[SOLVED] First time builder looking for input

ProlificJay

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Jun 22, 2021
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Hello. I'm looking to build my first gaming PC and am just looking for input/suggestions when it comes to the components.

I don't necessarily have a budget for this. I am planning on acquiring parts over time while I wait for the RTX 3000 series cards to become available without the outrageous prices. I have a very basic understanding of components but not nearly enough to feel confident in my choices. I will post a link to PC Part Picker below and would appreciate if somebody could evaluate my choices and maybe offer some suggestions if you have any and answer a few questions for me.

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/7R2v9N

I have not chosen a GPU in that list as I am waiting for price drops/availability but I plan on either a 3080 or 3090.

I guess what I'd like to know is how this build looks? Does there appear to be any compatibility issues with anything I have selected? Will the 3080 or 3090 work with that motherboard? Do I need to add more fans to the case or will the stock fans be enough? I checked the maximum video card length on the case and it appears big enough for the 3090 if thats what I get, but is it big enough for the liquid cooling unit? Should I even go with liquid cooling for this build?

Like I said, I am pretty clueless for the most part. I have been watching video tutorials on building and I think I have a pretty decent grasp on how to put it all together but don't want to start ordering parts without some input from somebody more knowledgable than me. Is there anything I am missing from this list? (aside from the obvious GPU lol) I'm looking for a build that can achieve 1440p gaming at high frame rates and graphics quality as well as music/video editing. Just kind of looking for reassurance that I'm on the right track. I realize 32gb of RAM may be overkill but I plan on doing some video editing/music production and its more of a "rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it situation."

Thanks in advance for anybody who takes the time to read this and offer input.
 
Solution
Looks good. Should work fine. Heres an AMD version for better performance...

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 3.7 GHz 12-Core Processor | $704.25 @ shopRBC
CPU Cooler | CRYORIG R1 Ultimate 76 CFM CPU Cooler | $143.43 @ Amazon Canada
Motherboard | MSI MAG X570 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard | $299.50 @ Vuugo
Memory | Crucial Ballistix 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory | $231.50 @ Vuugo
Storage | Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $399.50 @ Vuugo
Case | Corsair 275R Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case | $99.99 @ Corsair
Power Supply | SeaSonic FOCUS 850 W...

ProlificJay

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Jun 22, 2021
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What CPU do you want to use, Intel or AMD?
I'm not opposed to either but I did select the i9-10900K in my PC part picker list. I believe it is compatible with the motherboard I selected but I'm not 100% sure which is why I'm here lol. Just want to make sure everything looks good with that build before I start ordering the parts over time as I don't have very much knowledge on compatibility.
 
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Looks good. Should work fine. Heres an AMD version for better performance...

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 3.7 GHz 12-Core Processor | $704.25 @ shopRBC
CPU Cooler | CRYORIG R1 Ultimate 76 CFM CPU Cooler | $143.43 @ Amazon Canada
Motherboard | MSI MAG X570 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard | $299.50 @ Vuugo
Memory | Crucial Ballistix 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory | $231.50 @ Vuugo
Storage | Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $399.50 @ Vuugo
Case | Corsair 275R Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case | $99.99 @ Corsair
Power Supply | SeaSonic FOCUS 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply | $144.99 @ PC-Canada
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $2023.16
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-06-22 03:02 EDT-0400 |
 
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Solution
I'm not opposed to either but I did select the i9-10900K in my PC part picker list. I believe it is compatible with the motherboard I selected but I'm not 100% sure which is why I'm here lol. Just want to make sure everything looks good with that build before I start ordering the parts over time as I don't have very much knowledge on compatibility.
Here's another option. The Intel 11 gen cpu's support avx along with PCIe 4.

This will allow you to run that cpu with the power limits turned off in the bios. It's a round a bout way of OC these cpu's (it keeps the cpu in turbo boost mode longer).

https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_1842_1960&item_id=190641
ASUS TUF Gaming H570-PRO WiFi $249.00

https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=4_65_1971&item_id=190143
Intel Core i7-11700F $389.00

These coolers run near dead silent. Having to listen to a pump running on an AIO can get annoying after awhile.

https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=8_129&item_id=167983
be quiet! SHADOW ROCK 3 CPU Air Cooler $64.99

or ...

https://www.amazon.ca/Scythe-SCMG-5100-Mugen-Processor-Cooler/dp/B06ZYB8K77/
Scythe Mugen 5 Rev.B CPU Air Cooler $64.99

or ...

