[SOLVED] New to building PC - Need help

[Toddjy]

I have been recently upgrading m the parts from the pre-build I bought off Newegg which is here

Spec list:
Apexgaming STG-650 650W (Non-Modular)
2080 Windforce OC super
i9 9900k
Z390 Phantom Gaming 4S
with gamdias AIO 240mm cooler
DEEPCOOL MATREXX 50 case
-----------------------------------------------------------
So far I have upgraded:
Case - Corsair 570X black mirror
Motherboard - gigabyte z390 aorus ultra (In-transit right now)
-----------------------------------------------------------
What I want to upgrade:
The AIO cooler, with one of Corsair's AIO cooler brands (not decided yet)
More Corsair Fans (undecided yet what fans)


My current issue right now:
The Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra has THIS
One "ATX_12V_2X2" and one ATX_12V_2X4 inputs on the motherboard for CPU power and my current
motherboard which is the Z390 Phantom Gaming 4S has 8-pin ATX12V1 input (Screen shot) for power.

Will I be able to keep my current PSU with the 8-pin ATX12V1 connector that currently connects power
to my current Phantom Gaming 4S motherboard, and use it on the z390 aorus altra to power the board?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Actually, the FIRST thing you should consider doing is getting a better quality power supply. That unit uses low quality budget caps, and is VERY unlikely to last very long with that hardware. Additionally, being a much lesser known brand AND a budget offering, it's not just possible but even likely that there could be problems with the protections in that unit once it has a few miles on it, much like a good many budget models suffer from. Not worth the risk, even if it's only potential risk, to the rest of your hardware.

Further, the reviews of that unit are not particularly good either although the reviews there are are not from what I'd call reputable sources, but there IS a review of the 850w model by Aris here on Tom's hardware and THAT review is not great either. Since both units are in the same series it's very likely that even if they use different platforms the quality selection of components will be similarly poor.

I'd start there.

Not to mention, as you say, your current unit doesn't even have all of the power connectors for that motherboard and running the 9900k, it's probably a good idea, especially with a somewhat lower quality Z board, to not be running any power supply that is even remotely questionable.

As to the other components and questions, my recommendation would be that you stick to a 280mm AIO, whether Corsair or otherwise. A 240mm is probably not going to be all that capable with this very high TDP CPU.

As far as the fans are concerned, unless you are shooting for truly quiet fan operation it probably doesn't matter which ones you get. Obviously, the Corsair Maglev fans are their highest quality models, and come in both RGB and non-RGB variations, but are not particularly cheap either. If you want quiet fans, then just forego using Corsair at all and go straight for Noctua.

For the PSU:

Discussion - PSU recommendations and power supply discussion thread - Tom's hardware

Below you will find MY standard list of recommended power supplies and beyond that this thread is intended as a landing place for questions or discussions regarding specific units, platforms or related PSU tech, all of which are all welcome to be discussed here. If it's related to power supplies...

forums.tomshardware.com

Article - [psucultists] PSU tier list rev. 14.8 (Final Update Jul '21)

PSU Tier List 4.0 rev. 14.8 (outdated) Last Update: 12-07-2021 Legend : Gray - EoL/obsolete and/or otherwise not recommended for purchase. Green - small form-factor (gold and blue colors are disregarded due to scarcity of SFX PSUs) Gold - best units in the tier (includes requirements for blue...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Toddjy]

Actually, the FIRST thing you should consider doing is getting a better quality power supply. That unit uses low quality budget caps, and is VERY unlikely to last very long with that hardware. Additionally, being a much lesser known brand AND a budget offering, it's not just possible but even likely that there could be problems with the protections in that unit once it has a few miles on it, much like a good many budget models suffer from. Not worth the risk, even if it's only potential risk, to the rest of your hardware.

Further, the reviews of that unit are not particularly good either although the reviews there are are not from what I'd call reputable sources, but there IS a review of the 850w model by Aris here on Tom's hardware and THAT review is not great either. Since both units are in the same series it's very likely that even if they use different platforms the quality selection of components will be similarly poor.

