Budget / mid range gaming PC recommendation

[channel27]

Hi all,

I've been wanting to put together a gaming PC for a while, and since I've recently reacquired my favourite PC case I had BITD, now (or at least over the next few months once I've paid off a ridiculously expensive car service) might be a good time to put one together.

(*** Don't by a modern Land Rover. Burn fivers instead, it'll be cheaper ***)

I'm a bit (a lot) out of the game. As an app developer, I've had macs extensively for the last few decades. Not counting my Taito Type Xs, the last time I had a PC I was writing pre-smartphone Java MIDlets!

I've had a Google around but with so many options, I'm a bit lost.
Can someone point me in the right direction to turn a massive vintage Antec Plus 1080AMG pc case into a sleeper (albeit middle of the road) gaming rig?
I'm thinking something really comfortable at 1080 with some 1440 thrown in?
My first stab, not including storage and the case/PSU: -

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3d £180
Gigabyte B550M K £80
Nvidia RTX 5060 £275
Crucial RAM 32GB Kit (2x16GB) DDR4 3200 £48
= £583 without a cooler

So, a few questions, please: -

1. Is this any good? (overkill / not good enough)
2. Could I get away with anything cheaper for the same relative performance?
2. Would the OCZ ZX Series 850 W PSU that came with the case (it had been upgraded at some point from it's original PSU) be good enough to power it?
3. What cooler should I get? Whilst the case is massive, it only supports 80mm fans. (lots of them, but only 80mm)

Many thanks,
Rob

The BEAST in all it's grey gorgeousness: -

 

[Bods]

I'm a bit out of date with PC's these days too, i was building my own since mid 90s but unless playing latest games there wasn't the need for me to update my AMD X2 systems

I usually buy second hand and let the original Person take the hit on new prices, that's what I've done with 450m boards, and GFX cards all Gigabyte with Ryzen cpu and memory for driving cabs, cost about £170 for each setup which isn't bad
Always stuck to Gigabyte as I used to get loads of old PC's from tip and ya MSI and Asrock boards were often toast, most Gigabyte worked and never had many issues with any I did buy new but others may find different with other makes

Just depends on games your playing really, I've always done PC games over Console

Got similar decisions with AV Amps currently, there aren't a massive choice of makes now but the few that are left in the game have churned out a hell of a lot of models over last 10+ years, I was going 9.2 but then thinking maybe should go 11.2 or 13.2 now I have many later Blurays with Atmos/DTS-X

 

[channel27]

2nd hand would be good. As much as I want a gaming PC it'll, probably not get that much use tbh so the cheaper the better!

Games wise, off the top of my head: -
Tekken 8
Forza 5
GTA V
W40K Space Marine / Darktide
Resident Evil 4
Fallout 76

 

[devtty0]

I was thinking about this too, from the vids I've seen the new Intel arc line are pretty good:

1080p
intel arc B580 + intel i3 12100f // i5-12400f

1440
amd rx7600 // i5-12400f // // i5-13400f and 6000 gpus

 

[ZedEx48K]

I was thinking about this too, from the vids I've seen the new Intel arc line are pretty good:

1080p
intel arc B580 + intel i3 12100f // i5-12400f

1440
amd rx7600 // i5-12400f // // i5-13400f and 6000 gpus

I wouldn't go arc, Intel gpu section is a mess, I would pick up something like a 3080 2nd hand for 300 or so, strong 1440p card.
Also wouldn't get 12/13/14 gen Intel with the burnt out cluster f... that happened, also dead end hardware.

 

[big10p]

I'm totally out of touch with PC building. I just bought my last gaming PC pre-built.

One thing occurred to me though. You will probably have to get a new PSU due to the newer mobo and gfx card connectors they have.

 

[Bods]

I'm totally out of touch with PC building. I just bought my last gaming PC pre-built.

One thing occurred to me though. You will probably have to get a new PSU due to the newer mobo and gfx card connectors they have.

