[SOLVED] Suggestions on building a PC for a neophyte PC builder

[PaxCaeli]

Hello all,
I've been researching and documenting myself for the past few months on pc parts and how they interact with each other so that I could finally build a PC. After putting together a somewhat mid-high end parts list, I wanted to ask if any of you had any advice for me.
I'm planning on using this PC mostly for gaming, but maybe a little bit of photo-editing. Probably is gonna get used around 8hrs a day given that a big part of my work is done on computers.
Here's the part list:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard:MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard
Storage:Sabrent Rocket 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital Blue Mobile 1 TB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: Asus GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB STRIX GAMING Advanced Video Card
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
thank you!

 

[jeremyj_83]

What is your budget?
Are you going to want wireless networking?

 

[PaxCaeli]

What is your budget?
Are you going to want wireless networking?

Sorry I didn’t specify those things. I’m looking for a 1400€ max build (1558$), and no, I don’t really need my pc to be able to connect it on a wireless network

 

[jeremyj_83]

Here is what I would suggest.
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (€309.97 @ Amazon Italia)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard (€117.77 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (€85.38 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: SanDisk SSD PLUS 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€64.98 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8100 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€139.11 @ Amazon Italia)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB PULSE Video Card (€439.69 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case (€108.89 @ Alternate Italia)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€104.99 @ Amazon Italia)
Total: €1370.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-16 17:07 CET+0100
The GPU is about 5-7% slower but much better on price/performance. The savings allows for dual SSDs, the 480GB for OS/Applications and 1TB for Games, as well as the better PSU. The EVGA G2 is getting a bit old by now. Also was able to go with the Ryzen 3700X for 8c/16t.

 

[jeremyj_83]

You can also fit a 2070 Super in the budget by switching to a different 2070 Super and going from the 3700X to the 3600.
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (€228.89 @ Alternate Italia)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard (€117.77 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (€85.38 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: SanDisk SSD PLUS 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€64.98 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8100 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€139.11 @ Amazon Italia)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB VENTUS OC Video Card (€549.99 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case (€108.89 @ Alternate Italia)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€104.99 @ Amazon Italia)
Total: €1400.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-16 17:12 CET+0100

 

[PaxCaeli]

You can also fit a 2070 Super in the budget by switching to a different 2070 Super and going from the 3700X to the 3600.
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (€228.89 @ Alternate Italia)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard (€117.77 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (€85.38 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: SanDisk SSD PLUS 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€64.98 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8100 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€139.11 @ Amazon Italia)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB VENTUS OC Video Card (€549.99 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case (€108.89 @ Alternate Italia)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€104.99 @ Amazon Italia)
Total: €1400.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-16 17:12 CET+0100

thank you very much!
I think I'll stick with the Video card I chose because I've heard a lot of bad stuff about other sellers on amazon that sell those cards. Mostly that they send faulty products, and this has happened to a substantial amount of their customers. I will surely replace my PSU. Is the dual SSD really going to make that much of a difference in performance gaming-wise? For what I've read using an optical drive is ok for games and much cheaper

 

[geofelt]

Your build will work.
At least once you add some ram.
Buy a 2 x8gb kit. Spend a bit more for faster ram.
If you are heavy into photoshop, you might want 32gb.

I do not like your storage choices.
5400rpm drives are slow and I would avoid second tier ssd brands.

A reasonable pick would be a 1tb intel 660P pcie m.2 drive.
A alternative would be a conventional 2.5" 1tb samsung evo.

You can always add another drive later.

MY build process:

Before anything, while waiting for your parts to be delivered, download
and read, cover to cover your case and motherboard manual.
Buy a #2 magnetic tip philips screwdriver.
I find it handy to buy a power switch like this for testing.
https://www.ebay.com/p/4in1-PC-Powe...or-Computer/631889283?iid=142232821294&chn=ps

1. I assemble the critical parts outside of the case.
That lets me test them for functionality easily.
A wood table or cardboard is fine.
2. Plug in only the necessary parts at first. Ram, cpu, cooler, psu.
Do not force anything. Parts fit only one way.
Attach a monitor to the integrated motherboard adapter if you have one, otherwise to the graphics card.

