New Gaming PC Build

Keyzer

Morning chaps, looking to migrate from my PS4 console to a PC. I know the market is a disaster at the moment so, in an ideal world, I'd like to get an idea of a good build which will last me for as long as possible.


1. What is your budget? €2K

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? SIM Racing (iRacing, RFactor2, Assetto Corsa Competizione)

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

5. Do you need a monitor? No, plan to use 55" Samsung QLED

6. Do you need any peripherals? No

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Perhaps

8. How can you pay? [Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser] Either/or

9. When are you purchasing? When the market gets back to some level of normality


Specs for RFactor2 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/365960/rFactor_2/

Specs for Assetto Corsa Competizione - https://store.steampowered.com/app/805550/Assetto_Corsa_Competizione/

Thanks in advance chaps...

Coyler

Expand a bit of that TV. Resolution and refresh rate to be precise but model number would be good. HDMI port version would be nice to know

Keyzer

Coyler wrote: »

Expand a bit of that TV. Resolution and refresh rate to be precise but model number would be good. HDMI port version would be nice to know

Thanks.

Model # is Samsung QE55Q80TATXXU

If there's any spare change, I might get an Oculus Rift.

minitrue

Samsungs site is shocking but the FAQ about 4K120Hz HDR for PS5 problems suggests it's capable of 120Hz. You aren't going to have any spare change at all if you want to try and do justice to that.

I'd say you are probably looking at trying to get a Ryzen 5 5600X and a 6900XT or 3080 (or Ti if one appears) into your budget. A 3090 FE alone if you could get one at MSRP is basically €1600 so you aren't getting that into your budget.

Roughly speaking something "like" the following and add the gpu which leaves enough for a 3080 (or 6800XT), wait long enough (or scrape back everywhere bar the cpu) and you might get a 6900XT in there. In theory a 3080 FE would be about €750 but you probably can't expect to get a 3080 for under €900 anytime soon. Depending on just how long you wait and how the prices go you should add a decent cpu cooler and could bump the ssd to pci-e 4.0, 2TB or eventually even both!

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor (€380.65 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI B550-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard (€119.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-4000 CL18 Memory (€116.16 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€105.56 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A Digital ATX Mid Tower Case (€89.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€141.36 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €952.63

If you forget about the 120Hz then dropping to a Ryzen 5 3600 (and maybe slower ram, cheaper board) is likely fine as you will likely be gpu bottlenecked in everything. If you drop to a 3070 as well (would also let you shave a bit off the psu) then you will probably be dialing the settings down at 4K but might get a Rift in but for it you would probably like the 5600X again so really I think you wouldn't be making the most out of the tv or the visor.

Aodhan5000

minitrue wrote: »

Samsungs site is shocking but the FAQ about 4K120Hz HDR for PS5 problems suggests it's capable of 120Hz. You aren't going to have any spare change at all if you want to try and do justice to that.

I'd say you are probably looking at trying to get a Ryzen 5 5600X and a 6900XT or 3080 (or Ti if one appears) into your budget. A 3090 FE alone if you could get one at MSRP is basically €1600 so you aren't getting that into your budget.

Roughly speaking something "like" the following and add the gpu which leaves enough for a 3080 (or 6800XT), wait long enough (or scrape back everywhere bar the cpu) and you might get a 6900XT in there. In theory a 3080 FE would be about €750 but you probably can't expect to get a 3080 for under €900 anytime soon. Depending on just how long you wait and how the prices go you should add a decent cpu cooler and could bump the ssd to pci-e 4.0, 2TB or eventually even both!

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor (€380.65 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI B550-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard (€119.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-4000 CL18 Memory (€116.16 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€105.56 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A Digital ATX Mid Tower Case (€89.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€141.36 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €952.63

If you forget about the 120Hz then dropping to a Ryzen 5 3600 (and maybe slower ram, cheaper board) is likely fine as you will likely be gpu bottlenecked in everything. If you drop to a 3070 as well (would also let you shave a bit off the psu) then you will probably be dialing the settings down at 4K but might get a Rift in but for it you would probably like the 5600X again so really I think you wouldn't be making the most out of the tv or the visor.