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/164812128311
Scythe Fuma 2 CPU Air Cooler $83.93

Same specs as that Samsung SSD yet cost less.

https://www.amazon.ca/PNY-CS2130-Internal-Solid-State/dp/B0869C35V2/
PNY CS2130 2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Gen3 x4 Internal SSD $307.12

Case worth having a look at.

https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=6_1937&item_id=175084
Lian-Li LANCOOL II Mesh Performance Case $119.99


A better look at that board.

 
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TommyTwoTone66

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Hello. I'm looking to build my first gaming PC and am just looking for input/suggestions when it comes to the components.

Well first off, it's a great looking system. No compatibility issues at all, and the 10th Gen Intel is a great choice for gaming. The CPUs clock high right out of the box and deliver powerful gaming performance at every pricing level.

You don't need to spend $2100 though, this build is massive overkill. Especially when you're going to be paying an 80-90% premium on the GPU, even once they start making them again.

The i9 is not a gaming CPU, that's a workstation CPU. You don't need 10 cores and 20 threads for gaming, and 40% of your CPU is going to sit completely idle forever, unless you fire up Maya or Cinebench. If you've never used either of those applications, you definitely don't need an i9.

You can save $200 on the CPU alone by dropping down to an 11th-gen 11600K, which will dominate in games for years and years to come, while getting you new features not present on the 10th gen CPUs like AVX and PCI-E 4.0. Music production software will be flawless on that CPU with support for unlimited VSTs. Video editing will be rapid on that CPU as well, although this is one area where the extra 4 cores would be quicker. Rendering a 1-hour, 4K video might take 25 minutes on the 11600K, and would take 15 minutes on the 10900K. If those 10 minutes are worth $300 to you, then get the 10-core CPU. In games it makes no difference.

In my opinion, the only people that could actually make use of a 10-core desktop CPU are people who regularly wait several hours for scenes to render in Maya.

You've gone for a $400, 2TB NVMe SSD. However the sweet spot right now for price / capacity on NVMe SSD is 1TB, and on SATA SSD is 2TB. Personally I would go 1TB NVMe and 2TB SATA for the same price and get 1TB more storage, or 1TB NVMe and 1TB SATA and save $100. You don't need everything to be on the NVMe drive and actually it helps to keep your big files like movies, TV shows, game installers, etc on a separate drive. Smaller media files like music etc should also go on the SATA drive.

You've gone for a $150, 3-fan AIO watercooler with flashing lights on it. It's a little overkill for me, especially since you won't be overclocking. I would invest the same money in a 2-fan model from a better manufacturer. MSI stuff tends to be cheap and nasty. Something like the Corsair H100i ELITE still has the flashing lights but is a much more reliable unit. The pump bearings on the MSI one will start to fail and make a rattling noise after 3-4 years, the Corsair bearings should last double that.

You've gone for a Z490 motherboard which is priced pretty crazy at $450 CAD. For half that money you can get a top-spec Z590 board (which is the newer chipset). The Gigabyte Z590 Aurous Elite has the same build quality as the Asus board you selected, plus it has the newer Z590 chipset, has all the same features and costs half as much. This is a no-brainer.

32GB is probably too much RAM, you're right, but you might as well have it rather than not have it at this point since you don't save a massive amount by dropping back to 16GB. Music production could take advantage of the extra RAM if you had like a hundred VSTs loaded.

The case you've picked is awesome, one of the best cases out there, and the PSU similarly is an absolute top-spec model, great choices.

With the changes I've suggested above it comes out a little more than $300 cheaper, and will deliver the exact same performance in games and slightly better in music production while holding its own in Video editing:

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/zpY3Yg

Dropping down to a different brand of SSD such as PNY, Crucial or Western Digital could save money. All the SSD manufacturers use pretty much the same flash chips anyway, so really you're paying a premium for the Samsung brand name and slightly faster controller hardware. I stopped using Samsung SSDs about 3 years ago when some of the other manufacturers caught up to them in terms of performance and reliability.

A word of warning though about waiting for that RTX3080 or RTX3090. It is likely to be a year or more from now before we see those parts in stock again. The global semiconductor shortage is very real and very complicated to fix, and GPUs are right down the bottom of the priority list of products that get the ICs that are trickling out of Taiwan and China.
 
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Your parts list can work as is.

I would not try to buy over time.
Products change and prices may go lower.
If you buy early and the product turns out defective you may have gone past return time.

But, I have some suggestions:

1. Gaming performance is primarily gated by the graphics card you will use, and not so much the cpu. In practice, most current gen processors in the $250 budget class will do just fine.

2. Do not chase the number of cores. Most games can not effectively use more than 4-6 threads.
It is more important that those threads be fast. To that end, look at intel 11th gen or ryzen 5000 series with some 19% better performance per clock.

