Aaron and friends build PCs (help) - Build underway!

Thanks Jen and Bertie, you've both been genuinely really helpful.

I'm looking at something like this for the time being: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/D9fc78

Had a slight budget boost due to some unexpected Christmas money (and I've found a couple parts cheaper than they list it). I'm guessing I'd be able to add in another SSD if I wanted more storage at some point?

aayl1 wrote:Thanks Jen and Bertie, you've both been genuinely really helpful.

I'm looking at something like this for the time being: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/D9fc78

Had a slight budget boost due to some unexpected Christmas money (and I've found a couple parts cheaper than they list it). I'm guessing I'd be able to add in another SSD if I wanted more storage at some point?

Yeah, my PC only had a 256GB SSD to start with and I've augmented that over the years with both HDDs and SSDs. You don't have anything at all on the SATA ports on the motherboard which is how drives are connected "traditionally" (i.e before M2 SSDs) so there's loads of space and it's really easy.

Abacus wrote:Interesting topic. I've often thought of doing the same thing, but then got completely put off by the sheer amount of choices as well. Where do you start?

I also kind of thought I should maybe start off with a raspberry pi, just so that I understood the principles of what all the various bits do, and to have some practice putting them together.

But I'm a lazy man and would no doubt end up with some version of Homer Simpson's robot.

So my current thought is to go to one of these tech stores that refurbish laptops and computers etc. And then buying one of those second hand, before gradually upgrading all the bits inside one by one.

Presumably, that would work. Or, at least, I'd know the exact point I broke it all. It might be interesting to compare how well each approach works anyway.

I largely learned how to fix and build Computers by buying ones off someone who did house clearances , it used to be £5 a PC and basically if they worked great if they didn't tough, some were ok , some were super old but it was fun to mess with them and repair some sell some on but really I was buying them to play at building computers. If you look in papers or facebook sites or something or pawn stores for cheap fixer upers it might help you learn in the same way...

aayl1 wrote:Thanks Jen and Bertie, you've both been genuinely really helpful.

I'm looking at something like this for the time being: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/D9fc78

Had a slight budget boost due to some unexpected Christmas money (and I've found a couple parts cheaper than they list it). I'm guessing I'd be able to add in another SSD if I wanted more storage at some point?

So I had a look at this and offer some thoughts. 13600k is a great chip and cheaper. That saved money takes you onto DDR5. I pushed you over 2k. But you can save money with Corsair vengeance DDR5 5600 ram. I also swapped your PSU. 850 is plenty for a 3080.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/R3jDFg

Just some thoughts.

What would you guys say is the sweet spot for price V performance these days?

Peter Crisp wrote:What would you guys say is the sweet spot for price V performance these days?

The recent digital foundry miles morales video using a ryzen 3600 and rtx 2070 super as they think it’s similar to PS5 performance. You could probably build that 2nd hand for £800. If you built all new I would look at 3060Ti or 3070 / 3080 (£360, £550 or £650 from Nvidia - unless they stop making these cards as drops have become rare). I’ve seen 6900xt cards from AMD as low as £650 which is an excellent price for an incredible card.

Thanks Cuttooth and Kerr!

At least I now know a bit more about what a Raspberry Pi is

I think I might well go down the route of buying an old PC and seeing what I can upgrade and what the roadblocks are. Sounds like quite a fun project to help me learn how it works.

I'll probably go to my nearest dodgy phone unlocking shop, explain what I'm after and buy something from there.

I'd honestly otherwise just agonise about getting the first bit, and probably then never get started.

I've also been looking at either building a new PC or buying a pre-built so there has been some great information in this thread. I've been looking at partpicker and this pre-built (https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computer ... very/1374/) looks to be close to what I could get for my money from building but what do other people think?

The other thing is that I am only really looking to game at 1440p, so could I be setting my sights lower and be fine?

SpaceJebus wrote:I've also been looking at either building a new PC or buying a pre-built so there has been some great information in this thread. I've been looking at partpicker and this pre-built (https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computer ... very/1374/) looks to be close to what I could get for my money from building but what do other people think?

The other thing is that I am only really looking to game at 1440p, so could I be setting my sights lower and be fine?

