£700 and Under PC Build

Hawick · Jul 27, 2017

Hello, I currently have this PC gaming build (which was inspired mostly by Austin Evan's $750 PC Build (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7IySA_eZCQ).

Next year my Dad will get my current PC (https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ZHbPBP) and I will be building myself another one.

Would someone be able to take the time to give me a PC Build?
If yes, I do have some personal preferences I'd like:

PLEASE try and make it as cheap as possible.

I will be keeping my RX480, my Dad will be getting his own cheaper one as he doesn't play games.
So no need for a GPU

Intel Core i7-7700K (or whatever AMD's equivalent is) and an aftermarket cooler to go with it.
A more silent case than my current Corsair 100R.

I have my own WiFi wired adapter I'll be keeping.

2x4GB RAM instead of my single 1x8GB RAM (DDR4 2400)

I would like a 2TB HDD still at 7200RPM but I'd like to upgrade the SSD from 120GB to 240GB

Finally, I'd appreciate a semi/fully modular PSU, my current one has SO many cables that are unused, and because they are so heavily sleeved, it is impossible to tidy and keep it looking nice inside.

If i think of anything extra, I'll try and add it.

raisonjohn · Jul 27, 2017

Just £4 above £700, but using 16GB 3200MHz RAM for longevity, rather than your preferred 8GB. Also included a good price/performance SSD (275GB, which is more than the 240GB you require). PSU is also a very good quality, you won't need to replace such when you upgrade your GPU in the future. Case is designed for silent builds (with sound dampening materials included).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£186.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI - B350 PC MATE ATX AM4 Motherboard (£79.95 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£142.61 @ More Computers)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£85.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£55.80 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Sapphire - Radeon RX 480 8GB NITRO+ OC Video Card (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: Fractal Design - Define S w/Window ATX Mid Tower Case (£77.71 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£76.25 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £704.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-27 13:42 BST+0100

Hawick · Jul 27, 2017

raisonjohn :

Just £4 above £700, but using 16GB 3200MHz RAM for longevity, rather than your preferred 8GB. Also included a good price/performance SSD (275GB, which is more than the 240GB you require). PSU is also a very good quality, you won't need to replace such when you upgrade your GPU in the future. Case is designed for silent builds (with sound dampening materials included).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£186.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI - B350 PC MATE ATX AM4 Motherboard (£79.95 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£142.61 @ More Computers)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£85.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£55.80 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Sapphire - Radeon RX 480 8GB NITRO+ OC Video Card (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: Fractal Design - Define S w/Window ATX Mid Tower Case (£77.71 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£76.25 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £704.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-27 13:42 BST+0100

Thank you, but one thing: isn't the Ryzen 5 being only 3.2GHz exactly the same as my current crappy i5-6500? I noticed it has two extra cores but will it even make a difference to what I have now?

Other than that, it seems perfect

raisonjohn · Jul 27, 2017

The Ryzen 5 1600 is definitely better than the i5-6500, for the following reasons:

First, the 1600 is unlocked (overclockable) while the i5-6500 is locked (non-OCable), which means the 1600 has the potential to increase operating frequency much higher than 3.2GHz-3.6GHz, which the i5 can't do. Note that the 1600 and the i5-6500's base clock speeds is 3.2GHz (not 3.6GHz). Such CPUs can only reach its turbo clock speed of 3.6GHz on a single core in stock speeds (not on all cores at stock speeds). However, since the 1600 can be OC'd, it has that advantage of able to push beyond its 3.6GHz turbo clock speed on several cores.

Second, the 1600, with its two extra cores as you mentioned, has hyperthreading. This makes the 1600's 6 cores work in 12 threads. The i5 only has four cores with no hyperthreading (4-core on 4-thread). Such hyperthreaded CPU also takes advantage of future games that are designed to utilize such higher thread counts. Games nowadays are starting to use them and it will be beneficial, in terms of longevity/future use, to have such features on a CPU not found on the i5. On a non-obvious gaming PC usage, the extra cores/threads also helps running other PC/desktop tasks/utilities in the background (during gaming), which may help alleviate micro-stuttering or lags/fps drops in gameplay.

