First Time PC Build advice

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josefk

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Aug 4, 2017
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Hello! This is my first time building, so I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks in advance!

Main Aim of Build: Longevity NOT future-proofing – my computers generally last 10+ years and I hope to do the same with this build. I'm used to using old computers so I don't mind if this build is out of date in 5 years. I assume this means I should aim for lower temperatures and quality parts.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Video editing, 1080p gaming, chess analysis (CPU-intensive, uses up to 512 cores and hyperthreading). 12-16 hours a day – mostly work and general usage, none of which is at all demanding, though I sometimes encode videos in the background.

Games: Cities Skylines, heavily modded old-Skyrim. I'm usually more interested in small indie games so I don't mind not having max settings and FPS on the few AAA games I'm interested in (Fallout 4, Hitman, Nier Automata).

Budget: Not fixed. For reference, my first attempt below is under £1100. (I'm in the UK.) I'm willing to pay more for good durable parts appropriate for my usage, but I don't want to pay for things I don't need.

Overclocking: Light overclock, probably.

Monitor: Already have one. 1080p. 76Hz.

Parts Preferences / Additional Comments:
- I want the case to have dust filters, something which most reviews don't seem to mention.
- I'd prefer a CPU Cooler that is AM4-compatible out of the box (unlike the CM 212 EVO which requires £7 for bracket delivery).
- The lower temps/power of NVIDIA Pascal GPUs (vs AMD) seem better to me longevity-wise.
- Dropped the EVGA PSU from my build after reading about something on blackouts and holdup time.
- I'm open to suggestions for any part, though I am kinda keen on the Asus Strix B350-F Gaming Motherboard since it's the one mid-range board with supposedly amazing sound (SupremeFX S1220A) and good build quality (at least VRM-wise).

Build: (no parts purchased yet)
Partpicker URL (Manually input prices are Amazon UK, which don't always show up properly on partpicker, but seem to be cheapest.)
CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£188.94 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: DEEPCOOL GAMMAXX 400 CPU Cooler PWM Fan with Blue LED AM4 Compatible (£28.57 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus - STRIX B350-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard (£111.75 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£124.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£86.44 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: 2x Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (2x £59.80 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card (£140.97 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master - 690 III ATX Mid Tower Case (£86.49 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£78.97 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: LG - GH24NSD1 DVD/CD Writer (£13.90 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£85.20 @ CCL Computers)
Case fan: Arctic F12 PWM Rev. 2 (£4.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1070.81

Lastly, about the case fans: in the above build, the case comes with 1 front-mounted 200mm intake fan and 1 rear-mounted 120mm exhaust fan. Saw 3 fan headers on the motherboard and I thought I'd add a top-rear-mounted 120mm exhaust fan. Is this positive or negative pressure? Also, should I get any more case fans?

Thanks a lot!
 
Solution
Hellfire13
> The stock Wraith Spire cooler, that comes along with the cpu is better than most aft coolers around that price point. It comes AM4 ready with the cpu and strongly recommended. So the first component out of that list should be the cooler.

> Ryzen shines with higher RAM. Specially GSkill units with Samsung B die performs better with them. So that needs a a change too.

> Typically in a case, the front, side and bottom are intakes and rear and top are exhausts as hot air tends to rise up. So your top should be exhaust. You can add more fans if you want and use splitters to connect to the board.

> Rest looks pretty good.
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Hellfire13

Hellfire13

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Apr 20, 2016
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> The stock Wraith Spire cooler, that comes along with the cpu is better than most aft coolers around that price point. It comes AM4 ready with the cpu and strongly recommended. So the first component out of that list should be the cooler.

> Ryzen shines with higher RAM. Specially GSkill units with Samsung B die performs better with them. So that needs a a change too.

> Typically in a case, the front, side and bottom are intakes and rear and top are exhausts as hot air tends to rise up. So your top should be exhaust. You can add more fans if you want and use splitters to connect to the board.

> Rest looks pretty good.
 
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Solution
Lutfij

Lutfij

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Oct 7, 2009
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Have a look at this build:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£274.39 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: NZXT - Kraken X62 Rev 2 98.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£149.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus - CROSSHAIR VI HERO (WI-FI AC) ATX AM4 Motherboard (£249.60 @ More Computers)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£164.59 @ Alza)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£164.59 @ Alza)
Storage: SK hynix - SL308 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£76.92 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar 7K3000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£50.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar 7K3000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£50.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Asus - Radeon RX 570 4GB ROG STRIX Video Card (£244.50 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT - S340 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£76.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - PRIME Titanium 650W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£159.46 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro Full - USB 32/64-bit (£69.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1731.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-07 21:45 BST+0100

The case comes with one rear fan and the AIO will be set up in the front set to intake. I opted for the higher core and thread count since you will be performing simulation tasks, video editing which tends to eat a lot of ram and will require the oomph from your processor. I'd have gone for a better GPU but was hesitatnt about your budget since you've given a pseudo sub ~2000UK pound threshold.

