Hello guys.
I've been trying to come up with the best possible build for a 1300 euro budget (about 1400 dollars) for some time now and I think it's going well. My goal is to be able to play demanding games on full graphics or older ones, heavily modded (TES Skyrim for example), while also being able to comfortably edit large files (been working on a map which has a 2 gb size in Photoshop right now) in Photoshop and Illustrator. I know that an Intel CPU can handle these tasks with easy as well, but most of the time I'll be working on both Adobe programs and probably InDesign too, so I wanted to make sure that I'll not face any issues. The above and budget limitations made me go for Ryzen 5 2600X. Wrote that to avoid the Intel vs AMD discussion as it really isn't the purpose of this post.
So, I'm posting my list from PCPartPicker and the questions I have, hoping that I can get some useful feedback. FYI, my monitor is a Philips LED 231TE4LB/00 (1920x1080 / 60Hz).
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor ($219.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - X470 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($119.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($167.27 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($87.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB GAMING X 8G Video Card ($499.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design - Meshify C TG ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1313.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-22 19:45 EDT-0400
So now that you can see my build, I'd like to ask a few questions.
1. I know that this pretty general and probably depends on your answers to my other questions, but is this a good build overall? Not only in terms of being VfM (well, maybe with the exception of the graphics card), but also regarding the quality of the selected items, experience you may have with them etc.
2. Are my parts compatible with each other? When I put them on pcpartpicker I get the following message: "The motherboard M.2 slot #1 shares bandwidth with a SATA 6.0 Gb/s port. When the M.2 slot is populated, one SATA 6.0 Gb/s port is disabled." To my knowledge this is nothing to worry about, everything is gonna work well together and I'm just losing one of the six SATA ports my mb has. Apart from that, is there any compatibility issue I'm missing? I'm gonna talk about my monitor and GPU separately.
3. Will the parts fit inside my case? I'm asking cause it's a relatively small midi tower. I know that the most important thing is to compare the case size with my GPU. The manufacturer's site mentions these numbers: Case dimensions (LxWxH) 395 x 212 x 440mm (http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/meshify/meshify-c-tg) while my GPU's size is CARD DIMENSION(MM) 279 x 140 x 42 mm (https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/GeForce-GTX-1080-GAMING-X-8G/Specification). Is there anything else I need to compare? My mb is ATX so I don't think it'll be a problem.
4. Now, about the GPU and the monitor. I was able to find the gtx 1080 for about 520 euros and since it's just 50 euro on average more expensive than the 1070, I think I should go with it. I see it as a more "futureproof" purchase as the GTX 1060, for example, is probably absolutely fine for now but will inevitably fall off later. My problem is the monitor. As I've already told you, I have a Philips 231TE4LB 1920x1080 / 60 Hz. I know it's bad but I got it free some years ago and I've been using it ever since.
Is there 100% going to be screen tearing with this GPU and if the answer is yes, will V-sync and its downsides practically make the card a bad purchase? I'll definitely be looking for a new monitor but it's not going to happen so soon (need to get the actual budget first after the purchase of the entire pc and better monitors are actually really expensive) and I thought that it'd be better to get the gtx 1080 now, seeing this as a more solid investment. Is it stupid to buy the MSI gtx 1080?
5. About the compatibility of the two. According to the monitor's manual it supports 1.4a HDMI (although it says HDMI 1 on the back - I figure that's common) so my question is, will the GPU be compatible with an HDMI cable and if yes, what kind of cable do I need exactly? Because there are so many and I didn't need to do research about this in the past. Found a cable called ""HAMA 122104 HIGH SPEED HDMI CABLE PLUG - PLUG ETHERNET GOLD-PLATED 1.5M". Is it a good choice?
6. For the RAM, I've chosen the "G.Skill Flare X 16GB DDR4-3200MHz (F4-3200C14D-16GFX)". I'm trying to figure if it's compatible with the MSI X470 Gaming Plus, here's the results from their website (https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/X470-GAMING-PLUS#support-mem-14) :
https://imgur.com/a/n0lKOvH I want to be able to have my ram run at 3200 MHz with A-XMP.