It’s alot of money for a prebuilt (£1500) that’s ddr4, 12700 and 3070.
Depending what games you play 3070 is fine. Fine for 1440 and 144hz but you won’t be hitting that on all games, mainly those with ray tracing without DLSS and graphics reductions in some areas.

Can you build and stretch a bit? 6900xt Is a much better card than 3070 and this build is £1800.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Y24bDq

Bertie wrote:It’s alot of money for a prebuilt (£1500) that’s ddr4, 12700 and 3070.
Depending what games you play 3070 is fine. Fine for 1440 and 144hz but you won’t be hitting that on all games, mainly those with ray tracing without DLSS and graphics reductions in some areas.

Can you build and stretch a bit? 6900xt Is a much better card than 3070 and this build is £1800.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Y24bDq

Definitely not looking to go much over £1500 and really less than that would be better. Games wise, I don't play many AAA games on my PC at the moment and 1440p and 60fps would be more than enough for me so I might be ok with a 3060 ti. That said lower end with the potential to upgrade much further down the line would be the sweet spot I think.

Something like this maybe for potential: https://www.box.co.uk/create-your-own-c ... 30,4083860
Or this for budget: https://www.box.co.uk/Cube-Mythic_34847 ... 12,4086959

The 2nd box one is nice. Keep an eye on Nvidia website for drops of the FE cards. They had 3070ti for £550 and 3060ti for £360 recently. Don’t pay £95 for windows.

You can build your own. You can do it. We can help.

Also in the same boat in wanting to build a PC but not with the budget of the others, don't really want to go over £700ish at the moment. Not fussed about 4K gaming, mostly want to play older games although would be good if I could get something like Elden Ring running at lower specs, and do some streaming.

Hypes wrote:Also in the same boat in wanting to build a PC but not with the budget of the others, don't really want to go over £700ish at the moment. Not fussed about 4K gaming, mostly want to play older games although would be good if I could get something like Elden Ring running at lower specs, and do some streaming.

Might be better off looking 2nd hand. Or you could look at b450/5600 (non x) and find a 2nd £200 GPU online.

Abacus wrote:
I think I might well go down the route of buying an old PC and seeing what I can upgrade and what the roadblocks are. Sounds like quite a fun project to help me learn how it works.

I'll probably go to my nearest dodgy phone unlocking shop, explain what I'm after and buy something from there.

I'd honestly otherwise just agonise about getting the first bit, and probably then never get started.

I think I would have also opted for this, problem is I've started really enjoying streaming my game sessions on twitch and it's getting to the point where I really need a PC that can handle doing this for me. My current stream setup is soooo ratchet - I'm either streaming my Xcloud sessions or I'm using the PS Remote play app to stream my PS4 gameplay to, then out to twitch Coupled with the fact that I'm using my partner's laptop to do it and I've been saving for this for a while, now seems like the time.

Thanks again

Bertie wrote:

aayl1 wrote:Thanks Jen and Bertie, you've both been genuinely really helpful.

I'm looking at something like this for the time being: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/D9fc78

Had a slight budget boost due to some unexpected Christmas money (and I've found a couple parts cheaper than they list it). I'm guessing I'd be able to add in another SSD if I wanted more storage at some point?

So I had a look at this and offer some thoughts. 13600k is a great chip and cheaper. That saved money takes you onto DDR5. I pushed you over 2k. But you can save money with Corsair vengeance DDR5 5600 ram. I also swapped your PSU. 850 is plenty for a 3080.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/R3jDFg

Just some thoughts.

Thanks so much dude! Very helpful, thanks for taking a look. I think I'll heed your recommendations and will start purchasing bits this week.

Silly question - how does one buy windows (and then install it)? I know you can make a boot USB from the website but that's not buying it, right? Apologies, this stuff is very outside my wheelhouse!

aayl1 wrote:

Abacus wrote:
I think I might well go down the route of buying an old PC and seeing what I can upgrade and what the roadblocks are. Sounds like quite a fun project to help me learn how it works.

I'll probably go to my nearest dodgy phone unlocking shop, explain what I'm after and buy something from there.

I'd honestly otherwise just agonise about getting the first bit, and probably then never get started.

