The PC Builders Thread ("I Need a New PC") v3

Relix · May 2, 2020

Polyh3dron said:
From my experience, mixing and matching kits is an awful idea if you want them to run at their rates speeds. I tried combining two GSkill 32GB kits and it was a nightmare getting them to work properly. Returned them and got a proper 64GB 3600 kit and it works like a charm with the DOCP profile.

Gotcha.
Well I'll give USPS until today if not I am switching over to that Corsair RAM and return/resell the GSkill.

In a totally unrelated question I am connecting my cables to the mobo and realized I have an AIO Header. I connected the pump to CPU Fan and the sata power cable (Corsair H115). I also connected the USB to the internal motherboard ports. I hate the cable mess coming out of the pump but what can you do. Anyway is this the correct approach? Or should I use the AIO Header?

tadaima · May 2, 2020

Crazymoogle said:
The "average" build for you is basically

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (8 core CPU)

Motherboard (B450 Tomahawk Max being the cheapest good option)

RTX 2070 SUPER Graphics Card (2080S will have better fps at much more money)

16GB DDR4-3200 RAM (32 gives you more legroom for other apps being open)

600-650W Power Supply

Case (I'd suggest a midtower that can fit an ATX board, like the Meshify C or P400 RGB)

Most of your budget would go into the CPU and GPU, which are doing almost all of the work.

Using the above as a basis, I came up with the following build, the main purpose being to play Half-Life Alyx with an Index.

- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
- Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4
- Memory: CFD Gaming DDR4-3200 16GB x2
- Storage: Crucial P1 1TB M.2-2280 NVME SSD
- Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE
- PSU: Corsair RM 650x
- Case: NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case
Total damage: ¥190,743 (about $1,800)

Options were pretty limited when looking for recommendations since there are large variations in available manufacturers and prices between Japan(/Asia) and EU/US. For the RAM I ended up using some Japanese sites as guidance as the US/EU equivalents weren't really proving fruitful. There is a large used parts market such as in places like Akihabara but I'd rather order it online at this time.

I was considering the RTX 2080ti but ultimately opted for the RTX 2070 Super as there didn't seem to be a huge performance increase for the price difference. Counter to that, I upped the memory and CPU since I'll be doing some memory/CPU intensive tasks and reviews of the Ryzen 3900X seem to be glowing. Would have bit on the 9500X if it wasn't sold out everywhere here.

The only thing I'm not sure about is the combination of case and motherboard. I heard that the USB-C port on the top of the case is not supported by this motherboard. Can anybody confirm this? I will order a different motherboard if there's something more suitable.

Also, I'm wondering if I should add more cooling to the case. I went for the NZXT H510 since it seems balanced and I liked the form factor (and didn't want the glass front of the more expensive version), but I read that it can get warm inside there. There is room for a radiator/water cooling but would that be overkill?

Aside from that, how does it look?

In terms of peripherals I'll be using a Drop Alt keyboard and Logitech MX Master. Wondering if I should hook it up to my main TV or the HDMI monitor at my desk. Using a Dell P2415Qb... time for an upgrade? Will try to find a way to connect this to my amp for sound.

Looking forward to building my first PC in around 20 years. As a Mac user this has been a fun but overwhelming experience and the parts haven't even arrived yet!

b0uncyfr0 · May 2, 2020

PC ERA - i need to decide on an upgrade path, please advice:

I have a 3770k at 4.7 Ghz, a highly oc'd 1070 (Always above 2.1 Ghz core putting it at stock 1080 levels) and 2600Mhz ram.

Will i see better performance benefits going to a 5700xt ... or upgrading the base PC to a 3600x (B450 Mobo will OC potential + 3600 Ram).

Taking into account the money id get for my current parts - it's about 150-200 dollar's for each option. Why i'm cheaping out

- AMD 4000x will be released soon, plus Intel's release should push 3600x pricing (maybe even 3700x) down.
- I wanted to upgrade to the 4000 line but the AM4 platform will be dead, thus no upgrade upgrade path's.
- I suspect AM5 will be janky with DDR5 - thus thats another year to wait.

So at most, upgrading in two years. Should it be the gpu or base PC.. ?

MrH · May 2, 2020

Alastor3 said:
Im not trolling, i can't see any difference in any video once you pass 120fps, it's like my eyes can't

Oh, you mean like that, well yeah you won't in a video, but you'll damn sure feel it whilst actually playing games at high refresh rate.

