[SOLVED] New gaming and coding PC (~£2500)

Feb 12, 2020
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Hello everyone!

Is it possible to get some expert advice from the the community of hardware aficionados (please :oops:)? Essentially, I want to put together a configuration for gaming/coding of around £2350-£2500 by the end of this month and maybe get some suggestions regarding which deposits/stores I should choose. And yes, I am from the UK, and the only store I know is Amazon :rolleyes:. To be clear, I haven't built a computer or even possessed a PC in the last 10 years (it was all laptops or tablets for me). Nonetheless, the new RTX games and the fact that I need a coding server (to ssh into) convinced me to get a PC.

To get to business, I want a PC capable of handling games like Metro, Control and the new Tomb Raider at 1080p - 1440p with 60Hz with the rest of the graphics to max and of course all ray-tracing options maxed as well. I would also like if this configuration would last for at least 3 years without reducing the graphics quality in any upcoming games. On the coding front, I prefer many threads and of course an amazing video card; which is great news for Control and the rest! So is this even possible?

To start from something, I was thinking of a configuration like this:

Case: Be Quiet. bgw20 - £77.97
Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming X570-Plus ATX - £174.48
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X Processor - £438.00
CPU fan: Noctua NH-D15 Premium CPU Cooler with 2x NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fans - £77.13
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (the 2 cooler one) - £1,178.99
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 32GB 3200 MHz - £144.34
Power Supply: Corsair CP-9020130-UK TXM Series 850 W - £88.49
Storage: Samsung 860 EVO 500 GB SATA 2.5" Internal SSD - £71
OS: Windows 10 Home - £119.99
Case Fans (?): upHere 3-PIN 120mm LED Computer Case Fan - £16.99
Total: £2,387.38
(the prices are taken from Amazon)

But I am no expert, so these components can definitely be improved or replaced/removed if they makes no sense to be there - like maybe the Noctua fan(?). Please let me know what you think! Thank you!
 
Solution
This will definitely perform well and last you long long time even when switching to a 4k monitor...

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor | £415.65 @ Amazon UK
CPU Cooler | Noctua NH-D15 CHROMAX.BLACK 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler | £89.99 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard | Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming ATX AM4 Motherboard | £249.98 @ Amazon UK
Memory | G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory | £182.97 @ Amazon UK
Storage | ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | £137.58 @ Aria PC
Storage | Crucial MX500 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive | £192.98 @ Amazon...
There's a fair difference between 1080p and 1440p. What is the make/model of the monitor you're gaming on?

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor (£415.65 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X62 Rev 2 98.17 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£113.35 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI MPG X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard (£169.95 @ AWD-IT)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory (£151.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£137.58 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 6 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£155.97 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card (£638.46 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ Currys PC World)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£94.99 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit (£86.70 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £2054.11
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-13 15:45 GMT+0000
 
Feb 12, 2020
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Thank you for your response!

Sadly, at the moment I was going for a borrowed monitor so it will be 1080p with 60Hz for sure. Later I might upgrade to 1440p, stay at 1080p but with better contrast and response time, or even get a curved screen at 1440p (maybe). I think the monitor model was Dell or LG LCD-LED, but old nonetheless (I have to check with my friend). I was thinking of investing in a PC unit at the end of the month, just to be sure I get it right; and I would get the monitor later (unless the PC unit will be magically lower priced). Nonetheless, I looked at your suggestions and I have a couple of questions (just so I learn a bunch of things :D):
  1. Should I get a PCIe 4 Motherboard for better bandwidth with the video card? If so, is the motherboard you suggested PCIe 4? (especially as I will be picking a good video card)
  2. Shouldn't I go for 2080 Ti? Or do you think the Super version is enough to last for 3 years with all games performing at minimum 60Hz with everything else to max settings? (resolution 1080p or 1440p). Also, which of these brands is better and for what? (Gigabyte, EVGA, etc)
Maybe I should mention this as well. I am looking for something that would last me longer and can be upgraded later... maybe by adding another video card in SLI, getting a better processor, overclocking + getting better cooling, etc.
And yes, I can push the price closer to £2500 if the improvements are worth it. If not, I will get a monitor as well (I need to get a desk as well, but that's going to be second hand... because rent :D)
 
This will definitely perform well and last you long long time even when switching to a 4k monitor...

