Newbie advice for PC build.

[Clarence Boddicker]

Hi all, I bought a pc last year for the first time. Its a cheap mini pc that I bought to capture many camcorder, dv and vhs tapes that I have. It works perfectly fine for capturing, but when I bought it I didnt take into account all of the restoration work and conversion that I would need to be doing, and its nowhere near good enough.

Ive decided that I would would like to build the pc myself but I just dont have the hardware knowledge to pick the right parts.

Im using avisynth/vapoursynth filters on these videos and x264 encoding, but my mini pc is just too slow, upscaling to 1080 takes forever.

Im an xbox gamer so im not fussed about the gaming side of it but I suppose it would be nice for it to be upgradeable to more of a gaming pc at some point.

Tbh, I havent really got a budget in mind at the moment, I was thinking up to £2000 but if its less, great, if it has to be more then so be it.

Any advice would be really appreciated, thanks.

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Can you confirm if this work mainly uses the CPU, or the GPU? Your budget is very healthy, but I'm not sure if I should be prioritising the CPU or the GPU.

Ive just googled and apparently there are only a few avisynth filters that make use of the gpu. I think that the encoding is cpu as well.

Budget just for the base unit? No peripheral or monitor upgrades required?

No im not fussed about a new monitor at the moment. Im using a 26 inch samsung tv and its fine for what im doing tbh

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Intel/DDR5:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i7-14700K (Raptor Lake-S) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-INT-00800) = £399.95
• 1 x Gigabyte B760 GAMING X AX (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BU-GI) = £174.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-41600C40 5200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK64GX5M2B5200C40 (SKU: MY-4DC-CS) = £170.00
• 1 x Palit GeForce RTX 3060 Dual LHR 12GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-060-PL) = £269.98
• 1 x Crucial P5 Plus 1TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 x4 3D NAND NVMe Solid State Drive with Heatsink (SKU: HD-07M-CR) = £71.99
• 1 x WD Blue SN580 2TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-WDC-00541) = £109.99
• 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Nucleus AIO CR360 Dark All In One CPU Water Cooler - 360mm (SKU: HS-016-EK) = £110.00
• 1 x Lian Li Lancool 216 Mid-tower PC case - Black (SKU: CA-7BG-LL) = £89.98
• 1 x Phanteks AMP 650W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-09Q-PT) = £89.99

Total: £1,498.86 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

Thanks Tetras, this is just what I needed. I have a couple of questions though.

I was hoping to go with fan over water cooling for the cpu, is there one that you would reccomend?

Of the two ssd’s, which one should I install the os on?

I know that I’m not going for a gaming build but how good would this pc be compared to the xbox say? Is there potential to make it better for gaming with upgrades?

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Ok thanks gents, I think Ill go with this build, Ill just have to have a think about whether to get the better graphics card or not.

The only other thing is the cooler for the cpu. I read somewhere that air is better for a first timer as its easier to install and maintain. Is this correct or do you think Ill be fine with the water?

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Ok Ive decided to stick with the suggested 3060 graphics card, I can always upgrade at a later date if I decide I want to use it more for gaming.

Its just the cooler that Im unsure about now. Less noise is is definitely a plus and is making me think to stick with the water.

What are the main difficulties with installing and maintaining a water cooler?

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Ok Im going to go with the water cooler. Ive just watched an install on youtube and I think I can handle it.

Just wondering if theres anything else I need to order for the build? I take it that cables, mounts etc are included with the parts?

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Thanks very much for the help and advice. Keep your eyes peeled over the next couple of weeks for a “Help, my first pc build wont turn on” thread

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Just wanted to check something before I place an order.

The description for the motherboard says that its intel 12th and 13th gen compatible. No mention of 14th though, will it be ok with the cpu that im getting?

Also I just watched an install video and it said to check if the ram slots were dual channel so that not to install them both in the same channel. I can see that it has 4 slots but cant see that it says dual channel anywhere?

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

The Gigabyte B760 GAMING X AX has Q-Flash Plus：Update BIOS Without Installing the CPU, Memory and Graphics Card.

So I still build the pc as normal, install cpu, memory, graphics card etc, install windows and then update bios?

Is there another board thats definitley 14th gen compatible that I could get instead, its just that Im very new to all this so want to try to make it as easy as possible.