I think I would have also opted for this, problem is I've started really enjoying streaming my game sessions on twitch and it's getting to the point where I really need a PC that can handle doing this for me. My current stream setup is soooo ratchet - I'm either streaming my Xcloud sessions or I'm using the PS Remote play app to stream my PS4 gameplay to, then out to twitch Coupled with the fact that I'm using my partner's laptop to do it and I've been saving for this for a while, now seems like the time.

Thanks again

Bertie wrote:

aayl1 wrote:Thanks Jen and Bertie, you've both been genuinely really helpful.

I'm looking at something like this for the time being: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/D9fc78

Had a slight budget boost due to some unexpected Christmas money (and I've found a couple parts cheaper than they list it). I'm guessing I'd be able to add in another SSD if I wanted more storage at some point?

So I had a look at this and offer some thoughts. 13600k is a great chip and cheaper. That saved money takes you onto DDR5. I pushed you over 2k. But you can save money with Corsair vengeance DDR5 5600 ram. I also swapped your PSU. 850 is plenty for a 3080.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/R3jDFg

Just some thoughts.

Thanks so much dude! Very helpful, thanks for taking a look. I think I'll heed your recommendations and will start purchasing bits this week.

Silly question - how does one buy windows (and then install it)? I know you can make a boot USB from the website but that's not buying it, right? Apologies, this stuff is very outside my wheelhouse!

If I remember right, I bought it on a USB and it was literally just plug and play once the build was running. Very straightforward.

aayl1 wrote:

Abacus wrote:
I think I might well go down the route of buying an old PC and seeing what I can upgrade and what the roadblocks are. Sounds like quite a fun project to help me learn how it works.

I'll probably go to my nearest dodgy phone unlocking shop, explain what I'm after and buy something from there.

I'd honestly otherwise just agonise about getting the first bit, and probably then never get started.

I think I would have also opted for this, problem is I've started really enjoying streaming my game sessions on twitch and it's getting to the point where I really need a PC that can handle doing this for me. My current stream setup is soooo ratchet - I'm either streaming my Xcloud sessions or I'm using the PS Remote play app to stream my PS4 gameplay to, then out to twitch Coupled with the fact that I'm using my partner's laptop to do it and I've been saving for this for a while, now seems like the time.

Thanks again

Bertie wrote:

aayl1 wrote:Thanks Jen and Bertie, you've both been genuinely really helpful.

I'm looking at something like this for the time being: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/D9fc78

Had a slight budget boost due to some unexpected Christmas money (and I've found a couple parts cheaper than they list it). I'm guessing I'd be able to add in another SSD if I wanted more storage at some point?

So I had a look at this and offer some thoughts. 13600k is a great chip and cheaper. That saved money takes you onto DDR5. I pushed you over 2k. But you can save money with Corsair vengeance DDR5 5600 ram. I also swapped your PSU. 850 is plenty for a 3080.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/R3jDFg

Just some thoughts.

Thanks so much dude! Very helpful, thanks for taking a look. I think I'll heed your recommendations and will start purchasing bits this week.

Silly question - how does one buy windows (and then install it)? I know you can make a boot USB from the website but that's not buying it, right? Apologies, this stuff is very outside my wheelhouse!

To my knowledge you buy the license key not the software, so how the actual data ends up on your machine (USB etc) doesn't matter. I think I made a USB boot thing for my W10 iirc.

You don't even need to buy a licence to install and use it from my limited knowledge, but it's semi-borked until you do.

Yes. So you can use ‘media creation tool’ from Microsoft and download to a usb. It’s about 4Gb. You don’t need to buy it before hand. It’s there to be you up and running but yep. It’s borked until you add a licence key and it offers you the chance when first installing windows to put your key in.

Or, you could use. https://www.electronicfirst.com/?query=Windows

I have used these windows keys and works well.

Another budget but excellent spec build if people are looking:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/XvMnJM

I've looked over and I think I am going to build my own with the following parts, though the graphics card may be a 3070 depending on what Black Friday brings and I may drop the HDD: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/6WnT9r

The idea is that I should be ale to upgrade to a 5800X3D further down the line if I want to. I'd just need to sort a Windows key out, does it matter that the link you put above appears to be American keys, Bertie?

What other bits would I need to put together the PC on my own?

I bought a large HDD for my new computer (along with a M.2 for the OS and an SSD for new games) and in hindsight I should have just plied that money into a bigger SSD. Writing to the HDD is agonisingly slow.