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor | £415.65 @ Amazon UK
CPU Cooler | Noctua NH-D15 CHROMAX.BLACK 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler | £89.99 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard | Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming ATX AM4 Motherboard | £249.98 @ Amazon UK
Memory | G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory | £182.97 @ Amazon UK
Storage | ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | £137.58 @ Aria PC
Storage | Crucial MX500 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive | £192.98 @ Amazon UK
Video Card | Zotac GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB Twin Video Card | £939.94 @ Amazon UK
Case | Phanteks Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case | £63.30 @ Ebuyer
Power Supply | Corsair RM (2019) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply | £94.99 @ Amazon UK
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit | £86.70 @ Amazon UK
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | £2454.08
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-13 16:51 GMT+0000 |
 
Solution
Feb 12, 2020
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This is very convincing, I will check this build when I get back home (just finished department work o_O). THANK YOU SO MUCH GUYS! I will have more questions in a bit :D
 
All X570 boards are PCIe4.0. No Nvidia GPUs are PCIe4.0 yet. (But they are backward compatible)

RTX2080 Super is plenty. I just played Shadow of Tomb Raider on my 1440p 144Hz monitor at ~65FPS using my RX480 (GTX1650 Super), albeit with some settings turned down (keep in mind, I'm also using an 8 year old CPU, see signature). Not saying you should go buy a $180 GPU for 1440p gaming, but I was/am able to play 1440p games at acceptable frame rates and quality settings to fully enjoy them.
gMaVmaUPDgixE4hJwJb7Eo-650-80.png

dpJVWZwutLB2Sbeg6rzq8R-650-80.png

(keep in mind, those are ULTRA settings, so quite wasteful on performance for little/no visual improvement compared to high.
 
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Feb 12, 2020
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I am back. Sorry for the delay... I am busy all the time haha. Nonetheless, returning to the matter at hand, I want to say again THANK YOU FOR THE HELP, and now to continue :D

tennis2 wrote:

RTX2080 Super is plenty. I just played Shadow of Tomb Raider on my 1440p 144Hz monitor at ~65FPS using my RX480 (GTX1650 Super), albeit with some settings turned down (keep in mind, I'm also using an 8 year old CPU, see signature). Not saying you should go buy a $180 GPU for 1440p gaming, but I was/am able to play 1440p games at acceptable frame rates and quality settings to fully enjoy them.

But I prefer everything to ultra right?

(keep in mind, those are ULTRA settings, so quite wasteful on performance for little/no visual improvement compared to high.

Impressive how hard Metro Exodus hits those high-end graphics cards lol :eek:! But I see where you are coming from. I presume that even anti-aliasing is to the max in those cases, which doesn't really make that much of a difference (maybe?) graphically; but ultra textures, ultra shadows and others, actually make a macroscopic difference. But even if we take this into account, keep in mind that I will always cap the frame-rate to 60Hz with 1080p or 1440p which will already help the video card temperature-wise to not drop the FPS to such low numbers in the graphically intensive moments. And yes I might not care about anti-aliasing that much? But if the computer permits, maybe I will at least switch the distant-blur option to completely off. So I finally see distant things in a realistic manner... not just blurred for saving computer power, which was the tradition for when I was playing graphically-intensive games 10 years ago :rolleyes:.

Additionally, my work requires a lot of parallelization, which I normally send to the supercomputer, but I am thinking of migrating my work to a local server, for multiple projects. This local server is the computer I want to buy now. This is great news because of the Ryzen multi-thread style, but when I start building a server - AI I will probably need a powerful GPU. Now I never did GPU programming yet, so I can't say how important is the video card (yet), this is why I was thinking of going big on this front (both for games and CUDA style scripts).

Taking this into account, don't you think I should go for the 2080 Ti?

I like Hellfire13's build because it has that 2080 Ti, but I think it has too much storage for now. I would probably add more storage later, as I have like 6TB of external HDDs + 10 TB on the clusters. But I will probably go for more storage at a later stage.

One other question I have is.... if you were in the UK right now... and you wanted to buy these parts. Which shops would you go for (apart from Amazon)? I guess I need to be in the middle of safe and cheap right? (How reliable is pcpartpicker?)
 
Metro Exodus is a hard hitter for sure. But look at that graph again. The ~55-60FPS GPUs are ~$400 (5700XT). You're talking about nearly 3x the cost to achieve 35% higher frame rates that you'll be capping back down to 60fps again anyway. And even a 50-75% cost increase for 20% improvement gong from a 2080 Super to a 2080Ti.

