[SOLVED] Need help building / buying new gaming PC - $2,000 budget

deaditelord

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Apr 19, 2018
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Hello,

I’ve decided to take the plunge and get a new gaming PC and need some advice. Given time constraints and issues I had with my first PC build, I’d prefer to buy a pre-built PC, but I’m not totally adverse to building one if I can save a lot of money. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Approximate Purchase Date: This week

Budget Range: $2,000 - $2,500

System Usage: Gaming

Are you buying a monitor: No, connecting to my HDTV / home theater system.

Do you need to buy OS: Yes, Windows 10

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg, amazon, Best Buy for parts, although I’m not adverse to using another website. Not sure who to use for pre-built.

Parts Preferences:

CPU: Ryzen 3900

Motherboard: X570, with 10/100/1000 Ethernet speed. WiFi would be nice to have, but not necessary

GPU: Preferably 2080TI, but willing to settle on the Super to save money for other parts. Must have HDMI output with support for 5.1 audio (Dolby, DTS, etc.)

Memory: 3600 DDR 4, 16 GB or 32?

Case: I’m assuming I should use a tower to help with air flow. Designed to be quiet. PC bling isn’t important; I’d rather use the money for better PC parts.

Fans and cooler: Needs to be relatively QUIET even when working hard without a risk of overheating. I don’t mind a little noise, but I don’t want it to be like my old PC which sounded like a jet engine. (Think of the noise when looking at the startup menu for Resident Evil on the Xbox One X for an example of what I think is too loud.). I’ve heard good things about Noctua. Not sure about cooler for CPU.

PSU: Not sure, I’m assuming something from Corsair is the way to go here.

Hard drive - I was thinking a 1 or 2 TB M2 SSD from Samsung with a 7200 RPM mechanical drive? I’m not sure what is the normal hard drive setup for PC gaming builds these days so I’m open to suggestions.

Sound card - Do I even need one? There is a possibility of some headphone use at night.

No keyboard or mouse needed

Overclocking: Never have in the past

SLI or Crossfire: No

Desired Monitor Resolutions: 4K or 1440P with HDR support

Additional Comments: Reducing PC noise while maintaining proper cooling is critical. Although I have central air, I live in Florida so heat management is a factor.
 

Phaaze88

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PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($413.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler ($63.75 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard ($199.99 @ Best Buy)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory ($81.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($64.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB KO GAMING Video Card ($709.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case ($88.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($125.00 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 PWM PST(5-pack) 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fans ($35.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1838.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-28 14:55 EDT-0400
 
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Solution

g-unit1111

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Unless you are in a hurry and need a PC now. I recommend waiting few more months. New Hardware is just around the corner and will be big jump in performance. I highly recommend waiting for NVIDIA and AMD GPU release in around September/October.

The new Intels are out now but they're not really offering much performance difference. Ryzen 4 is supposed to be out later this year but because of the pandemic interrupting supply chains, there is a possibility that it could be delayed. On the other hand, you can get some ridiculous deals on 3rd gen Ryzen CPUs right now. I just got a 3900X for $399. Motherboard availability on the other hand, that's a different issue altogether.
 

deaditelord

Reputable
Apr 19, 2018
8
1
4,515
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($413.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler ($63.75 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard ($199.99 @ Best Buy)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory ($81.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($64.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB KO GAMING Video Card ($709.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case ($88.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($125.00 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 PWM PST(5-pack) 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fans ($35.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1838.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-28 14:55 EDT-0400

Thanks for the responses. That build looks pretty good to me. I think the only change I would make would be to upgrade the motherboard to the Rog Crosshair Viii Hero and the PSU to Corsair RMx 2018 to 850 watts so I have some extra headroom, but otherwise that seems to hit all my requirements. Plus making those changes would still put me at the low end of my budget.

The point about waiting for the new GPUs is worth considering. My old PC is DOA, but I could probably hold off until September/ October. I’ll need to think about it.
 
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Phaaze88

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I would make would be to upgrade the motherboard to the Rog Crosshair Viii Hero and the PSU to Corsair RMx 2018 to 850 watts so I have some extra headroom
The choice is ultimately yours.
The TUF Gaming has WiFi while still being reasonably priced.
The RMX 650 has plenty of headroom. That's a 300w card and the cpu, 180w(worst case scenario). You could even add 100w of headroom for everything else - not that the other parts combined even approach that.
 
The new Intels are out now but they're not really offering much performance difference. Ryzen 4 is supposed to be out later this year but because of the pandemic interrupting supply chains, there is a possibility that it could be delayed. On the other hand, you can get some ridiculous deals on 3rd gen Ryzen CPUs right now. I just got a 3900X for $399. Motherboard availability on the other hand, that's a different issue altogether.
AMD did Tweet that their Zen-3 will be released in 2020 and is on schedule and not delayed. But them saying Zen-3 raised many questions like the release being limited to EPYC Milan and pushing Ryzen Launch to next year, lets see how it goes.
The GPUs will be launching this year from both NVIDIA and AMD no change in that. I think waiting for that is worth it.
 
The choice is ultimately yours.
The TUF Gaming has WiFi while still being reasonably priced.
The RMX 650 has plenty of headroom. That's a 300w card and the cpu, 180w(worst case scenario). You could even add 100w of headroom for everything else - not that the other parts combined even approach that.
TUF Gaming is really good for around its price range but ROG Hero is two tiers above it and of extremely high quality.
PSU I would definitely recommend RMX850 or even better get RMX1000. You shouldn't be limiting the PSU recommendation to this specific build and give as much headroom as possible for future upgrade as these PSUs are build to last long and used in Multiple PCs before retiring. Having 850W or 1000W PSU is always better as PSU itself is comparatively less under stress even while Pushing PC to its limits and having load around 50-70% the efficiency is at its peak.
 

