I have $5000 to drop on a PC, what is the most efficient setup for gaming?

[Firebird_Gaming]

Recently, my father was promoted to "chairman of the board" at his business, and to celebrate that he is offering me a generous sum of $5000 to replace my surface book 2 I bought in 2017. So I began the search for a few computer guides that could give me a good recommendation. One problem appeared though: Most guides used a Threadripper 2950x as their main "splurge point" and left most of the other components similar to build guides in the 25-3500 dollar range, which makes me question wether these build are actually for gaming (which from what I can tell are more GPU intensive) or CAD and professional video and graphic design (which are more CPU oriented). Is a threadripper a good investment? Or maybe a second 2080Ti running SLI? After some searching I decided that this is the biggest hub of computer junkies that I could find and the best chance of getting my answer. Reading related posts, yes, I know that I probably could get a gaming rig for $1000 bucks and it would be just fine, but I have the money and I am unlikely to get such a generous donation for quite a while (the next possible point I see is leaving for college in 4-5 years) and it isn't cash so any money I save on a $2000 gaming rig goes into my dads pocket and not mine. So I'd rather spend the money now when I have it to make the best possible rig that I can.  Any Suggestions? Any would be appreciated. 

[TheGlenlivet]

$5000 and worried about efficiency...  Oh boy.

Right now, a 9900K and 2080Ti are still the best gaming combo, but that will probably change in the next 6 months.  

You can buy a custom liquid set up, lots of pretty RGB and tons of storage to use the rest of your 5K.

EDIT - Don't forget a nice BIG monitor.

[dalekphalm]

7 minutes ago, Firebird_Gaming said:

Recently, my father was promoted to "chairman of the board" at his business, and to celebrate that he is offering me a generous sum of $5000 to replace my surface book 2 I bought in 2017. So I began the search for a few computer guides that could give me a good recommendation. One problem appeared though: Most guides used a Threadripper 2950x as their main "splurge point" and left most of the other components similar to build guides in the 25-3500 dollar range, which makes me question wether these build are actually for gaming (which from what I can tell are more GPU intensive) or CAD and professional video and graphic design (which are more CPU oriented). Is a threadripper a good investment? Or maybe a second 2080Ti running SLI? After some searching I decided that this is the biggest hub of computer junkies that I could find and the best chance of getting my answer. Reading related posts, yes, I know that I probably could get a gaming rig for $1000 bucks and it would be just fine, but I have the money and I am unlikely to get such a generous donation for quite a while (the next possible point I see is leaving for college in 4-5 years) and it isn't cash so any money I save on a $2000 gaming rig goes into my dads pocket and not mine. So I'd rather spend the money now when I have it to make the best possible rig that I can.  Any Suggestions? Any would be appreciated. 

Step 1, don't spend $5000 on a gaming rig.

 

Spend $1500-2000 (maybe a bit more), and get a good Ryzen 7 or i7 setup, with a top end GPU.

 

Take the rest of the money and use it elsewhere (or just save it). Maybe buy some sick monitors or something.

[SansVarnic]

** Please do not reply with "Fantasy/Dream" build options for the OP or they will be taken down. **

[Fasauceome]

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor	$558.89 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Corsair H150i PRO 47.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$189.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	Gigabyte X570 AORUS MASTER ATX AM4 Motherboard	$359.99 @ Amazon
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR4-3733 Memory	$349.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Sabrent Rocket 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$249.98 @ Amazon
Storage	Sabrent Rocket 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$249.98 @ Amazon
Video Card	NVIDIA TITAN RTX 24 GB Video Card	$2499.99 @ Newegg
Case	Fractal Design Meshify S2 ATX Mid Tower Case	$152.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair RMx (2018) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$119.79 @ OutletPC
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$4756.59
	Mail-in rebates	-$25.00
	Total	$4731.59
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-14 17:53 EDT-0400

The price comes in pretty high because of the Titan, you'll get really similar performance or better if you get a real fancy 2080 ti model like a K|ngp|n

 

also the monitor

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/RPCD4D/gigabyte-aorus-ad27qd-sa-270-2560x1440-144-hz-monitor-aorus-ad27qd-sa

 

or

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/LFRzK8/acer-xv272u-pbmiiprzx-270-2560x1440-144-hz-monitor-xv272u-pbmiiprzx

for the less expensive option

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

18 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Take the rest of the money and use it elsewhere (or just save it). Maybe buy some sick monitors or something.

Yup, it's easy to spend a grand or two on good peripherals, so don't try to spend your entire budget on parts that go inside the case.

It's no use having a PC that can run 4K at 144Hz and then hooking it up to a 1600x900 panel that's 10 years old because you ran out of money.