There are plenty of articles around the net that compare Ultra settings to High/Medim/etc on a screen shot basis (unrealistic visual comparison advantage), and they almost unanimously come to the conclusion that there's no discernible visual difference between High and Ultra. I don't have time at the moment to search out an example article unfortunately.
 
Feb 12, 2020
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I agree with what you are saying. The framerate difference is not proportional to the price difference, that's for sure :D. But this is because there is nothing better than 2080 Ti at the moment (I think...), so I'll be paying a lot for just having the top high end.

But I am willing to pay it... like the baddies from Tangled (
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTuwo_TqlhQ
) I also have a dream (lmao). I don't mind the extra cost as long as it stays within 2500.

But there is one practicality to choosing a better card. Later if more GPU power is required (projects or games making the 2080 Ti sweat too much...) I can buy another 2080 Ti and make an SLI. The 2080 Ti SLI will be better than the 2080 Super SLI, and if the purchase of the second card is within a year or two, the price will definitely go down. Of course, this makes sense, as long as 2080 Ti is still available in 2 years time, and if the new generation of video cards aren't way above a 2080 Ti SLI :D
 
Feb 12, 2020
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OK so I noticed that I can save up money with the motherboard. The difference between Hellfire13's MB (Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming ATX AM4 Motherboard) and tennis2's MB (MSI MPG X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard) is just a load of ports at the back. Like I can have HDMI and Display ports (and others), but I think they are not needed. Looking at the things that matter, I noticed that the more expensive MB has memory type DRAM compared to the cheaper one which has DDR4 SDRAM... which after some Googling I discovered that the SDRAM is better. The rest seems the same (but maybe I'm mistaking... I am not a professional at this). So I am not sure, but it seems I might go for the MSI MPG X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard. Is this a wise decision?

So a question overall is, what is the strategy when getting MBs, and why should I go for more expensive ones? Thank you!

Also, will the MB hold the massive Noctua CPU Cooler? 😨 (it is probably a very stupid question I guess)
And another obvious question, would the Noctua Cooler fit with both those MBs? (would it obstruct RAM?)

I will post the whole build as it progresses, in the first post :D
 
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Feb 12, 2020
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Thank you for the comparison, because I just realised that the MSI X570 has PCIe 3; or am I mistaking? In case it is true, what would be the same as that MB but with PCIe4 (just in case I will get a better video card?). Or do you think I won't need PCIe4? (because I might get a PCIe 4 VC if available in some years... probably after I have the 2080TI SLI)

Edit: Like this? https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Gamin...ords=PCIe+4+motherboard&qid=1582126032&sr=8-1
 

EndEffeKt_24

Commendable
Mar 27, 2019
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Thank you for the comparison, because I just realised that the MSI X570 has PCIe 3; or am I mistaking? In case it is true, what would be the same as that MB but with PCIe4 (just in case I will get a better video card?). Or do you think I won't need PCIe4? (because I might get a PCIe 4 VC if available in some years... probably after I have the 2080TI SLI)

Edit: Like this? https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Gamin...ords=PCIe+4+motherboard&qid=1582126032&sr=8-1
The pci-e gen and the number of lanes is dictated by the chipset. So every single x570 motherboard got pci-e 4.0
Do you need it? Only if you are using a pci-e gen4 nvme drive and work with very big data sets or streams like 8k video editing.
 
Feb 12, 2020
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Thank you for your explanation. But then I am clearly not getting something. In tennis2's comparison, there is one entry:

PCI Express x13 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slots*
* The speeds may vary for different devices
2 x PCIe 4.0 x1

where the MSI board was on the left. This is what I don't understand. On the other hand, I would like max bandwidth from the PCIe, so you are saying that both those MBs have the same bandwidth?
 
Feb 12, 2020
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Ah...
PCI Express 4.0 x161 x PCIe 4.0/3.0 x16 slot (PCIE_1)
  • 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen support PCIe 4.0 x16 mode
  • 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen support PCIe 3.0 x16 mode
  • Ryzen with Radeon Vega Graphics and 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen with Radeon Graphics support PCIe 3.0 x8 mode
1 x PCIe 4.0/3.0 x16 slot (PCIE_3, supports x4 mode)
3rd Gen AMD Ryzen Processors
2 x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)
2nd Gen AMD Ryzen Processors
2 x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)
2nd and 1st Gen AMD Ryzen with Radeon Vega Graphics Processors
1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x8 mode)

AMD X570 chipset
1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 (max at x4 mode) *
* PCIeX16_3 slot shares bandwidth with PCIeX1_2.