7. Has anybody tested the Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4-3200MHz (CMK16GX4M2B3200C16) with this mb? It's not on the QVL list, but it's a lot cheaper. Is there any way for it to reach 3200 with the a-xmp and be stable? Has anybody tested that?
8. Is my PSU enough for this build? I just want to make sure I've made the right choice. I know that the 650W option is the standard for this kind of build and I've also used a PSU calculator. Here's the result: https://imgur.com/a/wESaZQr What's your opinion?
9. Will my CPU bottleneck my GPU (assuming that I go for the MSI gtx 1080) ? I've not read anything about any potential problem and I'm not really concerned but I'd be nice to get some feedback, just in case.
10. In case I want to replace the stock CPU cooler with a Dark Rock 4 in the future, would there be a problem with my ram sticks? I don't know if they're low ram sticks or if I'll even need to have low ram for this cooler to be installed.
11. Finally, I'd like some recommendations regarding a new monitor. I'll be playing both FPS games (like LoL) and RPG games (like TES and Dark Souls). Should I get a 1440p, 60Hz monitor or a 1080p, 144Hz one? I'd love some suggestions on specific monitor, too!
If by any chance you've reached the end of this list, I'd like to thank you for reading through this wall of text. I really need your help guys and hopefully I can get some answers soon and finally purchase my pc.
I'm posting my build in euros (I live in Greece) and the site where you can compare prices for pretty much everything you'll need.
The build:
Fractal Design Meshify C TG 87.42
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Box 211.73
MSI X470 Gaming Plus 142.99
MSI GeForce GTX1080 8GB Gaming X (GTX 1080 GAMING X 8G) 532.9
G.Skill Flare X 16GB DDR4-3200MHz (F4-3200C14D-16GFX) 218.38
Samsung 970 Evo NVMe M.2 250GB 89.39
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 57.81
Corsair CX Series CX650M 80+ Bronze Semi Modular 74.9
Total price: 1415.52 euros
The site (already searched for gtx): https://www.skroutz.gr/c/55/kartes-grafikwn-vga.html?keyphrase=gtx
It's in greek, but I guess you'll have no problem checking the prices as the product names are all in English. However, if you need any help, just ask me.
I've been trying to come up with the best possible build for a 1300 euro budget (about 1400 dollars) for some time now and I think it's going well. My goal is to be able to play demanding games on full graphics or older ones, heavily modded (TES Skyrim for example), while also being able to comfortably edit large files (been working on a map which has a 2 gb size in Photoshop right now) in Photoshop and Illustrator. I know that an Intel CPU can handle these tasks with easy as well, but most of the time I'll be working on both Adobe programs and probably InDesign too, so I wanted to make sure that I'll not face any issues. The above and budget limitations made me go for Ryzen 5 2600X. Wrote that to avoid the Intel vs AMD discussion as it really isn't the purpose of this post.
So, I'm posting my list from PCPartPicker and the questions I have, hoping that I can get some useful feedback. FYI, my monitor is a Philips LED 231TE4LB/00 (1920x1080 / 60Hz).
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor ($219.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - X470 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($119.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($167.27 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($87.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB GAMING X 8G Video Card ($499.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design - Meshify C TG ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1313.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-22 19:45 EDT-0400
So now that you can see my build, I'd like to ask a few questions.
1. I know that this pretty general and probably depends on your answers to my other questions, but is this a good build overall? Not only in terms of being VfM (well, maybe with the exception of the graphics card), but also regarding the quality of the selected items, experience you may have with them etc.
2. Are my parts compatible with each other? When I put them on pcpartpicker I get the following message: "The motherboard M.2 slot #1 shares bandwidth with a SATA 6.0 Gb/s port. When the M.2 slot is populated, one SATA 6.0 Gb/s port is disabled." To my knowledge this is nothing to worry about, everything is gonna work well together and I'm just losing one of the six SATA ports my mb has. Apart from that, is there any compatibility issue I'm missing? I'm gonna talk about my monitor and GPU separately.
3. Will the parts fit inside my case? I'm asking cause it's a relatively small midi tower. I know that the most important thing is to compare the case size with my GPU. The manufacturer's site mentions these numbers: Case dimensions (LxWxH) 395 x 212 x 440mm (http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/meshify/meshify-c-tg) while my GPU's size is CARD DIMENSION(MM) 279 x 140 x 42 mm (https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/GeForce-GTX-1080-GAMING-X-8G/Specification). Is there anything else I need to compare? My mb is ATX so I don't think it'll be a problem.