Phaaze88

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TUF Gaming is really good for around its price range but ROG Hero is two tiers above it and of extremely high quality.
'2 tiers above it'... what does that even mean?
Both boards can easily handle a 3950X without breaking a sweat...
@deaditelord what does the almost 400USD board offer in features - which is the core of selecting a motherboard - you'll actually use over the TUF Gaming to justify the almost 200USD price difference?
@King Dranzer Don't even give me the manual overclocking excuse - it's garbage on these cpus, and inferior to slapping an overkill cooler on it, pairing it with up to 3733mhz dual channel ram and tightening the timings.
@deaditelord If you do want to use the OC excuse - 10600K, and overclock it to the moon.
If the real reason is for the ROG branding, go ahead, knock yourself out. I'm in no real position to argue here, because I'm a 'Noctua whore', but you could probably spend that money elsewhere, or save it for later.

PSU I would definitely recommend RMX850 or even better get RMX1000. You shouldn't be limiting the PSU recommendation to this specific build and give as much headroom as possible for future upgrade as these PSUs are build to last long and used in Multiple PCs before retiring. Having 850W or 1000W PSU is always better as PSU itself is comparatively less under stress even while Pushing PC to its limits and having load around 50-70% the efficiency is at its peak.
OMG... you too, huh? Great...
I've been in a few too many clashes about that psu 'limiting' nonsense already. No more. I'm out - but before that...
@deaditelord Look at my build in the first spoiler.
7820X delidded and overclocked = pulls almost 100w more than your considered cpu in the worst case scenario(Prime95, Small FFT, AVX off) at 270w
1080Ti with a 300w limit
That's 570w - full load, which isn't going to happen on a daily basis - from the only power slurpers in the PC. Nothing else in there is going to come close to that.
Idle, just about everything is going to be in a low power state, like less than 100w of total system power.
Gaming, 300w out of the gpu - I won't use the full cpu, nor will I use some 250w from it in that kind of scenario.
I've been running this Seasonic Prime 750 for almost 4 years now, no trouble - it's got a 12 year warranty.
Everything degrades over time. Even if you do get a 1000w psu, it's not going to fail to deliver the needed wattage, it's going to be the internal components eventually giving out and no longer being able to handle the stress from the gpu.
Get a Platinum, or better yet, a Titanium psu, if available.
Bloody 1000w for just that... :pfff:

Good day/night to one, and good luck to the other.
Thread unfollowed.
 
Last edited:
'2 tiers above it'... what does that even mean?
Both boards can easily handle a 3950X without breaking a sweat...
@deaditelord what does the almost 400USD board offer in features - which is the core of selecting a motherboard - you'll actually use over the TUF Gaming to justify the almost 200USD price difference?
@King Dranzer Don't even give me the manual overclocking excuse - it's garbage on these cpus, and inferior to slapping an overkill cooler on it, pairing it with up to 3733mhz dual channel ram and tightening the timings.
@deaditelord If you do want to use the OC excuse - 10600K, and overclock it to the moon.
If the real reason is for the ROG branding, go ahead, knock yourself out. I'm in no real position to argue here, because I'm a 'Noctua whore', but you could probably spend that money elsewhere, or save it for later.


OMG... you too, huh? Great...
I've been in a few too many clashes about that psu 'limiting' nonsense already. No more. I'm out - but before that...
@deaditelord Look at my build in the first spoiler.
7820X delidded and overclocked = pulls almost 100w more than your considered cpu in the worst case scenario(Prime95, Small FFT, AVX off) at 270w
1080Ti with a 300w limit
That's 570w - full load, which isn't going to happen on a daily basis - from the only power slurpers in the PC. Nothing else in there is going to come close to that.
Idle, just about everything is going to be in a low power state, like less than 100w of total system power.
Gaming, 300w out of the gpu - I won't use the full cpu, nor will I use some 250w from it in that kind of scenario.
I've been running this Seasonic Prime 750 for almost 4 years now, no trouble - it's got a 12 year warranty.
Everything degrades over time. Even if you do get a 1000w psu, it's not going to fail to deliver the needed wattage, it's going to be the internal components eventually giving out and no longer being able to handle the stress from the gpu.
Get a 650w Platinum, or better yet, 650w Titanium psu.
Bloody 1000w...

Good day/night to one, and good luck to the other.
Thread unfollowed.
You say you Delidded the CPU and Overclocked it and say that OC is an excuse. Don't know what you are trying to say.
That ROG Hero board is worth the expenditure if OP can afford it. If OP is budget limited or has to compromise in other areas I recommend going for ASUS TUF Board. It is as simple as that.
Coming to PSU there are lot many factors you are not considering. Degrade over time everything degrades over time but if under lot of stress the rate of failure increases a lot. But point here is not about failure or degrading over time(that is a point but not the main one).
When going with 850W or better 1000W PSU it will enable him to run PC at half load getting it to its Peak efficiency and more important than that the limitation of hardware that can be run on it and pushed to limit goes up. Lets say he gets 650W PSU and after 4-5Yrs when he gets next PC and the Power requirement goes up to 650W-750W what is he to do upgrade the PSU which is waste of money as he already has a very decent PSU but of less power output. Or should he be getting low end stuff so that he meets the power requirements and compromise on performance. If I had to go on there are lot many factors which can be argued.
 
Besides all that I recommend OP to wait till September/October to build the PC. New Hardware will be released around that time and Price on Components like PSU, Case, SSD, Memory, CPU Cooler will also go down. For $2500 he can get far better performance around that time than he is getting now.