Gaming PC Build Assistance

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DryName
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Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by DryName » Thu, 23. Dec 21, 00:14

Hello fellow Xers, Xs, X's (if that's a thing)
Anyway I was wondering if someone could help me with my very first PC build. I've done pre-built before and got tricked, thought I was getting a mid level gaming graphics card and and found out it was, 4 years prior. I've found a website that helps with finding out if a build is compatible which is super duper helpful for a complete novice like me. Buuuuut I realized that just because the parts might work together doesn't mean I am getting what I'm wanting. So for some guidance I come looking. I literally don't ask for much, most of the time I leave graphics on default and if I feel there is some performance issues I drop all graphics setting to their lowest possible in a heart beat. So I am defiantly not looking at doing any overclocking, though I did read something somewhere about underclocking to increase life expectancy which has me intrigued. Its not that I don't like better graphics, its just has never been a driving factor to me and I like getting the longest bang for my buck. I have however thought about going a bit crazy with the GPU, something $1000-$1500ish, and thusly the ram too. I don't know what graphics card to get yet, and any pointers on that would be most welcome, but down below is my current build. So is it decent?

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, 6 Cores & 12 Threads Unlocked Desktop Processor
Base Speed:
3.7 GHz
Turbo Speed:
4.6 GHz

Asus AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi) ATX Motherboard with PCIe 4.0, Dual M.2, HDMI, USB 3.2 Gen2 and Aura Sync RGB lighting
Chipset:
AMD X570
Form Factor:
ATX
Socket Type:
AM4

Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L RGB Close-Loop CPU Liquid Cooler with 240mm Radiator, Dual Chamber RGB Pump, and RGB Lighting
Fan RPM:
650 to 2000 RPM
Noise Level:
6 to 30 dB
Color:
RGB


Patriot Viper Steel Series, 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-4400MHz


Lexar NM610 M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe 1TB Solid-State Drive
Interface:
PCIe 3.0 x4
Form Factor:
M.2 2280

upHere 5V 6-Pack 120mm Silent PWM Intelligent Control 5V Addressable RGB Fan Motherboard Sync, Adjustable Colorful Fans with Controller
Model:
T7SYC7
Fan RPM:
600 to 1700 RPM
Airflow:
16.1 to 27.7 dBA
Noise Level:
16.1 to 27.7 dBA


Corsair RM 850 Series, 80+ Gold Certified 850W Fully Modular Power Supply


Asus Designo MX279HS Monitor - 27" Full HD (1920x1080), IPS LED with 178° Wide-View, Frameless, 1080P, Low Blue Light Eye Care HDMI VGA
Aspect Ratio:
16:9
Response Time:
5 ms
Panel Type:
IPS
Refresh Rate:
76 Hz

ASUS Strix SOAR PCI Express 7.1 Channel Sound Card
SNR:
116 dB
Interface:
PCIe x1
Color:
Black


*EDIT* I forgot to mention the reason I haven't decided on a graphics card is because X4 needs vulkan and I have no clue if most graphics cards have that now or if you need to get newer/certain ones.

burger1
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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by burger1 » Thu, 23. Dec 21, 05:43

Case?

Cpu ok with that memory speed? Patriot Viper Steel Series, 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-4400MHz

https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-5-5600x

System Memory Specification Up to 3200MHz

https://www.quora.com/Does-Ryzen-5-5600 ... AM?share=1

It also might be harder to get 4 sticks of ram to work than 2. I'd probably go with 2. About 3200MHz seems to be the sweet spot then performance falls off apparently. G Skill is an ok memory brand. Also need to watch the ram timings like CLxx those numbers mean things.

Maybe air cooling vs liquid cooling? the cpus tdp is 65 w. Tdp isn't always a measure of the heat produced. Can watch youtube videos for the cpus cooling needs.

Gpus are in short supply and way overpriced and theres loads of scams on the resale/scalper market.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohdC88-sRWo

Sound card?

you can also ask in :

steam/community/discussions/hardware and operating systems

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcforme/

DryName
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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by DryName » Thu, 23. Dec 21, 08:21

Thank you so much.

So I have a case and figured I would save money there. I understand newer cases have better air flow but that is something I am knowledge able about and I plan on customizing the case I have.