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Ok thanks. Just looked up how to do it and it doesnt seem too bad.

If it does work straight out of the box, would you reccomend installing windows first and then updating the bios or do the bios before windows?

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Im nearly there now, last couple of questions I promise.

I think that I want to go with a Gigabyte 3060 instead of the palit. Either the winforce oc or gaming oc, probably the gaming oc. I just wanted to check that either of these will be ok in this build. Ive checked and the larger gaming oc will fit but Im not sure if Ill need a bigger power supply or not.


Also the smaller ssd for the os that you linked isnt in stock anymore, I noticed that it has a heatsink. Can I just get any other 1 tb drive or was there a reason for that one with the heatsink?

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Ok thats great. Thanks again for the advice its really appreciated.

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

You should look at the Zotac 3060 as it offers a 5 year warranty if registered within 30 days otherwise it's 3 years.

Just had a look at the zotac 3060 gaming and it has one less fan than the gigabyte equivalent. Do you think this will matter? Ive read that the cpu that im getting can get really hot.

Also the gigabye gaming 3060 has an rgb light. Can I still use the card if I havent got rgb in my setup?

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Ive ordered the aio, but my heads spinning after looking at all the graphics cards and reviews. Theres so many conflicting opinions out there.

My assumption from what you described is that the card would mainly be idle anyway (or using the decoder/encoder chip), which should enable zero-rpm mode and so I'd personally prioritise the price and get as close to £250 as possible. Otherwise, I'd start considering the 4060 if you can stomach the loss of VRAM, because of the low power consumption.

Yes I dont think it’ll be used much at all for any of the video work that ill be doing. Im now thinking though that if I do get into the gaming side of it, whats the point if its not going to be any better than my xbox.

The gigabyte 4060 gaming oc is about the same price as the 3060 gaming oc. I have no idea which one would be the better choice. I don't think the reasons the youtuber had for not liking the 4060 will really apply to me as it wont really be used for creating. I think theres a 4 gb difference between the two but unsure what that really means in terms of gaming.

What problems can the loss of VRAM cause?

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

From what you have said, I'm getting the impression that maybe you don't actually need a graphics card at all and if you DO buy one, you want to turn this into a proper gaming PC?

Your probably right but Ive decided to get the 3060. Ive always been a console game so Im not entirely sure that Ill take to the pc. No point in getting a more expensive card if its not going to get used so Ill get the 3060 for now. Ive read that they are good for 1080 gaming so Ill stick to that and if I get into playing on the pc Ill upgrade the in a year or so time.

Ordering now before I change my mind again!

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Ive got a bit of a problem and was wondering if anyone can advise.

Im trying to flash the bios before building the pc but it just wont update. Ive tried usb 2/3 and read and watched various troubleshooting guides with no luck. The LED flashes for about a minute and then stops. Apparently, if flashes for less than 5-6 minutes it hasnt worked.

Im not sure what to do now, I really dont want to put it all together to find out it doesnt work. The box says its only compatible up to 13th gen so im guessing it wont without an update first.

Any ideas?

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Ok cheers.

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Ive just tried it with the file saved as gigabyte.bin. I was using GIGABYTE.bin as thats what was used in youtube videos.

The bios flash LED flashed for 4 minutes at two different speeds and then stopped. The red motherboard LED and psu turned off at the 5 minute mark.

Not sure if it worked or not as everywhere says that a 32mb flash should take 6-8.

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

I built it outside of the case today and Im happy to say it did boot into the bios.. I didnt see what revision it was though as I didnt have the AIO fitted and the temperature immediately hit 100c, so I turned it off quickly.

Ive nearly finished building it in the case now, Ive just got to screw the pump on and still waiting for the graphics card to turn up.

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Let us know when it is alive I'd also be interested to know how well the IGP meets your needs (or doesn't), if you get that far before the graphics card arrives.

Well the graphics card was meant to come today but didint turn up again, I had a feeling it wouldnt so finished the pc anyway. It works . I haven't really done much with it yet, apart from windows and driver downloads etc.

Ive decided to cancel that 3060 card though, and go with your suggestion of a 7800 XT or 4070 / 4070 super. My computer screens only 1080 but Ive got a decent tv, so ill plug it into that for games.

Is there a particular card out of those ones that you would recommend?

I take it my pc is able to run it with no other upgrades?