Drop to 3600 for sure. HUB did video comparing it to 5600X and at 4k it was gpu bottleneck so 3600 would be grand I'd say. 4000mhz ram is a waste unless it's only slightly more expensive than 3600mhz cl18. Power supply is good for power hungry cards but consider a CPU cooler other than stock one as many say it gets a bit noisy

Homelander

I wouldn't go overboard talking about 4K 120Hz on a €2k budget. It's not a very realistic standard to want to achieve and the OP is probably not that bothered anyway.

If the high refresh is of interest you could consider 1440P 120hz on your TV, personally as someone who prefers high refresh gaming I would take 1440P 120hz myself over native 4K at 60hz.

But either 4k60 or 1440p60 is fine and either is doable on relatively modest hardware, but CPU isn't that important for 60hz so a Ryzen 3600 would be plenty, whereas a 5600X is much superior for 120Hz, but at a much higher price.

Graphics wise your base would be an AMD 6800XT or Nvidia RTX3070. I personally play at 4K60 on my 4K TV with my RTX3070 PC.

€2K would get you a PC with Ryzen 3600, one of the above cards, and an Oculus Quest 2 easily, and run games at 4k high settings well, and excel at the Rift as well.

However stock for graphics cards at the moment is utterly desperate and they are incredibly difficult to get at normal prices.

minitrue

The 4000CL18 ram wasn't much different to 3600CL17 (sigh, 3600CL16 used to be frequently spotted much cheaper) which wasn't much worse than 3600CL18. 100% agree it's all about the price but if 120Hz is the aim (and I'd say it should be for the monitor and sim racing and don't forget the VR would presumably be 80Hz or faster) I'd stretch a bit beyond sanity there.

Similar for 3600 Vs 5600X, is the goal 60Hz, 80Hz+ or 120Hz. For sim racing titles 4K120Hz isn't really out of the question/requiring going to low settings.

I hadn't realised the Quest 2 was up to 1832x1920@90Hz (per eye) now at that price, once the attempts to make it unusable without a Facebook account appeared Oculus went 1000% off my radar (it went 99.9% off one Facebook bought them). That's a smidge over the equivalent pixel pushing of 4K@75 but at 90Hz so again it pushes towards the 5600X over the 3600 in my estimation, especially when sim racing likes a fast cpu more than most games.

And yes, the 850W is just playing it safe for the power hungry cards/spikes.

Not sure there are right answers and certainly not until the market has settled enough for the OP to think it's actually about time to pull the trigger (or has already found and bought a gpu) Not arguing with you guys thoughts just explaining my thoughts a little more.

randomlad1337

I would say its gonna be a while until you can gather those parts, especially Graphics card, and less so the CPU, especially after Brexit with major UK retailers like Scan, Overclockers and CCL stopped delivery to Ireland. Your best bet is on Amazon.co.uk (at least they still deliver to Ireland, but you'll get hit with pretty nasty custom and import tax) and Amazon.de, although they are more often than not does not have stock for CPU and GPU. The rest of the parts I believed you can obtain them from Amazon quite easily.

rob808

Keyzer wrote: »

Morning chaps, looking to migrate from my PS4 console to a PC. I know the market is a disaster at the moment so, in an ideal world, I'd like to get an idea of a good build which will last me for as long as possible.


1. What is your budget? €2K

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? SIM Racing (iRacing, RFactor2, Assetto Corsa Competizione)

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

5. Do you need a monitor? No, plan to use 55" Samsung QLED

6. Do you need any peripherals? No

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Perhaps

8. How can you pay? [Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser] Either/or

9. When are you purchasing? When the market gets back to some level of normality


Specs for RFactor2 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/365960/rFactor_2/

Specs for Assetto Corsa Competizione - https://store.steampowered.com/app/805550/Assetto_Corsa_Competizione/

Thanks in advance chaps...