Got upgraded one in case OCZ ZX Series 850 W PSU

Looks pretty good to me

Just check what connections PC board and GFX cards use but mine are only Powercool PC-650AUBA and fine for Gigabyte 450m motherboard

 

[channel27]

I'm totally out of touch with PC building. I just bought my last gaming PC pre-built.

One thing occurred to me though. You will probably have to get a new PSU due to the newer mobo and gfx card connectors they have.

This is the PSU

OCZ ZX Series 850 W Review

OCZ recently introduced the new ZX PSU series, which consists of three Gold efficiency members with 850 W, 1000 W and 1250 W capacities. Today we have the 850 watt model on our testbench to check if it shows the same usability, quality and price/performance we saw on the 1250 W model that we...

www.techpowerup.com

It's got an 8 pin EPS connector and PCIe 6+2's but I appreciate it's 14 years old!
Anything obvious that this is lacking? Other than youth

 

[channel27]

I wouldn't go arc, Intel gpu section is a mess, I would pick up something like a 3080 2nd hand for 300 or so, strong 1440p card.
Also wouldn't get 12/13/14 gen Intel with the burnt out cluster f... that happened, also dead end hardware.

A configuration that had room for upgrade would be worth paying a bit more £££ for, yes.
But touch wood it won't take me another 20 years to upgrade it!

 

[big10p]

This is the PSU

OCZ ZX Series 850 W Review

OCZ recently introduced the new ZX PSU series, which consists of three Gold efficiency members with 850 W, 1000 W and 1250 W capacities. Today we have the 850 watt model on our testbench to check if it shows the same usability, quality and price/performance we saw on the 1250 W model that we...

www.techpowerup.com

It's got an 8 pin EPS connector and PCIe 6+2's but I appreciate it's 14 years old!

It may be ok. I don't really know enough about this stuff anymore. Lol

 

[channel27]

I suppose

It may be ok. I don't really know enough about this stuff anymore. Lol

On retrospect, running nice shiny expensive hardware on an old PSU is a false economy and just asking for trouble for the sake of saving a few quid.

There's a reason why we recap our arcade PSUs before we plug stuff into them.

 

[gr0don]

Be sure to get a 16GB GPU and not an 8GB one. Worth considering the 9060XT IMO (again make sure its 16GB). 850w PSU is fine (although age... Id be tempted to replace that), I usually stick to BeQuiet or Seasonic for my power supplies but dont think OCZ are bad. For a cooler the Therrmalright Phantom Spirit 120 Evo gets good write ups but not cheap and I have not used it myself. Make sure you have thermal paste before you start and I would not worry with that liquid metal stuff, just some good old arctic silver or similar. Might be worth looking at some faster RAM, the motherboard page should list kits it can use, might not cost a lot more.

 

[eliotcole]

Yeah, more and more the recommendation these days is to go AMD like a couple of folks have already said (and the 9070XT isn't out of the realms of thinking, either) with the GPU (and the Intel is a fine shout at this level, too) being 16GB minimum as the main thing, there.

EDIT - 😅 Can't hurt to have a GOOD MONITOR, either. ;-)

 

[channel27]

EDIT - 😅 Can't hurt to have a GOOD MONITOR, either. ;-)

Sorry, my Macbook Pro is hooked up to a couple of 4K Dells - Not @ 165Hz but they'll do for now

 

[eliotcole]

Yummy!!

Sorry, my Macbook Pro is hooked up to a couple of 4K Dells - Not @ 165Hz but they'll do for now

Yeah ... I just upgraded because I got this monitor for £450!! ... It is essentially my dream productivity monitor! 😲

 

[kingtreelo]

this cooler is excellent, im guessing the 80mm fan is for the case only, these should fit is your case is a big 'un, best bang for your buck by far with this, i have it in my monster gaming PC

CPU cooler

 

[pooman2084]

+1 I built a new system with this yesterday!

I had a 240 and a 360 AIO ready to install but went with the Peerless Assassin on the day to keep things simply, have a better airflow in my case and avoid any background pump noise. It's great so far and I've managed a nice big underclock on my CPU.

I stretched to get AM5 motherboard and architecture with a mid range 7 series 9700x. Its nice and efficient had has good bandwidth all round.