[SOLVED] Build Review: Gaming PC around 1500?

[isabasu]

Hey there

So I've put together this build: https://www.digitec.ch/en/ShopList/Show?shopListId=F36FFCB46776539475C2484363BBDB1F
And I'd like to have it more around 1500.-

Is there something I could optimize without loosing too much performance?

Thanks for your opinion and kind regards,

 

[cdrkf]

Hey there

So I've put together this build: https://www.digitec.ch/en/ShopList/Show?shopListId=F36FFCB46776539475C2484363BBDB1F
And I'd like to have it more around 1500.-

Is there something I could optimize without loosing too much performance?

Thanks for your opinion and kind regards,

If you want to bring price down without changing performance I can suggest the following:
Drop CPU to R7 3700X (essentially same performance as 3800X, very little difference between the two) or Drop even further to a R5 3600 / 3600X - in gaming you won't notice much difference if any between R5 and R7. The R7's are much better if you want to do productivity stuff that uses the cores or stream, and they will probably be a better investment long term but not needed right now for gaming.

The motherboard - You can drop to the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max mobo without loosing performance (the 'Max' models of B450 motherboards support Ryzen 3000 out the box so no issues there). That is one of the best boards about for Ryzen as it has a strong VRM. The only significant thing you loose going down to that from the X570 board you have chosen is PCie 4.0 support, although honestly that won't make any performance difference to those components as your NVME drive and graphics board are PCIe 3 parts anyway.

Graphics card wise, the 2070 Super is a good option, you could also look at the RX 5700 XT in that price range, the XT is usually a little cheaper (although not quite as fast it works out better fps / $ than the 2070 Super, but the difference isn't massive).

 

[isabasu]

If you want to bring price down without changing performance I can suggest the following:
Drop CPU to R7 3700X (essentially same performance as 3800X, very little difference between the two) or Drop even further to a R5 3600 / 3600X - in gaming you won't notice much difference if any between R5 and R7. The R7's are much better if you want to do productivity stuff that uses the cores or stream, and they will probably be a better investment long term but not needed right now for gaming.

The motherboard - You can drop to the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max mobo without loosing performance (the 'Max' models of B450 motherboards support Ryzen 3000 out the box so no issues there). That is one of the best boards about for Ryzen as it has a strong VRM. The only significant thing you loose going down to that from the X570 board you have chosen is PCie 4.0 support, although honestly that won't make any performance difference to those components as your NVME drive and graphics board are PCIe 3 parts anyway.

Graphics card wise, the 2070 Super is a good option, you could also look at the RX 5700 XT in that price range, the XT is usually a little cheaper (although not quite as fast it works out better fps / $ than the 2070 Super, but the difference isn't massive).

That is an amazing reply. Thank you so much for your help! I highly appreciate it.

For all those who might be interested, this is my final list:
https://www.digitec.ch/en/ShopList/Show?shopListId=F36FFCB46776539475C2484363BBDB1F

 

[Rywm]

If you want to bring price down without changing performance I can suggest the following:
Drop CPU to R7 3700X (essentially same performance as 3800X, very little difference between the two) or Drop even further to a R5 3600 / 3600X - in gaming you won't notice much difference if any between R5 and R7. The R7's are much better if you want to do productivity stuff that uses the cores or stream, and they will probably be a better investment long term but not needed right now for gaming.

The motherboard - You can drop to the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max mobo without loosing performance (the 'Max' models of B450 motherboards support Ryzen 3000 out the box so no issues there). That is one of the best boards about for Ryzen as it has a strong VRM. The only significant thing you loose going down to that from the X570 board you have chosen is PCie 4.0 support, although honestly that won't make any performance difference to those components as your NVME drive and graphics board are PCIe 3 parts anyway.

Graphics card wise, the 2070 Super is a good option, you could also look at the RX 5700 XT in that price range, the XT is usually a little cheaper (although not quite as fast it works out better fps / $ than the 2070 Super, but the difference isn't massive).

so I'm doing a build too, and I want to stream. is it ok if I go with a r5 3600x so I have enough money to get an rtx 2070 super?