I think your better off buying alienware pc since trying to buy a Rtx 3070 or even Rtx 3080 next to impossible.I just look at Dell website you can get a decent powerful pc for 2k.

Keyzer

Thank you all for your response, I really appreciate it.

One thing I want to consider is longevity, I want to future proof this build (as best I can) for a couple of years of use.

Lots to think about, hopefully the market improves in the next couple of months.

Keyzer

Resurrecting this thread as I managed to bag a 6900XT after 6 months of trying.

Any suggestions or stick with the original build? Perhaps a 5800X for longevity?

Squidgy Black

Keyzer wrote: »

Resurrecting this thread as I managed to bag a 6900XT after 6 months of trying.

Any suggestions or stick with the original build? Perhaps a 5800X for longevity?

Hardware unboxed did a comparison of the 5000 series with benchmarks, worth looking at. https://youtu.be/eqmRvTz0kbA

Keyzer

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Hardware unboxed did a comparison of the 5000 series with benchmarks, worth looking at. https://youtu.be/eqmRvTz0kbA

Nice one. Thanks... Very good vid.

Flinty997

How did you manage to get the card

Keyzer

Flinty997 wrote: »

How did you manage to get the card

Pure luck on the weekly AMD drop...

Took 6 months of trying.

minitrue

I'd say 5800X depends on the pricing and also if your budget has the room for it and a solid cpu cooler. Looking at Amazon Germany right now I'd say their current 5800x price (€419) Vs the 5600x (won't even ship here as from Amazon US) makes it a reasonable choice (particularly with longevity in mind) while AMDs own prices of €458 Vs €305 makes it look overpriced.

What your remaining budget is now for everything bar the gpu will help anyone post up a current suggested build.

Keyzer

minitrue wrote: »

I'd say 5800X depends on the pricing and also if your budget has the room for it and a solid cpu cooler. Looking at Amazon Germany right now I'd say their current 5800x price (€419) Vs the 5600x (won't even ship here as from Amazon US) makes it a reasonable choice (particularly with longevity in mind) while AMDs own prices of €458 Vs €305 makes it look overpriced.

What your remaining budget is now for everything bar the gpu will help anyone post up a current suggested build.

Thanks very much for that.

Approx EUR 1500 left to play around with bearing in mind I only have the GPU in the bag.

minitrue

1500 goes a long long way now on top of the gpu so the question is if you want to get the VR headset or anything else into that 1500 because if it's just for the main system you have lots of options to push the boat out so the question would become what you prioritise, e.g. are RGB or silence priorities or streaming or anything other than just sim racing? Or would getting in under budget (or just bang per buck) be more important than any of the above?

Using Amazon Germany something like the following is probably a fair starting point:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor (€399.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
You could drop back to the 5600X or push out to the 5900X (mindfactory have it for €550 but we can't buy direct from them).
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (€86.05 @ Amazon Deutschland)
You could sanely swap for anything from a slightly cheaper air cooler to a more expensive RGB aio. I stuck that one in as you could top mount. You could front mount a 280mm (or 360mm) and move the supplied fans. If you dropped back to the 5600X you could just use the stock cooler.
Motherboard: MSI B550-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard (€119.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
You could go x570 but unless you have a reason I wouldn't bother, apart from anything else the chipset fan would bug me and the B550 covers the usual needs.
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory (€92.81 @ Amazon Deutschland)
It's red but that matches your gpu and saves €10 over black! You could go for 4000CL18 (Ballistix MAX) though the price hike is a bit excessive (€130) and then you would be into tuning it to try and see what you could get it running at stably to match the cpu (likely 3800).
Storage: SanDisk EXTREME PRO 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€119.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
You could drop to a basic QLC drive for €100ish or bump it to a fast pci-e 4.0 one for €150ish or bump to 2TB (for €200-€350 ish).
Case: Lian Li Lancool II Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case (€115.91 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Does size matter to you I threw this in as it's available at a sane price and a very good case with the option to add a couple of extra bottom fans to feed the gpu. You should probably add at least an extra 120mm exhaust for the back but I didn't put any extra fans in the list because that's part of the RGB question and ties into what you want to do with the cpu cooler.
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€142.41 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Not much to say here other than I wouldn't go under 850W with the 6900XT and I'd stick to a top tier psu.
Total: €1075.17