 

9900K with a 2080Ti is about as good as it gets for gaming right now.  No need to add a second GPU, most games don't have proper SLI support anyway. 

Add a nice 1-2TB NVMe drive, a good case, a good PSU, a nice air cooler or AIO, enough fast RAM ... and then see what you have left for monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse etc. 

[SolarNova]

10980XE(Coming soon) & 2080ti based build. SSD only storage. Full custom water loop, maybe even a chiller (thats about $3500 total there )

Top of the line display. thats a $1000+ on its own.

maybe a sound system to go with it.

 

 

[iBabySlapper]

Looking for the "most efficient setup" is probably the wrong frame of mind when you're building a $5000 PC to be honest.

The most efficient setup would probably be a build that costs $300, and consists of an old dell optiplex with a sandy-bridge i5 with some low power 1080p GPU.

 

I suggest you abandon any notion of reasonableness.

 

[Firebird_Gaming]

Thanks for the suggestions, just wanted to remind everyone that any money I "save" goes to my father, who is paying for this, so It is probably best that I spend everything that I got, and take full advantage of my position. While I appreciate the thought about peripherals, I already have a pair of 4k 144hz (I think, at least their more than 100Hz) monitors and a 144hz 1440p monitor, 2 keyboards, and 3 G.Skill mice from a previous setup and just over time. This is mostly about the computer tower itself. However, if you know a good VR headset then feel free to include that. 

 

 From what I can tell quite a few of you recommended ryzen 9. Is it ryzen actually catching up? Also, what about dual 2080tis? While you were busy trying to help me I watched two of Linuses build guides (around my price point) and both included SLIing 2080tis. Is there even a use case for that? Or again, would a bigger extreme edition i9 get me more fps? 

 

Edit: Efficiency is not what I meant. The word I am looking for is performance. What is the fastest build I can possibly make?

[Mooshi]

Take 1-2k of that for build, invest the rest.

[Skipple]

2 hours ago, Firebird_Gaming said:

I already have a pair of 4k 144hz (I think, at least their more than 100Hz) monitors and a 144hz 1440p monitor, 2 keyboards, and 3 G.Skill mice from a previous setup and just over time.

I.... I can't..... 

 

Serious question @Firebird_Gaming: How much do you care about style/looks of your build?

[Firebird_Gaming]

@SkippleI like RGB, colored liquid cooling, etc. but if I have to sacrifice my case for more power then I would happily do so. So in short, a lot, but not necessarily the most. I would love RGB, florescent cooling, but would get rid of it if I could fit in another 2080ti or 9980xe, or some other good reason. 

[BigRom]

3 hours ago, Caroline said:

For an all AMD build I'd probably get a 3900X with a Radeon VII card

The 5700XT is cheaper and more than capable of matching/beating the Radeon VII, and the Radeon VII is EOL anyway.

[Skipple]

13 minutes ago, Firebird_Gaming said:

@SkippleI like RGB, colored liquid cooling, etc. but if I have to sacrifice my case for more power then I would happily do so. So in short, a lot, but not necessarily the most. I would love RGB, florescent cooling, but would get rid of it if I could fit in another 2080ti or 9980xe, or some other good reason. 

Are you willing to do a custom loop?

[KarimEid]

Currently the intel i9 9900K is still the king of gaming, however if your going for a 4k or 1440p monitor the bottleneck will still be the gpu even with a 2080Ti, so id recommend getting an i7 9700k paired with a 2080Ti of your choice while also getting a high end monitor so all that power doesnt go to waste plus a good pair of monitors (speakers) would be great also. You dont have to spend it all on your pc. You also can go custom cooling if you know how to maintain it if not go for a large air cooler like noctua or an aio.

[BigRom]

36 minutes ago, KarimEid said:

Currently the intel i9 9900K is still the king of gaming, however if your going for a 4k or 1440p monitor the bottleneck will still be the gpu even with a 2080Ti, so id recommend getting an i7 9700k paired with a 2080Ti of your choice while also getting a high end monitor so all that power doesnt go to waste plus a good pair of monitors (speakers) would be great also. You dont have to spend it all on your pc. You also can go custom cooling if you know how to maintain it if not go for a large air cooler like noctua or an aio.

I think OP is pretty well covered already on the monitor side of things based on this.....

10 hours ago, Firebird_Gaming said:

I already have a pair of 4k 144hz (I think, at least their more than 100Hz) monitors and a 144hz 1440p monitor

 

[TheNaitsyrk]

11 hours ago, SolarNova said:

10980XE(Coming soon) & 2080ti based build. SSD only storage. Full custom water loop, maybe even a chiller (thats about $3500 total there )

Top of the line display. thats a $1000+ on its own.

maybe a sound system to go with it.

