[SOLVED] Building a TUF themed PC

[heavymetal2000]

I’m curious as to what folks here feel/think about the TUF series of parts released via Asus and other pc parts manufacturers?

I really love the look of black and yellow together and I’m really digging the InWin TUF case.

My biggest concerns are that the current PSU options don’t include the go to guys I use (Evga, and seasonic) and I’m not sure if the available ones would be considered “quality options”.

Anyone using any of the TUF stuff and have an opinion?

I have the GAMMAXX GT TUF tower cooler in my current ryzen build and it’s quiet, keeps my CPU cool ( cooler then my hyper 212) and looks pretty good to me visually through the tempered glass side panel.
For 40$ I don’t think you can really go wrong with it for good budget air with RGB to boot.

 

[Eximo]

Basically another ASUS brand a step down from ROG, haven't really heard anything particularly bad. Honestly, I think they did it because people stopped buying their ROG stuff since it was no longer the popular style (And they had started to let the competition outdo them). I have some older ROG motherboards and a ROG monitor, and looking at what they sell now, probably wouldn't make that choice again.

Because of the 200mm limit? Or are you trying to match color? Only black and yellow power supply I can think of off hand would be an older Corsair TX or HX model. Both very good units. You can always paint stuff.

I suppose that depends entirely on what CPU you plan to cool. But, should be sufficient for most chips at stock or even a little more.

 

[heavymetal2000]

Yeh the TUF stuff seems to be priced fairly imo, so if you dig the design it doesn’t really hurt to spend on most of it as it’s all relatively similar prices to the original design that doesn’t have the TUF theme.

As for the PSU issue, it’s mostly just based on particular brand reliability for me. I’ve only ever used SeaSonic, Antec, and EVGA PSU’s because I’ve yet to have one fail and they build quality stuff I enjoy. So I don’t plan on venturing outside of those models.
Luckily the TUF InWin case has a PSU shroud so I can just PSU I trust and put it in with no worries of clashing with the theme.

I’m cooling a ryzen 2600 with the gammax gt tuf air cooler and it’s been great like I said. But that’s the only thing from the tuf line I’ve tried.

I think I may give this a go though, black and gold is just plain sweet to look at I find and the “digital camo” look isn’t for everyone but I like it.

 

[Eximo]

Corsair makes some good stuff. Silverstone. And then there is all the people that use Seasonic as an ODM/OEM. Just not sure why you say current options don't include your usual choices. Sounds like you are set on them.

If you have a question about a particular power supply, pretty easy to look up some reviews for them. Though there aren't very many hardcore power supply reviewers out there. Tom's Hardware Germany occasionally does reviews. Jonnyguru still occasionally pokes his head in the forum, and he has been of late training Gamer's Nexus, so hopefully they will get big on power supply reviews. Jonnyguru forum is still pretty active and those guys tend to figure who makes what pretty quickly when something new pops up.

Then I take you plan to re-use the 2600? Then you already know how it performs.

I also like black and yellow, just never seemed to be in-style when I was building. ASUS had their brief black/gold themed parts, but I think they realized quite quickly they lost the pulse of market with that one. Pretty sure their Prime series has been the big seller the last few years. I know I jumped on the black/white theme, but didn't use the Prime...

Is it MSI Lightning that is still black and yellow for GPUs? Not sure I've seen an ASUS TUF GPU yet. Not really been in the market, usually just do cost efficiency builds for people.

 

[heavymetal2000]

What I was referring to regarding the PSU is that the TUF themed PSU options don’t include Evga, or SeaSonic. That’s all.
I read some reviews on Johnny Guru regarding the SilverStone options and they’re apparently a solid option so there’s that but I’m 100% positive I’ll be keeping my Focus plus platinum for the TUF build as it’ll be my main gamer and I’ll put a CX or Evga in my other one when I sell it.

I actually like the black and white them too, and prior to this TUF build the plans for my current desktop were to go white/purple. But there’s a major lack of purple parts and there were exactly 0 white motherboards for AM4 when I was ready to start ordering parts. I ended up going all black with a touch of red with a tinted side panel meshify C mini and rgb lighting.

I’ll be leaving the 2600 in my old desktop when I sell it to my buddy, and I’ll just buy another one. When I built the current one I’m using the 2600s were 219$, they’re currently sitting at 164$ and it’s been flawless for a budget gaming cpu. Mild overclock can be applied if I feel the need.

Main reason I’m looking to build again so early is the 5700 XT GPU’s that are available now. Should be a solid step up from my current nitro+ Rx580.

