Replacing my rig, looking for input.

[Master Disaster]

So to start with I'm not going to be doing this for a good few months yet, it's more than likely March Or April before I can save enough. I realise that by that time it's possible that Ryzen 2 will be out and I'll look at those as and when (that's mostly the reason I'm saving to buy everything in one go instead of a few parts each month).

 

I'm undecided on the monitor yet, my current monitor is 4K 60 and I'm unsure if going to 1440p 144 is an upgrade or a downgrade but there's no way I'm paying £2000 for the 4K 144 screen.

 

I'm open to all suggestions however I am going Ryzen, I do want G Sync and the PSU is non negotiable (I wanted the 760 model but it's not available in England anymore). It's mostly case, motherboard, RAM & GPU choice I'm undecided on (case especially). Budget is around £1500 without the monitor. Lastly the cooler is just placeholder, I'll probably get one of those EKWB all in one kits and go custom loop again.

 

Thanks.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz 8-Core Processor  (£289.20 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H150i PRO 47.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£139.98 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI - X470 GAMING M7 AC ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£209.77 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Corsair - Dominator Platinum 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  (£149.36 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (£102.00 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce RTX 2070 8 GB Video Card  (£459.98 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Corsair - Crystal 570X RGB ATX Mid Tower Case  (£146.99 @ Box Limited)
Power Supply: Corsair - 860 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£188.98 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: Acer - Predator XB271HUA 27.0" 2560x1440 165 Hz Monitor  (£499.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £2186.25
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-06 08:40 GMT+0000

[Cereal5]

7 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

(that's mostly the reason I'm saving to buy everything in one go instead of a few parts each month).

Good man. I really like 1440p 144Hz, I've never been a 4k person. That is up to you though, I would suggest going to a store and looking at one before buying though, or seeing if any of your friends have one you could take a look at. If you want to save a few dollars, you can go with an 860 Evo SSD. For gaming and loading windows, you won't really notice a difference between NVMe and SATA (though cable management is a good arguing point). That's pretty much it though. If you're including the custom loop in your 1500 euros though, that'll take a good chunk out of your budget. You could go with a 240/280mm AIO and maybe bump up to a 2080 or used 1080 Ti.

[Master Disaster]

7 minutes ago, Cereal5 said:

Good man. I really like 1440p 144Hz, I've never been a 4k person. That is up to you though, I would suggest going to a store and looking at one before buying though, or seeing if any of your friends have one you could take a look at. If you want to save a few dollars, you can go with an 860 Evo SSD. For gaming and loading windows, you won't really notice a difference between NVMe and SATA (though cable management is a good arguing point). That's pretty much it though. If you're including the custom loop in your 1500 euros though, that'll take a good chunk out of your budget. You could go with a 240/280mm AIO and maybe bump up to a 2080 or used 1080 Ti.

Yeah, that's why I added the most expensive cooler I could find. I've been looking and an EKWB AIO 360 Kit is £240 so only another £100 on top. I'm sure i can manage that.

 

I did choose the NVMe exactly because of cable management, it's not exactly my strong suit (I'm ok at it) and with a glass case it's important that the build is clean.

 

It's the board, ram, GPU & case choices I'm unsure on. I've had MSI boards going back to Z97 and never had an issue with them, same with GPU. I'm second guessing myself whether to stick with MSI or move over to Asus?

 

Any monitor upgrade wouldn't be till after I got the PC anyway tbh.

[Cereal5]

9 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Yeah, that's why I added the most expensive cooler I could find. I've been looking and an EKWB AIO 360 Kit is £240 so only another £100 on top. I'm sure i can manage that.

 

I did choose the NVMe exactly because of cable management, it's not exactly my strong suit (I'm ok at it) and with a glass case it's important that the build is clean.

 

It's the board, ram, GPU & case choices I'm unsure on. I've had MSI boards going back to Z97 and never had an issue with them, same with GPU. I'm second guessing myself whether to stick with MSI or move over to Asus?

 

Any monitor upgrade wouldn't be till after I got the PC anyway tbh.

