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New Build Review & Advice Gratefully Received

S

scounter

New Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2024
Messages
9 (0.03/day)
I am in the UK with a budget of £1,100

Desktop will be used for gaming, watching blu-rays, storing and viewing pics and videos and general browsing and use of MS Office. No overclocking requirements.

Desktop will be connect to a Samsung QE65QNA94A via Denon AV Receiver.

Below is from partpicker:

CPU- AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor £190.54
CPU Cooler - Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler £35.00
Motherboard - ASRock B650M Pro RS WiFi Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard £142.03
Memory - G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory £129.99
Storage - Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive £94.97
Video Card - Asus DUAL GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card £559.99
Power Supply - Corsair RM750x (2021) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply £95.66
Optical Drive - LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer £58.02
Total - £1,306.20

Would appreciate:
  1. Any suggestions to reduce the cost.
My choices are based on reviews and guidance from sites like Tom's Hardware. GPU is the biggest cost item but 4070 super gets much praise for it's price and performance.
I could save money on the CPU by going for a 5600 but have seen a lot suggesting the 7600X as a minimum for the GPU.
I can see new 4070 supers on ebay for £500 so that is £60 saved potentially.

Is the memory and motherboard more high end than they need to be?

1 TB storage doesn't seem much but I also have some SATA drives from my old desktop (which died) that I plan to add in.

2. General review/thoughts on the build.

I am hoping not to need to upgrade for the forseeable future.

Thank you!
 
I will say that if you want to mess with 4K Blu-rays, you might want to get the WH16NS40 instead (might require downgraded or modified firmware). It's about £10 more by the looks of it.


For an SSD, you could get a 1TB WD SN850X for £75. From my experience, both Samsung and WD make great SSDs.


I have both an LG WH16NS40 (downgraded firmware for UHD Blu-rays) and a 2TB SN850X, and they're both great.
 
I don't really see much of anything that you could be cut substantially except the 4070, but since you're gammin, that's probably not a good idea....so I would stick with what you have & buy it, or save a bit more till you can...

And just curious, but why would you buy a 4 year old PSU model instead of a newer one ?

Surely you realize that it will be the foundation of your machine, and as the old saying goes "cheap is as cheap does" :)
 
Looks solid but consider possible changes.


RAM (Better timings still with RGB, but same cost).


or

RAM (ships from US) better timings, no RGB though.



Power Supply (ATX 3.0) - Newest power supply specs and includes cable to directly connect GPU without using the adapter.



If you need to cut budget further, consider the 7600 rather than the 7600X. A few pounds less, and comes with a cooler that can do the job until you (may want to) upgrade later.

 
I made two additional builds at your budget target, one Intel + NVIDIA (CPU-focused) and one AMD + AMD (GPU-focused), latter should outperform former at games, although other way around for video processing and general purpose workloads

i7-12700K + RTX 4070 build https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/FV2JKX £1097
R5 7600 + RX 7900 GRE build https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/tTjdL9 £1088
 
scounter said:
I am in the UK with a budget of £1,100

Desktop will be used for gaming, watching blu-rays, storing and viewing pics and videos and general browsing and use of MS Office. No overclocking requirements.

Desktop will be connect to a Samsung QE65QNA94A via Denon AV Receiver.

Below is from partpicker:

CPU- AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor £190.54
CPU Cooler - Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler £35.00
Motherboard - ASRock B650M Pro RS WiFi Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard £142.03
Memory - G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory £129.99
Storage - Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive £94.97
Video Card - Asus DUAL GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card £559.99
Power Supply - Corsair RM750x (2021) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply £95.66
Optical Drive - LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer £58.02
Total - £1,306.20

Would appreciate:
  1. Any suggestions to reduce the cost.
My choices are based on reviews and guidance from sites like Tom's Hardware. GPU is the biggest cost item but 4070 super gets much praise for it's price and performance.
I could save money on the CPU by going for a 5600 but have seen a lot suggesting the 7600X as a minimum for the GPU.
I can see new 4070 supers on ebay for £500 so that is £60 saved potentially.

Is the memory and motherboard more high end than they need to be?

