I'm becoming. I've done up a pcpartpicker for a build I think is okay but I honestly have no clue. My budget is around €1500.

This is what I got from doing some research. What does this look like?

PCPartPicker part list: https://ie.pcpartpicker.com/list/mD9Cvn
Price breakdown by merchant: https://ie.pcpartpicker.com/list/mD9Cvn/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel - Core i5-9600K 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor (€344.08 @ Custompcparts)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - MasterLiquid ML240L RGB 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (€77.38 @ Custompcparts)
Motherboard: MSI - Z390-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€140.12 @ Custompcparts)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (€136.22 @ Custompcparts)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€205.45 @ Custompcparts)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB Video Card (€400.00)
Case: Fractal Design - Define R6 Blackout TG ATX Mid Tower Case (€150.00)
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€105.57 @ Custompcparts)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (€120.00)
Total: €1678.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-25 21:19 GMT+0000


However I seen this on Currys going for around €1450. I'm wondering should I just buy this instead as it seems kind of similar with the benefit of it being put together already. The video card is the same and it has wifi and all that in it already.
https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/hp-omen-880-intel-core-i7-gtx-1070-gaming-pc-2-tb-hdd-256-gb-ssd-10175449-pdt.html

I would like to get the PC sooner rather than later so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Sorry I'm such a noob!

TitianGerm

Pai Mei wrote: »

Okay so I'm not really confident that I can build my own PC and the more I look into it the more confused I'm becoming. I've done up a pcpartpicker for a build I think is okay but I honestly have no clue. My budget is around €1500.

This is what I got from doing some research. What does this look like?

PCPartPicker part list: https://ie.pcpartpicker.com/list/mD9Cvn
Price breakdown by merchant: https://ie.pcpartpicker.com/list/mD9Cvn/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel - Core i5-9600K 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor (€344.08 @ Custompcparts)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - MasterLiquid ML240L RGB 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (€77.38 @ Custompcparts)
Motherboard: MSI - Z390-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€140.12 @ Custompcparts)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (€136.22 @ Custompcparts)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€205.45 @ Custompcparts)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB Video Card (€400.00)
Case: Fractal Design - Define R6 Blackout TG ATX Mid Tower Case (€150.00)
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€105.57 @ Custompcparts)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (€120.00)
Total: €1678.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-25 21:19 GMT+0000


However I seen this on Currys going for around €1450. I'm wondering should I just buy this instead as it seems kind of similar with the benefit of it being put together already. The video card is the same and it has wifi and all that in it already.
https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/hp-omen-880-intel-core-i7-gtx-1070-gaming-pc-2-tb-hdd-256-gb-ssd-10175449-pdt.html

I would like to get the PC sooner rather than later so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Sorry I'm such a noob!

Just to pop in here you can get a 2TB Crucial MX SSD on Amazon for €230. I'd probably buy that than the Samsung from custom PC parts.

Crucial MX500 CT2000MX500SSD1(Z) 2 TB Internal SSD (3D NAND, SATA, 2.5 Inch) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B078C515QL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_5QX-BbV0W3FTW

I built my first PC a month ago and it was very easy. You'd be fine as long as you know how to use a screwdriver.

Pai Mei

Thanks for the reply. Yeah a bigger SSD would be nice since I wasn't going to get an HDD.
Out of interest did you look at the PC in Currys? Any thoughts on it? Does it seem okay?

Frunchy

Don't buy a PC from Currys or any other bricks and mortar shop. Guaranteed to be overpriced and outdated.

Pai Mei

See I've seen this sentiment on here before but the PC looks similar to my build. 1070 graphics, i7-8700, 250 SSD and 2tb HDD. It has wifi in it, plenty of USB ports, disk drive etc. I'm not trying to defend Currys I couldn't care less I'm just curious? Is the PC actually bad for what it is?

TitianGerm

Pai Mei wrote: »

See I've seen this sentiment on here before but the PC looks similar to my build. 1070 graphics, i7-8700, 250 SSD and 2tb HDD. It has wifi in it, plenty of USB ports, disk drive etc. I'm not trying to defend Currys I couldn't care less I'm just curious? Is the PC actually bad for what it is?

You've picked Ireland though when setting up your list. You'll get most of the parts cheaper on Amazon/UK.

Pai Mei

Thanks I'll have a look at that and change it tomorrow

Frunchy

I built my PC without any prior experience. I just watched lots of youtube videos, eventually it made sense. There's no rush when building a PC. You can stop at any point if you get stuck.

Venom

Pai Mei wrote: »

See I've seen this sentiment on here before but the PC looks similar to my build. 1070 graphics, i7-8700, 250 SSD and 2tb HDD. It has wifi in it, plenty of USB ports, disk drive etc. I'm not trying to defend Currys I couldn't care less I'm just curious? Is the PC actually bad for what it is?

