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- This topic has 12 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 10 months ago by
keith with the teef.
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March 23, 2017 at 11:29 pm #5502
Well folks, I’ve been thinking about a new PC. I’ve done some basic research as I hadn’t kept up with developments, so I’m aware of Ryzen releases and the current state of CPU/GPU affairs. I’ve been tossing up multiple options, and then I remembered – who better to ask than the experts! ?
So, my max budget is £1200, but £1000 or under would be best. I do have an SSD (I think 48GB or maybe 50GB, picked it up on sale a while ago and never installed it!), for booting. I also have a monitor (only 20inch but heyho), a mouse and keyboard, some 1tb harddrives, and a win 8.1 install disc. So I can live without win 10, and it’s effectively the actual PC I’m looking at.
I’m happy to buy the bits and put it together myself, but a really good pre-built deal would certainly be considered! If there’s scope for a bigger monitor (24inch seems to be not badly priced these days), that would be a bonus, but certainly not needed.
I do have a CM stacker which my current system was built in, but seeing as that’s a Q9550 and 7870, it’s a little long in the tooth nowadays and I think a smaller case would be nice.
Ummm… gaming would be the main use, but considering my monitor, I’m not really interested in a 1080, probably not even a 1070 – considering how that would affect the budget for the rest of the system, I think an R480 is probably about the best GPU I need. 16GB ram is again about all I need.
Anything else you need to know? I’ve come up with some ideas – https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/X7sRyf – if you can improve on it or have any advice, or even a whole new list, please feel free to suggest anything ?
Regards,
Bish
March 24, 2017 at 10:51 am #5511I’ll chip in with some starting advice.
First, if you’re not going to be spending a fortune on a GPU, you shouldn’t need anywhere near the budget you’ve put on the table.
Second, sell the small SSD. 240 GB and even 500+ GB SSDs are so cheap now that you may as well use one not just for booting but for everything other than any films and music that won’t fit.
March 24, 2017 at 11:09 am #5512Well, I already have 3 1TB HDDs (2 external), so storage space isn’t an issue. Does an SSD make any difference to actual gameplay, apart from loading times? Do they affect framerates, or anything like that? Also, getting the use out of the items I have is part of my reasoning.
I’m thinking ahead with the CPU – GPUs as an upgrade by themselves have always made the biggest impact for a gaming system, so I’m thinking the best CPU I can get to start with, and then down the line when 1080Tis are £100, I can upgrade to one of those. Or whatever the version of GPU is that’s most value for money at the time…
It’s likely to be years before I consider another PC – my current one has been effectively running for 12 years – CPU upgraded from E6600 maybe 5 years ago, GPU I upgraded 3 times, RAM once from 2GB to 4GB Mushkin Redline…
March 24, 2017 at 11:43 am #551648GB is just too small for a Windows boot drive.
March 24, 2017 at 12:36 pm #5518“48GB is just too small for a PRACTICAL Windows 10 boot drive”.
I have extended Dave’s statement a little.Although you will find that Win10 will INSTALL in 20GB of disk space, the inevitable slew of Windows updates will require a complicated clean-up of old installs and from time to time cause seizures. For reasonable use I’d say that 64GB is probably the real absolute minimum, but you will still have to be careful where programs get installed. For my nickel 128GB is the practical minimum if you don’t want to do too much regular maintenance.
If you use Steam it really is worthwhile getting a large SSHD as a second drive and ensure that all your Steam setups use it.
[edit] Although you said Win8.1 I think as a games player you should upgrade that to Win10 asap to get the Win10 gaming improvements that will soon get used by the games makers in their new games. For that reason I referenced win10 in my reply. link
March 24, 2017 at 3:49 pm #5522I have a RX480/4GB. I game at 1080p. I have one game that breaks my frame buffer at the mo and that is DX12 Rise of the Tomb Raider on top in game settings. Funny thing is the game is well optimized and when the frame buffer is not hit it runs at about 60fps. where as DX11 far cry primal and GTA5 do struggle to hit 60 fps on top settings and consume anout 3.5GB of frame buffer as does Doom Which runs flawlessly. I clock my 480 @ 1357/2000 no extra voltage.
For you I recommend the RX480/ 8GB or the GTX1060 6GB. For a little future proofing with frame buffer use.
A good sized SSD for old games that suffer from poor performance when fly loading. New games like DX12 rottr just gobble up system ram as they appear to feature a ram drive for fly loading as does doom and GAT5 so for you I recommend 16GB of system Ram.
CPU intel or AMD Rysen and not less than 4 genuine cores.
