Self build gaming PC advice

DaveH

DaveH

Striker
Can anyone who knows about gaming or has built their own PCs and let me know your thoughts on these combinations? I've built loads of office / general use PCs before out of either spares or supplies others have bought at work. But my son wants us to build his own gaming PC and I've never had to do one where I'm trying to get the most out of the spec before.

Because of the shortage of GPUs at the moment, we were going to go with CPU/onboard graphics and look at adding a GPU later. For the intel option we have:
Intel core i5 11600l Gen 6 Rocket Lake Core (Intel Core i5 11600K 11th Gen Rocket Lake 6 Core Processor | Ebuyer.com) £228
MSI B560M Pro-VDH Wifi mATX Motherboard (MSI B560M PRO-VDH WIFI mATX Motherboard | Ebuyer.com) £109
Kingston FURY Beast 32Gb memory 3200MHz DDR4 RAM (Kingston FURY Beast 32GB (2 x 16GB) 3200MHz DDR4 RAM - Black | Ebuyer.com) £106
Plus a mATX case, PCIe 500Gb HDD and 550W PSU
I've just realised I'll need a CPU cooler for the i5, but that is a core cost of £443

The AMD option comes with a cooler:
Ryzen 5, 5600X (AMD Ryzen 5 5600X AM4 Processor | Ebuyer.com) £269
MSI AMD B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro-ATX Motherboard (MSI AMD B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro-ATX Motherboard | Ebuyer.com) £99
Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Black 32GB 3600MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Kit (Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Black 32GB 3600MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Kit | Ebuyer.com) £137
Core cost of £505

Spec comparison says the i5 11600k is slightly better then the Ryzen 5 5600X, though I know a lot of gamers at least used to say that AMD is better. The i5 option looks better for the price.

Is there anything in those two combinations that just looks wrong, like the motherboard is really going to throttle the processor? Any small adjustments that might see a performance increase?
 


DaveH said:
Can anyone who knows about gaming or has built their own PCs and let me know your thoughts on these combinations? I've built loads of office / general use PCs before out of either spares or supplies others have bought at work. But my son wants us to build his own gaming PC and I've never had to do one where I'm trying to get the most out of the spec before.

Because of the shortage of GPUs at the moment, we were going to go with CPU/onboard graphics and look at adding a GPU later. For the intel option we have:
Intel core i5 11600l Gen 6 Rocket Lake Core (Intel Core i5 11600K 11th Gen Rocket Lake 6 Core Processor | Ebuyer.com) £228
MSI B560M Pro-VDH Wifi mATX Motherboard (MSI B560M PRO-VDH WIFI mATX Motherboard | Ebuyer.com) £109
Kingston FURY Beast 32Gb memory 3200MHz DDR4 RAM (Kingston FURY Beast 32GB (2 x 16GB) 3200MHz DDR4 RAM - Black | Ebuyer.com) £106
Plus a mATX case, PCIe 500Gb HDD and 550W PSU
I've just realised I'll need a CPU cooler for the i5, but that is a core cost of £443

The AMD option comes with a cooler:
Ryzen 5, 5600X (AMD Ryzen 5 5600X AM4 Processor | Ebuyer.com) £269
MSI AMD B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro-ATX Motherboard (MSI AMD B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro-ATX Motherboard | Ebuyer.com) £99
Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Black 32GB 3600MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Kit (Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Black 32GB 3600MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Kit | Ebuyer.com) £137
Core cost of £505

Spec comparison says the i5 11600k is slightly better then the Ryzen 5 5600X, though I know a lot of gamers at least used to say that AMD is better. The i5 option looks better for the price.

Is there anything in those two combinations that just looks wrong, like the motherboard is really going to throttle the processor? Any small adjustments that might see a performance increase?
Click to expand...

if you want intel then skip 11th gen and go for 12th gen

and as you have no gpu...

intel igpu is'nt very good, and the amd option selected has no igpu

so if going amd you'd want the 5600g
 
Kevj said:
We used a site called PC part picker to check compatibility and spec my son’s PC when we built it firm him. It also has a build guide and forums.
Click to expand...
Thanks, that looks really good. The spec I have checks out as being compatible. I'll see if anyone says a particular pairing is a bad combination but otherwise we might have it about right.
 
Scotty said:
if you want intel then skip 11th gen and go for 12th gen

and as you have no gpu...

intel igpu is'nt very good, and the amd option selected has no igpu

so if going amd you'd want the 5600g
Click to expand...
Thanks, is that just that AMD is better with no GPU?
 
Boris Bear said:
Falcon are pretty good in that respect. If you enjoy it and have time go for it
Click to expand...
I live in Kent too, so Sunderland high street is a bit of a trek ;)
Scotty said:
500gb hdd must be a mistake surely?
Click to expand...
Too small, too big?
Looking at NVidia GPUs, there is a shortage at the minute. There area few GT 730s around for the £70 mark and then there is a jump to £230 which to the 1050 or 1650 series. That is pushing us over budget. What I'm wondering is how much better would performance be with any of these options? A few guides and pre-built gaming PCs don't have a GPU and say the onboard Ryzen 5 is pretty good. Would a GT 730 actually make any difference, or perhaps even make the graphics worse?

I think the GPU is my biggest indecision, GPU or no GPU then expensive GPU later.
 
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DaveH said:
Thanks, is that just that AMD is better with no GPU?
Click to expand...

well 5600x has no igpu so if you have no dedicated gpu of any kind then the 11600k is better than the 5600x (because the 5600x wont display anything and you'll have bough a doorstop)

the 5600g is the version with integrated graphics -its slightly weaker cpuwise than the x version (because it gives up things to gain the igpu) but is still a very good cpu


shows gaming performance of 11600k and 5600g when using igpu and also when paired with a proper gpu

hope it helps

(personally if i was going for a new build at the mo i'd be looking at 12th gen intel - a 12400 maybe with a b660 ddr4 motherboard)
DaveH said:
I live in Kent too, so Sunderland high street is a bit of a trek ;)

Too small, too big?
Looking at NVidia GPUs, there is a shortage at the minute. There area few GT 730s around for the £70 mark and then there is a jump to £230 which to the 1050 or 1650 series. That is pushing us over budget. What I'm wondering is how much better would performance be with any of these options? A few guides and pre-built gaming PCs don't have a GPU and say the onboard Ryzen 5 is pretty good. Would a GT 730 actually make any difference, or perhaps even make the graphics worse?

I think the GPU is my biggest indecision, GPU or no GPU then expensive GPU later.
Click to expand...
hdd is a hard-drive, you want a 500gb nvme drive (or ssd if you're trying for a budget)

there are no gpu's at RRP to be had (or very few)...i cant recommend anything really

a gt730 is garbage, its just a display adaptor really, you cant game on it and would worse then the intel igpu
 
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AMD as far as I’m aware have far superior APU’s (Intergated Graphics) so I’d lean towards them.

I’d also stay clear of using a HDD for anything other than storage, get a 250gb SSD for about £25 for the operating system to be installed on, it makes the world of difference, get an even bigger one for games to be store on too is my recommendation as it it improved the loading times and reduces stuttering in modern games and even some older ones.

When you get a GPU in the future I’d recommend trying to get an Nvidia Card, I’d recommend the RTX 2060 on a budget, the DLSS will make the world of difference in modern and older games for those that support it (DLSS let’s me play the new Watch Dogs in 4k which amazed me) but a GTX 1660ti can still do the job, is cheaper and more readily available.
 
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