The PSU was purposely chosen with Titanium standard because you intend to keep it for a long while and in doing so why not try your hand at reducing your utility bills...?

You don't need an optical drive in this day and age unless you're burning your video editing onto discs. Why not back them up onto a NAS?
 
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J

josefk

Prominent
Aug 4, 2017
22
0
510
Thanks for the quick response, Hellfire13!

About the RAM: my impression is that fast RAM speeds are only relevant for Ryzen 7 or anyone trying to get that extra FPS at high overclocks, neither of which seem to apply to me. I saw some tests specific to Ryzen 5 1600 which indicated no practical differences at all (can't find the link though).

About the cooler: I saw a comparison between the Wraith Spire and the 212 EVO that indicates that there's about a 10 deg C difference. It seems that the Wraith Spire is respectable, but since my room can be quite warm I thought I'd play it safe and try the aft cooler. If it makes no difference, I plan on using the aft cooler on an old system anyway, so no wastage.
 
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O

ohenryy

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Nov 16, 2014
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You would better off with a better CPU..

PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/jLw4LD
Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/jLw4LD/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700X 3.4GHz 8-Core Processor (£309.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Scythe - Mugen 5 51.2 CFM CPU Cooler (£42.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock - X370 Killer SLI ATX AM4 Motherboard (£127.30 @ BT Shop)
Memory: Patriot - Viper Elite 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£92.88 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£112.80 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£58.70 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC GAMING ACX 2.0 Video Card (£157.99 @ CCL Computers)
Case: NZXT - S340 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case (£64.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA P2 650W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Total: £966.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-07 22:08 BST+0100
 
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R

Rexper

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Apr 12, 2017
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> That isn't true. https://youtu.be/VNjkDoYZYjU The 212 EVO cools more than 20°C better at load and overclocked. I suggest the Cryorig M9i, which is cheaper than the 212 evo, compatible with am4 out of the box, smaller, quieter, on par performance, and easier to install.
Also, OP, installing a mounting bracket is as easy as any other part. Cryorig provides free mounting kits too.
 
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Hellfire13

Hellfire13

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RAM speeds actually makes no big difference in gaming, its more for non gaming functionality like editing and stuff. And when you can gain more performance by investing a few extra bucks, its always recommended. True in real time you wont see much difference, but faster RAM helps in many other ways too including overclocking. And its not only restricted to Ryzen 7. The logic remains same across all Ryzen chips.
About the cooler, the spire has a rated tdp of 95w, where as the 212 evo has a tdp of 125w. So if you are planning extreme clock bumps, its better to consider an AIO, rather than any of the above. But people are overclocking the 1600 upto 3.7ghz - 3.8ghz on that spire.
 
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J

josefk

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Aug 4, 2017
22
0
510
Thanks for taking the time to spec out a full build, Lutfij!

I did think of going all out with a build based on the 1700, but during a consult on the forum (which I kinda forgot to mention, sorry), I mentioned the 1700 only having about a 4% faster (on average) performance on handbrake video encoding than the 1600x based on reviews from Anandtech, Bit-tech, Trustedreviews, and Kitguru. From the response I got, I understand that that was probably not really representative of what the 1700 can really do, especially if overclocked - but ultimately that the upgrade to 1700 was essentially £100 to shave a few seconds off each project, which didn't seem that worth it, on balance. Still not really sure though.

About the HDD: I was actually really tempted by a Hitachi drive due the Backblaze reports, but most of them seem a little iffy. The one you linked seems refurbished or I don't know what based on amazon reviews, but there's another one that almost seems respectable on amazon (except one review) but then the used drives seem to cost more than the new ones so I wasn't too sure on that either. I'm kinda new to online shopping as well as building so I'm not really sure what to make of it.

About the optical drive: I use my computer for watching old DVDs. Will finish ripping them onto hard drive some day. Some day.

About the PSU: I kinda like your suggestion on Titanium. Going to look into it some more now.

Also gonna look at your build some more (I like researching things too much, it's a sickness). Thanks again!
 
