First Gaming PC Build

Royal Irish

Looking for advice on my planned build.

I've been kinda following this build here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHmMLQgW8tE

But made a couple of changes with the CPU cooler because supposedly the stock AMD Wraith cooler isn't great and I put DDR4-3600 because I've read that AMD processors love higher speed ram.

I was originally planning on having a XFX Radeon RX 5700 8 GB DD Ultra Video Card but its currently more expensive than the XT in the list which looks to be the better card.

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (Purchased @£;154.99)
Deepcool Castle 240 RGB 69.34 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler @£;71.99
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 MB @£;109.99
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory @£;79.99
Sabrent Rocket 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive @£;129.99
XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB THICC III Ultra Video Card @£;387.00
Deepcool Gamer Storm MACUBE 310 ATX Mid Tower Case ( Purchased @£;64.99)
Corsair CX (2017) 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply @£;74.99

Anything alarmingly wrong with this build or any minor changes could be done?

BloodBath

Looks solid but like you said change the card. I got that XFX card for £290 a few months ago, it's now nearly £390. Not worth.

There's decent 5700xt's around £350 atm. If you want the best cooler version this is the best price for it atm.

https://www.cclonline.com/product/307060/AXRX-5700-8GBD6-3DHE/OC/Graphics-Cards/PowerColor-Radeon-RX-5700-Red-Devil-8GB-Overclocked-Graphics-Card/VGA5794/?siteID=8BacdVP0GFs-11C2ZTmSkaKIXtWdkrXs7Q

Or this one if you want to get it from Amazon. Looks better than the red devil imo and very close to it's performance and cooling.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07ZP5QZX2?tag=pcp0f-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1

There should be better power supplies in that price range too that are gold rated or go for a cheaper bronze rated one.

Cheaper bronze rated here.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B079KBPXZJ?tag=pcp0f-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

Similar price gold rated here.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B078SFM99X?tag=pcp0f-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

Royal Irish

BloodBath wrote: »

Looks solid but like you said change the card. I got that XFX card for £290 a few months ago, it's now nearly £390. Not worth.

There's decent 5700xt's around £350 atm.

There should be better power supplies in that price range too that are gold rated or go for a cheaper bronze rated one.

Cheaper bronze rated here.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B079KBPXZJ?tag=pcp0f-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

Similar price gold rated here.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B078SFM99X?tag=pcp0f-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

Curious where you got that card for £290 as the historical prices over the last 12 months on Pcpartpicker has its cheapest at £358 back in March.

Is there some online retailer not on that site I should be checking?

Both those PSU's are out of stock. Supposedly there is a global shortage of PSU's.

Homelander

Wouldn't bother with the AIO cooler. It's half the cost of the processor and adds very little. In fact, the Ryzen 3700X would be similar price to the 3600 + AIO and offer way more benefits.....and the stock cooler that comes with it is pretty good and looks nice.

BloodBath

Royal Irish wrote: »

Curious where you got that card for £290 as the historical prices over the last 12 months on Pcpartpicker has its cheapest at £358 back in March.

Is there some online retailer not on that site I should be checking?

Both those PSU's are out of stock. Supposedly there is a global shortage of PSU's.

Sorry my bad, mine was a normal 5700. Not the XT. Anyway I've updated the post above with some more links and suggestions.

Homelander wrote: »

Wouldn't bother with the AIO cooler. It's half the cost of the processor and adds very little. In fact, the Ryzen 3700X would be similar price to the 3600 + AIO and offer way more benefits.....and the stock cooler that comes with it is pretty good and looks nice.

The stock cooler is fine but he has the budget for something better that will run cooler and quieter. Also aesthetics. This thing is pretty good for the price if you need to save some monies and still want a better cooler.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ARCTIC-Freezer-eSports-DUO-Configuration/dp/B07MC8CRVZ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=arctic%2Bduo&qid=1590174209&s=computers&sr=1-1&th=1

Royal Irish

Cheers for the input lads.

The CPU and case was an impulse buy with both on sale, following the guidance of a youtube video

The AIO cooler that isn't in the build video I added for 2 reasons. The first being the CPU can get hot under a heavy load (think 80c) was mentioned in the video and the airflow of the case isn't bad, but not great. Second reason is it looks pretty.

No idea whether the CPU consistently at 80c is bad.

Edit: The 80c was in a benchmark test. It averages about 65c on Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Royal Irish

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (@£;154.99)
Deepcool Castle 240 RGB 69.34 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler @£;71.99
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 MB @£;105.00
Patriot Viper Steel 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory @£;84.99
Sabrent Rocket 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive @£;129.99
XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB THICC III Ultra Video Card @£;388.00
Deepcool Gamer Storm MACUBE 310 ATX Mid Tower Case ( @£;64.99)
Cooler Master MWE Bronze V2 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply @£;51.49

Bought 3 more parts this week. Got the motherboard for £5 cheaper when I first started the thread.

The RAM I was originally intending to get went from £75 to £88 so purchased the RAM above for £85 which actually has a lower CAS latency which I'm guessing is good.

Power supply I was going to get went out of stock not long after starting the thread. Ended up buying the one which was about £25 cheaper then the original one picked out and same specs. The one I got was in stock with 5 vendors on pcpartpicker and now is only in stock in 1.

Next items to buy is memory and the big ticket item, the graphics card.

BloodBath

Yeah PSU shortages everywhere, out of interest what 1 did you get?

You need to be careful with the cheap ones. Some of them are trash.

Royal Irish

BloodBath wrote: »

Yeah PSU shortages everywhere, out of interest what 1 did you get?

You need to be careful with the cheap ones. Some of them are trash.

I got this one.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/MxGnTW/cooler-master-mwe-bronze-v2-550-w-80-bronze-certified-atx-power-supply-mpe-5501-acaabus

BloodBath

Ah yeah that's fine.

Royal Irish

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (@£;154.99)
ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler@£74.99
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 MB @£;105.00
Patriot Viper Steel 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory @£;84.99
Adata XPG SX8200 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive @£;129.99
Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB GAMING OC Video Card @£;382.99
Deepcool Gamer Storm MACUBE 310 ATX Mid Tower Case ( @£;64.99)
Cooler Master MWE Bronze V2 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply @£;51.49

Build has changed slightly. Different CPU cooler, SSD, and graphics card, based purely on reviews.

Also need a monitor and was looking at this one...

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/2nZFf7/aoc-cq32g1-315-2560x1440-144-hz-monitor-cq32g1

A friend works for a company that sells this brand in bulk and said he might be able to get me one at cost price if they have the 1440p/144hz ones, just wondering is AOC a good brand?

Royal Irish

Royal Irish wrote: »

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (@£;154.99)
ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler@£74.99
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 MB @£;105.00
Patriot Viper Steel 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory @£;84.99
Adata XPG SX8200 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive @£;129.99
Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB GAMING OC Video Card @£;359.99
Deepcool Gamer Storm MACUBE 310 ATX Mid Tower Case ( @£;64.99)
Cooler Master MWE Bronze V2 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply

First ever PC build complete. Very satisfying feeling turning it on for the first time.

Total spend in euro was 1700. 330 of that was on an AOC 31.5" 1440p 144hz monitor. Also got a corsair kb and logitech mouse. I'd say the PC itself cost 1100.

Little bit disappointed in the thermals. CPU maxes at 73c on a cinebench test. It was 84c at stock but undervolted it with no drop in performance. Expected more from the Artic Freezer.

K.O.Kiki

Ryzen just runs hot in general.
Also make sure to read temps in Ryzen Master - other programs misreport temps/speeds constantly.

As long as it's not throttling & stays quiet I wouldn't worry too much.