[SOLVED] Building my first rig - does everything look good? Couple of questions.

[RainGivingPain]

Hello, I'm about to get my first made-from-parts rig and below I've listed the parts I've picked out using PCpartpicker (couldn't figure out how to get images of the parts).

Quick info

• I live in Sweden, so the prices down below are irrelevant.
• I picked out the parts using recommendations from people and doing my own research based on what I want.
• Speaking of what I want:
  • Ultra settings gaming
  • Online/Competitive gaming
  • My monitor of choice is down below: 3Kx1440
  • Something that'll last me for the next 5+ years (hopefully)
• I'm pretty confident in and set on the:
  • CPU & CPU Cooler
  • Power Supply
  • RAM
  • The Monitor
  • The Case (As long as it does the job.)
• Uncertain about:
  • Motherboard (I just want something that can handle all the other components. I think it's enough, right?)
  • Storage (I can't choose between the two. I don't plan on video editing, just want general programs to boot up fast, but is the difference drastic? I'm leaning towards Kingston, save $200.)
  • GPU (Is there any point to buying OC'd GPUs anymore? It's supposed to be real easy today with certain software, right?)
• Other questions:
  • Are the rig and the monitor a good match?
  • Any tips just in general?
• /Thanks.

Rig:

CPU: iAMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($783.00 @ Shopping Express)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($124.00 @ Shopping Express)
Motherboard: MSI X570-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard ($243.67 @ Amazon Australia)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Elite 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($248.60 @ Newegg Australia)
Storage: Gigabyte AORUS NVMe Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($394.00 @ Skycomp Technology)
Storage: Kingston A2000 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($181.00 @ I-Tech)
Video Card: Asus GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB ROG Strix Gaming OC Video Card ($1977.08 @ JW Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify S2 ATX Mid Tower Case ($239.00 @ BudgetPC)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($174.00 @ Shopping Express)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($130.00 @ Amazon Australia)
Monitor: LG 34GK950F-B 34.0" 3440x1440 144 Hz Monitor ($1649.00 @ Centre Com)
Total: $6143.35

 

[Phaaze88]

1)You can ditch the Gigabyte M.2. You won't see any real use for it in a gaming oriented build.

2)Msi dropped the ball on pretty much all their lower end motherboards; the VRMs run rather hot. I'd suggest this motherboard instead: Asus PRIME X570-P ATX AM4 Motherboard

3)You're really paying extra for the ROG branding and the gpu cooler. Since Nvidia's 10-series gpus, these cards have all been capable of boosting/overclocking themselves, assuming reasonable headroom from power and temperature limits - with exception to the memory clock; that's the only thing the Gpu Boost algorithm doesn't touch, thus the only thing you really need to play around with.
Because of Gpu Boost, you should ignore the advertised Boost Clocks for these cards; they will easily go higher than that on their own.

That's my 2cents.

 

[EndEffeKt_24]

This rig will perform like a beast. I see some points where I think you overshoot a bit for a pure gaming rig.

1. Are you sure you need 12 cores? At the moment there is little to gain over lets say a 3700x if its just in gaming. Yes the 3900x clocks a little higher but for me the 300 dollar extra would just be worth it if you do rendering and other productivity with the system.
2. I would not get that gen4 m.2 There will be no perceptible benefits if you just want to boot fast.

 

[Yacobino]

The parts you chose will definetly fit the criteria for what you're looking for.

as for storage (my opinion) is to get one SSD to run your operating system and a few other apps of your choice, and then a larger HDD for everything else. for example; I have 750GB of SSD storage, and 14TB of HDD (3, 2TB and 1, 8TB) There's nothing wrong with HDDs as long as its 7200RMP

With the GPU being OC'd from factory, it is made to run as reliably, cool, and as efficient as possible, as opposed to doing it yourself (unless you know what youre doing)

The monitor will also be great for the parts you chose as the 2080ti can run basically all games in UHD

a 12 core processor seems pretty overkill especially if you're only gonna use it for gaming, but depending on what you're using it for, the overclocking possibilities are pretty insane, especially when paired with a NH-D15.

one thing I would recommend is take everything into pcpartpicker and do a quick check if everything is compatible

 

[RainGivingPain]

1)You can ditch the Gigabyte M.2. You won't see any real use for it in a gaming oriented build.