1 TB storage doesn't seem much but I also have some SATA drives from my old desktop (which died) that I plan to add in.

2. General review/thoughts on the build.

I am hoping not to need to upgrade for the forseeable future.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
DDR5-6000 CL30 for these AM5 cpu's if you intend on gaming. Low profile RAM so that it doesn't impede that dual tower cpu cooler. ATX 3.0 psu for these RTX 40XX cards and I don't see a case so if you already have one then forget this one down below.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 5 7600 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor (£172.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: *MSI PRO B650-S WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard (£139.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: *TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (£98.82 @ Amazon UK)
Case: *Fractal Design Pop Air ATX Mid Tower Case (£77.95 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: *SeaSonic FOCUS GX-750 ATX 3.0 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£96.56 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £586.31
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-07-11 03:46 BST+0100

A better look at those components.

www.techpowerup.com

AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Review - Affordable Zen 4 for the Masses

Ryzen 5 7600 is AMD's most-affordable Zen 4 processor. It retails for only $230 and even comes with a heatsink. The testing in our review confirms that the performance difference to the more-expensive 7600X is minimal, and gaming performance even beats the 5800X3D.
www.techpowerup.com www.techpowerup.com

https://seasonic.com/atx3-focus-gx/


https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/pop/pop-air/black-solid/

 
scounter said:
I am in the UK with a budget of £1,100

Desktop will be used for gaming, watching blu-rays, storing and viewing pics and videos and general browsing and use of MS Office. No overclocking requirements.

Desktop will be connect to a Samsung QE65QNA94A via Denon AV Receiver.

Below is from partpicker:

CPU- AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor £190.54
CPU Cooler - Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler £35.00
Motherboard - ASRock B650M Pro RS WiFi Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard £142.03
Memory - G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory £129.99
Storage - Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive £94.97
Video Card - Asus DUAL GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card £559.99
Power Supply - Corsair RM750x (2021) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply £95.66
Optical Drive - LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer £58.02
Total - £1,306.20

Would appreciate:
  1. Any suggestions to reduce the cost.
My choices are based on reviews and guidance from sites like Tom's Hardware. GPU is the biggest cost item but 4070 super gets much praise for it's price and performance.
I could save money on the CPU by going for a 5600 but have seen a lot suggesting the 7600X as a minimum for the GPU.
I can see new 4070 supers on ebay for £500 so that is £60 saved potentially.

Is the memory and motherboard more high end than they need to be?

1 TB storage doesn't seem much but I also have some SATA drives from my old desktop (which died) that I plan to add in.

2. General review/thoughts on the build.

I am hoping not to need to upgrade for the forseeable future.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
Looks like a solid system! My only suggestion is to go for a standard RTX4070 instead of the Super version. You'll save near 100quid, get reasonably comparable performance and your GPU won't be a space-heater.

EDIT: Also, props on the Bluray drive selection. Very good model and excellent for backups!
 
Last edited:
sam_86314 said:
I will say that if you want to mess with 4K Blu-rays, you might want to get the WH16NS40 instead (might require downgraded or modified firmware). It's about £10 more by the looks of it.
Click to expand...
That's the one I use. Came with 1.5 FW, downgrade was easy. Google and you'll find a forum post guide and program to do it. The drive is pretty much useless unless you downgrade to 1.2
 
scounter said:
Any suggestions to reduce the cost.
Click to expand...
Simply wait (if possible) until AMD launches the ZEN5 (July 31st) for even cheaper ZEN4 parts.

If you need something RN, AM5 can't get any cheaper than 7600 that's worth suggesting.

For GPU, do not go lower than 4070 especially at 4K. And if you don't care about ray tracing, the 7900 GRE is also a great choice with 4GB more VRAM at 16GB.

If you already own a SATA SSD drive, you don't need an NVMe at the time of the upgrade. You can get that later.

For memory, I suggest Patriot Viper Venom series of DDR5 modules. Personally, I'd get this kit (for RGB version here), but that's me.
 
Last edited:
sam_86314 said:
I will say that if you want to mess with 4K Blu-rays, you might want to get the WH16NS40 instead (might require downgraded or modified firmware). It's about £10 more by the looks of it.


For an SSD, you could get a 1TB WD SN850X for £75. From my experience, both Samsung and WD make great SSDs.


I have both an LG WH16NS40 (downgraded firmware for UHD Blu-rays) and a 2TB SN850X, and they're both great.
Click to expand...
Thank you. Is the WH16NS40 a superior drive? I'll certainly consider the WD SSD.
 
bonehead123 said:
And just curious, but why would you buy a 4 year old PSU model instead of a newer one ?

Surely you realize that it will be the foundation of your machine, and as the old saying goes "cheap is as cheap does" :)
Click to expand...

Great point thanks - will scrap this in favour of a more recent model.
 
Super Firm Tofu said:
Looks solid but consider possible changes.


RAM (Better timings still with RGB, but same cost).


or

RAM (ships from US) better timings, no RGB though.



Power Supply (ATX 3.0) - Newest power supply specs and includes cable to directly connect GPU without using the adapter.



If you need to cut budget further, consider the 7600 rather than the 7600X. A few pounds less, and comes with a cooler that can do the job until you (may want to) upgrade later.

Click to expand...
Super Firm Tofu said:
Looks solid but consider possible changes.