 

 

I'm defo getting 10980XE when it comes out with X299 EVGA Dark and getting rid of my 9900K with Z390 Aorus Master.

It's good option I think if you want the best.

They reduced the pricing to £1k instead of £2k. Just need to see if it's better than the 16 core Ryzen chip, but I think it will be slightly better with higher clocks and extra 2 cores.

[KarimEid]

6 minutes ago, BigRom said:

I think OP is pretty well covered already on the monitor side of things based on this.....

 

Then hes gonna need 2x 2080ti to even reach one of his 2 monitors max refresh rate  cause a single 2080ti on 4k is not getting anywhere near 144 fps 

[Firebird_Gaming]

I made this: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Firebird_Gaming/saved/n3rgJx 

I think it looks good, but if you find anything that may be off please tell. 

These are off the shelf parts and I may go get a custom case and a custom

cooling loop w/ chiller. No peripherals included because I already have.  

[Zando_]

18 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Step 1, don't spend $5000 on a gaming rig.

 

Spend $1500-2000 (maybe a bit more), and get a good Ryzen 7 or i7 setup, with a top end GPU.

 

Take the rest of the money and use it elsewhere (or just save it). Maybe buy some sick monitors or something.

You can blow $5K on a rig if you add in a few very nice monitors and such, but if you don't you have to basically burn money for the sake of burning money. 
 

2 minutes ago, Firebird_Gaming said:

I made this: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Firebird_Gaming/saved/n3rgJx 

That parts list is private, lol. 

[Firebird_Gaming]

1 minute ago, Zando Bob said:

That parts list is private, lol.

Fixed

[Zando_]

6 minutes ago, Firebird_Gaming said:

Fixed

That burns money for little reason, something like this would be better: 

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/WtkHNq

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($558.89 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 CHROMAX.BLACK 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler  ($99.95 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS ULTRA ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($299.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory  ($179.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($399.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($399.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($1219.99 @ B&H) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($1219.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe 2 ATX Full Tower Case  ($196.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair 1200 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($301.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $4877.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-15 12:46 EDT-0400

> CPU needs no introduction.
> Noctua's coolers are excellent and they finally made a super stealth black one, everything down to the fan clamps and screws are in a clean black finish. This will also outperform the AIO you had chosen, while being more reliable. The AIO has a pump, tubing with seals on the ends, a rad to clog, and two fans, all failure points. Once the Noctua is mounted you've got two fans as your only failure point, and they're easy to replace (not that they're likely to break, they're damn quality fans). 
> Aorus Ultra mobo, should be a damn solid board and (IMO) looks really good while not being so flashy you have to build around it. No real need to step over $300 for a very nice mobo. 
> 32GB 3600MHz CL16 RAM, faster than the stuff you had, and only $5 more. 
> why get two pitiful PCIe 3.0 1TB drives? (/s, I have a 1TB 970 Evo and they're excellent, but your budget is bigger than that) Bask in the glory of two 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSDs!
> EVGA XC Ultra 2080 Tis, should be a bit nicer of a cooler, if you decide not to go water then they'll still be solid. Also dual slot ones vs the thicc 3 slot ones so you have better clearance for airflow if you do stay on air. 
> Enthoo Luxe 2 because I really want one so you should too. Gorgeous (again IMO, swap it out for another case if you like that better), tons of room for air or watercooling, and you can run two rigs inside it!
> Corsair's AX1200i so you can monitor power draw on all your stuff because nerd reasons. They're also the nicest PSUs out there. 

Grab a windows key off eBay, maybe throw in some fans (I reccomend Noctuas but I'm past my RGB phase, if you want the shiny lads then slap those in).

[Guest]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($558.89 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360R RGB 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($139.99 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS MASTER ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($359.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($156.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($249.98 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($249.98 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB AORUS Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($1279.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB AORUS Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($1279.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Cooler Master MasterCase H500M ATX Mid Tower Case  ($239.99 @ Adorama) 
Power Supply: Corsair 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($239.99 @ Corsair) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit  ($119.50 @ Amazon) 
Total: $4875.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-15 13:00 EDT-0400

[Firebird_Gaming]

Looks good. So SLI is going to be useful after all?

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Firebird_Gaming said:

Looks good. So SLI is going to be useful after all?

Depends on the game. A lot don't support SLI or don't scale that well. It is pretty hard to spend $5K though on just the pc itself. If you went with a single 2080 ti then you would about $1400 left out of the $5K budget. Not sure what else you could spend that on if you don't need a monitor/peripherals etc.