4080-based gaming PC - Where to source?

[Buttery Ken]

Hi All

I'm looking to buy an RTX4080-based gaming PC with an Intel CPU. I had my eye on a Lenovo that had an i9(!) and was a great price before Christmas, but the price went up and it's not come down since.

I've looked at Scan, Lenovo (again), Dell (Alienware).

I would actually prefer to get all the components and build from scratch with my son (10) as it'll be good for him to learn. I've used PC Part Picker but it just gets too complicated for me. I get as far as coolers and just give up. I'm not dumb, just not as close to this stuff as I used to be.

Can anyone recommend a site, or a method, for me to fulfil this? Preferably a bundle that arrives that let's me then build the PC. Failing that then I'll just go for a pre-built if anyone can recommend a good deal that I may have missed.

Thanks all!

[frisbee]

I built a 4070 based PC from scratch a few months ago. I had built a few PCs 20-ish years ago so I had some idea what I was doing but I didn't do a great deal of research this time.

PC part picker is good but for me made it feel more complicated than it actually is. Off the shelf and component bundles all seemed compromised, old series processors or skimping on the RAM.

Ultimately I read a few reviews of recent processors, choose one - an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, this determined what socket and memory type I needed and then I just bought everything off Amazon. I didn't bother with water cooling, got a chunkier power supply than I needed and got a normal sized case.

Other than putting it together on the hottest day of the year, it was very easy.

[NWMark]

Scan is a good bet i've used them so many times.

I know where you are coming from, if you don't keep on top of what's new and what is compatible with what it can be a bit of a mine field.

Novatech do a few part built bundles that contains, motherboard, cpu, memory and cooler but the choices are limited but will give you some ideas https://www.novatech.co.uk/motherboardbundles/inte...


Also don't buy a 4080 GPU now, they are ~£1200 and a new (slightly faster) one has just been announced, 4080 Super and its had a £200 price cut from the 4080 to £999, it will be released at the end of this month, Scan already has the placeholders for it, NVidia confirmed specs and pricing earlier this week.

p.s. buy the parts and build it with your son, i did it with mine and he loved it.

Edited by NWMark on Thursday 11th January 20:55

[Buttery Ken]

Thanks both. I didn't realise the 4080 Super was on the way so thanks for pointing that out.

I'll wait until that's released then spend some time putting components together on Scan, and do the build with my son.

I used to live near Scan, their original office, and remember buying a dual-speed Panasonic CD-ROM drive around 1993 from them for £130. I remember paying by cheque!

[mmm-five]

I'd also try to get an decent-sized ATX3 / PCIE5.0 PSU so that it included proper transient spike protection for the 4080.

If I was building now it'd be:

• Fractal North case (if the passive cooling case I want still isn't available)
• not budget, but not overclocker level X670E motherboard with PCIE 5.0 and 4+ m.2 slots (or enough PCIe lanes for my 4 x m.2 add-in card)
• AMD 7800x3D
• RTX4080Super FE (I already have the 4090FE, so have swapped this for a 4080 build)
• Deepcool Assassin / Corsair iLINK 240mm AIO
• 2 x Noctua NF-A14 Chromax / Corsair iLINK Q140 case fans
• 2x16GB 6000MHz RAM
• 512GB boot/app drive
• multiple 2TB games drives
• single 4TB slow storage drive (already have external/cloud backup options)
• 32" 4K OLED

Edited by mmm-five on Friday 12th January 09:35

[Buttery Ken]

mmm-five said:

I'd also try to get an decent-sized ATX3 / PCIE5.0 PSU so that it included proper transient spike protection for the 4080.

If I was building now it'd be:

• Fractal North case (if the passive cooling case I want still isn't available)
• not budget, but not overclocker level X670E motherboard with PCIE 5.0 and 4+ m.2 slots (or enough PCIe lanes for my 4 x m.2 add-in card)
• AMD 7800x3D
• RTX4080Super FE (I already have the 4090FE, so have swapped this for a 4080 build)
• Deepcool Assassin / Corsair iLINK 240mm AIO
• 2 x Noctua NF-A14 Chromax / Corsair iLINK Q140 case fans
• 2x16GB 6000MHz RAM
• 512GB boot/app drive
• multiple 2TB games drives
• single 4TB slow storage drive (already have external/cloud backup options)
• 32" 4K OLED

Edited by mmm-five on Friday 12th January 09:35

Thanks - I'll use that as a basis but use an Intel setup. Only really need one 2TB SSD for my games but if bigger is cost effective I'll go bigger!

I am starting to think I'll need a new TV too as this one is quite aged and isn't OLED. I'll have the PC connected to a 34" ultra-wide monitor and the TV for sofa games, but only using one screen at a time.

