[SOLVED] New system build help please, $1500 budget (flexible)

[zzimet]

Hi all,
I am wanting to build a gaming system. I'm waffling between buying components and putting them together myself or using the Cyberpower customizable build via Costco. I say my budget is $1500, but I'd rather spend $1200 and can spend up to $2000 if it's going to make a huge difference. I will be making the purchase in mid-April. I'm not terrible with putting things together and messing w/ drivers and stuff, but I definitely don't know other than looking at forums what to get.

I currently use 2 monitors (for my non-gaming machine): Dell S2340M (both the same; Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution, not sure on refresh rate). I don't mind getting a new monitor, but I really only use 1 when I game.

Here's an example of what I can order from Costco w/ price of $1,679. I can customize it more, I just picked things I thought made sense at the moment. I assume with the below I would want to drop $200 on a better monitor to use some of the specs.

• CASE: IN WIN 101 Mid Tower High Air Flow Gaming Case w/ Tempered Glass Full Size Window (Black)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6GHz [4.4GHz Turbo] 8 Cores/ 16 Threads 36MB Cache 65W Processor [+150]
• CS_FAN: Default case fans
• FAN: CyberPowerPC DEEPCOOL Castle 120EX ARGB 120mm AIO Liquid CPU Cooling System w/ Copper Cold Plate (Dual (Push-Pull) Standard 120MM Fans [+5])
• HDD: 1TB WD Blue SN550 M.2 NVME SSD + 2TB SATA III Hard Drive Combo [+118] (Combo Drive)
• KEYBOARD: CyberPowerPC RGB 7 Color Premium Gaming Keyboard
• MEMORY: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR4/3000MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance)
• MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE X570 UD ATX GbE LAN, 3 PCIe x16, 2 PCIe x1, 6 SATA3, 1 M.2 SATA/PCIe
• MOUSE: CYBERPOWERPC Gaming Mouse
• OS: Windows 10 Home (64-bit Edition)
• POWERSUPPLY: 650 Watts - Corsair RM Series RM650 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Fully Modular Ultra Quiet Power Supply [+60]
• SERVICE: 2 Years FREE Service Plan (INCLUDES LABOR AND LIFETIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT)
• VIDEO: GeForce® RTX 2070 SUPER™ 8GB GDDR6 (Turing) [VR Ready] [+497] (Single Card)
• WARRANTY: STANDARD WARRANTY: 2 Year Parts WARRANTY
  • (free bonus game w/ CPU via this promotion--I am definitely interested in Borderlands 3) FREEBIE_CU: AMD Q4 Equipped To Win - Get Your Choice of Borderlands 3 or The Outer Worlds plus 3 months of Xbox Game Pass for PC

Any input greatly apprecaited!

 

[tennis2]

I always like to part out a pre-built to see how much extra you're paying for assembly and [perceived] warranty.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($298.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML120R RGB 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($102.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 UD ATX AM4 Motherboard ($143.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($72.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB XC GAMING Video Card ($493.98 @ Newegg)
Case: In Win 101 ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($114.99 @ Corsair)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($109.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $1527.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-21 20:57 EDT-0400

The In Win 101 case comes with zero fans, so you'd need to add a couple to take care of a RTX2070 Super.

I left the keyboard and mouse off because I have no idea how they compare to off-the-shelf stuff.

 

[zzimet]

Thanks tennis So it looks like with the price comparison you made below, it's really not too far off from build-it-yourself.

Any basic input on the CPU/GPU vs. monitor?

Zach

I always like to part out a pre-built to see how much extra you're paying for assembly and [perceived] warranty.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($298.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML120R RGB 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($102.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 UD ATX AM4 Motherboard ($143.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($72.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB XC GAMING Video Card ($493.98 @ Newegg)
Case: In Win 101 ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($114.99 @ Corsair)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($109.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $1527.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-21 20:57 EDT-0400

The In Win 101 case comes with zero fans, so you'd need to add a couple to take care of a RTX2070 Super.

I left the keyboard and mouse off because I have no idea how they compare to off-the-shelf stuff.

 

[tennis2]

RTX2070 Super is definitely a 1440p-tier GPU, but you'll need to spend $300+ to get that.

This Pixio PX275h for $235 after promo code incl. shipping at least has a 30-95Hz refresh rate and LFC. It's passable given the budget.

