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

[Crazymoogle]

Hi folks,

planning on changing my Motherboard + CPU combo when Ryzen 4000 hits the market, but keeping most of everything else (1080, nvme SSD, 144hz g-sync 1440p monitor).
I'm currently on a i7 4790k CPU on an ASRock Z97 Pro motherboard with 16GB of DDR2 RAM.
I assume that switching to a new motherboard + CPU combo would also mean changing the RAM for good performance?

Question 1: wait for new motherboards to hit or are there already announced ones (or released ones) I should look out for in terms of pricing?
Question 2: do we already know what to expect in terms of RAM speeds with the new CPUs from AMD? or can I safely grab some DDR4-3200 (DIMM 288, from Corsair for example) and take advantage from nice promos?

Click to shrink...

You don't really have a choice. Z97 is DDR3, and the entire market is DDR4 now. Ryzen 4000 is the last AMD generation before DDR5, in fact.

In terms of RAM to buy, ideal is DDR4-3600 CL16, but there are a few products right now with excellent headroom if you want to overclock it instead.

If you're waiting to buy a CPU I would wait on all of the components. You don't want to have a dud in the closet for a month after the return date. But yes, current boards will work. It's just that they will need BIOS updates, and not every board out there can do a BIOS update without an already working CPU first.

 

[Serpens007]

Is this a good PSU for a mid range PC (like a R5 3600/4600 and RTX 2060/3060) ?

Smart BX1 650W

80 PLUS Bronze certified non-modular PSU with Hydraulic Bearing fan.

es.thermaltake.com

 

[super-famicom]

Is this a good PSU for a mid range PC (like a R5 3600/4600 and RTX 2060/3060) ?

Smart BX1 650W

80 PLUS Bronze certified non-modular PSU with Hydraulic Bearing fan.

es.thermaltake.com

Click to shrink...

650W should be enough, but that particular PSU is rated pretty low on the LTT tier list: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1116640-psucultists-psu-tier-list/

Some reviews found that it had lesser electrical protections than slightly more expensive models, and non-modular cables can be an issue in smaller cases.

 

[Serpens007]

650W should be enough, but that particular PSU is rated pretty low on the LTT tier list: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1116640-psucultists-psu-tier-list/

Some reviews found that it had lesser electrical protections than slightly more expensive models, and non-modular cables can be an issue in smaller cases.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I checked it on that list, was looking for second opinion

This PSU is a bit more expensive here, but it's just 600W. However it has a better rating and it's semi-modular

EVGA 600 BQ, 80+ BRONZE 600W, Semi Modular, FDB Fan, 3 Year Warranty, Power Supply 110-BQ-0600-K1

Introducing the next generation in value; the EVGA BQ Series. These power supplies take some of the best features from EVGA's award winning power supply lineup, like near silent operation and modular cables to make one of the best values today in high performance power supplies.

www.evga.com

 

[Ramathevoice]

So.

Who's getting a 3070?

 

[Arkeband]

I'm having a weird issue -

CPU cooler - Noctua U12A
Motherboard - Aorus Z390 Elite

I originally connected both fans with a Y cable to the CPU_OPT header (oops?) but it used to work fine that way, but lately they haven't been spinning and the case is turning into a little space heater.

I took off the Y cable and connected the front fan to CPU_FAN and the back fan to CPU_OPT and now only CPU_OPT is working.

Read that there's some issues between Noctua fans and Gigabyte MOBOs, where you have to set it to voltage in your Bios. Tried that, did nothing.

Anyone else dealt with this issue? Considering how popular these boards are and how popular Noctua fans are, I'm kind of scratching my head here.

Edit: just tried both fans on the OPT port and one worked and the other did not, so I believe I have a bad Noctua fan.

 

[Convasse]

So.

Who's getting a 3070?

Click to shrink...

Stuck between that and a 3080. I really thought the 3080 would be more expensive. Now I'm seriously tempted.

 

[Sotonian]

So i want a 30XX card (probably a 70), however i only have an i5 6600k and my motherboard would have to be upgraded to get anything higher i believe. Is it worth getting the card on its own or would i have to get the CPU + Motherboard as well

 

[Mullet2000]

So i want a 30XX card (probably a 70), however i only have an i5 6600k and my motherboard would have to be upgraded to get anything higher i believe. Is it worth getting the card on its own or would i have to get the CPU + Motherboard as well

Click to shrink...

It's time for a full upgrade for you if you want to get the most out of the card I'm afraid. 6600k isn't going to hold on much longer.

