- Oct 5, 2002
- 456
- 12
- 18,785
I am helping build a PC for my friend. His primary use will be Video Editing/Encoding, and his secondary use will be for gaming, though due to the limited budget and video encoding requiring a good CPU and amount of memory, we decided to actually hold off on the GPU/gaming for now as that's not as important as the video editing, and just drop in a GPU later when he can afford it. He has a budget of $1000-$1200. So before we pull the plug and start buying the parts, I wanted to ask people's opinions on the parts list.
RGB is not important and we will not be overclocking. Also, there were many constraints and special cases I dealt with that I want to cover before mentioning the parts lists since I am sure these will be some of the more common questions people will have about the parts list:
1: Please, no arguments about Intel/AMD, please. I have answered this question dozens of times while I was piecing this thing together and have many reasons not to go AMD, but among them some of the biggest are that: 1. I can get a 9700K for $30 cheaper ($300) than I could find a 3700x ($330) anywhere, 2. The 9700K seemed to be roughly the same performance at the 3700x and in many gaming benchmarks even surpass it by a bit. 3: A lot of this build at this point has been centered around the motherboard, and having to change that would require changing half the parts, as even the case was specifically chosen around this motherboard. 4: But most important of all, as mentioned preivously the parts list has no GPU. We are planning to put one in later, but Ryzens don't have an IGP while Intel's CPUs do, and tossing in a GPU would require me to completely discard my entire parts list just to fit one into the budget.... which will be tossed away anyway later when a proper GPU is purchased later, on top of that being a waste I would have to start completely over, so AMD isn't really an option here.
2: Obviously, if there is a good reason I should not choose some part, there is a much better similarly priced alternative, or other such advice I would want to know, that is the whole purpose of this post of course. That being said, I spent several days researching all these before I picked them, so please try to give me advice on the parts list itself instead of just completely ignoring the list and spending a few minutes putting together a completely different list. I am only saying this because people have done that before and it really does not help, especially when most of the time they don't even take the mentioned budget or constraints/uses into consideration.
3: Yes, I know there are no accessories listed. We were just focusing on trying to budget in the best internals we could for now, just the essentials needed to boot the system and edit video, he already has a mouse and we are doing to see if we can find a cheap keyboard while at Microcenter for now. I have a spare monitor he can borrow in the meantime until he can get a decent one... good monitors are not cheap and would take a large chunk out of the budget otherwise. I already have a valid unused Windows key that I don't mind letting him have.
Anyway, thank you if you still got through that rambling wall of text, sorry about that, here is the parts list:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/y8C4tg
A few explanations as to why I picked these, since that might help people give me better opinions or recommendations on any changes I could make:
CPU:
As mentioned before, I wanted to not scale back the CPU in order to budget in a lower-tier GPU as that would impact the video editing/encoding, so I went with the best CPU I could get in the budget that also had an IGP. We live near a Microcenter that sells the CPU for $300 if we buy it in-person, and an additional $30 off if we get a motherboard with it.
Cooler:
The 9700K does not come with one, and I heard (though with conflicting reports) that the 9700K runs hot, so I tried to get a pretty decent cooler that was not absurd overkill like the Noctua D15 for example. Noctua always seems to be on the top or close to the to on most reviews and have been for years... although I was surprised how the U14S was only a little cheaper than the flagship D15. I was considering the Cooler Master Hyper 212 as well due to how much cheaper it is... but it's cooling is not as great and I am worried if it can keep up with a 9700K running at full stock power, as well as worried about the paste that would come with it, I know that the paste that Noctua coolers comes with is one of the best without going into excessive overkill territory.
Motherboard:
Usually I prefer ASUS motherboards, and as this is a 9th gen Intel, I wanted to go with a Z390 chipset. However, I read reviews that ASUS dropped the ball with "Faked VRMs" this generation of motherboards ( https://www.hardocp.com/article/2019/01/06/asus_rog_maximus_xi_hero_z390_motherboard_review/7 ), so after more researching and reviews Gigabyte seemed to be the second best bet, and the one that seemed to be the best without hitting extremely high prices was the Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master or the Ultra. I am a little worried about the Master however, some of the reviews on Newegg claimed quality issues with it (I didn't see those for the Ultra, but it also had less reviews so it might not have had as many people use it) but I have no idea how true those user reviews would be as none of the professional reviews I saw talked about this, many seemed to love the board. I was originally considering the Ultra as it's basically a slightly cheaper Master with slightly less features, but it's not always in stock at Microcenter for that bundle deal I mentioned while the Master is. We will still decide which one to go with there if we need any more wiggle-room in the budget.
RAM:
There was three major types I was choosing between, Patriot Viper Steel ( PVS432G320C6K ), Corsair Vengance ( CMK32GX4M4B3200C16 ), and G.Skill Trident Z ( F4-3200C16D-32GTZKW ), all three were around the same price-point give-or-take around $10-20. After asking around and getting opinions I decided to go with the G.Skill, it's what I also used myself in my build as they seemed the best option at the time so that works for me. Though I do wonder if 32GB is overkill, the biggest way to save on the budget would be to get the 16GB version, but we are going to have to upgrade it to 32GB or even higher one day as this computer is going to have to last a long time. (Another reason I wanted to not go lower-end on any of the parts if I could fit it in the budget... the Master version of that motherboard for example can go up to 128GB while the Ultra goes up to 64GB... although I don't know how useful a 9700K might be by the time 128GB is actually reasonable... by then it might be time for a while new build anyway).