Oh and windows 10×64. :good:
March 24, 2017 at 8:45 pm #5530Thanks for the info peeps!
Dug out the SSD, it’s one of these – “SanDisk Plus 120GB SATAIII 2.5inch SSD”. So that would seem to be big enough for a boot drive. 😀 Are you suggesting (because I do use Steam) another, larger SSD or a hybrid SSHD would be the best bet for games? I can do that, but don’t know enough about them yet to know which would be good.
Alternatively, would an M2 drive for boot and my 128GB SSD for games (and then the 3TB of HDDs for media and files) work?
March 24, 2017 at 9:22 pm #5531Use the 120GB SSD for the system disk and the 1TB spinners for the data in whatever amount makes sense.
I lived with a 128GB SSD for 18 months with no problems. I can’t remember where it ended up but they’re coping OK with it too (or I’d know).
March 24, 2017 at 9:33 pm #5532The re installation of your games on the new system is quite vital.
This is because new game installs will detect the new os and hardware properly.
Just hooking up an existing drive with all your games on will not do as they will be calibrated to the old set up. :mail:
March 24, 2017 at 11:19 pm #5534Ok, given the Ryzen R5s are apparently on sale already (although not near me), there are some benchmarks surfacing which make it look like a very viable option for me (the 1600x I think, or even the 1600 given the multipliers are unlocked across the board)… I don’t know remotely enough about the state of motherboards these days to pick good options – can anyone help there?
I’d forgotten just how long I spent researching and reviewing everything last time I built! And I worked in BT at the time so had technology to hand very often!
http://www.overclock.net/t/1626317/it-may-be-that-the-ryzen-5-already-exists-for-sale
March 25, 2017 at 12:49 am #5537Use the 120GB SSD for the system disk and the 1TB spinners for the data in whatever amount makes sense.
This is what I’ve got, but with a 3TB spinner. The OS and any programs that take a while to open usually, like Photoshop are on the SSD, and everything else is installed to the spinner.
I’ve found that with older games like HL2 and GTA, they’ll run fine on the spinner. They load a big chunk of the map in one go, so it’s not too bad having a slightly longer loading time relatively rarely. Games that I play more often, or load maps more regularly go on the SSD though. I’ve got 16GB RAM too, so I keep meaning to try out a RAM drive for a smaller game*, and see how that goes.
*The free version only supports a 4GB drive
April 28, 2017 at 4:28 pm #6861Just a little update and prod for any thoughts/suggestions you may have:
I have built my system, and am awaiting delivery of the GPU ordered last night. I went with the following:
Ryzen 5 1600 (stock cooler only for now); GSkill Ripjaws 16 gb (2×8) DDR 4 3200 (I didn’t go for the ridiculously expensive 14-14-14 timed sticks, quite happy with my half the price, 15-16-16 sticks chugging away at 3200 mkz!); Gigabyte B350 Gaming 3 mobo; 128Gb Sandisc SSD for the OS, Crucial 525Gb MX300 M.2 2280 SSD for games/software other than OS; Fractal Design Define 5 case (sounds proofing panels, and an absolute dream to build in); Corsair 650 watt gold 80+ PSU; and the GPU I just ordered last night, I actually went with a 6GB 1060 in the end – the price drops made it cheaper than most RX580s, which were the serious alternative, but I also get 2 games free with this card (Dawn of War 3, and a choice of For Honour or Ghost Recon Wildlands – I’m picking Wildlands), both of which I was intending to pick up at some point. So the Asus 1060 was £248 delivered (£239.99 without delivery), minus £70+ for the games, putting it into RX570 price territory. I even debated the extra £100 for a 1070 with the games free, but my budget couldn’t quite justify it. And I currently only have a 21inch 1080p monitor anyway, so that would be wasted power.
Anyone have thoughts/input? I could move Win10 to the M2, but the difference in boot times over the Sandisc SSD is likely to be seconds at best, and everything else is going on the M2 anyway, so I feel this is the more useful setup.
I’ll be adding a large HDD at some point, for all media (not games/software) and files. I’d use my old ones, but they’re old enough I think I should look at new now. I’ll also be getting a 24inch monitor after the HDD, potentially 27inch depending on prices when I reach that point.
I’m typing this on the PC, although using an old HD3850 GPU until the 1060 arrives Tuesday (bloody bank holidays!). Apart from the GPU, it’s so quiet I need the side panel off and my ear almost inside before I can hear it.
April 28, 2017 at 5:26 pm #6865For your GFX (when it arrives) card make sure in the bios that the mobo is set up for uefi to max features or the GFX may not work. 🙂
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