Build Advice Mid-range to high end build info request, please!

[HyperPete]

ESTIMATED budget: $2K - $3K

First, a little background:
I owned a small PC business from ~ 1996 – 2001. I worked in IT for UPS for 2 years, before ending up as a network security admin for the Commonwealth of PA for 18 years. I retired a year ago.

I'm still using the last system I built in about 2010. I won't bother with specs because it's a dinosaur. The only parts that I might re-use are the battery backup and the monitors; an HP w2007 & an Acer P224w. (Open to monitor suggestions, too.) The old system will run my security monitoring software, perhaps on Linux.

I am not looking to impress anyone but myself. I am not a gamer, but I'd like to leave an opportunity to play some games if I want. I like to mess around with audio files and video, to some small extent. I mess around with photo editing a bit. I prefer Windows 10 Pro, and I multitask heavily. I have a DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem and a decent router. 300 MB Internet connection now, but I might go gigabyte. Network is peer to peer. I am starting to use smart home devices, so Bluetooth will be useful.

I don't want to upgrade every couple of years. I prefer to go higher end now, and keep it for years. I believe that "the bitterness of low quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”

I have been watching the Ryzen 3950X, and I was thinking about a 570 chipset motherboard, but I am out of touch with today's hardware, and that's why I am posting here. Also, now that Zen 3 has launched, I wonder if it's worth considering, particularly with the new L3 cache architecture. They do not appear to cost a lot more than the 3950X. However, I have also read that some older Threadrippers are pretty good, especially for non-gamers,

I want good clean power, but nothing excessive. I don't need a fancy case or funky lighting, but I appreciate good quality and ease of access, and if the lighting comes with it, that's cool. Extra RAM is always nice since I multitask so heavily. I don't feel the need to overclock at the possible expense of longevity of hardware, but if I hit the CPU lottery with a binned chip, why not? Cooling should be simple and reliable.

I'm 100% clueless about graphics cards. I THINK I don't need a $700+ GPU, but I don't want a huge bottleneck for photos / video / streaming.

My old system has an Evo 840 pro (512 MB) and two hard drives for storage. No RAID right now, but not against it.

So, I'll be interested in some intelligent discussion about what to look at. I'm growing weary of waiting for my system to catch up with what I am trying to do, but I can wait awhile for better prices. I hope this long-winded post has not put everyone to sleep. Budget is extremely flexible, just seeking quality input right now.
(I did read the sticky. I will now start checking out the “guide for choosing parts.”)

I appreciate your assistance, in advance.
Cheers!

Pete

 

[rgd1101]

What your budget? when are you buying?
going to reuse any components?

5000 would be good with B550 chipset(need bios update).
depend on when you getting the pc, might go with the amd RX 6000 series or NVIDIA RTX 3060/3070

 

[HyperPete]

As stated, budget is very flexible. I believe the hardware will determine the budget, not the other way around.
I can wait awhile. This is not an urgent need-it-immediately build. If there is a great deal that pops up, I can buy today, however. And, The only parts that I might re-use are the battery backup and the monitors; an HP w2007 & an Acer P224w. (Open to monitor suggestions, too.) “

I was thinking 570 chipsets as a way to possibly “future-proof.” If I go with the 3950X today, and a far superior 5000 series CPU is developed in a year or so, I would (presumably) be able to upgrade. I guess I'll read up on the 550 again, but I thought that those were lower-end chipsets; budget, per-say.

The B550 and X570 are excellent choices for Ryzen CPU’s as they provide the right amount of features like PCIe 4.0 and future CPU compatibility making these a good investment for your PC, especially if you are looking for upgrading to the next generation Zen 3 processors soon.

We recommend going with the B550 if you are looking to use a processor like the Ryzen 5 3600 with a decent level of overclocking and looking to use your desktop for a typical use case. You can use the money saved by going with the B550 to upgrade parts of your build like the SSD or GPU, which will give you a more significant performance upgrade over the X570.