2)Msi dropped the ball on pretty much all their lower end motherboards; the VRMs run rather hot. I'd suggest this motherboard instead: Asus PRIME X570-P ATX AM4 Motherboard

3)You're really paying extra for the ROG branding and the gpu cooler. Since Nvidia's 10-series gpus, these cards have all been capable of boosting/overclocking themselves, assuming reasonable headroom from power and temperature limits - with exception to the memory clock; that's the only thing the Gpu Boost algorithm doesn't touch, thus the only thing you really need to play around with.
Because of Gpu Boost, you should ignore the advertised Boost Clocks for these cards; they will easily go higher than that on their own.

That's my 2cents.

Changed motherboards, thanks for the help, man.

Interested in your third point there though.

Never heard of this automatic overclocking. How does it know when to boost. Does it read my specs and then decide how high of a clock speed it can settle itself at?

Could I boost it using Precision X1? (In this case I would need an EVGA card?) Or is it more complicated?

Should I boost the memory clock (for increased gaming performance)? Or is it fine enough just leaving all of this alone?

In which case, what would you recommend?

 

[Phaaze88]

Changed motherboards, thanks for the help, man.

Interested in your third point there though.

Never heard of this automatic overclocking. How does it know when to boost. Does it read my specs and then decide how high of a clock speed it can settle itself at?

Could I boost it using Precision X1? (In this case I would need an EVGA card?) Or is it more complicated?

Should I boost the memory clock (for increased gaming performance)? Or is it fine enough just leaving all of this alone?

In which case, what would you recommend?

-It'll boost as high as it can, as long as it's own power and thermal limits allow(within the vbios) - these things almost always hit their power limits first, so it's really down to your case cooling; generally lands between 1900-2100mhz.

-Precision X1 isn't brand specific, so use any brand you like, and you can tweak whatever you wish - you can't kill the card using Precision or Afterburner; the limits set in the vbios will prevent that. Using bad power supplies and hacking the vbios can kill it though.

-I've heard of people doing between +500 to +1000mhz memory clocks on 20-series cards, so that should give you an idea of how far you could push it if you want, whereas the core clocks are far more limited, between 100-200mhz, but Gpu Boost already handles this just fine.


Leave it be for now, and play around with the memory clock later on, or whenever you feel like it, just to see how the card fares... it's completely optional.

 

[RainGivingPain]

-It'll boost as high as it can, as long as it's own power and thermal limits allow(within the vbios) - these things almost always hit their power limits first, so it's really down to your case cooling; generally lands between 1900-2100mhz.

-Precision X1 isn't brand specific, so use any brand you like, and you can tweak whatever you wish - you can't kill the card using Precision or Afterburner; the limits set in the vbios will prevent that. Using bad power supplies and hacking the vbios can kill it though.

-I've heard of people doing between +500 to +1000mhz memory clocks on 20-series cards, so that should give you an idea of how far you could push it if you want, whereas the core clocks are far more limited, between 100-200mhz, but Gpu Boost already handles this just fine.


Leave it be for now, and play around with the memory clock later on, or whenever you feel like it, just to see how the card fares... it's completely optional.

I don't get 100%, but I understand. And this is activated out of the box, right? No manual activation needed?

As for the graphics card, honestly, I only picked ROG Strix because it sounded safe amidst all the other ones. Recognizable. If you can, I'd appreciate it if you recommended another, more appropriate, maybe even cheaper, one that would do me just as fine.

 

[RainGivingPain]

This rig will perform like a beast. I see some points where I think you overshoot a bit for a pure gaming rig.