3. You obviously have a good budget for this build and may not want a lesser processor like the i5-11400.
But, check out the 10 game average in this review:
With your budget, I think I would look at 5800x or i9-11900K.
Why the i9-11900K which has the same number of threads(16) as the i7-11700K?
The i9-11900K is better binned and will reach higher turbo speeds without any overclocking.
A K(not KF) processor will include integrated graphics that will let you run until you can buy your graphics card.

4. Your case is excellent for air cooling. I would avoid an aio, particularly as a first time builder.
a 360 aio is optimum if you are seeking maximum overclocks. But, they are expensive.
A aio will eventually leak air through the coolant tubes and need to be replaced.
A simple twin tower air cooler like a noctua NH-D15s will do the job.
On my setup, a simple CPU-Z stress test never goes above 70c.

5. Use a Z590 based motherboard with good vrm cooling. You will get pcie 4.0 support on 11th gen processors.

6. 3200 speed ram is fine, intel does not depend on fast ram for performance.

7. Love a 2tb ssd for everything. Samsung is my go to brand for reliability and performance.

8. PSU is top quality and 850w is plenty for even a 3090:
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

9. Do you have a monitor in mind? Look for larger/wider and high resolution.
Buy the best you can, a monitor is a longer term investment than the cpu.

Good luck

MY build process:

Before anything, while waiting for your parts to be delivered, download
and read, cover to cover your case and motherboard manual.
Buy a #2 magnetic tip philips screwdriver.
I find it handy to buy a power switch like this for testing.
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E168121..._switch-_-12-119-009-_-Product&quicklink=true
1. I assemble the critical parts outside of the case.
That lets me test them for functionality easily.
A wood table or cardboard is fine.
2. Plug in only the necessary parts at first. Ram, cpu, cooler, psu.
Do not force anything. Parts fit only one way.
Attach a monitor to the integrated motherboard adapter if you have one, otherwise to the graphics card.
  1. If your motherboard does not have a PWR button, momentarily touch the two pwr front panel pins with a flat blade screwdriver.
  2. Repeatedly hit F2 or DEL, and that should get you into the bios display.
  3. Boot from a cd or usb stick with memtest86 on it. memtest will exercise your ram and cpu functionality.
  4. Install windows.
  5. Install the motherboard cd drivers. Particularly the lan drivers so you can access the internet.
Do not select the easy install option, or you will get a bunch of utilities and trialware that you don't want. Drivers only.
  1. Connect to the internet and install an antivirus program. Microsoft defender is free, easy, and unobtrusive.
  2. Install your graphics card and driver if you tested with integrated graphics.
You will need to remove the graphics card later to install your motherboard in the case.
As a tip when screwing the motherboard into the posts, give the screw a small counterclockwise turn until you feel a click.
That lets you know that the screw will engage properly.
Make a note of how the graphics card latches into the pcie slot.
The mechanism will be hidden under the card and may be difficult to work if you have not previously checked how.
  1. Update windows to currency.
  2. Only now do I take apart what I need to and install it in the case.
  3. Now is the time to reinstall your graphics card.
 
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TommyTwoTone66

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Your parts list can work as is.

In practice, most current gen processors in the $250 budget class will do just fine.

Do not chase the number of cores. Most games can not effectively use more than 6 threads. It is more important that those threads be fast.

Your case is excellent for air cooling. I would avoid an aio, particularly as a first time builder.

Connect to the internet and install an antivirus program. Microsoft defender is free, easy, and unobtrusive

Some excellent points here. I’ve installed so many AIO coolers that I find it easy now, but the first one I did I smashed a piece off my motherboard, and the second one I did I managed to cut my knuckles up pretty badly. And as you say unless you’re chasing overclocking numbers, which mean nothing on an 11th gen Intel, then there isn’t much point to them. I’d recommend an air cooler as well. Noctua are an outstanding make. You can add the flashy lights using RGB case fans and get the same effect.

Although… Microsoft Defender hasn’t been a thing for a verrry long time. Windows 10 does a decent job of being its own antivirus, you can’t install Microsoft Defender on Windows 10, or even on an up to date install of Windows 7! 🤔any third party antivirus such as McAfee or Symantec or whatever will just gum up your PC and pepper you with false positives, avoid at all costs.
 
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ProlificJay

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Jun 22, 2021
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Wow! Thank you so much to everybody that has taken the time to check out the build and make some recommendations for me. There is definitely a lot to take in from all of this and I don't really know where to start on my responses lol.

I guess I'll start by saying that I definitely think I am going to go with an intel CPU and the points about the i9 being overkill make a lot of sense. My video editing needs will be pretty basic and although I will be using a lot of VST's for music production, I certainly won't be using hundreds of them so you're right, it makes no sense for me to go so overkill on the CPU. Maybe the i7- 11700K? Or should I just go with the i5-11600K? Again, for music production I will definitely be using quite a few VST's and the cost of the CPU isn't that big of a deal for me.