Third, the 1600, despite having such OC capabilities, is still very low-powered (having a 65W TDP, same as the non-OC'able i5). It also comes with a very decent (beefier and more aesthetically-pleasing) stock CPU cooler compared to Intel's mediocre cooler.

Fourth, the 1600 also features a much higher cache, translating to more efficient CPU performance. The 1600 has 576KB of L1 Cache, 3MB of L2 Cache, and 16MB of L3 Cache; compared to the i5-6500, having only 256KB of L1, 1MB of L2 and 6MB of L3.

Fifth, supported memory speeds of the Ryzen 5 1600 is up to 2667MHz (DDR4) at non-OC settings (and can support much higher RAM speeds when OC'd), while the i5-6500 only supports up to 2133MHz (DDR4).

Sixth, in terms of current price / performance, the 1600 only costs ~£187 (Amazon); while the i5-6500 currently costs at ~£175 (Amazon). The mere £13 difference is worth it for the features of the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 (better value) over the Intel i5-6500 (lower value).

Hawick · Jul 27, 2017

raisonjohn :

The Ryzen 5 1600 is definitely better than the i5-6500, for the following reasons:

First, the 1600 is unlocked (overclockable) while the i5-6500 is locked (non-OCable), which means the 1600 has the potential to increase operating frequency much higher than 3.2GHz-3.6GHz, which the i5 can't do. Note that the 1600 and the i5-6500's base clock speeds is 3.2GHz (not 3.6GHz). Such CPUs can only reach its turbo clock speed of 3.6GHz on a single core in stock speeds (not on all cores at stock speeds). However, since the 1600 can be OC'd, it has that advantage of able to push beyond its 3.6GHz turbo clock speed on several cores.

Second, the 1600, with its two extra cores as you mentioned, has hyperthreading. This makes the 1600's 6 cores work in 12 threads. The i5 only has four cores with no hyperthreading (4-core on 4-thread). Such hyperthreaded CPU also takes advantage of future games that are designed to utilize such higher thread counts. Games nowadays are starting to use them and it will be beneficial, in terms of longevity/future use, to have such features on a CPU not found on the i5. On a non-obvious gaming PC usage, the extra cores/threads also helps running other PC/desktop tasks/utilities in the background (during gaming), which may help alleviate micro-stuttering or lags/fps drops in gameplay.

Third, the 1600, despite having such OC capabilities, is still very low-powered (having a 65W TDP, same as the non-OC'able i5). It also comes with a very decent (beefier and more aesthetically-pleasing) stock CPU cooler compared to Intel's mediocre cooler.

Fourth, the 1600 also features a much higher cache, translating to more efficient CPU performance. The 1600 has 576KB of L1 Cache, 3MB of L2 Cache, and 16MB of L3 Cache; compared to the i5-6500, having only 256KB of L1, 1MB of L2 and 6MB of L3.

Fifth, supported memory speeds of the Ryzen 5 1600 is up to 2667MHz (DDR4) at non-OC settings (and can support much higher RAM speeds when OC'd), while the i5-6500 only supports up to 2133MHz (DDR4).

Sixth, in terms of current price / performance, the 1600 only costs ~£187 (Amazon); while the i5-6500 currently costs at ~£175 (Amazon). The mere £13 difference is worth it for the features of the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 (better value) over the Intel i5-6500 (lower value).

Okay, so I'm definitely going to go with Ryzen then, however, I think I am going to save up a little longer and get the Ryzen 7 1700X as I was going to go with the I7-6700K to begin with, it's not that much more pricey, sound good?

And will this CPU still work with that same motherboard or will we need to choose another?

When I (hopefully) start college in late August I will start getting £30/week from my local city council and I have my first job interview (ever) tomorrow actually so if I get the job then I will be able go afford this PC no problem

raisonjohn · Jul 27, 2017

Hawick :

If the £700 budget is no longer in consideration, I would suggest a better motherboard for any Ryzen CPU. Though the suggested motherboard above will still work with the Ryzen 7 CPUs, there are better motherboard alternatives if you can increase your budget a bit more - but that depends if you really want to push through with costs higher than your original posted budget (as I made the parts list particularly to fit such budget).