1. If your motherboard does not have a PWR button, momentarily touch the two pwr front panel pins with a flat blade screwdriver.
2. Repeatedly hit F2 or DEL, and that should get you into the bios display.
3. Boot from a cd or usb stick with memtest86 on it. memtest will exercise your ram and cpu functionality.
4. Install windows.
5. Install the motherboard cd drivers. Particularly the lan drivers so you can access the internet.

Do not select the easy install option, or you will get a bunch of utilities and trialware that you don't want. Drivers only.

1. Connect to the internet and install an antivirus program. Microsoft security essentials is free, easy, and unobtrusive.
2. Install your graphics card and driver if you tested with integrated graphics.

You will need to remove the graphics card later to install your motherboard in the case.
As a tip when screwing the motherboard into the posts, give the screw a small counterclockwise turn until you feel a click.
That lets you know that the screw will engage properly.
Make a note of how the graphics card latches into the pcie slot.
The mechanism will be hidden under the card and may be difficult to work if you have not previously checked how.

1. Update windows to currency.
2. Only now do I take apart what I need to and install it in the case.
3. Now is the time to reinstall your graphics card.

 

[PaxCaeli]

Your build will work.
At least once you add some ram.
Buy a 2 x8gb kit. Spend a bit more for faster ram.
If you are heavy into photoshop, you might want 32gb.

I do not like your storage choices.
5400rpm drives are slow and I would avoid second-tier SSD brands.

A reasonable pick would be a 1tb Intel 660P PCI-E m.2 drive.
An alternative would be a conventional 2.5" 1tb Samsung Evo.

You can always add another drive later.

MY build process:

Before anything, while waiting for your parts to be delivered, download
and read, cover to cover your case and motherboard manual.
Buy a #2 magnetic tip Philips screwdriver.
I find it handy to buy a power switch like this for testing.
https://www.ebay.com/p/4in1-PC-Powe...or-Computer/631889283?iid=142232821294&chn=ps

1. I assemble the critical parts outside of the case.
That lets me test them for functionality easily.
A wood table or cardboard is fine.
2. Plug-in only the necessary parts at first. Ram, CPU, cooler, PSU.
Do not force anything. Parts fit only one way.
Attach a monitor to the integrated motherboard adapter if you have one, otherwise to the graphics card.

1. If your motherboard does not have a PWR button, momentarily touch the two pwr front panel pins with a flat blade screwdriver.
2. Repeatedly hit F2 or DEL, and that should get you into the bios display.
3. Boot from a cd or USB stick with memtest86 on it. memtest will exercise your ram and CPU functionality.
4. Install windows.
5. Install the motherboard cd drivers. Particularly the lan drivers so you can access the internet.

Do not select the easy install option, or you will get a bunch of utilities and trialware that you don't want. Drivers only.

1. Connect to the internet and install an antivirus program. Microsoft security essentials is free, easy, and unobtrusive.
2. Install your graphics card and driver if you tested with integrated graphics.

You will need to remove the graphics card later to install your motherboard in the case.
As a tip when screwing the motherboard into the posts, give the screw a small counterclockwise turn until you feel a click.
That lets you know that the screw will engage properly.
Make a note of how the graphics card latches into the PCI-E slot.
The mechanism will be hidden under the card and may be difficult to work if you have not previously checked how.

1. Update windows to currency.
2. Only now do I take apart what I need to and install it in the case.
3. Now is the time to reinstall your graphics card.

Thank you! I'll pick the Intel SSD because it really seems like a better idea than to pick two different drives.
I'm sorry if I wasn't clear in my first post, but I was planning on buying a Corsair Vengeance DDR4 8x2 3400MHz. Would those be good enough for my Ryzen 3600x?

 

[OllympianGamer]

Thank you! I'll pick the Intel SSD because it really seems like a better idea than to pick two different drives.
I'm sorry if I wasn't clear in my first post, but I was planning on buying a Corsair Vengeance DDR4 8x2 3400MHz. Would those be good enough for my Ryzen 3600x?

3200mhz cl14 would be the sweet spot and possibly cheaper than 3400mhz.

 

[geofelt]

Thank you! I'll pick the Intel SSD because it really seems like a better idea than to pick two different drives.
I'm sorry if I wasn't clear in my first post, but I was planning on buying a Corsair Vengeance DDR4 8x2 3400MHz. Would those be good enough for my Ryzen 3600x?

Good enough.
I would not anguish about ram speeds.
At least once you get to 3200 speeds.

