[SOLVED] New Build - Help an Incompetent Old Guy Build a Gaming PC

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Hobbes_

Jan 16, 2020
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2
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Hi All,

I'm building a new PC for the first time in a long stretch, and would appreciate your input! Call this a mid-life crisis gaming rig.

I'm looking to buy within the week (unless there is a great reason to delay).

This will mainly be for gaming, and eventually 1440p (speaking of which, if you have 144hz monitor recs, I'm all ears).

Here's what I've been considering so far:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/ecrowe/saved/#view=FJNGqs

This part list is at the top end of my budget.

Thanks for sharing your expertise.
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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Made some changes, and got you a better GPU.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($324.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard ($184.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Patriot Viper Steel 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3733 Memory ($94.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital SN750 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($39.71 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB BLACK GAMING Video Card ($499.99 @ Walmart)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case ($84.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($114.99 @ B&H)
Total: $1444.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-16 09:45 EST-0500
 
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GarrettL

GarrettL

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Dec 4, 2019
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@logainofhades , that's a good set up.

@Hobbes_ , do you need wifi integrated in the motherboard. The Gigabyte doesn't have blue tooth or wifi but the Asus TUF does.

The Gigabyte board does have a front panel Type C USB header for the front of the pc case, the Asus TUF does not.

Both boards have good VRM's. Neither is better choice over the other, just different options.

It's a great platform with the x570 motherboard.

I'm currently running a 3800x, Asus TUF wifi with a 2070 Super at 1440p. It's fantastic pc.
 
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GarrettL

GarrettL

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ohio_buckeye is right.

The x570 is AMD's enthusiast offering with PCIe 4.0. At this time there are no benefits of the increased bandwidth for gpu's but storage gets a huge benefit in speed for read/write. Yes, the x570 comes at a premium but it's currently the bleeding edge.

The associated cost per board is relative to what options it has.

My Asus TUF has been trouble free since assembling the pc. No issues at all. No regrets at all. It's my mid-life crisis gaming build :)

The Gigabyte board is a solid choice too. You could get a wifi card for it and be all set.
 
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ohio_buckeye

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I will say, when I've gone to the microcenter in the past, I remember seeing stacks of returned Asus boards. The way I had an idea was seeing the yellow rtv(return to vendor) labels. Who knows if those boards had issues and were repaired. But I haven't had many issues with gigabyte boards either. Though my current board is an ASRock and works good too.
 
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Swarzenegger

Swarzenegger

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Jan 6, 2020
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Hobbes_ said:
From a value perspective, do you think it's worth going for the 2070 Super or saving a bit on the Radeon 5700 XT?
Click to expand...

You can expect around 10% more fps/performance out of a 2070S. So that depends on you. You can look up on google how many fps the cards will give you for the games that you want to play.

But from a value perspective 25% more cost for 10% more performance might not sound good, but the need to upgrade might take a bit longer with the 2070S. So let's say that you can play 60 fps ultra at 1440p for 4 years with a 5700XT, the 2070S could do that for 5 years. (pure hypothetically speaking)
 
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GarrettL

GarrettL

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So with the a budget in mind and wanting to get a 1440p monitor in the near future maybe the 5700 is the right choice at this time.

I switched to 1440p a couple months ago and will never go back to 1080p. A really good IPS monitor is expensive especially at 144Hzand with a low response time. These high quality displays are in the $500-$600 range. The viewing angles are great and the colors are fantastic when compared to TN panels.

We tend to dump our whole budget on a good pc platform and then view it on a washed out TN panel.

A good IPS panel is not cheap but I would highly recommend one in your future.
 
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King_V

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I think I would lean in favor of the 5700XT vs the 2070 Super.

Touching on PSU, I know beQuiet has some good models, and some bad models, but I don't know which is which. The following is a model I know is good, and shaves $18 off the total:
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/79...-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-cp-9020179-na

Do you necessarily need two separate SSDs? I'm wondering if you might be better off with just a single 2TB SSD, though that will up the price a little.


EDIT: fyi, I'm also an old guy who last month built a new PC (for my son), but hadn't built one in years (over a decade). And everything I did build before were Frankenstein units cobbled together from used parts/discards (though sometimes new hard drives). Though, my son's ChromaTron (see sig) is more a mid-range machine.
 
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Duggu_Pal

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Hobbes_ said:
Hi All,

I'm building a new PC for the first time in a long stretch, and would appreciate your input! Call this a mid-life crisis gaming rig.

I'm looking to buy within the week (unless there is a great reason to delay).

This will mainly be for gaming, and eventually 1440p (speaking of which, if you have 144hz monitor recs, I'm all ears).

Here's what I've been considering so far:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/ecrowe/saved/#view=FJNGqs

This part list is at the top end of my budget.

