Question Advice on this pre-built

[FenderTelecaster]

Hi folks

I've been eyeing this PC for some time and I'd like your opinion on whether it fits the price they're asking for. (link here: https://www.chillblast.com/chillblast-fusion-gtx-1080-ti-custom-gaming-pc.html?category_id=529)

I calculated the price of parts myself and it looks like buying the parts individually and building it myself would save me around £200. However I didn't factor postage & packaging, so it may be even less than that.

Also I'm not sure if the PSU would be enough to power the 1080 Ti. I have found out that the PSU that the PC comes with is considered a mid-range unit, which doesn't bode well for a "high-end" system.

What are your thoughts?

Cheers

 

[FenderTelecaster]

Couple of things on this, and yes, this would most likely work just fine.

One, the Thermalright Macho rev.B performs within about one degree of the Noctua NH-D15, while being almost ten bucks cheaper than the Dark rock 4 that you switched into that build.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermalright/Macho_RevB/6.html

Dark rock 3 and 4 have similar performance so you can see from the thermal results in that chart that at max load temps the Macho is the better cooler. Yeah, the all black BeQuiet coolers LOOK nice, and they do perform ok, but they don't perform AS WELL as peer coolers from the likes of Noctua, Thermalright, Phanteks and Scythe. The Macho rev. B from Thermalright (NOT to be confused with Thermaltake, which is a cheapskate company in my opinion), is still a great looking cooler, with a very high quality (One of the best in the industry) fan and heatsink and excellent performance.

That being said, either of these will work but if you plan on doing any overclocking I ALWAYS advise that when weighing two cooler choices you go with the one that has the better performance even if it's only a degree or two. That could be enough to keep you below the thermal ceiling on any overclocked configuration you settle on.

Two, again related to overclocking (But also for stock operations depending on the configuration of PBO and XFR2), and possibly to some of the offered features as well, the Prime X470-Pro has lower quality VRM and power phase components, using IR3553 instead of IR3555 for both VCore and SOC. So you have 6x60A=360A instead of 6x40A=240A for the VCore alone.

Also, the Pro has no debug LEDs, while the Taichi does. This is something that could be IMMENSELY helpful if you run into any problems, as debug LED codes are seriously easier to troubleshoot with than beep codes for the average user.

There are a few other things as well. I'd pay the extra few bucks for the Taichi OR go with the higher end ASUS Strix X470 F-gaming.

Don't skimp when it comes to spending a few extra bucks on a component. Often, that few extra bucks is WELL worth it in the long run, if there is a true reason for the extra price and not just "Well, it has RGB".

Great info there. I don't think I'll be doing any overclocking (not 100% sure though, but for now probably not) but if those fans perform near identically then I'll go with the Thermalright Macho rev. B. Same with the motherboard, I'll go with the X470 Taichi, although the ratings do seem to be lower for the Taichi than the Prime. Is that anything I should think about?

Also would it be more beneficial for me to get an 11GB card instead of the 8GB one I put in earlier? Since I'll be gaming in 1440p and 144Hz where possible it might be better for me to upgrade that. Not sure if the extra Vram is necessary or not

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ratings where? Amazon? Newegg? Pffffft.

ONLY look to professional reviews when considering ANY kind of hardware purchase, IF professional reviews are available for it. Reviews on merchant sites are not realistic, accurate or even can be taken seriously when people vote products down for things like dented boxes or a day late delivery. Or are too stupid to figure out how to connect something so they send it back and give it a crappy review.

The RTX 2070 is fine for 1440p, but obviously the 2080 and 2080TI outperform it, so if you intend to be able to game at ultra everything-ish at that resolution, and can afford a higher end card, it's likely worth it. But, equally obviously, it also costs more.

For myself, I think I'd be ok with the 2070 on a 1440p rig given the difference in price between it and the 2080, and especially the 2080 TI. If you can afford it though, the 2080 TI performance will be amazing.

 

[FenderTelecaster]

Alright so it looks like this could be the final build:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz 8-Core Processor (£259.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright - Macho Rev.B 73.6 CFM CPU Cooler (£43.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock - X470 Taichi ATX AM4 Motherboard (£183.07 @ More Computers)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£79.99 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 250 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£68.50 @ AWD-IT)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£109.97 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce RTX 2070 8 GB XC GAMING Video Card (£492.22 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design - Define R6 ATX Mid Tower Case (£104.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£85.47 @ Amazon UK)
Case Fan: Fractal Design - X2 GP-14 (Black) 68.4 CFM 140 mm Fan (£14.97 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1442.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-07 19:04 BST+0100

Is there anything else I should consider before buying any of these parts? Maybe better alternative parts and such? I was looking into going with an i7 9700K build instead but I'm not sure the costs are justified. Would the performance really be that much better with the 9700K? The 2700X is ~£100 cheaper.