Gevurztraminer · May 2, 2020

tadaima said:
Using the above as a basis, I came up with the following build, the main purpose being to play Half-Life Alyx with an Index.

- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
- Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4
- Memory: CFD Gaming DDR4-3200 16GB x2
- Storage: Crucial P1 1TB M.2-2280 NVME SSD
- Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE
- PSU: Corsair RM 650x
- Case: NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case
Total damage: ¥190,743 (about $1,800)

Options were pretty limited when looking for recommendations since there are large variations in available manufacturers and prices between Japan(/Asia) and EU/US. For the RAM I ended up using some Japanese sites as guidance as the US/EU equivalents weren't really proving fruitful. There is a large used parts market such as in places like Akihabara but I'd rather order it online at this time.

I was considering the RTX 2080ti but ultimately opted for the RTX 2070 Super as there didn't seem to be a huge performance increase for the price difference. Counter to that, I upped the memory and CPU since I'll be doing some memory/CPU intensive tasks and reviews of the Ryzen 3900X seem to be glowing. Would have bit on the 9500X if it wasn't sold out everywhere here.

The only thing I'm not sure about is the combination of case and motherboard. I heard that the USB-C port on the top of the case is not supported by this motherboard. Can anybody confirm this? I will order a different motherboard if there's something more suitable.

Also, I'm wondering if I should add more cooling to the case. I went for the NZXT H510 since it seems balanced and I liked the form factor (and didn't want the glass front of the more expensive version), but I read that it can get warm inside there. There is room for a radiator/water cooling but would that be overkill?

Aside from that, how does it look?

In terms of peripherals I'll be using a Drop Alt keyboard and Logitech MX Master. Wondering if I should hook it up to my main TV or the HDMI monitor at my desk. Using a Dell P2415Qb... time for an upgrade? Will try to find a way to connect this to my amp for sound.

Looking forward to building my first PC in around 20 years. As a Mac user this has been a fun but overwhelming experience and the parts haven't even arrived yet!

for that price and the final specs... Japan pc pricing is tough. It's a really nice system though.

I would suggest bumping the ram speed to 3600, especially since you have a high end zen2. Secondly, I believe the wraith prism cooler that comes with 3900x will suffice, you have a pretty roomy case too, but if you can fit in the budget a better cooler please go for it. A good noctua air cooler or a 240/280mm aio will do nicely. As for the mobo and case front panel io, you can always get adapters to fit anything, but you may not be getting the max speed of course. I don't see a 3.1 header on your motherboard though, so yeah, I don't think the usb-c will be useable without something else.

Crazymoogle · May 2, 2020

tadaima said:
The only thing I'm not sure about is the combination of case and motherboard. I heard that the USB-C port on the top of the case is not supported by this motherboard. Can anybody confirm this? I will order a different motherboard if there's something more suitable.

You're right, the Tomahawk Max does not have a front USB-C header. Basically, you need something with a USB 3.1G2 header, which is unfortunately quite different than previous gens. So you have two choices: either get a board that has it, or get a PCI-e adapter card and the cable. There are also some adapters floating out there but they degrade the speed of the USB-C port.

Gigabyte AORUS X570 Pro
Gigabyte AORUS X570 Master
ASUS Prime X570-Pro

This site seems to be a way to search for it, but the basic idea is that cheap-tier motherboards don't have it. And B450 in particular doesn't have it. So you need an X470 or X570 motherboard.

I don't think AIO is exactly overkill, it would help if you're ever doing something using all cores, but in any case I would probably want an aftermarket cooler. I'm a fan of the Dark Rock 4 cooler myself (air) but nothing wrong with AIOs. Just that in general the Mugen, DR4, and Noctuas are all about as good and cheaper.

b0uncyfr0 said:
PC ERA - i need to decide on an upgrade path, please advice:

I have a 3770k at 4.7 Ghz, a highly oc'd 1070 (Always above 2.1 Ghz core putting it at stock 1080 levels) and 2600Mhz ram.

Will i see better performance benefits going to a 5700xt ... or upgrading the base PC to a 3600x (B450 Mobo will OC potential + 3600 Ram).