The X570, on the other hand, is an excellent option for those looking to use the more powerful Ryzen processors like the Ryzen 9 series and enthusiasts looking to gain the maximum from their PC. If you need the extra high-speed ports, additional storage connections, or faster network connectivity, X570 boards have specialized versions to suit your needs without compromising on the performance of other components. The X570 works best with builds where the budget is not a constraint and proves to be highly reliable.

Concerning the GPUs, those look as if they are decent quality, but initial overviews are focused upon gaming. I guess additional research is warranted when they are released. Thank you!

 

[rgd1101]

Amd 5000 series depend on the model should be in stock by the end of the month or in Nov.
on the GPU, it either professional or gaming. professional usually more expensive just for the driver support for professional app.
About chipset. it depend on what feature you need/want. B550 do stuck with pcie3 on the non gpu slot.

 

[HyperPete]

About chipset. it depend on what feature you need/want. B550 do stuck with pcie3 on the non gpu slot.

Hmmm, I am unfamiliar with that, thank you. I'll do more research to find what I can do with PCI3 that I cannot do with PCI4. I would have thought PCI3 was backwards compatible.

 

[rgd1101]

On paper, pcie gen 3 is about 1/2 the performance of gen 4. but it really depend on what is using it. only some ssd can use that fast and that only for large data file.

 

[g-unit1111]

On paper, pcie gen 3 is about 1/2 the performance of gen 4. but it really depend on what is using it. only some ssd can use that fast and that only for large data file.

I don't know how the current generation of Intel CPUs uses PCI 4th gen, but it really excels on AMD X570. My Sabrent Rocket gets about a 4500MB/s transfer rate and I can usually do tasks that involve copying large files in a matter of seconds.

 

[HyperPete]

I don't know how the current generation of Intel CPUs uses PCI 4th gen, but it really excels on AMD X570. My Sabrent Rocket gets about a 4500MB/s transfer rate and I can usually do tasks that involve copying large files in a matter of seconds.

That is great to hear. Is this the drive you got?

Sabrent 1TB Rocket Nvme PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 Internal SSD Maximum Performance Solid State Drive (SB-ROCKET-NVMe4-1TB)​

Which MoBo did you go with?
How about RAM? I know I just say an article somewhere about the new 5000 series CPU being the first that should be able to take full advantage of some specific RAM, but I do not recall which RAM, or where I saw the article.

 

[rgd1101]

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-ryzen-5000-zen-3-cpus-ddr4-4000-memory-support

 

[HyperPete]

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-ryzen-5000-zen-3-cpus-ddr4-4000-memory-support

Yep, that was it - thanks!

 

[Flayed]

If you want the ability to play games and are not super budget constrained then have a look at an RTX 2060

 

[ocer9999]

What your budget? when are you buying?
going to reuse any components?

5000 would be good with B550 chipset(need bios update).
depend on when you getting the pc, might go with the amd RX 6000 series or NVIDIA RTX 3060/3070

That's a good advice, I wouldn't be buying any VGA cards until I see what AMD and nvidia has to offer later this month.

 

[HyperPete]

EDIT: I've added an estimated budget of $2,000 - $3000. I don't NEED to spend $2k, and I am not discounting the possibility that I would spend more, but hopefully this gives some idea of what I am looking for.
I also went back into my NewEgg history, and my current system was built in December 2009.

At this time, I will likely wait until the Zen 3 CPUs are available.
Concerning budget, I am not "super budget constrained." I do not want to spend money needlessly of bleeding edge just to be able to say I have the latest and greatest, but I do not have any issue purchasing high end parts that make a significant difference.

I have not yet had any input on cases or PSUs yet. I understand that storage and RAM will be dependent upon my mobo/CPU combination.

I would appreciate tool-less and/or easy to access cases.

OLD BUILD:
Cooler Master Centurian Case
PC Power & Cooling ModXStream Pro Series 500 Watt 80+ Semi-Modular Active PFC Performance Grade ATX PC Power Supply
GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Xeon X3480
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL8D-4GBHK (Upgrade with additional 8 GB recently)
860 EVO 1TB
Utter trash GPU