4. Now, about the GPU and the monitor. I was able to find the gtx 1080 for about 520 euros and since it's just 50 euro on average more expensive than the 1070, I think I should go with it. I see it as a more "futureproof" purchase as the GTX 1060, for example, is probably absolutely fine for now but will inevitably fall off later. My problem is the monitor. As I've already told you, I have a Philips 231TE4LB 1920x1080 / 60 Hz. I know it's bad but I got it free some years ago and I've been using it ever since.
Is there 100% going to be screen tearing with this GPU and if the answer is yes, will V-sync and its downsides practically make the card a bad purchase? I'll definitely be looking for a new monitor but it's not going to happen so soon (need to get the actual budget first after the purchase of the entire pc and better monitors are actually really expensive) and I thought that it'd be better to get the gtx 1080 now, seeing this as a more solid investment. Is it stupid to buy the MSI gtx 1080?
5. About the compatibility of the two. According to the monitor's manual it supports 1.4a HDMI (although it says HDMI 1 on the back - I figure that's common) so my question is, will the GPU be compatible with an HDMI cable and if yes, what kind of cable do I need exactly? Because there are so many and I didn't need to do research about this in the past. Found a cable called ""HAMA 122104 HIGH SPEED HDMI CABLE PLUG - PLUG ETHERNET GOLD-PLATED 1.5M". Is it a good choice?
6. For the RAM, I've chosen the "G.Skill Flare X 16GB DDR4-3200MHz (F4-3200C14D-16GFX)". I'm trying to figure if it's compatible with the MSI X470 Gaming Plus, here's the results from their website (https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/X470-GAMING-PLUS#support-mem-14) :
https://imgur.com/a/n0lKOvH I want to be able to have my ram run at 3200 MHz with A-XMP.
7. Has anybody tested the Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4-3200MHz (CMK16GX4M2B3200C16) with this mb? It's not on the QVL list, but it's a lot cheaper. Is there any way for it to reach 3200 with the a-xmp and be stable? Has anybody tested that?
8. Is my PSU enough for this build? I just want to make sure I've made the right choice. I know that the 650W option is the standard for this kind of build and I've also used a PSU calculator. Here's the result: https://imgur.com/a/wESaZQr What's your opinion?
9. Will my CPU bottleneck my GPU (assuming that I go for the MSI gtx 1080) ? I've not read anything about any potential problem and I'm not really concerned but I'd be nice to get some feedback, just in case.
10. In case I want to replace the stock CPU cooler with a Dark Rock 4 in the future, would there be a problem with my ram sticks? I don't know if they're low ram sticks or if I'll even need to have low ram for this cooler to be installed.
11. Finally, I'd like some recommendations regarding a new monitor. I'll be playing both FPS games (like LoL) and RPG games (like TES and Dark Souls). Should I get a 1440p, 60Hz monitor or a 1080p, 144Hz one? I'd love some suggestions on specific monitor, too!
If by any chance you've reached the end of this list, I'd like to thank you for reading through this wall of text. I really need your help guys and hopefully I can get some answers soon and finally purchase my pc.
I'm posting my build in euros (I live in Greece) and the site where you can compare prices for pretty much everything you'll need.
The build:
Fractal Design Meshify C TG 87.42
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Box 211.73
MSI X470 Gaming Plus 142.99
MSI GeForce GTX1080 8GB Gaming X (GTX 1080 GAMING X 8G) 532.9
G.Skill Flare X 16GB DDR4-3200MHz (F4-3200C14D-16GFX) 218.38
Samsung 970 Evo NVMe M.2 250GB 89.39
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 57.81
Corsair CX Series CX650M 80+ Bronze Semi Modular 74.9
Total price: 1415.52 euros
The site (already searched for gtx): https://www.skroutz.gr/c/55/kartes-grafikwn-vga.html?keyphrase=gtx
It's in greek, but I guess you'll have no problem checking the prices as the product names are all in English. However, if you need any help, just ask me.
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