However, if you are mainly using the PC for gaming (most of the time) and seldom (or not at all) use it for other stuffs (like streaming, multitasking, rendering, etc.), the Ryzen 5 1600 is still the best bang-for-the-buck CPU. You won't notice a significant difference in gaming with the 1600 versus the 1700/1700X, esp. with an RX 480 GPU meant for 1080p-resolution gaming. Personally, I would save the difference in £'s for the CPU (1600 instead of the 1700/1700X) to get a better GPU - which will be more noticeable in gaming.

But if you really really prefer the 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 CPUs (for reasons that you will actually use such cores/threads for other than gaming), then, I would suggest getting the Ryzen 7 1700 (instead of the Ryzen 7 1700X) for better value:
[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RRt5WkVxuk"][/video]

Hawick · Jul 27, 2017

raisonjohn :

Hawick :

If the £700 budget is no longer in consideration, I would suggest a better motherboard for any Ryzen CPU. Though the suggested motherboard above will still work with the Ryzen 7 CPUs, there are better motherboard alternatives if you can increase your budget a bit more - but that depends if you really want to push through with costs higher than your original posted budget (as I made the parts list particularly to fit such budget).

However, if you are mainly using the PC for gaming (most of the time) and seldom (or not at all) use it for other stuffs (like streaming, multitasking, rendering, etc.), the Ryzen 5 1600 is still the best bang-for-the-buck CPU. You won't notice a significant difference in gaming with the 1600 versus the 1700/1700X, esp. with an RX 480 GPU meant for 1080p-resolution gaming. Personally, I would save the difference in £'s for the CPU (1600 instead of the 1700/1700X) to get a better GPU - which will be more noticeable in gaming.

But if you really really prefer the 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 CPUs (for reasons that you will actually use such cores/threads for other than gaming), then, I would suggest getting the Ryzen 7 1700 (instead of the Ryzen 7 1700X) for better value:
[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RRt5WkVxuk"][/video]

Yeah, I think I will go with the 1700x, just to ensure that I will not have to upgrade if for a good few years and have if still be reliable when I get a new GPU at some point also. What sort of MB would you suggest?

I'll keep saving for now, but do try to keep the price at a low, there is no guarantee that I'll get into the college or work until it happens

Thanks

raisonjohn · Jul 27, 2017

Hawick :

You're welcome! Yeah, it's your call as to how you will be using such CPU now and in the future. So, just to update the £700 parts list I previously recommended, but now, considering your much-preferred Ryzen 7 1700X CPU at ~£312, an updated better-featured MB (which can also work on the Ryzen 5 1600) at ~£108, and an aftermarket CPU Cooler at ~£45 (note that the 1700X does not have a stock cooler, but, the 1600 does), you'd be looking at these total cost (~£200 more than the previous build):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700X 3.4GHz 8-Core Processor (£312.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H5 Universal 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£44.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus - STRIX B350-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard (£108.44 @ BT Shop)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£142.61 @ More Computers)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£85.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£55.80 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Sapphire - Radeon RX 480 8GB NITRO+ OC Video Card (Purchased For £0.00)
Case: Fractal Design - Define S w/Window ATX Mid Tower Case (£77.71 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£76.25 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £903.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-27 17:28 BST+0100

Hawick · Jul 27, 2017

raisonjohn :

Yep, I'm going to College to do Computing in Digital Media, so photo & video editing and some coding, so I'll hopefully be taking full advantage of those sexy 8 cores.

And for now, I think I will just go with a 2x4GB RAM for 1/2 price then upgrade it with the exact same further down the line to save money.

Last thing is Windows 10 (I can't stand W7 because I've been using W10 for so long that W7 makes me just cry lol
Unfortunately it's still like £80-120 but I can prob get the OEM version on that kinguin website for 1/4 price.

Thanks for everything.
You're a True brother

Although will update if I think of anything more or see something that I could change. (Which often happens a lot with me) but we'll see

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