[SOLVED] Guess it's time for a new build

[shuvool]

Based on the forum date, my current build was completed in 2013, and is having trouble with modern games. I have upgraded parts in the past 7 years, most notably the GPU twice (first, the 670 wasn't enough so I went with a 7970 which served well for about 5 years, then one of the 3 fans died. Downclocked a little to keep it going, then a second fan died and I had to replace it with an RX 580, which lets me play modern non-shooter AAA titles with somewhat acceptable fps rates (dipping into the teens at times). The system performed well for the most part, but I did have the aforementioned GPU failure and a hard drive failure about 3 years back.

The new system is a slightly different use case. In addition to wanting to crush any modern game coming out this year, and wanting to go from 1080 to 4k (or at a minimum 1440 with >60 fps minimum in either resolution). I also want a system capable of running as a home server for network projects, but I think I can repurpose my 7 year old system for that, since Ivy Bridge does support hardware virtualization, and that side of things doesn't need a ton of computing power.

In an effort to make this system last at least as long as my current one but start out from a point closer to the top, I am holding off on pulling the trigger for the GPU until the official prices come out for the new 3080Ti cards. I doubt I'll run with the 2080Ti unless the new ones are truly obscene in price. The rumored 2 grand for a single card does sound scary and could be what makes me choose a current generation card,

Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: Within the next 2 months

Budget Range: 3500-4500 before shipping/taxes/etc

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming first and foremost, with school projects requiring cpu cycles for compiling, but no real need for video editing stuff.

TLDR system requirement priority: >60 minimum fps at (preferably) 4k resolution or failing to keep that in the budget, 1440 resolution >60 fps minimum for current games.

Are you buying a monitor: Yes



Parts to Upgrade: Entire system build

Do you need to buy OS: Yes
Please note that if you're using an OEM license of Windows, you will need a new one when buying a new motherboard.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg and Microcenter
Location: Houston, TX, USA

Parts Preferences: AMD seems to be the ideal choice at the moment for price/performance ratio.

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: Ideally 3840x2160. Failing that at this price point, I'll be happy with a 2560x1440 resolution

Additional Comments: I plan to do a custom water loop with this build. Flexible tubing since it'll be my first custom loop and I'm thinking future expansion to stuff the capacity of my current PC into a mini ITX build in the bottom of the case, which is part of my reasoning for choosing such a large case aside from me just liking the aesthetics of the huge tempered glass cases. I might try my hand at bending rigid tubing in the future way down the line after the second build goes into the case. Also, I really like RGB lighting and want to make extensive use of ARGB in this build. I will have a large enough desk to support placing a super tower, a 30 inch or smaller primary monitor and a 27 inch 1080 secondary work/browsing monitor (the non-motorized non-lit version of the Thermaltake battlestation comes to mind)

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: My current build is over 7 years old with the exception of the parts listed above. It's having trouble with maintaining above the teens during some parts of even relatively low requirement games, like FFXIV. Map loading in games like Civ 6 is becoming tedious as well, where after a new turn, I will pan the map only to have to wait as hexes load graphically toward the mid point of the game. I believe some more action-oriented games like Mass Effect Andromeda and the last couple of Assassin's creed games were giving me trouble as well, never quite reaching 30 fps during any time I was actually moving. If my current build has all this trouble at 1080, I definitely can't get it to go up in resolution .

Include a list of any parts you have already selected with descriptively labeled links for parts. Please do not post only links.

Motherboard: Asus ROG Crosshair 8 hero($379.99) (If there's a non wifi version, I haven't seen it, but I am planning on relocating the computer to a different room than the cable outlet and this could keep me from needing to stick fish tape through holes to move outlets)

CPU: Ryzen 9 3900X($439.99) I don't think I want the higher core count of the 3950 because those have lower max clocks unless I'm mistaken. I'm not sure what the extra 37 bucks buys in the XT vs the X, 100 MHz that will probably be made up for in overclocking unless the XT is for sure better binned?

GPU: placeholder using 2080Ti($1299.99) I can't really link a 3080Ti until they come out, and since the price is still up in the air, I haven't firmly decided it'll be that specifically. Could be a 3080, could be a 3070 (super?) if those outperform the 2080Ti. I have faith that ray tracing will catch on and be used more widely within the next 7 or so years. I'm defaulting to ASUS because I really don't know much about the differences between the different brands. The little animated MSI dragon is cool, but that card tends to cost quite a bit more than the other cards, iirc and I'm not sure if I want to pay a premium for a little monochromatic animated mascot. Also, jeebus the 3rd party resellers seem to already be price gouging the 2080Ti in the wake of the recent price leak for the 3080Ti?)

Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 16GB CL14 kit($189.99) I don't know how the whole infinity fabric thing works too well, but from what I understand, fclk can't be successfully boosted much above 1800 MHz and the DDR4 speed can max out at double the fclk before the system shifts from 1:1 to 2:1 and slows down performance. In hopes of winning at the silicon lottery, I chose the RAM with the tightest timings I could find at the 2 speeds above 3600 MHz that had RGB.

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 4TB($94.99) for bulk storage, Samsung 970 Evo 2TB ($349.99) for games Samsung 070 Evo 250GB($83.83) for OS and drivers.

PSU: Corsair HX750i 750W power supply ($204.99) I think a 750W power supply should keep me in the sweet spot for efficiency with an overclocked high end GPU and an overclocked 3700X plus a water pump and a bunch of fans turning (hopefully) slowly. I'll be sure to check my current draw with my amp clamp when the build is done to see what I'm pulling from the wall.

Case: I'm torn between 2 cases. I like the aesthetics of the View 71 above pretty much any case out there but I am not sure it can fit a secondary mini ITX system in there since the PSU is mounted directly below the ATX standoffs. If I absolutely can't just put the current system in my bedroom closet (there's an air conditioning vent that keeps my closet cool) and put it on the network (probably the best solution for not overspending) then the other option I like the looks of is the Corsair Obsidian 1000D which is specifically designed to house two systems,although at that point I'm spending more than double the price of the View 71 case to hold the smaller system that really doesn't need to be in the same box if I just get off my duff and fish some wires through some walls...maybe in January or so. August is murderously hot here in Houston and I've got some physical limitations on what I can ask my arms to do in terms of range of motion.

Monitor: To meet the requirements of 4k gaming and to support G sync, the only option I saw at Microcenter was the Acer Predator 27 inch IPS ($699.99) which says it has a 1ms response time. I'm open to other suggestions, but it's really nice to have a Microcenter in driving distance, since their prices are really competitive.

All said and done, my planned build comes out to a little over $4200 including the copy of Windows 10 Pro and I wouldn't mind trimming it down a bit as long as I can meet the above requirements. I think the first thing to go will be the idea of stuffing 2 systems into one case because as neat as that would look, it's a significant expense for little to no actual gain. I would appreciate some help with chopping down the price some more. I think I would like to keep the trio of storage devices since I would like the operating system and drivers to live on one drive along with a few things that are a pain to not have on the OS drive (I'm looking at you, Visual Studio and SQL Server Management Studio) and my games to live on another NVME drive separate from the OS drive. I've filled my 3TB storage drive on my existing system so I figure even with a new build separate from my current build, which will take on home server duties, I should probably get a bigger drive for mass storage. I plan on getting new peripherals, but their budget is outside the scope of this build thread since I have existing peripherals and can purchase them piecemeal while using existing devices from my old system.

 

[tennis2]

I think you're gonna want a RTX3000 series GPU for their [purportedly] improved ray tracing performance. As with any launch, don't expect the new cards to drastically upset the price/performance curve for the first few months after launch (Sept 1).

Also, Ryzen 4000 launching within your timeframe.

 

[shuvool]

I think you're gonna want a RTX3000 series GPU for their [purportedly] improved ray tracing performance. As with any launch, don't expect the new cards to drastically upset the price/performance curve for the first few months after launch (Sept 1).

Also, Ryzen 4000 launching within your timeframe.

I think you're definitely right on the 3000 series since they're supposed to have significantly improved ray tracing compared to the 2000 series. I'm not certain if the Zen 3 chips are going to be best for me though. I haven't seen a lot on them, but there was an article I read on an ES that said the improvements are basically 17% more IPC, larger cache available to cores, and 100 MHz higher boost over 3800X. I was hesitant to go for 3800XT over 3800X for the additional 200 MHz. While the additional IPC sounds really good, I wonder if it would translate to a noticeable increase in performance if the system I'm trying to build would already meet my requirements with the 3800X. The idea of having the absolute latest architecture does appeal, especially considering I want to go so long before another build, but would the cost be worth the benefit?

