2nd Build Appraisal

[Justiis]

Budget (including currency): $2,000 USD with some wiggle room

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Primary focus is gaming. I've been mostly playing Path of Exile the last few years, but I can and will play about anything. Aside from that, general use with some potential for light streaming (assuming I join any races/events that require it).

Other details: I'm looking for 1440p 100-120hz, the monitor I've included in the link is likely what I'll be picking up in the next couple months. Should note, it's not to be included in the budget, just there as a reference. This is my second build, first one was about 7-8 years ago. Haven't kept up with the tech, and haven't had to do anything other than replace the gpu a couple years back. Don't think it's going to last much longer though, and I'm ready for a shiny new toy. Oh, and probably should add this is a bit of a gap pc, current plan is building another in 3-4 years.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/7WNBRk

 

This list is based on about 6 days of research. I swear I'm not a Corsair rep, I just liked the case and the ram, and then said "meh, why not" and got a bunch of matching parts. I was initially going to get the Sabrent SSD, but I'm ok with slightly less performance for aesthetics. It seems like it should all work together, to my limited knowledge, but I wanted to verify it'd be fine for 2k ~120mhz gaming on an ultrawide, that there aren't any significant bottlenecks, and that the psu is appropriate. Also, any suggestions on optimal fan setups would be greatly appreciated, it's something I skimped on (and honestly wasn't really aware of) with my last build, and is at least partially responsible of the death of my first gpu.

 

Edit: Forgot to add, the case I want is on back order and I'm probably going to wait a bit to see if I can get it. As a result, I may consider switching to a 550, assuming there are reviews out. I'd also change the SSD if that is the case.

 

[rapidkillerx]

_{shhhh don't tell anyone you can get windows for like $5 on ebay}

[Justiis]

4 minutes ago, rapidkillerx said:

_{shhhh don't tell anyone you can get windows for like $5 on ebay}

I thought someone might bring that up, almost removed it from the list to avoid the topic 

[Justiis]

Haven't gotten any feedback from here or reddit, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger. Changed the build a bit in the process:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$274.49 @ Amazon
Motherboard	MSI MEG X570 UNIFY ATX AM4 Motherboard	$599.99 @ Amazon
Memory	Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory	$162.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$199.99 @ Best Buy
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB GAMING OC 3X Video Card	$549.99 @ B&H
Case	Corsair Crystal 570X RGB ATX Mid Tower Case	$189.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Rosewill 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Case Fan	Corsair iCUE SP120 RGB Pro 52 CFM 120 mm Fan
Case Fan	Corsair iCUE SP120 RGB Pro 52 CFM 120 mm Fan
Case Fan	Corsair iCUE SP120 RGB Pro 52 CFM 120 mm Fan
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1977.44
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-13 22:57 EDT-0400

 

Tired of waiting on the case I wanted, so opted for the white Crystal 570x. Ended up getting the Unify over the Aorus, paid a premium but not much to do if I don't want to wait for retailers to restock. Apparently there was a run on some other parts between the last time I checked and when I placed the order for the mobo, because the white GPU I wanted was out of stock, ended up going for the black. Probably the most disappointing aspect of the order, followed closely by the psu. Really had my heart set on a 650w Corsair, only one I could find was being shipped from China and I wasn't going to sit around for 4-6 weeks waiting for that to come in, so ended up going with a 750w Rosewill. Couldn't even find the correct model on pcpartpicker, so I just picked the closest one.

 

Still, pretty excited to get everything in and start putting it together. $350 over budget, but I didn't have to short myself on anything I wanted outside of the psu and some aesthetics.

 

EDIT: Had the wrong ram listed, updated. Ordered the white sticks, didn't see them on pcpartpicker though. Probably would have gone with black had I realized that the white GPU was out of stock too

[Nena Trinity]

RX 5700XT is maybe better value, check our PSU tier list if the powersupply is a fire hazard or not, check out motherboard tier list to make sure the board can handle the 3700X & some reviews of the case about airflow and all should be good to go!

[Guest]

Please tell me you didn't pay $600 for that board ?

[Justiis]

49 minutes ago, lee32uk said:

Please tell me you didn't pay $600 for that board ?

No, paid $420 + $30 shipping from a reseller on Ebay. Still a 40-50% mark up, but not quite that bad.

[Justiis]

3 hours ago, Nena360 said:

RX 5700XT is maybe better value, check our PSU tier list if the powersupply is a fire hazard or not, check out motherboard tier list to make sure the board can handle the 3700X & some reviews of the case about airflow and all should be good to go!

Thanks, didn't realize there were tier lists on here until I started poking around in other posts a bit more. I believe the psu was B tier. Mobo is a bit overkill for a 3700x, but the 550's weren't looking like they had what I wanted and I didn't want to wait for reviews and then find them sold out and be stuck waiting again. Motherboard had really good airflow reviews, just not the case I'd originally wanted. Still, going to be a learning process setting up the fans optimally. Last time I built I just wanted to plug everything in and play. Now I'm wanting to pay a bit more attention to the intricacies, i.e. optimal fan setup, a bit cleaner cable management, maybe overclocking the ram a touch, etc.

[Justiis]

Oh, and the reason for not going RX was a bit silly, but I mainly play Path of Exile and I've heard it can get a bit weird with AMD GPU's. I may or may not upgrade when the next gen nvidia come out, depends how everything looks once I get an ultrawide. 

[koptr]

3 hours ago, Justiis said:

No, paid $420 + $30 shipping from a reseller on Ebay. Still a 40-50% mark up, but not quite that bad.

450$ is still 200$ too much for a Motherboard in my opinion. With that 200 you could get a 2080S or a 3900X if you want.

[Justiis]

21 minutes ago, koptr said:

450$ is still 200$ too much for a Motherboard in my opinion. With that 200 you could get a 2080S or a 3900X if you want.

It is, but everywhere I was looking was sold out of every x570 except the garbo models, same with most of the b450's (not that I really wanted a 450). I could've waited, or looked into the 550's a bit more, but I honestly just wanted it now, not a month from now.

 

As far as the 2080 goes, I had originally considered it, but the benchmarks I saw didn't really justify the extra $200. I'd rather buy the 2070 Super now, and if I'm not satisfied look at upgrading to the 3000 series next year. I was actually borderline on getting the 2060 for this reason, but I'm pretty sure I'll be happy enough with the 2070 Super that I can stretch it out until my next build.

 

3700x vs 3900x is kind of in the same boat. Not a huge performance increase from what I've seen, at least in terms of fps at 1440p.