New PC Build (High End)

[Sabarok]

My first LTT Post! I've been a watcher of the Youtube channel since sometime when they were still in their old building, so it's good to participate in the community for the first time

 

Budget (including currency): Flexible. I'm thinking in the $3000 range, but this can change if a good pitch is made. The budget isn't based on what I have available to spend, but rather on what I think is an appropriate amount to spend.

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Single player games & Final Fantasy XIV. It will also be expected to dual-boot into Ubuntu for work related tasks (the only requirement being that the hardware is capable of running. None of my work would call for higher hardware requirements beyond what is needed to turn on).

Monitors: I have two monitors. A 1080p 24" monitor, and a 42" 4k TV. The monitor supports HDMI & DVI (I have it using DVI because I don't have a spare HDMI cable for it. It's purpose is only to have a 2nd monitor in Ubuntu. I don't use it for Windows or gaming). My TV only supports HDMI (it supports other things too, but nothing related to the PC. No optical).

Peripherals: I have everything I need. The budget is only for the box.

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

I'm an experienced builder. The first PC I built was a 486. However, I'm too busy to keep on top of tech news and where the industry is. 6-7 years ago, I asked Reddit for help in building my current PC (with a budget of around $2000). The goal was to have something that would last 4 years, and it's still performing beyond expectations (probably because my GPU died and I replaced it with a GTX 1070). Reddit did a hard sell in convincing me that multi-threaded wasn't the future, that I was wasting money buying a CPU with lots of cores (I disagreed, bought the I7-4770k, and it was the right choice), so I'm coming to LTT in the hopes that the crowd here has a better grasp on where the future in PC gaming might end up. I know it's overkill, but the goal is to buy one machine now, and not need to spend money on upgrades for the next 4+ years.

 

My initial plan was to come here in November but, because of reasons that don't matter here, I might be ready to start ordering parts in July. I've raised my budget, I have a lot of flexibility, and I want to build something great that will last many years. I'm still happy with my current PC, and it's going to have a great new home when I give it to someone I know as an upgrade to their ancient machine, but it's the right time for me to do this.

 

Timeline: My initial plan was to start buying in November. I can instead start in July. My PC is good enough that there's no rush. Waiting a few months for a new product to come out or a sale is acceptable.

AMD vs Intel: I have no brand loyalty. My current PC is Intel, the 3 before that were AMD, before that was Intel. I'll go with the one that has the best solution.

Online Store: I prefer to do all my purchases through newegg.ca, so products available through there is ideal.

ATI vs NVIDIA: I've been using NVIDIA as my GPU since 3dfx went under. My understanding is that they're still king, and I'm happy to continue with NVIDIA.

Resolution: I've been quite happy with 1080p. I bought a 4k display for future proofing. My current PC is just slightly underpowered for 4k (I get 50fps in FFXIV at 4k), so I've been using 1080p. The new machine should certainly be able to handle 4k, and maybe VR too.

Bling: I know Linus loves his flashing lights, but they're not for me. My PC tends to be in the same room I sleep in, so I'd not be willing to spend extra on flashing lights. For the same reason, quieter is better.

Water Cooling: No.

Streaming: No. I don't stream, it's not a factor.

Priorities: 

1. Reliability is my first priority. I hate crashes. I'm willing to spend a bit more to get a brand that is going to be reliable and stable. For this reason, overclocking isn't something I do. I can't be bothered to spend hours tweaking settings and hoping things don't crash. However, if the hardware came with drivers that did this automatically and it's stable, that would be fine.
2. Performance is my second priority. I'm coming in with a big budget because I'm expecting to go to the higher end of the price-performance ratio
3. Noise. I don't like loud noises. My audio tends to be turned down low. The quieter the PC runs, the happier I'll be.

Current Ideas: These are just ideas, and ideas can be changed. The dollar amounts are ballpark figures on how I divided up my $3000 budget, but there's room to move if it's the right product, and it's not a hard limit.