Taking into account the money id get for my current parts - it's about 150-200 dollar's for each option. Why i'm cheaping out

- AMD 4000x will be released soon, plus Intel's release should push 3600x pricing (maybe even 3700x) down.
- I wanted to upgrade to the 4000 line but the AM4 platform will be dead, thus no upgrade upgrade path's.
- I suspect AM5 will be janky with DDR5 - thus thats another year to wait.

So at most, upgrading in two years. Should it be the gpu or base PC.. ?

A quick check online suggests there won't be much of a bottleneck with the 5700XT. I don't agree with you on an upgrade path - Ryzen 4000 is probably end of the year, and then AM5 is yet another year after that. Compared to Intel that is pretty good support - 3 generations of CPUs - and who knows, there could be more if there are any manufacturing setbacks. AM5 is so far away it's not even worth considering right now.

Anyway, the answer seems to be your video card. Unless you want to wait and see what RTX3000 is like.

low-G · May 2, 2020

Until now I've only owned SATA M.2 SSD drives & It seems I've maxed out my SATA lanes and my drives are filling up (all 8TB). I'm considering buying a PCIe gen 3 nvme M.2 drive (1 or 2TB). According to my mobo manual I'll be able to install a PCIe M.2 drive in the one slot without disabling any SATA lanes (that makes sense, but it looks like only one M.2 slot supports this functionality where the SATA lanes don't get disabled, or maybe it's bad writing. Is that common?)

For PCIe M.2 drive owners - any words of wisdom or caution besides the research I've already done? I have a i9-9900k so I should be set in terms of decompression speed.

As an aside I've done some research on the next gen console PCIe gen 4 drives and it looks like in the XSX without the DRAM module can expect only 3.3GB/sec max theoretical throughput, which is the real world performance of a decent nvme PCIe gen 3 M.2. And with the PS5 drive a maximum theoretical peak performance of 60% faster than that, it doesn't seem like there would be any lack in sequential read speed from such a drive...

MrH said:
Oh, you mean like that, well yeah you won't in a video, but you'll damn sure feel it whilst actually playing games at high refresh rate.

Personally on a VRR monitor I can't barely feel the difference beyond 90fps.

Doc Holliday said:
yea I'm confused. I'm about to build a ryzen pc, is this a thing? I've only built intel machines before.

I've definitely heard you can bend CPU pins if you increase the torque too much on the HSF! But that's on Intel, not sure about AMD...

gully state · May 2, 2020

Been out of the PC building game for awhile now and I'm planning putting together a new PC within the next year and a half. Last time I built a PC, 1080p 60 fps was the gold standard shorthand (2009). What's the sweet spot budget range these days for 1080p 60fps, 1440p 60 fps and 4K 60 fps. My build would be a gaming pc/entertainment with a sprinkle of office productivity...

Crazymoogle · May 2, 2020

low-G said:
Until now I've only owned SATA M.2 SSD drives & It seems I've maxed out my SATA lanes and my drives are filling up (all 8TB). I'm considering buying a PCIe gen 3 nvme M.2 drive (1 or 2TB). According to my mobo manual I'll be able to install a PCIe M.2 drive in the one slot without disabling any SATA lanes (that makes sense, but it looks like only one M.2 slot supports this functionality where the SATA lanes don't get disabled, or maybe it's bad writing. Is that common?)

For PCIe M.2 drive owners - any words of wisdom or caution besides the research I've already done? I have a i9-9900k so I should be set in terms of decompression speed.

As an aside I've done some research on the next gen console PCIe gen 4 drives and it looks like in the XSX without the DRAM module can expect only 3.3GB/sec max theoretical throughput, which is the real world performance of a decent nvme PCIe gen 3 M.2. And with the PS5 drive a maximum theoretical peak performance of 60% faster than that, it doesn't seem like there would be any lack in sequential read speed from such a drive...

Losing a SATA port is definitely possible on older boards that have a mixed-mode M.2 port that can support SATA as well as NVME (yeah, some M.2s are SATA). But your first slot is free-and-clear, as you said. You're totally fine going Gen 3 and I recommend it for virtually all of resetera unless you have specific Gen4 needs or a ton of budget. Just aim for Gen 3 (x4 lanes) and ideally a TLC drive. Avoid drives without DRAM if possible.