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J

josefk

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Aug 4, 2017
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510
Thanks to ohenryy and Rexper! I'm grateful that I can't keep up with the posts fast enough!

ohenryy: I guess the consensus on here is Ryzen 7? Probably going to go with that then.

Rexper: I saw that video too. Wanted a M9i as well - but I don't know if the M9a is the right version? I'm happy to use a bracket, but I want to just start building as soon as everything is delivered instead of waiting another few days for a bracket (plus it seems some free brackets come with an extra ~£7 delivery charge).

Sorry if I'm not supposed to reply to two people in one post. Not sure about forum etiquette since I'm new to that too.
 
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Hellfire13

Hellfire13

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For around the same price, maybe a few extra quids, the Cryorig H7 is a much better unit. Its called the "Evo Killer".
 
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G

Giantpie12

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Jan 22, 2017
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Here is the link to a build I put together that was a for 1 pound and 15 pence above the budget you had for your first build that you did(converted from usd to pounds):https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dhxBBP
Also the problem with the evga psu's was faulty ones were sent out.
 
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J

josefk

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Aug 4, 2017
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510

What do you think of the M9a for my purposes? It was my original choice before the Gammaxx. And thanks for the link!

Also, my original choice of 1600 was kinda based on the same reasoning.
 
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J

josefk

Prominent
Aug 4, 2017
22
0
510

Thanks for the build Giantpie12!

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be how UK pricing works. Despite the exchange rate, US prices and UK prices seem to be of a similar magnitude (e.g. £309 vs $337 for the 1700x). Fortunately, I'm not fussed about pricing as long as I get what I need. Gonna look into your build some more, but in the meanwhile - do I really need liquid cooling?

Also, thanks for the tip about the EVGA PSUs!
 
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Hellfire13

Hellfire13

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Apr 20, 2016
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The M9a is smaller and less powerful. The H7 is bigger and more powerful. Also its rated for a higher tdp. If you dont plan to OC, then the M9a should be fine.
 
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J

josefk

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Aug 4, 2017
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510

Probably will try OC'ing, though probably conservatively. So the H7?

That said, I'm still a little worried about bracket delivery being an issue since I want to test everything else within the RMA period. 2 weeks sounds like the more optimistic estimate of what I've read. Worst comes to worst, I can test everything with the stock cooler, but I'd rather do everything on a shorter timeline to be on the safe side. Then again, I've never built a computer - so maybe this is actually not really that much of a worry?

EDIT: Just noticed the H7 from your link hits £49.89 with VAT or delivery. Can't figure out which. Still, if it's that much better...
 
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g-unit1111

g-unit1111

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Why? There's nothing wrong with the R5-1600. Put that money in a better GPU.
 
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J

josefk

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Aug 4, 2017
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510

Ah right, sorry. I got my thoughts crossed with Rexper's post. Maybe I'll try the spire first, and only buy a cooler if I'm worried about the temps.

Anyway, do you think I need any more case fans, or should I test it first and get more as I need them? Also, I'm still curious as to whether 1x 200mm intake + 2x 120mm exhaust is positive or negative pressure.

And thanks, really!
 
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J

josefk

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Aug 4, 2017
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510

Thanks for your input, g-unit1111!

The 1050 Ti seemed enough for most 1080p gaming, especially since I don't really keep up with AAA games anyway and don't mind lesser settings on the few that I do play. Plus the ethereum mine prices on most of the better cards seem a little ridiculous to me.
 
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Hellfire13

Hellfire13

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Apr 20, 2016
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Its better that you test your setup and add more fans along the way. Adding more fans does not always necessarily mean it will make a significant difference.
Refer to this diagram for better understanding of air flow... https://i.stack.imgur.com/VDJxg.jpg
 
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G

Giantpie12

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I put liquid cooling for overclocking purposes, to keep the cpu from running too hot while keeping your system quiet under load plus it doesn't require a bracket to mount, like all other coolers
 
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J

josefk

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Aug 4, 2017
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510

In that case, I'll probably even forego getting that extra case fan and just try how my build does with just the fans that come with the case.

Thanks for all your advice, you've been really helpful! I'm going to have a look at some of the other build suggestions a bit more before finalising my build. Like the Titanium PSU, which I probably don't need, but it'd be interesting to look into it and compare prices at least.
 
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J

josefk

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Aug 4, 2017
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510

I'm probably gonna try what Hellfire13 says and see what temps I get what a stock cooler build first. If it comes to it, it's good to that liquid cooling doesn't require brackets. Thanks a lot!
 
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