Also I've been reading about some new AMD Ryzen CPUs that are coming out next month. Are they worth waiting for?

EDIT: What does this mean exactly?

• Note: The Thermalright - Macho Rev.B 73.6 CFM CPU Cooler may require a separately available mounting adapter to fit the ASRock - X470 Taichi ATX AM4 Motherboard.

 

[SgtScream]

You could get a white Define R6 and Vengeance LPX if you want to go for a black and white themed build to match the motherboard.

PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz 8-Core Processor (£259.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright - Macho Rev.B 73.6 CFM CPU Cooler (£43.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock - X470 Taichi ATX AM4 Motherboard (£183.07 @ More Computers)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£94.99 @ Corsair UK)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 250 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£68.50 @ AWD-IT)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£109.97 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce RTX 2070 8 GB XC GAMING Video Card (£492.22 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design - Define R6 ATX Mid Tower Case (£130.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£85.47 @ Amazon UK)
Case Fan: Fractal Design - X2 GP-14 (White) 68.4 CFM 140 mm Fan (£13.98 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1482.13
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-07 19:17 BST+0100

 

[FenderTelecaster]

That's a good shout. I hadn't noticed the white and blackout versions of the case (and RAM for that matter) are more expensive. But for aesthetics though I guess it's worth it.

 

[Darkbreeze]

According to Thermalright, PCPP is wrong.

A universal mounting kit is included with the HR-02 Macho Rev. B that supports all current Intel- and AMD sockets (Intel LGA775/1366/1156/1155/2011/1150/2011-3/1151 und AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1/FM2/FM2+). In addition, the cooler is equipped with mounting material for the new AMD AM4 Ryzen processors and can be mounted on the new Intel LGA 2066 processors.

 

[FenderTelecaster]

Sorry guys, got a couple more questions. For the "case fan", I assume I install that in addition to the other pre-installed fans? (I'm not replacing any, right?). And where about does it get installed? Also I'm thinking about overclocking so should I maybe get this CPU cooler instead?

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/8GBrxr/scythe-mugen-5-rev-b-512-cfm-cpu-cooler-scmg-5100

And I'm still not sure if going AMD is the best choice for me. I would prefer the performance of the 9700K but AMD has a bit better future proofing since I wouldn't need to buy a new motherboard. But whatever CPU I choose I would have to stick with it so I want to make it count, which makes me think going Intel is better. I need some people's opinions on this because I'm really not sure.

 

[SgtScream]

This is a great video by Tech Deals:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkrQP7Ynzlk&t=1s

He benchmarks all of those processors and talks about the i7 9700k and how it stacks up with other processors.

 

[FenderTelecaster]

So it sounds like I should wait until the zen 2 drops and see about performance. But as he said in the video there will be teething problems when they first launch so if I want to buy zen 2 I should wait a further 3 months or so until they're all fixed. But I don't think I can wait that long, some of my PC parts have already been ordered. I couldn't have picked a worse time to build a PC...

 

[SgtScream]

If that's the case and I were in your shoes, i'd go R7 2700x. Lets just say AMD wasn't in the picture and I wanted gaming longevity. The only hyperthreaded chips available to provide any kind of gaming longevity would be the i7 8700k and the i7 9900k. If that were the case I personally would fork over the money for the i9 9900k because games are optimizing for higher core counts and the i7 8700k is just a hyperthreaded i5. However if the Ryzen 7 2700x was in the picture (and it is obviously) i'd I would purchase the 2700x because it has the best multicore performance aside from the i9 9900k for considerably less (Especially now because third gen is about to come out so prices drop) to where I could put a lot of the money spent on the i9 9900k could go towards a higher end graphics card or other areas of the build, resulting a more well balanced gaming system.

 

[FenderTelecaster]

Alright, I'm gonna give it some thought. In terms of motherboards, since I'm building this PC from scratch, is buying an X570 worth it? I was going to go for the x470 Taichi, but I'm not sure if I should skip it and go straight for x570. I'm not too bothered about PCIe for now, I'm mainly concerned with performance/FPS.

 

[SgtScream]

If you're going to go with the 2700x, I would just stick to x470. I'd like to know for sure what the implications will be with this chipset fan. Who knows if the fan can adequately cool the chipset or not (you'd like to think so). For some reason that's a big red flag to me as this hasn't been common. As mentioned before there might be "teething problems" even with the motherboards and they might be loud. The 2700x / x470 motherboard is going to be a great combination and you'll be able to game on that platform for years.

 

[YT-CTECH]

Alright, I'm gonna give it some thought. In terms of motherboards, since I'm building this PC from scratch, is buying an X570 worth it? I was going to go for the x470 Taichi, but I'm not sure if I should skip it and go straight for x570. I'm not too bothered about PCIe for now, I'm mainly concerned with performance/FPS.

diclaimer, apparently they run realy hot!