 

[cdrkf]

so I'm doing a build too, and I want to stream. is it ok if I go with a r5 3600x so I have enough money to get an rtx 2070 super?

It depends on what software / streaming settings you are using. If you intend to use nVenc on the gpu then you will be fine with the 3600X... if you want to use cpu based streaming you would have to limit the quality settings quite a bit to maintain frame rates on a 3600X as many games need 6 cores for optimal performance. For CPU based encoding you are probably better off with the 3700X as it will give you more cpu resources to handle both the game and the stream output - in which case you will probably get better overall performance with a 3700X and 2060 Super....

TL, DR: If using the GPU to encode the stream, 3600X + 2070 Super is a good option,
if CPU encoding the stream you would be better with the 3700X + 2060 Super

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

so I'm doing a build too, and I want to stream. is it ok if I go with a r5 3600x so I have enough money to get an rtx 2070 super?

If you want to ask a question regarding streaming and hardware, please make your own thread in the appropriate sub thread category and ask.
Thank you

 

[Hellfire13]

Hey there

So I've put together this build: https://www.digitec.ch/en/ShopList/Show?shopListId=F36FFCB46776539475C2484363BBDB1F
And I'd like to have it more around 1500.-

Is there something I could optimize without loosing too much performance?

Thanks for your opinion and kind regards,

Optimized...

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor | €297.99 @ Mindfactory
Motherboard | MSI B450 Gaming Plus MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard | €100.79 @ Mindfactory
Memory | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory | €98.80 @ Alza
Storage | Kingston A2000 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | €131.80 @ Alza
Video Card | ASRock Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB Phantom Gaming D OC Video Card | €375.90 @ Alza
Case | Phanteks P300 ATX Mid Tower Case | €66.98 @ ARLT
Power Supply | SeaSonic FOCUS 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply | €95.99 @ ARLT
Monitor | AOC CQ32G1 31.5" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor | €375.99 @ Alternate
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | €1544.24
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-03 12:05 CEST+0200 |

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

I'll throw my hat into the ring with this one as well.
To "optimize" as hellfire put it, I've opted for some different choices.
I went for lower latency RAM, and opted for a better case setup to support better airflow for the system.
Due to some of the changes that needed to be made, I went with a Ryzen 5 3600X.

I specifically chose the 3600X and not the 3600 because it comes with a Wraith Spire cooler whereas the regular 3600 comes with the Wraith Stealth.
So I opted for the slightly higher performing out of the box version with better cooling.

I lastly opted for a not as fancy motherboard, but that will perform just the same as it's slightly more expensive and fancier looking brethren.

And I also kept in mind that you wanted to be closer to the underside of 1500 instead of being higher than that in price, so that heavily influenced my decisions for the choice of components.

However, from here on out with either my build or Hellfire's build, you can go in and start customizing yourself deciding if you want to spend more money for something or not.

An additional note is that when buying parts for a custom built system, please.... for the love of all that is holy, make sure you are buying a PC case that first and foremost functions properly AND that it either comes with all the fans you need, or that you plan for buying additional fans to put into the case.

As it stands, either the Meshify C case you chose, or the Focus G case I chose only comes with two fans.
But either of those cases are fantastic for airflow.

The P300 case has simply "ok" airflow but it's not that great so expect the insides to get pretty warm, especially with an AMD graphics card. Not to mention that it only comes with a single fan, so you would DEFINITELY need to buy more fans to put into that case.

The Focus G is basically the budget version of the Meshify C series.
Very similar design and internal build with mesh front.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor (€205.99 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard (€103.89 @ Alternate)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory (€133.79 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€117.52 @ Mindfactory)
Video Card: ASRock Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB Phantom Gaming D OC Video Card (€375.90 @ Alza)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case (€56.98 @ Alternate)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€95.99 @ ARLT)
Case Fan: Fractal Design FD-FAN-SSR3-120-WT 46.5 CFM 120 mm Fan (€7.79 @ Aquatuning)
Case Fan: Fractal Design FD-FAN-SSR3-120-WT 46.5 CFM 120 mm Fan (€7.79 @ Aquatuning)
Case Fan: Fractal Design FD-FAN-SSR3-120-WT 46.5 CFM 120 mm Fan (€7.79 @ Aquatuning)
Monitor: AOC CQ32G1 31.5" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor (€375.99 @ Alternate)
Custom: Netspower 4 Pin PWM Fan Splitter Package (€7.99)
Total: €1497.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-03 13:32 CEST+0200