 

[Bob Bobson]

I would need more information. Is your only plan gaming? Are you planning to maybe stream in the future? If only gaming, with a budget around 1500 you can effectively power a 1440p 144Hz monitor. So I would shoot for that budget. Regarding the peripherals, that is very personal requirement. I can put down some of my favorite mice/keyboards, but I would recommend you to figure that out yourself.

Regarding the Windows OS, I keep buying cheap codes from Ebay for my personal use, they are usually around 20 bucks, and they have been always delivered.

Other factors are RGB, and noise. I would not spend a cent on RGB if it would diminish my performance, but again, that is a personal preference. Also what about noise, do you mind a bit of fan noise, or you would prefer close to silent rig?

If you like tech at least a bit, I would recommend to build your PC yourself. It is fun and you will get to learn about your PC. Also nowadays, if you buy parts from amazon/newegg, there are no problems with the potential use of the warranty.

All that said. I still went ahead and created a build for you. It is build purposed mainly for gaming, capable of pushing out very good framerates on 1440p monitor. I would recommend pairing a 100-144Hz 1440p monitor with it. I also went for noise efficiency and ditched all RGB. The graphics card is one of the quietest and coolest RTX cards there is. It is even better than my gaming X trio in terms of noise. Did I put Dark rock pro on 3600 you ask? Yes I did. You can, of course, run it with its stock cooler, but it is quite loud. Also any Hyper 212ish type coolers are not very quite. With this kind of budget, I would stretch for one of the best air coolers there is. You won't hear much even if the PC will be right next to your head.

Case is very personal thing as well. This fractal is one of the best all-rounder cases. It comes with two 120 fans. You can use these as exhaust fans and put two 140mm silent wings as intake from the front mesh.

Storage is a basic pairing of 500gb system SSD with a couple of TBs of HDD, this can also be changed according to your preference.

Summary. What you get for your 1300 bucks is super quiet PC with no RGB, but great gaming performance capable of running a high refresh rate 1440p monitor.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $160.00 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler | be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler | $86.46 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard | $109.99 @ Amazon
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory | $69.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Crucial P1 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $69.95 @ Adorama
Storage | Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $54.98 @ Newegg
Video Card | Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB GAMING OC 3X Video Card | $524.99 @ Newegg
Case | Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case | $56.87 @ Newegg
Power Supply | SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply | $130.94 @ Amazon
Case Fan | be quiet! SilentWings 3 pwm 59.5 CFM 140 mm Fan | $21.90 @ Amazon
Case Fan | be quiet! SilentWings 3 pwm 59.5 CFM 140 mm Fan | $21.90 @ Amazon
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $1307.97
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-22 04:25 EDT-0400 |

 

[Hellfire13]

For that kind of budget, I would build something like this...

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor | $298.99 @ B&H
CPU Cooler | Scythe Mugen 5 Rev. B 51.17 CFM CPU Cooler | $48.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard | Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard | $189.99 @ Amazon
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory | $82.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $119.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $54.98 @ Newegg
Video Card | EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB XC GAMING Video Card | $493.98 @ Newegg
Case | Phanteks ECLIPSE P350X ATX Mid Tower Case | $59.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply | SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply | $109.99 @ B&H
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit | $109.99 @ B&H
Keyboard | Thermaltake CHALLENGER PRIME Wired Gaming Keyboard | $29.98 @ Amazon
Mouse | Logitech G402 Wired Optical Mouse | $27.48 @ Target
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1657.34
| Mail-in rebates | -$30.00
| Total | $1627.34
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-22 04:43 EDT-0400 |

 

[zzimet]

Yeah basically just gaming. I assume by streaming you mean like producing streaming content of some kind, and I don't have any real intention of that. I guess the only other thing I might do is run some VirtualBox VMs (which I assume mainly would just pull RAM).

Noted re: Windows. I have Win10 ISOs so should be able to pick up a code (I've done that for Win7 VMs).

I really appreciate the notes about noise--that's well-placed. Silent stuff would be great assuming the expense isn't too bad, but I'm not super sensitive to it.

When you say RGB, are those the color-changing fans? If so, I do actually like the silly colors, but am willing to pass on them if they are basically BS.

Thanks for the great input, I really appreciate your time and expertise!

Zach

I would need more information. Is your only plan gaming? Are you planning to maybe stream in the future? If only gaming, with a budget around 1500 you can effectively power a 1440p 144Hz monitor. So I would shoot for that budget. Regarding the peripherals, that is very personal requirement. I can put down some of my favorite mice/keyboards, but I would recommend you to figure that out yourself.