I'd start there.

Not to mention, as you say, your current unit doesn't even have all of the power connectors for that motherboard and running the 9900k, it's probably a good idea, especially with a somewhat lower quality Z board, to not be running any power supply that is even remotely questionable.

As to the other components and questions, my recommendation would be that you stick to a 280mm AIO, whether Corsair or otherwise. A 240mm is probably not going to be all that capable with this very high TDP CPU.

As far as the fans are concerned, unless you are shooting for truly quiet fan operation it probably doesn't matter which ones you get. Obviously, the Corsair Maglev fans are their highest quality models, and come in both RGB and non-RGB variations, but are not particularly cheap either. If you want quiet fans, then just forego using Corsair at all and go straight for Noctua.

For the PSU:

Discussion - PSU recommendations and power supply discussion thread - Tom's hardware

Below you will find MY standard list of recommended power supplies and beyond that this thread is intended as a landing place for questions or discussions regarding specific units, platforms or related PSU tech, all of which are all welcome to be discussed here. If it's related to power supplies...

forums.tomshardware.com

Article - [psucultists] PSU tier list rev. 14.8 (Final Update Jul '21)

PSU Tier List 4.0 rev. 14.8 (outdated) Last Update: 12-07-2021 Legend : Gray - EoL/obsolete and/or otherwise not recommended for purchase. Green - small form-factor (gold and blue colors are disregarded due to scarcity of SFX PSUs) Gold - best units in the tier (includes requirements for blue...

forums.tomshardware.com

Thanks for the advice.

What would be considered an higher quality Z board? I figured the Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra was of good quality, which is why I bought it after watching some YouTube reviews.. Should I have gotten the Master version of the Z390s lineup?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Sorry man, I missed where you had already upgraded the motherboard. That's my bad.

That's a much better board than the Phantom Gaming. Not a top shelf board, but certainly much better than that Phantom which is about the least expensive Z

Even so, it really doesn't change the recommendation regarding the power supply. Your system consists of very expensive hardware, and running that hardware on a relatively, comparatively cheap power supply makes very little sense. Even in Canada, and even now when power supplies (And a lot of other hardware) are abnormally expensive, there are still relatively good options out there. I'm sure that unit likely came with the system you purchased but seriously that ought to be your first order of business.

Consider, it really doesn't matter WHAT hardware you have, or how good it is, if it can't perform the way it was meant to because it doesn't have good, clean power. When the power supply is questionable, everything is questionable. And like I said, even if it works ok now, it could be a risk down the road. How FAR down the road? Who knows. If you have money to spend on hardware, I'd start there.

The quality and reliability of the power supply should EXCEED every other component in the system, IF you value any of the other hardware in the system. That's just fundamental common sense when it comes to PC hardware. But, that's totally your choice.

As far as the cooler, what are your main priorities for that? Are you looking for a quiet cooler? Something with the maximum performance? Are looks and aesthetics the primary concern?

 

[Toddjy]

Sorry man, I missed where you had already upgraded the motherboard. That's my bad.

That's a much better board than the Phantom Gaming. Not a top shelf board, but certainly much better than that Phantom which is about the least expensive Z

Even so, it really doesn't change the recommendation regarding the power supply. Your system consists of very expensive hardware, and running that hardware on a relatively, comparatively cheap power supply makes very little sense. Even in Canada, and even now when power supplies (And a lot of other hardware) are abnormally expensive, there are still relatively good options out there. I'm sure that unit likely came with the system you purchased but seriously that ought to be your first order of business.

Consider, it really doesn't matter WHAT hardware you have, or how good it is, if it can't perform the way it was meant to because it doesn't have good, clean power. When the power supply is questionable, everything is questionable. And like I said, even if it works ok now, it could be a risk down the road. How FAR down the road? Who knows. If you have money to spend on hardware, I'd start there.

The quality and reliability of the power supply should EXCEED every other component in the system, IF you value any of the other hardware in the system. That's just fundamental common sense when it comes to PC hardware. But, that's totally your choice.

