Advice on PC Specs for Gaming PC. Alienware or Custom Build (I'm a novice)

[craigleese123]

Morning

I'm seeking advice from you knowledgeable people because i'm seriously over-complicating my new pc options far too much.

I'm a novice, knowledge is low on the PC Hardware front however i'm learning day by day - software knowledge is ok though.

First off, i require a PC to run games such as call of duty, turn based games and the like. I have already ordered a Alienware 1080p 240Hertz Monitor because i wanted an high fps rate.

Originally without thinking about the spec's too much i went ahead and purchased an Alienware R11 with:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB GDDR6
10th Gen Intel Core i5 10600KF (6-Core, 12MB Cache, 4.1Ghz to 4.8GHz)
16GB Dual Channel HyperX(FM) FURY DDR4 XMP at 2933MHz ,1TB M.2 PCLe NVMe SSD,
Lunar Light chassis with Low-Profile Smart Cooling CPU Heatsink and 550W Power Supply. Cost £1459.00.

i have not received the R11 yet, it's on order however i'm concerned have made the wrong decision based on two reasons: value for money & R11 overheating issues. I chose Alienware because of the brand and the aftercare service should i encounter issues once in use. I do believe the spec above should be fine for running games at 1080p with fluctuating fps based on the game however i now aware i could get a better system for the same price with a different company such as overclockers/pc specialists as per the below:


Pc Specialists
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i5-10600K Six Core (4.1GHz @ up to 5.1GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z490-F GAMING (LGA1200, USB 3.2, CrossFireX/SLI) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
256GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (500MB/R, 400MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler

Cost £1527.00.


Any help would be really appreciated. Blunt comments also welcome.

Thanks for taking the time to read the above.

Craig.

 

[Selaya]

It's still overpriced, and you/they didn't mention the PSU so I'd just assume the worst.
If you must roll with the prebuild, choose the latter - much better value than the Alienware (they put like $800 worth of hardware in it, lol).

 

[craigleese123]

Thanks for the speedy reply!

Alienware: Power supply is Lunar Light chassis with Low-Profile Smart Cooling CPU Heatsink and 550W Power Supply .

PC Specialists: CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

it must be a pre-build. I would struggle to build on my own, i would encounter problems and more hassle then its worth for me anyway. Thanks

 

[Selaya]

System Builder

uk.pcpartpicker.com

For comparison's sake - I tried to recreate it to the best of mine abilities. So the question is, are you willing to spend/save $300. (That is besides the fact that imho the list is bad - you could go AMD [or cheaper Intel, if you insist] for significant savings without losing much performance.)

The PSU is okay, but may struggle when everything goes on full load (gpu + cpu; probably only happens when the stars align, but just something to be aware of) bc Intel is still 14nm and thus consumes a lot more power on multicore loads.

 

[craigleese123]

Thanks for the comparison - Happily spend the extra £200 for somebody else build it for me.

Good touch on the PSU, i will upgrade it to 750W.

I've always had Intel to be honest so i know next to nothing about AMD. Not sure i want to go less than the Intel I5 10th because i want the pc to last 3-4 years. Do you have a AMD in mind ? Also you said the list iyho was bad, so what would you change apart from the CPU ?

Thanks Selaya - this all helps, thank you.

 

[Selaya]

Ryzen 5 3600 with B550 board - given you're only at a 2070S, idt you'll see much of an fps loss by downgrading to that.

As for the list, I'd go with a good air cooler over the AIO (ex: Dark Rock Pro 4, Noctua NH-D15) - VRM cooling is a thing. I'd also use non-RGB parts unless the visuals matter to you bc most of the time you can save some money there. (You also didn't mention a case, I believe?)

Oh and, get a larger SSD - 500GB at the very least (smaller SSDs tend to have less cache and NAND chips so they will throttle harder once their smaller cache is full). If you're going SATA, MX500 at the very least.

 

[xtreemchaos]

nowa days i wouldnt touch a Alienware since Dell got there hands on them, thay are very over priced you would do much better doing a self build buddy for £1500 you could put yourself a very nice system together.

 

[craigleese123]

thanks for replies - Valid poit xtreemchaos, something which I've learnt in the last two days - needs to be pre-built though buddy. Wouldnt trust myself doing it myself.

I've did some comparisons on the I5 vs 3600 - still believe i'm better off with I5 in spending the bit extra. i think haha.

adjusted the specs accordingly Selaya, is this any better iyop ?

Case
NZXT H511 MID-TOWER GAMING CASE (WHITE)
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i5-10600K Six Core (4.1GHz @ up to 5.1GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z490-F GAMING (LGA1200, USB 3.2, CrossFireX/SLI) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
512GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Extra Case Fans
3x Corsair LL120 RGB LED Fan + Controller Kit

Thanks again
Craig

 

[xtreemchaos]

you can build yourself mate, its easy its like lego and theres morethan enough help on here if you get stuck .

 

[P4-630]

Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!

If I were you I would wait for the next gen GPU's coming out September/October.

 

[craigleese123]

you can build yourself mate, its easy its like lego and theres morethan enough help on here if you get stuck .

Whilst i believe there is enough people to help me (that is apparent in the number of replies in the past hour), the answer is still no . you havent seen me build lego either haha.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Even if you stick with a prebuilt wait for ampere.... Turing is about to be very outdated most likely.

 

[craigleese123]

If I were you I would wait for the next gen GPU's coming out September/October.

Key word: wait. I'm male and impatient when it comes to tech. Like everybody i suppose.