Asus has been slacking on their motherboards recently. The only good feature is Aura. As for GPUs, I've never been an MSI fan, but they're still in business for a reason lol. For RAM, anything above 2666 is good for Ryzen. Case is totally up to you. It's the only thing that more or less doesn't matter, and is totally subjective

[LukeSavenije]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz 8-Core Processor	£289.20 @ Aria PC
CPU Cooler	ARCTIC - Freezer 33 eSports ONE (Black/Red) CPU Cooler	£28.99 @ AWD-IT
Motherboard	ASRock - Fatal1ty X470 Gaming K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard	£160.00 @ CCL Computers
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	£116.39 @ Aria PC
Storage	Samsung - 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	£67.14 @ Aria PC
Video Card	MSI - GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB GAMING X TRIO Video Card	£749.99 @ CCL Computers
Case	Fractal Design - Focus G (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case	£44.99 @ Novatech
Power Supply	Corsair - TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	£67.46 @ Amazon UK
Monitor	Asus - MG279Q 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor	£428.99 @ Box Limited
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£1953.15
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-06 09:23 GMT+0000

what about this? I added a placeholder cooler, that you can replace with a custom loop after a while. this one can hold it, believe me

[LukeSavenije]

13 minutes ago, Cereal5 said:

Asus has been slacking on their motherboards recently. The only good feature is Aura. As for GPUs, I've never been an MSI fan, but they're still in business for a reason lol. For RAM, anything above 2666 is good for Ryzen. Case is totally up to you. It's the only thing that more or less doesn't matter, and is totally subjective

I say 3000+. Msi does make some good products tho. but you shouldn't look on company, but on products specific. msi has made some mistakes there, but so does asus, gigabyte, asrock and evga do

[Cereal5]

2 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

I say 3000+.

by above 2666 I mean 2933+ (though some kits are 2800 to be fair), but 2400 to 2666 is the biggest performance jump from any 266 MHz difference (obviously excluding 2133 to 2400).

[Master Disaster]

9 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz 8-Core Processor	£289.20 @ Aria PC
CPU Cooler	ARCTIC - Freezer 33 eSports ONE (Black/Red) CPU Cooler	£28.99 @ AWD-IT
Motherboard	ASRock - Fatal1ty X470 Gaming K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard	£160.00 @ CCL Computers
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	£116.39 @ Aria PC
Storage	Samsung - 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	£67.14 @ Aria PC
Video Card	MSI - GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB GAMING X TRIO Video Card	£749.99 @ CCL Computers
Case	Fractal Design - Focus G (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case	£44.99 @ Novatech
Power Supply	Corsair - TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	£67.46 @ Amazon UK
Monitor	Asus - MG279Q 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor	£428.99 @ Box Limited
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£1953.15
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-06 09:23 GMT+0000

what about this? I added a placeholder cooler, that you can replace with a custom loop after a while. this one can hold it, believe me

I'll take a look at Asrocks reputation and consider them, I've never used a single one of their products tbh but hey, if it can save me £50 then I'm all for it.

[LukeSavenije]

1 minute ago, Master Disaster said:

I'll take a look at Asrocks reputation and consider them, I've never used a single one of their products tbh but hey, if it can save me £50 then I'm all for it.

well, Asrock has been part of asus. they have some great boards, including this one, the taichi (ultimate) and pro4.

[Master Disaster]

Just now, LukeSavenije said:

well, Asrock has been part of asus. they have some great boards, including this one, the taichi (ultimate) and pro4.

It's kind of funny how you develop brand loyalty isn't it. I wouldn't consider myself loyal to any brand yet now it comes to spending my own money suddenly im reluctant to consider any company i haven't had experience with in the past. The human brain is a wierd beast.

[LukeSavenije]

I'm personally trying not to. I just try to get the best for my money, and I generally but that kind of "almost" brands like huawei used to be

[jones177]

Hi

 

The R7 2700x has about the same IPC as a i7 6700k so don't expect an improvement in gaming other than a slightly smoother experience. 

 

I play 4k 60 as well. I bought a 32" LG 1440 144hz monitor on the Black Friday sales to see if it would be a better experience than 4k. With my hardware I can run all my games over 60fps with a mix of high & ultra settings at 4k. Going 1440 144hz was a downgrade because none of the games I play benefited from it and they all looked less sharp. 

Here is a list of the games I play tested. 

 

Assassin's Creed Origins

Witcher 3

Fallout 4(modded)

Middle-Earth Shadow of Mordor

Skyrim SE(modded)

Metro last light

 

If you play games like these you are better off getting a RTX 2080 ti for your currant rig and going Ryzen 2 next year.