Regarding the Windows OS, I keep buying cheap codes from Ebay for my personal use, they are usually around 20 bucks, and they have been always delivered.

Other factors are RGB, and noise. I would not spend a cent on RGB if it would diminish my performance, but again, that is a personal preference. Also what about noise, do you mind a bit of fan noise, or you would prefer close to silent rig?

If you like tech at least a bit, I would recommend to build your PC yourself. It is fun and you will get to learn about your PC. Also nowadays, if you buy parts from amazon/newegg, there are no problems with the potential use of the warranty.

All that said. I still went ahead and created a build for you. It is build purposed mainly for gaming, capable of pushing out very good framerates on 1440p monitor. I would recommend pairing a 100-144Hz 1440p monitor with it. I also went for noise efficiency and ditched all RGB. The graphics card is one of the quietest and coolest RTX cards there is. It is even better than my gaming X trio in terms of noise. Did I put Dark rock pro on 3600 you ask? Yes I did. You can, of course, run it with its stock cooler, but it is quite loud. Also any Hyper 212ish type coolers are not very quite. With this kind of budget, I would stretch for one of the best air coolers there is. You won't hear much even if the PC will be right next to your head.

Case is very personal thing as well. This fractal is one of the best all-rounder cases. It comes with two 120 fans. You can use these as exhaust fans and put two 140mm silent wings as intake from the front mesh.

Storage is a basic pairing of 500gb system SSD with a couple of TBs of HDD, this can also be changed according to your preference.

Summary. What you get for your 1300 bucks is super quiet PC with no RGB, but great gaming performance capable of running a high refresh rate 1440p monitor.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $160.00 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler | be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler | $86.46 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard | $109.99 @ Amazon
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory | $69.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Crucial P1 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $69.95 @ Adorama
Storage | Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $54.98 @ Newegg
Video Card | Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB GAMING OC 3X Video Card | $524.99 @ Newegg
Case | Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case | $56.87 @ Newegg
Power Supply | SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply | $130.94 @ Amazon
Case Fan | be quiet! SilentWings 3 pwm 59.5 CFM 140 mm Fan | $21.90 @ Amazon
Case Fan | be quiet! SilentWings 3 pwm 59.5 CFM 140 mm Fan | $21.90 @ Amazon
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $1307.97
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-22 04:25 EDT-0400 |

 

[zzimet]

Thanks very much!

Zach

For that kind of budget, I would build something like this...

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor | $298.99 @ B&H
CPU Cooler | Scythe Mugen 5 Rev. B 51.17 CFM CPU Cooler | $48.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard | Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard | $189.99 @ Amazon
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory | $82.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $119.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $54.98 @ Newegg
Video Card | EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB XC GAMING Video Card | $493.98 @ Newegg
Case | Phanteks ECLIPSE P350X ATX Mid Tower Case | $59.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply | SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply | $109.99 @ B&H
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit | $109.99 @ B&H
Keyboard | Thermaltake CHALLENGER PRIME Wired Gaming Keyboard | $29.98 @ Amazon
Mouse | Logitech G402 Wired Optical Mouse | $27.48 @ Target
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1657.34
| Mail-in rebates | -$30.00
| Total | $1627.34
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-22 04:43 EDT-0400 |

 

[Bob Bobson]

Yeah basically just gaming. I assume by streaming you mean like producing streaming content of some kind, and I don't have any real intention of that. I guess the only other thing I might do is run some VirtualBox VMs (which I assume mainly would just pull RAM).

Noted re: Windows. I have Win10 ISOs so should be able to pick up a code (I've done that for Win7 VMs).

I really appreciate the notes about noise--that's well-placed. Silent stuff would be great assuming the expense isn't too bad, but I'm not super sensitive to it.

When you say RGB, are those the color-changing fans? If so, I do actually like the silly colors, but am willing to pass on them if they are basically BS.

Thanks for the great input, I really appreciate your time and expertise!

Zach

Yes, you download a Windows 10 ISO on a flash drive, do a new install and when it asks for a code you put in the one you have bought. Just by the code from sources with a lot of good reviews, but I guess that is obvious.

RGB are those colorful flashing fans/light strips ,etc. It is something that is fun for maybe a week or two, but after that, you just turn them off or set to one color and forget about it. So I would not sacrifice noise for RGB, as many people do when they buy noisy RGB fans.

Let me know if you want to make some changes, maybe to your storage, to the case, CPU fan. I can give you some alternatives.

 

[zzimet]

Got it re: OS.