You're right though, it makes sense to wait however once released, will they be readily available or would it mean waiting months to get hold of one ? thanks

 

[xtreemchaos]

that bad eh, i understand

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Just be ready and able to jump on a prebuilt in your general price range.... Turing is almost 2 years old now and a bad buy regardless

 

[craigleese123]

Just be ready and able to jump on a prebuilt in your general price range.... Turing is almost 2 years old now and a bad buy regardless

Cheers Oxrufiioxo - i've had to google Turing & ampere. So you are saying turing is soon to be old gpu tech ? and Ampere is soon to be new tech for GPU's ? Ampere is soon to be released on the new consoles ? cheers

 

[oxrufiioxo]

No RDNA2 is what AMD is releasing in the new consoles.... Ampere is Nvidas new line being announced on the 1st.


At a min wait till September 1st to see how they stack up and what they cost and then make a decision.

 

[craigleese123]

No RDNA2 is what AMD is releasing in the new consoles.... Ampere is Nvidas new line being announced on the 1st.


At a min wait till September 1st to see how they stack up and what they cost and then make a decision.

Ah ok- makes sense. Sound advice from yourself and P4-630 because i wasn't aware of the new release of GPU's.

I can only imagine all of this is typical of a console to PC gamer wannabee. Knows nothing about PC's, orders something without knowing the detail until you ask on forums to people who unbelievably are prepared to take the time and patience to reply - thank you to all of you.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

I'd watch a ton of videos on building your own PC and see if that's something you might consider undertaking...... it's not hard nowadays I didn't even have YouTube to help me for my first build only general build guides and I've done around 40 since.

It's very rewarding and worth doing even assuming the price is the same but typically you can even go up a GPU tier or CPU tier doing it yourself for around the same cost.

 

[craigleese123]

Afternoon folks

Thank you for taking the time to reply yesterday - it was much appreciated.

Having watched many many many YouTube build and manufacturer install videos, I've had a change of heart, thanks to you nice people im giving PC building 'ago'.

I've created a build list however missing the all important GPU which i wait for new releases as per the expert advice above .

Feel free to grunt/advise as you see fit and as always replies most welcome.


CPU
Intel Core i5-10600K 4.10GHz (Comet Lake) Socket LGA1200 Processor - Retail

CPU Cooler
Noctua NH-D15 Chromax Pure Black CPU Cooler with Dual 140m Fans

Motherboard
Asus ROG Strix Z490-F Gaming (Socket LGA 1200) DDR4 ATX Motherboard

Motherboard SSD
WD Blue SN550 1TB NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)

SSD
WD Blue 3D NAND 1TB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0A)

Case Fan
be quiet! Silent Wings 3 120mm Fan

Case
NZXT H710 Midi Tower Gaming Case - White Tempered Glass

RAM
Team Group XTREEM RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-32000C18 4000MHz Dual Channel Kit - RGB

Power Supply
Seasonic Focus PX-750 750W 80+ Platinum Modular Power Supply

Monitor
Samsung LC27JG50QQUXEN 27" 2560x1440 VA 144Hz Curved Gaming Widescreen LED Monitor

Cira £1500 + GPU (region of £500-£700) + Windows 10

System Builder

uk.pcpartpicker.com

Many Thanks
Craig

 

[Selaya]

10600K-Z490 doesn't make any sense at your budget (You'd want something like 2080S/Ti for it to make sense tbh, and your budget simply doesnt allow a GPU of that price tier); you're way better off getting R5 3600 with B550, gives you a lot more budget to work with for your GPU.
Also, you're way over your budget with that Memory choice of yours.

(Actually, come to think about it - you haven't mentioned your budget at all - knowing it would help a lot about choosing the right build.)

 

[JustAnEngineer]

I'm a bit curious about the 1TB M.2 + 1 TB SATA SSD selection. How does the price compare to a single 2 TB M.2 SSD or to a ½ TB M.2 + 2 TB SATA combination?

 

[craigleese123]

10600K-Z490 doesn't make any sense at your budget (You'd want something like 2080S/Ti for it to make sense tbh, and your budget simply doesnt allow a GPU of that price tier); you're way better off getting R5 3600 with B550, gives you a lot more budget to work with for your GPU.
Also, you're way over your budget with that Memory choice of yours.

(Actually, come to think about it - you haven't mentioned your budget at all - knowing it would help a lot about choosing the right build.)

Thanks for reply Selaya.

Having moved away from the Alienware idea, i have changed my budget allowance - Its now in the region of £2k-£2.3K however that would need to include monitor.

With the build above, i was under the impression i would have max £700/800 for a GPU.

I didn't think the memory was that expensive ? I've read/watched somewhere 16GB is enough for gaming however the higher the MHz then the better.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

The 800 ish Ampere GPU will likely be faster than a 2080 ti and for sure faster than a 2080 super so the 10600k is by far your best bet...... The 3600 while a very good value will hold back a gpu in that range..... I would only go with a 3600 if it means going up a gpu tier and you most likely will not save enough going with one to grab a 3090.


Although getting a really nice 1440p 144hz/165hz monitor and a 3080 and having to settle for a 3600 to accomplish that is fine.

 

[craigleese123]

I'm a bit curious about the 1TB M.2 + 1 TB SATA SSD selection. How does the price compare to a single 2 TB M.2 SSD or to a ½ TB M.2 + 2 TB SATA combination?

Thaks for reply JustAnEngineer.
1TB M.2 + 1 TB SATA SSD = £179.98
2 TB M.2 SSD = £177.00
½ TB M.2 + 2 TB SATA = £104.22

SSD is the future ??