New desktop PC spec, a bit of advice please
Discussion
For a few years I have bought Dell Outlet PC's to use as the daily surfing PC and supported with a decent enough laptop.
But my trusty gen 1 i-3 has come to a halt and a new PC is looking to set me back enough for me to consider building one out of the Corsair Midi tower I have here.
It's been about 10 years since I built a PC.
So I have a Corsair midi tower with AX1200 Gold PSU (which does work), all the fans and cables and was looking at:
Intel Core i5 12400 Alder Lake
be Quiet Rock 2 cooler and fan
MSI Z690 Wi-Fi Mobo LGA-1800 - ATX form factor
16Gb DDR4 3200mhz
Geforce 3050
Crucial 2.5" 500GB SSD
Western Digital 4TB 3.5" HDD
Windows 11
I figure this will be solid for surfing, casual gaming, a bit of (very casual) Lightroom and video editing?
Does this sound about right? I think I can just about afford it, although it is a fair bit over a base level Optiplex it does make use of the very nice Corsair case and PSU I have (although 10 years old) and it seems that the LGA-1200 is being replaced by the LGA-1700, so I can upgrade for the next few years if I want / need to.
I've never had luck with AMD and ATI and they seem out of stock everywhere.
But my trusty gen 1 i-3 has come to a halt and a new PC is looking to set me back enough for me to consider building one out of the Corsair Midi tower I have here.
It's been about 10 years since I built a PC.
So I have a Corsair midi tower with AX1200 Gold PSU (which does work), all the fans and cables and was looking at:
Intel Core i5 12400 Alder Lake
be Quiet Rock 2 cooler and fan
MSI Z690 Wi-Fi Mobo LGA-1800 - ATX form factor
16Gb DDR4 3200mhz
Geforce 3050
Crucial 2.5" 500GB SSD
Western Digital 4TB 3.5" HDD
Windows 11
I figure this will be solid for surfing, casual gaming, a bit of (very casual) Lightroom and video editing?
Does this sound about right? I think I can just about afford it, although it is a fair bit over a base level Optiplex it does make use of the very nice Corsair case and PSU I have (although 10 years old) and it seems that the LGA-1200 is being replaced by the LGA-1700, so I can upgrade for the next few years if I want / need to.
I've never had luck with AMD and ATI and they seem out of stock everywhere.
I'm not that au fait with Intel but unless you really need features exclusive to Z690 mobos you could save money and go for a B660 instead. You don't need the best VRM for a 12400.
An m.2 is nicer than a 2.5" SSD (no cables) and offers better read/write speeds if you're going to make use of them (gaming doesn't see much benefit but productivity will).
3050 is a rip off. If you can't or don't need to stretch to a 3060 then go for a RTX 2060 as it is slightly better and should be available cheaper (or second hand if you're interested in that). If you can save some money on the motherboard you could get a beefier GPU.
An m.2 is nicer than a 2.5" SSD (no cables) and offers better read/write speeds if you're going to make use of them (gaming doesn't see much benefit but productivity will).
3050 is a rip off. If you can't or don't need to stretch to a 3060 then go for a RTX 2060 as it is slightly better and should be available cheaper (or second hand if you're interested in that). If you can save some money on the motherboard you could get a beefier GPU.
Brainpox said:
I'm not that au fait with Intel but unless you really need features exclusive to Z690 mobos you could save money and go for a B660 instead. You don't need the best VRM for a 12400.
An m.2 is nicer than a 2.5" SSD (no cables) and offers better read/write speeds if you're going to make use of them (gaming doesn't see much benefit but productivity will).
3050 is a rip off. If you can't or don't need to stretch to a 3060 then go for a RTX 2060 as it is slightly better and should be available cheaper (or second hand if you're interested in that). If you can save some money on the motherboard you could get a beefier GPU.
Brilliant! Thanks for that, so something like a Gigabyte B660 DS3H DDR4 ATX (I'd like ATX and not mATX) woud be ok?An m.2 is nicer than a 2.5" SSD (no cables) and offers better read/write speeds if you're going to make use of them (gaming doesn't see much benefit but productivity will).
3050 is a rip off. If you can't or don't need to stretch to a 3060 then go for a RTX 2060 as it is slightly better and should be available cheaper (or second hand if you're interested in that). If you can save some money on the motherboard you could get a beefier GPU.
For the m.2, it connects the same as a 2.5" SSD? Sorry I've never used one before.
Great on the GPU, I'll check out the options. Much appreciated.
mattley said:
M.2 connects directly to the motherboard in a slot that looks like half a laptop RAM slot and is seriously worth it. Read the I/O specs before you buy as there's quite a difference between read write speeds and write life.
xeny said:
essentially don't buy QLC drives for general OS use.
Thanks, I'll have a read up. So I can get an M.2 for the OS, instead of a 2.5" SATA, then augment it with a 4TB HDD, then add in the HDD's from my old desktops, which gives me x4 SATA drives for storage and then the M.2 for the OS.Samsung 870 QVO QLC is 360TB of writes per 1TB in capacity…
3yr warranty being hammered basically.