I thought i was being a bit greedy on the Ram which was the one of the reasons I did the post. I'll look for something at 3200. One thing i have found over the last few days, the more questions I get answers to, the more questions I have like the CLxx bit. The 4 memory sticks thing was more of a nostalgic choice. I remember my uncle telling me he got his hands on four ram sticks to get one whole Gigabyte of memory and how excited he was about it, and yes he got them to work, he was a wiz at all things computers. When my uncle got his first computer (back then it was a family computer) and when his elementary school first added internet connections, he hacked in and set off all the fire alarms that were connected to the system. About a week later the feds were at his door. I'll look into it though, and if it is something i don't think I can do i will drop to two sticks.

I was also thinking of dropping to air cooling as well, since I don't plan to overclock. But I have to admit the water cooled systems look cool 8)

As for the Graphics card, I agree, lots of scalpers everywhere.

The sound card was old advice from a friend years and years ago when I was deciding on a pre build or my own. Whether the sound card was good advice or not, I should have listened to him and had him help me with my own build since he offered. 3. Fraking. Times. :lol:

linolafett
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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by linolafett » Thu, 23. Dec 21, 09:39

Sound cards are not really necessary for "normal" players any more. The on board sound chips are nowadays pretty good.
If you have some super duper high quality audio equipment, then the card might have features a onboard one doesn't have, then you know much more about audio any ways :D

Regarding RAM:
If you plan to use the pc for a looong time (about 5-7 years), then i heavily recommend to take 32gb.
Buying 16gb now might be enough at the moment, but you will regret the decision in 4-5 years time.
Then buying an upgrade pack is difficult, as its then hard to find matching ram.
Just speaking from my own experience here.

I feel sorry for you, that you have to get a GPU in these times.
01001100 01101001 01101110 01100101 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101001 01101101 01100101 01110011 00101110 00101110 00101110

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burger1
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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by burger1 » Thu, 23. Dec 21, 19:42

2 sticks of ram vs 4 debate. Its a couple years old but the results are the same.

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comme ... ck_of_ram/

water vs air cooling debate. vs fire and earth of course.

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comme ... er_vs_air/

You'll probably want to ask on forums about best ram speed for the cpu/mainboard. Research the mainboard on amazon, newegg and other sites. Look at recent reviews, number of negative reviews and comments. Stuff changes over time. Every time you buy stuff you are playing the silicon lottery.

There might be fps videos on youtube for various build types/components. Fps changes with game updates and windows updates, etc... so maybe try to keep the videos recent. I think the amd socket will get changed again in a while. Intel also just had a socket change if that matters. DDR5 is already out but it can be slower than drr4 and its overpriced and scarcely available.

For gpus might have to wait 2 years? Intel is producing gpus now. Nvidia has started producing older revamped gpus like the 20xx series. The games you play and the resolution will probably determine whether you are bound by the cpu vs the gpu. So maybe a better gpu isnt really urgent?

pcpartpicker website gives this warning for the ram in the build. Note:The Patriot Viper Steel 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-4400 CL19 Memory operating voltage of 1.45 V exceeds the AMD Zen 3 CPU recommended maximum of 1350 mv+7% (1444.5 mv). This memory module may run at a reduced clock rate to meet the 1350 mv voltage recommendation, or may require running at a voltage greater than the AMD recommended maximum.

You can use pcpartpicker for your region to look at prices. Warranty might be a concern. Also keep the plastic cpu socket cover plate from the mainboard. If you need to rma the mainboard you'll need to use that plastic cpu cover. Keep extra cables from the modular power supply since cables aren't always interchangeable and can wreck stuff.

Whats your current build?

Oldman
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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by Oldman » Tue, 9. Aug 22, 19:04

Hi folks! :)
First off... I scouted through the forum posts to see if there was a topic that was pertinent to my questions (rather than create a new one and clutter up the board).
I hope @DryName you don't mind me kind of high jacking your topic, but the title of the topic is something I would have written anyway. :)

Okay, I'm finally getting around to upgrading one of my computers. It's a quite ancient Athlon build, but is enclosed in a Coolermaster Haf X case. It has a good PSU, plus has some reasonable hard drives, running windows 10.
Over the last couple of weeks I've been bringing myself up to date with what modern hardware is available now (quite an experience :roll: ) and have decided this computer will be an Intel motherboard and CPU.