 

[Hellfire13]

I'll throw my hat into the ring with this one as well.
To "optimize" as hellfire put it, I've opted for some different choices.
I went for lower latency RAM, and opted for a better case setup to support better airflow for the system.
Due to some of the changes that needed to be made, I went with a Ryzen 5 3600X.

I specifically chose the 3600X and not the 3600 because it comes with a Wraith Spire cooler whereas the regular 3600 comes with the Wraith Stealth.
So I opted for the slightly higher performing out of the box version with better cooling.

I lastly opted for a not as fancy motherboard, but that will perform just the same as it's slightly more expensive and fancier looking brethren.

And I also kept in mind that you wanted to be closer to the underside of 1500 instead of being higher than that in price, so that heavily influenced my decisions for the choice of components.

However, from here on out with either my build or Hellfire's build, you can go in and start customizing yourself deciding if you want to spend more money for something or not.

An additional note is that when buying parts for a custom built system, please.... for the love of all that is holy, make sure you are buying a PC case that first and foremost functions properly AND that it either comes with all the fans you need, or that you plan for buying additional fans to put into the case.

As it stands, either the Meshify C case you chose, or the Focus G case I chose only comes with two fans.
But either of those cases are fantastic for airflow.

The P300 case has simply "ok" airflow but it's not that great so expect the insides to get pretty warm, especially with an AMD graphics card. Not to mention that it only comes with a single fan, so you would DEFINITELY need to buy more fans to put into that case.

The Focus G is basically the budget version of the Meshify C series.
Very similar design and internal build with mesh front.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor (€205.99 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard (€103.89 @ Alternate)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory (€133.79 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€117.52 @ Mindfactory)
Video Card: ASRock Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB Phantom Gaming D OC Video Card (€375.90 @ Alza)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case (€56.98 @ Alternate)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€95.99 @ ARLT)
Case Fan: Fractal Design FD-FAN-SSR3-120-WT 46.5 CFM 120 mm Fan (€7.79 @ Aquatuning)
Case Fan: Fractal Design FD-FAN-SSR3-120-WT 46.5 CFM 120 mm Fan (€7.79 @ Aquatuning)
Case Fan: Fractal Design FD-FAN-SSR3-120-WT 46.5 CFM 120 mm Fan (€7.79 @ Aquatuning)
Monitor: AOC CQ32G1 31.5" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor (€375.99 @ Alternate)
Custom: Netspower 4 Pin PWM Fan Splitter Package (€7.99)
Total: €1497.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-03 13:32 CEST+0200

Very well said, except for a couple of things.
If and when CPU encoding, the 3600x might fall short on resource.
The P300 is actually pretty good on thermals as I have seen first hand in temps in that case.

 

[Rywm]

It depends on what software / streaming settings you are using. If you intend to use nVenc on the gpu then you will be fine with the 3600X... if you want to use cpu based streaming you would have to limit the quality settings quite a bit to maintain frame rates on a 3600X as many games need 6 cores for optimal performance. For CPU based encoding you are probably better off with the 3700X as it will give you more cpu resources to handle both the game and the stream output - in which case you will probably get better overall performance with a 3700X and 2060 Super....

TL, DR: If using the GPU to encode the stream, 3600X + 2070 Super is a good option,
if CPU encoding the stream you would be better with the 3700X + 2060 Super

I think ill go with gpu encoding cus it will help me for gaming more than cpu will

 

[Rywm]

If you want to ask a question regarding streaming and hardware, please make your own thread in the appropriate sub thread category and ask.
Thank you

Sorry bro

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

Very well said, except for a couple of things.
If and when CPU encoding, the 3600x might fall short on resource.
The P300 is actually pretty good on thermals as I have seen first hand in temps in that case.

Pretty sure my post was in response to the original poster, not the second person who asked about streaming