As far as the cooler, what are your main priorities for that? Are you looking for a quiet cooler? Something with the maximum performance? Are looks and aesthetics the primary concern?

I found this one here:
Seasonic Focus GX-850, 850W 80+ Gold, Full-Modular, Fan Control in Fanless, Silent, and Cooling Mode, 10 Year Warranty, Perfect Power Supply for Gaming and Various Application, SSR-850FX.: Amazon.ca: Computers & Tablets

Do you think this would be ideal for my current system build?

I am looking for something that looks good with some RGB and good performance for the 280mm AIO cooler.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Before making a decision on a specific power supply model, including the capacity, it is important to decide whether the graphics card you have now is going to remain in that build for a considerable length of time OR whether or not you have any plans to potentially be upgrading that video card at some point in the next year or two. If you DO plan to upgrade the card then it makes sense to buy a power supply that will be adequate for THAT graphics card, even when it might seem overkill for the one you currently have. It won't hurt anything to have one that has excessive capacity really when that's the case, or to some degree, in any case.

If no upgrade is planned and you will have the current card for as long as possible, because you believe your needs are not going to change anytime soon, then shooting for a power supply that is sufficient for that model is sensible.

Certainly that is a much better power supply model than what you had, no question, but if you have no plans to upgrade the graphics card at some point to something like an RTX 3080 or 3090, and don't plan to do any serious overclocking of the video card AND the CPU, then it's probably significantly larger than what you actually need by a pretty large amount. You could save some money that doesn't need to be spend by going with a lower capacity model.

Based on your CURRENT configuration, with no probable plans to overclock to a significant degree OR upgrade to a higher tiered graphics card, this would be plenty good and plenty good quality, for that build. It would really be more of an investment in your computing future to be honest.

Also, the original Focus lineup had some minor problems. The Focus Plus is a much better choice really, and the loss of the additional 100w is really no loss at all for your current system, as it would never use it anyhow without a bigger card or some very serious overclocking demands.

PCPartPicker Part List

Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($133.99 @ PC-Canada)
Total: $133.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-01-17 14:01 EST-0500

 

[Toddjy]

Before making a decision on a specific power supply model, including the capacity, it is important to decide whether the graphics card you have now is going to remain in that build for a considerable length of time OR whether or not you have any plans to potentially be upgrading that video card at some point in the next year or two. If you DO plan to upgrade the card then it makes sense to buy a power supply that will be adequate for THAT graphics card, even when it might seem overkill for the one you currently have. It won't hurt anything to have one that has excessive capacity really when that's the case, or to some degree, in any case.

If no upgrade is planned and you will have the current card for as long as possible, because you believe your needs are not going to change anytime soon, then shooting for a power supply that is sufficient for that model is sensible.

Certainly that is a much better power supply model than what you had, no question, but if you have no plans to upgrade the graphics card at some point to something like an RTX 3080 or 3090, and don't plan to do any serious overclocking of the video card AND the CPU, then it's probably significantly larger than what you actually need by a pretty large amount. You could save some money that doesn't need to be spend by going with a lower capacity model.

Based on your CURRENT configuration, with no probable plans to overclock to a significant degree OR upgrade to a higher tiered graphics card, this would be plenty good and plenty good quality, for that build. It would really be more of an investment in your computing future to be honest.

Also, the original Focus lineup had some minor problems. The Focus Plus is a much better choice really, and the loss of the additional 100w is really no loss at all for your current system, as it would never use it anyhow without a bigger card or some very serious overclocking demands.

PCPartPicker Part List

Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($133.99 @ PC-Canada)
Total: $133.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-01-17 14:01 EST-0500

Here is the updated PC spec list:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/YX7Wj2

I went with the Seasonic PRIME Gold 850GD as I decided I will be upgrading to the 3080 Strix once the demand dies down in the future, hopefully that's more than enough. I would like to thank you for taking the time to give me advice on this matter, I was gonna get the Focus Gold Plus but the amazon seller had to cancel and recommended the prime version as an alternative.

 

[Darkbreeze]

That's a great PSU. No complaints there at all.