 

[growler]

Looking to do a full upgrade soon on the heels of the 3080 announcement. I was thinking about going for Comet Lake but it would appear they don't have PCIE 4.0 support, which seems like a glaring omission in light of the new RTX IO SSD stuff Nvidia announced. At this point it seems like it would be more prudent to wait until AMD ships their next batch of CPUs.

 

[Earvin Infinity]

Looking to do a full upgrade soon on the heels of the 3080 announcement. I was thinking about going for Comet Lake but it would appear they don't have PCIE 4.0 support, which seems like a glaring omission in light of the new RTX IO SSD stuff Nvidia announced. At this point it seems like it would be more prudent to wait until AMD ships their next batch of CPUs.

Click to shrink...

It's silly to try and go with Intel in 2020, especially with Ryzen 4000 CPUs coming soon.

 

[NCR Ranger]

Stuck between that and a 3080. I really thought the 3080 would be more expensive. Now I'm seriously tempted.

Click to shrink...

Yeah that 3080 seems to be the sweet spot. I was eyeing a 3090, but $1499 is too hard to justify for something that was never going to be the sensible option for my setup.

 

[ethranes]

Hi all, I just ordered

Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

on amazon, is that a good choice for a 3080 compatable psu at £100?

 

[Asator]

So I was able to snag an Asrock X570 Taichi and an Aorus X570 Ultra during the summer sales, and I'm trying to decide which one I will keep for a build with the upcoming Ryzen. Which one would you guys recommend, considering that the Taichi was ~25€ more expensive?

 

[catpurrcat]

So.

Who's getting a 3070?

Click to shrink...

Love all the cards announced today. Will wait for the inevitable 3070ti or Super in a year only cuz my current gpu is only a year old.

 

[Something Creative]

Think I'm gonna go with the 3070. Price is right and it would hold me at 1440p for a while. Currently got a 1050 Ti that's not doing the trick

Is my PC still otherwise up to the task?

CPU: Ryzen 7 1700
Motherboard: ASRock AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX
RAM: 16 GB
PSU: 450w (will upgrade for sure - 650w, I think)
SSD
Windows 10

Is there a website where I can plug in specs to see? Or is it tough since 30xx is still so new?

 

[LilZippa]

3080 for cheaper than I thought. It will be mine oh yes it will be mine. Will be quite a jump from my 970!

 

[Grimm Fandango]

So.

Who's getting a 3070?

Click to shrink...

Ughhh I'm kinda stuck between it and 3080. The issue is I don't update my PC a lot. I still have a GTX 770 going.....

So I might lean towards 3080 for only 200 bucks more and maybe get an extra year or two from it down the road.

 

[catpurrcat]

So I was able to snag an Asrock X570 Taichi and an Aorus X570 Ultra during the summer sales, and I'm trying to decide which one I will keep for a build with the upcoming Ryzen. Which one would you guys recommend, considering that the Taichi was ~25€ more expensive?

Click to shrink...

hardware unboxed YouTube channel did a huge breakdown of X570 motherboards, may want to look them up.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Feel very good about the RTX 3080.

Hope there's good CPUs and SSDs and motherboards out there this year. Hopefully a powerful PC can be built under $2500 or so without a monitor.

 

[Owl]

Hey guys, I'm very uninformed on pc hardware so could use some guidance from you pros.

I've been using my middling pc I first built a couple years ago for a while now, but now I have plenty of money to go higher end. I'm eyeing the 3080, but have no clue what I need to do for my other components which most definitely would need an upgrade.

Here's my current pc: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/MixupCity/saved/#view=B6R6sY

Is anything from this list even usable? I could just build from scratch and give my current pc to a younger sibling. I want to get a 4k monitor once I get a 3080, so I guess to start I should pick how high I want to upgrade my CPU and then look at my other components from there? What would you suggest as the minimum CPU I would need for the 3080?

 

[PhantomFFR]

Here's my current pc: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/MixupCity/saved/#view=B6R6sY

Is anything from this list even usable? I could just build from scratch and give my current pc to a younger sibling. I want to get a 4k monitor once I get a 3080, so I guess to start I should pick how high I want to upgrade my CPU and then look at my other components from there? What would you suggest as the minimum CPU I would need for the 3080?

Click to shrink...

With a i9-9900K (or even a i9-9700K) you'd be right at the high end. So yes, upgrade the CPU and you'll be more than fine. In fact even with your current i5-8600K you'll be alright.

 

[Senjuro]

Hey guys, I'm very uninformed on pc hardware so could use some guidance from you pros.

I've been using my middling pc I first built a couple years ago for a while now, but now I have plenty of money to go higher end. I'm eyeing the 3080, but have no clue what I need to do for my other components which most definitely would need an upgrade.