SSD:
Yes I know, why SSD and not NVME? That's actually because of a total screwup that's my fault. This SSD is the one part which was already purchased in preparation for building a PC last Black Friday (plans fell through and got delayed, which is why we are doing it now), I didn't know NVME was a thing until recently, which is why I recommended this SSD back then. So we can't really change that as we already have it and it's way too late to return it. That one is set in stone. I was hoping we could also add a HDD for mass storage.... but not sure how much we can go over budget, we will be looking at the OEM drives that Microcenter has while we are there for the CPU/Motherboard.
Case:
He mentioned that he wanted to keep the option open to install a Blu-Ray drive in it eventually, so I was looking for a case with a 5-inch bay. The motherboard also has a USB-C header and while not critically important, I wanted to see if I could get a case that fit both requirements and more or less would be compatible with most of the headers of the motherboard without costing a lot. (Sadly, this invalidates the case I initially chose, the LIAN LI PC-O11, due to having no 5 inch bay). This case is the best I found that fits all those. A 5 inch bay, USB 2.0 ports, USB 3.0 ports, and now comes in a version with the USB-C upgrade already installed (Was originally an additional add-on). A little worried about temperatures though, it seems to be between the same performance to slightly worse performance than similar cases in terms of temperatures, although by removing some of the soundproofing you can increase that by about an additional 10-12 degrees. The only other one I found was a very very nice case by Cooler Master.... that was $300.
PSU:
One of the most important parts you should NEVER skimp out on IMO, a bad PSU can wreck the rest of your system. SeaSonic seemed to top most of the reviews and charts yet again that I read, and I use SeaSonic myself, been running a 2012 build nearly 24/7 flawlessly. The PRIME/Titanium line seems to be the best SeaSonic has to offer right now, so I went with that. When trying to decide on how many Watts I would need, PSU calculators seemed to show around 480-550, so to be safe I wanted to go 650, but the 750 wasn't that much more expensive and figured had good wiggle room for future updates and I wanted to account for aging since as I said he would be using this for a very long time... plus some people were recommending I would need at least 750 anyway... although I don't know if they might have just been exaggerating.
So... that's it. Yeah I know, sorry about the wall of text.... again. That is what I am trying to build and all the reasons why I chose the parts I did. Does anyone have any additional comments, opinions, or ideas to make or know of why I should/should not use any of these parts or have a better replacement in mind?
Thank You
RGB is not important and we will not be overclocking. Also, there were many constraints and special cases I dealt with that I want to cover before mentioning the parts lists since I am sure these will be some of the more common questions people will have about the parts list:
1: Please, no arguments about Intel/AMD, please. I have answered this question dozens of times while I was piecing this thing together and have many reasons not to go AMD, but among them some of the biggest are that: 1. I can get a 9700K for $30 cheaper ($300) than I could find a 3700x ($330) anywhere, 2. The 9700K seemed to be roughly the same performance at the 3700x and in many gaming benchmarks even surpass it by a bit. 3: A lot of this build at this point has been centered around the motherboard, and having to change that would require changing half the parts, as even the case was specifically chosen around this motherboard. 4: But most important of all, as mentioned preivously the parts list has no GPU. We are planning to put one in later, but Ryzens don't have an IGP while Intel's CPUs do, and tossing in a GPU would require me to completely discard my entire parts list just to fit one into the budget.... which will be tossed away anyway later when a proper GPU is purchased later, on top of that being a waste I would have to start completely over, so AMD isn't really an option here.
2: Obviously, if there is a good reason I should not choose some part, there is a much better similarly priced alternative, or other such advice I would want to know, that is the whole purpose of this post of course. That being said, I spent several days researching all these before I picked them, so please try to give me advice on the parts list itself instead of just completely ignoring the list and spending a few minutes putting together a completely different list. I am only saying this because people have done that before and it really does not help, especially when most of the time they don't even take the mentioned budget or constraints/uses into consideration.
3: Yes, I know there are no accessories listed. We were just focusing on trying to budget in the best internals we could for now, just the essentials needed to boot the system and edit video, he already has a mouse and we are doing to see if we can find a cheap keyboard while at Microcenter for now. I have a spare monitor he can borrow in the meantime until he can get a decent one... good monitors are not cheap and would take a large chunk out of the budget otherwise. I already have a valid unused Windows key that I don't mind letting him have.
Anyway, thank you if you still got through that rambling wall of text, sorry about that, here is the parts list:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/y8C4tg
A few explanations as to why I picked these, since that might help people give me better opinions or recommendations on any changes I could make:
CPU:
As mentioned before, I wanted to not scale back the CPU in order to budget in a lower-tier GPU as that would impact the video editing/encoding, so I went with the best CPU I could get in the budget that also had an IGP. We live near a Microcenter that sells the CPU for $300 if we buy it in-person, and an additional $30 off if we get a motherboard with it.