Thanks for the details re: RGB. Yeah, I hear you. I have since Alienware came out years ago w/ those green lights always thought they were cool. But I'm in my 40s now and you're probably 100% right about the noise being the proper priority.

The case looks good. The only thing that jumps out at me about the CPU fan is that it's really big. Any issue w/ fitting it into the case?

As to storage, what you picked matches what I was planning personally: 500GB SSD for games and maybe Office, 1 or 2 TB HDD for everything else. I'll have to research how to make sure allocating functions between the two drives is smooth, but I would assume OS has improved since the last time I tried to run two drives like that back when SCSI was a thing.

Thanks again for all your time!

Zach

Yes, you download a Windows 10 ISO on a flash drive, do a new install and when it asks for a code you put in the one you have bought. Just by the code from sources with a lot of good reviews, but I guess that is obvious.

RGB are those colorful flashing fans/light strips ,etc. It is something that is fun for maybe a week or two, but after that, you just turn them off or set to one color and forget about it. So I would not sacrifice noise for RGB, as many people do when they buy noisy RGB fans.

Let me know if you want to make some changes, maybe to your storage, to the case, CPU fan. I can give you some alternatives.

 

[Bob Bobson]

Got it re: OS.

Thanks for the details re: RGB. Yeah, I hear you. I have since Alienware came out years ago w/ those green lights always thought they were cool. But I'm in my 40s now and you're probably 100% right about the noise being the proper priority.

The case looks good. The only thing that jumps out at me about the CPU fan is that it's really big. Any issue w/ fitting it into the case?

As to storage, what you picked matches what I was planning personally: 500GB SSD for games and maybe Office, 1 or 2 TB HDD for everything else. I'll have to research how to make sure allocating functions between the two drives is smooth, but I would assume OS has improved since the last time I tried to run two drives like that back when SCSI was a thing.

Thanks again for all your time!

Zach

Regarding the CPU heatsink, yes it should fit, the case has a 165mm clearance and the heatsink is 162,8. So it will be close but will fit. If you were to splurge a bit of cash for something maybe more stylish, I highly recommend this one - https://pcpartpicker.com/product/nL...-c-tg-atx-mid-tower-case-fd-ca-mesh-c-bko-tgl.

 

[zzimet]

I will probably have to budget for that case, even after getting a nice monitor.

Thanks again!

Zach

Regarding the CPU heatsink, yes it should fit, the case has a 165mm clearance and the heatsink is 162,8. So it will be close but will fit. If you were to splurge a bit of cash for something maybe more stylish, I highly recommend this one - https://pcpartpicker.com/product/nL...-c-tg-atx-mid-tower-case-fd-ca-mesh-c-bko-tgl.

 

[zzimet]

Hi Bob,
Looking at the reviews of that MSI mobo, it looks like it may have trouble with the AMD Ryzen series. Is there an alternative you would recommend? I don't mind spending a little more on it either if it has more ports or something.

Edit: it looks like it's the B450 ones; I think I will probably go with an X570 option instead. Does this change the fan I should use?

Thanks,
Zach

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $160.00 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler | be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler | $86.46 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard | $109.99 @ Amazon
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory | $69.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Crucial P1 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $69.95 @ Adorama
Storage | Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $54.98 @ Newegg
Video Card | Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB GAMING OC 3X Video Card | $524.99 @ Newegg
Case | Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case | $56.87 @ Newegg
Power Supply | SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply | $130.94 @ Amazon
Case Fan | be quiet! SilentWings 3 pwm 59.5 CFM 140 mm Fan | $21.90 @ Amazon
Case Fan | be quiet! SilentWings 3 pwm 59.5 CFM 140 mm Fan | $21.90 @ Amazon
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $1307.97
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-22 04:25 EDT-0400 |

 

[Bob Bobson]

Hi Bob,
Looking at the reviews of that MSI mobo, it looks like it may have trouble with the AMD Ryzen series. Is there an alternative you would recommend? I don't mind spending a little more on it either if it has more ports or something.

Edit: it looks like it's the B450 ones; I think I will probably go with an X570 option instead. Does this change the fan I should use?

Thanks,
Zach

Hi,
It works fine with new ryzen 3000 BUT it needs to be updated to the new bios version. Most sellers offer this for 10 buck where I live. Other option is to download that BIOS to your flashdisc and flash it from that. You don't need older CPU to do that. That is another great feature of this mobo. See some guide on the internet for this, or maybe a video such has this one.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVBz8dEfnz8