Yes, 3x4 TLC drives exceed the XSX spec. It's possible this is either due to QLC or perhaps that the drive is a 2242 instead of a 2280 (fewer chips generally results in fewer lanes and thus less thoroughput). Certainly the expansion card looks like a 2242. PS5 is way over spec - 12 channels, PCIe4 - but PCs tend to heavily load RAM and we are a long way away from Gen4 drives becoming a defining factor for PC Gaming.

NeroPaige · May 2, 2020

Cyborg009 said:
I was just a bit shocked on how hot the side of my case was. I know my GPU is really close to my PSU but the other PCI slot doesn't match my case slots.

The side of my PC was hot when gaming, what I did was put two regular case fans blowing the exhaust air out where the exhaust air of the GPU slots are. . . and a third one blowing air in underneath the GPU which sucks air in. No more hot PC case, doesn't even get warm. It's looks very DIY but I don't care, it works. I even put a switch to turn the fans on and off so I flick em on when I start a game since the case is right next to the monitor.

I really don't like a hot PC case when gaming.

AquaRegia · May 2, 2020

What is the recommendation for a GPU in the $200-250 range? Only restriction is it needs to fit in a micro ATX case, do well with 1080p, and ideally have lower power consumption.

fracas · May 2, 2020

Found a local 2080 super for $550 - debating whether that's worth it over a 3070 or 3080 at launch. I think I might hold off since I'm really interested in 4K and I want to see how these new cards do. I want something that lasts me well into next gen.

Deleted member 2474 · May 2, 2020

AquaRegia said:
What is the recommendation for a GPU in the $200-250 range? Only restriction is it needs to fit in a micro ATX case, do well with 1080p, and ideally have lower power consumption.

probably a gtx 1660 super. amd kinda has a gap between the ol' 580/590, 5500 xt, and 5600 xt right now in that $200-$250 range.

Polyh3dron · May 2, 2020

Relix said:
Gotcha.
Well I'll give USPS until today if not I am switching over to that Corsair RAM and return/resell the GSkill.

In a totally unrelated question I am connecting my cables to the mobo and realized I have an AIO Header. I connected the pump to CPU Fan and the sata power cable (Corsair H115). I also connected the USB to the internal motherboard ports. I hate the cable mess coming out of the pump but what can you do. Anyway is this the correct approach? Or should I use the AIO Header?

Use the AIO header. The way mine works is that it works with the pump and fans daisy chained. There is also the option of having the AIO's fans controlled independently with their own header. You may get a CPU Fan Error message in your BIOS while POSTing, you'll have to disable that header in the BIOS.

Ideally you will want the curve on the AIO pump at 100% all of the time, and then the fans adjusting to temperature.

Alastor3 · May 2, 2020

Ryzen 3600 currently 14$ off and free shipping if you have Amazon Prime CANADA, but is it worth it tho? maybe i should wait for the 4000 serie?

note, i only have a dual core right now XD

low-G · May 2, 2020

Crazymoogle said:
Losing a SATA port is definitely possible on older boards that have a mixed-mode M.2 port that can support SATA as well as NVME (yeah, some M.2s are SATA). But your first slot is free-and-clear, as you said. You're totally fine going Gen 3 and I recommend it for virtually all of resetera unless you have specific Gen4 needs or a ton of budget. Just aim for Gen 3 (x4 lanes) and ideally a TLC drive. Avoid drives without DRAM if possible.

Yes, 3x4 TLC drives exceed the XSX spec. It's possible this is either due to QLC or perhaps that the drive is a 2242 instead of a 2280 (fewer chips generally results in fewer lanes and thus less thoroughput). Certainly the expansion card looks like a 2242. PS5 is way over spec - 12 channels, PCIe4 - but PCs tend to heavily load RAM and we are a long way away from Gen4 drives becoming a defining factor for PC Gaming.

Thanks for the info! Yeah I am aware of TLC vs QLC. It was my understanding that QLC absolutely must have DRAM, is that true (not that I'm looking to buy one), due to the very slow write times? So a drive can't be DRAM-less and QLC?

I do wish drives were more up front about onboard RAM. And on Amazon you have users asking 'how much DRAM' and all the replies are 'not DRAM, SSD!'...

MrH · May 2, 2020

low-G said:
Personally on a VRR monitor I can't barely feel the difference beyond 90fps.