The reason shop bought systems tend not to be recommended is because just like that Curry's PC, there are way too many unknowns when it comes to the various components included in them. When you look at the part picker list you posted, every part from CPU to PSU is made by a well-known manufacturer that will have dozens of reviews of each item in the list out there.


Now look at the Curry's PC link, apart from the CPU next to no information is given about any of the various parts. What make is the GPU or PSU or ram? Can they be upgraded at a later date or are they all proprietary components? My bet is they are the cheapest of cheap no name brands.

TerrorFirmer

While I always prefer self-build, that HP isn't terrible value and OEM builds do use reliable parts. PSU is probably FSP (almost always is with OEM), ram will be your standard Samsung/Micron most likely, etc. You're not exactly buying Simsang RAM and Nvordia graphics. If you're rather not build, it's a solid option and nothing to worry about at all, so go for it if you'd prefer the hassle free option with hassle free warranty.

Personally I don't get the instant hate towards retail builds, they're perfectly fine if you're OK with the obvious small premium.

K.O.Kiki

Do not buy from CustomPCparts.ie - we have way too many threads of their terrible habit sending the wrong parts & then screwing up the returns process.
Also their website is constantly down so maybe they're finally folding.

For 1500 euro you can build with a better GPU (1070 Ti) and a 1Tb SSD/4Gb HDD

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-9600K 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor (£269.98 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool - GAMMAXX 400 White 74.34 CFM CPU Cooler (£33.51 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI - MAG Z390 TOMAHAWK ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£146.15 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£117.59 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA - ULTIMATE SU650 960 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£113.54 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£83.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB AMP Edition Video Card (£432.44 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair - Carbide Series 275R (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 (EU) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£75.46 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1332.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-26 03:27 GMT+0000

Or even better, step down the CPU to Ryzen 5-2600 and you can afford an RTX 2070

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£168.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool - GAMMAXX 400 White 74.34 CFM CPU Cooler (£33.51 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI - B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard (£95.06 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£117.59 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA - ULTIMATE SU650 960 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£113.54 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£83.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce RTX 2070 8 GB XC GAMING Video Card (£584.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair - Carbide Series 275R (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 (EU) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£75.46 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1333.12
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-26 03:30 GMT+0000

And that's if you only buy from Amazon - CCL, Overclockers & Scan (as well as EVGA's own store) have lots of great promos.

Subcomandante Marcos

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Personally I don't get the instant hate towards retail builds, they're perfectly fine if you're OK with the obvious small premium.

Have to agree here. They can sometimes be great value.

For a while there if you were buying something with a 1070 or better you could actually often get an OEM setup for cheaper than a self build because of the mining silliness driving GPU prices so stupidly high.

Sure you wouldn't get *exactly* the specs you want in terms of motherboard etc and the ram is usually stock 2400mhz but all of the things you listed such as convenience, warranty, etc, kinda made up for that.

Pai Mei

Thanks for all the replies guys and the recommended build advice it's really appreciated.
As regards the prebuilt the only thing I'd be worried about is that the RAM is the stock 2400 according to the specs on the site and the PSU is only 500. I don't know if these are going to actually have a big effect on performance?

Breener122

Pai Mei wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies guys and the recommended build advice it's really appreciated.
As regards the prebuilt the only thing I'd be worried about is that the RAM is the stock 2400 according to the specs on the site and the PSU is only 500. I don't know if these are going to actually have a big effect on performance?

I've heard that's where pre builds "cheap out" in that they use low quality PSU's and RAM from no name manufacturers, was going for a pre built myself until I read that and decided to build my own.

Breener122

Also if you're willing to bend the rules a bit you can get a Windows key for 15 euro from those CD keys websites which would shave 100 off your total

Dcully

@ OP Back in October while i was doing a build it was working out cheaper to get Scan to build it than the parts were costing , reason being they have an inventory of stock for builds so they can keep individual components at MSRP even when the market is allover the place.
Back then the intel prices were through the roof they could keep the cost for my build at MSRP yet the same CPU was €70 more expensive on the same site if i was buying to build myself. same story when the GPU mining craze was going on.

I actually got my rig built and shipped for €165 less than buying the parts seperately for a build:eek: [maybe partpicker would be a bit cheaper here?]
Only thing is i had to wait a week longer for the build and testing process.
The net result was a great build with cable management i would never have achieved.

Checkout the SCAN 3XS site if your interested.

TerrorFirmer

Breener122 wrote: »

I've heard that's where pre builds "cheap out" in that they use low quality PSU's and RAM from no name manufacturers, was going for a pre built myself until I read that and decided to build my own.

Not from the likes of HP or Dell or Asus, etc. They use the same RAM you'd get in a normal build and they have solid OEM PSUs.

That might be true of pre-built machines from random companies who often use junk PSUs.

As regards the prebuilt the only thing I'd be worried about is that the RAM is the stock 2400 according to the specs on the site and the PSU is only 500. I don't know if these are going to actually have a big effect on performance?