 

[WildCard999]

I'd go B450 and hold of on the X570 for now as there saying the X570 boards are going to be quite expensive, even the low end ones will be pricey.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/msi-amd-x570-motherboard-pricing,39593.html

There should be one last generation or CPU's and motherboards before AMD goes onto a different socket from AM4, I would imagine by then that pricing should be a bit more reasonable for PCIE4 and they'll probably have the BXXX variants.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Exactly right. X570 is lame if they are going to start charging Z390 prices for them. If they are going to try and be Intel by gouging people for as much as they can get away with, then it's going to be a matter of simply don't buy those products.

Personally, I'm not recommending anybody wait for Zen2 or X570 if that's how AMD is going to play ball. It might be worth waiting to see what the actual prices are on the CPUs, but then again there probably won't BE any legitimate supply of those right off the bat anyhow, or if there is it's likely to either sell out or all get sent to manufacturers like Dell and HP in the beginning.

As far as the case fan goes, I like to see, generally speaking, two front intakes which that case comes with preinstalled, and one rear exhaust which is also preinstalled, and then one more exhaust fan in the top rear position so I'd recommend installing it in the top rear position as another exhaust. If you wanted to add another exhaust in the top as well you could but honestly those four fans are plenty and offer a nice balance that should keep things cool and quiet under all but the most demanding conditions.

 

[FenderTelecaster]

Call me crazy, but what about the i5 9600k (overclocked)? I know it's not the best future proof CPU, but the plan could be I buy the i5, then in a couple years or so buy the i9 9900k (which may have gone down in price by then... maybe?), and I'd also be able to use the same motherboard. And the price difference is huge -- the i5 costs ~£35 less than the R7 2700X. Would this work or am I being really stupid with this idea? I'm really only building this computer for gaming, and from the benchmarks that I've seen of the 9600k, it's a damn impressive CPU.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Honestly, I'd probably just go with the build you have above AND if later on you find you want more out of it, THEN upgrade to a Ryzen 2 CPU, because it will be supported on the motherboard you already have. Or, build with a Ryzen 2 CPU NOW, and use an existing X470 motherboard and just avoid the expense of the X570 boards. Pretty much all you'll miss out on is PCIe 4.0, and unless you plan to run a bunch of M.2 drives or buy a PCIe 4.0 graphics card whenever they come around, you're not missing that much really.

Supposedly the chipset has improvements on the infinity fabric and can run higher clocked memory as well, but truthfully we haven't really seen anything beyond DDR4 3200mhz make that much of a difference, at least not so far.

The i5-9600 seems like an underperformer by comparison.

 

[FenderTelecaster]

I dunno. A lot of the benchmarks show the i5 has superior or nearly on-par FPS/performance in comparison to the 2700X, particularly in older games such as Arma 3. And those are the games I want to play the most in all honesty. And the i5 is cheaper. But future-proofing is also something that is important as well... It's a tough call

 

[Darkbreeze]

You will tire of those older games that are primarily linear, with little or no good multithreaded support, and move on to newer games that DO have good multithreaded support. When that happens, these CPUs with more cores and with Hyperthreading (Not considering the current Intel simultaneous multithreaded fiasco) will be advantageous in those games.

But it's your call. Just realize that there is no place to go up from with any of the current Intel platforms EXCEPT for the 9700k (Or 9900k if you don't mind paying more for hyperthreads that Windows and BIOS updates are basically turning off anyhow due to the Spectre, Meltdown, Zombieload and Spoiler vulnerability patches and and BIOS updates) while you'll have not only a few other CPU choices with more cores and more hyperthreads, and few vulnerabilities, with AMD, but also potentially later when prices drop or lower priced Zen2 motherboards are released (Think B550 chipset, maybe?) you have board options for PCI 4.0, increased number of SATA headers and whatever other features are found on the newer boards. Just thoughts.

Whatever you go with, I'm sure it will be good. These are all good choices, really there are no bad ones among the ones being discussed. Only different flavors of good.

 

[FenderTelecaster]

Wow, I wasn't actually aware of that Spectre MDS stuff. And after reading a few articles on it, it sounds really bad. But damn the i5 performance is so good though and really cost effective. But I don't think it would make sense to jump ship from an i5 to zen2 after a couple years. So I may just have to pick a side and stick with it. But thanks for the help overall. Your PC build suggestions and input has been invaluable.

 

[Darkbreeze]

The i5's and the no hyperthreading i7's, like the 9700k, don't have that issue, because they don't have hyperthreading. So if you do go with Intel it might be wise to simply choose one without it, like you were thinking about.

If you ONLY game, then that i5 should be perfectly fine. IF however, you like to record, stream, encode or run other kinds of multitasking processes alongside your game engine like browser, while playing music, watching video, I dunno, whatever, you will want to think about one of these other options like Ryzen or an i7, for the additional cores. Heavy multitasking like that doesn't do well when you are gaming at the same time, with only six cores. It works, but not well.