For me the sweet spot is 100+, I can't see or feel a difference between 120 and 144. That being said, the difference in price between DDR4 2400 and DDR4 3600 is only £20, so you'd be crazy not to go for the faster RAM and gain 20-30fps on average.

low-G · May 2, 2020

MrH said:
For me the sweet spot is 100+, I can't see or feel a difference between 120 and 144. That being said, the difference in price between DDR4 2400 and DDR4 3600 is only £20, so you'd be crazy not to go for the faster RAM and gain 20-30fps on average.

Yeah not debating ram speed. I got 3000 (w fast timings) on my Intel where it doesn't even matter so much. Definitely spring for speed on Ryzen.

Relix · May 2, 2020

went and purchased my Vengeance RGB Pro since my G Skill are still lost. Machine posted (what a good damn feeling) so now I am trying to do some cable management. Doing this with my fiancée and some white wine so it's a pretty awesome experience.

Professor RAWR · May 2, 2020

Does anybody have a 240hz gaming monitor? If so, do you use a standard HDMI cable or a Display port cable?

Because i've bought a Alienware 24 inch 240hz gaming monitor and it didn't come with an displayport cable. Only a standard HDMI cable. But in the Nvidia Control Panel settings, i've noticed in the settings, 240hz in enable on 1920x1080p. But not in "ultra HD 1920x1080p Native". The "ultra HD" is only locked at 60hz.

Is there a quality/picture difference between the standard 1920x1080p and the "ultra HD 1920x1080p Native"? I've noticed that the Ultra HD is a bit brighter than the standard 1080p. But not too sure if there's a real difference and if a displayport cable will make the quality better.

Anyways playing on 240hz is really crazy and it feels like a huge atvantatge compared to my other 144hz monitors especially for FPS. I've actually performed better in FPS games like Battlefield and Modern Warfare. I guess it's also due to the small size of the monitor which feels more comfortable to play on.

LorentzFactor · May 2, 2020

My motherboard is finally shipping! I was able to get the Asus x570-i strix for basically the same price as the gigabyte x570-I aorus. Hopefully everything works - don't really have a way to test any AMD stuff separately, which is the downside of switching i guess.

AquaRegia · May 2, 2020

I think I've finalized the build. Saved some money going with micro ATX, letting me step up the GPU. Would love to have some feedback on the finished product. Again, my uses are creation of lecture videos for school and decent 1080p gaming for the next few years.

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor
ASRock B450M/AC Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card
Corsair Carbide Series 88R MicroATX Mid Tower Case
EVGA 500 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply
Asus VE248Q 24.0" 1920x1080 Monitor

Whole thing runs about $930 on Newegg. Just triple checking, that GPU will fit with that mobo and case, right? Never gone with micro ATX before.

Also, what's the word on a good webcam/ recording device? My wife was suggesting a GoPro to use as both, but the webcam setup looks a little more involved than I was expecting.

Skyfireblaze · May 2, 2020

Professor RAWR said:
Does anybody have a 240hz gaming monitor? If so, do you use a standard HDMI cable or a Display port cable?

Because i've bought a Alienware 24 inch 240hz gaming monitor and it didn't come with an displayport cable. Only a standard HDMI cable. But in the Nvidia Control Panel settings, i've noticed in the settings, 240hz in enable on 1920x1080p. But not in "ultra HD 1920x1080p Native". The "ultra HD" is only locked at 60hz.

Is there a quality/picture difference between the standard 1920x1080p and the "ultra HD 1920x1080p Native"? I've noticed that the Ultra HD is a bit brighter than the standard 1080p. But not too sure if there's a real difference and if a displayport cable will make the quality better.

Anyways playing on 240hz is really crazy and it feels like a huge atvantatge compared to my other 144hz monitors especially for FPS. I've actually performed better in FPS games like Battlefield and Modern Warfare. I guess it's also due to the small size of the monitor which feels more comfortable to play on.

Just pick the standard 1080p with 240hz, the one that is called Ultra HD Native is set to 60hz basically as a specific resolution for programs that request it.

Reddline · May 2, 2020

It's been ages since I've last built a PC so hoping for guidance with the build I have.

The PC primary purpose will be for gaming and there is no need for peripherals just the PC itself and my budget is roughly $1,500.

I intend to purchase an RTX3000 series GPU when they release later and need an interim GPU. In my 4+ year old rig I have an aging 980ti. Should I use that or would it be worth the upgrade to an RTX 2060 before plunging to the 3080ti that won't be available until Q4?