If you don't want to go 5900X or 2TB pci-e 4 or do anything else which really chews up the budget and are happy to spend a little more for marginal gains but maximising the potential then I'd probably bump the ram and ssd to:
Memory: Crucial Ballistix MAX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-4000 CL18 Memory (€129.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Corsair MP600 Core 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€143.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Then add a couple of fans for the bottom to help feed the gpu and a fan for the back to help exhaust (maybe €25 for some Arctics or €50 for some noctua redux ones).

If you want to max out the RGB bling then you can easily turn that €1075 into €1500 that way either

Keyzer

minitrue wrote: »

1500 goes a long long way now on top of the gpu so the question is if you want to get the VR headset or anything else into that 1500 because if it's just for the main system you have lots of options to push the boat out so the question would become what you prioritise, e.g. are RGB or silence priorities or streaming or anything other than just sim racing? Or would getting in under budget (or just bang per buck) be more important than any of the above?

Using Amazon Germany something like the following is probably a fair starting point:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor (€399.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
You could drop back to the 5600X or push out to the 5900X (mindfactory have it for €550 but we can't buy direct from them).
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (€86.05 @ Amazon Deutschland)
You could sanely swap for anything from a slightly cheaper air cooler to a more expensive RGB aio. I stuck that one in as you could top mount. You could front mount a 280mm (or 360mm) and move the supplied fans. If you dropped back to the 5600X you could just use the stock cooler.
Motherboard: MSI B550-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard (€119.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
You could go x570 but unless you have a reason I wouldn't bother, apart from anything else the chipset fan would bug me and the B550 covers the usual needs.
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory (€92.81 @ Amazon Deutschland)
It's red but that matches your gpu and saves €10 over black! You could go for 4000CL18 (Ballistix MAX) though the price hike is a bit excessive (€130) and then you would be into tuning it to try and see what you could get it running at stably to match the cpu (likely 3800).
Storage: SanDisk EXTREME PRO 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€119.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
You could drop to a basic QLC drive for €100ish or bump it to a fast pci-e 4.0 one for €150ish or bump to 2TB (for €200-€350 ish).
Case: Lian Li Lancool II Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case (€115.91 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Does size matter to you I threw this in as it's available at a sane price and a very good case with the option to add a couple of extra bottom fans to feed the gpu. You should probably add at least an extra 120mm exhaust for the back but I didn't put any extra fans in the list because that's part of the RGB question and ties into what you want to do with the cpu cooler.
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€142.41 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Not much to say here other than I wouldn't go under 850W with the 6900XT and I'd stick to a top tier psu.
Total: €1075.17

If you don't want to go 5900X or 2TB pci-e 4 or do anything else which really chews up the budget and are happy to spend a little more for marginal gains but maximising the potential then I'd probably bump the ram and ssd to:
Memory: Crucial Ballistix MAX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-4000 CL18 Memory (€129.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Corsair MP600 Core 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€143.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Then add a couple of fans for the bottom to help feed the gpu and a fan for the back to help exhaust (maybe €25 for some Arctics or €50 for some noctua redux ones).

If you want to max out the RGB bling then you can easily turn that €1075 into €1500 that way either

Thank you for the time and effort you put into doing this for me - I really appreciate it.

I'm not going to be streaming or any of that jazz and my priority for now is to get a really solid build completed. If I have anything left over I'll get an Oculus Rift.

