AndyInAtlanta

Thanks! I really don't have a need for RGB as my case doesn't have any glass panels.

Thankfully, for my budget at least, my case isn't clear, so aesthetics are pointless. When it comes to OC'ing, I think I'd prefer something out of the box that's great, and gives me the potential to make it better. BUT, and a big but, there's an above 50% chance I never touch any of the settings and keep things as they come. From what I've read, that means I shouldn't buy cheaper RAM and attempt to improve its performance; I'm better off spending a premium upfront.

After a few days of reading forum posts about what RAM to buy for my new computer I honestly think I'm more confused than when I started. For every positive product post there is negative response. The problem, I don't understand the positives and negatives enough to know where they matter. For starters, I've already purchased (due to sales) a Ryzen 3900X and an Asus ROG Strix X570-E mobo. Also, for what its worth, I'll bring with me from my current computer an EVGA 1000 watt PSU, a Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2-SSD, and my Corsair H100i Pro. The only items I need to purchase are a GPU and RAM. GPU is easy right now. I'm likely getting a 2080 Super and upgrading to a 3000 card in the summer. So, that leaves me with the RAM. Timings, latency, OC'ing, the list goes on, all over my head. I've done overclocking before, just never with RAM. I'd like to get 32 GBs as in addition to gaming I work with Adobe Premiere and After Effects and sometimes dabble with Revit/AutoCAD. All that I think I understand is that I want to aim for 3600 and CL16 at least. As you can probably tell from that sentence is that I don't understand fully what those numbers mean. Sad thing is I tried to understand it. A lot of topics talk about what to look for, but don't go as far as making a recommendation. Budget isn't a factor, though ideally I'd prefer to stay under $250. So far I think I've seen these as good options, but please let me know if I'm way off or there is something better. G.Skill Trident Z Neo F4-3600C16D G.SKILL Ripjaws V F4-3600C16D Thoughts?

Thanks. I'll definitely order that bracket ahead of time to avoid needing it at the worst time.

Awesome, thanks! I noticed those Asus boards, they weren't as popular during my last build. I'll look into that SSD as well. Again, thanks!

Quick gameplan. My current PC is four years old and I've been thinking about upgrading prior to several game titles that come out in 2020. To save some money I'm going to reuse a few parts from my current build. Here are the components I am thinking about reusing: Notcua NH-D15 Cooler : If compatible I'll reuse my current cooler. Fractal Design Define R5 : Very much on the fence about this one as it doesn't have the latest ports. I'll likely buy a new case. EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 P2 : Definitely an overkill PSU, but I got it for free from EVGA and it has served me well. Accessories : I already have a good suite of Logitiech peripherals so I'll be keeping those. I'll also reuse my current hard drives as backup. Budget wise I'm trying to stay under $2500, so anything between $2000 to $2500 is acceptable. It's mostly a gaming PC, but I do occasionally do Photoshop and After Effects work, but its rare. Last but not least, my current monitor is an ASUS PG279Q, so I won't be upgrading that. CPU : AMD Ryzen 9 3900X : Pretty much settled here after being a longtime Intel user. I know its overkill, but it fits my budget so why not. Motherboard : Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master : I'm really bad at picking out motherboards as there are so many variants. This is the one component I'm the least sold on. No particular reason I choose this one. Memory : Corsair Vengeance 32 GB, 3200, 2 x 16 : I had 32 GB in my last system, and while I'm sure it didn't help much above 16 GB, the price of memory is low enough that 32 fits the budget. Hard Drive : Samsung 970 Evo (1 TB) : This will be the boot drive. I have around 12 TB of additional storage I'll bring from my older computer. GPU : EVGA Black 2080ti : So many 2080ti versions, I'm not married to any particular one. Sticking with EVGA here because I've had great experiences with their customer service. Total Cost : $2300 At $2300 that gives me room to potentially buy a new cooler and case. Any fans I need I can grab from the current case. As with my last PC, going overkill is part of the fun. Any suggestions (specifically with the motherboard and/or cooler)? Thanks!

Well, almost everything goes on sale at some point (outside of high-end components like a 2080ti), so its more a matter of how much waiting you want to do. A lot of it depends on how recent the release once.

Hard drives go on sale every Black Friday, but they are also constantly on sale throughout the rest of the year. You tend to see pre-built machines discounted, or more often the regular price with free extras. I think its pretty rare to find things like GPU's and CPU's go on sale

I saw a big difference going from 1080p to 1440p, and an even bigger difference going from 60hz to 144hz.

Never did, no. It was an older drive (probably close to ten years), so I chalked it up to age. Every file was able to transfer, so nothing was corrupted, but at the end nothing could be directly opened from the drive (for example, a video file wouldn't play).

Depends on how much you trust Ali Express reviews. A lot of the top reviewed items on Amazon are filled mostly with fake reviews. I wouldn't trust the overall review score with Ali Express; find the in-depth ones.

Not a Seagate drive, but my last HDD that started to run increasingly slower was on borrowed time. It took weeks to get all the files onto a healthy drive. No errors ever showed up on the drive, but I'm confident it was starting to fail.

I've always had good luck with Fractal cases. I've only ever upgraded them due to the USB ports being dated.