Saved Part Lists

pcpartpicker.com

Relix · May 2, 2020

Geesh. My new build is flying. Wow. Will post pictures and full specs soon but damn is it good.

Loveless · May 2, 2020

Do games require more than 16GB Ram these days?

low-G · May 2, 2020

Loveless said:
Do games require more than 16GB Ram these days?

More than? No. We've only just got the first ever 32GB RAM recommendation for MS Flight Sim. Seeing as next gen consoles only have 16GB total RAM, you will probably only need more than 16GB RAM occasionally in the years to come.

Fox318 · May 2, 2020

So I'm starting to search on what I would need to water cool my PC with a custom hardline loop. (Still not sure what type of tubing would be nice. Not opposed to using Carbon Fiber or Brass)

Found this bad boy online

Mono block would be a nice look instead of just the CPU

LorentzFactor · May 2, 2020

Fox318 said:
So I'm starting to search on what I would need to water cool my PC with a custom hardline loop. (Still not sure what type of tubing would be nice. Not opposed to using Carbon Fiber or Brass)

Found this bad boy online

Mono block would be a nice look instead of just the CPU

Choice of tubing just comes down to aesthetics really. I have no idea why you'd want to use carbon fiber -- seems pretty toxic and I feel the look could be accomplished by painting PETG?

Fox318 · May 2, 2020

LorentzFactor said:
Choice of tubing just comes down to aesthetics really. I have no idea why you'd want to use carbon fiber -- seems pretty toxic and I feel the look could be accomplished by painting PETG?

I just saw a build with it and it looked cool.

Trying to figure out how many rads and what type of reservoir/ disto plate do I want to go with will probably need to be answered before I get to what type of tubing really.

Problem with having a really big case is I have too many options.

Relix · May 2, 2020

Playing with Ryzen Master...

Up to 4.35 at 1.40625v. Trying to see how high I can go before it crashes. Any suggestions with an Asus TUF board?

LordDraven · May 2, 2020

Loveless said:
Do games require more than 16GB Ram these days?

Nah not for a while

Fox318 · May 2, 2020

LordDraven said:
Nah not for a while

What about chrome?

Pretty sure you need at least 64gb for that.

LordDraven · May 2, 2020

Fox318 said:
What about chrome?

Pretty sure you need at least 64gb for that.

Say what?

DJ Lushious · May 2, 2020

LordDraven said:
Say what?

It's a joke. Chrome is notorious for using up lots of RAM to run itself.

Nida · May 2, 2020

L

Nida said:
Any idea what this noise coming from my monitor's speaker is? Is it my MB giving beep codes? Monitor's anti theft noise? Death of the monitor? It happened, then stopped for awhile, then started back up. Only way to stop it was to unplug and plug my monitor back in. My monitor's speaker is not my sound source, I have external speakers.

Here are the temps when it happened.

No ideas what's going on there?

Fox318 · May 2, 2020

Nida said:
L

No ideas what's going on there?

Never heard that before. You could probably open up your monitor and just cut the power to the speakers.

AldzDrakul · May 3, 2020

Does anyone here have a Phanteks 719 or Luxe 2 case and tried installing an x63 kraken or h115i aio liquid cooler on the top portion ? I know it only says max is 360 for the top of the case but i kept searching that people had to put the fan on top and do pull config whilst the radiator is on the other end inside the case. Had anyone had issues putting a 280mm on top ?

tadaima · May 3, 2020

Thanks so much for all of the help with this build. Who'd have thought the master race would be so enlightened?

Gevurztraminer said:
for that price and the final specs... Japan pc pricing is tough. It's a really nice system though.

I would suggest bumping the ram speed to 3600, especially since you have a high end zen2. Secondly, I believe the wraith prism cooler that comes with 3900x will suffice, you have a pretty roomy case too, but if you can fit in the budget a better cooler please go for it. A good noctua air cooler or a 240/280mm aio will do nicely. As for the mobo and case front panel io, you can always get adapters to fit anything, but you may not be getting the max speed of course. I don't see a 3.1 header on your motherboard though, so yeah, I don't think the usb-c will be useable without something else.