I wouldn’t be afraid of going QLC given all else fits your needs… though ideally they are suited more for data storage than constant writing…
3yr warranty being hammered basically.
I wouldn’t be afraid of going QLC given all else fits your needs… though ideally they are suited more for data storage than constant writing…
Edited by Mr Whippy on Thursday 29th December 10:12
Wildfire said:
The large SSD’s (4Tb+) seem pretty pricey?
They are. For bulk storage HDDs are still the way to go. Some people opt to go all SSD as they are faster and quieter but if you need multiple TBs of space just to store things on then it's an expensive affair. I have an 8TB red (NAS) drive that cost £170 and could have got a blue (standard) cheaper than that. An 8TB QVO SSD is £600. Two 4TBs starts at £500 and would take up more space in the case than a single HDD. It's no contest really.HRL said:
No offence intended but I didn’t realise that people still used HDD’s in PC’s.
I’ve not owned one for at least 6-7 years. NVME and SSD only these days.
You really think people don't have HDDs in their PCs ?I’ve not owned one for at least 6-7 years. NVME and SSD only these days.
I'd imagine one reason is that say a 4TB HDD is around £80, but the same size SSD is about £300.
I did the same type of upgrade as you recently, i5 too - great value.
Get an M2 . You can get 2tb for £100.
I put a Samsung M2 1tb in slot 1 for my C drive OS
Then a 2tb M2 in slot 2 , the £100 jobby.
I then connected my old 4 SSDs to the usual sata lines.
Honestly? Don't get a spinning platter. Cheap per TB? Sure. If you want bulk storage, get an external USB HDD or a NAS. Any internal HDD will eventually gather win critical files and slow down your startup and other operations.
I didn't know about M2 NVME either btw - it's all very plug and play. Nice and easy.
Get an M2 . You can get 2tb for £100.
I put a Samsung M2 1tb in slot 1 for my C drive OS
Then a 2tb M2 in slot 2 , the £100 jobby.
I then connected my old 4 SSDs to the usual sata lines.
Honestly? Don't get a spinning platter. Cheap per TB? Sure. If you want bulk storage, get an external USB HDD or a NAS. Any internal HDD will eventually gather win critical files and slow down your startup and other operations.
I didn't know about M2 NVME either btw - it's all very plug and play. Nice and easy.
PCPartPicker is a handy website if you've not already been using it...
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/
Once you click on an item it shows stock info at various retailers which does seem to be up to date. There's plenty of AMD CPU availability by the look of it and I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss them, good value and the included CPU fans are perfectly up to the job saving £35 over the one you list in the OP.
If your power supply is more than 5 years old I'd be looking to replace. The only PC disaster I've had was from a failed supply which killed the entire PC.
Good luck, I've always enjoyed speccing and assembling a new pc, hope you do too.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/
Once you click on an item it shows stock info at various retailers which does seem to be up to date. There's plenty of AMD CPU availability by the look of it and I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss them, good value and the included CPU fans are perfectly up to the job saving £35 over the one you list in the OP.
If your power supply is more than 5 years old I'd be looking to replace. The only PC disaster I've had was from a failed supply which killed the entire PC.
Good luck, I've always enjoyed speccing and assembling a new pc, hope you do too.
That's pretty much the build I'm going to do in the new year but with a B660 and 12400F (you don't need the integrated graphics).
I already own a 3050, but at current pricing I'd be looking at AMD for a budget card. Probably RX6600. Or a 2060 from Nvidia.
Ignore the talk about HDDs, they are totally fine for slow access storage.
I already own a 3050, but at current pricing I'd be looking at AMD for a budget card. Probably RX6600. Or a 2060 from Nvidia.
Ignore the talk about HDDs, they are totally fine for slow access storage.
Edited by Donbot on Thursday 29th December 09:43
I've just upgraded CPU, motherboard and RAM to a very similar spec to what's being suggested. I'm very happy with the cost to performance ratio on a 1440p monitor. I wanted to build the best middle of the road spec PC, and I think the specs being suggested by others tally with what I found to be the sweet spot at the moment.
Previous build was from 2014, although I had upgraded the graphics card more recently:
i5-4670k @ 4.3Ghz
8Gb DDR3 RAM
MSI Z97 Gaming motherboard
RTX 2060 Super Graphics card
Samsung 840 250GB SSD for the operating system
2Tb 3.5" HDD for storage, games etc.
Upgraded to the following:
i5-12400f
32Gb DDR4 3200Mhz RAM
MSI Pro B660M-A WIFI Motherboard
Kingston NVMe 2Tb SSD (as I understand it, this is a newer, faster type of M.2 SSD?)
I still have Windows on the Samsung SSD, technically it would probably be faster on the NVMe SSD, but it's not exactly slow to boot or use as it is, so I haven't bothered.