RAM (Better timings still with RGB, but same cost).


or

RAM (ships from US) better timings, no RGB though.



Power Supply (ATX 3.0) - Newest power supply specs and includes cable to directly connect GPU without using the adapter.



If you need to cut budget further, consider the 7600 rather than the 7600X. A few pounds less, and comes with a cooler that can do the job until you (may want to) upgrade later.

Click to expand...
Thanks for the great suggestions which I will definitely consider and for making me realise what RGB is and for me this is not a necessity as will be hidden away in the case :-)
 
Why_Me said:
DDR5-6000 CL30 for these AM5 cpu's if you intend on gaming. Low profile RAM so that it doesn't impede that dual tower cpu cooler. ATX 3.0 psu for these RTX 40XX cards and I don't see a case so if you already have one then forget this one down below.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 5 7600 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor (£172.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: *MSI PRO B650-S WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard (£139.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: *TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (£98.82 @ Amazon UK)
Case: *Fractal Design Pop Air ATX Mid Tower Case (£77.95 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: *SeaSonic FOCUS GX-750 ATX 3.0 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£96.56 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £586.31
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-07-11 03:46 BST+0100

A better look at those components.

www.techpowerup.com

AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Review - Affordable Zen 4 for the Masses

Ryzen 5 7600 is AMD's most-affordable Zen 4 processor. It retails for only $230 and even comes with a heatsink. The testing in our review confirms that the performance difference to the more-expensive 7600X is minimal, and gaming performance even beats the 5800X3D.
www.techpowerup.com www.techpowerup.com

https://seasonic.com/atx3-focus-gx/


https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/pop/pop-air/black-solid/

Click to expand...
Brilliant - thank you for all of the wonderful suggestions here. Really appreciate the research links too.
 
lexluthermiester said:
Looks like a solid system! My only suggestion is to go for a standard RTX4070 instead of the Super version. You'll save near 100quid, get reasonably comparable performance and your GPU won't be a space-heater.

EDIT: Also, props on the Bluray drive selection. Very good model and excellent for backups!
Click to expand...
Thank you - this is a great option which I will definitely consider.
 
ir_cow said:
That's the one I use. Came with 1.5 FW, downgrade was easy. Google and you'll find a forum post guide and program to do it. The drive is pretty much useless unless you downgrade to 1.2
Click to expand...
Thank you - no idea how to do these sort of things but appreciate google and forums are great enablers :-)
 
Sunny and 75 said:
Simply wait (if possible) until AMD launches the ZEN5 (July 31st) for even cheaper ZEN4 parts.

If you need something RN, AM5 can't get any cheaper than 7600 that's worth suggesting.

For GPU, do not go lower than 4070 especially at 4K. And if you don't care about ray tracing, the 7900 GRE is also a great choice with 4GB more VRAM at 16GB.

If you already own a SATA SSD drive, you don't need an NVMe at the time of the upgrade. You can get that later.

For memory, I suggest Patriot Viper Venom series of DDR5 modules. Personally, I'd get this kit (for RGB version here), but that's me.
Click to expand...
Thank you - I could potentially wait until August if there could be a reduction in the ZEM4 parts then :-)
 
@scounter not a big deal but you can put all of your replies within one post. Just use multi-quote or reply to each one within one post.
 
scounter said:
Thank you. Is the WH16NS40 a superior drive? I'll certainly consider the WD SSD.
Click to expand...
The WH16NS40 is a 16x drive (vs 14x for the other) and is more reliable when it comes to multi-layer Blu-rays (hence UHD support after some hackery).

16x is good for a theoretical read/write speed of 72MB/s versus 63MB/s for 14x.

For real world speeds, I recall seeing mid 20s to low 30s when backing up a normal Blu-ray movie in MakeMKV.
 
Last edited:
P4-630 said:
You need more storage.
Click to expand...
What I personally recommend is to get a smaller fast boot drive and then a cheaper larger storage drive.

Something like a Team MP44 or Lexar NM710 for the storage drive.

I personally like to live dangerously and run a 4x1TB SATA RAID0 array in my main system (with weekly backups to my server). It's not as fast in peak sequential speeds as most NVMe drives, but it blows them away with sustained sequential write speeds.

Obviously I recommend against running RAID0 unless you have a robust backup scheme.
 
Why_Me said:
1TB storage doesn't seem much but I also have some SATA drives from my old desktop (which died) that I plan to add in.
Click to expand...
Alright. Guess I missed that..
 
64K said:
@scounter not a big deal but you can put all of your replies within one post. Just use multi-quote or reply to each one within one post.
Click to expand...

I wonder if the auto merge is broken, the forum itself should have consolidated all replies in one single post. It does that as long as the post edit grace period has not expired, actually made a thread of mine rather awkward too
 
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