• The Case: Mid-tower. I haven't looked around at what cases to get. My current case is nice being completely no-screw based, but the way the hard drives are stored are stored can be quite annoying for changing them. Hard drives turned out to be the component that got changed most frequently, so a case where this is easy to deal with would be beneficial. I care more about the ease of installation of a case than in the look. Front-panel USB is a must. If it has a handle to help with picking it up and moving it around, that would be nice too. I've never been good at choosing cases, and I've tended to buy whatever is on sale for $35 at the local store, so I'll listen to anyone's idea on what would make a good case or how much should be spent on it. ($100)
• CPU: AMD looks to be on top right now. I'm currently thinking Ryzen 9 3900x or 3950x. Well, I was looking at both. I think the prices have dropped since I checked a few months ago, so 3950x is a much better contender. ($1000)
• Drives: I'm thinking of getting a 2TB M.2 NVMe drive as my new primary drive. I'll keep one of my current SSDs to serve as a secondary drive for Ubuntu. I'm also keeping two SATA drives for more storage. I already have more drives than I know what to do with, and storage is cheap. As long as the motherboard has slots for additional M.2 NVMe slots, this is one component that will be easy enough to upgrade as time passes. ($300)
• GPU: RTX 2080 is the current top of the line for personal use, right? Also, that raytracing looks nice. ($800)
• RAM: I haven't decided how much yet. 16 GB has done me really well so far, but I don't know if going 4k or VR means I should have more RAM available. This is one component where I feel like price might outweigh performance. I had DDR4-2400 written down, even though motherboards can support much higher, because the performance difference doesn't really amount to anything, and it's better to put the price difference into having more sticks and more space. I'm flexible on this. It's hard to guess how much games will need in the future, so 32GB feels like a safe bet for the next 6 years. ($200)
• Motherboard: This is one part I learned decades ago to not go cheap. It has to be a reliable quality piece. Native wi-fi that's Linux compatible would be nice, but I know it can be a long shot when buying new hardware, so it's not a requirement. Gigabyte X570 Aurus Pro, for example. ($300)
• PSU: It has to be a brand with a good reputation for reliability and clean power ($200)
• OS: When I bought one of my SSD upgrades, I also bought an OEM license to Windows 10. Is this transferable to a new PC, or will I need to buy another Windows 10 license? ($150)

I know it's a long post, but I hope I put enough details to save any time spent going back & forth.

 

[Letgomyleghoe.]

TLDR but can you wait for Ampere and ryzen 4000?

[Void Master]

18 minutes ago, Sabarok said:

OS: When I bought one of my SSD upgrades, I also bought an OEM license to Windows 10. Is this transferable to a new PC, or will I need to buy another Windows 10 license?

it can't be transferred.... as it's an OEM license .

[Void Master]

I'd suggest waiting until ampere and ryzen 4000 launches, perhaps you can grab an RTX 3080 or 3080 ti depending on how NVIDIA wants to adjust pricing.... 

[Sabarok]

50 minutes ago, Gundar said:

TLDR but can you wait for Ampere and ryzen 4000?

 

31 minutes ago, Void Master said:

I'd suggest waiting until ampere and ryzen 4000 launches, perhaps you can grab an RTX 3080 or 3080 ti depending on how NVIDIA wants to adjust pricing.... 

Thanks for the tip. I Google'd. September, right? That falls in with my original schedule.

[Void Master]

4 minutes ago, Sabarok said:

 

Thanks for the tip. I Google'd. September, right? That falls in with my original schedule.

it may take a while for parts to get in stock though...

but it's worth the wait, especially that ray tracing performance will almost double (rumors) 

[Sabarok]

1 hour ago, Void Master said:

it may take a while for parts to get in stock though...

but it's worth the wait, especially that ray tracing performance will almost double (rumors) 

I agree with it being worth the wait. For the price of the CPU & GPU, to buy them only 3 months before their replacement, compared to the expected 6 years I might be using it, this is the type of advice I came here for. Certainly the new GPU should be worth waiting for, and the CPU, either it will be worth it or it will bring down the price of the 3950x, it's a win-win for something that might only be a month or two after the GPU. I suppose I will come back near the end of the year and bump this thread?

[Void Master]

17 hours ago, Sabarok said:

I agree with it being worth the wait. For the price of the CPU & GPU, to buy them only 3 months before their replacement, compared to the expected 6 years I might be using it, this is the type of advice I came here for. Certainly the new GPU should be worth waiting for, and the CPU, either it will be worth it or it will bring down the price of the 3950x, it's a win-win for something that might only be a month or two after the GPU. I suppose I will come back near the end of the year and bump this thread?

I suggest you make a new one.

reviving old threads is not recommended.

[Sabarok]

7 hours ago, Void Master said:

I suggest you make a new one.

reviving old threads is not recommended.

Thanks for the tip.