Thanks, I've spent a couple of hours today shopping around for 3600 RAM. There are some options available but these is a ~30% price gap between 3200 -> 3600 here for some reason. Maybe it's just a Japan thing? I would love to squeeze the most juice out of the system, but from what I've been reading there are diminishing returns especially between 3200 -> 3600. Is this true? I'm wondering – if I'm going to spend more on memory, then might it be worth simply buying two more sticks of 16GB 3200? The total price would be ~33,000¥ for 64GB 3200 VS ~23,000¥ for 32GB 3600 or ~16,000¥ for 32GB 3200. Sorry for my naivety.

I'll have a look at cooling next, so thanks for your advice here!

Crazymoogle said:
You're right, the Tomahawk Max does not have a front USB-C header. Basically, you need something with a USB 3.1G2 header, which is unfortunately quite different than previous gens. So you have two choices: either get a board that has it, or get a PCI-e adapter card and the cable. There are also some adapters floating out there but they degrade the speed of the USB-C port.

Gigabyte AORUS X570 Pro

Gigabyte AORUS X570 Master

ASUS Prime X570-Pro

This site seems to be a way to search for it, but the basic idea is that cheap-tier motherboards don't have it. And B450 in particular doesn't have it. So you need an X470 or X570 motherboard.

I don't think AIO is exactly overkill, it would help if you're ever doing something using all cores, but in any case I would probably want an aftermarket cooler. I'm a fan of the Dark Rock 4 cooler myself (air) but nothing wrong with AIOs. Just that in general the Mugen, DR4, and Noctuas are all about as good and cheaper.

Thanks again for helping out. I found another midrange B450 board, the ASRock B450M Pro4 (a micro ATX), which seems to support USB3.1g2, but have stopped short of purchasing it due to this Reddit thread. It seems memory is limited to 64GB (vs Tomahawk's 128GB) which I don't think should be a problem for a couple of years however when I'd probably just upgrade it.

X570 board prices seem to be a bit ridiculous in Japan, so I might stick with the Tomahawk Max + PCIe adapter or ASRock (still deciding) in the meantime.

I'll consider swapping out the stock cooler for the Dark Rock 4 depending on what the temperatures are like!

Edit: After reading more of the specs, I'm going to stick with the Tomahawk Max (rather than the ASRock) to be safe.

Deleted member 12833 · May 3, 2020

Itx 570 motherboards are impossible to find right now

Crazymoogle · May 3, 2020

low-G said:
Thanks for the info! Yeah I am aware of TLC vs QLC. It was my understanding that QLC absolutely must have DRAM, is that true (not that I'm looking to buy one), due to the very slow write times? So a drive can't be DRAM-less and QLC?

If they are not already, they will soon. Modern SSDs are using two techniques to get performance out of less:

Caching to the SSD itself by writing the cache in SLC mode (so even if it's a QLC drive, you do an SLC write). Even TLC does this.
DRAMless drives cache to main memory (your RAM), trying to maximize the generally high performance of DDR4.

I think for casual gamers, DRAMless makes sense. Writes are crap, but generally "speed" is seen as reads. And it's reads fast, so....yeah. But that being said I'd still rather have a drive with an onboard DRAM cache to ensure I've left the HDD era completely behind.

AquaRegia said:
Whole thing runs about $930 on Newegg. Just triple checking, that GPU will fit with that mobo and case, right? Never gone with micro ATX before.

Also, what's the word on a good webcam/ recording device? My wife was suggesting a GoPro to use as both, but the webcam setup looks a little more involved than I was expecting.

Normally with a Micro ATX case you would be worried about card length and perhaps card height, but the 1660 Super is a small card. It's barely longer than two fans and seems to be around 2.5 slots tall. So looking at the Carbide 88R, no obvious problem with fit.

And honestly, the best webcam setup you can have right now is simply your phone. Webcams are generally expensive or OOS, and most are beaten out by an iPhone. I have no xp with GoPro, but that's another option I suppose.

Fox318 said:
Found this bad boy online

Damn, that's good. Makes me want to put that together with the Gigabyte RTX 2080S WaterForce.

tadaima said:
Thanks, I've spent a couple of hours today shopping around for 3600 RAM. There are some options available but these is a ~30% price gap between 3200 -> 3600 here for some reason. Maybe it's just a Japan thing? I would love to squeeze the most juice out of the system, but from what I've been reading there are diminishing returns especially between 3200 -> 3600. Is this true? I'm wondering – if I'm going to spend more on memory, then might it be worth simply buying two more sticks of 16GB 3200? The total price would be ~33,000¥ for 64GB 3200 VS ~23,000¥ for 32GB 3600 or ~16,000¥ for 32GB 3200. Sorry for my naivety.