[mmm-five]

Buttery Ken said:

Thanks - I'll use that as a basis but use an Intel setup. Only really need one 2TB SSD for my games but if bigger is cost effective I'll go bigger!

I am starting to think I'll need a new TV too as this one is quite aged and isn't OLED. I'll have the PC connected to a 34" ultra-wide monitor and the TV for sofa games, but only using one screen at a time.

Depending on the Intel CPU you choose, you may find you need a much better cooling system then (for a 13/14th Gen i7/i9), plus make sure your PSU has the additional headroom for the 2-3x more power they'll use than the 7800x3D.

...and if you even think of using a 13/14900K then order some scaffolding (or LOX) to stop it from warping

[Buttery Ken]

mmm-five said:

Buttery Ken said:

Thanks - I'll use that as a basis but use an Intel setup. Only really need one 2TB SSD for my games but if bigger is cost effective I'll go bigger!

I am starting to think I'll need a new TV too as this one is quite aged and isn't OLED. I'll have the PC connected to a 34" ultra-wide monitor and the TV for sofa games, but only using one screen at a time.

Depending on the Intel CPU you choose, you may find you need a much better cooling system then (for a 13/14th Gen i7/i9), plus make sure your PSU has the additional headroom for the 2-3x more power they'll use than the 7800x3D.

...and if you even think of using a 13/14900K then order some scaffolding (or LOX) to stop it from warping

This is why I was so keen on the Lenovo one - then I didn't have to worry about these things! This was just over £2k towards end of November but I dithered for too long!

[mmm-five]

Buttery Ken said:

This is why I was so keen on the Lenovo one - then I didn't have to worry about these things! This was just over £2k towards end of November but I dithered for too long!

Not having to worry is one thing - and I assume you mean because it has a Lenovo warranty, but if the system has to throttle the i9 to keep it from melting the case, then what's the point of an i9...especially as it's only insignificantly faster than the i7.

...and if they can't even bother to fit an exhaust fan centrally, then I'd wonder what else they can't fit properly



Here's the cost of my 'build' from PCSpecialist (not 'my build' as I'm not upgrading yet)...

Case
FRACTAL NORTH TG GAMING CASE (BLACK)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.0GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5) - faster/cooler/more efficient gaming CPU
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X670E-A GAMING WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB) - double and faster RAM
Graphics Card
16GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4080 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW) - fast m.2 for OS and apps ONLY
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW) - fast-ish games install drive
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W RMx SHIFT SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET - new ATX3 PSU with plenty of headroom for upgrades
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H100i ELITE CAPELLIX XT RGB High Performance CPU Cooler - plenty for the 7800x3D (way too little for the i9)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) - extra year warranty
Price: £2,741.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/Aphe3sgjNm/

...and that price could be trimmed by £450 if I didn't go OTT on the motherboard or PSU, and the 4080 Super comes in at £200 below the 4080.

Edited by mmm-five on Friday 12th January 16:21

[dxg]

I'm going to get Scan to build me one. But I'm waiting for a month or so to see where non-Super RTX cards settle after the new Supers come out at the end of this month.

[Buttery Ken]

mmm-five said:

Buttery Ken said:

This is why I was so keen on the Lenovo one - then I didn't have to worry about these things! This was just over £2k towards end of November but I dithered for too long!

Not having to worry is one thing - and I assume you mean because it has a Lenovo warranty, but if the system has to throttle the i9 to keep it from melting the case, then what's the point of an i9...especially as it's only insignificantly faster than the i7.

...and if they can't even bother to fit an exhaust fan centrally, then I'd wonder what else they can't fit properly



Here's the cost of my 'build' from PCSpecialist (not 'my build' as I'm not upgrading yet)...

Case
FRACTAL NORTH TG GAMING CASE (BLACK)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.0GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5) - faster/cooler/more efficient gaming CPU
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X670E-A GAMING WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB) - double and faster RAM
Graphics Card
16GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4080 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW) - fast m.2 for OS and apps ONLY
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW) - fast-ish games install drive
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W RMx SHIFT SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET - new ATX3 PSU with plenty of headroom for upgrades
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H100i ELITE CAPELLIX XT RGB High Performance CPU Cooler - plenty for the 7800x3D (way too little for the i9)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) - extra year warranty
Price: £2,741.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/Aphe3sgjNm/

...and that price could be trimmed by £450 if I didn't go OTT on the motherboard or PSU, and the 4080 Super comes in at £200 below the 4080.

Edited by mmm-five on Friday 12th January 16:21

All valid - thank you.

I'm going to have a play on Scan shortly but not order anything until the Super is released. Will likely go with an i7.