Looking to buy a new computer.

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Nigel H-J
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Looking to buy a new computer.

Post by Nigel H-J »

My wife has agreed for me to start looking for a new computer :excited:

The thing is this will be my very last purchase including that of upgrades so really need some help and advise on what I should be looking out for in the way of Graphics Card type of CPU etc.

Ideally I want something like an Intel i7 with 16GB RAM very good graphics card sound card well, not too bothered but thinking of Creative Sound but not paying too much for it as my present one Creative Audigy seems OK to me. Also I presently have 8 USB Ports so need as many as that in the new one then there is the question of hard drives I would like to have 2 if possible with one being 2TB and the other ITB.

My present machine has an ASUS Mother Board and much prefer to stay with ASUS if possible.

I do need a machine that will carry me forward for a good many years to come although software such as X Plane 11 will change considerably over the coming years but need something that will carry me through comfortably. (Is that asking too much I wonder)? :dunno:

Also and more importantly I would like it to be able to run VR comfortably.

I have looked at sites such as PC Specialists but when it comes to build your computer I have no idea on what half of those options are or do. :wall:

Also I have seen that (wait for it) PC World also sell PC Specialist Computers would that be an options? Or would a local computer shop be the answer to having one built?

I am looking at around the £1500 - £1600 mark but do not want to waste money on extras that I may never use.

Any help or guidance would be much appreciated.

Regards
Nigel.
I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.

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Nigel H-J
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Re: Looking to buy a new computer.

Post by Nigel H-J »

Just been looking at the AMD Ryzen and wonder if anyone has one fitted. This article has me just about as confused as ever on which way to go. :lol:

Also have a read of the comments further down after the conclusion.

https://www.gamingscan.com/amd-ryzen-vs ... or-gaming/

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Nigel.
I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.

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Charlie Bravo
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Re: Looking to buy a new computer.

Post by Charlie Bravo »

I did chuckle at your opening line Nigel 😁

I was going to suggest a AMD Ryzen processor above an Intel. I'm on a night shift at present so will throw some suggestions together a bit later if I may?

Rgds
Chris
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Nigel H-J
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Re: Looking to buy a new computer.

Post by Nigel H-J »

I did chuckle at your opening line Nigel 😁
I was going to suggest a AMD Ryzen processor above an Intel. I'm on a night shift at present so will throw some suggestions together a bit later if I may?
Took me by surprise as well!! :lol:

That would be great Chris, need all the help and advice at the moment especially as I found out what an i5 compared to an i7 can do, see link at bottom.

There does not appear to be much difference between the i5 and i7 from the video given but had been reading up on the AMD Ryzen and this has made me wonder whether it may be a better bet though doubts still exist in my mind as to making a change.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OycWRlPeJac

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Charlie Bravo
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Re: Looking to buy a new computer.

Post by Charlie Bravo »

A few suggestions for you to peruse...

(I've only looked at the prices from one shop so things may be cheaper elsewhere. This is just to give you an idea.)

SYSTEM 1

CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 6 Core, 12 Thread, 3.6GHz, 4.25GHz Turbo, 19MB cache. £199.99

Motherboard
ASUS AMD AM4 Ryzen PRIME X370 Pro ATX. £118.49

Graphics
EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 8GB. £459.98

RAM
Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4 3000 MHz. £242.99

HDD1
Samsung 970 EVO Polaris 500GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD. £124.98

HDD2
Samsung 860 EVO 1TB 2.5” SATA 3D Nand SSD. £159.95

HDD3
Toshiba 3TB P300 Internal Hard Disk Drive. £66.98

Case
Fractal Design Core 2300 Mid Tower. £44.99

PSU
be quiet System Power 9 700 Watt 80+ Bronze PSU. £59.99

Windows
Windows 10 Home Creators 32/64-bit USB Drive. £102.98

DVD-RW
ASUS x24 DVD/CD Re-Writer with M-DISC Support DRW-24D5MT. £11.94

£1593.26 total

....................................................................

SYSTEM 2

CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 6 Core, 12 Thread, 3.6GHz, 4.25GHz Turbo, 19MB cache. £199.99

Motherboard
ASUS AMD AM4 Ryzen PRIME X370 Pro ATX. £118.49

Graphics
EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 8GB XC. £699.98

RAM
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 3000MHz RAM. £121.40

HDD1
Crucial MX500 250GB M.2 SATA SSD. £47.48

HDD2
Crucial MX500 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD. £143.99

HDD3
Toshiba 2TB P300 Internal Hard Disk Drive. £53.99

Case
Fractal Design Core 2300 Mid Tower. £44.99

PSU
be quiet System Power 9 700 Watt 80+ Bronze PSU. £59.99

Windows
Windows 10 Home Creators 32/64-bit USB Drive. £102.98

DVD-RW
ASUS x24 DVD/CD Re-Writer with M-DISC Support DRW-24D5MT. £11.94

£1605.22 total

....................................................................

SYSTEM 3

CPU
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 8 Core, 16 Thread, 3.7GHz, 4.35GHz Turbo, 20MB cache. £299.99

Motherboard
ASUS AMD AM4 Ryzen PRIME X370 Pro ATX. £118.49

Graphics
EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 8GB. £459.98

RAM
Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4 3000 MHz. £242.99

HDD1
Crucial MX500 250GB M.2 SATA SSD. £47.48

HDD2
Crucial MX500 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD. £143.99

HDD3
Toshiba 2TB P300 Internal Hard Disk Drive. £53.99

Case
Fractal Design Core 2300 Mid Tower. £44.99

PSU
be quiet System Power 9 700 Watt 80+ Bronze PSU. £59.99

Windows
Windows 10 Home Creators 32/64-bit USB Drive. £102.98

DVD-RW
ASUS x24 DVD/CD Re-Writer with M-DISC Support DRW-24D5MT. £11.94

£1587.31 total

..................................................................