The important thing is to get enough capacity up front.
Ram is sold in kits for a reason; the ram must be matched.
Do not count on being able to add more later, it may be incompatible.

 

[jeremyj_83]

Thank you! I'll pick the Intel SSD because it really seems like a better idea than to pick two different drives.
I'm sorry if I wasn't clear in my first post, but I was planning on buying a Corsair Vengeance DDR4 8x2 3400MHz. Would those be good enough for my Ryzen 3600x?

If you are going to go with just 1 SSD, I highly recommend spending the extra 7 Euro for the ADATA XPG SX8100 instead of the Intel 660p. I personally have nothing against the Intel 660p, it is a good budget SSD. That said at the current price point it is priced like a mainstream drive, which it isn't. The SX8100 has 3x the rated endurance, normal usage probably won't matter but if you are doing a lot of writes to the SSD it can, as well as higher sequential read/write speeds. The SX8100 is almost equal in performance to the WD Black in this review https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-ssd-660p-qlc-nvme,5719-2.html

 

[PaxCaeli]

If you are going to go with just 1 SSD, I highly recommend spending the extra 7 Euro for the ADATA XPG SX8100 instead of the Intel 660p. I personally have nothing against the Intel 660p, it is a good budget SSD. That said at the current price point it is priced like a mainstream drive, which it isn't. The SX8100 has 3x the rated endurance, normal usage probably won't matter but if you are doing a lot of writes to the SSD it can, as well as higher sequential read/write speeds. The SX8100 is almost equal in performance to the WD Black in this review https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-ssd-660p-qlc-nvme,5719-2.html

How much would an SSD of that kind even last for?

 

[PaxCaeli]

Good enough.
I would not anguish about ram speeds.
At least once you get to 3200 speeds.

The important thing is to get enough capacity up front.
Ram is sold in kits for a reason; the ram must be matched.
Do not count on being able to add more later, it may be incompatible.

thank you, I understand.

 

[geofelt]

How much would an SSD of that kind even last for?

Endurance is no longer an issue for a ssd.
The nand chips inside a ssd will have a finite number of writes that can be done to it. Perhaps 10,000
Originally when a ssd was 40gb, that was an issue.
The development of trim eliminated the need to do a read/rewrite process for a simple deletion.
Today with the advent of larger devices, you have so many nand chips available that the lifespan of a ssd is not an issue.
In the event that you should ever run out of write capability the device can still be read indefinitely to allow a copy to be made.
If you were in a server environment and were rewriting the full capacity of the device several times a day, then endurance might be an issue.
For us normal people with a 500gb ssd, think 15 years or more.
By that time the device will have been long obsolete.

Bottom line--------------------------------------------- not to worry.

 

[jeremyj_83]

How much would an SSD of that kind even last for?

The SX8100 will last quite a while. It comes with a warranty for 640TB written to it over 5 years. That works out to 350GB/day of writes to the SSD. It will probably last longer than that, but you are warrantied for that amount. The SSD I have in my desktop is a 240GB Corsair Neutron GTX from 2013 and it is still in just fine condition.

 

[PaxCaeli]

Endurance is no longer an issue for a ssd.
The nand chips inside a ssd will have a finite number of writes that can be done to it. Perhaps 10,000
Originally when a ssd was 40gb, that was an issue.
The development of trim eliminated the need to do a read/rewrite process for a simple deletion.
Today with the advent of larger devices, you have so many nand chips available that the lifespan of a ssd is not an issue.
In the event that you should ever run out of write capability the device can still be read indefinitely to allow a copy to be made.
If you were in a server environment and were rewriting the full capacity of the device several times a day, then endurance might be an issue.
For us normal people with a 500gb ssd, think 15 years or more.
By that time the device will have been long obsolete.

Bottom line--------------------------------------------- not to worry.

That's wonderful. Thank you. Do you have any other piece of advice?

 

[jeremyj_83]

That's wonderful. Thank you. Do you have any other piece of advice?

Spend the extra 8 Euro on the 650W Corsair RM (2019). While the EVGA G2 is a great PSU, the design is getting old at this point. It was introduced in 2014 and there have been additions to CPU power states since then.

 

[PaxCaeli]

Spend the extra 8 Euro on the 650W Corsair RM (2019). While the EVGA G2 is a great PSU, the design is getting old at this point. It was introduced in 2014 and there have been additions to CPU power states since then.

Will do. thank you all very much, again