The funding from selling my current pc will leave me with about 350$ out of my pocket to complete the new one which will have a performance upgrade as well as the tuf theme I want.

Currently I’ve narrowed it down to

Inwin 101 tuf gaming case 104$ @ Canada computers

Asus tuf b450 mobo 149$ @ Amazon

Ryzen 2600 cpu 164$ @ Amazon

XPG tuf gaming ddr4 3200 2x8gb 109$ @ Amazon

GAMMAXX gt Tuf cpu cooler 0$
(Putting my hyper 212 back in old one and keeping my gammax for the new one)

Corsair cx550 84.99$ @ Newegg to put in old one and keep my seasonic for new one.

I have an SSD already set aside so 0$ for storage

The lightning models were black and yellow but I think they died? Or you don’t see them much anymore. Last AMD lightning I saw was a Radeon 7xxx series.

Asus released the 5700XT Tuf Gaming GPU a little while back and there sitting around 570$ Fits my build perfectly and is cheaper then quite a few of the other aftermarket cooled models.

 

[Eximo]

Ah Canada, for a second there I was like $164 for a 2600?

Not sure if 3rd gen tempts you at all. Quite a per-core efficiency boost for 30% more. And you even have a CPU you can use for BIOS flashing.

I'm keeping my eye out, but if AMD keeps it up I might switch. Though I do enjoy a little overclocking and there isn't much to do for AMD. Lately I have been eyeballing the i7-9700k and the BIOS hacks that will let it run in a Z270 board. Kind of tempted to give that a go just to see if I can make it happen.

 

[heavymetal2000]

Yeh, Canada. I always forget to mention that for some reason.
Pricing on PC stuff over here is a little ridiculous IMO.
I’m curious actually, is ordering from the US a pain? Is it even worth it after duty and whatever other charges might apply?

I’ve seen some retailers that offer free international shipping but I wonder what other import fees etc might be applied by the time I get it?

If I wasn’t on a fairly tight budget I’d go 3rd gen, but as of right now there’s no way to squeeze a 3600 in with a compatible board I can overclock with, without spending another 100$+ minimum. And I don’t want to sacrifice the gpu to upgrade the CPU really.

I’ve always been with the red team myself, this’ll be the fourth build I have since my first gaming computer with an athlon x3 in it.
The FX model years were a bit tough but I stuck it out on my 965BE until Ryzen came down in price then moved to that model.

I could in theory just upgrade to 3rd gen down the road a little and sell my 2600 when I have some spare cash again.

I actually watched a video on that, I think it was LinusTech Tips on there YouTube channel, regarding the 9700k in the Z270 boards and iirc It did function. Beyond that though I’m clueless on the topic.

 

[Eximo]

B450, X470 motherboard will do for 3rd gen. You already have a second gen CPU to flash it with. Plenty of boards out there with CPU-less flash capabilities as well. Basically a non-issue. But yeah, a little more expensive. Only really missing out on PCIe 4, which really isn't a thing yet.

I believe the taxes and import fees will get you roughly to the price that is offered locally. Kind of the point.

Oh the only things they couldn't get to work were c-states (which I don't use), and there were some issues with hyperthreading, which the 9700k doesn't have. (Though I think the community managed to fix that later on). I was pissed when my z87 board wouldn't support 5th gen, not that that was that interesting, so I thought, I'll be smart, wait for the second LGA1151 chipset, and what do they do, same socket not compatible...

 

[heavymetal2000]

Yeh trouble is atm which one. I’ve been enjoying the idea of a tuf themed build but there aren’t many options.
Atm the B450 tuf pro gaming seems to be my only choice if I want an overclocked cpu or an X series. The X470 and B450 plus models seem to be skimpy on the VRM front apparently.
In theory I could opt for the 3600x since I want BL3 anyways so that’ll counter the price by about 50$ which is essentially the price of a plain 3600 atm.

The gpu on the other hand is where I come to a screeching halt. So far the few reviews I’ve read say the TUF 5700xt is polluted with heat and clock issues causing throttling and jet engine like fan speeds.
I considered the ROG strix model buts it’s another 80$ Before taxes I don’t have in the budget.

The way intel releases new chips and sockets always confused me. I’ve definitely not spent enough time researching them to properly understand but it just always seemed like “new chip, new Mobo” to me.

I’ve really enjoyed that a lot of AMDs chips lately have been cross compatible, eliminating Mobo changes in a lot of cases.