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UK cheap-but-not-crap build

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Nov 29, 2019
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Hello! Was wondering if anyone wants to give any input on this? I think it's a pretty decent build for £1000? The graphics card price is from CEX. I feel 32GB is a lot for a value-oriented build but it's only a £30 saving to drop to 16GB and games are getting greedy!

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor (£161.67 @ Box Limited)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock Slim 2 CPU Cooler (£22.01 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B660-PLUS D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£159.06 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston FURY Renegade 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£73.57 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial P3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£57.72 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: NVIDIA Founders Edition GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB Video Card (£242.00)
Case: Antec NX410 ATX Mid Tower Case (£61.72 @ Technextday)
Power Supply: Corsair TX550M Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£66.88 @ Amazon UK) 0.00
Monitor: iiyama GB2470HSU-B1 23.8" 1920 x 1080 165 Hz Monitor (£143.38 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £988.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-01-19 20:47 GMT+0000
 

Space Lynx

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Hello! Was wondering if anyone wants to give any input on this? I think it's a pretty decent build for £1000? The graphics card price is from CEX. I feel 32GB is a lot for a value-oriented build but it's only a £30 saving to drop to 16GB and games are getting greedy!

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor (£161.67 @ Box Limited)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock Slim 2 CPU Cooler (£22.01 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B660-PLUS D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£159.06 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston FURY Renegade 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£73.57 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial P3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£57.72 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: NVIDIA Founders Edition GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB Video Card (£242.00)
Case: Antec NX410 ATX Mid Tower Case (£61.72 @ Technextday)
Power Supply: Corsair TX550M Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£66.88 @ Amazon UK) 0.00
Monitor: iiyama GB2470HSU-B1 23.8" 1920 x 1080 165 Hz Monitor (£143.38 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £988.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-01-19 20:47 GMT+0000

its not bad, I would spend a little extra and get the 13400f which just came out. its in stock in America anyway

might be worth saving a little bit more for an rx 6700 xt as well instead of 1080 ti
 
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Unfortunately they're a fair bit more expensive - £370 for the Radeon and over £200 for the 13400F. That was actually the first CPU I looked at but performance looks almost identical in most cases so probably not worth an extra £40+.
 
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Video Card(s) Reference Vega 64
Storage Intel 665p 1TB, WD Black SN850X 2TB, Crucial MX300 1TB SATA, Samsung 830 256 GB SATA
Display(s) Nixeus NX-EDG27, and Samsung S23A700
Case Fractal Design R5
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This look good, but I'm assuming that the 1080 TI is used. A 6600 XT would be a good alternative, but according to Pc Part Picker, they haven't been below £280 since November.
 
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Benchmark Scores They suck.
For the extra £30 I'd consider the P5 Plus over the P3 for your SSD. The P3 is QLC flash and DRAM-less.
 
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Processor Ryzen 7 5700X
Motherboard ASUS TUF Gaming X570-PRO (WiFi 6)
Cooling Noctua NH-C14S (two fans)
Memory 2x16GB DDR4 3200
Video Card(s) Reference Vega 64
Storage Intel 665p 1TB, WD Black SN850X 2TB, Crucial MX300 1TB SATA, Samsung 830 256 GB SATA
Display(s) Nixeus NX-EDG27, and Samsung S23A700
Case Fractal Design R5
Power Supply Seasonic PRIME TITANIUM 850W
Mouse Logitech
VR HMD Oculus Rift
Software Windows 11 Pro, and Ubuntu 20.04
@AnotherReader thats right - CEX is a chain of gaming / hardware pawn shops. They do 2-year warranty on everything so nice low-risk alternative to eBay.
That's a good warranty for a used GPU.
 
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That's a good warranty for a used GPU.
Yeah it's not bad at all! I think CEX is the least crappy value option we have now. It's still £240 for a six-year-old graphics card / seven-year-old architecture and that is depressing. But still a very capable card. And while 250w TDP seemed high at the time, it ain't high by modern standards!