Pretty much none. The PSU will have zero difference, the RAM may have a few frames difference but you're talking about 90fps vs 95fps type stuff. 2400mhz RAM is fine. Even DDR3 1600mhz RAM is still fine for gaming.

Pai Mei

Thanks again everyone. So the prebuilt does have a detachable side that you can take off and allows for you to upgrade parts in future if you want which I think seems good? If in a couple years time the gpu or cpu needs updating I could do it this way? I might be more confident upgrading an oldish pc than trying to start from scratch?
I know I sound like I have my mind made up already lol but it's just I would like to have the pc by next week (new path of exile league launch) and with the cyber Monday sales I could get the prebuilt and a monitor and keyboard for around 1600€ which seems good to me.
Really I'm just trying to find out if there's something bad about it that should make me change my mind.
I am learning a lot about PC's though which I never knew before so it has been a really positive experience on here and on Reddit etc.

lucast2007us

Pai Mei wrote:

Thanks again everyone. So the prebuilt does have a detachable side that you can take off and allows for you to upgrade parts in future if you want which I think seems good? If in a couple years time the gpu or cpu needs updating I could do it this way? I might be more confident upgrading an oldish pc than trying to start from scratch? I know I sound like I have my mind made up already lol but it's just I would like to have the pc by next week (new path of exile league launch) and with the cyber Monday sales I could get the prebuilt and a monitor and keyboard for around 1600€ which seems good to me. Really I'm just trying to find out if there's something bad about it that should make me change my mind. I am learning a lot about PC's though which I never knew before so it has been a really positive experience on here and on Reddit etc.

Search for Carey Holzman videos on YouTube he Is great at walking first time builders all through each step and setup, has 1000's videos.
Really helped me

Pai Mei

So just one more question then (sorry!). What would be the best monitor to get with the 1070gpu? Would a 144hz non gsync (for money reasons) be better than a 60hz. Or would I need a gsync to make use of the 144hz on a 1070gpu. So then would a 60hz be better?
If none of this even makes sense then it's cause I'm kind of just saying things I think are right lol

TerrorFirmer

Your choice would be 1080p 144hz, 1440p 60hz, 1440p 144hz. The first two will cost similar; the latter will be more expensive, so just depends on your budget.

If I was on a limited budget and absolutely had to chose, I'd probably take 1440p 60hz over 1080p 144hz, for visual fidelity. Though 144hz is great for competitive shooters (and I play a lot of Overwatch)

I would say Gsync shouldn't be a factor in that decision unless you're really breaking the bank with the monitor. You need an Nvidia card to use gsync, or AMD to use freesync, but you can still use opposite cards with any given monitor. I have a 1080ti with a 1440p 144hz freesync monitor....no way I was paying £200+ extra for gsync, especially when you won't really need it as much with high end cards.

Pai Mei

Thanks for the reply! The card is a Nvidia 1070 but I really can't afford to fork out for gsync. So saying that a 1440 60hz would be the best option then?

Subcomandante Marcos

Something to consider.
The Vega 64 can now be got for the same price as the 1070 (£410) and performance is a bit better, although power consumption is also higher. It's something I'd only even bring up because the FreeSync monitors tend to be significantly cheaper than GSync supported monitors. That said at very high FPS it's less of an issue than with mid and lower end cards.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/gigabyte-radeon-rx-vega-64-windforce-oc-8gb-hbm2-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-19n-gi.html

Pai Mei

Okay guys thanks for all the replies! I'm going to go ahead with the PC from Currys though I do appreciate all the build advice in the thread and I'll make sure to keep it in mind when I start to update the PC in a couple years!
This is the monitor I think I'm going to go with:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AOC-Response-Monitor-Display-Q2778VQE/dp/B00U2ZZX5A/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1543260059&sr=1-1&keywords=60hz&refinements=p_n_feature_two_browse-bin%3A2596482031

It's an AOC 1ms 2560-1440 76hz 27inch. The only thing is it has no speakers but I can buy them separate.

Dcully

ScanUK,OCUK,DynoPC,Cyberpower PC,PC Specialist, all UK based would build you a far better machine for the cost of that currys PC.

Its not a bad machine by any means but if i was spending 1.5K on a PC i would go elsewhere.
Your call though my friend

TitianGerm

Dcully wrote: »

@ OP Back in October while i was doing a build it was working out cheaper to get Scan to build it than the parts were costing , reason being they have an inventory of stock for builds so they can keep individual components at MSRP even when the market is allover the place.
Back then the intel prices were through the roof they could keep the cost for my build at MSRP yet the same CPU was €70 more expensive on the same site if i was buying to build myself. same story when the GPU mining craze was going on.

I actually got my rig built and shipped for €165 less than buying the parts seperately for a build:eek: [maybe partpicker would be a bit cheaper here?]
Only thing is i had to wait a week longer for the build and testing process.
The net result was a great build with cable management i would never have achieved.

Checkout the SCAN 3XS site if your interested.

Dcully stick up a picture of your PC and show the OP what you got. Your budget was similar to theirs wasn't it?