I was also on the fence about the water cooling to begin with. I was thinking maybe that wasn't the best idea for a first time build and I think I was more so just sold on the idea and the looks of it than anything lol. I will be switching to a Noctua NH-D 15s air cooler.

I really like the Corsair 5000D case. I checked out a couple reviews on it before I selected it and it's a very clean case. My one question about it though is, will it be necessary to add any additional fans to it or will the 2 stock fans be enough? The cost of fans isn't a concern to me so am just wondering if I should add anymore to it and if so, where should I add them?

I have also decided to swap out for a Z590 motherboard opposed to the Z490 that I had selected in my list.

As far as a monitor goes, I was thinking of getting the Acer Predator 32" 1440p @ 240hz but I also haven't done enough research on some of the different monitors available yet.

Again, thanks to everybody that took the time to read my post, check out the build and offer recommendations. That was a lot of information to digest and I wasn't really sure where to start in my response lol.
 
Wow! Thank you so much to everybody that has taken the time to check out the build and make some recommendations for me. There is definitely a lot to take in from all of this and I don't really know where to start on my responses lol.

I guess I'll start by saying that I definitely think I am going to go with an intel CPU and the points about the i9 being overkill make a lot of sense. My video editing needs will be pretty basic and although I will be using a lot of VST's for music production, I certainly won't be using hundreds of them so you're right, it makes no sense for me to go so overkill on the CPU. Maybe the i7- 11700K? Or should I just go with the i5-11600K? Again, for music production I will definitely be using quite a few VST's and the cost of the CPU isn't that big of a deal for me.

I was also on the fence about the water cooling to begin with. I was thinking maybe that wasn't the best idea for a first time build and I think I was more so just sold on the idea and the looks of it than anything lol. I will be switching to a Noctua NH-D 15s air cooler.

I really like the Corsair 5000D case. I checked out a couple reviews on it before I selected it and it's a very clean case. My one question about it though is, will it be necessary to add any additional fans to it or will the 2 stock fans be enough? The cost of fans isn't a concern to me so am just wondering if I should add anymore to it and if so, where should I add them?

I have also decided to swap out for a Z590 motherboard opposed to the Z490 that I had selected in my list.

As far as a monitor goes, I was thinking of getting the Acer Predator 32" 1440p @ 240hz but I also haven't done enough research on some of the different monitors available yet.

Again, thanks to everybody that took the time to read my post, check out the build and offer recommendations. That was a lot of information to digest and I wasn't really sure where to start in my response lol.
For the CPU, I think based on your requirements an i7 should be the sweet spot...

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i7-11700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor | $499.00 @ Canada Computers
CPU Cooler | CRYORIG R1 Ultimate 76 CFM CPU Cooler | $142.43 @ Amazon Canada
Motherboard | Asus TUF Gaming Z590-PLUS WIFI ATX LGA1200 Motherboard | $339.99 @ Memory Express
Memory | Crucial Ballistix 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory | $204.99 @ Amazon Canada
Storage | Corsair MP600 Core 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $379.99 @ Amazon Canada
Case | Corsair 5000D AIRFLOW ATX Mid Tower Case | $209.99 @ Amazon Canada
Power Supply | SeaSonic FOCUS 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply | $144.99 @ PC-Canada
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $1921.38
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-06-24 06:45 EDT-0400 |
 
On the case, the two included fans can work.
You could try just tht and see how you do.
It is not hard to add/change fans later.
But, considering your budget, I would buy two 140mm fans for front intake.
140mm fans move more air quietly vs. 120mm.
Noctua makes different speed units up to 3000 rpm.
I would go with 1200 rpm.
Keep one of the 120mm fans as exhaust for the rear.
Just because you will have an extra 120mm fan, it does not mean that you should install it. mounting one as exhaust in the top will tend to divert airflow up ad out the top without passing through the cooler first. It would be easy to experiment if you wish.

If you are on the fence about the processor, I think I would go stronger, budget permitting. Even the 11900K.
I have found that while the price of something good hurts for a while, I avoid regrets and wonder when buying the cheaper option.

Spend some time on deciding on the monitor.
It is a long term purchase that will be with you for several generations.
If you can, see a prospective unit in person.
At least read some reviews.
32" is good, do not chase 244hz. It is unlikely that you can do half that with current technology graphics and high resolution.
FWIW the image on the 48" LG OLED TV is stunning.
It runs at 120hz via hdmi 2.1. You need a 3000 series graphics card and an ultra HD hdmi cable to go past 60hz.