Loatty

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Sep 22, 2015
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Hello all,

I've put together what I intend to be my desktop PC for the next 7-10 years, and I'd love to hear some second opinions from everyone, on what I might change, if anything.

Please keep in mind that I am aware that the second SSD will most likely need replacing around halfway through the intended lifespan, however, I really want it, so I'm rather set on that specific part.

I will probably replace the GPU after about 3 years, which is why I chose the 5700 XT instead of something like an 2070 Super (ray tracing being in it's first gen, I don't yet care for it all that much).


Case: Fractal Design Define C
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 Aorus PRO
CPU: MD Ryzen 7 3800X Boxed
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V F4-3200C16D-32GVK
PSU: Corsair HX750 V2
1st SSD: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB
2nd SSD: Samsung 860 QVO 4TB
GPU: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse

Fans: 4x Noctua NF-S12A PWM, 120mm (I've decided on a build heavily focused on positive airflow, if anyone wonders)



I have no reason to believe I'll need more than the 8-core, 16-thread setup of the 3800X, as the most multi-tasking I ever expect to do is some minor streaming for friends and the occasional dedicated server for playing with friends.
I will be OC'ing the CPU and the RAM at some point (and probably the GPU for some free extra frames), though I don't intend any really hardcore levels of overclocking.


Any questions, I will try to answer to the best of my ability!

Thank you all in advance for your input!
 
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Eximo

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Seems like a competent build.

Overclocking of the CPU isn't really necessary, just having that cooler on it should do 95% of the work. AMD has done a good job with their XFR. 3200Mhz memory is the appropriate speed to maintain a 1:1 IF ratio, so all good there.

Power supply is a little overkill, but not overly so.

No complaints about any of the other components.
 
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Solid build. If it were me building this system I would make a couple very minor changes that aren't that big of a deal. There isn't much overclocking headroom for 3rd gen Ryzen. That being said, the additional cost of the nhd15 over something like the NHU14S and saving money by going with one larger NVME ssd would allow you to invest into a slightly better video card or faster cas latency 14 memory. Just slap on the NHU14S and enable PBO. What is the resolution and refresh rate of your monitor?
 
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Loatty

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Sep 22, 2015
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Just a basic 60hz 2560x1080, I was gonna upgrade, but put it off long enough that I'm now upgrading the PC first 😅

PSU is a little overkill just in case future GPU upgrades require it, that's the whole of it, really.

I was aware 3rd gen Ryzen doesn't have much overclocking headroom, I mostly picked this bigger cooler for the added benefit of the massive towers... more passive cooling capacity hopefully meaning less fan speeds overall... Not required by any means, but I admit to being biased towards big Noctua towers!

I have looked at getting CL14 RAM, but it doubled the price, and that wasn't worth it to me.... I believe it's a 1% - 4% improvement? (I'd rather tighten up the latency manually after building for that money)

As stated before, I expect to replace the GPU after a year or 3, so throwing in more money just to get a 10% performance boost didn't seem to be worth it to me...
 

Loatty

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You make a good point; I've picked the 3800X only because for the extra € 50 I'll be paying, I'm hoping this higher binned processor might serve me better when it comes to overclocking..
 
You make a good point; I've picked the 3800X only because for the extra € 50 I'll be paying, I'm hoping this higher binned processor might serve me better when it comes to overclocking..
There's little to no gains from overclocking 3rd gen Ryzen no matter the cpu.
That money would be better spent on faster ram, 3600MHz+.

Otherwise it looks like a really solid build.
 

Loatty

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Alright, I think it's obvious that I might wish to take another look at the exact combo of CPU and RAM, which I'll do (assuming the prices don't get too crazy, doubling the RAM price just to jump to 3600MHz seems woefully excessive to me still).

Thank you, everyone that chimed in!
 

Loatty

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Sep 22, 2015
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Hello all,

After much deliberation... I've decided to stick with the 3800X, mostly because of budgetary constraints.

The extra ~€ 50 spend on it represents more or less a little bit of money left in the budget, so that's why I'm getting the 3800X instead of the 3700X... Nothing else I bumped for € 50 really did it for me, so yeah....
Purely emotional reasoning on my part.


Again, thank you all!
 

Loatty

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What's wrong with G.Skill?

I know they're not one of the 'Big Guys' but I can't recall them ever being seen as bad?
 

Eximo

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Both of my Haswell machines have been running on G.Skill Sniper memory for years. Not like any of the companies you just named actually make the memory. Hynix, Samsung, Micron, etc actually make the chips.

Pretty sure G.Skill made its name by undercutting everyone. They are often some of the cheaper memory out there, but that isn't saying much since the field is measured in under $20 at 16GB.

Though lately I tend toward Corsair LPX, I just like the way it looks and it gets the job done. Also one of the cheaper ones.

Unless you are into overclocking memory, or are hunting Samsung B dies, it isn't strictly important. Ryzen solved most of their compatibility issues regardless.
 

Endre

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What's wrong with G.Skill?

I know they're not one of the 'Big Guys' but I can't recall them ever being seen as bad?

Because G. Skill “is not one of the big guys”, for them to be able to compete against respected brands they had to sell high frequency modules at low prices.
The problem with that is the fact that they are not very stable!
They weren’t verified enough!

I heard MANY people saying that they weren’t able to run their memory at their advertized XMP profile speed anymore after a couple of years since buying them.
 

Eximo

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Because G. Skill “is not one of the big guys”, for them to be able to compete against respected brands they had to sell high frequency modules at low prices.
The problem with that is the fact that they are not very stable!
They weren’t verified enough!

I heard MANY people saying that they weren’t able to run their memory at their advertized XMP profile speed anymore after a couple of years since buying them.

Perhaps they bought the fastest cheapest memory? DDR3-2400, or DDR4-3200+. I can see that being a problem. If you are aiming for the top, pay for the good stuff.
 
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