[SOLVED] About to do a re-build for first time in 7 years - recs please?

[claptrap22]

Greetings

I haven't been on the Tom's forums in a while. I built my first rig 8 years ago, a second one the following year, and one major GPU upgrade to the first one the year after that. I must have done well as things have mostly been running fine with both machines, with the exception of a failing hard drive.

But it's time for an upgrade. I am a gamer and my R9 295x2 is not having an increasingly harder time playing games on max settings at 1440p and with games like Cyperpunk coming it's time for a near total rebuild.

I taught myself to build my machines and I consider myself a tech guy generally but I'm not a hardcore follower of all things PC parts. When I did my builds and the year or two afterwards, I kept up with CPU releases, motherboard reviews, etc. But I'm afraid my info is far outdated. So I'm here hoping you folks would be kind of enough to get me back on the right track.

e.g. - what is the smart CPU purchase these days? When I did my build, my Intel i5-2500k was considered the smart purchase - great price to performance and overclock ration. That was, what, 3 generations ago?

Anyway, you get my point, I hope. I'm looking to get reacquainted with the hobby wisdom circulating these days so I can build another long-lasting rig. Which mobo's are the good ones? My Seasonic 1000 watt source is still in perfect working order. Any reason I should consider swapping it out anyway if, let's say, I'm looking at an RTX 2080 Super? And so on.

Thanks so much, folks. Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SteveRX4]

So. Got a budget in mind? And where are you - USA?

At the moment, Intel is the goto for gaming CPUs. However this might be undone with the soon-to-be-released Zen3 CPUs from AMD.

I gather you want to stick with 1440p. I'm now used to UWQHD - on a 34inch monitor.

The Seasonic will power a beast - if you can afford a beast.

 

[PrinceTexasLoaf]

Greetings

I haven't been on the Tom's forums in a while. I built my first rig 8 years ago, a second one the following year, and one major GPU upgrade to the first one the year after that. I must have done well as things have mostly been running fine with both machines, with the exception of a failing hard drive.

But it's time for an upgrade. I am a gamer and my R9 295x2 is not having an increasingly harder time playing games on max settings at 1440p and with games like Cyperpunk coming it's time for a near total rebuild.

I taught myself to build my machines and I consider myself a tech guy generally but I'm not a hardcore follower of all things PC parts. When I did my builds and the year or two afterwards, I kept up with CPU releases, motherboard reviews, etc. But I'm afraid my info is far outdated. So I'm here hoping you folks would be kind of enough to get me back on the right track.

e.g. - what is the smart CPU purchase these days? When I did my build, my Intel i5-2500k was considered the smart purchase - great price to performance and overclock ration. That was, what, 3 generations ago?

Anyway, you get my point, I hope. I'm looking to get reacquainted with the hobby wisdom circulating these days so I can build another long-lasting rig. Which mobo's are the good ones? My Seasonic 1000 watt source is still in perfect working order. Any reason I should consider swapping it out anyway if, let's say, I'm looking at an RTX 2080 Super? And so on.

Thanks so much, folks. Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Ryzen is VERY good now. I'd recommend chilling waiting for amd's new processors, so if you were planning on getting a 3070 or 2080ti etc you'd have a noice cpu alongside it. Here's an article about amd's soon to be released new processors. https://www.pcgamer.com/amd-ryzen-5000-zen-3-release-date-specs-performance

I'd also recommend waiting for amd's new gpus as well. but if you wanted a solid nvidia gpu that will hopefully be obtainable on it's release date of october 29th this year then I'd recommend the 3070 for $500 considering it has more performance than a 2080ti.

 

[claptrap22]

Tanks so much. Yes, I should have mentioned a budget. Maybe out of modesty...I'm not especially resources constrained, though I don't want to throw money at a build for the sake of saying I have the best everything. I'd like to keep the whole thing in the $1200 range if it can be managed. I have a great full size case and, again, the Seasonic should do nicely for power, so that's two components out of the way.

 

[PrinceTexasLoaf]

Tanks so much. Yes, I should have mentioned a budget. Maybe out of modesty...I'm not especially resources constrained, though I don't want to throw money at a build for the sake of saying I have the best everything. I'd like to keep the whole thing in the $1200 range if it can be managed. I have a great full size case and, again, the Seasonic should do nicely for power, so that's two components out of the way.

Have fun and go all out and get a 3080 and one of the best new ryzen processors once they're launched LOL. (maybe $200 or more for the processor to save money for the ram ssd etc ;p)
sounds awesome to me. The thing would still be a beast 8 years down the line :O

 

[SteveRX4]

What case? Do you want custom loop water cooling, AIO water cooling or air cooling?

So - just CPU, mobo, ram and GPU? And $1200.

I think you'd need something like -
CPU: Intel Core i5-10600K 4.1 GHz 6-Core Processor ($274.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK ATX LGA1200 Motherboard ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB GAMING X Video Card ($549.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1214.95

 

[claptrap22]

"CPU: Intel Core i5-10600K 4.1 GHz 6-Core Processor ($274.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK ATX LGA1200 Motherboard ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB GAMING X Video Card ($549.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1214.95 "

Great!! Thanks so much. This is the kind of info I was hoping for. Much appreciated. I'll take any other views as well.