The biggest bottleneck in the old system was probably the 8Gb of RAM, as I type this, I have 4 tabs open in Chrome, and Spotify and I'm using 7.9Gb... I don't know anything about video editing, but I'd imagine it would be worth sticking in 32Gb of RAM rather than 16Gb, for the extra ~£45 or so it would cost?
Hopefully this will last me the next ~8 years or so, maybe with a graphics card upgrade along the way.
On a side note about hard drives, my main reason for going away from the HDD was noise, I'm a bit picky with that. I seem to remember that the HDD used to stop spinning after a while when I had Windows 8, but never seemed to get it to do that with Windows 10. Now it's just the graphics card irritating me because it doesn't have a 0rpm fan mode when it's idling
All of the rest of the fans & CPU cooler are Noctua, all running slow. (except for when I'm playing games of course) so now the graphics card is the loudest thing in the system.
Previous build was from 2014, although I had upgraded the graphics card more recently:
i5-4670k @ 4.3Ghz
8Gb DDR3 RAM
MSI Z97 Gaming motherboard
RTX 2060 Super Graphics card
Samsung 840 250GB SSD for the operating system
2Tb 3.5" HDD for storage, games etc.
Upgraded to the following:
i5-12400f
32Gb DDR4 3200Mhz RAM
MSI Pro B660M-A WIFI Motherboard
Kingston NVMe 2Tb SSD (as I understand it, this is a newer, faster type of M.2 SSD?)
I still have Windows on the Samsung SSD, technically it would probably be faster on the NVMe SSD, but it's not exactly slow to boot or use as it is, so I haven't bothered.
The biggest bottleneck in the old system was probably the 8Gb of RAM, as I type this, I have 4 tabs open in Chrome, and Spotify and I'm using 7.9Gb... I don't know anything about video editing, but I'd imagine it would be worth sticking in 32Gb of RAM rather than 16Gb, for the extra ~£45 or so it would cost?
Hopefully this will last me the next ~8 years or so, maybe with a graphics card upgrade along the way.
On a side note about hard drives, my main reason for going away from the HDD was noise, I'm a bit picky with that. I seem to remember that the HDD used to stop spinning after a while when I had Windows 8, but never seemed to get it to do that with Windows 10. Now it's just the graphics card irritating me because it doesn't have a 0rpm fan mode when it's idling
All of the rest of the fans & CPU cooler are Noctua, all running slow. (except for when I'm playing games of course) so now the graphics card is the loudest thing in the system. Edited by JoeMk1 on Thursday 29th December 10:38
Alternatively, given you have been living with an i3:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394384616530
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115639388250
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394384616530
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115639388250
snuffy said:
HRL said:
No offence intended but I didn’t realise that people still used HDD’s in PC’s.
I’ve not owned one for at least 6-7 years. NVME and SSD only these days.
You really think people don't have HDDs in their PCs ?I’ve not owned one for at least 6-7 years. NVME and SSD only these days.
I'd imagine one reason is that say a 4TB HDD is around £80, but the same size SSD is about £300.
Appreciate the cost could be an obstacle I suppose if someone needs a massive amount of storage though.
Thanks all.
Looks like I’m on the right track. Just need to go dig in the attic for my case connection pack to make sure I have all the parts and bits for it.
AMD is looking a bit harder to get stock of and I’ve always had Intel.
I do like the idea of being abolle to do a bit more than just browse, hence not doing the Optiplex / outlet thing. Plus I have a fairly solid I-7 ultra book too.
Only thing is the GPU. The RX6600 and 2060 are looking pricier than the 3050 and the 3060 is just a bit more than I want to spend.
Looks like I’m on the right track. Just need to go dig in the attic for my case connection pack to make sure I have all the parts and bits for it.
AMD is looking a bit harder to get stock of and I’ve always had Intel.
I do like the idea of being abolle to do a bit more than just browse, hence not doing the Optiplex / outlet thing. Plus I have a fairly solid I-7 ultra book too.
Only thing is the GPU. The RX6600 and 2060 are looking pricier than the 3050 and the 3060 is just a bit more than I want to spend.
HRL said:
It’s the noise that used to drive me around the bend. That constant chirping of a HDD is something that I’m glad to be without these days.
Appreciate the cost could be an obstacle I suppose if someone needs a massive amount of storage though.
Several years ago I fitted acoustic encloses to the HDDs in my PC and that certainly did make a difference to the noise levels. In fact, I also fitted acoustic material to the case as well, because it was very loud. Appreciate the cost could be an obstacle I suppose if someone needs a massive amount of storage though.
But I don't think with modern HDDs that noise is so much of an issue, compared to what it used to be.
My PC has a mixture of drives in mine: 2 x m.2 drives, 2 x SSD and 2 x HDDs. The m.2 drives are for the OS and games & VMs. The SSDs are games and VMs, and the HDDs for data.
When it comes to it, I don't really need 6 drives, I've just sort of collected them over time !
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