Here's my current pc: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/MixupCity/saved/#view=B6R6sY

Is anything from this list even usable? I could just build from scratch and give my current pc to a younger sibling. I want to get a 4k monitor once I get a 3080, so I guess to start I should pick how high I want to upgrade my CPU and then look at my other components from there? What would you suggest as the minimum CPU I would need for the 3080?

Click to shrink...

You can definitely keep the SSD, HDD, and the CPU cooler provided you still have the mounting hardware for whatever CPU socket you end up with. Other things are less certain and we won't know for sure until reviews for the 3080 start coming out.

3080 might be limited by PCIe 3.0 so you'll need to switch to AMD with B550 or X570 chipset.
if you do go with Ryzen then 3600Mhz CL16 is generally considered the sweet spot.
Nvidia is officially recommending a 750w PSU, remains to be seen how necessary that really is.

I'd wait for the reviews and more information.

 

[Valanarro]

Eyeing a 3080 after the nvidia showing, but I'm loooking for a cpu upgrade from my i5 6600. Are the amd cpus that big of a jump from what's available now or is it a safe enough time for a new build? Not sure I want to wait until the end of the year or longer for the new AMD chips but don't want to gimp my build with a cpu that can't handle the new tech like pci-e 4.0.

 

[super-famicom]

Eyeing a 3080 after the nvidia showing, but I'm loooking for a cpu upgrade from my i5 6600. Are the amd cpus that big of a jump from what's available now or is it a safe enough time for a new build? Not sure I want to wait until the end of the year or longer for the new AMD chips but don't want to gimp my build with a cpu that can't handle the new tech like pci-e 4.0.

Click to shrink...

X570 and B550 boards have PCI-E 4 and can support the current Ryzen CPUs (3000 series) as well as the upcoming 4000 series, which should be out around November or so. I think I read a post in this thread saying X670 might also be announced as well, but I may be wrong.

 

[Owl]

I see. Thanks to both of you! I won't buy anything until I buy the 3080 since it's probably going to be a tossup to get it if it does sell out instantly. At that point there should be more info on if PCIe 4 makes a huge difference.

 

[gully state]

I'm in the process of building a SFF PC with a lot of the components already picked up and now I've decided to wait for 3070 as it's within my GPU budget.I have a couple of questions.

M.2 NVME: I picked up an WD SN550 1TB M2.NVME recently for less than $100 and was intending on using it as my only form of storage since transfer speeds of SSD's only matter currently with large file transfers (loading times you shave maybe 1-2 seconds depending on the application). However, I keep reading on reddit that any M.2 SSD without DRAM should not be used to store OS. Why is that? Are they right? Should I pick up another SSD?

CPU: 3070 dropped today. It's in my budget range. I want. But I also want to build my PC by mid September. If I were to assemble then, what would be a good target Ryzen CPU for me to pick for gaming primarily? I already bought a B550 board. I was thinking about getting a 3600 for $150 but that ship has sailed and I don't want it to bottleneck the 3070. Would a 3700x suffice?

 

[Something Creative]

Think I'm gonna go with the 3070. Price is right and it would hold me at 1440p for a while. Currently got a 1050 Ti that's not doing the trick

Is my PC still otherwise up to the task?

CPU: Ryzen 7 1700
Motherboard: ASRock AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX
RAM: 16 GB
PSU: 450w (will upgrade for sure - 650w, I think)
SSD
Windows 10

Is there a website where I can plug in specs to see? Or is it tough since 30xx is still so new?

Click to shrink...

No responses yet but I did some digging and I'm waking up to the reality that an upgrade to a 3070, for it to not be significantly bottlenecked, would also mean upgrading the CPU (i7-8700K? Ryzen 9 3900x?) and also the Motherboard 🤦‍♂️

 

[Duuke]

I'm also looking to upgrade my PSU in anticipation for the 3080. Is there a solid recommendation for a 750w or 850w?

 

[Jhey Cyphre]

So I'm all in on the hype train for the 3080. It just occurred to me that I've been using the same PSU for almost 10 years now.

SeaSonic Platinum-1000 1000 W Power Supply - Newegg.com

Buy SeaSonic Platinum-1000 1000W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS PLATINUM Certified Full Modular Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

This is something I've never really thought of since it's worked fine all these year. Is this something I should think about swapping out?

 

[NattyBo]

Eagerly awaiting builds using the 3080. Hoping to find something in the $1500-1600 price range.

 

[Kaiken]

Wonder how bad the resale value was hit for the old cards?

 

[Duck Sauce]

I think i'm going to remove all my custom water cooling and go with a ROG theme build. My pump/reservoir won't let me fit in a 3090 as it barely fit a 2080TI FTW3 hydro copper.

