Content creator looking for entry-level all rounder

[AndreasAndrews112]

Hello forum members, I'm new here. Mightly impressed with the forum! Getting my first PCS build. Here we go!
My budget is £600
it was initially £1000 but I downgraded it on wise advice from someone who has got my back. I have little to no income coming in right now.

One thing I don't do is gaming. I might do in the future, but let's assume I don't need to game, but might dabble in years to come if I have time+money. This is going to be a work production machine and the spec is more than adequate. I will be live streaming DJ sets for fun. I have an old laptop that will run my DJ software so this could be used as dedicated streaming machine, but I'm likely to be attempting to run Traktor + OBS and streaming from it simultaneously. That is the most intensive thing I'll need to do over the coming year or two. It's not even important that I can do it, totally optional. The main concern is future-proofing so I can upgrade when I have more income, and if more resource intensive work comes in.

I do need a monitor and if you enjoy pairing monitors to builds, then be my guest!

I'm going to add my own secondary/tertiary drives in based on what spinning rust and old SSDs are lying around for now.

I also need to buy a better keyboard (backlit) and a better office chair. This build and a suitable monitor comes first though, even before buying a bed*

Case
CORSAIR 175R RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3400G Quad Core CPU with Vega Graphics (3.7GHz-4.2GHz/6MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B450-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W CV SERIES™ CV-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 13 to 15 working days
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Price: £589.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-home-office/an4FcY9hBe/

I've read here that if you plan to upgrade within 2-3 years then the build is not right. My issue is that I do plan to maybe upgrade to better dedicated graphics, hence getting an APU (integrated graphics) for now. At some point a GPU/APU is going to be spare or wasted unless I can benefit from a combined APU+GPU in the future. An alternative would be a better Ryzen and as cheap a graphics card as I can get away with. I'm avoiding forking out too much for a GPU twice. My favoured option down that route (a 5600x) is adding hundreds of pounds or 25% to the cost which means less to spend on things that actually will make a difference in my life. Having said all this, I'm pretty set on this build for my needs and would love for you to scrutinse it. I'm being cautious by posting it here and can't wait to go ahead with hopefully within a day or two!


*yes I'm sleeping on the floor till I have my build sorted - I'm happy for you to judge me and question my priorities in life - I'm sure I'm in good company here

Thank you for reading my waffley post thus far!

 

[AndreasAndrews112]

**edit: 32GB of RAM is probably excessive, although I might utilise it one day (Photoshopping gigapixel images, After Effects VFX video rendering - scratch disks and running multiple VMs or even GAASSSSP a Hackintosh!)

*** I'm currently researching the issue around how to not "waste" the iGPU part of the APU if and when I'm quids in and buy a DGPU (discrete graphics) and I've discovered Crosslink which I'm looking into...

(I couldn't edit my initial post due to a recurring error so have to post this update as reply instead)

 

[AgentCooper]

The kind of system you’re looking for isn’t actually one I’d be strong on... and I hate giving bad advice, at this point I’ll pick up the batphone and call for the big guns. @SpyderTracks, next time you’re online your knowledge would be much appreciated 👍

 

[SpyderTracks]

Content creation takes some grunt at a CPU level, and the area you don't want to skrimp on is the platform (cpu, motherboard, RAM, PSU). You want a solid base to be able to upgrade in the future.

While an APU is attractive in a compact package, you are sacrificing CPU power to fit that GPU die within the package, and it certainly wouldn't be a suggested route for this kind of usage.

This would be SUBSTANTIALLY more powerful, and it's on a much stronger platform and will allow upgrading the CPU to a higher end 3000 / 5000 series AMD (and possibly further). Plus it has the added benefit of an on board Thunderbolt header for a thunderbolt add in card which I'll link separately:

Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 275Q QUIET CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3500X Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.1GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE 710 - DVI, HDMI, VGA
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 13 to 15 working days
Price: £636.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/MMUwftyfwD/

 

[SpyderTracks]

This is the compatible Thunderbolt add in card:

THUNDERBOLTEX 3-TR｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

ASUS offers different kinds of motherboard accessories including Thunderbolt™ expansion cards, M.2 add-on cards, and fan extension cards give DIY PC users better choices when it comes to building their perfect workstation or gaming rig.

www.asus.com

And it's available on Amazon:

ASUS ThunderboltEX 3-TR Expansion Card for Z490 (Intel 10th Gen CPUs)motherboard (PCIe 3.0 x4 interface, 2 x Thunderbolt™ 3 USB Type-C® ports with 100w USB quick charge, 2 x mini DisplayPort IN ports) : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Buy

www.amazon.co.uk

The build above would allow for straight swap of the GPU to anything up to around a 3060ti which would be a very capable 1440p 144Hz gaming card or rendering card.

 

[SpyderTracks]

For a monitor, depends on your budget? Would it be for gaming in the future or just for workflow?

