Thinking about building a medium range gaming PC - Intel, or AMD?
 

As per the title really, thinking about building a medium spec gaming PC which can be used for some gaming, and some general home computer use. Watched a fair few youtube videos about the best components which work together etc and general pricing and effectiveness....

My main question is, should I go for AMD, or Intel? My school of thought before I started to consider all this was that Intel was king, and that more money = better. But the more I've seen and read, and for what I need from it...I'm leaning toward some of the AMD Ryzen stuff now.

Any thoughts for a computer building noob? Don't think I'd be aiming for 4k gaming, probably just 1440 QHD at best. I'm a console man really, but would be nice to have the option to use PC gaming as well.

Better bang for your buck with AMD now days, the ryzen processors knock intel out the park for value. The amd gpu's are much better value for low to mid range cards as well, plus you have a big range of freesync monitors to choose from with an amd gpu as well.

If your editing video or full frame images though I'd say top of the pile AMD Ryzen cpu with the top nvidia card.

This deal for example is unbelievable value
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/fie...-39995-3188279
Just needs W10 which you can get a cheap licence key for off eBay or amazon.

AMD would be the best value for money. Go onto forums.overclockers.co,uk one of biggest suppliers/forums in europe. Just tell people your budget and you will get a mix of different builds.

AMD have confirmed the 3rd generation Ryzen will also use the current AM4 chipset , Intel grab every penny and will normally release a new chipset every 12=18 months so upgradability isnt as good. Whats your budget and do you need everything (monitor ,keyboard, mouse etc?}

It really is a cracking deal. One thing if your going for this pre build, the motherboard doesn't support over clocking, so if maximum gains is your bag then swap the mobo for one that does.

Otherwise you have a pre built system that will play anything you throw at it up to 1440p @ 60fps. Great little system.

Yep I get that, maybe swap out the psu for a well known branded one.

Keep your eye out on hotukdeals.com

There's been crazy priced deals on pre built systems recently.

That full build isn't such good value if you're replacing half of it straight away. Also that build only has a 240GB SSD. Not much space on that for games so you're definitely going to need more storage.

If you actually break down the cost of the different components you'd use if you replace the motherboard and power supply it comes out around the same as what you'd be paying for the prebuilt. 8GB of DDR4 is £50, CPU is £90, GPU is £150, SSD is around £40-50 and that particular case is only about £30. So actually you're paying more for the prebuilt in that situation unless I've forgotten something big.

You don't have to replace the mobo, I was just informing him that if you wanted to overclock (if that's important to you) you would need too.

It's a great system for the money and way you look at it.

Personally I'm not convinced it's actually that good value. Yes, if you're leaving it alone it's slightly cheaper to buy the pre build than build it yourself but, for not a lot more, you could improve on the spec if you're building it yourself. A better motherboard is only another £30-40 over what that one goes for, a 500GB SSD is only another £20-30 over the 240GB model, a better case is not much more or there are even cheaper cases and a Ryzen 1600X is only another £40 which has 2 extra cores and SMT. So for an extra £150 or so you could build yourself a much better system.

Disclaimer - it's late and it's entirely possible I've borked my maths up.

if your wanting off the shelf heres a decent one.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk-...q-og.html#t=b2

You'd be mad not to include an SSD in a computer nowadays, especially at over £800.

Here's a build I put together quickly just now for around £800. All available from scan.co.uk who I've used in the past with no problems except the power supply which is from Amazon.

Case - Your choice of the many options, just look for one with fans included and that will accept ATX motherboards. Good enough can be had for under £35.
Motherboard - MSI B450 Gaming Plus - £85 or the MSI B450-A Pro for £5 less if you don't like the red
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 2600 including a cooler - £145
GPU - Zotac GTX 1070 Mini 8GB - £250
Ram - Corsair Vengeance 2666mhz Ryzen 16GB - £95
SSD - Samsung 860 Evo 1TB - £150
Power Supply - Corsair TX550M 80+ Gold - £64

Then you'd need a Windows license on top of that.

So that gets you much faster storage than most pre builds unless they're using an SSD but they're never big enough, an 80+ Gold rated power supply instead of the usual bronze, twice the RAM of even that one from Overclockers and a much stronger GPU IMO. I really think building it yourself is the way to go here if you're comfortable doing it.

thanks for all the input so far guys. It's a lot of stuff to get my head around! Don't get me wrong, I'm not a complete noob, but im not an expert either when it gets into the real nitty gritty.

It all comes down to budget really. I'm not entirely sure how much I have to play with. I'd rather spec a really nice prebuilt one, than build a slightly budget ish rig to save a few quid.