 

[MrKlaw]

It's silly to try and go with Intel in 2020, especially with Ryzen 4000 CPUs coming soon.

Click to shrink...

why? Genuinely curious - I'm speccing up a ryzen 3700/3800/3900 build but looking at some benchmarking videos today to make myself feel better if I keep my 6700k for a while, the intels even with fewer cores outperform AMD quite a bit in gaming. Is it more a bet on future games being more multithread aware and Zen benefitting from that, or just a cost/benefit thing?

 

[PhantomFFR]

No responses yet but I did some digging and I'm waking up to the reality that an upgrade to a 3070, for it to not be significantly bottlenecked, would also mean upgrading the CPU (i7-8700K? Ryzen 9 3900x?) and also the Motherboard 🤦‍♂️

Click to shrink...

"significant" is a very relative term, it will be drastically less unbalanced than your current setup, especially given that you mentioned 1440p as your resolution.

PCIe4.0 is unlikely to be a significant difference, so at worst you will be fine with a CPU upgrade to a Ryzen X 3xxx, as the upcoming Ryzen 4xxx is very unlikely to be supported by your current mainboard. Also depending on the pssed of your RAM, you might see somewhat noticeable improvements from changing that to faster RAM as well, but that might be a close call when taking cost into account.

 

[Jogi]

Cant wait to see a build with a 3080 for about $2,000-$2,500 ready to get rid of my 970 rig.

 

[BC-2]

I have a
Ryzen 5 3600
RTX 2060
16 GB of RAM at 3600
on a B450 Gaming Plus Max motherboard

I liked what I saw from the 3070 and 3080 today, but i'm wondering if it would be a worthwhile upgrade for me? Targeting 1080, 144 or 1080, 60 in the more demanding games

 

[Something Creative]

"significant" is a very relative term, it will be drastically less unbalanced than your current setup, especially given that you mentioned 1440p as your resolution.

PCIe4.0 is unlikely to be a significant difference, so at worst you will be fine with a CPU upgrade to a Ryzen X 3xxx, as the upcoming Ryzen 4xxx is very unlikely to be supported by your current mainboard. Also depending on the pssed of your RAM, you might see somewhat noticeable improvements from changing that to faster RAM as well, but that might be a close call when taking cost into account.

Click to shrink...

Sorry, are you suggesting that I could get by with Ryzen 7 1700 + 3070 for now? I may have misunderstood. Ideally I upgrade to a 3070 and tolerate the Ryzen 7 1700 in the near term and upgrade to a Ryzen X 3xxx (or 4xxx with new mainboard) next year

Current set up is Ryzen 7 1700 + 1050Ti where the GPU is holding me back a fair bit. Even older games like DS3, Witcher 3,etc I would just like to play at 1440p x 60fps and my understanding is the Ryzen 7 1700 would be fine (but a GPU upgrade is required)

 

[PhantomFFR]

Sorry, are you suggesting that I could get by with Ryzen 7 1700 + 3070 for now? I may have misunderstood. Ideally I upgrade to a 3070 and tolerate the Ryzen 7 1700 in the near term and upgrade to a Ryzen X 3xxx (or 4xxx with new mainboard) next year

Current set up is Ryzen 7 1700 + 1050Ti where the GPU is holding me back a fair bit. Even older games like DS3, Witcher 3,etc I would just like to play at 1440p x 60fps and my understanding is the Ryzen 7 1700 would be fine (but a GPU upgrade is required)

Click to shrink...

Yes. The Ryzen 1700 will be fine for now. Especially in 1440p.

 

[Kingpin Rogers]

A few questions for the people who know this sort of stuff.
First off how possible will it be to build a good pc for around £1400 UK pounds that has a 3080 in it? Will I need to spend much more if I don't want to make compromises in other areas?

Secondly, I'm not planning to build until the new AMD CPUs are out but I see everyone mentioning how low in supply the 3000 series is going to be. If I don't get one at launch, how long will I be waiting until they're more available? I've already been waiting to build a new pc pretty much all year so I really don't want to have to wait even more until like next year just because supplies are low. Should I just buy a 3080 as soon as I see one even if I don't have the rest of the parts yet?

Finally, would the 3070 be suited as a 4k 60fps card or if I'm planning to play at that res/fps is the 3080 the more obvious choice if I can afford it?

Oh I guess one last question would be, instead of waiting for the new 4000 amd cpus would picking up a 3600 be smarter if it allows me to build the new pc sooner and then I could maybe upgrade to a 4000 down the line?