1. Are you sure you need 12 cores? At the moment there is little to gain over lets say a 3700x if its just in gaming. Yes the 3900x clocks a little higher but for me the 300 dollar extra would just be worth it if you do rendering and other productivity with the system.
2. I would not get that gen4 m.2 There will be no perceptible benefits if you just want to boot fast.

Done'n'done. Dropped them both after some soul-searching. (In terms of intensive tasks, the only thing I can think of is gaming.) Thanks for your input.

as for storage (my opinion) is to get one SSD to run your operating system and a few other apps of your choice, and then a larger HDD for everything else. for example; I have 750GB of SSD storage, and 14TB of HDD (3, 2TB and 1, 8TB) There's nothing wrong with HDDs as long as its 7200RMP

I assume you're recommending this due to the data loss that might come with the SSD?

Would I put my games in my SSD storage or HDD storage? They're not apps, but they are programs.

 

[Phaaze88]

I don't get 100%, but I understand. And this is activated out of the box, right? No manual activation needed?

As for the graphics card, honestly, I only picked ROG Strix because it sounded safe amidst all the other ones. Recognizable. If you can, I'd appreciate it if you recommended another, more appropriate, maybe even cheaper, one that would do me just as fine.

Gpu Boost is automatic, yes.

EVGA has a pretty good rep with their graphics cards, and highly praised customer service.
Gigabyte makes some pretty solid cards too.
Those are the only 2 companies I've bought gpus from though, so I can't really give any personal remarks towards the other brands - just some word of mouth, for example...
"Asus makes some good premium cards, but their lower end models are lacking in one area or another. Customer service is also subpar." Again, that's just what I've heard.
I mean, I've owned a couple Asus motherboards and haven't had any issues with them.

Best thing I can tell you is to avoid brand loyalty. They all have their pros and cons, and one or more will launch a lemon from time to time.

 

[RainGivingPain]

Gpu Boost is automatic, yes.

Does it boost when the pc is idle/not running anything heavy, so it's basically always on? Or only during intense loads?

Also, would there be any point in getting a high-end motherboard for this build, performance-wise? Or would the one you recommended serve my build just fine?

 

[Phaaze88]

Does it boost when the pc is idle/not running anything heavy, so it's basically always on? Or only during intense loads?

Also, would there be any point in getting a high-end motherboard for this build, performance-wise? Or would the one you recommended serve my build just fine?

It's always on. You can influence it's behavior somewhat in Nvidia Control Panel > Manage 3D Settings > Power Management Mode.
-The default Optimal setting prioritizes power saving.
-Adaptive is probably the best setting: the card idles when it's not being used, and boosts when it is.
-Max Performance is just that, regardless of whether it's actually doing anything.


X570 is already high-end, IMO, so I'm not sure what you're asking here.
Motherboards are about features, so pick the one with the feature set you want... but people sometimes don't think about that when looking at motherboards, so when they see a gazillion different motherboard options, steam is soon to follow...
-ATX will cover most users
-M-ITX is smaller and cheaper, but a limited/barebones feature set
-E-ATX is a niche product. Only those with deep pockets should look here. It's got pretty much all the features in one.

 

[RainGivingPain]

It's always on. You can influence it's behavior somewhat in Nvidia Control Panel > Manage 3D Settings > Power Management Mode.
-The default Optimal setting prioritizes power saving.
-Adaptive is probably the best setting: the card idles when it's not being used, and boosts when it is.
-Max Performance is just that, regardless of whether it's actually doing anything.


X570 is already high-end, IMO, so I'm not sure what you're asking here.
Motherboards are about features, so pick the one with the feature set you want... but people sometimes don't think about that when looking at motherboards, so when they see a gazillion different motherboard options, steam is soon to follow...
-ATX will cover most users
-M-ITX is smaller and cheaper, but a limited/barebones feature set
-E-ATX is a niche product. Only those with deep pockets should look here. It's got pretty much all the features in one.

Ok, thanks very much for your help. Appreciate it.

Nvm about the motherboard, I'll go with the one you recommended.

 

[Phaaze88]

Glad I was able to help.