Undecided on the motherboard at the moment. I've looked at MSI motherboards and Asus. I've experienced both types and to date had no real problems, so I've narrowed the motherboard down to two.

1. ASUS Rog STRIX Z690 DDR4 S1700 (about £300). Or 2. an MSI MPG Z690 Edge Wifi DDR4 (£280). I looked initially at Z690 motherboards rated with DDR5 ram but the prices were a bit out of my budget, and the cost of ram also! :o
Anyhow, there's not too great a price difference between the two Mb's I've listed so I've got the choice between one or the other. Which one would you folks choose, and why?

Next comes the CPU. I can afford an Intel i5 12400 S (about £240), I could perhaps go a bit higher in the i5 range or maybe a low end i7, but would the difference be that noticeable for the fair hike in price?
Then the Ram would be bought at the same time as the MB. probably 16-32 GB but not sure which speed to go for, again any ideas?

The Graphics Card is not something I'm bothered about at the moment as prices are a bit fluctuating still. (I can use the existing one for now.)
I'm going for air cooling the cpu so I've been looking at aftermarket cooler specs from different company's.
I doubt if I'll be overclocking anything so the build will be more or less 'standard'.

So, what do you all think?....any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated (as always :wink: )

Oldman :)

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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by Alan Phipps » Tue, 9. Aug 22, 20:05

You might be wise going with air cooling.

While water cooling is really great, the first thing on my recent new built-to-spec rig that went wrong (well within warranty) was that my reputable AIO sealed system watercooler pump started grinding noisily. The system builders said this was quite a common issue (which rather surprised and disappointed me) and they did not quibble at all about replacing the pump. I sent the whole case back as I let them do the thermal paste removal and reapplication and then full system testing, etc. All is quiet and well now but I can't help worrying that if it is *that* common an issue ...
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Oldman
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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by Oldman » Wed, 10. Aug 22, 00:16

Hi Alan, thanks for the reply :)

Alan Phipps wrote:
Tue, 9. Aug 22, 20:05
You might be wise going with air cooling.

While water cooling is really great, the first thing on my recent new built-to-spec rig that went wrong (well within warranty) was that my reputable AIO sealed system watercooler pump started grinding noisily. The system builders said this was quite a common issue (which rather surprised and disappointed me) and they did not quibble at all about replacing the pump. I sent the whole case back as I let them do the thermal paste removal and reapplication and then full system testing, etc. All is quiet and well now but I can't help worrying that if it is *that* common an issue ...
I'm thinking that (pretty sure anyway) most watercooling pumps at least high end stuff are ok as I notice that mid to high range 'bundle builds' (motherboard, cpu and ram) are mostly fitted with watercooling. So in general it's reasonable to 'assume' that generally it works ok. (Unless of course that helps bump the price up :sceptic: ).
The thing is, 'IF' the pump (as you experienced) does go a knacker then (especially if the build isn't under any warranty because you've built it yourself) it's a lot more fun (not!) trying to get a replacement. Plus the fact you've got to remove the whole pump I believe?...meaning the thermal paste has to be removed too?....not sure on that one, I should perhaps be sure and look it up.

The way I see it, water and electronics are not usually compatible. There's no doubt that watercooling, especially when overclocking the CPU gives better (temp.) results than most fan cooled CPU's.
As I won't be overclocking (I wouldn't imagine) a fan cooler should do a reasonable job, is usually cheaper, and if a fan goes kaput it's easily changed over for a new one without having to remove the cooler itself.
I'll be getting a reasonably good quality fan cooler, so I shouldn't see any problems there (he says, crossing fingers). :D
I'll be buying a well branded cooler (got my eye on 3 types at the moment) a couple have got provision to add another fan and also supply extra clips to do so. I've got a few good quality 140 and 120 mm fans (brand new in boxes) from my last build so, should be ok there.

The relationship between the Motherboards I've mentioned, with the CPU and Ram is something I'm not totally sure on, getting the best overall result (bearing in mind my budget).
I could hopefully change the CPU for something faster in a few years time is what I was thinking, as long as the Z 690 MB is still, or would be generally well supported by that time.

Oldman :)

pjknibbs
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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by pjknibbs » Wed, 10. Aug 22, 03:17

Can you not shave a bit off the price of the motherboard and use that to get a better CPU? 300 sounds eye-wateringly expensive, and spending more on the mobo than the bit that does all the work seems odd, to say the least!

