Mid-Range Gaming PC with Ryzen 5 3600

[Leebus]

Hi All,

I posted a spec the other day and was advised to wait for the new Ryzen CPUs to drop, so here I am again. Any advice on the spec would be much appreciated. My budget is £1300, and I'm looking for a gaming machine that will run most games at 1080p/1440p at a decent FPS. I don't play a lot of AAA titles, but do enjoy newer RTS/SIM games like BFG2, Anno 1800 etc and the odd MMORPG. I'm not at all fussed about 4K or VR, and only have a 1080p monitor at the moment, but would like to be able to upgrade that to 1440p at some point.

Case
PCS GENESIS G1B CASE + SD CARD READER
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
Gigabyte X570 GAMING X: ATX (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 Ti - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
1TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-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
Extra Case Fans
1x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]

Price: £1,262.00 including VAT and Delivery

 

[Flo]

The below would be a bit more balanced. You are spending a lot of cash on a 1TB SATA SSD when you already have the faster m2 one. This does not make sense as movies/music/photos(except when editing) do not benefit from being stored on a fast drive. If you drop this and go for a larger HDD you could afford a better case which will allow future upgrades, faster RAM(AMD performs better with faster RAM), and you can even go for the 3600x which has a higher clock speed out of the box. I also went for a better quality PSU(semi-modular) which will reduce the number of cables in your PC and will improve airflow while also allowing future upgrades. If you need the wifi chose one of the options around £35. The one you chose is the slowest option and not sure it will allow decent experience in gaming. Consider the silver warranty for an extra £5.

Case
CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 460X RGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Six Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)

Get 3 Months of XBOX Game Pass for PC w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs
Motherboard
Gigabyte X570 GAMING X: ATX (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2933MHz ~ (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 Ti - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
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)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
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 3 to 5 working days
Price: £1,298.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/qYpywV2ywu/

 

[Leebus]

Hi Flo,

Thanks a lot for your advice.

My thought on the SSD is that it would be my main games drive, with a few favourite games installed on the m2, I've got 750gb of steam games at the moment, hence the 1TB choice, but you are right, its certainly quite a bit of cost. I've also realised I've got a slightly old WD 1TB HDD I can drop it for extra non-performance/backup storage. What do you think?

I've done some research on RAM following your comments on the new AMD CPUs and it does seem like small speed increases make a noticeable difference to performance, so taking your advice here and going for the 2933MHz. I think I'll have to stick with the 3600 (not 3600x) for budget reasons.

I've had a good look at Cases and upgraded to the FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE which looks to be a lot better for a little more money. I've also taken your advice on going for a better PSU, I imagine this will have a significant positive impact on the cabling, and also give me some more upgrade options if I want to upgrade the GPU in a few years. I've also specced the better Wifi card, as although I'm cabled at the moment, I don't know if that will always be the case. I also added the silver warranty.

Things brings the total to £1,302.00 inc. VAT

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
Gigabyte X570 GAMING X: ATX (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2933MHz ~ (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 Ti - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
1TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
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)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11 Gigabyte GC-WB1733D-I AC 1734Mbps + BT5 PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

 

[Potatoguru]

Downgrading the motherboard to a X470 will save you some cash the x570's are really expensive at the moment, you could even upgrade your graphics card with the cash.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Downgrading the motherboard to a X470 will save you some cash the x570's are really expensive at the moment, you could even upgrade your graphics card with the cash.

Imho, the gigabyte x570 is very reasonable and worth the added cost for the new features.

 

[Leebus]

Thanks guys, the ASUS X570 is £51 more than the Gigabyte X570, which seems a big difference, whereas the ASUS X470 is only £37 less than the Gigabyte X570. It seems to me like the Gigabyte X570 is a good option all round.

 

[Potatoguru]

What are the new features it adds? i know it has PCIe 4.0 instead of 3.0 but aside from that i don't know much else.

 

[SpyderTracks]

What are the new features it adds? i know it has PCIe 4.0 instead of 3.0 but aside from that i don't know much else.