Basically the 1x PCIe 4.0/3.0 is the Videocard slot? And another PCIe 4.0/3.0 is the other slot? (in case of SLI)

Also sorry for being so inquisitive :oops:
 
Feb 12, 2020
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OK so these components are on their way :eek::eek::eek::

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X Processor (12C/24T, 70MB Cache, 4.6 GHz Max Boost)

Phanteks Pro M Tempered Glass, Black/White, PH-ES515PTG_SWT

MSI MPG X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI Motherboard ATX

Corsair RM850, RM Series, 80 Plus Gold Certified, 850 W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 3600MHz C16, High Performance Desktop Memory Kit (AMD Optimised)

Noctua NH-D15 Premium CPU Cooler with 2x NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fans

Which amount for £1058
What is left is Windows 10, 2080 Ti and a bundle of 3 case coolers o_O. I presume I will get the MSI 2080 Ti, but what do you guys think? Depending on the makers of the card, the price can go from 980 to 1350 (from what I noticed)... but I presume the performance doesn't resembles 1% of the price. Just better overclocking, which will bring what... 8% increase in performance? Let me know what you think :D
 
OK so these components are on their way :eek::eek::eek::

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X Processor (12C/24T, 70MB Cache, 4.6 GHz Max Boost)

Phanteks Pro M Tempered Glass, Black/White, PH-ES515PTG_SWT

MSI MPG X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI Motherboard ATX

Corsair RM850, RM Series, 80 Plus Gold Certified, 850 W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 3600MHz C16, High Performance Desktop Memory Kit (AMD Optimised)

Noctua NH-D15 Premium CPU Cooler with 2x NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fans

Which amount for £1058
What is left is Windows 10, 2080 Ti and a bundle of 3 case coolers o_O. I presume I will get the MSI 2080 Ti, but what do you guys think? Depending on the makers of the card, the price can go from 980 to 1350 (from what I noticed)... but I presume the performance doesn't resembles 1% of the price. Just better overclocking, which will bring what... 8% increase in performance? Let me know what you think :D
Looks good with the build. This should be helpful...
https://techguided.com/best-rtx-2080-ti/
 
Feb 12, 2020
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Appreciative of the confirmation for this first part of the build!!!

And yes that link is very helpful! I really need to make up my mind regarding the Video Card. I could go for the MSI if the performance-over-price isn't that great from overclocking. I looked up on some post on the forum with a comparison the founder's edition (non-OC) vs overclocked custom card, and the difference was 8% at best... for £300 extra. But again, I don't know for sure. I might go for a better gigabyte version of the 2080 Ti or the MSI. I also have to find a good shop where to get the card from, as Amazon UK seems to have the MSI, but the rest are from untrustworthy places :oops:. This videocard is making me quite cynical, even towards Amazon. I will look at Curry's or Scan (from the UK) as well :D
 
Feb 12, 2020
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Hello again. After getting my salary, I went for more components:

Video Card: MSI NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080Ti VENTUS GP 11G Graphics Card 11 GB GDDR6, 1545 MHz
Storage: Samsung 860 QVO 1 TB SATA 2.5" Internal SSD

The video card is the dual fan cooling system version. I got the cheapest because of Hellfire13's post. Thank you for that!

I am now considering buying Windows 10 to put on a USB and I am looking for a monitor as well, as the price is barely 2200-2300 up to now :D. In terms of monitors, I was thinking of keeping it simple... GSync, 1080p or 1440p, 60 or ~144Hz and maybe curved :oops:. Looking at the prices, it is not so bad to get more features. Any suggestions here? Also, what do you think of the additional components:giggle:
 

larsv8

Distinguished
With that processor and GPU, you should get the best monitor you can to take advantage of the top of the line hardware. Your system is super overkill for 1080p. You could spend half that and max out 1080p. I would look for 1440p and 140+ Hz

The ASUS ROG Swift PG35VQ is the bee's knees and has basically anything anyone would ever want at 1440. Super expensive though.

I personally use a PG279Q and it has served me well.
 
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