 

[Ondor]

Do the Hybrid Copper EVGA GPU's require custom cooling or is it pretty plug and play like the air models? Is there a noticeable performance or heat difference between their FTW3 models and their liquid cooled ones?

 

[ahoyle]

That's the paste, no need to add anything else!

Click to shrink...

Thanks. So have everything installed and its only picking up single channel ram. Have a b450 MSI gaming Max mb. Would updating the bios fix that?

 

[Ex Lion Tamer]

RTX 3080 looks amazing for a great price and would love to finally upgrade my gpu, but I believe I have a few bottlenecks I would want to fix on my current build to take full advantage. I'm a bit rusty though from when I built my current pc and I've never been an expert at this so would love some advice if people can help. From my understanding CPU would probably need an upgrade as well as potentially the mobo, but in that case I would likely just need to do a full new build right?

Also, if that means just doing a completely new build to take real advantage of the GPU, I would have to consider doing so but would maybe then wait for the next round of cards as I also plan on getting a PS5 and my current build is still pretty good in my opinion.

My current build is

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600
GPU: GTX 1080
SSD: SanDisk Ultra II 240GB SSD (SDSSDHII-240G) SATA 2.5
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3000
Motherboard: MSI B350 tomahawk
Power supply is 650w

I've got a 1440p 144hz gaming monitor that I really love and I want to stick in that sweet spot of fidelity (unless I'm being stupid and should be looking at 4K options).

Budget is also not that much of a concern but I would like to stick at high-end but good value as opposed to complete bleeding edge as the extra expense for that extra oomph can be a bit steep.

Any and all thoughts are appreciated.

 

[NattyBo]

Ryzen 3900X is$399 at my local microcenter (normal price $499)...should I go ahead and nab it as the cornerstone for a 3080 build? I know you can't future proof, but my current build is seriously hamstrung by processor/mobo combo, so I'd like to avoid that issue this time.

 

[Legacy]

So.

Who's getting a 3070?

Click to shrink...

Depends on 3080 availablity for me, hopefully I can secure one. The jump from my RX 570 is going to be insane

 

[Mullet2000]

Thanks. So have everything installed and its only picking up single channel ram. Have a b450 MSI gaming Max mb. Would updating the bios fix that?

Click to shrink...

Do you have them in the correct slots? Not sure about your specific Motherboard but typically you need to have the ram in slots 2 and 4. Also turn on XMP in the bios.

Update your bios regardless though.

 

[Something Creative]

Yes. The Ryzen 1700 will be fine for now. Especially in 1440p.

Click to shrink...

Nice. Thanks

 

[ahoyle]

Do you have them in the correct slots? Not sure about your specific Motherboard but typically you need to have the ram in slots 2 and 4. Also turn on XMP in the bios.

Update your bios regardless though.

Click to shrink...

They were in slot 2 and 4. Tried 1 and 3 too. Will try to figure out the xmp thing!

 

[MisterNugNug]

I posted this question in the NVIDIA announcement thread but:

Hmmm. I built my PC gaming rig last year and it has a Radeon 5700, should I upgrade for Cyberpunk 2077?

Currently gaming on an LG 34GK950F

 

[MrKlaw]

A few questions for the people who know this sort of stuff.
First off how possible will it be to build a good pc for around £1400 UK pounds that has a 3080 in it? Will I need to spend much more if I don't want to make compromises in other areas?

Secondly, I'm not planning to build until the new AMD CPUs are out but I see everyone mentioning how low in supply the 3000 series is going to be. If I don't get one at launch, how long will I be waiting until they're more available? I've already been waiting to build a new pc pretty much all year so I really don't want to have to wait even more until like next year just because supplies are low. Should I just buy a 3080 as soon as I see one even if I don't have the rest of the parts yet?

Finally, would the 3070 be suited as a 4k 60fps card or if I'm planning to play at that res/fps is the 3080 the more obvious choice if I can afford it?

Oh I guess one last question would be, instead of waiting for the new 4000 amd cpus would picking up a 3600 be smarter if it allows me to build the new pc sooner and then I could maybe upgrade to a 4000 down the line?

Click to shrink...

tight but doable with some compromise. I've been playing with various setups and for a relatively no compromises setup (but only including 1TB SSD because I'd be reusing some of my old drives) it looks to be around £1000 for a PC with 3700x and no GPU. thats 3700x, 32GB 3600/16 ram, B550 motherboard, decent air cooler, 1TB SSD.

IF (Big if) the 3080FE is genuinely £649, that'd be £1650 for an all-in setup. You could probably save some by downsizing the CPU (you can upgrade it later with ryzen 4000 on that motherboard), reducing ram to 16GB and maybe slightly slower clock speed, and ditching the cooler and going with the stock one.