 

  

 

 

 

[LukeSavenije]

12 minutes ago, jones177 said:

If you play games like these you are better off getting a RTX 2080 ti for your currant rig and going Zen 2 next year

well, 2080 ti is pretty overpriced rn. imo you're better off with a 2080 rn.

[Master Disaster]

38 minutes ago, jones177 said:

Hi

 

The R7 2700x has about the same IPC as a i7 6700k so don't expect an improvement in gaming other than a slightly smoother experience. 

 

I play 4k 60 as well. I bought a 32" LG 1440 144hz monitor on the Black Friday sales to see if it would be a better experience than 4k. With my hardware I can run all my games over 60fps with a mix of high & ultra settings at 4k. Going 1440 144hz was a downgrade because none of the games I play benefited from it and they all looked less sharp. 

Here is a list of the games I play tested. 

 

Assassin's Creed Origins

Witcher 3

Fallout 4(modded)

Middle-Earth Shadow of Mordor

Skyrim SE(modded)

Metro last light

 

If you play games like these you are better off getting a RTX 2080 ti for your currant rig and going Ryzen 2 next year.

 

  

 

 

 

Yeah I know about the IPC however AM4 has a solid upgrade path for the next few years while my Z170 is at its limits plus I'm not exactly doing this for better performance (though that would be a nice side effect) but because my 6700K is starting to show its age and I feel its the right time to upgrade. I bought the 6700K pretty much on release day so I've had it for almost 3 and a half years now (its crazy how fast time goes as you get older). Honestly I just want to upgrade it.

 

Your point about the monitor is also my concern, my 1070 plays most games pretty well at 4K albeit usually on medium settings. Like I said though, I will do the system first then consider the monitor afterwards.

 

I already mentioned I am saving to buy everything in one go, probably around April next year so if Zen 2 is on the cards I can always postpone a few months and get that instead of Zen 1.5. Zen 2 is mostly the reason why I'm doing it that way instead of a few parts each month.

[jones177]

1 minute ago, LukeSavenije said:

well, 2080 ti is pretty overpriced rn. imo you're better off with a 2080 rn.

Not really. 

I used a GTX 1080 ti before the 2080 ti. It struggled at 4k at the settings I like. A 2080 will struggle as well. It is not the right tool for the job.

The RTX 2080 ti is the right tool for the job. 

 

The price does eat into my computer budget quite a lot but it did meet the performance goals I set for it and I won't need to upgrade it until 32" 4k 100hz plus monitors are a thing.

 

18 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Yeah I know about the IPC however AM4 has a solid upgrade path for the next few years while my Z170 is at its limits plus I'm not exactly doing this for better performance (though that would be a nice side effect) but because my 6700K is starting to show its age and I feel its the right time to upgrade. I bought the 6700K pretty much on release day so I've had it for almost 3 and a half years now (its crazy how fast time goes as you get older). Honestly I just want to upgrade it.

 

Your point about the monitor is also my concern, my 1070 plays most games pretty well at 4K albeit usually on medium settings. Like I said though, I will do the system first then consider the monitor afterwards.

 

I already mentioned I am saving to buy everything in one go, probably around April next year so if Zen 2 is on the cards I can always postpone a few months and get that instead of Zen 1.5. Zen 2 is mostly the reason why I'm doing it that way instead of a few parts each month.

I upgraded my i7 2600k to a i7 8700k in my other computer at the beginning of this year. The game play was so much smoother than my i7 6700k computer that I upgraded it to a i7 8086k in the middle of the year.  Higher core count CPUs seem the run games smoother even though the games don't use all the cores.

 

I used a GTX 980 ti(980 ti = 1070) to play at 4k. Two 980 tis in SLI come close to a RTX 2080 ti on games that support SLI. So in my view you are almost 50% down on power to get a full 4k experience. 

My mian gaming computer runs a 3440 X 1440 monitor. With a single GTX 1080 ti it runs like a dream. The 2080 ti is not powerful enough to equil that experience at 4k. Maybe 2 would do it. Going 1440 144hz is a better choice if you don't go 2080 ti.

 

I will only consider Zen 2 if it can get a single core Cinebench score of 250. My i7 8086k and an i9 9900k have a score of 219. Anything less would not be worth the upgrade for a gaming only rig.