1st time building a gaming rig - advice needed.

I've done a fair bit of research, read a load of stuff and watched plenty of videos on YouTube.

I'm still pretty nervous about doing it as it's going to be quite expensive and I'm new to it all, so I'm turning to you for any help or advice you can offer.

Gonna list all the components I've picked below. If any of the experts can have a glance and see if there is anything I'm missing or anything that clashes let me know.

Motherboard
MSI X570-A PRO Motherboard ATX, AM4, DDR4, LAN, USB 3.2 Gen2, Type-C, M.2, HDMI, AMD RYZEN 2nd and 3rd Gen

CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Processor (6C/12T, 35MB Cache, 4.2 GHz Max Boost)

RAM
Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4 3200 MHz C16 XMP 2.0 Enthusiast RGB LED Illuminated Memory Kit - Black

SSD
Samsung MZ-V7E1T0BW 970 EVO 1 TB V-NAND M.2 PCI Express Solid State Drive, Black
And a
Crucial BX500 CT1000BX500SSD1(Z) 1 TB Internal SSD (3D NAND, SATA, 2.5 Inch)

GPU
PowerColor AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT Red Devil 8GB GDDR6 HDMI/3xDP Video Card

PSU
Corsair RM850x 80 PLUS Gold, 850 Watts, Fully Modular ATX Power Supply Unit - Black

Case
Corsair Crystal Series 680X RGB High Airflow Tempered Glass ATX Smart Gaming Case - Black

Total price circa £1400.


Seeing that all written down with the final price has made me wince. It doesn't even include an OS, monitor, kb & mouse or any other peripherals I might need.
 


It can sometimes be cheaper but if you go with some of the main custom pre-built online retailers you can save money on building it yourself.

Try the usual suspects like E-Buyer/Scan/Overclockers and the like.
 
What are you going to be using it for, if its for gaming what games will you be playing.

You don't really need the x570 motherboard you will be fine with a b450, I have the a 3700x running in the older b350 vers of this ASUS ROG Strix B450-F Gaming ATX Motherboard, AMD Socket AM4, Ryzen 3000 Ready, PCIe 3.0, M.2, DDR4, Intel GB LAN, HDMI, DP, USB 3.1, Aura Sync RGB: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

You also don't need 32gb of ram. Most games don't even use more than 8bg so 16 is fine.

That's also a massive case, the smaller 680x would be more suited to that build or one of the NZXT cases.

Add the parts to part picker and you will find the places with the cheapest retail prices. Pick parts. Build your PC. Compare and share.

Its also worth looking on hotukdeals - Best Deals & Discounts » Your Shopping Community to see what parts you can find. Dont buy a retail key for windows, just buy a re used key off ebay for less than £5.

Paying quite allot for SSD storage, might be better off getting the m.2 to install windows and some games where you benefit from fast loading, then a regular HDD for other storage, you can always add another SSD at a later date when you run out of space.
 
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What are you going to be using it for, if its for gaming what games will you be playing.

You don't really need the x570 motherboard you will be fine with a b450, I have the a 3700x running in the older b350 vers of this ASUS ROG Strix B450-F Gaming ATX Motherboard, AMD Socket AM4, Ryzen 3000 Ready, PCIe 3.0, M.2, DDR4, Intel GB LAN, HDMI, DP, USB 3.1, Aura Sync RGB: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

You also don't need 32gb of ram. Most games don't even use more than 8bg so 16 is fine.

That's also a massive case, the smaller 680x would be more suited to that build or one of the NZXT cases.

Add the parts to part picker and you will find the places with the cheapest retail prices. Pick parts. Build your PC. Compare and share.

Its also worth looking on hotukdeals - Best Deals & Discounts » Your Shopping Community to see what parts you can find. Dont buy a retail key for windows, just buy a re used key off ebay for less than £5.

Paying quite allot for SSD storage, might be better off getting the m.2 to install windows and some games where you benefit from fast loading, then a regular HDD for other storage, you can always add another SSD at a later date when you run out of space.
I'll be using it for gaming (mostly looking at aaa fps rpg etc) , the wife possibly for work stuff (photoshop/editing etc) and the bairns for games and homework plus general browsing watching streams/videos etc.

I know it's a lot of ram, originally went for 16 but 32 wasn't much more. Wanted something rapid hence the m.2 memory and bigger ram. The 2nd ssd was going to be for the bairns to use.

Good point about the case, I thought it looked very deep. I'll be honest, I was impressed by all the flashy lights and thought the kids would think it looked cool.

The idea was to make something that would last maybe 10 years without needing major upgrades in 2-3 years.
 
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Actually I take that back about the ram not using more than 8gb. Just tested mine running forza and its upto 12gb.