 

[Bigfoot]

Do you have an existing Windows licence on an old laptop or desktop? If so, you could transfer that to the new PC and save around £100.

 

[AndreasAndrews112]

For a monitor, depends on your budget? Would it be for gaming in the future or just for workflow?

I haven't decided on a budget yet, but as a range £80-£250 bearing in mind that I'd prefer to save some money and buy a second at some stage.

Over the next 1-3 years I predict it will be used increasingly for gaming 5%-15% of the time and photo-editing and work the rest of the time. I don't neccessarily need an IPS panel, but some colour accuracy would be nice. Anything else is a bonus really and everything I know about monitors and the market is definitely a bit out-dates now!

Thanks so much, you've been such a great help already! I love the build suggestion and I will probably be going with it. Will post updates if I don't get sucked into some kind of vortex with the increased speed of the revered Ryzen!

 

[AndreasAndrews112]

Do you have an existing Windows licence on an old laptop or desktop? If so, you could transfer that to the new PC and save around £100.

Absolutely, I always prefer to use existing licenses and I have one on my old AMD Bulldozer which has sadly died a bit of a death which I'm pretty sure can be transferred. I can always whack Linux on there to continue troubleshooting that ancient build. I'm so confident I will save money on Windows 10 that I'll eat my PSU if I end up paying £100 for a Windows license.

 

[AndreasAndrews112]

So, thanks to @SpyderTracks I'm getting closer to pushing the button on my build and wasting no time in getting it ordered.

A few more questions and pontifications on my mind, which you or anyone may be able to help put at ease:

1. Why the slower PCS m.2 drive vs the super fast NVMe Samsung drive? I assume it's just to save money. It uses NVMe (as opposed to just having M.2 form factor. I wanted to go for NVMe as opposed to the same speed as a SATA connection, but only because I feel it would make the system snappier, load faster and for faster data transfers - which I do quite a bit of).
Would it be a waste of money to spend on the faster Samsung NVMe drive? I'm trying to work out the bottleneck of this system and I feel like that is possibly it for my workflow. I'm happy to push the budget up from 600 to 700 to accomodate this as the price goes from £635 up to £682 inc. VAT which is totally reasonable. I'll just spend a bit less on a monitor and reduce that budget slightly down to something reasonable like £90-£200 range.

That's actually the only real qualm I have tbh. The case change looks fantastic and along with the change of PSU this will run quieter which will be nice! I've been warned of noisy PSU's so this ticks many boxes for me!

Here's the current build again just for good measure:

Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 275Q QUIET CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3500X Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.1GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE 710 - DVI, HDMI, VGA
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 13 to 15 working days
Price: £682.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/24fJav6gHv/

 

[SpyderTracks]

1. Why the slower PCS m.2 drive vs the super fast NVMe Samsung drive? I assume it's just to save money. It uses NVMe (as opposed to just having M.2 form factor. I wanted to go for NVMe as opposed to the same speed as a SATA connection, but only because I feel it would make the system snappier, load faster and for faster data transfers - which I do quite a bit of).

Budget, purely budget. At this cost, you're getting a luxury product with a very low budget, means you have to sacrifice more important components for the drive, which doesn't make sense. They're both NVME as you can see by the transfer speeds. SATA M2 is 600mbs. The PCS drive is 2000mbs.

Would it be a waste of money to spend on the faster Samsung NVMe drive? I'm trying to work out the bottleneck of this system and I feel like that is possibly it for my workflow. I'm happy to push the budget up from 600 to 700 to accomodate this as the price goes from £635 up to £682 inc. VAT which is totally reasonable. I'll just spend a bit less on a monitor and reduce that budget slightly down to something reasonable like £90-£200 range.

Yes, absolutely. If you had that extra budget, it would make much more sense to improve the platform as there are a lot of compromises already to fit to the budget.

Really for a build for this uses, you'd be looking nearer £900 for something to meet the basics.

Again though, it's not worth sacrificing on the monitor as that is the final chain that determines what's able to be shown. You could have a £4000 PC with a £100 screen, and you'll only ever get £900 worth of performance because the screen is bottlenecking the build.

 

[AndreasAndrews112]

Amazing advice! I can finally put an end to spending my night on YouTube learning about M.2 PCI NVMe 3.0 x2, x3, x4 and all the countless stuff I just don't need to learn for this build!

I'm so glad that the PCS card is NVMe, I was probably on the cusp of figuring it out after another hour or 4 down the YouTube rabbit hole before I slapped myself for not realising that due to the listed speed it's obviously NVMe duh! ha ha

I think it's settled that I'll switch back to the PCS card and spend just a little more on the screen

Do you think if I call PC Specialist and explain that I'm unemployed and struggling due to covid they might knock a bit off? I'm trying to save myself an hour of waiting in queue here, but even if there is a 1% chance they'll knock 5% off that's worth not taking calls for an hour (as nobody calls me these days anyway ha!)