Updated SSD:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor (£161.67 @ Box Limited)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock Slim 2 CPU Cooler (£22.01 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B660-PLUS D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£159.06 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston FURY Renegade 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£73.57 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£69.04 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: NVIDIA Founders Edition GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB Video Card (£242.00)
Case: Antec NX410 ATX Mid Tower Case (£61.72 @ Technextday)
Power Supply: Corsair TX550M Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£66.88 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: iiyama GB2470HSU-B1 23.8" 1920 x 1080 165 Hz Monitor (£143.38 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £999.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-01-19 22:08 GMT+0000
 

Space Lynx

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Yeah it's not bad at all! I think CEX is the least crappy value option we have now. It's still £240 for a six-year-old graphics card / seven-year-old architecture and that is depressing. But still a very capable card. And while 250w TDP seemed high at the time, it ain't high by modern standards!

Updated SSD:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor (£161.67 @ Box Limited)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock Slim 2 CPU Cooler (£22.01 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B660-PLUS D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£159.06 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston FURY Renegade 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£73.57 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£69.04 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: NVIDIA Founders Edition GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB Video Card (£242.00)
Case: Antec NX410 ATX Mid Tower Case (£61.72 @ Technextday)
Power Supply: Corsair TX550M Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£66.88 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: iiyama GB2470HSU-B1 23.8" 1920 x 1080 165 Hz Monitor (£143.38 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £999.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-01-19 22:08 GMT+0000

why are you downgrading your storage and paying more?

just get a 1tb nvme drive, it really is "snappier" than a SSD.
 
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why are you downgrading your storage and paying more?

just get a 1tb nvme drive, it really is "snappier" than a SSD.
DRAM. And your experiences may be different to mine, but going from my first ever SSD (80GB SATA2 Intel X25-M) to a 1TB WD SN850 made no difference at all that I could perceive. And granted stepping down to a DRAM-less drive would probably also yield no noticeable difference but DRAM-less just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. So MX500 presents a nice option that is absolutely still cheap.
 

tabascosauz

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Cooling PA120+T30┃AXP120x67
Memory 64GB 6000CL30┃32GB 3600CL14
Video Card(s) RTX 4070 Ti Eagle┃RTX A2000
Storage 8TB of SSDs┃1TB SN550
Display(s) 43" QN90B / 32" M32Q / 27" S2721DGF
Case Caselabs S3┃Lone Industries L5
Power Supply Corsair HX1000┃HDPlex
DRAM. And your experiences may be different to mine, but going from my first ever SSD (80GB SATA2 Intel X25-M) to a 1TB WD SN850 made no difference at all that I could perceive. And granted stepping down to a DRAM-less drive would probably also yield no noticeable difference but DRAM-less just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. So MX500 presents a nice option that is absolutely still cheap.

On what platform are you doing the comparison with the SN850? There certainly is a difference between good NVMe and SATA, but SSD performance is only one part of the snappiness equation - if you're testing on an old platform prior to modern responsiveness tech (CPPC AMD, Speed Shift Intel), then no SSD will respond any faster than a SATA drive.

2-year warranty on a Pascal card sounds good - I just hope they are honest enough to honor it.

DRAMless NVMe is very different from DRAMless SATA. The former makes for good budget to midrange drives, the latter can be slower than mechanical drives.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jan 29, 2021
Messages
1,745 (1.51/day)
Location
Alaska USA
Hello! Was wondering if anyone wants to give any input on this? I think it's a pretty decent build for £1000? The graphics card price is from CEX. I feel 32GB is a lot for a value-oriented build but it's only a £30 saving to drop to 16GB and games are getting greedy!