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I still dont think you would benefit with more than 16gb unless its being used for 3d rendering or hardcore video editing. I have a obscure 24gb and have never noticed any benefit over 16. But if the price isnt much different fair enough.

SSDs have a shorter life span than the older mechanical HDDs. They arent meant to have data constantly rewritten. So downloading movies for example over and over will shorten the lifespan.

I have a bunch of hard drives in mine, I have windows running on my m.2 along with games where I want fast loading times. Games that wouldn't benefit from it and downloads go to my HDD.

I suppose with multiple users that type of setup would complicate things though.
The other thing I would say is if the price for the GPU is comparable with overclockers get it from them. You get a longer warranty than with the likes of amazon, and if you ever have to RMA it you send it back to overclockers, and they deal with it instead of having to send it back to the manufacturer.
 
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Why does 32gb ram sound daft, the mb supports up to 64, is it excessive for my needs?
you will struggle to find anything that uses more than 16gb
You'll struggle to be actually using more than 8gb. Even when Windows says Xgb are in use, much of that is just pre-cached on the off-chance you do something next.

Unless you're loading multiple enormous files (images, I guess) at the same time, there's just no need for it. Go for 16Gb to be totally futureproof, and spend the difference on a better CPU or GPU imo.
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Although, I would check what the price difference is? If its £20, then fuck it. Mind, I've always been keen on buying faster, better ram rather than more of it. Not sure how Ryzen handles top end ram though.
 
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I've done a fair bit of research, read a load of stuff and watched plenty of videos on YouTube.

I'm still pretty nervous about doing it as it's going to be quite expensive and I'm new to it all, so I'm turning to you for any help or advice you can offer.

Gonna list all the components I've picked below. If any of the experts can have a glance and see if there is anything I'm missing or anything that clashes let me know.

Motherboard
MSI X570-A PRO Motherboard ATX, AM4, DDR4, LAN, USB 3.2 Gen2, Type-C, M.2, HDMI, AMD RYZEN 2nd and 3rd Gen

CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Processor (6C/12T, 35MB Cache, 4.2 GHz Max Boost)

RAM
Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4 3200 MHz C16 XMP 2.0 Enthusiast RGB LED Illuminated Memory Kit - Black

SSD
Samsung MZ-V7E1T0BW 970 EVO 1 TB V-NAND M.2 PCI Express Solid State Drive, Black
And a
Crucial BX500 CT1000BX500SSD1(Z) 1 TB Internal SSD (3D NAND, SATA, 2.5 Inch)

GPU
PowerColor AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT Red Devil 8GB GDDR6 HDMI/3xDP Video Card

PSU
Corsair RM850x 80 PLUS Gold, 850 Watts, Fully Modular ATX Power Supply Unit - Black

Case
Corsair Crystal Series 680X RGB High Airflow Tempered Glass ATX Smart Gaming Case - Black

Total price circa £1400.


Seeing that all written down with the final price has made me wince. It doesn't even include an OS, monitor, kb & mouse or any other peripherals I might need.

Recently just built my own. It's not too difficult and there's plenty of decent youtube videos. It can get a bit fiddly, but once you get started it you pick it up easily. I used an ATX board (Tomahawk) and due to it's size it makes things a bit more difficult, but not too taxing.

Only thing missing I would say is a CPU cooler. I got a stock AMD Wraith Prism with my CPU, which although is decent, gets loud with gaming. I got the BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 for about £70 and is a treat. Just mess about with the fan control to keep it quiet. Got the same GPU and it's really good. I went AMD for the price and performance. Didn't want to spend silly money on Nvidia card, and as I'm not a hardcore gamer, I'd probably only noticed marginal difference.

If you really like the case then stick with it, but aren't they around £170? Could save a bit on that if you want to bring the price down. I got a Fractal Meshify Case with tempered glass for 60quid on Black Friday sale. Also depending on what you are using it for could always move down to a B450 motherboard. I paid £1000 and had the following;

- MSI B450 Tomahawk
- AMD 7 2700X (older generation, but good performance and a lot cheaper than the 3700x. Same price to Ryzen 5 3600)
- Same RAM but 16gb not 32 and not whatever RGB LED thing is.
- Some Seasonic PSU 650w
- Crucial 500gb SSD
- HDD 1TB
- BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 - keeps the noise right down.
- Fractal Meshify Case

I've been playing most games in max settings. Total War Three Kingdoms has probably been the biggest strain, but again I've run that mostly at max settings with the only issue being the cpu cooler making a bit of noise. Temps don't go above 60/70 degrees. Whereas AMD stock cooler would go as high as 90.
 
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