It can take up to 5GHz RAM, whereas the X470 tops out at around 3000mhz. ATM, the optimum speed for Ryzen 3000 is 3600MHz, but that may well increase with chipset updates in the future.
PCIe 4 allows for 5000mbps NVME SSD's whereas X470 tops out at the current roughly 3200mbps. The new drives are now just hitting the market and in the future will be standard. They're currently a little expensive.

Plus the improved VRM cooling on the motherboards, the whole motherboard platform is just much much more robust to take the increased power requirements of the new chips. Not so important on the Ryzen 5 3600, but if you upgrade in the future, likely to be very important.

 

[Flo]

Looks good to me. If you want lots of fast storage but also to keep the price down I'd go with the 1tb adata from the m2 drives and skip the sata ssd all together. It will come out cheaper than the 2 combined and you can add your 1tb hdd for music/movies library. The samsung 860qvo isn't their finest anyway. Do you need the dvd/blue ray drive? If you do, the case choice is quite limited unless you are ok with an external drive?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Looks good to me. If you want lots of fast storage but also to keep the price down I'd go with the 1tb adata from the m2 drives and skip the sata ssd all together. It will come out cheaper than the 2 combined and you can add your 1tb hdd for music/movies library. The samsung 860qvo isn't their finest anyway. Do you need the dvd/blue ray drive? If you do, the case choice is quite limited unless you are ok with an external drive?

I would echo this, the ADATA M2 drives are impressive performers for the price, well worth it if you need to reduce the cash outlay but keep performance.

 

[Leebus]

Thanks again guys. The storage drives seem to be the last sticking point for me, with so many different options and configurations. Going for the single 1TB ADATA M2 takes £117 off the cost, quite a saving for only losing 500GB and being able to put more games on the M2. I'm not sure how I'm going to come to a decision on this one.

I definitely need a CD/DVD writer, but I'm not adverse to having a USB one. Is there a particular case around the £50 price point that would be a much better option?

 

[SpyderTracks]

The PCS SR-628B RGB is a decent case at around £55

Personally I would always have a primary SSD for OS and games, then I'd have a 7200rpm HDD for storage, I usually get 3TB, but they go up way beyond that. There's no real benefit to having an SSD as a storage other than convenience, but in real world usage, the only time you'll notice the speed improvement will be with large data transfers.

 

[Leebus]

Thanks Spydertracks, that case does look cool.

So you wouldn't have any issue having your OS and Games on the same drive? My 1TB HDD should easily suffice for docs/music/photos etc, so really its just a case of what I use for OS/Software/Games.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks Spydertracks, that case does look cool.

So you wouldn't have any issue having your OS and Games on the same drive? My 1TB HDD should easily suffice for docs/music/photos etc, so really its just a case of what I use for OS/Software/Games.

Nowadays with game libraries, certainly with Steam, you can just copy the game installation folder off onto another drive, so if you need to reformat or anything and don't want to reinstall, you just copy it off and transfer it back once you've reinstalled. Game saves are all cloud based anyway, so no worries there. If you're still using physical media, I'd suggest inputting the game key into Steam and transferring the license there to avoid issues of having a local copy only.

But yeah, I have a 500Gb SSD for my OS and games and never have an issue. ( and this is coming from someone who reformats every 6 months or so).

 

[Oussebon]

The PCS SR-628B RGB is a decent case at around £55

Personally I would always have a primary SSD for OS and games, then I'd have a 7200rpm HDD for storage, I usually get 3TB, but they go up way beyond that. There's no real benefit to having an SSD as a storage other than convenience, but in real world usage, the only time you'll notice the speed improvement will be with large data transfers.

I'm going to be that guy.

Is this case good?

Seen the PCS SR-628B RGB GAMING CASE and was wondering on its quality, it says it pc specialist but has corsair on the back of. Is this case good, or is worth getting a different case of similar price like the corsair 275r?

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

I would personally avoid the SR-628B-RGB The Corsair 460x is good, if it's within the budget.

Agreed with the comments above about the ease of switching games between drives, and of reinstalling from copies of the files held on another drive.