 

[SpyderTracks]

Do you think if I call PC Specialist and explain that I'm unemployed and struggling due to covid they might knock a bit off? I'm trying to save myself an hour of waiting in queue here, but even if there is a 1% chance they'll knock 5% off that's worth not taking calls for an hour (as nobody calls me these days anyway ha!)

Unfortunately I don't think so I'm afraid. They set their prices consistently low at all times, they adjust them very often (talking at least once a week) to keep in line with market rates or whatever they bought them in for if that was cheaper at the time.

Not long ago, a IIyama 1440p monitor was in short supply and was selling for around £400 on places like amazon as it was very popular. PCS still had it listed for £200 or something which was low even for normal times.

For the budget, you'll be getting a very good strong build that should last 7 - 10 years (with a few minor upgrades), and it's designed so that it will accept almost any upgrades you should wish to do (as much as possible within the budget).

 

[AndreasAndrews112]

@SpyderTracks friend, you've saved me so much time - the most precious thing we have - not to mention significantly changed my whole build in a way that I'm pretty sure will have a major impact on my life and future work prospects! I'm hugely grateful.

I had a feeling the profit margins here are not going to be very big here and I cannot fault a single thing you've said going back up the thread.... thread ....thread... thread... thread.... thread... 6 cores, 6 threads.... I'm going to be SO HAPPY in 13-15 days or whenever it arrives probably not deviating too far from the estimated turnaround time. Being emailed at each stage of the process is a nice touch they say they will do.

In fact, because I'm a pedantic weirdo I track a lot of the tasks that I do and the number of hours I've spent researching options, to'ing and fro'ing and pontificating is somewhat staggering...

...but without so much help from you and others I may have spent even more time on this and still not come to as good a decision!

I should be buying you a drink at this stage, but I'll just say cheers for now! 🍻 I'll save the champagne glass emoji for when I upgrade GPU!

BTW.... I've placed the order! I was going to say I'll sleep better now, but I might not be able to sleep out of excitement!

 

[roymax]

Do you have an existing Windows licence on an old laptop or desktop? If so, you could transfer that to the new PC and save around £100.

Is there an easy way to see if the license is transerrable? I thought that an OEM license wasnt available to transfer - does the fact it was upgraded to the current Windows 10 mean its possible? Id welcome some views on this.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Is there an easy way to see if the license is transerrable? I thought that an OEM license wasnt available to transfer - does the fact it was upgraded to the current Windows 10 mean its possible? Id welcome some views on this.

Any windows license can be turned to a digital license, except volume or enterprise.

How to link your Windows 10 product key to a Microsoft account

If you're using a local account, use this guide to link your Windows 10 product key to your Microsoft account for easier re-activation.

www.windowscentral.com

 

[roymax]

Thats utter genius, thank you, so I can now always transfer my OS as I decommission old hardware?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thats utter genius, thank you, so I can now always transfer my OS as I decommission old hardware?

Yes, thankfully Microsoft learnt from the backlash of former OS transfer restrictions, largely relating to the self build and enthusiast segment, and now you can transfer it as many times as you like so long as it's only used on one machine at a time. It's a great move by Microsoft, and I don't think it would have come about without Satya Nadella's influence. He really has been fantastic for Microsoft as a whole!

 

[ubuysa]

Is there an easy way to see if the license is transerrable? I thought that an OEM license wasnt available to transfer - does the fact it was upgraded to the current Windows 10 mean its possible? Id welcome some views on this.

The waters are typically muddy. Microsoft do still state that an OEM license cannot be transferred, but you are legally allowed to activate an OEM copy of Windows with a digital license tied to your Microsoft account. When it comes to activation on new hardware with a digital license Microsoft say this (my underlining):

Reactivating Windows 10 after a hardware change
When you make a significant hardware change to your device, such as replacing the motherboard, Windows 10 might no longer be activated.
Make sure you associate your Microsoft account to your digital license to prepare for hardware changes. The association enables you to reactivate Windows using the Activation troubleshooter if you make a significant hardware change later. For more info, see Reactivating Windows 10 after a hardware change.
If you don't have a digital license, you'll use a product key to activate.

Replacing an old PC (which no longer runs Windows) with a new PC is clearly a hardware change, but Microsoft don't restrict this by saying the hardware has to be in the same case for example, nor use any of the original components. They even talk about a 'significant hardware change' and although they don't specifically say it can be a new PC they don't specifically forbid it either...

See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/activate-windows-10-c39005d4-95ee-b91e-b399-2820fda32227
and https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...e-change-2c0e962a-f04c-145b-6ead-fb3fc72b6665

 

[AndreasAndrews112]

In stark contrast, put simply, if you want Linux just download a free open-source distro' like Ubuntu, install it and voila!
I need to regularly use well over a handful of Windows only applications, so it's Win 10 Pro for me.
[text deleted by ubuysa]