Again, many thanks for this.

minitrue

A quick look says the Rift S and Quest 2 are much cheaper from Amazon uk at about €350 though you might pick something up second hand easily enough, so I'd guess €1150 is a good price to aim for (and a sane point to balance things with your 6900XT).

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor (€399.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (€86.05 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI B550-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard (€119.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory (€92.81 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Corsair MP600 Core 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€143.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Lian Li Lancool II Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case (€115.91 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€142.41 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case Fan: Noctua S12B redux-1200 PWM 59.1 CFM 120 mm Fan (€13.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case Fan: Noctua P12 redux-1700 PWM 70.75 CFM 120 mm Fan (€14.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case Fan: Noctua P12 redux-1700 PWM 70.75 CFM 120 mm Fan (€14.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1142.87

I'm not much for aesthetics over function but stuck to black noctua fans at sane prices rather than adding their brown eyesores (I might have stuck with cheaper ARCTIC's but availability is an issue). It's a pretty much blacked out build bar the 3 stock fans at the front of the case (which should be easy to control/turn off just using the case controls but Lian Li say they are also compatible with the motherboard).

I went with the less hassle (and much better value) ram but the extra mile on the ssd. I've left the same AiO in there again for simplicity to just throw it in the top, it means it will be pulling out the hotter case air but the gpu will be fed all the cool air it can as for both 4K and VR you're unlikely to be cpu bottlenecked and it will be the gpu that needs all the help it can get. So the two P12 fans can go on the bottom throwing more air at the gpu and the S12 on the back can help exhaust gpu heat.

I'd call it a solid build to do justice to a 6900XT, pretty premium but without any major extravagance, but maybe some others will chip in yet with better ideas/tweaks. I also just stuck to Amazon Germany (and hopefully all things which at worst with a months prime ship cheap/free) so it's buying in the EU for no risk of any complications now or down the road, I think all the prices are good but maybe there's bargains elsewhere I've missed.

Keyzer

minitrue wrote: »

A quick look says the Rift S and Quest 2 are much cheaper from Amazon uk at about €350 though you might pick something up second hand easily enough, so I'd guess €1150 is a good price to aim for (and a sane point to balance things with your 6900XT).

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor (€399.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (€86.05 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI B550-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard (€119.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory (€92.81 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Corsair MP600 Core 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€143.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Lian Li Lancool II Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case (€115.91 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€142.41 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case Fan: Noctua S12B redux-1200 PWM 59.1 CFM 120 mm Fan (€13.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case Fan: Noctua P12 redux-1700 PWM 70.75 CFM 120 mm Fan (€14.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case Fan: Noctua P12 redux-1700 PWM 70.75 CFM 120 mm Fan (€14.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1142.87

I'm not much for aesthetics over function but stuck to black noctua fans at sane prices rather than adding their brown eyesores (I might have stuck with cheaper ARCTIC's but availability is an issue). It's a pretty much blacked out build bar the 3 stock fans at the front of the case (which should be easy to control/turn off just using the case controls but Lian Li say they are also compatible with the motherboard).

I went with the less hassle (and much better value) ram but the extra mile on the ssd. I've left the same AiO in there again for simplicity to just throw it in the top, it means it will be pulling out the hotter case air but the gpu will be fed all the cool air it can as for both 4K and VR you're unlikely to be cpu bottlenecked and it will be the gpu that needs all the help it can get. So the two P12 fans can go on the bottom throwing more air at the gpu and the S12 on the back can help exhaust gpu heat.

I'd call it a solid build to do justice to a 6900XT, pretty premium but without any major extravagance, but maybe some others will chip in yet with better ideas/tweaks. I also just stuck to Amazon Germany (and hopefully all things which at worst with a months prime ship cheap/free) so it's buying in the EU for no risk of any complications now or down the road, I think all the prices are good but maybe there's bargains elsewhere I've missed.

Again, many thanks for this.