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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by euclid » Wed, 10. Aug 22, 03:29

Sorry Alan you had trouble with your water cooling.

I was sceptical about water cooling (water within a sensitive electronic environment) but I never regretted it (no more noise like next to an airplane). So I do recommend it; never had any issues (did I jinx it now?) with the Corsair Hydro 100 AIO Liquid Cooler. Also I recommend a big case (more space, more airflow). The Fractal Design Meshify S2 comes with several side and top fans and they do fire up occasionally (in X4 battles for example) but the noise is still low compared to an all air cooling system. Also the side and bottom dust filters are easy and fast to remove & clean.

Cheers Euclid
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- Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Metaphysical Foundations of the Science of Nature, 4:470, 1786

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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by jlehtone » Wed, 10. Aug 22, 09:28

@euclid: Oldman's CM HAF X is definitely a "big case".
Oldman wrote:
Wed, 10. Aug 22, 00:16
As I won't be overclocking (I wouldn't imagine) a fan cooler should do a reasonable job, is usually cheaper, and if a fan goes kaput it's easily changed over for a new one without having to remove the cooler itself.
Furthermore, liquid evaporates (slowly) through the tubes. (Although, I've seen AIO cooler to outright leak. HP Workstations had very poor quality AIO's.)

I don't recall paying more for motherboard than CPU, ever. Times change, apparently.

There are many Rog STRIX Z690-*. Was that a Z690-A? Price being the same, the fine details -- or reputation of company -- matters. (Or availability.) There are always someone with bad experience with any given company.


Lately (but was it mostly about DDR5?) there have been texts about "single rank" vs "double rank" memory. E.g. https://www.hardwaretimes.com/single-ra ... or-gaming/
There surely are benchmarks about memory (speed) on Alder Lake too. I neither have nor consider that platform, so I've skipped them.
Do the speed/latency/ranks have significant impact anywhere but wallet? I doubt that.

Is 16 GB enough (for how many years)? Apparently some browse with zillion tabs and say "no". I know compute workloads that do not fit into 160 GB, but that is not a "consumer/gamer" case. So, "maybe".
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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by Oldman » Wed, 10. Aug 22, 14:52

Hi :)
jlehtone wrote:
Wed, 10. Aug 22, 09:28

There are many Rog STRIX Z690-*. Was that a Z690-A? Price being the same, the fine details -- or reputation of company -- matters. (Or availability.) There are always someone with bad experience with any given company.
Edit...Asus intel Z690 Rog Strix A Gaming Wifi D4
Incidentally the MSI MB has just (in the last few days) gone up in price to £299... :roll:
pjknibbs wrote:
Wed, 10. Aug 22, 03:17
Can you not shave a bit off the price of the motherboard and use that to get a better CPU? 300 sounds eye-wateringly expensive, and spending more on the mobo than the bit that does all the work seems odd, to say the least!
Hi Paul :thumb_up: :D ....Well :gruebel: still not sure about the CPU at the moment, I just thought that having a decent motherboard, and having one that's probably going to be 'still' up to date in the next 5 years or so was the way to go. I can swap out the CPU at a later date for something a bit faster?
Prices for everything as we are all aware are going up at the present time so *shrugs*. I like building up a 'new' computer, but I hate it at the same time! :)

Oldman :)
Last edited by Oldman on Wed, 10. Aug 22, 18:29, edited 5 times in total.

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euclid
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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by euclid » Wed, 10. Aug 22, 15:42

Furthermore, liquid evaporates (slowly) through the tubes. (Although, I've seen AIO cooler to outright leak. HP Workstations had very poor quality AIO's.)
Every pressurized system has a leak rate but it's usually very small meaning it will be ok for many years to come. The workstation AIO dripping is bad ofc but most likely a manufacturing flaw.