Benchmarks showing a big perf difference on 3200 vs 3600 is because if you bottleneck the GPU (2080ti) at 1080p it suddenly all becomes about the CPU serving frames. If you're running 1440p or 4K, with a much slower card (2070 Super), then suddenly the bottleneck is the GPU instead and RAM speed hardly matters at that point. There still is *some* difference, as DDR4-3600 ensures your Infinity Fabric runs at 1800 instead of 1600, but honestly you'd rather have more total RAM than simply faster RAM. And CAS matters too; 3600 CL18 is not the same as CL16. AMD only rates their CPUs for 3200 so it's not a huge deal.

I have absolutely no idea why you would ever want to go 128GB unless you have huge renders to do, though...and the Pro4 has *rear* G2, not front G2. Everybody has rear G2, because the port is soldered onto the motherboard.

AquaRegia · May 3, 2020

Crazymoogle said:
Normally with a Micro ATX case you would be worried about card length and perhaps card height, but the 1660 Super is a small card. It's barely longer than two fans and seems to be around 2.5 slots tall. So looking at the Carbide 88R, no obvious problem with fit.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. That puts my mind at ease. Some of the parts are on sale through today, so I should be able to order them today and lock in the value.

Relix · May 3, 2020

Is there a website I can see optimized settings for my current rig? Or do I need to depend on GeForce Experience for this?

Gevurztraminer · May 3, 2020

tadaima see Crazymoogle response about ddr4 ram speeds. It's not a huge deal, and if the price difference is that much than stick with 3200. Let us know what cooler you decide on, and make sure it can fit in the case!

Relix · May 3, 2020

FFXV won't launch on Gamepass :(. All games work except the one I actually want to see running in my new rig. *sigh*

Sabin · May 3, 2020

AldzDrakul said:
Does anyone here have a Phanteks 719 or Luxe 2 case and tried installing an x63 kraken or h115i aio liquid cooler on the top portion ? I know it only says max is 360 for the top of the case but i kept searching that people had to put the fan on top and do pull config whilst the radiator is on the other end inside the case. Had anyone had issues putting a 280mm on top ?

Should just be fine since they don't have ultra thick radiator.

Also totally unrelated to the question but i wouldn't recommend neither of these 2 AIO since you are either stuck with the atrocious CAM software by NZXT or iCUE by Corsair.

Just get an AOI that is controlled by the Motherboard manufacturer software (which is in most cases is not that awful as the other 2 mentioned) like the Arctic LIQUID FREEZER II 280 for non RGB plus by far best cooling performance and either the Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora 280 or Fractal Design Celsius+ S28 Prisma for aRGB.

Milennia · May 3, 2020

Does anyone have any good headphone recommendations?
Kinda looking at the hd6xx and hd58x or even the DT 770pro
Maybe a schiit fulla amp
I already have a blue yeti I use for voice so specifically looking for about $300 range headphones to upgrade my gaming setup
Looking for positional audio as well as overall clarity for games

Duxxy3 · May 3, 2020

Milennia said:
Does anyone have any good headphone recommendations?
Kinda looking at the hd6xx and hd58x or even the DT 770pro
Maybe a schiit fulla amp
I already have a blue yeti I use for voice so specifically looking for about $300 range headphones to upgrade my gaming setup
Looking for positional audio as well as overall clarity for games

I have all of those and recommend all of those.

Milennia · May 3, 2020

Duxxy3 said:
I have all of those and recommend all of those.

Damn I knew I would get at least one person who just has them all lol, people seem to just have these all over the place

Duxxy3 · May 3, 2020

Milennia said:
Damn I knew I would get at least one person who just has them all lol, people seem to just have these all over the place

So if you're in noisy area or you need privacy, get the DT770.

If you listen to a decent amount of music on your headphones and don't need closed headphones, get the HD6XX.

If it really is primarily gaming and you don't need closed headphones, get the HD58X. They're probably the best gaming headphone of the three.

All of them are quality headphones and I really do recommend all of them.

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