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor (£161.67 @ Box Limited)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock Slim 2 CPU Cooler (£22.01 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B660-PLUS D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£159.06 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston FURY Renegade 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£73.57 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial P3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£57.72 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: NVIDIA Founders Edition GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB Video Card (£242.00)
Case: Antec NX410 ATX Mid Tower Case (£61.72 @ Technextday)
Power Supply: Corsair TX550M Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£66.88 @ Amazon UK) 0.00
Monitor: iiyama GB2470HSU-B1 23.8" 1920 x 1080 165 Hz Monitor (£143.38 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £988.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-01-19 20:47 GMT+0000
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...r4-atx-lga1700-motherboard-b660-gaming-x-ddr4
Gigabyte B660 GAMING X DDR4 £134.99 inc. VAT

 
Last edited:
Joined
Feb 20, 2019
Messages
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System Name Bragging Rights
Processor Atom Z3735F 1.33GHz
Motherboard It has no markings but it's green
Cooling No, it's a 2.2W processor
Memory 2GB DDR3L-1333
Video Card(s) Gen7 Intel HD (4EU @ 311MHz)
Storage 32GB eMMC and 128GB Sandisk Extreme U3
Display(s) 10" IPS 1280x800 60Hz
Case Veddha T2
Audio Device(s) Apparently, yes
Power Supply Samsung 18W 5V fast-charger
Mouse MX Anywhere 2
Keyboard Logitech MX Keys (not Cherry MX at all)
VR HMD Samsung Oddyssey, not that I'd plug it into this though....
Software W10 21H1, barely
Benchmark Scores I once clocked a Celeron-300A to 564MHz on an Abit BE6 and it scored over 9000.
12th Gen Intel i5 and 1080Ti on a 550W PSU should just about be okay but you're getting very close to the limit of that PSU in quite ordinary use like playing games. Average whole-system power draw of ~450W on a 550W power supply isn't wrong, but the rule of thumb for longevity, efficiency, and low fan noise is to aim to be using half to two-thirds of your PSUs maximum output when the PC is gaming. I would probably look for a 650W PSU at a bare minimum.

If your budget is tight, ditch the CPU cooler for now, use the boxed cooler until you have more cash, and buy one of the many decent Corsair, Seasonic, BeQuiet, EVGA options at £90. Replacing the free included cooler later is trivial and you're not really wasting anything. Upgrading a PSU later is a lot more work and you're wasting the original PSU.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Nov 26, 2021
Messages
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Location
Mississauga, Canada
Processor Ryzen 7 5700X
Motherboard ASUS TUF Gaming X570-PRO (WiFi 6)
Cooling Noctua NH-C14S (two fans)
Memory 2x16GB DDR4 3200
Video Card(s) Reference Vega 64
Storage Intel 665p 1TB, WD Black SN850X 2TB, Crucial MX300 1TB SATA, Samsung 830 256 GB SATA
Display(s) Nixeus NX-EDG27, and Samsung S23A700
Case Fractal Design R5
Power Supply Seasonic PRIME TITANIUM 850W
Mouse Logitech
VR HMD Oculus Rift
Software Windows 11 Pro, and Ubuntu 20.04
If your budget is tight, ditch the CPU cooler for now, use the boxed cooler, and put the £20 extra into a nicer PSU. Future you will thank you if the current you doesn't.
Luckily, the 650 W variant of the PSU in the parts list is only £60.
 
Joined
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Messages
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System Name Bragging Rights
Processor Atom Z3735F 1.33GHz
Motherboard It has no markings but it's green
Cooling No, it's a 2.2W processor
Memory 2GB DDR3L-1333
Video Card(s) Gen7 Intel HD (4EU @ 311MHz)
Storage 32GB eMMC and 128GB Sandisk Extreme U3
Display(s) 10" IPS 1280x800 60Hz
Case Veddha T2
Audio Device(s) Apparently, yes
Power Supply Samsung 18W 5V fast-charger
Mouse MX Anywhere 2
Keyboard Logitech MX Keys (not Cherry MX at all)
VR HMD Samsung Oddyssey, not that I'd plug it into this though....
Software W10 21H1, barely
Benchmark Scores I once clocked a Celeron-300A to 564MHz on an Abit BE6 and it scored over 9000.
Joined
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Messages
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Good catch! Model up, less money.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor (£163.12 @ Box Limited)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock Slim 2 CPU Cooler (£22.01 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B660-PLUS D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£159.06 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston FURY Renegade 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£73.57 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£69.04 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: NVIDIA Founders Edition GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB Video Card (£242.00)
Case: Antec NX410 ATX Mid Tower Case (£61.72 @ Technextday)
Power Supply: Corsair TX650M 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£59.99 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: iiyama GB2470HSU-B1 23.8" 1920 x 1080 165 Hz Monitor (£143.38 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £993.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-01-20 08:20 GMT+0000
 