Cheers Euclid
"In any special doctrine of nature there can be only as much proper science as there is mathematics therein.”
- Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Metaphysical Foundations of the Science of Nature, 4:470, 1786

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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by jlehtone » Wed, 10. Aug 22, 19:37

Oldman wrote:
Wed, 10. Aug 22, 14:52
Well :gruebel: still not sure about the CPU at the moment, I just thought that having a decent motherboard, and having one that's probably going to be 'still' up to date in the next 5 years or so was the way to go. I can swap out the CPU at a later date for something a bit faster?
Intel seems to have some 4th Gen. Core i5 models still in "Launched" state that were launched in 2013,
but they also have 10th Gen. Core i5 models that are already "Discontinued" even though they were launched in 2019.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... ducts.html

Checking prices from my "local" stores, they seem to carry Intel Gen. 9, 10, 11, and 12 CPU's. For how many years will the 12th Gen CPU's remain available (at any price, lest reasonable)?
Motherboards for AMD have been compatible for more CPU generations than Intel, but even there "future proofing" is limited.
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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by Oldman » Thu, 11. Aug 22, 18:04

Hi :)
jlehtone wrote:
Wed, 10. Aug 22, 19:37
Checking prices from my "local" stores, they seem to carry Intel Gen. 9, 10, 11, and 12 CPU's. For how many years will the 12th Gen CPU's remain available (at any price, lest reasonable)?
Motherboards for AMD have been compatible for more CPU generations than Intel, but even there "future proofing" is limited.
Well, I'm having a rethink, perhaps I should be looking at a Z590 MB?, prices are obviously much lower than a comparable Z690 MB, CPU's are a fair bit cheaper and the DDR4 ram is again much cheaper. I could stretch to an i7 CPU with the savings on the other hardware, but again obviously, an i5 is cheaper still.
Still not sure on what CPU to get (i7 or i5) the specs for all those CPU's are a little bit baffling to me at the moment (must be the heatwave we're 'enjoying' at this present time! :)
Anyways at this stage, any suggestions with processors most welcome.

Okay, here is my rethink of a build, if anybody gets the time, suggestions or comments, positive or negative would be greatly appreciated. :wink:

Motherboard: MSI MPG Z590 Gaming Carbon + Wifi. ATX £190.
CPU : Intel Core i5 11600 S £230.
Ram: 16GB (2x8) Corsair DDR4 3000 MHz cas 16-18-18-36 (Vengeance RGB Pro Black) £ 70.
CPU COOLER Deep Cool AS 500 £ 35.
Total £ 525.

Oldman :)

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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by burger1 » Sat, 13. Aug 22, 05:26

Use pcpartpicker for pricing.

Use camel camel camel or honey to see historical prices on amazon.

i5-11600k was 210 back in July.

Your cooler might have issues cooling the cpu if you are running all cores at 100%. If your just gaming then your unlikely to have issues. Gaming might be 60-110w? The cooler will probably only do 120w or less. All core boost is probably around 143w if the cpu isn't overclocked.

https://youtu.be/lbch8LW-Bz0?t=1304

gaming wattage's in video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad7Rd1GkGJI

If you update the bios maybe stay below 7D06v15 from date 2021-09-15 - Windows 11 Supported. Unless you are using windows 11. So secure boot on by default and maybe tpm.

There's some mainboard comparison tests on youtube. Haven't seen MSI MPG Z590 Gaming Carbon + Wifi. search vrm thermal test hardware unboxed or z590 motherboard review

Might be some sound issue for some people with the mainboard?

https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/ ... filter-bar

~46 reviews 2 1 star reviews and 3 2 star reviews

The issue is with the onboard realtek chip this board has and shares between multiple brands gigabyte, Asus, etc etc. The chip has an issue that causes unpredictable ear splitting static. At this time there is no 100% fix so to get around it I had to purchase a sound card.

however I seem to be getting an intermittent 'white noise' blasted out from my digital output cable ...like full on static.

The first one had some kind of short with the audio, it would make popping sounds int he speakers when booting

newegg has 25% 1 star reviews and 13% 2 star reviews.

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E1681314438 ... -_-Product

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Re: Gaming PC Build Assistance

Post by Oldman » Sat, 13. Aug 22, 11:26

Hi Burger1 :D

Thanks for the reply, and I really appreciate you taking time out to supply those links. :thumb_up:
Hmm...seems there's some trouble with the audio codecs then, plus that PCie slot....not good.
Some people also have difficulty with the bios setup too.
Quite a lot of reviews are fairly good but those three 'faults' especially the onboard sound system is a bit worrying, and crop up regularly.

Okay, I'll look up a comparable Asus board and see some reviews / comments with those!
Thanks once again for the information. :)

Oldman :)

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