SYSTEM 4

CPU
Intel Core i5 9600K 6 Core, 6 Thread, 3.7GHz, 4.6GHz Turbo, 9MB cache. £248.99

Motherboard
ASUS PRIME Intel Z390-P 9th Gen ATX. £136.49

Graphics
EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 8GB. £459.98

RAM
Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4 3000 MHz. £242.99

HDD1
Crucial MX500 250GB M.2 SATA SSD. £47.48

HDD2
Crucial MX500 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD. £143.99

HDD3
Toshiba 2TB P300 Internal Hard Disk Drive. £53.99

Case
Fractal Design Core 2300 Mid Tower. £44.99

PSU
be quiet System Power 9 700 Watt 80+ Bronze PSU. £59.99

Windows
Windows 10 Home Creators 32/64-bit USB Drive. £102.98

DVD-RW
ASUS x24 DVD/CD Re-Writer with M-DISC Support DRW-24D5MT. £11.94

4 Port USB 3.0 PCI-e Card from Dynamode. £11.99

£1565.80 total
A bird in the hand will probably sh!t on your wrist.

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Charlie Bravo
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Re: Looking to buy a new computer.

Post by Charlie Bravo »

Starting with the processor, I think the Ryzen is the way to go. It seems to provide excellent performance for the money and seems a tad more future proof with regards to the socket used when compared to Intel.

Graphics card wise, I see little point in going with the previous generation. Unfortunately, AMD cards aren't up to the speed of Nvidia in general, plus AMD cards don't perform as well in X-Plane at present.
There's a huge cost difference between the RTX2070 and RTX2080 but looking at a few benchmarks, not a huge performance difference to match.

Memory wise, 16gb seems plenty for most games etc these days but as you're looking to keep this for some time to come, I thought 32gb from the off was the way to go.

The idea of the 3 hard drives is one small SSD for Windows, one
larger SSD for games and the other, larger non SSD for everything else.

The AMD system has 8 USB ports on the motherboard whereas the Intel has 6, hence the additional card.
There may well be an Intel board with 8 but I'm using my phone, I had 20 Chrome tabs open and my neck aches now 😉

If it were my money, I'd be looking towards system 3. You're not a million miles away so I can also help you build it. 👍
You may not get a warranty on a complete system from a shop, but you'll have a warranty on each individual component.

Edit...

I've just used PC Specialist to configure a system matching System 3 as closely as possible. It comes out at £1848 😮
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Re: Looking to buy a new computer.

Post by paulsl »

I've always found this site useful, especially comparing video cards. I have to convert to Australian zlotys but it's the relative power of the cards (and not having to decipher their gibberish nomenclature) that I find most helpful.

I always buy from Asian run shops for the best prices- we are lucky in Sydney to have plenty to chose from. My favourite shop built a 'work' PC for the missus; I reckon it saved me about $1000 just on a relatively low spec.

HTH, Paul
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Paul K
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Re: Looking to buy a new computer.

Post by Paul K »

Watching this thread closely, as I'm also in the market for a new PC in the next few months. :)

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Nigel H-J
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Re: Looking to buy a new computer.

Post by Nigel H-J »

Christ Chris you have been very busy putting all that lot together and appreciate that very much. Looking at your list you have put the EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 8GB. What is the difference between that and the 1070 card if any.

Will certainly be looking at one of those for a build, as written earlier there does not seem to be any comparable difference between an i5 and an i7 I am still as yet unsure of which way to go even though you have given a very good explanation regarding the Ryzen but I will not be in a position to upgrade for the foreseeable future after making a purchase so need one that will carry me through for a good many years to come hence my need to be very careful in choice of computer.

I have presently 2 drives installed in my computer one being 1TB and the other a 250GB but are quite old and also have a sound card, equally I already have Win10 so if I had the local computer shop do one for me would it be best to use them for a new build or is it best to just start completely afresh?

Paulsl, many thanks for the comparison chart, interesting reading.

Again, many thanks and appreciate all the help being given.

Regards
Nigel.
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Charlie Bravo
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Re: Looking to buy a new computer.

Post by Charlie Bravo »

It wasn't very busy at Stansted last night :lol:

My thinking for the graphics card was how long the system needs to last you. The 1060/1070/1080 cards are now the previous generation and whilst they perform well, the driver development will favour the newer cards going forward. A GTX1070 will indeed manage VR, a 1060 will scrape through and a 1080 will handle it well. The RTX 2070 is around 1080 performance levels from what I've been reading.

I don't know a great deal about VR as it doesn't interest me, but one comment I saw on a website was: Smoothness matters a lot more in VR than it does in traditional gaming, because juddering and screen tearing while you're moving your head around in a virtual world may cause dizziness and nausea.

If you did want to go with a 1070, I'd recommend a GTX1070ti @ around £380.

I used to be an AMD fan years back when they had a good lineup of processors but once the Intel Core2Duo came out, AMD couldn't really keep up. The Ryzen series has put them right back where they need to be and they offer better value compared to Intel. I think the length of time that AMD has been out of the running, has made a lot of people unsure about moving away from Intel.

You'll be able to use your existing Windows 10 license if it is a retail copy but if it's OEM, you'll need a new copy.
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