goldenf

This may be a dumb comment. But. You say the GPU is disconnected for tests. The 3700X doesn't have an integrated GPU. So even if you plug your screen into the motherboard's HDMI/DP port, nothing will show up on the screen and it won't POST. So, have you tried booting with the GPU installed and the screen plugged into the GPU?

This is excellent info, thanks. I'm in South Africa. Those are definitely the cheapest 2TB drives I have seen. They're both at 3700 ZAR (190 EUR) but I suspect there may be a pricing error on the site. If that is the case then I'll just get the Pilot-E for 5150 ZAR (263 EUR) with an EK heatsink, since the the BX500 is barely any cheaper at 4700 ZAR (240 EUR).

Regarding the motherboard, the B450 Tomahawk is (as far as I know) NOT compatible out of the box with 3000-series CPUs. However, the updated version - the B450 Tomahawk MAX - is compatible out of the box, as confirmed by a buddy of mine who just put a 3700X into one. The MAX also has a bunch of improvements like better-quality VRMs and it shouldn't cost much more. So I'd definitely recommend the Tomahawk MAX instead. In terms of whether the 3300X will bottleneck a 2070 Super, Gamers Nexus has you covered (video below). In many cases it doesn't even bottleneck a 2080Ti, but realisitcally it should be fine up to a 2070 Super (unless you want ultra-high FPS in games like CS:GO). Since your budget seems fairly roomy it's probably better to go for the 3600 and a 2070 Super, if you can.

Yeah it's a lot of money to buy a second hand part like this. I see you're a bit of an expert when it comes to SSD's. While I've got you here, can I ask your opinion on which new SSD I should get if I don't go for the P4600? I can get either of these two brand new for a really good price: Micron 1300 2TB Seagate Barracuda 2TB The next cheapest drive I could get is a Crucial BX500 for about 30% more, or a Mushkin Pilot-E NVMe for about 40% more. I don't need blistering performance, but I also don't want to buy a lemon. What do you recommend?

A guy on a local forum is selling a used Intel DC P4600 4TB PCIe SSD for a really good price - around what a new 4TB SATA SSD costs. The drive is one year old and apparently wasn't used much (RAID 0 in a gaming PC, in storage for 6 months). With the good price, high speed, ridiculous reliability and built-in heatsink, I'm very tempted to go for it. Another forum user bought the other drive from him and claims it works perfectly. The seller is new on the forum with only a few trades, but the buyer of the other drive is well-known and has a good reputation. I'm hesitant for a few reasons. - It should have a five year warranty, but the seller doesn't know where the drive was bought and doesn't have a proof of purchase. So tracking down the right place for an RMA in case of failure may be tricky. - I'm not sure if using a server-grade drive in a normal gaming PC may cause issues? - This may be dumb, but I'm worried that it will mess with the aesthetics of my case. I have a black/red/orange theme going, and a shiny steel bracket with silver heatsink and green PCB will stick out. This wouldn't be an issue with an M.2 or a 2.5" drive as they'd both be out of sight. - I don't really need NVMe speeds. I just want to install games on it, and the difference in loading times between SATA SSD's and NVMe's isn't really significant enough IMO. I already have an NVMe drive for my OS. - That said, PCIe 4.0 drives are now a thing, and I have an X570 mobo so I can take advantage of that in future. What do you guys think? Is it too good of a deal to pass up, or should I be boring and just get a new SATA SSD for less hassle? My PC specs: R7 3700X 2070 Super Asus TUF X570 Plus motherboard 16GB 3200MHz RAM 512Gb NVMe M.2

Did you try clicking Change Product Key and then re-entering your Windows product key? If that doesn't help, you can click the Help button on the activation page. It should take you to a live chat help feature, where you should eventually be able to request an agent to phone you. I've used that in the past and successfully reactivated after formatting.

Based on the picture he is using a very serious custom loop. @mahrama, 95C seems very high with a custom loop like that. How hot does the GPU get? What radiator(s) do you have on that loop?