Joined
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Good catch! Model up, less money.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor (£163.12 @ Box Limited)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock Slim 2 CPU Cooler (£22.01 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B660-PLUS D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£159.06 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston FURY Renegade 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£73.57 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£69.04 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: NVIDIA Founders Edition GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB Video Card (£242.00)
Case: Antec NX410 ATX Mid Tower Case (£61.72 @ Technextday)
Power Supply: Corsair TX650M 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£59.99 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: iiyama GB2470HSU-B1 23.8" 1920 x 1080 165 Hz Monitor (£143.38 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £993.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-01-20 08:20 GMT+0000
The Gigabyte board I linked not only has better VRM's than the Asus board, it's also less expensive.
 
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Video Card(s) Nvidia RTX4080 12GB
Storage 1TB Dell supplied NVME + Samsung Evo 1TB NVME
Display(s) AOC Gaming CU34G3S/BK
Case Alienware X16
Audio Device(s) onboard/Speakers: Logitech G560
Power Supply Alienware/Dell battery + 330W charger
Mouse Microsoft Pro Intellimouse - White
Keyboard Ducky One2 SF White MX cherry Red
Software Windows 11
If you can fork out a bit more money, this is what I would do for £1k, if you're after DLSS feature then you can swap the 6700XT for 3060ti. If you prefer intel then you should be able to fit the same CPU + motherboard.
1674205733949.png
 
Joined
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Messages
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I would checkout what you can build on PC specialist for similar money. Saves the hassle and you get new hardware all warrantied.

You can get an OS for little via adverts on here and take it off the build.

Scan would be my goto for self build. Always deals on.
 
Joined
Feb 20, 2019
Messages
7,194 (3.86/day)
System Name Bragging Rights
Processor Atom Z3735F 1.33GHz
Motherboard It has no markings but it's green
Cooling No, it's a 2.2W processor
Memory 2GB DDR3L-1333
Video Card(s) Gen7 Intel HD (4EU @ 311MHz)
Storage 32GB eMMC and 128GB Sandisk Extreme U3
Display(s) 10" IPS 1280x800 60Hz
Case Veddha T2
Audio Device(s) Apparently, yes
Power Supply Samsung 18W 5V fast-charger
Mouse MX Anywhere 2
Keyboard Logitech MX Keys (not Cherry MX at all)
VR HMD Samsung Oddyssey, not that I'd plug it into this though....
Software W10 21H1, barely
Benchmark Scores I once clocked a Celeron-300A to 564MHz on an Abit BE6 and it scored over 9000.
The Gigabyte board I linked not only has better VRM's than the Asus board, it's also less expensive.
Asus are rarely a good choice for budget builds. Their entry-level stuff is priced closer to midrange offerings from other brands. There's nothing wrong with Prime or TUF, but they're rarely good value unless you can find a deal. I've used plenty of Prime boards and I'd always pick higher-end models from MSI or Gigabyte for the same money if stock is available.
 
Joined
Nov 29, 2019
Messages
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Updated motherboard:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor (£151.33 @ Box Limited)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock Slim 2 CPU Cooler (£22.01 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B660 GAMING X DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£134.99 @ Technextday)
Memory: Kingston FURY Renegade 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£73.57 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£69.04 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: NVIDIA Founders Edition GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB Video Card (£242.00)
Case: Antec NX410 ATX Mid Tower Case (£61.72 @ Technextday)
Power Supply: Corsair TX650M 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£59.99 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: iiyama GB2470HSU-B1 23.8" 1920 x 1080 165 Hz Monitor (£143.38 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £958.03
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-01-20 14:31 GMT+0000


Think this is looking like a really nice build!

@kurosagi01 thanks but I wanted to see what could be done within £1000.

Overall not too shabby I think! Of course that much money isn't exactly super budget end and it used to get a fairly high end graphics card that's actually current and new, but such is nVIDIA (and where nVIDIA leads, AMD follows).
 
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