Thanks for sharing your expertise.
Click to expand...
  • GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS MASTER MOTHERBOARD
  • INTEL CORE I7 9700K 9TH GENERATION PROCESSOR (12M CACHE, UP TO 4.90 GHZ)
  • ANTEC KUHLER K240MM RGB CPU COOLER
  • GIGABYTE AORUS P850W 850 WATTS 80+ GOLD FULLY MODULAR PSU
  • G.SKILL 16GB (8GBX2) DDR4 - 3600 MHZ TRIDENT Z RGB SERIES
  • ZOTAC GAMING GEFORCE RTX 2080 SUPER AMP EXTREME 8GB GDDR6
  • SAMSUNG 860 EVO M.2 SATA 500GB SSD
  • SAMSUNG 860 QVO SATA III 2.5 INCH 1TB SSD
  • COMBO COOLER MASTER MS110 MEM-CHANICAL RGB GAMING KEYBOARD AND MOUSE WITH OPTICAL SENSOR
  • ANTEC NX600 NX SERIES MID-TOWER GAMING CABINET
 
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ohio_buckeye

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Surely you jest. That i7 only has 8 threads. Sure it is very very slighty faster on single thread than the ryzen, that 8 cores with no hyperthreading will probably limit it somewhat in the next few years. Even next gen consoles are going to be 8 cores hyperthreaded. So you know that games will probably go toward using that kind of power. Why would you even bother with that 9700 knowing that? Just one person's opinion.
 
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King_V

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Duggu_Pal said:
  • GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS MASTER MOTHERBOARD
  • INTEL CORE I7 9700K 9TH GENERATION PROCESSOR (12M CACHE, UP TO 4.90 GHZ)
  • ANTEC KUHLER K240MM RGB CPU COOLER
  • GIGABYTE AORUS P850W 850 WATTS 80+ GOLD FULLY MODULAR PSU
  • G.SKILL 16GB (8GBX2) DDR4 - 3600 MHZ TRIDENT Z RGB SERIES
  • ZOTAC GAMING GEFORCE RTX 2080 SUPER AMP EXTREME 8GB GDDR6
  • SAMSUNG 860 EVO M.2 SATA 500GB SSD
  • SAMSUNG 860 QVO SATA III 2.5 INCH 1TB SSD
  • COMBO COOLER MASTER MS110 MEM-CHANICAL RGB GAMING KEYBOARD AND MOUSE WITH OPTICAL SENSOR
  • ANTEC NX600 NX SERIES MID-TOWER GAMING CABINET
Click to expand...
Why did you copy over your own build from your thread posted here asking about overclocking your system to 5.0GHz to this thread? What's the relevance?
 
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g-unit1111

g-unit1111

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Jul 27, 2011
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Duggu_Pal said:
  • GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS MASTER MOTHERBOARD
  • INTEL CORE I7 9700K 9TH GENERATION PROCESSOR (12M CACHE, UP TO 4.90 GHZ)
  • ANTEC KUHLER K240MM RGB CPU COOLER
  • GIGABYTE AORUS P850W 850 WATTS 80+ GOLD FULLY MODULAR PSU
  • G.SKILL 16GB (8GBX2) DDR4 - 3600 MHZ TRIDENT Z RGB SERIES
  • ZOTAC GAMING GEFORCE RTX 2080 SUPER AMP EXTREME 8GB GDDR6
  • SAMSUNG 860 EVO M.2 SATA 500GB SSD
  • SAMSUNG 860 QVO SATA III 2.5 INCH 1TB SSD
  • COMBO COOLER MASTER MS110 MEM-CHANICAL RGB GAMING KEYBOARD AND MOUSE WITH OPTICAL SENSOR
  • ANTEC NX600 NX SERIES MID-TOWER GAMING CABINET
Click to expand...

What's the reason for this post? And why would you get a 9700K at this point when it will be replaced with LGA 1200 relatively soon? I'd go for a 570X setup.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($324.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX GT 29.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($39.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 GAMING X ATX AM4 Motherboard ($154.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($87.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Intel 660p 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($131.19 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB PULSE Video Card ($409.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($119.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $1429.06
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-16 18:51 EST-0500
 
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Hobbes_

Jan 16, 2020
4
2
15
Thanks so much for the input everyone - lots of good suggestions, and I'm feeling more confident overall in some of my choices.

The only major things I'm unsure about at this point are the RAM and SSDs. I'm just not very knowledgeable on these topics. If anyone has additional recommendations, or thoughts about what people have recommended above, let me know!

Also, fwiw, I'm eyeing this as a possible monitor:

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/pGqBD3/asus-tuf-gaming-vg27aq-270-2560x1440-165-hz-monitor-vg27aq

Thanks again!
 
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Swarzenegger

Swarzenegger

Great
Jan 6, 2020
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A M.2 SSD for your OS and main games (500GB) and a normal SSD for all other stuff (500GB-1TB). The Samsung EVO's are one of the most popular and reliable SSD's out there, but there are cheaper options if you feel the need.

You will need 2 sticks of ram (DDR4), 16GB is recommended, so 2 8Gb sticks will do fine. AMD CPU's really like higher ram frequencies, but the difference in fps between 3200 MHz and 3722MHz is pretty small IMO, but that might change in the coming years. Corsair Vengeance are pretty cheap-ish for good performance, G.SKILL is fine too. Just look up some reviews before you buy.
 
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