I've been watching some Paul's hardware videos on YT, and a spec he suggests for a fairly entry level system (for a fairly affordable price) is below, I'm tempted to just copy it:

AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 6GB OC Video Card
G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Team L5 LITE 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
MasterBox Lite 5 RGB ATX Mid-Tower Case
Corsair CX (2017) 550W 80+ Bronze Power Supply

Also on a side note, can anyone advise on the AMD integrated VEGA ? Is it up to much? Obviously not going to be as capable as a proper GPU...but could it hack some HD gaming?

ta

Jayztwocents is also worth a watch if you're on Youtube. He does some decent car stuff occasionally too. Just remember they're both from the US so pricing can be a little different.

Personally I'd ditch the 2060 and go for a 1070 then throw the savings at a 1TB SSD and 80+ Gold power supply. You'll find a 500ish GB drive fills up very quickly and the price difference between the bronze and gold PSU is not that much. Even the 2080's struggle with ray tracing so you're not going to be getting that benefit really going with the 2060 over the 1070.

I assume you're looking at the 2400G when you mention the integrated graphics? That drops down to 4 cores on the CPU compared to the 2600's 6 cores. If you can afford a proper GPU, that's the way to go. You'd be compromising on both the CPU and GPU side of things going with the 2400G.

Ill have a look at that on YT, thanks. Fair comment ref the 1070 - definitely something for me to consider. As said in my first post, I'm not a big PC gamer as I dont really have the time.... but if I do fancy a game here or there, it would just be nice to know that the GPU can cope with anything I hit it with (within reason). Leaning toward the Radeon cards - like a 570~ but I'll have a good browse.

In regards to the VEGA, no idea what spec of card it refers to. I've just seen a few brief PC spec's advertised with AMD Vega as a selling factor. Def agree though, a proper GPU is the way to go. Just wondered if the AMD Vega system is any good...

Def amd at the min, give it 12-24 months and intell will prob be a better buy.id add a 256gb m.2 in as your primary Windows drive (Samsung 970 or similar). Will speed things up no end.

can anyone recommend a decent monitor which supports freesync? Doesn't have to be huuuuugggeee. Just something good quality to get it off the ground with a nice sharp image that would support QHD.

Long term might have 2......

Freesync and QHD would need £400-500 for a good brand. So if going 2 eventually would be costly. You could send £500-600 on a nice 1440p ultrawide 30-34" Monitor and not have the need for 2

Or as just starting out Stick with a 27" 1440p Monitor

any suggestions for a 1440p Monitor?

Have you a budget in mind?

Around 200-250 most likely..... perhaps a bit more...perhaps less...... depends what's about

this was an interesting watch this morning as well

I've been using one of these


AOC 32" Q3279VWF

1440p.
Good colour reproduction and balance.
Good refresh rate.
Freesync.
Nice dark blacks.
Good sharp images with no tarring.
Add you own speakers (no built in).

I've been using it for graphic design, photography, layout, web design and the occasional gaming. It's done all of it very well.

Best monitor you can get for the money, in my opinion.

does look like a good option. shame it doesnt support Freesync.... but for the price it might be a worthwhile trade off

It's definitely a freesync monitor as mines set up with freesync.

does state freesync when you go looking for more details (amazon isnt great for tech details)

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/pc-monitors/pc-monitors/aoc-q3279vwf-quad-hd-31-5-led-monitor-black-10173606-pdt.html?store={store_code}&&istCompanyId=bec25c7e-cbcd-460d-81d5-a25372d2e3d7&istItemId=-xqlrwmmmiw&istBid=t&srcid=198&cmpid=ppc~gg~1007%20 MONITORS%20-%20IMv2%20LTC~1007%20MONITORS%20-%2010173606_exact~Exact&mctag=gg_goog_7904&kwid=GO OGLE&device=c&ds_kids=43700030783935638&tgtid=1007 %20MONITORS%20-%20IMv2%20LTC&&gclid=CjwKCAjw1KLkBRBZEiwARzyE71_F2 lnLri86k3S9Iay5l_nOCel1v8UqbbDKYFQkf5CREa5o6ZKU-hoCWN0QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

product code is the same.

I would more be looking for high refresh for a gaming monitor.

Refresh rate is absolutely fine for games with it. Never noticed a single hickup while playing.

No screen tearing.
No input lag.
No ghosting.

Unless your a pro gamer where ever single possible frame counts then it's not something to even worry about.

Also if your coming from a console and tv then the difference in input speed and general picture smoothness will be night and day too.

im by no means a pro gamer but do notice it on certain games, although bear in mind im running 4k at 60hz

I don't think he needs to worry about that though as he's only looking at 1440p. Going up to 4K with good frame rates is going to double his budget at least.

That monitor runs at 114mhz as well over freesync so is plenty fast enough.