Cooler:
The 9700K does not come with one, and I heard (though with conflicting reports) that the 9700K runs hot, so I tried to get a pretty decent cooler that was not absurd overkill like the Noctua D15 for example. Noctua always seems to be on the top or close to the to on most reviews and have been for years... although I was surprised how the U14S was only a little cheaper than the flagship D15. I was considering the Cooler Master Hyper 212 as well due to how much cheaper it is... but it's cooling is not as great and I am worried if it can keep up with a 9700K running at full stock power, as well as worried about the paste that would come with it, I know that the paste that Noctua coolers comes with is one of the best without going into excessive overkill territory.
Motherboard:
Usually I prefer ASUS motherboards, and as this is a 9th gen Intel, I wanted to go with a Z390 chipset. However, I read reviews that ASUS dropped the ball with "Faked VRMs" this generation of motherboards ( https://www.hardocp.com/article/2019/01/06/asus_rog_maximus_xi_hero_z390_motherboard_review/7 ), so after more researching and reviews Gigabyte seemed to be the second best bet, and the one that seemed to be the best without hitting extremely high prices was the Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master or the Ultra. I am a little worried about the Master however, some of the reviews on Newegg claimed quality issues with it (I didn't see those for the Ultra, but it also had less reviews so it might not have had as many people use it) but I have no idea how true those user reviews would be as none of the professional reviews I saw talked about this, many seemed to love the board. I was originally considering the Ultra as it's basically a slightly cheaper Master with slightly less features, but it's not always in stock at Microcenter for that bundle deal I mentioned while the Master is. We will still decide which one to go with there if we need any more wiggle-room in the budget.
RAM:
There was three major types I was choosing between, Patriot Viper Steel ( PVS432G320C6K ), Corsair Vengance ( CMK32GX4M4B3200C16 ), and G.Skill Trident Z ( F4-3200C16D-32GTZKW ), all three were around the same price-point give-or-take around $10-20. After asking around and getting opinions I decided to go with the G.Skill, it's what I also used myself in my build as they seemed the best option at the time so that works for me. Though I do wonder if 32GB is overkill, the biggest way to save on the budget would be to get the 16GB version, but we are going to have to upgrade it to 32GB or even higher one day as this computer is going to have to last a long time. (Another reason I wanted to not go lower-end on any of the parts if I could fit it in the budget... the Master version of that motherboard for example can go up to 128GB while the Ultra goes up to 64GB... although I don't know how useful a 9700K might be by the time 128GB is actually reasonable... by then it might be time for a while new build anyway).
SSD:
Yes I know, why SSD and not NVME? That's actually because of a total screwup that's my fault. This SSD is the one part which was already purchased in preparation for building a PC last Black Friday (plans fell through and got delayed, which is why we are doing it now), I didn't know NVME was a thing until recently, which is why I recommended this SSD back then. So we can't really change that as we already have it and it's way too late to return it. That one is set in stone. I was hoping we could also add a HDD for mass storage.... but not sure how much we can go over budget, we will be looking at the OEM drives that Microcenter has while we are there for the CPU/Motherboard.
Case:
He mentioned that he wanted to keep the option open to install a Blu-Ray drive in it eventually, so I was looking for a case with a 5-inch bay. The motherboard also has a USB-C header and while not critically important, I wanted to see if I could get a case that fit both requirements and more or less would be compatible with most of the headers of the motherboard without costing a lot. (Sadly, this invalidates the case I initially chose, the LIAN LI PC-O11, due to having no 5 inch bay). This case is the best I found that fits all those. A 5 inch bay, USB 2.0 ports, USB 3.0 ports, and now comes in a version with the USB-C upgrade already installed (Was originally an additional add-on). A little worried about temperatures though, it seems to be between the same performance to slightly worse performance than similar cases in terms of temperatures, although by removing some of the soundproofing you can increase that by about an additional 10-12 degrees. The only other one I found was a very very nice case by Cooler Master.... that was $300.
PSU:
One of the most important parts you should NEVER skimp out on IMO, a bad PSU can wreck the rest of your system. SeaSonic seemed to top most of the reviews and charts yet again that I read, and I use SeaSonic myself, been running a 2012 build nearly 24/7 flawlessly. The PRIME/Titanium line seems to be the best SeaSonic has to offer right now, so I went with that. When trying to decide on how many Watts I would need, PSU calculators seemed to show around 480-550, so to be safe I wanted to go 650, but the 750 wasn't that much more expensive and figured had good wiggle room for future updates and I wanted to account for aging since as I said he would be using this for a very long time... plus some people were recommending I would need at least 750 anyway... although I don't know if they might have just been exaggerating.
So... that's it. Yeah I know, sorry about the wall of text.... again. That is what I am trying to build and all the reasons why I chose the parts I did. Does anyone have any additional comments, opinions, or ideas to make or know of why I should/should not use any of these parts or have a better replacement in mind?
Thank You
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