 

[Math Geek]

if you don't already own it, then 17% or so ipc improvement is a nice thing. i would not go from ryzen 3000 to 4000 for 17% improvement. but for a totally new build if you're not looking to build today, it may be worth the wait.

i'm also noticing your prices seem very high. you don't need such a mobo for the cpu. you could easily save $100 or so and still get a high quality board. and $189 for 16 gb ram is crazy. i spent $120 and got 32 gb of 3200 speed. its nice to have a good budget but it's not worth overpaying for parts just cause you can.

the rumors of the nvidia 3000 series is that they will cost more than the 2000 models. possibly approaching $2000 for the flagship. that's a bit more than you are thinking now for a 2080ti. saving some cash on the mobo, ram and other overpriced items can make sure you can actually pay close to 2 grand for a gpu if you wish to go there. the lower models won't be out day 1 as they never are. so a couple tiers lower may not come out right away. they may wait until a couple months later to drop a 3070 or other models (if that's what they name them)

 

[shuvool]

if you don't already own it, then 17% or so ipc improvement is a nice thing. i would not go from ryzen 3000 to 4000 for 17% improvement. but for a totally new build if you're not looking to build today, it may be worth the wait.

i'm also noticing your prices seem very high. you don't need such a mobo for the cpu. you could easily save $100 or so and still get a high quality board. and $189 for 16 gb ram is crazy. i spent $120 and got 32 gb of 3200 speed. its nice to have a good budget but it's not worth overpaying for parts just cause you can.

the rumors of the nvidia 3000 series is that they will cost more than the 2000 models. possibly approaching $2000 for the flagship. that's a bit more than you are thinking now for a 2080ti. saving some cash on the mobo, ram and other overpriced items can make sure you can actually pay close to 2 grand for a gpu if you wish to go there. the lower models won't be out day 1 as they never are. so a couple tiers lower may not come out right away. they may wait until a couple months later to drop a 3070 or other models (if that's what they name them)

I think you're right. I would like to try to max out the fclk and have RAM that's guaranteed to run at the right frequency for 1:1 at that fclk, but nearly 200 bucks for that specific RAM is pretty steep compared to a set of Corsair CL18 RAM with the same RGB and capacity, rated for 3600 MHz (which is the specific speed point I'm shooting for) and I think I read that timings don't matter quite as much as I'd like them to.

I think that's what inspired me to put this thread in here. It's not that I'm not capable of selecting a build list of parts inside of a specific budget. It's more that I'm hoping to find some people who know some details I'm unfamiliar with. To get their help to remove some cost from my build to better allocate that cost toward something where the improvement will be more noticeable. Much as you're doing.

One thing I've had a hard time wrapping my head around even back when I built my current z77 build is the use case defining whether to use a TUF board for around half the price of a ROG board, or whether to use the latter. What would I really be getting from the more expensive board? The most I could find out by looking through forum posts, blog articles, and Reddit threads is aside from the completely different onboard sound (which would be appreciated, but I could always just get a DAC) the differences come down to things like built in heatsinks for the m.2 connectors, more robust power/filtering for the board (more stable overclocks for the exotic cooling, I guess? Probably not applicable to air, AIO, or even custom water loops), and more fancy design/lighting on the board itself. Do both boards support both m.2 slots simultaneously using pcie 4.0 or does one or both of them force the second drive to SATA?

 

[Math Geek]

i like partpicker or newegg for side by side comparisons.

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/L23mP6,dmGnTW/

it's not every feature or spec but it's a good start to see what might be different. after that, you can go to the manual for how it allots pcie slots and how the various slots work together. it takes me forever to pick parts since i do this myself. i'll go over feature lists, the manual for how they work and then look at reviews.

generally i've not seen any review that suggests those expensive boards are worth it for ryzen unless you're really shooting for massive oc's and records and such.

i recently built a 3700x system and went with a b450 GB aorus pro. it had all i needed and some and was only $119. the best way to pick mobo's is to decide what features you need/want and start filtering something like partpicker or newegg for options. then you can look at price, board looks and maybe some add-ons you did no think about at first.

def look at some reviews of the 3900x for power draw at heavy loads but at 105w cpu, it won't get much higher than 125w if i recall right. any mid range board should easily be able to handle this.