[SOLVED] New System Builds - Opinions?

[Yeldur]

Hi all,

I'm currently building a new rig, so far I've got two possibilities

1. Go down the AMD rabbit hole
2. Stick with Intel and hope that they release something that beats back AMD's closing in superiority for the purpose of future-proofing.

On that note, I've built two rigs (Storage not included because I don't need/want to replace my storage devices):

AMD Rig
Intel Rig

Either way, I'm looking to gather opinions on three things:

1. Is AMD the way to go now? Are Intel likely to clap back with a CPU that is going to beat AMD's new 5000 series out of the park?
2. Are these builds OK? Are there any changes I should make? Anything that could make things better? Have I done something stupid that makes them incompatible?
3. Are both of these motherboards all good on the audio side of things? I'm a bit of an audiophile and want to keep my audio quality as high as possible. Is it worth investing in a Sound Card for either of these or are they fine?

Important note:

• Price is not an issue, within reason. I'm not going to spend £10k on a rig, but besides that so long as the price is reasonable I'm down for improvements.
• The rig will be used primarily for gaming, the main types of games I play are RTS's with the occasional single-player game like Far Cry, CyberPunk, Red Dead Redemption 2. RTS Wise we're talking: Stellaris, Europa Universalis IV, Crusader Kings 3, Total War games (Any and all)

Thanks in advance



EDIT & UPDATE:

So, based on the feedback here I've made the following changes:

UPDATED AMD RIG

Thoughts?

Some more queries:

I'm currently rocking an ASUS ROG Strix Z370-H - I've got two M.2 drives installed there, does anyone know if the two drives would be compatible with the mobo?

I'm seeing the following warnings when looking at the build:

• Warning!Some AMD X570 chipset motherboards may need a BIOS update prior to using Vermeer CPUs. Upgrading the BIOS may require a different CPU that is supported by older BIOS revisions.
• Note:The Noctua NH-U14S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler may require a separately available mounting adapter to fit the Gigabyte X570 AORUS PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard.
• Note:Some physical dimension restrictions cannot (yet) be automatically checked, such as cpu cooler / RAM clearance with modules using tall heat spreaders.

Should I be worried about this? I don't have an alternative CPU that I can use to do this, so if this is the case would this not render the entire rig useless? This seems like something incredibly stupid to have as an issue, which is why I'm a bit doubtful as to whether it's even true.

Am I likely to need another mounting adapter for the MOBO?

 

[Dj0gany]

No,you will be using that to mount the heatsink to the cpu socket.You can put the fan on the heatsink later,and then adjust it to fit your ram height

 

[Why_Me]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lian-Li-Lancool-ARGB-Midi-Tower-Case/dp/B082HSN78C/ref=pd_sbs_1
Lian-Li Lancool II ARGB Midi-Tower Case - Black £101.73

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/750...modular-single-rail-62a-plus-12v-120mm-fan-at
Corsair 750W TX750M Gold Hybrid Modular PSU £99.98

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/asu...40-sata3-dual-m2-crossfire-usb-32-gen2-aplusc
ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (Wi-Fi) ATX Motherboard £165.98

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd...46ghz-turbo-35mb-cache-pcie-40-65w-cpu-retail
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6 Core AM4 CPU £309.98

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/be-...pes-135mm-silent-wings-pwm-fan-al-cu-200w-tdp
be quiet Dark Rock 4 Intel/AMD Air CPU Cooler £64.99

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/arc...igh-durability-enthusiast-for-all-cpu-coolers
Arctic MX-4 Enthusiast Performance Thermal Paste 4g for All CPU Coolers New 2020 Edition £4.99

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/16g...3600-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-16-135v-intel-amd
16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX Black, PC4-28800 (3600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 16, 1.35V, Intel/AMD Optimised £78.49

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/2tb...-ssd-3d-tlc-nand-3500mb-s-read-3000mb-s-write
2TB PNY XLR8 CS3030, M.2 (2280) PCIe 3.0 (x4) NVMe SSD, 3D TLC NAND, 3500MB/s Read, 3000MB/s Write, 643K/729K IOPS £243.98

Total: £1,070

https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/gpu-nvidia/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070-graphics-cards
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-ryzen-5-5600x-zen-3-review
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Review: The Mainstream Knockout

https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/27/21534142/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070-review
NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 REVIEW: THE 1440P SWEET SPOT

https://lian-li.com/product/lancool-ii/ <--- A better look at that case.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfxuqjt38dA

 

[Yeldur]

No,you will be using that to mount the heatsink to the cpu socket.You can put the fan on the heatsink later,and then adjust it to fit your ram height

Ahhhh I see, understood. So to clarify, I wouldn't need to purchase anything extra in order to adjust the fan in this instance?

 

[Yeldur]

-snip-

https://lian-li.com/product/lancool-ii/ <--- A better look at that case.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfxuqjt38dA

Funnily enough, I just got done with watching a review on another case I was looking at (The Corsair 650X) - Which compared it to another Lian Li case (O11 Dynamic)

I must admit, despite the review... I'm a pretty big fan of the "cable shoving" compartment that exists on the Corsair 650X. I'm a fan of easy cable management where I can get it and that case interests me as a result (Plus a friend has recently bought a computer and has that exact case, hence why it interested me.)

I'll check out the video!

 

[Dj0gany]

Ahhhh I see, understood. So to clarify, I wouldn't need to purchase anything extra in order to adjust the fan in this instance?

Ahhhh I see, understood. So to clarify, I wouldn't need to purchase anything extra in order to adjust the fan in this instance?

If the cooler is brand new,you shouls receive a bracket.

 

[Yeldur]

If the cooler is brand new,you shouls receive a bracket.

Fair, glad to hear. I mean worst case scenario is that I receive the parts and then have to wait a bit longer before building it. Not the end of the world as I have a working rig currently

 

[Yeldur]

I've got one more query.. Mostly surrounding the cases end of things now, I mentioned earlier about the Corsair 680X (https://www.scan.co.uk/products/cor...tower-pc-case-tempered-glass-windows-e-atxmit)

Unfortunately it doesn't appear to exist on PCPartPicker, so I thought I'd ask here.

Is this case likely to be compatible with my build? A friend has the same case with a 3090 and it does fit as shown here, though I appreciate his build is different to mine and as such there are likely size differences.

 

[Dj0gany]

I've got one more query.. Mostly surrounding the cases end of things now, I mentioned earlier about the Corsair 680X (https://www.scan.co.uk/products/cor...tower-pc-case-tempered-glass-windows-e-atxmit)

Unfortunately it doesn't appear to exist on PCPartPicker, so I thought I'd ask here.

Is this case likely to be compatible with my build? A friend has the same case with a 3090 and it does fit as shown here, though I appreciate his build is different to mine and as such there are likely size differences.

Yes it is.NhD 14 is 160mm tall and the case supports up to 180mm.But keep in mind that with the raised fan it will be taller than 160mm for sure

 

[Yeldur]

Yes it is.NhD 14 is 160mm tall and the case supports up to 180mm.But keep in mind that with the raised fan it will be taller than 160mm for sure

Hmmm... Very true. I think I'll stick with the Obsidian to be on the safe side. That case seems to be extremely spacious offering a 360mm on the front, 280mm on the top and 120mm on the back. That will be more than adequate for the space. I suppose I'll just have to be a bit more anal about my cables given that they will be visible

I think that pretty much answers all of my questions for now.

Thanks very much for your time everyone (Especially you Djoza) - Now the only issue really is to locate stock - Best Answer has to go to Djoza due to his helpfulness throughout.